Finally, a video that I can understand which explains how these SR latches work, instead of saying 'do this'. Thanks. Instead of using the signal to switch on the pumps, could you isolate the steam power from the main grid and just use a power switch that receives the latch signal?
Yep that works just as well... Maybe even better. I typically don't use a power switch because you have to isolate the power from steam engines just as you mention.
Really? Whatever it is, it works for me, though I have started to use what I believe is called a Schmitt trigger using wires on a 2x2 circular belt, and no combinator.
Clear well described instructions, still had to watch this 3-4 times to get it working for myself lol. It's a pity you never did more factorio content, this was a good video
ive played an embarrassing amount of factorio without realising the behavior of sending two separate A signals to the decider. it absolutely did not sink into my head they'd be combined until i saw this video. i know this was years ago but i owe you one.
This is some big brain stuff! Thanks so much for your amazing work! Took me from zero to hero! I was able to implement your solution but instead segregate the engines from the main grid via the power switch. Then apply the final output to the power switch instead of the pump so I don't have to wait for the wind down of the water to get used. Might not have been a thing 8 years ago. Thanks again!
I like the output of a negative number for the off buffer. I've does this using several more combinators to make this work. This method is much neater.
Hey Kyle... That's exactly why I really love this setup. It's super simple to set up and once you get the hang of it, it can be used in a bunch of places.
This SR latch is even better than what's on the wiki. Before seeing this, I'd use one decided combinator to output an "S" signal, one to output an "R" signal and an SR latch after that. One thing I'd definitely do different is to connect the command signal to a single power switch and not a bunch of pumps. That way I can for example accumulate steam in storage tanks until it's needed and have a few more steam engines than my boilers can feed.
This is exactly what I needed, I have always used a box and two inserters, one which takes out the items in the box if the signal is 35 or above, then the item is belted to the other inserter which put it back in if the signal is less than 10, lastly I simply check if there is an item in the box to turn on/off the pumps.
Thanks for this series Shredguy. This video in particular really made the rest click. I can see this solving a lot of problems for my oil storage and processing.
You know at the time I discovered this channel and this video, I had just started thinking about doing a system like this but had no knowledge how to do so. I thank you so much for making such a clear and precise tutorial for this!
Thanks for the comment SeaBee... Yes, my goal is also show how these things work so we all learn and then we all can build new creations. The more brains thinking about this stuff the cooler all our factories become!
Yeah ! Genius. Clear and efficient :). Need more examples of when does the green/red wires aren't enough and combinators are needed, love this ! thank for the classroom coach ;)
Hey ShredGuy, I just used your tutorial in 0.15 with nuclear power and a backup steam power. I had a problem with low uranium, so I stored some steam in tanks and used it as the accumulator in the video, just turn the steam stored in percentage with an arithmetic combinator. Thanks for the tutorial!
Thank you shred. Always been scared of the cominators with their maths and signal and outputs. But you broke it down nice a simples like. Even I understood it! I think I will be trying this out in my next factory.
Hey Stewart, I'm glad to hear that this video helped you understand a little more about combinators. My goal is to grow the Combinator Community so we all can work together to build cooler factories. Thanks for your feedback it means a lot!
Nice video. You explained in such a detail that I almost felt like an idiot :) My own problem with understanding how stuffs work in game, boiled down to the fact that decider actually sums similar signals on its input. I did not know that. Once you realize that, it all start making sense and you realize the real power of arithmetic combinator. However, I have some notes : In a real game, at least in mine, we actually have a cluster of pumps far away. but usually close to our base, is the belt with coal that actually feeds boilers(which most probably are chained to feed on each other , from one line , to the other). Naturally, at the end of boilers you connect steam engines. So its inconvenient to actually take the red wires all the way to the pumps. The other drawback is that when you enable them , there would be a delay unit they pump the water and boilers heated it. So you cannot use the full capacity of steam engines right away, the moment accumulators drop bellow percentage. I have used another approach: put a tank between boilers and steam engines. this will give a buffer of hot water. for some reasons, devs decided that the water in a tank does not cool off. Isolate the wires of steam engines from the rest of your power network. Use a power switch which has one of its poles connected to your main power network, and the other pole - to the isolated cluster of steam engines. Use the combinator technique described in this video. the only difference is that you connect the output of the decider , to the switch, and set its condition to "A=1". This way, you have hot water ready to be used in a second. but since the steam engines are isolated, everything is on pause, so to speak. the moment the precondition for the power switch is set, it connects steam engines to the rest of the network and the transition is really smooth. I believe this way is a bit more efficient. The simplest possible approach was to use just a single power switch, connected to the accumulators and set its condition to ,say "A
Well, no, sorry :) I do not have half an hour to learn something that i can for 5 minutes in the wiki. which was my original mistake to begin with :) So, these links are all we need : wiki.factorio.com/Decider_combinator wiki.factorio.com/Circuit-network_Cookbook However, I should give you some credit for the humor in your videos, they are more of entertainment :)
The signals are also combined at anything that can be connected to the circuit network. NOW you are excused from class. Remember to keep up on your homework and there will be a test next Friday.
Good... I'm french and i don't speek english very well, so i don't understand all what you say. But you do sketches (drawings) to explain, so I think I understand and now I can save a lot of coal when daylight is here. Thanks ShredGuy ;-)
Thanks a lot for making this video! I'll be playing 3 hours of Factorio MP this evening, and hopefully I'll get the opportunity to try implementing this. If not then there'll be 3 more hours on Sunday.
