Updating the Wiki for combinators

[Lupoviridae]

Hi all, I am looking to update the wiki with a bit of a how-to for combinators, and I wanted some input on what I should include.
Here's what I am thinking so far.

Basic Uses
---Circuits without combinators (Ex. tying a light or smart inserter to a single chest)
---Simple base operations (ex. split inserter production evenly between making smart inserters and fast inserters)
---Oil control

Advanced Uses
-Clocks
---Cycling clock (continuously counts up to x, then resets)
---Continuous clock (While x == true, continues to count up indefinitely, resets when x becomes false)

-Memory Cells
---Basic memory cell (R>G; R)
---Advanced memory cell (For storing arbitrary values, both continuous write and pulsed write variants)

-Addressing
---Basic Outpost addressing (How much iron ore is at outpost 5?)
---Adding an address to a memory cell

Is there anything else that should be included?

Second, what format should I use for pictures? I think wiring diagrams like this are the easiest to read, particularly for complex designs. I would make them much neater than this, but just as an example:

EPSON001.JPG (41.53 KiB) Viewed 13344 times

Thinking I should also include some in-game pictures, especially for some of the more basic implementations. What do you guys think?

[MeduSalem]

Sounds good!

Maybe that way you can take a lot of workload off from Twinsen who mentioned that he may be updating the wiki with some basic guidelines too so that more people can get into the basics.

One additional thing that at least comes off my head is obviously the logic comparisons between 2 items you PM'd me about yesterday. Put that to the basic logic gate stuff.

[Lupoviridae]

Can you think of any practical uses for those gates that I could also include?

[Lee_newsum]

I have one for the "Logic AND"

fist the set up for this map I planed to use Steel Furnace and Steam engine no Solar Panel so a lot of Solid fuel is use. I have 10 Oil Refinery (I think) some of the Heavy Oil fills a Storage Tank for Lubricant,
all the Light Oil go to Solid fuel. the Petroleum Gas is the fun bit I have 6 Storage Tanks (primary) of it that 3 Small Pump keep full the over overs go in to 16 Storage Tanks (second) be for the Small Pump. there is 6 Storage Tank one the Light Oil in between the Oil Refinery and Chemical Plant doing Light Oil to Solid fuel.

=======================
P1= Petroleum Gas 6 Storage Tanks (primary)
P2= Petroleum Gas 16 Storage Tanks (second)
L= The 6 Storage Tank one the Light Oil
PGTSF= Petroleum Gas to Solid fuel
LOCPG=Light oil cracking to Petroleum Gas

The Logic
if L < 0 and P2 > 500 then P2 to PGTSF
if L = 2.5k and P2 < 2k then L to LOCPG
if P2 > 2k then PGTSF
======================
this may help: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =8&t=13954

[Lee_newsum]

EPSON001.JPG

some thinks to add to this:
1. what is it (Arithmetic Combinators, Decider Combinator or some els?
2. we need 1-3 letls for all items in game
3. for Decider what out is usd ( 1 or the input count)

[Lupoviridae]

some thinks to add to this:
1. what is it (Arithmetic Combinators, Decider Combinator or some els?
2. we need 1-3 letls for all items in game
3. for Decider what out is usd ( 1 or the input count)

Here's how I've been addressing each of these points so far:
1) Constant combinators are square, deciders/arithmetic are rectangular.
If the rectangle contains >, <, or =, it is a decider combinator.
If it contains +, -, *, or / it is an arithmetic.

2) I mostly just use circuit network conditions for most applications.
So R = Red, B = Blue, G = Green, "1" = Signal 1, "2" = Signal 2, "A" = Signal A, "B" = Signal B, etc...

3) For output, B would be an output of Blue = 1, while iB would be an output of Blue (input count)

So far this is the best notation I have been able to come up with that is compact, easy to read, and (hopefully) easy to understand.
I am thinking I will start using All (and iAll), instead of E and iE (for output everything), since E is to easy to confuse with Each.

Actually I would love some feedback on this notation. With this short explanation, do you guys find it easy enough to read?
Something else I could do for these diagrams would be to crease a legend in the corner, that spells out what signal is short for.

[Lupoviridae]

Here's the same setup cleaned up.

