Factorio Forums

Although the map tells me approximately when my ore is running low, timing the transition from one ore patch to the next is not so clear. I wanted a device to tell me when I was down to the last few trainloads so I could move on to a new patch easily, and, more importantly, the device had to be simple ( it is only day 2 of my attempted use of combinators).

Excuse me if this has been done already but I did create it in isolation.

You will need:

Red (or green) wire connecting the chests that load your ore trains and then inputting to
1 decider combinator outputting to
1 programmable speaker

The speaker is set with a global alert and volume at a not so intrusive background level. I have yet to figure how to turn it off remotely I may check out the message option instead of an alarm. I have an alarm on my power too so I know if steam kicks in. That turns itself off as power climbs leading me to believe a timed kill switch for the speakers may be close at hand...

I chose the ore volume (of copper in this instance) that my chests hold total - minus two trainloads. As the chests are always full (to their set limits) when trains arrive the ore dropping below 30K sounds an alarm - it means I am now surviving on ore in chests, and after 4 more trains the patch is done.

Obviously, you need to adjust the numbers to how your stations/factories perform. If the alarm sounds I've had plenty of notice via reading the patches amount off the map to have another ore patch and train ready. I then send a new train to the new ore, and let the old one finish up then go on standby for the next alert/ore patch. In this manner one spare train hypothetically keeps a large operation flowing.

If someone knows a simple logical (not insanely complex!) way to turn the speaker off once the alarm sounds do chime in.

I'd like to use sounds so I can associate specific notes/instruments with relevant alerts/occurrences in my factory - as is typically experienced in gameplay e.g. achievement unlocked sound is unmistakable in telling you you just unlocked an achievement (Hypothetically - I have never heard that noise )

If someone knows a simple logical (not insanely complex!) way to turn the speaker off once the alarm sounds do chime in.

Very simple idea - once the ore goes below 29k, have a second decider combinator also output 1 copper ore to the same network. The two 1s will combine to make 2, and since the alarm only sounds when equal to 1, it will only sound between 29k and 30k.

Very elegant solution thank you. Here's a picture so other combinator noobs can follow.
I used green wire on all the chests same as the red but then to the second combinator to ensure the signals were separate before both output to the speaker. Then I took away the robots and sent in a train to test how it works. Perfect. Only downside I foresee is if a train leaves when there's between 29 and 30K ore in the chests. Provided I have full load/unload conditions on the train I can avoid that, but deviations from those orders could be noisy at times.

It was interesting (at least to me) that the alarm went off as the ore climbed back up through the 29-30K window as well. You could set an alarm for accumulating say - 40 uranium 235...

Observing another dwindling ore patch this alarm is not fit to my original purpose. It can trigger earlier than I at first thought as when half the miners run out the chests don't get fed fast enough to keep up with the trains. So it's a useful alarm to let you know an outpost is no longer supporting you in the manner to which you've become accustomed.

A smaller 'mop-up' train might be a simple solution for sending in to depleting patches once the bigger trains are being forced to wait. I don't like leaving ore behind, but simultaneously production must continue!

As a matter of interest I created an alert for U-235. It took 2 x centrifuges just over 10 hours to come up with the 40 required for the Kovarex Process. Saved a lot of checking.