Factorio Forums

Is there a way to detect a vehicle (tank or car) using the circuit network?

I saw some old thread that briefly mentioned using gates, but they don't seem to connect to the circuit network, and there was no real explanation of how it would work.

Gates have to be connected at the little lights on either side, on the walls touching the gate.

I think you can then set those wall sections with circuits attached to "Read", which I think will detect if you have a vehicle moving towards it. Probably.

Here's a video by Gepwin:
Factorio short circuits: Foolproof Crosswalk (Youtube)
which demonstrates how to detect things (players) crossing train tracks. It can detect trains and players and make sure only one can be on the track at once - making a safe rail crossing. However it should also detect cars and tanks as they move through the gate.

Thanks guys. Didn't realise you had to build a bit of wall either side of the gate and connect to THAT rather than the gate itself.

It's still not ideal because it can open from some way away, but it's good enough for my purposes for now.