EPSON009.JPG (69.03 KiB) Viewed 13285 times

Is this easy enough to read and understand?
(It contains a clock and two arbitrary value memory cells, see if you can pick them out! )

[MeduSalem]

Can you think of any practical uses for those gates that I could also include?

Well, nothing really implemented yet, but I'm thinking ahead of planning to use at least some OR comparisons in the upcoming 0.13 update, because then there will be power switches. I plan to use that in assembly lines, but most definitely in an iteration of Smart Furnaces I want to try:

Since I'm using productivity modules in the furnaces I use Beacons in combination to make up for the loss of Speed. And I plan to shut those beacons down if there's no Ore to smelt to save on energy so that it actually pays off to have the beacons. So a comparison like "Iron Ore OR Copper Ore" will come in handy to create the neccessary signal to turn on the beacon power. Maybe I'm also thinking too complex about it... don't know. Probably there'll be an easier way to do it too I haven't figured out yet. xD

Of course the same can be adopted to assembly lines that are enhanced by beacons. If there's no work to do then one could turn off the power to the affected beacons.

Another thing related to the Smart Furnaces is that I might be trying to implement something like a load-balancer program for the Smart Furnace setup so that one Ore Type doesn't hog all the furnaces causing a temporary bottleneck on the other. There it might also turn out to be handy to have some comparisons between the items. That thing should be do-able now but I haven't gotten around to actually implement something yet because lacked the time to do so yet. xD

After all it may turn out that both my expected implementations will work perfectly without comparing items directly with each other, but I don't know yet because of my habit to develop while experimenting around.

[Lee_newsum]

some thinks to add to this:
1. what is it (Arithmetic Combinators, Decider Combinator or some els?
2. we need 1-3 letls for all items in game
3. for Decider what out is usd ( 1 or the input count)

Here's how I've been addressing each of these points so far:
1) Constant combinators are square, deciders/arithmetic are rectangular.
If the rectangle contains >, <, or =, it is a decider combinator.
If it contains +, -, *, or / it is an arithmetic.

2) I mostly just use circuit network conditions for most applications.
So R = Red, B = Blue, G = Green, "1" = Signal 1, "2" = Signal 2, "A" = Signal A, "B" = Signal B, etc...

1)
for inputs Storage Tank, 5 Smart chests
for outputs Smart inserter, Lamp, Small Pump, Offshore Pump
some add in 13.0

2)This ok for logic system/Advanced Uses, but the Wiki is for all uses so at some point some will use a Storage Tank as an input but there is 7 Liquids in bash game what one is it

as for your diagrams I think I can set it up but the config may be buge. you need to all what is on the output.



e.g
==================
Copper ore + Iron ore
Red Science Pack
===================
and
==================
Electronic circuit < Advanced circuit
Green Science Pack "1"
===================

[ssilk]

I think one of the main problems of the circuits is, that you cannot just press PrntScrn. A screenshot doesn't help. I think this is the biggest issue with them currently. Cause in general no one wants to paint a pic like the above to explain this to others.

What's needed is a "information layer" for the circuis. Something which looks like the above pic. You click on a part of a circuit net and it displays the connections in distance around that center.

Like this:


This is missing.

[Twinsen]

I would also like to see some pages explaining how the circuit network works, how the combinators work in general and what each combinator does(similar to fff-88). And also explaining in a clear way what "each", "anything" and "everything" mean and what is the point of virtual signals(A,B,C, Red, etc).
With pictures! more pictures!

Showing combinator setups is really tricky. Try to show in-game screenshots whenever possible since it answers a lot of questions like "where is the input?", "can i connect a wire loop directly?", etc.
For complex things diagrams seem good, but why not make them much bigger, with full item names and icons. And instead of abbreviations like iALL it should be "Everything (input count)", very similar to the in-game UI. I realize this would require more work.

[Lupoviridae]

this would require more work.

Partly this. But mostly it is my feeling with complex diagrams that too much information is more confusing than too little. It also makes the diagrams much much bigger.

[safan]

What about a lamp that goes on when a chest is almost full/empty. Something simple that can be useful.

[Lupoviridae]

I was hoping to get this done today.... didn't realize I need to get permission to edit the wiki. Waiting on that now... if not tonight hopefully tomorrow.

[Lupoviridae]

Still waiting for ssilk to grant me permission to modify the wiki... Is he on vacation or something?

[ssilk]

I read this, but cannot grant accounts on the wiki. Rest via PM.