Programable switches

[Minichris72]

Recently I have spent a good few hours on Factorio and found these switches I made to be very helpful and I couldn't find them anywhere on youtube or the forums after I made them so I thought I'd show you guys how to make them.

Step by step instructions on how to build a switch (2/4/6/8/etc) obviously automated for the game.
We'll start with a simple 2 way switch

2 way switch

You will need;

• 1 or 2 smart chests (swap one for a regular chest if need be)
  2 smart inserters
  2 inserters (fast for best results (in my opinion))
  4 transport belts

1) Begin by placing 2 smart chests next to each other. Then place down a smart inserter, taking out of the chests, facing up and down. Then place a fast inserter next to each of the smart inserters but putting into the box.

2) Then place down in front of the inserters going from the smart inserter to the fast inserter.

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That's pretty much it for the main switch mechanics.

Now for the programming.

This switch can be used in a couple ways, very easily, but I'll go through the main one for you.

On/off switch
A basic on/of switch can be made by adding one item to the smart chest (preferably something easy to come by) and then triggering something to work when that item is in the box.

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One example would be if I wanted a chest to be empty before I put more items into it and vice versa.

Here, to the left, I have set up a belt and chest loop with 24 items in it. The bottom inserter is set to take out the items when the switch is set on the right and the top inserter is set to put in the items in the chest when the switch is set on the left. If you follow the red wires you may be able to see them connecting to each other but this may get difficult when you add more wires.

The inserters on the switch are then connected to the chest on the belt loop via green wire, (I used green to show you better but since the wires don't cross you could just use all the same colour wires.) The top inserter is set to take out the item when the belt loop chest is full (set to [wood=24]). The bottom inserter is set the opposite ([wood=0]) and as you can see the top inserter won't turn on until the chest is fully empty.

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You could simplify it even more by linking the inserters on the loop together with one red wires and set one to work the box on the switch is empty, like I did with the switches inserters. This will save you resources by cutting down the amount of wires you need and you can swap the chest on the switch that isn't linked with a wooden chest saving you some steel and electric circuits.

4 way switch

A 4 way switch is actually easier to build but may take a bit more resources, it's also more versatile as well but we'll get into that a bit later.

What you will need:

• 4 smart chests
  4 smart inserters

It is simply built by putting down the smart chests in a square one square between them and put the smart inserters coming from one chest into another in a loop, and it's done.

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You then just put one item in a chest and it’s onto the programming. This is more versatile than the 2 way switch in many ways, especially since if you swap 2 of the smart inserters to standard or fast inserters. The same can be done by swapping one of them to make a 3 way switch. The programming is the same so I'll stick with the 4 way switch for the example.

Switch

The obvious thing to use it for is an on/off switch for 4 things but this will actually create a process of things to happen and this is very useful in many ways

I've made a belt loop system similar to the one before but I've added 2 extra smart inserters and brought the belt around to create a bigger loop

I have linked the inserters from the belt loop with red wires to the chests on the switch and the inserters from the switch to the chest via a green wire (put them close enough together an you can link them directly to each other without the use of poles and both save you wire and let you only need one colour wire.)

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I have set all the inserters on the belt loop to [wood=1]. The inserters on the switch are set different to each other though. Starting from the top, (going anti-clockwise) they are set [wood=0] (empty), [wood=49] (full), [wood=35] and [wood=15].

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When they are set up like this, the switch will swap the wood from chest to chest the number specified has been reached and trigger the linked inserter to begin working.

Again if you change one of the smart inserters to a fast inserter then you can have 3 processes Instead if you need, just remember to set the numbers correctly.

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Timer

This can also be used as a timer as well by wiring the inserters to the chest before the one they are taking out of like this,

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I have set all of the inserters to [wood=0] so they don't take anything out until they need to. I have set up lights to turn on to show you where the wood is. All you need to do is put in a few stacks of items and your done

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Obviously the more you put in the chest the longer the time limit but don't forget about the inserter stack size bonus research and it will make your inserters take out more at a time and thus lower the amount of time it takes to transfer the items. I am not sure of the timing specifics but on the one you just saw was just over 5 items per second but I had the stack bonus researched so I'm not certain of its completely accurate.

Expanding on it

Once you have this set up its easy to expand on. Add 2 more chests to the side and you have a 6 processes you can program. Add 2 more and you can have 8 and so on. And don't forget that you can swap one for a fast inserter to get an odd number if you need too.

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That's it! Have fun with my switches and I hope they help you all out in ways you never thought possible. Have fun, Minichris72.

[Guu]

great idea , simply and securely

[Neotix]

That remind me of the old times before combinators.

[Guu]

using your idea , I built a sorting mechanism, which puts on the conveyor a certain number of objects
https://youtu.be/qmHMrQigtis

[Minichris72]

Its a shame i cant your language, i couldnt quite understand the concept. No matter, im glad i could help

[Guu]

Its a shame i cant your language, i couldnt quite understand the concept. No matter, im glad i could help

in this video similar scheme , but it works on a different principle
https://youtu.be/AgudQKNu00k