Read "moving from/moving to" even if the platform has no fuel

[grays42]

A fuel regulator paradigm that relies on withholding fuel while the vessel is stationary (in order to keep it from inefficiently "overfilling" the thrusters) has a critical flaw: if the vessel *wants* to travel, but can't due to fuel, the "moving from/moving to" signals do not change, it still sums them to show stationary.

The in-game workaround is that, for the very first usage only, the fuel injection must be "kickstarted" with a combinator that overrides the logic and manually floods the thrusters with fuel. This is not automatable and is a very hacky workaround to something that has a much cleaner solution:

If a vessel is on a scheduled, automatic route traveling to another destination, it should show the corresponding signal for its intent to do so, even if it is unable to do so due to fuel outage. Or, a new signal indicating "this vessel is attempting to engage in an automated movement" should be introduced.

[grays42]

Here's an example of a blueprint that uses the kickstarter workaround:

https://factoriobin.com/post/yhbqz5

[eugenekay]

Space platforms: output "moving to" signal even with zero thrust

The solution to this is automatable without Mods; I even provided a Blueprint for my solution.

Good Luck!

[grays42]

It's for a tankless design, I'd need to add tanks to use yours. :\ It will also overfill a ship that idles intentionally for long periods of time until it's needed. The core of the problem is that there exists no mechanism for understanding when a ship is trying to move and can't, since you can't read thrusters and you can't read the intention of the hub when it's not actually moving.

There is an extremely hacky workaround you could implement that can act as a latch, that triggers the pumps for a tick when both fuels are present in tanks at an adequate level, then never triggers again, but that takes up space and it isn't a satisfying outcome.

[TheFrizz]

I recently ran into the same issue and was very surprised after clicking "automatic thrust" from "paused thrust" and the schedule activates the next stop that the circuit network still had "3" for the Nauvis signal signifying in-orbit. I definitely expected it to switch to the normal "from-to" even though velocity was still 0.