Balanced buffer

[hansinator]

@doxsros I'm planning to build a similar setup where each station can unload a mix of ores. My solution is as follows:

Use 2 blue belts per train station with minimal buffers. If you need more unloading capacity, build more stations.
Each train needs 2 wagons and 2 stack inserters per wagon per side. If you do it like this there is no need for balancing here.

Route the unloaded ore mix belts through filters and put the "big" buffers after each filter. Then you don't need the summing combinators.

edit: I suggest you use this buffer as the "big" buffer here viewtopic.php?f=193&t=33056&p=212468#p212468

[impetus maximus]

the divide by -[number of chests] & <1 for inserters is great for balanced loading stations.

for unloading, no combinator needed. just wire all the inserters going to the same belt (or T) together.
mode of operation Enabled, Read hand contents, enable condition '*everything' = 0, Hand read mode 'Hold'.
they won't grab more untill they are all empty handed. the chests should be within one 'pull' from each other.

i use this for my unload stations and it's a great, simple, and has a small footprint.

[alaeth]

I don't understand why everyone uses a "divide by chests" logic (two combinators per side) when all you need is multiply by -1...

I'm not at home but I'll try to describe.

The last inserter on the input belt is left un-wired. It's the "control" signal. In a perfect system, it gets "starved" on resources if the other inserters before it are working 100%.

Every single inserter before it is wired to their own chests (so they know the amout of {whatever} in their own chest.

Multiply the signal of the last chest by -1 to invert it. Now you need to add the two signals together... but circuit networks allow you to do this already by attaching wires. As soon as you attach a wire with a signal for a material already on the circuit, it adds them.

We're taking the negative value so we can compare the inserter against < 0 for "this" chest.

The only trick is to wire the negative signal to one wire color, and the chest amount to the other. Once you attach the signals to the inserters, they still add up (and result in near zero).

[impetus maximus]

I don't understand why everyone uses a "divide by chests" logic (two combinators per side) when all you need is multiply by -1...

i use 1 arithmetic combinator per pickup stop. the divide by negative number of chests is to get the -average of all the chests.
the inserters are wired with an alternate color than the chests, to it's own chest. the contents of the chest are then added to the negative average.
if the chest has the average number in it it should be a total of 0. if it's below 1 (set higher with stack bonus) the inserter... eh inserts.

[alaeth]

I don't understand why everyone uses a "divide by chests" logic (two combinators per side) when all you need is multiply by -1...

i use 1 arithmetic combinator per pickup stop. the divide by negative number of chests is to get the -average of all the chests.
the inserters are wired with an alternate color than the chests, to it's own chest. the contents of the chest are then added to the negative average.
if the chest has the average number in it it should be a total of 0. if it's below 1 (set higher with stack bonus) the inserter... eh inserts.

My method uses three blueprints:
* splitter - sets up the "front" of the buffer, splits into sides and large pole for power
* middle - repeatable pattren for the chests, each inserter is wired red to the chest, green to each other (circuit logic Enable/Disable is set to Each < 0)
* combinator - contains the last chest (no wires) and a single Each * -1 that feeds out on green wire


no muss, no fuss, no messing around with chest counts anywhere. The same blueprint works for ore, plates, coal, whatever. scales from 4 chests to infinite without adjusting the pattern one iota

[siggboy]

no muss, no fuss, no messing around with chest counts anywhere. The same blueprint works for ore, plates, coal, whatever. scales from 4 chests to infinite without adjusting the pattern one iota

Your method is nice and simple, but the other method also works with any resource, the only thing that has to be adjusted is the chest count. The chest count never needs to be adjusted if the balancer is part of a loader blueprint, and usually it depends on the length of your trains, which also never changes past a point (since then you'd have to rebuild all the stations at least).

So the upside of not needing to adjust the chest count is only a small one. All the wiring is still the same, and you also need a combinator. So in terms of setting it up and modifying it, your method is just as expensive as the other one.