Rocket silo doesn't always produce white science

[Mauslag PIngman]

I've got tons of satellites, but often I get no white science from a rocket launch in version 1.1.38 Build 58907. 64

My satellites are in a chest and fed into silo with a fast inserter. It works sometimes. I get the white science but other times, more often, I get nothing. The silo just starts absorbing stuff to produce the next launch. Auto Launch with cargo is checked. Launch happens so fast that I can't see if it loaded the satellite even though this time I did get the white science. In other words the space that is supposed to form for the satellite does it so quickly that I can't see the event happening. Tthe inserter putting the satellite into the empty box and getting absorbed by the rocket silo happens so fast I can't see it. I think the silo sometimes launches without a satellite even though the box is checked to launch with satellite.

[SoShootMe]

There is a limit of 2000 space science packs in the rocket silo's output slot. If the slot contains over 1000 science packs and more are produced by a launch, some or all them will be lost. (You can use the circuit network to only insert a satellite when there is space for the result.)

If that's not the reason, you'll need to provide a saved game: attach it to a post if it's not too big, or upload somewhere else (eg Dropbox or similar) and post a link.

[Mauslag PIngman]

I tried to locate a save on my windows 10. They've made it very hard. I don't think I'm going to find it.

Seems like in previous versions of the game I could see the satellite place in the silo just before launch even though it was automated.
Also, this is not a case of the rocket launching before all the white science is put on belts. I've had it happen 2 times in a row. There is nothing on the belt. There are no white science to unload.

I won't discount that I'm doing something wrong, but I haven't figured out what that might be.

[vjbone]

I tried to locate a save on my windows 10. They've made it very hard. I don't think I'm going to find it.

https://wiki.factorio.com/Application_directory

[Mauslag PIngman]

I think I figured it out. Testing now. At some point I thought the silo needed radar to launch so I set up a belt full of radar to be inserted into the silo. Is it possible the radar was being inserted where the satellite belonged? The rocket would take the radar to space but it wouldn't register a satellite launch and so no white science would be triggered.

[Silari]

I think I figured it out. Testing now. At some point I thought the silo needed radar to launch so I set up a belt full of radar to be inserted into the silo. Is it possible the radar was being inserted where the satellite belonged? The rocket would take the radar to space but it wouldn't register a satellite launch and so no white science would be triggered.

This is usually the cause of this sort of issue, some inserter putting an item that isn't a satellite into the silo, which gets launched.

[Kyralessa]

I think I figured it out. Testing now. At some point I thought the silo needed radar to launch so I set up a belt full of radar to be inserted into the silo. Is it possible the radar was being inserted where the satellite belonged? The rocket would take the radar to space but it wouldn't register a satellite launch and so no white science would be triggered.

This is undoubtedly what happened. Any item can be inserted into the rocket as cargo, except the three rocket part ingredients.

[wobbycarly]

You could install the "Rocket Silo Stats" mod to check what has been launched. (Although I'm not 100% sure that it will record what has been launched prior to the mod being installed.)

[Mauslag PIngman]

I think the silo is the only entity in the game that accepts objects that aren't necessary for launch. As a result I'm not that careful in pumping it full of what I think it needs. In this case I was wrong. I got mixed up with rocket part ingredients which needs a radar. So I probably unknowingly sent 60 radar into space and didn't get the 60,000 white science.

I think it works fine now. I just don't spend that much time watching launches. Maybe the game should only allow satellites and the engineer to get into the cargo of the silo. Either that or put in a checkbox for non essential cargo so that other fools don't waste all those launches. I can't believe I'm the only one.

[mrvn]

Next time insert a fish

[ptx0]

also you can insert a space science pack and see what happens too