Hey Kanvez... Thanks for that comment and the sub! I want to say that the reason for only having 300 subs is because I have a new channel and it takes time to build an audience. I'm going to stay positive and truly try to believe in my heart that I just need to keep working hard and produce another quality video to get to the next level... I've been working on the next Combinator Classroom for almost 2 months now and it should be out shortly... Hopefully it will be worth the wait!
I had a similar build, but instead of attaching the output signal to the water pumps, I tied my steam engines into the network via a power switch and used that to turn them on or off. This has the advantage of turning the steam engines on and off immediately instead of waiting for the water to heat up or empty respectively; also you don't have to wire to each water pump, just one switch leading to your whole bank of steam engines.
Yep... Doing it like that was mentioned on a live stream... The only downside I see to doing it like you mention is that you have to make sure all steam generation power runs through the on/off switch and is otherwise completely isolated from the rest of the power grid.
At first I had a feeling there was something a little off here, then you mentioned this was update 0.13! Six years later playing 1.1.18 or something like that I'm watching this going 'Oh, ok, that's how I can prioritize my accumulators over coal power!
I use(d) this in many other situations... (in earlier version I didnt play much since nuclear stuff came out) so I was adding power switch controlled by this type of circuit also counting items in passive providers chests all connected together (instead of signal 'A' I just for example count iron plates) so using it to switch on/off furnace lines, assembler lines, etc... this is the way how I built my low pollution factory where most of the times machines were turned off when the boxes were full enough
as someone who is dumber than a brick, I finally understood what SR latches are after this video. I must've been through a zillion tutorials, explanations, wiki's and just could not grasp the concept of this. Thank you for breaking it down for us bricks. Please tell me you have a train signal tutorial like this somewhere because that is another one that baffles me.
ah man I feel like when I play factorio sometimes I back to school again. So much to learn and optimize, I really love thouse new changes to the wires and I try to use em alot. watching your tutorials really makes me wanna experiment with this :) p.s. I do not miss smartchest ^^
Yes... It's nice not having to make smart chests! I have no desire to got back to school but wouldn't it have been great if playing Factorio was part of class!
This is gold. FYI instead of connecting the decider output to a pump you can connect to a power switch with A>0. But WHY ARE THERE ONLY 2 VIDEOS ON THIS CHANNEL? :(
Oh looks like YT filters the "videos" view somehow for some reason... There is more if you go through playlists. This is old but surely still relevant, gonna watch some :)
One build I'd like to see is a timer, for instance one that outputs one value, A=1 for some time, say 20 seconds (20*60 ticks), then after that outputs A=2 for 50 seconds, then goes back to 20s of A=1, then 50s of A=2, etc. I actually don't have a concrete usage case for this one, but I think there's a lot of potential in knowing how to use the various elements required.
I'm thinking this would be a 70 second timer... Less than 20 seconds output signal A... More than 20 seconds output signal B... But I haven't tried building it in game yet. If we can think of a useful build using this I'll definitely create a video. I'm trying to shift these videos from just theory to a practical build using the theory.
Is there a way to do this with a power switch the other way? I want it to read my power grid, when the accumulator gets below 20% i want it to turn OFF a power switch which cuts out a section of my base drawing alot of power, then when the sun comes up and solar recharges the accumulators it turns the power switch on allowing that section of base to work again?
Hey, I have a little Problem, how can I increase my fluid consum(only have (0/30)) in the steam engine? only 10 of 30 Steam engines still working thx for help Jonas
Really nice tutorial! :) I'm subscribing for sure. I was just wondering if you could help me with the conditions for something sort of opposite to this. I was hoping to apply this to my oil processing network and have level monitors for all my liquids so they automatically craft some when the levels are below a certain point. For that, this SR latch config is perfect (for turning oil into heavy, light, petroleum, sulfuric acid, lubricant when their tank's levels are below 50% for example and stopping when they are 75% full). I want to add one more layer of complexity by saying that, if all the liquids mentioned are above 75%, the crude oil should start being turned into solid fuel... So basically I want the SR to read that oil is >75% and turn ON a system for the oil->solid production. I then want the latch to reset to turn the system OFF when oil is
Hey ChickenMacNugget... Sorry for taking so long to respond. All you have to do is change the sign in the Decider Combinator to greater than (>) and instead of using a negative number in the Arithmetic Combinator, use a positive number. So it would look like this: Decider Combinator: "Oil" > 1,800 output signal "Oil" value of 1 Arithmetic Combinator: "Oil" x 600 output signal "Oil" My calculations for the values are: .75 x 2400 = 1,800 .50 x 2400 = 1,200; 1,800 - 1,200 = 600 Here's my rule of thumb for SR Latches: Situation 1: Turn on above x and remain on until below y; Use ">" in the Decider Combinator & multiply by a positive number in the Arithmetic Combinator; x - y = "bias" which is the value that goes in the Arithmetic Combinator; Since x is GREATER THAN y, the "bias" will be POSITIVE. Situation 2: Turn on below x and remain on until above y; Use "
Hey! No problem I've been messing around with lots of logic systems :D I figured it might also work if you just put a NOT gate at the end of the SR Latch, so instead of activating when power is low (as with steam engines) it will activate when there is too MUCH of a certain liquid in one tank, and then the effect cascades down (So heavy->light, light->petroleum etc and then just have it make solid fuel if the tanks all fill up too much. :) I might also try out the method you mentioned above :) There's always more than one way to set up logic!
While it really makes no difference, for some people it might be clearer if the signals weren't always "A" across the entire circuit network. Using the same signal obfuscates the difference between the various outputs and inputs.
Question: If all you need is one accumulator hooked into your circuit network, then can you build that single accumulator next to your SR latch and build your solar farm elsewhere?
i built the same thing without arithmetic thing. so whenever the A signal is 9 it starts the steam engine. so i dont know whats the purpose of arithmetic combinator?
