Inserters picking things up when unpowered.

[quadrapod]

I noticed that if I power an inserter then unpower it, it will pick up whatever item is placed in a chest in front of it despite receiving no power. This will happen even if the inserter item stack size bonus upgrade is not researched.

[ssilk]

Every device has an internal "accu", which holds the energy for a while. Unpower for example an laser. It won't look unpowered. But after 10-20 seconds the laser-internal accu is empty and then it begins to blink.

[quadrapod]

Every device has an internal "accu", which holds the energy for a while. Unpower for example an laser. It won't look unpowered. But after 10-20 seconds the laser-internal accu is empty and then it begins to blink.

In that case there is still an inconsistency because unpowered inserters won't grab things off conveyor belts, just things in crates.

[ssilk]

Why not? Inserters take items from everywhere.

Ok, maybe I should test what you mean, because I just don't know, how they work in that case. A good thing would be a pic, with the situation you build and what you exactly have done.

[quadrapod]

Why not? Inserters take items from everywhere.

Ok, maybe I should test what you mean, because I just don't know, how they work in that case. A good thing would be a pic, with the situation you build and what you exactly have done.

Alright I'll try and demonstrate it step by step.

Here's the basic setup to show what I'm talking about. Blocks will be placed in the chest on the right, from there they will get put onto the conveyer and go past an inserter which is directed to pick things off of a conveyer belt if they pass that they will go into the box with another inserter trying to take things out of it.

Setup

Power is applied to both the inserter trying to take things off the track and the inserter trying to take things out of the box.

Applying power

Power is then removed from both

Removing power

After that I can wait for as long as I want, it doesn't matter, then put an item into the box which then gets placed onto the conveyer. As you can see items pass the first inserter without it picking them up, but the second inserter will take the item out of the crate despite not being powered, it will then just proceed to hold it.

Inserter picks up item

[ssilk]

A well, it holds it. Hm, this is an error, if this "grep-action" needs energy. It's a good question if that should take energy or not. I found, that the curves for the used energy are different for taking out of a box and putting into a box. But that was in v0.6. It seems, that handling with a chest takes a bit less energy, maybe it's just because of this greping.

[kovarex]

It doesn't need energy, the energy is needed just for the arm movement, but I made a fix, that when the inserter doesn't have energy, it will not get the item out of the box (or from the ground).

But yes, the internal buffer still applies, but it goes out in a short while.

So fixed for 0.9