Balance unequal belt lane speeds

[Green_Baron]

Hello,

has anyone a quick link to a solution to balance different belt lane speeds ?

Cheers

Edit: i mean the two lanes of a single belt. Thinking harder about this i realise that this probably a stupid question as the answer is "redesign the consumption" ...

[DaveMcW]

Unequal lanes are not really a problem.

If it annoys you, try to balance consumption on both sides of the belt. Inserters prefer to take from the closest lane.

If it absolutely must be fixed, split the belt and merge it in a T junction.

[Green_Baron]

Yes, problem is too hard a word

It becomes visible when the belt is fed by a 2-car train that is unevenly unloaded then. More of a cosmetic "problem".

A T-balancer only switches sides, if you mean 1 or two splitters and joining again ? It keeps one lane from running empty afaik but doesn't balance speeds ?

I'll find something ...

[Bilka]

https://wiki.factorio.com/Balancers#Lane_Balancers

[urza99814]

Yeah, it's nice to keep both lanes full as you already described because it gives a slightly larger buffer with better throughput, but there's not really any reason to balance the actual consumption. It's certainly possible though...

Two ways to do this -- force your inserters on one side to pull from both, or have inserters pulling in sync on both sides.

The only way to force an inserter to pull from the other lane is if the first lane is empty... So to do that you'd want the limit the flow to your assemblers using the circuit network. So suppose you have a main bus, with one belt of copper split off to build circuits. You'd want to let copper flow onto the side belt until it's almost full, then cut it off until it's completely empty. I think that will work, but only as long as both lanes are completely full -- it will pull unevenly while the side belt is loading, so you need that to happen all at once. Or make it two stage, where it fills some buffer then loads the belt from the buffer.

Much easier would be to put your assemblers on both sides of the belt so they'll pull equally as long as their output isn't blocked and the input lanes stay balanced. If that's not possible you could maybe use the circuit network the have an inserter on the side opposite your assemblers which just matches their intake and routes whatever it removes back to the top of your belt, but that's a pretty ugly solution for a purely cosmetic problem!

[Green_Baron]

Thoroughly designing the consumption is probably the solution.

The standard balancers don't solve the situation if one lanes jams because nobody has interest in the stuff on it and the other just rushes through ...

Thanks, guys !

[impetus maximus]

ones i use are these.


and when i'm playing with OCD players "but there are items stuck on the belt! "
also works as a 2 to 1 splitter. credit to Jackalope.


for balanced 'side loading'.\/

balanced.side.loading.png (37.07 KiB) Viewed 15419 times

mind the half underground direction!
*(plates mixed for demonstration purposes)

[darkfrei]

but there are items stuck on the belt!

It sounds like new idea for mod: remove item-on-ground (or belt) after few minutes.

[impetus maximus]

but there are items stuck on the belt!

It sounds like new idea for mod: remove item-on-ground (or belt) after few minutes.

but then it would get consumed and replaced. i like the hackish way it works now.
i just load them with gravel or wood first then not worry about it.

[mrvn]

for balanced 'side loading'.\/

balanced.side.loading.png

mind the half underground direction!
*(plates mixed for demonstration purposes)

Oh I like that one. But keep the mixed plates. Perfect for something that needs 1 copper plate, 1 iron plate and 10 steel (or something like that). No need to use 2 belts, simply put a mix on one side and steel on the other. Now how do you get other ratios? Say a 2 iron plate : 3 copper plate ratio for producing circuit boards?

[impetus maximus]

Oh I like that one. But keep the mixed plates. Perfect for something that needs 1 copper plate, 1 iron plate and 10 steel (or something like that). No need to use 2 belts, simply put a mix on one side and steel on the other. Now how do you get other ratios? Say a 2 iron plate : 3 copper plate ratio for producing circuit boards?

i wouldn't suggest that. depending on if there is gaps in the feed you can get too much of one, and not enough of the other.
stick with 2 belts and long handed inserters, or use combinators/memory cells. but that's a conversation for another thread.

[mrvn]

Oh I like that one. But keep the mixed plates. Perfect for something that needs 1 copper plate, 1 iron plate and 10 steel (or something like that). No need to use 2 belts, simply put a mix on one side and steel on the other. Now how do you get other ratios? Say a 2 iron plate : 3 copper plate ratio for producing circuit boards?

i wouldn't suggest that. depending on if there is gaps in the feed you can get too much of one, and not enough of the other.
stick with 2 belts and long handed inserters, or use combinators/memory cells. but that's a conversation for another thread.

Yeah, that would need some circuit logic to halt the belt when not all inputs are present.

[impetus maximus]

don't want to de-rail the thread. they were mixed just to show how the lane balancer functions.

[mrvn]

On that note...

When I have a red belt going past some inserters they first populate one side. At that point the belt is only half full so a yellow belt would suffice. But since all the remaining items are one one side that doesn't work. That's when I need to balance unequal belt lane speeds. But for this case a red splitter and then simply side loading is enough. Same thing with a blue belt (or the even faster belts from Bob's mods).

I used to have the output belt of a factory in the middle so the belt would be filled from both sides. Since using Bob's mods I'm tending towards putting my input belts on the middle of a factory and taking from both sides. Then output belts on the outside with the inserters to to drop on alternating sides. Bobs adjustable inserters are so much fun.

[SemperRabbit]

I have some beaconed layouts that the inserters are only one side of the belt, and have thought about this too. There have been times where the backed up lane backs up into the balancer at the beginning of the bus. I found this solution... If the belt balancer on the wiki reverses the side of the belt that things get pulled from, you can use that in conjunction with a regular path to balance the inputs. It's hideous to look at, but it works.

[Koub]

nice necro
btw doesn't the priority splitter help solve the problem ?

[Zavian]

Well from the sounds of things all he needs is to switch the outside laner to the inside lane. That contraption is way overkill.

[zOldBulldog]

What I use to balance the two lanes of a belt is part of semper rabbit's screenshot:. Just remove the top belt and the two splitters that become unnecessary after removing the belt.

What is left is very simple (a splitter and a few pieces of belt) and works great.

[dabalciunas]

This is the best 1x1 and 2x2 perfect belt balancing scheme so far, I always use this at the input/output of my factory groups. I have no issues with belt balancing anymore. No tricks, just plain belt setup.

perfect belt balancing - 1x1 and 2x2 .jpg (73.14 KiB) Viewed 9715 times

[Trebor]

i just load them with gravel or wood first then not worry about it.