Beacon on/off via circuit network

Engimage · Post by **Engimage** » Sat Feb 11, 2017 9:27 pm

Beacons consume a lot of energy no matter if consumers are idle or not. You may use power switch but most of time its impossible as beacons are used in so tight designs that they can be powered down only togather with entire production line.

I think it would be a nice feature if you could turn them off via circuit network to switch them to "drain" mode

Post by **ssilk** » Sat Feb 11, 2017 11:09 pm

I mean it is quite difficult to create such networks, but it is possible.
No question, that it needs to be changed, but until then:
https://wiki.factorio.com/Power_product ... d_Wires.29

Cabanur · Post by **Cabanur** » Sun Feb 12, 2017 8:42 pm

Maybe a circuit condition on/off switch? the issue I see is that if the devs implemented an on/off circuit network condition on beacons people would want them on basically everything else.

Engimage · Post by **Engimage** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 8:13 am

As I have said, power switch will mostly allow to power down whole base sections.
Beacons are mostly used so that there is a really high density in buildings. So you can't choose what will stay powered on just by controlling wires.
Btw there is already a majority of items that can be controlled by circuit network. I just don't see a reason why not to add this on a beacon.

Shaymes · Post by **Shaymes** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 2:49 pm

its possible to turn of beacons by powerpole but not easy besouce the complex Setup of poles becon and mashinerie
an on/off for some buildings like beacon or Radar will be nice but not a must have.

Cabanur · Post by **Cabanur** » Tue Feb 14, 2017 6:53 pm

PacifyerGrey wrote: I just don't see a reason why not to add this on a beacon.

If there's a circuit condition on beacons to turn on/off, why not have it on assemblers too? and why not research labs, drills, chemical plants, refineries?

This is very likely a scenario that the devs already forsaw and they chose to use the power switch instead, so it's unlikely (not impossible, though) they'll change their minds.

Remember that you can isolate a power pole with shift+click and then choose to which other power poles it connects. Maybe you can use this to isolate your beacons enough to turn then on or off.

Engimage · Post by **Engimage** » Mon Feb 20, 2017 7:41 am

Cabanur wrote:
PacifyerGrey wrote: I just don't see a reason why not to add this on a beacon.
If there's a circuit condition on beacons to turn on/off, why not have it on assemblers too? and why not research labs, drills, chemical plants, refineries?

This is very likely a scenario that the devs already forsaw and they chose to use the power switch instead, so it's unlikely (not impossible, though) they'll change their minds.

Remember that you can isolate a power pole with shift+click and then choose to which other power poles it connects. Maybe you can use this to isolate your beacons enough to turn then on or off.

All of the mentioned devices do not consume power while being idle. That is the main point why the suggestion is made.
Beacons however do consume quite a lot of power no matter if any of effected devices are idle or not. It is actually one of the main idle power consumers (followed by energy drain of laser turrets) for large bases.

Rockstar04 · Post by **Rockstar04** » Wed Dec 12, 2018 6:25 pm

I just wanted to add a vote to this suggestion. Ever since the change was made to make beacons consume power even when their modules were removed there is no easy way to disable beacons without disconnecting power from an entire factory block.

One use case could be to only enable speed module beacons when chests of output goods fall below a threshold.

Darinth · Post by **Darinth** » Thu Dec 13, 2018 1:58 pm

I don't think that the fear of 'if we add it to this, it has to be added to everything' is a particularly well founded fear. A quick look through the list of buildings and the only thing that stuck out to me that I could even imagine any kind of benefit from this feature would be beacons and *maybe* laser turrets or radars. The vast majority of factorio's buildings mostly turn off when there's nothing to do. Furnaces, assemblers, refineries, chem plants, centrifuges, and labs all the miniscule power drain when inactive.

Radars you pretty much always want active. I mean... I guess I can see a case to be made for someone wanted a button that they could turn their radar network on and off with... but I doubt it. The only circumstance that I can see for adding it to turrets would require some method of detecting biters and turning turrets on an off. Since I can't think of any good way to do that off the top of my head... really this is a feature that the beacon and the beacon alone could really use.

SpeedFreak1 · Post by **SpeedFreak1** » Mon Mar 04, 2019 12:43 pm

+1, Would love to turn off beacons when production buffers are full. Having a circuit condition to enable / disable the beacons would be appreciated.

