How to make a material splitter

Post pictures and videos of your factories.
If possible, please post also the blueprints/maps of your creations!
For art/design etc. you can go to Fan Art.

Post Reply
zlosynus
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 114
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 2:17 am
Contact:

How to make a material splitter

Post by zlosynus »

I was always thinking how to build something which could split resources in some ratio between several belts. For example, suppose you want to use a half of iron plates for wheels and the rest for circuits. Using circuits, I made a simple device which allows you to split material in any required ratio between any amount of plates. Here is it, a configuration which splits iron plates in the ratio 1:1:2 between three belts.

Image

Can you guess how it works? So here is the spoiler. The first layer of smart inserters is inserting into their private chests if they contain less than 3 iron plates each (and you can replace even with one, it doesn't really matter). The bottom inserters are set up to take plates only if there are in total at least ten plates. But this is equivalent with being at least one plate in each chest, so all the chests are emptied at the same time. And as a side product, it looks really cool!

vel-master
Inserter
Inserter
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2013 10:11 am
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by vel-master »

this is not new system. You can look on my factory BUS design I used same system but without chests between the lines. Also I build it with larger scales and I can say that it system does't gives fair distribution. It gives priority for first inserters. If you vant to build more fair system better to use logistics robots with requester chests.

My factory
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ?f=8&t=173

kovarex
Factorio Staff
Factorio Staff
Posts: 8078
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:00 am
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by kovarex »

vel-master wrote:this is not new system. You can look on my factory BUS design I used same system but without chests between the lines. Also I build it with larger scales and I can say that it system does't gives fair distribution. It gives priority for first inserters. If you vant to build more fair system better to use logistics robots with requester chests.

My factory
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ?f=8&t=173
I have to defend zlosynus here.
This system he proposed here is different and it distributes exactly in the ratio he said (as long as output belts are not stucked)

User avatar
rk84
Filter Inserter
Filter Inserter
Posts: 556
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 9:15 am
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by rk84 »

vel-master wrote:this is not new system. You can look on my factory BUS design I used same system but without chests between the lines. Also I build it with larger scales and I can say that it system does't gives fair distribution. It gives priority for first inserters. If you vant to build more fair system better to use logistics robots with requester chests.

My factory
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ?f=8&t=173

I think you are missing the point here. Smart chests are used to limit the input so first inserter don't take everything and output inserters are synchronise to take when they all can take. Inputs have separated networks (one smart inserter+ one smart chest). Outputs are all connected to all chests. This system should work even when input is low on materials.
Test mode
Searching Flashlight
[WIP]Fluid handling expansion
[WIP]PvP gamescript
[WIP]Rocket Express
Autofill: The torch has been pass to Nexela

zlosynus
Global Moderator
Global Moderator
Posts: 114
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2013 2:17 am
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by zlosynus »

rk84 wrote:I think you are missing the point here. Smart chests are used to limit the input so first inserter don't take everything and output inserters are synchronise to take when they all can take. Inputs have separated networks (one smart inserter+ one smart chest). Outputs are all connected to all chests. This system should work even when input is low on materials.
Exactly, this system is splitting in a precise ratio even when you are very low on material. As you can see in the example above, I insert iron into the system using slow inserters, but it is splitting in the exact ratio, all belts contain the same amount of stuff. This is a type of problem I was having in my factories for a long time that I couldn't divide the produced stuff equally between a few places. Of course, if you have all belts full of stuff like in your factory, you don't really need it, but this is useful even when you can't produce that much.

vel-master
Inserter
Inserter
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2013 10:11 am
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by vel-master »

rk84 wrote:
vel-master wrote:this is not new system. You can look on my factory BUS design I used same system but without chests between the lines. Also I build it with larger scales and I can say that it system does't gives fair distribution. It gives priority for first inserters. If you vant to build more fair system better to use logistics robots with requester chests.

My factory
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... ?f=8&t=173

I think you are missing the point here. Smart chests are used to limit the input so first inserter don't take everything and output inserters are synchronise to take when they all can take. Inputs have separated networks (one smart inserter+ one smart chest). Outputs are all connected to all chests. This system should work even when input is low on materials.
You must be right. I think i need to learn smart - chests/inserters system

vel-master
Inserter
Inserter
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2013 10:11 am
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by vel-master »

Now I see how this system works! I think that red/green wires system is quite userful for factories with one coveyor belt design if yor can calculate how many materials/stuffs you need you can put axactly this amount of materials/stuffs on belt and it will'n stuck.

Mysteria9
Fast Inserter
Fast Inserter
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2013 9:05 am
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by Mysteria9 »

Dang it, I was just about to make a thread explaining the same thing! :lol:
Anyways, it's a very useful design, nice work!

wrtlprnft
Fast Inserter
Fast Inserter
Posts: 155
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:49 pm
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by wrtlprnft »

I like the concept, but I was wondering if there was a better way to set the ratio at which resources are split. If you wanted to split resources at an odd ratio, you would have to build a lot of chests.

So here's my design (set to split 7:3:5):

Image

It's not obvious from the image how it works, so I'll try my best to explain what's going on: The resource being split is steel plates, but I'm using wood as a kind of semaphore. Each chest initially contains 1 piece of wood.
  1. As long as the piece of wood is in the chest, the top inserter inserts steel into it.
  2. When the desired amount of steel is in the chest, the right inserter removes its piece of wood.
  3. As soon as all chests had their wood removed, the bottom inserter empties the chest.
  4. If all chests are empty, the left inserter reinserts the wood.
I'm using green wire to track the total amount of goods in all chests and red wire to track the contents of the local chest, so the inserter settings are as follows:
  • top: steel if red wire wood = 1
  • right: wood if red wire steel = n (varies from chest to chest)
  • bottom: steel if green wire wood < 1
  • left: wood if green wire steel < 1
Note that you only have to modify the settings of one inserter to change the ratio, no construction necessary. The obvious drawback is that the maximum throughput is limited, because the chest can only be emptied or filled at the same time, not both. We really need bigger chests that can handle more inserters :-)

Mysteria9
Fast Inserter
Fast Inserter
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat Feb 16, 2013 9:05 am
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by Mysteria9 »

wrtlprnft wrote:(---)
That's brilliant!

Arakasi
Fast Inserter
Fast Inserter
Posts: 109
Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2013 9:43 pm
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by Arakasi »

this is really cool "invention".
I wonder if other features like this can be invented

schwarzie2478
Burner Inserter
Burner Inserter
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed May 07, 2014 8:39 pm
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by schwarzie2478 »

Mysteria9 wrote:
wrtlprnft wrote:(---)
That's brilliant!
+1

User avatar
Zourin
Fast Inserter
Fast Inserter
Posts: 246
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2014 2:15 am
Contact:

Re: How to make a material splitter

Post by Zourin »

Nifty, but I don't really see where this is better than a multisplitter setup (thinking practically). Normally the only reason to use a disjointed belt-inserter system would be if you've got a 'garbage belt sorter' problem. Simple load-balancing is usually best done with splitters and varying the belt speeds.

Post Reply

Return to “Show your Creations”