Factorio Forums

Let's say I have a 5 blue belts that carry from factory 37-40 green circuits per second on every belt... And I want to split it between other factories, which inputs may not use all available input, but that would require me to have bigger amount of belts for the output... For example, like, 3 divisions of a Red Circuits that would use only 20 per second... And I'm counting that overtime all "belt branches" would fill up, so balance won't matter, as everything should be supplied and input should be slightly bigger than the rate at which it will be consumed...


So, am I have to use a bigass balancers for this reason, or there is more simpler methods for just "multiplying" belts?..

imTheSupremeOne wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 11:54 amovertime all "belt branches" would fill up, so balance won't matter, as everything should be supplied and input should be slightly bigger than the rate at which it will be consumed...

If you assume that, it is easy. Put 5 splitters in a row, all with output priority: left. This creates a 6th belt on the left that you can feed to your assembling machines, and is guaranteed to be full if there is anything on the main bus.

DaveMcW wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:06 pm

imTheSupremeOne wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 11:54 amovertime all "belt branches" would fill up, so balance won't matter, as everything should be supplied and input should be slightly bigger than the rate at which it will be consumed...

If you assume that, it is easy. Put 5 splitters in a row, all with output priority: left. This creates a 6th belt on the left that you can feed to your assembling machines, and is guaranteed to be full if there is anything on the main bus.

Tnx! This does seem to work. So this is for what that big splitter triangles on the busses are for...

Run your splitters the other way, splitters used for merging can only fill holes, the way I think of them is they're moving the holes away from the drain.

imTheSupremeOne wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2020 4:13 am

DaveMcW wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:06 pm

imTheSupremeOne wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 11:54 amovertime all "belt branches" would fill up, so balance won't matter, as everything should be supplied and input should be slightly bigger than the rate at which it will be consumed...

If you assume that, it is easy. Put 5 splitters in a row, all with output priority: left. This creates a 6th belt on the left that you can feed to your assembling machines, and is guaranteed to be full if there is anything on the main bus.

Tnx! This does seem to work. So this is for what that big splitter triangles on the busses are for...

If you are using Loaders, you are playing modded. What’s one more mod?

There are a couple that provide larger “chests” (whether they are called chests still or not, that is their function) that you can have your bus put into by Loader, and then have the bus take out of by Loader as well. Usually, the larger “chest” acts as a balancer, as the input is split evenly among the outputs.

Warehousing, Merging Chests, I’m sure there are others out there that have options in this regard.

If you are strictly using Splitters, personally I prefer to run them downstream rather than upstream. This allows for the closer belt to be filled back up, and the further belt to be emptied, depending upon demand. Running them all across the segment of the bus is also important - something you did, but the follow on poster did not.

astroshak wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2020 12:56 pm If you are using Loaders, you are playing modded. What’s one more mod?

The loaders are probably just for testing.

And not all mods are equal. Personally I use many QoL mods, but I wouldn't use ones that so easily circumvent basic gameplay mechanics.

astroshak wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2020 12:56 pm If you are using Loaders, you are playing modded. What’s one more mod?

These are vanilla loaders from creative(freeplay) scenario, as well as setting that makes all world in lab tiles.