Reactor network setup

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brunzenstein
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Reactor network setup

Post by brunzenstein »

Pls help.

I have a problem setting the network settings in the requester chests and fast inserters correct so they limit the entry of a full cell to 1 depending on the T value showing the temperature of the reactor.

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Loewchen
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Re: Reactor network setup

Post by Loewchen »

An inserter can only have one condition so you can either use a combinator with both, temperature and fuel condition and send an activate signal to the inserter or use the 1.1 method of pulsed output inserter hand contents for the fuel condition.
Generally you should use a single reactors state for all inserters so they run synchronized, otherwise you lose the neighboring bonus and waste more fuel than you save.
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Tertius
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Re: Reactor network setup

Post by Tertius »

To make sure there is never more than 1 cell in a reactor, and it is the burning one, you need to check for 2 conditions at the same time. An inserter must only insert, if the reactor temperature is below a threshold (for example 700°C) AND there are 0 fuel cells in the reactor.

with <= using as comparison, both conditions can be made the same:
reactor <= 700°C
AND
fuel cells <= 0

Subtract the threshold 700 from the temperature equation, and you get this:
reactor - 700 <= 0
AND
fuel cells <= 0

This can be set as single comparison in the inserters:
EVERYTHING <= 0

The only thing you additionally need is a constant combinator with T=-700 (negative 700) to subtract the threshold.
To actually build this, remove all circuits you already made.
Connect exactly 1 reactor with the 4 cell inserting inserters with green wire.
Set the reactor to read fuel and to read temperature.
Set all the inserters to stack size 1 and set the activation condition to EVERYTHING <= 0
connect a constant combinator with the above with green wire and add the signal T=-700 to make 700°C the threshold.
That's all. All reactors will get a fuel cell at the same time if the connected reactor gets below the threshold. It's sufficient to monitor just one reactor, because they will all have the same temperature and the same amount of fuel cells (0 or 1). It will work, because reading the amount of fuel cells in the reactor includes the currently burning cell.
Last edited by Tertius on Tue Jun 24, 2025 9:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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brunzenstein
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Re: Reactor network setup

Post by brunzenstein »

Tertius wrote: Tue Jun 24, 2025 9:05 pm To make sure there is never more than 1 cell in a reactor, and it is the burning one, you need to check for 2 conditions at the same time. An inserter must only insert, if the reactor temperature is below a threshold (for example 700°C) AND there are 0 fuel cells in the reactor.

with <= using as comparison, both conditions can be made the same:
reactor <= 700°C
AND
fuel cells <= 0

Subtract the threshold 700 from the temperature equation, and you get this:
reactor - 700 <= 0
AND
fuel cells <= 0

This can be set as single comparison in the inserters
EVERYTHING <= 0

The only thing you additionally need is a constant combinator with T=-700 (negative 700) to subtract the threshold.
To actually build this, remove all circuits you already made.
Connect exactly 1 reactor with all the inserters with green wire.
Set the reactor to read fuel and to read temperature.
Set all the inserters to stack size 1 and set the activation condition to EVERYTHING <= 0
connect a constant combinator with the above with green wire and add the signal T=-700 to make 700°C the threshold.
That's all. All reactors will get a fuel cell at the same time if the tagged reactor gets below the threshold. It's sufficient to monitor just one reactor, because they will all have the same temperature and the same amount of fuel cells (0 or 1). It will work, because reading the amount of fuel cells in the reactor includes the currently burning cell.
Brilliant – thank you so much for this tip!
Sometimes you really can’t see the forest for the trees.
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Tertius
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Re: Reactor network setup

Post by Tertius »

The blueprint is incomplete, by the way. The outer 6 steam turbines behind the substations are not connected to steam.
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Mr Wednesday
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Re: Reactor network setup

Post by Mr Wednesday »

There is a slightly easier way to guarantee that you only ever put one cell in. Set up your reload condition on one inserter set to remove the spent fuel cell from the reactor. Wire a circuit to the inserter, reading hand contents. Wire that to the inserters that put fuel into the reactors. Give them a hand size of one, and act only on reading an empty fuel cell signal.

That eliminates the need to include a circuit condition for fuel state of the reactor.

Note that only one reactor needs to have the removal handled this way, the others can all have a non-controlled inserter that removes immediately when the fuel cell is spent.
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Khagan
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Re: Reactor network setup

Post by Khagan »

Mr Wednesday wrote: Tue Jun 24, 2025 11:46 pm There is a slightly easier way to guarantee that you only ever put one cell in. Set up your reload condition on one inserter set to remove the spent fuel cell from the reactor. Wire a circuit to the inserter, reading hand contents. Wire that to the inserters that put fuel into the reactors. Give them a hand size of one, and act only on reading an empty fuel cell signal.
That was the right (indeed only) way to do it before it became possible (with 2.0) to read the contents of the reactor. But I wouldn't call it 'easier', and it's more fragile than checking the contents.
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Re: Reactor network setup

Post by brunzenstein »

I have a problem setting individual items and quantities in a requester chest - clicking on the empty boxes does nothing thought.
Specifying a group results that a whole stack is provided
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Tertius
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Re: Reactor network setup

Post by Tertius »

You configure the requests of a requester chest in the middle section, where the 1 fuel cell icon is shown. Click one of the empty spaces next to the 1 fuel cell icon, just above the "Add section" button. Your chest currently requests 1 fuel cell and in the chest present are 50 cells, so no more cells are currently being requested.
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