Factorio Forums

So I am trying to wrap my head around the circuit network.

One of the things that bothers me is setting up filters for inserters. Going on the wiki I found instructions on how to keep outposts filled with X amount of items, such as laser turrets and 75 ammo.

I wanted to know a more in depth explanation on why the set up works the way it does, with the negative values and all.


Also I wanted to know if I could do this over a bunch of inserters and chests.
When I copied the set up as instructed it worked great, and by removing items, the inserter would detect what was missing and replace it. But trying this over multiple chests changed everything, and the best I got was that if one chests condition was fullfilled then the rest would do nothing even if they were not. Am I doomed to repeat this circuit set up for each specific inserter? Feels weird.

I tried looking around the forum and poking around youtube for this but, either its incredibly basic and I lack in creative understanding to get this or something else.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance for reading this far.

I assume you are referring to https://wiki.factorio.com/Circuit-netwo ... fied_items

The missing explanation is that matching signals on a wire add together. So 75 ammo (constant) + -50 ammo (negative storage) = 25 ammo (filter request).

You can add more inserters and chests, but the storage is calculated over the total of all chests (because matching signals add together). If you want independent requests per chest, you need a different circuit for each one.

Henpaku wrote:So I am trying to wrap my head around the circuit network. (...)

A circuit network doesn't necessarily need combinators to work properly, so I'm not sure if you were just looking for a method to supply your outposts,
or if you are specifically interested in dealing with combinators.... Personally I supply my outposts in the most simple way: At set intervals a stocked train makes it rounds along my outposts and the inserters there will fill the boxes to their required contents. If I only want 5 laser turrets in a chest, I use a wire to set the amount. Each item lands in its own chest. It's a lot less fancy than having a train deliver on demand, but it does the job well.

If I'm not mistaking, the method that uses combinators only does that to be able to use a single chest instead of one for each item. I also think that it requires you to connect your outposts' chests all the way to the base, and if that's the case you can also just read the total amount needed in storage, and program your train to start driving when a certain item drops below a certain amount... (without complicated combinator settings)

Again, I don't know where your interest or even skill levels lie, but I found it much easier to work with my circuit networks without trying to include combinators.. I consider those the Next Large Step. (A large step that I can't seem to make successfully).

Hope that helped.
Good luck!