Smart Splitters

[sabriath]

No, I do not mean the mod....though if someone wants to make this idea into a mod, that would be great because I can't understand the gibberish to make it myself.

The idea is simple....allow splitters to accept red/green wire circuit with a test-for GUI. If the test succeeds, splitter works as normal....if the test fails, materials pass through from input to output without crossing.

Usage: a full belt of Iron ore is heading straight for the smelting stack when suddenly there is a drop in concrete in the network...signal is sent to draw some of the ore off the smelting path and into the craft area until the concrete is replenished. (Replace "Iron Ore" and "Concrete" with whatever materials that make this anecdote relevant for you)
Current Work Around: Have a huge area on the side of the belt dedicated to a crap ton of smart inserters in order to pull the material required....wasting resources and space (or dedicate a cargo wagon area for splitting).
Otherwise: You end up with a packed belt of material sitting around doing nothing, then possibly get hit by a biter attack to lose all the resources....frustrating. But in some cases, this couldn't be done because I use the same smelt stack to do all of my material smelting at the same time, I "order" the raw materials up the chain so that none of the furnaces are idle...it would make this process much smoother.

[ssilk]

Hehe, I can use this type of suggestion as month-clock.

See here what I mean:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 837#p33770
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/sea ... mit=Search

Also here mentioned:
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ter#p36645

TL;DR: The devs said there will be currently no new belt type.

Edit: See also
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=21106 Smart conveyor belts

[sabriath]

You've misunderstood me...I'm not saying filter the items on the splitter or make a new splitter type at all. I was suggesting allow red and green circuit wires to be allowed to connect to the current splitters and have an "on/off" usage based on input. For a long time that I can remember, liquids were once not part of the circuit network....but after someone suggested it, now you can put wires on storage tanks and pumps...and even allow pumps to turn on/off based on input.....I only suggest the same thing with a splitter.

[ssilk]

Hm. Indeed misunderstood. Sorry.

And in general I find the idea to control the outputs of the splitters by circuits very sexy. But I did not really understand the usage example, cause in general you are working so, that all belts should be full and some part of it is always taken away by concrete. There is no need to turn the input on/off if you can turn the output on/off.

So what is the usage case for turning on/off both sides of production?

And how can this suggestion compared top this mod: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... 91&t=14007

[sabriath]

So what is the usage case for turning on/off both sides of production?

And how can this suggestion compared top this mod: viewtopic.php?f=91&t=14007

In all purposes, they would do the same thing....so I withdraw the request in this sense, though having it in the vanilla game would still be a brilliant idea, imo. Feel free to merge or delete as you wish...and thank you for the link to that mod, I'm definitely going to try it out.

[Gurrzz]

Hi!

I have also been thinking that some kind of smart splitter would be a nice addition to the game. I'm writing on this thread because I think this was close to my own thought (I also don't want it to have any kind of sorting, just splitting).

My thought is that the splitter, when hooked up to the circuit system, allows all the output go on one of the outgoing belts if the logic condition evaluates true, while letting the output go on the other outgoing belt if it evaluates false. This way it would be possible to regulate flow of materials on belts better.

Two examples as to how this could be used would be:

1. You could set up a logic system that sends signals to the splitter intermittently, allowing a certain percent of the flow go to one of the belt, while the rest go on the other. If you set the cycle of signal pulses to have a fixed time, the percentage of the flow going to either belt could be regulated by controlling how long time the signal to the splitter is active during each cycle.


2. You could set up a system where all of the flow go through to one of the outgoing belts when a certain condition i met, and then switch to go to the other outgoing belt when the condition is no longer met. This would allow for making systems where stretches of belts can be used by different materials at different times dependent on what material currently has the higher demand.


As I already said, this is a feature that I think would add to the game. I also think that being able to control a splitter in this way works well with how you would intuitively think a splitter would work, which to me is important because I like things to work in a realistic way.


Lastly, if any of you devs read this I would like to say: Great work with everything! This is a really good game and I enjoy it a lot!

