Overflow inserter Idea

[rbabiak]

I would like a by-directional inserter with one special ability.

The inserter would move from the input side to the output side only if the the input side is blocked. So if your belt is backed up with lots of material then this inserter would start moving the materials to the destination. When it is is not blocked the inserter reverses and moved from the destination to the source side.

If you had it set up with a chest on the destination side then it would act like a buffer, but if you had a belt on the other side there is nothing to move back.

PS. I did look and it doesn't appear the inserters filter or direction can be affected by mod scripts, please correct me if i am mistaken.
Thanks.

[DerivePi]

no need for 2-directions.
place an underground belt followed by a fast inserter, then chest then another fast inserter. When things are jammed, the buffer is filled. The downside is that the fast inserter is not fast enough to fill up a belt so numerous buffers need to be set (or use a faster - fast inserter Mod).
The other downside is that the items will only be placed on 1-side of the belt.

Can be used with red/green wire circuits to act as an overflow check (ex. when chest has 50 items in it, system is overflowed).

[rbabiak]

I do that, that isn't what I was trying to solve.

I want a way to divert goods of a belt when the belt is at capacity to route around bottle necks. The chest case is only a buffer way, while the use of a belt allows for the goods to be routed to another production line, or diverted into a provider chest.

[ssilk]

https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... e=Splitter
https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... /Cascading

[The Phoenixian]

So how would the above image, combined with two smart inserters on the same wire network work? The first inserter would activate to move from the input to the output only if there were items in the chest. (Signalling a block) And the second would activate to move items back when the buffer chest was empty (Signalling no block)

[DerivePi]

So how would the above image, combined with two smart inserters on the same wire network work? The first inserter would activate to move from the input to the output only if there were items in the chest. (Signalling a block) And the second would activate to move items back when the buffer chest was empty (Signalling no block)

Not sure about using 2 smart inserters but you could certainly get 1 to help. I've used this with limited success in combination with a "Sorter Station." The main problem with a belted sorter is that too much of one item floods it, and jambs up the works. To prevent jambs, you need to shut off deliveries of items that are abundant. As soon as the upper inserter can't place items, the chest starts filling up. Once the chest reaches 50 items, it signals a jamb and turns off deliveries. With a lower smart inserter and a toggle, you can turn off that inserter until the chest is reduced back to 0. in this case, the chest can't be used as a buffer.