Factorio Forums

I am trying to detect a rocket launch with a falling edge detector based on the rocket contents signal.

A rocket silo with the Read Contents radio button selected outputs the contents of its inventory to the circuit network for manual requests.

For automatic requests, if a robot can deliver the full payload in one tick, the rocket will launch immediately without outputting its contents for one tick. If a robot requires multiple trips to fill the rocket, the contents signal will show for the partial fulfillment but not when the rocket is full.

The full total should show for one tick.

This is the normal circuit delay.

Similarly it happens with trains leaving a train stop in the same tick the cargo was inserted and wait conditions fulfilled. Full cargo is not emitted into circuit network. (Reading train contents behavior with leaving train)

It does not happen with space platforms when cargo is inserted, the schedule is updated to allow unloading (without leaving the planet's orbit). The updated cargo values are emitted into circuit network for one tick. (Reading contents of space platform hub is wonky - Schmitt trigger doesn't work)

Is there any way in the game to detect when a rocket launches then?

Assuming the silo is building rockets quicker than launching them (so there is an idle phase when waiting for cargo assignment), detecting activity of inserters feeding fuel/lds/processing units could work.

Ok, upon further testing, it looks like the rocket silo does output the signal for one tick even when a robot can fill the inventory in one tick. I was confused since hovering my mouse over the (I) icon in the rocket silo didn't show any signal. Looking at the incoming signal to a combinator does.

Unfortunately, my plans to track rocket build progress still wont work. Once I got a level of Rocket Part Productivity, measuring the items inserted into the silo is no longer an accurate indicator of rocket build status.