[ssilk]

I recommend to read
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23616 Smart Splitter (The Real One)
which does exactly, what you want.

And this
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=24061 New Types of Belts (NOT!)
which is more a general information under which circumstances changes to the belts makes sense and when not.

[Demongornot]

As the title indicate, I think the possibility to control Splitters through circuit network would be great, the ability to choose between two actions for a given condition.
Since there is 4 possible actions, ON, OFF, LEFT only and RIGHT only, the best way to handle that might be to control each side independently, so turning both ON make the Splitter work as usual, both OFF stop it, but we can also make the Splitter send object only left or right thanks to that.
Two wire connection, one on each side, might make it possible, since it is a 2x1 tiles wide object.
The way I see it is, each wire manage one side, and almost as if it was two entity next to each others, depending if we click on the left or the rightside , the logistic/circuit network option control said side.

I know that we can simply disable a belt after it, but the issue is, if the Splitter have to handle expensive objects like Satellites for example, blocking the belt on the right side mean that some satellites will be actually stuck on the right between the Splitter and the disabled belt, which is a huge waste of resources, same if we only want to combine two input and a single output on the Splitter, one side will waste resources and there is balancing setup where we can't just reuse this wasted side.
The ability to disable one side will avoid resources wasting and have smart control directly on the Splitter rather than the belt after it.
Also I see situations where we might want to read object on the belt after a Splitter but still want smart LEFT/RIGHT control.

[Tekky]

Related thread about adding splitters to the circuit network:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23616 Smart Splitter (The Real One)

[Bilka]

The new splitter options that can be seen in https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-225 currently cannot be controlled by the circuit network. I hereby request the ability to do that, because github apparently isnt this forum .

Setting the filter could work how the filters are set on filter inserters (only used when the output priority is activated), and the priority could work by giving a signal to enabled/disable the priority currently set in the gui. So for example I could set [x > 0] to enable the left output priority here:
.

[Caine]

I strongly agree. It also would fit the mindset from the FFF of increasing control in the late game:

This is why we decided to add a few options to splitter configuration. These might be perceived overpowered by some, but we believe, that these mainly solve problems in the later part of the game when belts compete with bots, and when the player needs more control over the belt logistics.

[studix2002]

How cool would it be being able to send the resources you need at the time you need it, I’m surprised the devs didn’t think of this feature as well and implement it at the same time as the configuration options, I hope they do

[Caine]

How cool would it be being able to send the resources you need at the time you need it, I’m surprised the devs didn’t think of this feature as well and implement it at the same time as the configuration options, I hope they do

That was what I was doing with the old splitters and a lot of circuit network conditions. It is doable but becomes rather complicated with the more complex recipes.

Essentially whenever I produced an item, I sent a signal back through the network to order ingredients for a new one. A balanced splitter network (equal number of splitter traversals) ensured that ingredients were deliverd round-robin to the factories. To compensate for ingredient travel time you setup a buffer which is just big enough to prevent it from draining during the delivery of the ingredients. Direct insertion at a distance

It more or less broke down with recipes involving multiple ingredients of the same type. I still had to find a nice fix for that.

[Tekky]

When I was reading the FFF, I had the same thought. I also consider it important to be able to control it by circuit network.

Here are some older threads about connecting the splitter to the circuit network:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23616 Smart Splitter (The Real One)
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=51051 Circuit controlled splitter

[provet]

This sounds useful and probably needed to compete with the bots

[dauphin]

I, too, would very much like to see this happen. Some really, really cool designs could come out of this. For one, it would be an interesting alternative for making sushi belts.

[mp0011]

I wish, however, new splitter functions will REQUIRE logic network, or it would be to easy.
Without connections, splitters should work as regular splitters.

[provet]

If only the same would be true for all robot chest-only logistic #ItsNotaNerfIfItsCombinators

[StonedXander]

Good idea.

One could set a condition on priority activation AND priority side.
For example, if the condition is true, then set input priority to left, else, to right.
Same for output priority.

[Impatient]

+1

3 signals: input prio, output prio and filter