increase assembler buffer size

[Optera]

Currently Assemblers/Chemical Plants have wildly varying buffer sizes depending on recipe.

Plastic for example loads ~20 coal and stops working when ~20 plastic bars are in the output. If those are sped up to more than +170% they constantly pause because either output is "full" or input is empty. Even though stack inserters with 13 stack size have the theoretical throughput the small assembler buffer doesn't allow them to be fully utilized.
Forcefully feeding assemblers with loaders circumvents input buffer limitation.

I suggest adding a gui options to set the assembler buffers for input and output in multiples of items per recipes.
It should have a threshold for expensive recipes like satellites so they don't load 100x satellites worth of material.

[Rseding91]

Increasing the speed of a machine increases the input buffer size allowance to account for this.

If you use more than 1 inserter it works perfectly.

[Optera]

The triggers for inserters come too late for very high speeds.

2017-03-02-13-13-39-2164143.jpg (114.05 KiB) Viewed 2885 times

This assembler constantly gets filled to 13 items with one stack inserter, but it only starts filling at ~4 remaining copper plates resulting in idle time.
3 stack inserters fill it up to ~25 copper plates, while still waiting for ~4 remaining before starting to fill in more.

[ssilk]

We had a similar thread lately.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30368 Increase trigger point for inserting into machines

My opinion: If you need it faster use more ... assemblers.

[Engimage]

First, I see you are using loaders to unload those assemblers. What stops you from doing the same with loading?
Second, for fast-paced loading you should use buffer chest with stack inserters resulting in a bulk load with a single move and not gathering materials from a belt.
Third, in your case, you can use 2 blue inserters to make things work much more consistently even without redesign.

And fourth, the topic was already raised multiple times. Assembler could use a slider for a number of cycles in input buffer. But devs insist on using existing tools like logistic chests/other stuff for maintaining input buffer and then load materials naturally from a buffer chest (see Second statement).

[Optera]

We had a similar thread lately.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30368 Increase trigger point for inserting into machines

My opinion: If you need it faster use more ... assemblers.

Making Assembler with Prod3 as fast as possible results in less energy/item used, greatly reduced space used for same production capacity and most of all less T3 modules needed. The only downside is the almost neglect able higher idle energy consumption from beacons.

First, I see you are using loaders to unload those assemblers. What stops you from doing the same with loading?
Second, for fast-paced loading you should use buffer chest with stack inserters resulting in a bulk load with a single move and not gathering materials from a belt.
Third, in your case, you can use 2 blue inserters to make things work much more consistently even without redesign.

And fourth, the topic was already raised multiple times. Assembler could use a slider for a number of cycles in input buffer. But devs insist on using existing tools like logistic chests/other stuff for maintaining input buffer and then load materials naturally from a buffer chest (see Second statement).

You are right, buffer chests or loaders are the only way to use 0.5s recipes in very fast assemblers. The whole point of the build was to prove inserters start loading too late.

If topics keep coming up perhaps it is something worth improving.
Factorio is one of the few games where devs actually listen to suggestions. Best recent example are all the improvements in 0.15 like rail tanker.

[Rseding91]

With the assembling machine as you have it the input inserter will start adding items when the input has < 6 items. Except you're feeding from a belt so that's when the inserter *starts* collecting items off the belt and then it has to grab all of the items from the belt which in the mean time the assembling machine has run out. As you increase the speed of the assembling machine it will increase that "6" more.

So as with most things that involve belts: the belts are the limiting factor. If you put a buffer chest between the belt and assembling machine it will keep up without any problems.