, computers.
Basically it weighs down the difference between how much 238 do you have against 235 and depending on the ratio you want, it eithers lets it be or triggers the production of more 235 through Kovarex enrichment process.
I needed something like this because I had made what on the image is called "235 Distributor", which uses a fixed 40 U-235, separates the 1 extra produced, and re-feeds the rest back to the machine without having to feed it through an entire belt line.
The thing is, it was producing too many U-235 and I was dangerously close to running out of U-238. So I came up with the balancer idea. I'm sorry if this was done before.
The Blueprint of the prototype:
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The whole thing has 3 parts.
1: The centrifuge with the "235 distributor". I mostly already explained it, but it just takes 5 U-238 and uses 3 of them to produce a U-235. Once you give it its initials 40 235, you don't need to give it more and it will only give out 1 235.
Here's a gif of a early version of the distributor (Sorry I don't know how to post gifs directly): https://gfycat.com/AbandonedCautiousAmericanbadger
2: Storage for the Uranium (in the image called "reserves"). For the sake of the test and showcase, I made it into a bunch of chests. It didn't have to be. It could have been the information of the logistic network or something else. It just needed the information of the total amount of each uranium and a relative amount of 238.
3: The logic "balancer": Very simple. The Arithmetic combinator on the right sets the ratio I want and the Decider combinator just sends a signal if the process must go or not. If it must not, then the inserters that would give 238 won't.
The ratio is also simple: It multiplies the amount of 235 I have for the ratio X to 1 (238 to 235 respectively) I want it to have and then sends a signal if X*(amount of 235) is lower than (amount of 238). This way the whole thing will produce 235 until I get that ratio. I chose a 20 to 1 (again, 238 to 235 respectively) ratio, since that's what you need for getting the nuclear cells for the reactor. I use Uranium mainly for nuclear power, and the rest of the U-235 I have laying around for bullets fuel and such. But If I want a different ratio I just change the value of the Arithmetic combinator from 20 to whatever. If I want a close 50-50, or 1 to 1 ratio, the value of the Arithmetic combinator should be 1. Having twice the amount of 235 in 238? Ratio 2. The ration will always be either equal or in favor of 238 since I figure that you can always turn 238 into 235 but not the other way around, so it's better to have more of 238.
For just control and (fun) purposes, I added a constant combinator (with an extra Decider) to work as a switch, called "console" in the image. It adds an override of the switch so I can turn it on even if the weighs wouldn't let it. If the constant combinator has a M>0, then it will work.
Notes:
- It needs to get a feed the information of how much of both Uranium I have. I could've done it in the logistic system but since I was using just chests to store the U-238, I used that.
- The image here is a prototype, btw, but I tested it and it works.
- The constant combinators outside, right next to both reserves are not part of the design. I only used them to simulate the presence of uranium and test if it worked. But left them in the blueprint for that reason too.
- Currently, there's only 4 centrifuges on the blueprint. But just by propagating the signal, it's really easy to get as many as needed.