You don't need SR latch at all, just connect accumulators and pump and set accumulator output signal lets say to Y for yes if Charge C < let's say 10, set the pump to enable if Y > 0. But I sense that SR latch can be used for more complicated setups. Do you know any?
Slight suggestion, I think, at each step you should've explained *why* each step was done, and what the different components do when set at that state.
awesome tutorial, thank you for that. I ended up using the idea, but on a larger scale. I currently have 17 of the tileable solar arrays from forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5594. I linked all of the accumulators in one tile with green wire, hooked the green into an arithmetic combinator that divided the total output by 151, the number of accumulators in the array, and pumped that into a red wire loop around the outer substations. I linked the 17 together from corner substations with red and pumped that into another arithmetic combinator that divided the total by a constant combinator of 17, and it gives me the average percentage of all of my accumulators. I feed that into the system you showed in this tutorial, and it works like a charm.
Hey Allan... I like where you're going with that but if all your solar fields are connected to the same power network, then all the accumulators act as ONE accumulator and discharge/charge at the same rate. You don't need to connect all the accumulators and take the average... You only need to connect to one accumulator that is hooked into your power network. Typically I take a single accumulator and place it next to where ever I place the SR Latch... Which is usually next to my Steam Generators.
I'm trying something now where I put 3 tanks (in parallel, not serially) and then an electric pump between the boilers and steam engines, then the SR Latch goes to the electric pump. This gives you a sort of steampunk accumulator which gets the steam engines up to speed much faster. It works fairly well, but one caveat: don't try to do even simple circuit networks when you are overtired, especially when your configuration needs to be rotated 90 or 180 degrees relative to the example you are working from. I ended up connecting the output from the artithmetic accumulator to the electric pumps, so nothing worked time and time again until I discovered my error after getting some much needed sleep and then going over the SR Latch carefully several times.
aaand after testing, still not working. Back to the drawing board. Edit: Okay, I figured it out. As I said in another post, using "A" as the signal for everything obfuscates the flow of the constructed algorithm. And somehow, having noted this, I managed to ignore my own observation and set the pumps to "A=1" as in your example rather than the "C=1" required in my own setup that replaces the signal between the decider and the math box.
So I've thoroughly investigated the "hot water tank" accumulator alternative with the SR Latch running electric pumps and it just does not work. The electric pumps just cannot feed hot water from the tanks to the Steam Engines fast enough, even if you cut the lines of hot water tanks down to 5 instead of 10.
in my setup so its offshore pump->boilers->tank->electric pump->steam engines the explanation, the steam engines will start faster, because for the boilers takes a good bit of time to heat up the water , but if u have a tank full of hot water they start much faster
That works! You could also increase the "Set Value" so that the offshore pumps turn on sooner. In this video I use a "Set Value" of 10 which seemed to work good. But if you're Accumulators hit zero before the steam engines can get up and running at full speed, you could increase the "Set Value" to something like 20... Or whatever you'd like. This way you don't need to have the tanks. Give it a try and let me know what you find out!
I used to have them like kick in at 25% and keep em till fully charge my accumulators, but usualy i make so many solar panels from start after a while my steam never start again:D I dont think i need tanks (i tried without them too) I just like to have them:-)
That's typically what happens... Build enough solar panels and steam engines never turn on. That being said, I built a counter to count how much coal was being burned in the boilers. If the count started getting really large, it meant it was time to place down more solar panels.
This is an awesome tutorial, and I'm sincerely hoping that it holds true for v0.15. Once question I have is how to use a low power condition to intentionally break and isolate a specific section of the power network for emergencies. I'm trying to design redundant defense mechanisms for my remote outposts, and one way to do that is to use both gun turrets and laser turrets. I'm perfectly willing to generate electricity locally at those locations, but some don't have any access to water for steam, and the idle-power requirements make solar somewhat difficult. Since I already have a use for sending out power poles because at a few of my bases I like running signal wire back to base for resupply purposes (ammo levels, repair pack levels for the lognet to deal with biter waves, etc.) I already have the ability to run centralized power. The problem I want to solve is how to run the outpost laser turrets on central power, but in the event of a brownout (or worse) I want to be able to isolate those turrets and then run from local power (including the possibility of railing in outside water or even preheated steam to be stored at the outpost in tanks for just such an emergency.) Automatically releasing the isolation once the problem is solved would be nice, but I'd be perfectly willing to run out there to manually reset it if that were my only option. In other words, I have this emergency-steam setup back at the main base, but I won't want that to end up making me rely on emergency steam power generated out in the hinterland, where it's more important for those lasers and ammo-feeding inserters and repairing construction bots to have their own isolated energy needs taken care of locally while simultaneously getting them off of my central power net's burden when it comes time to conduct an emergency reboot back at home. Any ideas?
You may want to try turning on & off the Train Stations that receive the emergency steam power train. So if power at an outpost falls below a certain level, the station opens and the "steam" trains can begin delivering. P.S. SR Latches work perfectly in 0.15.
Well I already intend to bank the steam at the outpost during peacetime, that's not an issue. My issue is that if I'm primarily drawing from mainbase electricity, I don't want a mainbase brownout condition to create the scenario where the outpost's banked steam power is carrying the mainbase through a brownout. I have steam banked at the mainbase for this purpose. My question is how to make it so that a brownout will trigger a condition that actually breaks the electrical connection between the outpost and the mainbase, such that the outpost's power only goes to that specific outpost's needs. I can trigger events with brownout, but I'm stuck on how to trigger an actual powernet breakage.
How about a failsafe rail crossing that doesn't have trains crashing into walls as they're forced shut as you approach or trap you inside while the train approaches?
