Factorio Forums

Hi,

I have got back into the game thanks to 0.15. I have started a new world and decided to give trains a proper go. I am using Bobs Mods along with Angels Warehousing so I have a lot of ores to bring in on my train network.

I have never got the hang of combinators so haven't put the effort into learning about them, however I think I need to get my head around them now. What I want to do is have a train go to an ore outpost collect ore and return to to a specific ore depot and unload into a warehouse. However I want to be able to have the trains stop collecting ore once a certain level has reached and then go to a waiting station. Is this something that is possible with combinators? Do I need any other mods to do this? And can anyone recommend a youtube link that shows this sort of set up?

What you are describing requires very little knowledge of circuit networks. You will most likely not even need combinators for that.

Your goal can be achieved quite simple. You add some stacker (a multi-stop multi-line waiting bay for trains) and add it to the train schedule with a circuit network condition (as opposed to Cargo Full or Empty for example).
Then the train will wait at this depot until a certain circuit network condition is met.
The main question here is what condition should allow your train to leave the station. Most of times in this scenario condition is that base warehouse load of some item is less then required amount. Say you have a shortage of Iron Plates then you allow your Iron trains to leave stacker and deliver it to base unloading station.
To achieve this you will need:
1. Choose a color for your inter-outpost communications (Green or Red).
2. Create a stack of selected wires.
3. Connect all storages you want to account (be it chests or Warehouses) with each other using selected color cables. You can use existing power poles as a media for that. To connect a wire select it from your inventory and click on device you want to connect, then on next and so on. End with Q. The base idea is that chests do transmit their contents to the network. If multiple chests contain same item the numbers will add up so you will always have a total amount of the items transmitted to the network. You can check what exactly the network contains by hovering mouse over a power pole through which your cable goes through.
4. Connect this network to your train waiting bay train stops.
5. Open train stops interface and on Circuit Network tab check the "Pass to train" checkbox for the numbers from the network to be passed to trains that are waiting at this stop
6. In the train schedule on this station leave condition you set up required condition like "Iron Plates < 20000"

Thank you for your thorough reply. It is indeed much simpler than I realised and it has worked a treat. I thought that the network cables do nothing without combinators feeding them signals.