Lane swapper

[ssilk]

What controls which items reach which chest?
is it Build order? Maps seed? XY position? Chunk boundaries? Rotation of the contraption?

I cannot explain the fast inserters. Seems to be a new thing in v0.11. But the basic inserters.

In that case it can be seen, but not on the above pic: if you place two inserters adjacent their hands don't have the same position. They are not pointing to the center of a tile. Put an item on the tile, both inserters try to grab it, but the one inserter hand, which is more near, will win. The other hand will take the second item, while the first is still rotating.

This is a problem, cause the inserter that won't grab it, needs energy for that missing grab. With only 2 inserters not a problem, but I had hundreds, which I placed at belts adjacent to put stuff into chests.

Many of those may not be even considered a stable / defined behaviour.

This is definitely unstable, even small power fluctuations can influence the result. Not to mention what happens, when one lane gets empty.

[hitzu]

A little bit bulky but works perfectly.


More compact design without curves

[ssilk]

Great!

[bobingabout]

A little bit bulky but works perfectly.


More compact design without curves

are those underground belts? I didn't know they could be used this way.

[hitzu]

are those underground belts? I didn't know they could be used this way.

Yep, they are and they perfectly acts like belt blockers. For the second layout you have to build 2 underground belts facing each other then deconstruct inlets.

[ssilk]

are those underground belts? I didn't know they could be used this way.

Second time I post this link in this thread: Splitting lanes trick

Note for me: That page should be renamend into "Multiple uses of the underground belt entry" ... or so...

[MF-]

Does the "splitting lanes" thread include the
neat version presented here?

I really like the more compact design.

[MF-]

Many of those may not be even considered a stable / defined behaviour.

This is definitely unstable, even small power fluctuations can influence the result. Not to mention what happens, when one lane gets empty.

I mean that those might be accidental features and might not work in future/past versions
even if you kept all your lanes backed up and created a stable dedicated power network for them.

[MF-]

@Nic
Don't get run over by these off-thread-topic posts.
I still care for anything you might come up with.
Perhaps create a new thread with a more suitable name for the "splitter can be constructed" argument?

[Nic]

I started with the detailed animation:



I "only" have to add the whole housing, add some other parts, add the items, add the belts and colour it correctly.

1080p video of its movement will follow soon.

EDIT:

I refined the first version a little bit but there are still some casing parts and moving parts missing here.

http://factorio.nicmd.de/swapper_nic_1.gif

[Nic]

I have added the latest version to the OP of mine.

It is still not the "final" version.

[bobingabout]

You should probably put that as a link instead of an image, I loaded a bunch of pages and left to do something, to come back to a chunk of my extremely limited monthly data allowance gone.

[Xuhybrid]

We need a single block that's like a splitter but instead, it swaps the lanes. On a similar note it'd be great to have a Filter Transport Belt so i can split off iron/copper from my supply lines, without using a Smart Inserter (too slow). I've seen this trick on the wiki which ill use but an official block would be ideal.

Here's an example of what i have to do;
I split the iron off the belt for the green circuits.
I put green circuits back onto the same belt.
Then split them off on their own.

This could all be achieved with two Filter Transport Belts and maybe one Lane Swap Transport Belt.

[ssilk]

You can build the same thing with only two underground belts, instead of 4. You can rotate them.

Taken from https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... /More_uses

I use this quite often.

[ThaPear]

Try these mods:
[0.11.x] Belt Utilities
[0.11.5]Belt Switchers

[Xuhybrid]

Thanks. Managed to cut it down to 3 underground belts as the lower one needs a lane swap anyway.

[Nic]

You should probably put that as a link instead of an image, I loaded a bunch of pages and left to do something, to come back to a chunk of my extremely limited monthly data allowance gone.

I am very sorry for that - it was not my intention - I will decrease the resolution and the amount of frames - so they are only 700KB instead of 14MB.

[vedrit]

Interesting idea. I can see how it wouldn't be very high in implementation, but I can see it doing well in a mod.

[Nic]

Interesting idea. I can see how it wouldn't be very high in implementation, but I can see it doing well in a mod.

I would like to have it in the vanilla version instead of beeing a mod.

but if someone could make this single item as a mod I would be very happy, since I don't know how to mod it.

[ssilk]

There is a mod, which does nearly that: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... =14&t=7161

A swapper is more complex, cause it needs to actively move each item, which should be done in C++, since Lua is (in my eyes) not fast enough for that.