Very in-depth explanation, I think 1 missed thing was: why the green wire? I don't think the red wire carries anything "across" (rather than "through") the decider as its input isn't directly linked to the output (red wire has no contiguous signal path?)
How do I set up 2 chests to send x amount of goods to another chest? ex. Chest_1 sends 100 bullets, Chest_2 sends 50 belt. If Chest_3 has less than this. it will send the exact amount needed.
The example is redundant now, since 0.15 made steam engines the lowest priority, meaning they will only provide power (and require fuel) whenever ALL other power sources (including accumulators) provide less than satisfaction requires. The lesson is still good though, since we now have Kovarex to worry about. Reverse the condition and you can make sure your Kovarex has the 41 uranium required for processing, while the rest of your factory gets the rest. While there's 42 or more uranium, activate the inserter sending it elsewhere and deactivate the one to the Kovarex process. Reset condition at 41, so that when all other uranium is gone, the Kovarex process restarts and the diverting inserter stops operating.
If your accumulator charge drops below 100%, then steam engines turn on. (This was the case prior to 0.15.) The point of the Emergency Power Latch is to prevent the steam engines from turning on until accumulator charge drops below some other arbitrary value and then to have them remain on until accumulator charge reaches another arbitrary value. The lesson is not good... It's fantastic! It's about learning how to create an SR Latch giving an example that is just as relevant in 0.15 as it was in prior versions.
Ok, here’s why I wanna learn about circuits: I use single traincarts for multiple resources to transport them simultaneously. This works until consumption of one of the resources is halted. That resource will now start clogging the cart until it has pushed out the other resources altogether. Is there any way I can control the relative amounts of resources so one cart will maintain equal space for each resource? Wait, I think I can cap the destination chests and automatically turn off the corresponding inserters at the resource station. OMG I THINK I SOLVED IT!
If you connect a circuit network to the train stop, you can read the contents of the train. From there, wire up to a combinator (or if you're lazy, directly to the inserters) and tell them to only activate if the contents of the train are below a certain level.
Anyone know why this setup flickers on electricity on the discharge cycle, but a 3-decider combination (as in the wiki tutorial) stays steady in both charge and discharge? Testing it to control a switch to a load powered by an accumulator, so part of that may be that it doesn't have any start-up time like a power plant going online would. I figure that means this setup is still drawing some (fractional) amount of power from the main grid on the discharge cycle if used with a power switch.
Just messed around a bit more. Turns out that it was the number of accumulators in a test setup. Once there is more than one, then it smooths out. So I'm guessing that the simulated power is AC? A single accumulator on its own only feeds half the phase? (Or at least I'm going to pretend that is the case.)
How can I Let my Steam engine (On) till my Accu is 80% because that setup Is amasing the only prob i see is that my pumps gets ON & Off in a matter of a second it work but ...........
I just used this so I have 400 x steam engines on standby should my new nuclear plant ever need a helping hand. I had to go nuclear the coal drain was becoming an issue and painting landscapes in solar panels gets old fast... The power network reads the steam engines present but not active, and if I drain the accumulator they kick in, which is almost perfect. One thing, I'd like to adjust the level the steam kicks in at. So if the accumulator drops below 40% the steam kicks on, and stays on till accumulator charge climbs over 80%. I'll hook it up to a light and audio alarm in the main factory area to let me know I'm using steam power. I've tested the light at the power site and it works fine A = 1. The nuclear plant potentially kicks out 480 MW (?? 4 in a block) so the steam is merely a buffer now in case I go too crazy building, but it can't be relied on for much more than that. I had 3 blackouts getting to this point :D I figure with a couple of sets of values (the original, plus what to enter for a 40% switch on and 80% switch off) I might follow the numbers and grasp all this a bit better. And thank you, most combinator builds seem superflous and overly complex. Not so with this.
The 10% cut on and 35% off were only a recommendation from someone in the comment section... But I've had good luck with those numbers. However, those numbers are not set in stone and should definitely be adjusted to whatever works best for your factory... And different settings may work better at different stages in your factory build!
Appreciate the reply. I've made all sorts of neat stuff since you introduced me to 'understandable' combinatorials.... The steam buffer for nuclear power of course An alarm to tell me when I have 40 x U235 Lab facilities that regulate science pack input keeping the belts unclogged. Many variants of this for any expensive recipe with lengthy belts Regulated train loading/unloading onto belts (via Mad Zuri via Xterminator video) And more! All within days. You'd make a great teacher. Scratch that. You are a great teacher.
Thanks bud... Understanding the SR Latch is a key step in unlocking combinator magic. I use Madzuri's loading and offloading from belts in just about every map. Understanding whats going on with these setups is another great way to get a handle on combinators. Madzuri said I was free to make a video on both variants so hopefully some day!
I've recreated this setup on my main map to test things out after I couldn't get it working on my main power supply. my current signal is was reading 100 until the charge dropped. The pump never turned on and I'm getting a negative 25 signal. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here.
Assuming you have everything wired up correctly, make sure you have the Decider Combinator "Output" set to "1" and NOT "Input Count"... Let me know if that works.
Could I do something similar to make it so my furnaces, manufactory, and everything but lights and laser turrets go off if power in accumulators goes below 20% and wait until power gets to 60% to ensure maximum defense?
Definitely... Connect the SR Latch to a Power Switch instead of the offshore pumps. And you don't have to run a wire all the way from where your accumulator build is located. Just place down an accumulator next to the SR Latch which can be next to the Power Switch. Make sure all the power to the furnaces goes through the power switch... No extra connections. You could also set up a SR Latch and Power Switch for each different part of your manufacturing process and shut them down at different levels. Maybe you shut down the furnaces when power goes below 20% and you shut down oil refining when power goes below 30%. That way your factory powers down in stages depending on how bad your power situation gets.
