Is this an efficient 1 to 4 belt?

[Eonwulf]

I just got the game recently and was curious about some things.
So what I was trying to do is go from 1 belt to 4 belts with even distribution and keep them double sided.
If you just use the 3 splitters at the start then it ends up with single sided belts at the end unless it gets backlogged.
So I did what I wanted to, but I am curious is it efficient?

[Neotix]

If you want to test your design:
1. Try to put items only on one side and see if you get even distribution on all belts.
2. Try with not compressed input belt (irregular spaces between items).
3. Try with mixed items.

[Zeblote]

If you just use the 3 splitters at the start then it ends up with single sided belts at the end unless it gets backlogged

That will finally be fixed in 0.13

[Griffon0129]

Check out this guy's videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mfdct1 ... ZG&index=1
I can't remember what episode it's in (it's in several actually), but he does a signature 4 to 4 belt equalizer. He often uses it just as a 1 to 4 belt equalizer in the early episodes then in later episodes when building outposts, with 2 to 4 inputs, it works just as well too.
I've never tested it out but it looks effective and smaller than your's.

[Eonwulf]

If you want to test your design:
1. Try to put items only on one side and see if you get even distribution on all belts.
2. Try with not compressed input belt (irregular spaces between items).
3. Try with mixed items.

1. I didn't test this but I know by the way I worked it out that it would just end up on 2 belts. Actually now that I think about it, it would evenly distribute from one side.
2. It would still be even.
3. If you had a square of 4 different items then each belt would hold a different item.

If you just use the 3 splitters at the start then it ends up with single sided belts at the end unless it gets backlogged

That will finally be fixed in 0.13

Good to know that will be changed. Will simplify things.

Check out this guy's videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mfdct1 ... ZG&index=1
I can't remember what episode it's in (it's in several actually), but he does a signature 4 to 4 belt equalizer. He often uses it just as a 1 to 4 belt equalizer in the early episodes then in later episodes when building outposts, with 2 to 4 inputs, it works just as well too.
I've never tested it out but it looks effective and smaller than your's.

You see his design in the second episode at 22:30. It has the problem of the items only ending on 1 side of each belt instead of both sides.
If you are okay with that then you could simplify his design even more with just 3 splitters like I originally said.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'll try and figure out this stuff some more. This game is interesting.

[Eonwulf]

So I was working with the belts and splitters some more and I realized the way splitters currently work.
They analyze each item that passes through and toggles a boolean for that item so that it will go down the other path next time it comes through.
For a belt full of a single item, it analyzes the top item before the bottom item so that's why it splits full lanes into half lanes.

So here is a little mock up of what's going on. 0 and 1 are the same item I am just showing where they will end up after processing.

Code: Select all

-----00000|\|0000000000
-----11111|/|----------
          |\|----------
          |/|1111111111

This is what happens if all the items are different. 1 2 3 and 4 are each a different item.

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-----313131|\|31--31--31--31
-----424242|/|42--42--42--42
           |\|--31--31--31--
           |/|--42--42--42--

[Zeblote]

Yes, that's what they'll fix in 0.13, it'll then use a bool per lane.

[Griffon0129]

I think I came up with the belt Equalizer you were looking for and also works as a 4 to 4 equalizer. It's 12*6 and uses 30 belts, 8 underground, and 9 splitters.

