At the beginning of each row, from left to right, one of the leftmost beacons is moved 1 tile up from the corresponding beacons on every cell behind it. Moving this single beacon down one tile does not change the number of beacons hitting the machine. If this doesn't make sense still, I will try to take a screenshot next time I'm at my gaming PC.
Edit: Hrm, I don't see it in your screenshots. maybe I was looking at the wrong version of the BP. I'll verify and report back if I can confirm this is still a problem.
Yes, but why?
To be fair, I have a global network because I included it in my rail blueprints, but I haven't had an occasion to use it for anything before now. Is there a performance benefit of some kind? What is the risk of having the timing mechanisms on the global network? As long as the smelter itself is not emitting any signals, there shouldn't be danger here, right?
I think DOT is safe. In particular, we should not use any signals that could be used to measure inventory levels anywhere, so all item signals are out. Some letters are reserved for other purposes as well, such as L, T, and the signals from a roboport for bot inventory (I forget what they are). As far as I know, DOT is not reserved anywhere.Belter wrote: ↑Sat Jan 15, 2022 12:22 pmI agree, it would be nice to have a standard for this. Maybe using the DOT signal is the best? Then green/red wire to be used for steel..causa-sui wrote: ↑Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:27 am Edit 2: We should really settle on what signal we're using to keep time, because resetting all the inserter conditions is quite a chore. The steel smelter still uses the green inserter signal, which I think is wrong because that signal could be used to indicate inventory levels elsewhere.
The pattern for colored wires I've seen is that green is generally used for measuring inventory levels and red is used for sending orders. So that would be my preference -- otherwise I might have to use a blue combinator to switch the signal color from red (on my global network) to green (at the smelter). But as long as the smelter is only accepting signals and not emitting them, this isn't critical at all.
I guess the "risk" would be that we use a signal that is also used for something else on the network, as I mentioned above. I don't know how people usually use global circuit networks though, but if someone is using a signal on their global network already only to find that our smelter BP uses it too, then that could be annoying.
I think it is possible to enable both approaches though. I suggest that we ship a blueprint book with BPs for (one BP per bullet point):
- UPS optimized iron/copper smelting
- UPS optimized steel smelting
- UPS optimized stone brick smelting
- Timer combinator(s) attached to a medium electric pole
Each smelter BP will have an extra medium electric pole sticking out both sides. This pole can be used for tiling on one side and for connecting the timer mechanism on the other.
So, if you want to time locally and keep the circuit isolated for each smelter setup, then use the Timer BP on one side and tile the smelter to the other direction. If you want to use a global timer, then hook it up on that side and tile to the other direction.
If someone has a compelling argument that using the global network should not be supported, I'm open to hearing it too. I don't have a ton of experience with using huge circuit networks, but I'm kind of excited to have finally discovered a use case