Thanks, I got it all set up. I also have multiple "processors" at different sections of the power grid. Meaning if a section of my train line is overrun (compartmentalized with defenses dotted around to make it so it's less of an artery), and the power line is cut, the satellite fortress or foundry will be able to shut down non vital machinery and rely on its local accumulators. It also means that I don't have to worry about the signal being cut off by a breached compartment. It seems to work very well.
Thanks Ian... Yes. Multiple accumulators is no problem. Just make sure all your accumulators are part of the same electrical system. When multiple accumulators are all connected on the same electrical network they act as one.
At 09:56 in your final notes you suggest that it would be better to put the latch close to the steam engines, and then run a long wire to an accumulator. That won't work. If the steam engines shut down, the latch combinators will lose power, and stop working. They need to be powered by the solar area of your network.
Solar and the Steam Engines are all one network... If the latch loses power than something isn't set up correctly. In the vid I say run a wire to the closest accumulator. I typically place the latch next to the steam generators and put down a single accumulator next to the latch. Not because it has to be there... But for convenience's sake in not having to run a red or green wire all over the map.
ShredGuy99 Sorry, complete brain fart by me. I was using you vid to build me a latch with a power switch, and completely forgot that you just powered down the pumps instead!
I don't claim to be an expert at this, but in testing this build there seems to be a couple of problems. #1 - During the day time, this build (as it is) will only allow the accumulators to charge up to 35% rather than 100% before turning off the steam engines. This results in undue cycling, as well as having 35% or less accumulator charge when the sun goes down. #2 - If the total accumulator output isn't enough to run your entire factory (based on how many accumulators you have), then when the steam engines are turned off, your factory won't be able to run. Ideally, you need to have enough accumulators to run your entire factory, and you need to allow them to charge to 100% before turning steam power off. It should be cycling between 10% and 100%, not 10% and 35%.
This setup is for emergency power... When your accumulator charge gets critically low. The entire point of this is to reduce the amount of coal your factory is using. Ideally, your steam engines should never turn on! But when they do, we want them only to operate over the shortest window possible... Just long enough to keep your factory from going dark. The cycling of steam engines is irrelevant since we don't have to worry about wear and tear... Essentially no maintenance is required. But worrying about coal is a problem. The primary method of charging your accumulators should be solar panels... If your steam engines turn on at 10%, turn off at 35%, but accumulator charge never gets to 100%, the problem isn't this setup... The problem is you don't have enough solar panels. However, if you're not using solar panels for some reason, I guess I would probably agree with setting the "off" level at 100%. P.S. The 10% and 35% levels were merely a suggestion someone left in the comment section on another video. These levels should be tweaked to whatever works for your factory. Also, the main point of this video was to demonstrate how to use combinators to build an SR Latch (a very useful tool). That being said, I use the 10% and 35% level in my mega factory and it works flawlessly.
Your explanations are better than any others I have found. Awesome job! Will be checking out all your other factorio videos.
Finally, a video that I can understand which explains how these SR latches work, instead of saying 'do this'. Thanks.
Instead of using the signal to switch on the pumps, could you isolate the steam power from the main grid and just use a power switch that receives the latch signal?
Yep that works just as well... Maybe even better. I typically don't use a power switch because you have to isolate the power from steam engines just as you mention.
the only 'problem' this is not an S-R latch :-)
Really? Whatever it is, it works for me, though I have started to use what I believe is called a Schmitt trigger using wires on a 2x2 circular belt, and no combinator.
if it works it works:D
o'rly?
to me this looks exact opposite of explanation. this is step-by-step instructions.
Clear well described instructions, still had to watch this 3-4 times to get it working for myself lol. It's a pity you never did more factorio content, this was a good video
I have been using SR latches in Factorio for a lot longer than I care to remember - and this was the clearest explanation of them I have ever seen!
ive played an embarrassing amount of factorio without realising the behavior of sending two separate A signals to the decider. it absolutely did not sink into my head they'd be combined until i saw this video. i know this was years ago but i owe you one.
This is some big brain stuff! Thanks so much for your amazing work! Took me from zero to hero! I was able to implement your solution but instead segregate the engines from the main grid via the power switch. Then apply the final output to the power switch instead of the pump so I don't have to wait for the wind down of the water to get used. Might not have been a thing 8 years ago. Thanks again!
I like the output of a negative number for the off buffer. I've does this using several more combinators to make this work. This method is much neater.
Hey Kyle... That's exactly why I really love this setup. It's super simple to set up and once you get the hang of it, it can be used in a bunch of places.
This SR latch is even better than what's on the wiki. Before seeing this, I'd use one decided combinator to output an "S" signal, one to output an "R" signal and an SR latch after that. One thing I'd definitely do different is to connect the command signal to a single power switch and not a bunch of pumps. That way I can for example accumulate steam in storage tanks until it's needed and have a few more steam engines than my boilers can feed.
Went looking for this answer today and this was the first video to pop up. Great job explaining the whole setup. Got mine working just great.
thank you for making this, you explained everything perfectly and understandably. i feel ive learned a bit on combinators as a whole. great work :D
Thanks bro!
this helped me relearn sr latches in this context very well thank you, still very relevant even in 2.0 for automating steam use in a nuclear plant
This is exactly what I needed, I have always used a box and two inserters, one which takes out the items in the box if the signal is 35 or above, then the item is belted to the other inserter which put it back in if the signal is less than 10, lastly I simply check if there is an item in the box to turn on/off the pumps.
