I wanted to have a rainbow belt but couldn't find any blueprint that would fit my needs so here is my attempt to build one. It's very much work in progress but basic concept works.
Objective
Player able to set number of items of each type on the belt
Belt should be able to accept 6 science pack types
Belt should be able to deal with unbalanced input
Belt will never become full
No inserters allowed for belt input, so that flow of items is more natural, and there is less energy consumption
Use the least amount of combinators (no more than needed)
Constant Combinator sets maximum number of Red Science allowed on belt
Counter counts total number of Red Science on the belt
Barrel acts as a reset signal
Reset signal triggers Decider to check if number of Red Science is less than allowed
If true it triggers one-off timer that will pass Red Science half way through the controled input belt tile
the input tile that is controled must be red (8 ticks) or blue (6 ticks) belt
this will ensure that every cycle will pass through no more than 2 Red Science units to Rainbow Belt
if input belt is not balanced it will pass only 1 unit, but that's fine
in very rare cases input belt can pass 3 or even 4 items, but that is fine because counter will count them and delay next insertion
There is plenty of improvements to be made but I just wanted to show that it's possible to make stable rainbow belt without inserters.
Thanks to aaargha for giving me idea on improving circuit logic.
Once it's ready I will upload the blueprint.
Let me know what you think and how would you go about it?
Re: Rainbow belt w/o inserters [WIP]
Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 2:07 am
by PaszaVonPomiot
Hello again,
I've managed to get the thing going as planned. It's not super pretty but it works as expected. You will find video here and blueprint below. It's setup so that it will ensure 12 red, 10 green, 8 blue ... science packs on the belt. Let me know if you have any ideas for upgrade.
And yet another version with lane balancing and calibrated so that it will push 4 items at a time. The science type distribution on belt should be equal.
Hi, I would like to propose you my solution to make a rainbow belt: viewtopic.php?f=193&t=60203 but need to make a modification because the ratio is constant and not depend by actual labs consumption for technology that you are researching.
A simplest solution: insert only that inserter read.
To start the process only insert manualy how many items you want in the lab's belt loop, every time inserters put an science pack in the lab, the transport belts ad one more item in the loop. Work well when you are researching a tech that require only some types of science pack
...sorry red wire in the image are wrong linked, it exit from memory cell...
I made a similar setup for a (ridiculous and long since scrapped) sushi system a couple of months ago. A useful QoL addition:
Add a constant combinator which contains the number of each science pack you want on the belt. Wire it to the memory cell output (red). That way, science packs don't need to be manually put on the belt during startup.
Re: Rainbow belt w/o inserters
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:10 am
by PaszaVonPomiot
Well, it's been a while.
Here's new approach. It won't ever get stuck. It enables specific science if it's not present and it blocks all science if there is overall too much on the belt.
That other thread is under no circuit ufortunately. It would be nice if there was one thread for all science sushi designs.
Regardless, here's my take on it.
1.PNG (993.18 KiB) Viewed 5697 times
Very simple and compact. Can support 62 labs for 1kspm. Simple circuit with counter. Belt enables until it counts up to 900. The inserters are wired up to send what they pick up and multiplied by -1 and wired to counter so that it subtracts what it picks up.