Tekky · Post by **Tekky** » Sun Mar 31, 2019 3:46 pm

+1

However, I do not think that this should be limited to beacons. It should be possible to connect many other types of entities to the circuit network. For example, a level 3 assembler with 4 level 3 production modules will consume 1.5 MW of power, which is significantly more than a beacon. Therefore, if the circuit network detects that I am low on power, I want to be able to immediately shut off all beacons and high-power assemblers.

Being able to connect more types of entities to the circuit network has been discussed a bit in the following thread:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=60377 Circuit Network Information 2.0 - Open Your World

However, I would only be in favor of being able to connect these entities to the circuit network if it wouldn't impact UPS (performance) too much. If decreases in UPS are unavoidable, then I guess that the power switch would have to suffice.

planetmaker · Post by **planetmaker** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 9:01 am

Well, as you are aware: you can switch off stuff you do not need: there is a circuit breaker for this reason; adding a switch to each entity would only simplify this task.

Post by **Koub** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:31 pm

I concur : if all entities could be switched on and off by circuit network, it would render the power switch obsolete.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's a choice the devs have to make :
- Power switch as unified means to turn stuff on and off ?
- Power switch is removed and replaced by all entities can be turned on and off via circuit network ?

I think the power switch thing is better, it allows to control any powered entity, wether vanilla or modded indifferently. Its only disadvantage is : it can't control burner buildings powered by burner inserters. Quite marginal.

boran_blok · Post by **boran_blok** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:35 pm

And everything is flashing yellow and eats UPS while it is unpowered.

The power switch method is definitely not ideal imho.

Darinth · Post by **Darinth** » Mon Apr 08, 2019 4:41 pm

Actually, both are still useful. The ability to isolate an entire section of your base behind a single power-switch as much easier in many circumstances than wiring every building in an area. The ability to turn off buildings via the circuit network, on the other hand, is the best way to disable some buildings that may be receiving power from overlapping power poles in a very dense part of a factory.

DanGio · Post by **DanGio** » Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:23 am

I'm also all for the circuit network on/off for the beacon : (and the beacon only)

The beacon differ from other entities not only because of its power consumption while idle, but also because every other machines have a really easy way to toggle : control input or output inserter for assembling machines, control pump for chemical plants, pumpjacks & refineries, control belt for mining drills... There's also many other ways to do it.

Beacon is the only entity which needs toggle (radar really don't) and can only be toggled via power switch. Thus, it's a really good candidate for circuit network on/off.

Engimage · Post by **Engimage** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:21 am

Koub wrote: Mon Apr 08, 2019 1:31 pm I concur : if all entities could be switched on and off by circuit network, it would render the power switch obsolete.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's a choice the devs have to make :
- Power switch as unified means to turn stuff on and off ?
- Power switch is removed and replaced by all entities can be turned on and off via circuit network ?

I think the power switch thing is better, it allows to control any powered entity, wether vanilla or modded indifferently. Its only disadvantage is : it can't control burner buildings powered by burner inserters. Quite marginal.

The problem with power switch is that you can't control a set of buildings precisely as in beaconed setups the density is really high and power poles will cover just random buildings.
Also as it was pointed out beacons are the only buildings that consume tons of power despite production being halted.
It might make sense to switch certain sections of your factory completely but it if really far from optimal to do so.

Post by **Koub** » Wed Apr 10, 2019 11:37 am

PacifyerGrey wrote: Wed Apr 10, 2019 8:21 am Also as it was pointed out beacons are the only buildings that consume tons of power despite production being halted.

I think this is very much wanted by the devs. The beaconed setup is extremely powerful when optimally used. I think they wanted to balance this by a high power drain. So that beacons are used with a price, including the need to use them wisely.

Bear in mind I might be mistaken : I'm not part of the dev team. But I feel that's the motive behind that huge power drain.

ejg · Post by **ejg** » Thu Apr 11, 2019 8:29 am

Beacons would become more powerful indeed, but this could be balanced by increasing their power usage when in use.

I do think it's more elegant when they could be switched off by logic, on the other hand, the challenge of building electricity networks which do control parts of the factory by power switches is quite fun in my opinion.

Elisse · Post by **Elisse** » Wed Jun 19, 2019 6:47 am

TL;DR

Control of beacons by circuit.

What ?

Add simple on/off option for beacons controlled by circuit network.

Why ?

This can be really usefull and it is not making game any easier because there is simple workaround now.
For now i use beacons connected with power switch and if (item < 500) I simple turn on or turn off whole grid of beacons.
I think it could be much better to turn off beacons directly without ugly blinking of electricity problem

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