Thanks for this series Shredguy. This video in particular really made the rest click. I can see this solving a lot of problems for my oil storage and processing.
Yes... Getting the hang of SR Latches really opens the door to the World of Combinators!
You know at the time I discovered this channel and this video, I had just started thinking about doing a system like this but had no knowledge how to do so. I thank you so much for making such a clear and precise tutorial for this!
Timing is everything... Thanks for the comment!
I'm glad you explained how the electronics actually worked instead of saying ''do this''. Definitely subscribing.
Great effort.
Anyone willing should be able to understand the principles when explained in such fine detail.
Thanks for those kind words HeilTec... And thanks for stopping by the live stream this morning!
Thanks for this. Have seen other people show off this idea but not break it down. Keep this up!
Thanks for the comment SeaBee... Yes, my goal is also show how these things work so we all learn and then we all can build new creations. The more brains thinking about this stuff the cooler all our factories become!
I really appreciate you taking the time to explain why this works! This entire tutorial series is great.
great example and explanation, I particularly like the in depth review at the end
I'm a big fun of Factorio. Thank you for a great tutorial. Keep rolling ShredGuy99!
Yeah ! Genius. Clear and efficient :). Need more examples of when does the green/red wires aren't enough and combinators are needed, love this ! thank for the classroom coach ;)
I'm super excited that this is helping... Thank you for your feedback.
I'm working on what I should put in the next video!
Hey ShredGuy, I just used your tutorial in 0.15 with nuclear power and a backup steam power. I had a problem with low uranium, so I stored some steam in tanks and used it as the accumulator in the video, just turn the steam stored in percentage with an arithmetic combinator. Thanks for the tutorial!
Cool!
Thank you shred. Always been scared of the cominators with their maths and signal and outputs. But you broke it down nice a simples like. Even I understood it! I think I will be trying this out in my next factory.
Hey Stewart, I'm glad to hear that this video helped you understand a little more about combinators. My goal is to grow the Combinator Community so we all can work together to build cooler factories. Thanks for your feedback it means a lot!
Excellent work. Best description/explanation I've found yet. I'm a subscriber for sure. Thank you.
Nice video. You explained in such a detail that I almost felt like an idiot :) My own problem with understanding how stuffs work in game, boiled down to the fact that decider actually sums similar signals on its input. I did not know that. Once you realize that, it all start making sense and you realize the real power of arithmetic combinator.
However, I have some notes :
In a real game, at least in mine, we actually have a cluster of pumps far away. but usually close to our base, is the belt with coal that actually feeds boilers(which most probably are chained to feed on each other , from one line , to the other). Naturally, at the end of boilers you connect steam engines. So its inconvenient to actually take the red wires all the way to the pumps.
The other drawback is that when you enable them , there would be a delay unit they pump the water and boilers heated it. So you cannot use the full capacity of steam engines right away, the moment accumulators drop bellow percentage.
I have used another approach:
put a tank between boilers and steam engines. this will give a buffer of hot water. for some reasons, devs decided that the water in a tank does not cool off.
Isolate the wires of steam engines from the rest of your power network. Use a power switch which has one of its poles connected to your main power network, and the other pole - to the isolated cluster of steam engines.
Use the combinator technique described in this video. the only difference is that you connect the output of the decider , to the switch, and set its condition to "A=1".
This way, you have hot water ready to be used in a second. but since the steam engines are isolated, everything is on pause, so to speak. the moment the precondition for the power switch is set, it connects steam engines to the rest of the network and the transition is really smooth.
I believe this way is a bit more efficient.
The simplest possible approach was to use just a single power switch, connected to the accumulators and set its condition to ,say "A
Yep... That's a huge point to understand!
hehe, maybe I need to make half an hour video for this :)
Just a joke, mate, no offense :)
Or you could watch Combinator Classroom Ep. 1 ;-)
Well, no, sorry :) I do not have half an hour to learn something that i can for 5 minutes in the wiki. which was my original mistake to begin with :)
So, these links are all we need :
wiki.factorio.com/Decider_combinator
wiki.factorio.com/Circuit-network_Cookbook
However, I should give you some credit for the humor in your videos, they are more of entertainment :)
The signals are also combined at anything that can be connected to the circuit network. NOW you are excused from class. Remember to keep up on your homework and there will be a test next Friday.
Good... I'm french and i don't speek english very well, so i don't understand all what you say. But you do sketches (drawings) to explain, so I think I understand and now I can save a lot of coal when daylight is here. Thanks ShredGuy ;-)
Thanks a lot for making this video!
I'll be playing 3 hours of Factorio MP this evening, and hopefully I'll get the opportunity to try implementing this. If not then there'll be 3 more hours on Sunday.
Excellent - now I 8no math buff) understand how latches work and can reproduce them by myself in my builds - play carry on in this manner!
Uso isso pra quase todos os controles do factorio, incrível como algo que pra alguns pode ser tão simples é tão útil!
I can't belive you only have 300 subscribers. The quality of your content seems very high. Subbed!
Hey Kanvez... Thanks for that comment and the sub!
I want to say that the reason for only having 300 subs is because I have a new channel and it takes time to build an audience.
I'm going to stay positive and truly try to believe in my heart that I just need to keep working hard and produce another quality video to get to the next level...
I've been working on the next Combinator Classroom for almost 2 months now and it should be out shortly... Hopefully it will be worth the wait!
Lovely explanation of the SR latch. Thank you
Awesome... Thanks for the comment!
Wow! This is just what I’m looking for! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this tutorial! It helped me out a lot!
I had a similar build, but instead of attaching the output signal to the water pumps, I tied my steam engines into the network via a power switch and used that to turn them on or off. This has the advantage of turning the steam engines on and off immediately instead of waiting for the water to heat up or empty respectively; also you don't have to wire to each water pump, just one switch leading to your whole bank of steam engines.