pictures

BeltEqualizer_1.png (386.43 KiB) Viewed 6489 times

BeltEqualizer_2.png (543.18 KiB) Viewed 6489 times

BeltEqualizer_3.png (615.21 KiB) Viewed 6489 times

BeltEqualizer_4.png (804.26 KiB) Viewed 6489 times

blueprint string using foreman, only yellow belts

Code: Select all

do local blueprintData={icons={[1]={name="basic-splitter",index=2},[0]={name="basic-transport-belt",index=1}},entities={[1]={entity_number=1,name="basic-transport-belt-to-ground",position={x=-4.5,y=-1.5},direction=6,type="output"},[2]={entity_number=2,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-3.5,y=-1.5},direction=4},[3]={entity_number=3,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-2.5,y=-1.5},direction=6},[4]={entity_number=4,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-2.5,y=-2.5},direction=4},[5]={entity_number=5,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-1.5,y=-2.5},direction=6},[6]={entity_number=6,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-1.5,y=-1.5}},[7]={entity_number=7,name="basic-splitter",position={x=-0.5,y=-1},direction=6},[8]={entity_number=8,name="basic-transport-belt-to-ground",position={x=0.5,y=-1.5},direction=6,type="input"},[9]={entity_number=9,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=1.5,y=-2.5},direction=4},[10]={entity_number=10,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=1.5,y=-1.5},direction=6},[11]={entity_number=11,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=2.5,y=-2.5},direction=6},[12]={entity_number=12,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=2.5,y=-1.5},direction=4},[13]={entity_number=13,name="basic-splitter",position={x=3.5,y=-2},direction=6},[14]={entity_number=14,name="basic-splitter",position={x=4.5,y=-1},direction=6},[15]={entity_number=15,name="basic-splitter",position={x=6.5,y=-1},direction=6},[16]={entity_number=16,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-4.5,y=-0.5},direction=6},[17]={entity_number=17,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-4.5,y=0.5},direction=6},[18]={entity_number=18,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-3.5,y=0.5},direction=6},[19]={entity_number=19,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-3.5,y=-0.5},direction=6},[20]={entity_number=20,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-2.5,y=-0.5}},[21]={entity_number=21,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-2.5,y=0.5},direction=4},[22]={entity_number=22,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-1.5,y=-0.5},direction=6},[23]={entity_number=23,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-1.5,y=0.5},direction=6},[24]={entity_number=24,name="basic-splitter",position={x=-0.5,y=1},direction=6},[25]={entity_number=25,name="basic-transport-belt-to-ground",position={x=0.5,y=0.5},direction=6,type="output"},[26]={entity_number=26,name="basic-transport-belt-to-ground",position={x=0.5,y=-0.5},direction=6,type="output"},[27]={entity_number=27,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=1.5,y=0.5},direction=4},[28]={entity_number=28,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=1.5,y=-0.5}},[29]={entity_number=29,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=2.5,y=0.5},direction=6},[30]={entity_number=30,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=2.5,y=-0.5},direction=6},[31]={entity_number=31,name="basic-transport-belt-to-ground",position={x=3.5,y=0.5},direction=6,type="input"},[32]={entity_number=32,name="basic-transport-belt-to-ground",position={x=3.5,y=-0.5},direction=6,type="input"},[33]={entity_number=33,name="basic-splitter",position={x=4.5,y=1},direction=6},[34]={entity_number=34,name="basic-splitter",position={x=5.5,y=0},direction=6},[35]={entity_number=35,name="basic-splitter",position={x=6.5,y=1},direction=6},[36]={entity_number=36,name="basic-transport-belt-to-ground",position={x=-4.5,y=1.5},direction=6,type="output"},[37]={entity_number=37,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-3.5,y=1.5}},[38]={entity_number=38,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-2.5,y=1.5},direction=6},[39]={entity_number=39,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-2.5,y=2.5}},[40]={entity_number=40,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-1.5,y=2.5},direction=6},[41]={entity_number=41,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=-1.5,y=1.5},direction=4},[42]={entity_number=42,name="basic-transport-belt-to-ground",position={x=0.5,y=1.5},direction=6,type="input"},[43]={entity_number=43,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=1.5,y=2.5}},[44]={entity_number=44,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=1.5,y=1.5},direction=6},[45]={entity_number=45,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=2.5,y=2.5},direction=6},[46]={entity_number=46,name="basic-transport-belt",position={x=2.5,y=1.5}},[47]={entity_number=47,name="basic-splitter",position={x=3.5,y=2},direction=6}},name="4to4 Equalizer yellow"};return blueprintData;end

[mrvn]

The last design passes all 4 lanes through a single splitter. That will limit the throughput.