How to stop a request chest from draining a povider chest

[mrvn]

I like to put the output of an assembler into passive provider chests so I can request from them as needed. Say keep 100 fast transport belt in the chest to replenish what I use.

But then I have the assembler for the blue transport belts that's way way over there with the oil production setup. It uses a requester chest for fast transport belts. Now the passive provider chest for fast transport belts gets drained dry if I don't produce more red than blue belts.

So how do I keep the passive provider chest from getting drained by a request chest somewhere else?

[impetus maximus]

use belts for production. i only use bots to keep me supplied, and to refill supply trains with repair packs, ammo, etc.

[DaveMcW]

belt-request.jpg (227.88 KiB) Viewed 6825 times

[Mehve]

Run a circuit wire from the fast belt provider chest to the inserter that supplies the express belt production. Set the inserter to only operate when the provider chest is above a certain count.

[brunzenstein]

belt-request.jpg

How does this work?

[Nexela]

You can set request filters via circuit network.

Roboport - ouputs the "count of belts"
decider combinator: If we have MORE then 200 belts in the network output 1 (this is basically a true/false switch)
arith combinator: multiplies the 1 belt with how many we want to request (in this case 100)
requester - is automaticly set to request 100 belts when there are more than 200 in the network

[mrvn]

Even if you only request when there are > 200 belts in the system doesn't that still cause the belts to be picked up from the nearest source (the provider chest if unlucky)?

As for connecting to the roboport. Why can't I have it output both the logistic network and the count of logistic/construction robots? Seems like I have to connect to 2 roboports to get the full info.

PS: Is there a wiki page showing all the things things can do with a wire connected? I keep missing things because I haven't tried connecting a wire yet or it didn't work in older version.

[siggboy]

Run a circuit wire from the fast belt provider chest to the inserter that supplies the express belt production. Set the inserter to only operate when the provider chest is above a certain count.

The wire is not necessary. Connect the inserter (that feeds the blue belt assembler) to the logistic network; then use a logistic network condition (e.g.: "Red Belt > 100"). That means the requester chest will not get drained unless there's a supply of red belt ready for other purposes.

This has the upside of taking the entire network into account, not just the one provider chest at the red belt assembler.