Yep... Doing it like that was mentioned on a live stream... The only downside I see to doing it like you mention is that you have to make sure all steam generation power runs through the on/off switch and is otherwise completely isolated from the rest of the power grid.
Congrats for reaching 100 subs!
Keep on the good work :D
Thanks Noam... I just noticed it as well as I was changing out the cover art... I'm super excited!
Very nice. Very impressive. And kudos for the Stooges reference. :)
so good at explaining! thank you!
Thanks... I try!
Man, you're awesome! I've always wanted to do something like htis but never knew how to do it, now I know!! Thank YOU!
Glad I could help and thanks for stopping by the stream this morning and following!
At first I had a feeling there was something a little off here, then you mentioned this was update 0.13! Six years later playing 1.1.18 or something like that I'm watching this going 'Oh, ok, that's how I can prioritize my accumulators over coal power!
I use(d) this in many other situations... (in earlier version I didnt play much since nuclear stuff came out) so I was adding power switch controlled by this type of circuit
also counting items in passive providers chests all connected together (instead of signal 'A' I just for example count iron plates)
so using it to switch on/off furnace lines, assembler lines, etc...
this is the way how I built my low pollution factory where most of the times machines were turned off when the boxes were full enough
as someone who is dumber than a brick, I finally understood what SR latches are after this video. I must've been through a zillion tutorials, explanations, wiki's and just could not grasp the concept of this. Thank you for breaking it down for us bricks. Please tell me you have a train signal tutorial like this somewhere because that is another one that baffles me.
I really like this video its fun to see ur streams too, especially the SHREDRAGE!!
Absolutely love this tutorial! Thank you!!!
ah man I feel like when I play factorio sometimes I back to school again. So much to learn and optimize, I really love thouse new changes to the wires and I try to use em alot. watching your tutorials really makes me wanna experiment with this :) p.s. I do not miss smartchest ^^
Yes... It's nice not having to make smart chests!
I have no desire to got back to school but wouldn't it have been great if playing Factorio was part of class!
your channel is awesome! I miss it!
i just find myself returning to this amazing tutorial
This is gold. FYI instead of connecting the decider output to a pump you can connect to a power switch with A>0. But WHY ARE THERE ONLY 2 VIDEOS ON THIS CHANNEL? :(
Oh looks like YT filters the "videos" view somehow for some reason... There is more if you go through playlists. This is old but surely still relevant, gonna watch some :)
I feel like my brain start melting....................BOOOOM!!!
Anyway: nice tutorial.
great job here on explaining all the magic! :)
Thanks dude!
SUPER understandable tutorial!!!!
Very well explained subbed
Thanks!
Damm, single line boilers, bring such memories ahahahahahah
more of these are more then welcome :) good job !!
Thanks Robin!
you should have a tv show. thank you!
One build I'd like to see is a timer, for instance one that outputs one value, A=1 for some time, say 20 seconds (20*60 ticks), then after that outputs A=2 for 50 seconds, then goes back to 20s of A=1, then 50s of A=2, etc.
I actually don't have a concrete usage case for this one, but I think there's a lot of potential in knowing how to use the various elements required.
I'm thinking this would be a 70 second timer... Less than 20 seconds output signal A... More than 20 seconds output signal B... But I haven't tried building it in game yet. If we can think of a useful build using this I'll definitely create a video. I'm trying to shift these videos from just theory to a practical build using the theory.
Is there a way to do this with a power switch the other way? I want it to read my power grid, when the accumulator gets below 20% i want it to turn OFF a power switch which cuts out a section of my base drawing alot of power, then when the sun comes up and solar recharges the accumulators it turns the power switch on allowing that section of base to work again?
Awesome explanation, thank you!
Hey,
I have a little Problem, how can I increase my fluid consum(only have (0/30)) in the steam engine? only 10 of 30 Steam engines still working
thx for help
Jonas
Really nice tutorial! :) I'm subscribing for sure.
I was just wondering if you could help me with the conditions for something sort of opposite to this. I was hoping to apply this to my oil processing network and have level monitors for all my liquids so they automatically craft some when the levels are below a certain point. For that, this SR latch config is perfect (for turning oil into heavy, light, petroleum, sulfuric acid, lubricant when their tank's levels are below 50% for example and stopping when they are 75% full).
I want to add one more layer of complexity by saying that, if all the liquids mentioned are above 75%, the crude oil should start being turned into solid fuel... So basically I want the SR to read that oil is >75% and turn ON a system for the oil->solid production. I then want the latch to reset to turn the system OFF when oil is
Hey ChickenMacNugget... Sorry for taking so long to respond.
All you have to do is change the sign in the Decider Combinator to greater than (>) and instead of using a negative number in the Arithmetic Combinator, use a positive number.
So it would look like this:
Decider Combinator: "Oil" > 1,800 output signal "Oil" value of 1
Arithmetic Combinator: "Oil" x 600 output signal "Oil"
My calculations for the values are:
.75 x 2400 = 1,800
.50 x 2400 = 1,200; 1,800 - 1,200 = 600
Here's my rule of thumb for SR Latches:
Situation 1:
Turn on above x and remain on until below y; Use ">" in the Decider Combinator & multiply by a positive number in the Arithmetic Combinator; x - y = "bias" which is the value that goes in the Arithmetic Combinator; Since x is GREATER THAN y, the "bias" will be POSITIVE.
