Factorio Forums

I've found a bunch of posts on the logistic and circuit networks but I can't figure out how to do this seemingly basic thing:

I want to have a provider chest that automatically replenishes my personal (player inventory) store of plastic (or any other item) when I run out. Hence I use a provider chest.

I also want the robots to take away plastic that I put in my trash slots because I often pick up extra when altering the factory. So I use a requester chest.

The obvious problem is that the provider chest detects the requester chest and fills it to capacity, at which point I can't use the trash anymore because the requester chest is full.

The only solution I've found is to have an inserter constantly move items from the requester chest back to the provider chest. When I put stuff in the trash slots, the logistic network takes them from me instead of the provider chest. The downsides are a) 1-2 of my robots are constantly occupied moving resources around in a circle and b)my trash only empties 4 (my upgraded stack size) at a time, no matter no many robots I have available.

Has anyone figured out a better way to do this?

You can try a passive provider chest (the way you already use it) and a storage chest (the ones that don't ask for anything, but are used when there is something to store in the logistic network, and no active provider asking for it) instead of the requester chest.

Frucifer wrote:I want to have a provider chest that automatically replenishes my personal (player inventory) store of plastic (or any other item) when I run out. Hence I use a provider chest.

you can use any type of provider or storage for this.

Active Providers will always move their stuff into (in order)-> player requests -> requester chests -> storage chests ... If none of these are available the active provider will not automatically empty until there is space.

Storage Chests are the next in the list. They provide their contents when the player or a requester asks for it as long as there are no active provides with contents. They also accept all trashed items and stuff from active providers

Passive providers only provide their contents if there are no active providers or storage chest contents available.

I also want the robots to take away plastic that I put in my trash slots because I often pick up extra when altering the factory. So I use a requester chest.

All you need is a storage chest with available space and it will be utilized correctly.

The main use for requester chests is for machines to request the items they need.

Ohhh, that makes a lot of sense, I'll try it out. Thanks!