Situation 2:
Turn on below x and remain on until above y; Use "
Hey! No problem I've been messing around with lots of logic systems :D
I figured it might also work if you just put a NOT gate at the end of the SR Latch, so instead of activating when power is low (as with steam engines) it will activate when there is too MUCH of a certain liquid in one tank, and then the effect cascades down (So heavy->light, light->petroleum etc and then just have it make solid fuel if the tanks all fill up too much. :)
I might also try out the method you mentioned above :) There's always more than one way to set up logic!
While it really makes no difference, for some people it might be clearer if the signals weren't always "A" across the entire circuit network. Using the same signal obfuscates the difference between the various outputs and inputs.
Question: If all you need is one accumulator hooked into your circuit network, then can you build that single accumulator next to your SR latch and build your solar farm elsewhere?
Answered my own question. Yes, it totally works. :)
i built the same thing without arithmetic thing. so whenever the A signal is 9 it starts the steam engine. so i dont know whats the purpose of arithmetic combinator?
Whenever someone ask me: "Do you even combinators?", I can now answer a resounding YES! All because of ShredGuy99.
This is awesome! Thanks!
Cool... Thanks for the comment!
You don't need SR latch at all, just connect accumulators and pump and set accumulator output signal lets say to Y for yes if Charge C < let's say 10, set the pump to enable if Y > 0.
But I sense that SR latch can be used for more complicated setups. Do you know any?
where did u go? loved your videos hope u come back one day.
Slight suggestion, I think, at each step you should've explained *why* each step was done, and what the different components do when set at that state.
awesome tutorial, thank you for that. I ended up using the idea, but on a larger scale. I currently have 17 of the tileable solar arrays from forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5594. I linked all of the accumulators in one tile with green wire, hooked the green into an arithmetic combinator that divided the total output by 151, the number of accumulators in the array, and pumped that into a red wire loop around the outer substations. I linked the 17 together from corner substations with red and pumped that into another arithmetic combinator that divided the total by a constant combinator of 17, and it gives me the average percentage of all of my accumulators. I feed that into the system you showed in this tutorial, and it works like a charm.
Hey Allan... I like where you're going with that but if all your solar fields are connected to the same power network, then all the accumulators act as ONE accumulator and discharge/charge at the same rate. You don't need to connect all the accumulators and take the average... You only need to connect to one accumulator that is hooked into your power network. Typically I take a single accumulator and place it next to where ever I place the SR Latch... Which is usually next to my Steam Generators.
I'm trying something now where I put 3 tanks (in parallel, not serially) and then an electric pump between the boilers and steam engines, then the SR Latch goes to the electric pump. This gives you a sort of steampunk accumulator which gets the steam engines up to speed much faster. It works fairly well, but one caveat: don't try to do even simple circuit networks when you are overtired, especially when your configuration needs to be rotated 90 or 180 degrees relative to the example you are working from. I ended up connecting the output from the artithmetic accumulator to the electric pumps, so nothing worked time and time again until I discovered my error after getting some much needed sleep and then going over the SR Latch carefully several times.
aaand after testing, still not working. Back to the drawing board.
Edit: Okay, I figured it out. As I said in another post, using "A" as the signal for everything obfuscates the flow of the constructed algorithm. And somehow, having noted this, I managed to ignore my own observation and set the pumps to "A=1" as in your example rather than the "C=1" required in my own setup that replaces the signal between the decider and the math box.
So I've thoroughly investigated the "hot water tank" accumulator alternative with the SR Latch running electric pumps and it just does not work. The electric pumps just cannot feed hot water from the tanks to the Steam Engines fast enough, even if you cut the lines of hot water tanks down to 5 instead of 10.
in my setup so its offshore pump->boilers->tank->electric pump->steam engines
the explanation, the steam engines will start faster,
because for the boilers takes a good bit of time to heat up the water ,
but if u have a tank full of hot water they start much faster
That works! You could also increase the "Set Value" so that the offshore pumps turn on sooner. In this video I use a "Set Value" of 10 which seemed to work good. But if you're Accumulators hit zero before the steam engines can get up and running at full speed, you could increase the "Set Value" to something like 20... Or whatever you'd like. This way you don't need to have the tanks. Give it a try and let me know what you find out!
I used to have them like kick in at 25% and keep em till fully charge my accumulators, but usualy i make so many solar panels from start after a while my steam never start again:D
I dont think i need tanks (i tried without them too) I just like to have them:-)
That's typically what happens... Build enough solar panels and steam engines never turn on. That being said, I built a counter to count how much coal was being burned in the boilers. If the count started getting really large, it meant it was time to place down more solar panels.
This is an awesome tutorial, and I'm sincerely hoping that it holds true for v0.15.
Once question I have is how to use a low power condition to intentionally break and isolate a specific section of the power network for emergencies. I'm trying to design redundant defense mechanisms for my remote outposts, and one way to do that is to use both gun turrets and laser turrets. I'm perfectly willing to generate electricity locally at those locations, but some don't have any access to water for steam, and the idle-power requirements make solar somewhat difficult. Since I already have a use for sending out power poles because at a few of my bases I like running signal wire back to base for resupply purposes (ammo levels, repair pack levels for the lognet to deal with biter waves, etc.) I already have the ability to run centralized power.
The problem I want to solve is how to run the outpost laser turrets on central power, but in the event of a brownout (or worse) I want to be able to isolate those turrets and then run from local power (including the possibility of railing in outside water or even preheated steam to be stored at the outpost in tanks for just such an emergency.) Automatically releasing the isolation once the problem is solved would be nice, but I'd be perfectly willing to run out there to manually reset it if that were my only option.
In other words, I have this emergency-steam setup back at the main base, but I won't want that to end up making me rely on emergency steam power generated out in the hinterland, where it's more important for those lasers and ammo-feeding inserters and repairing construction bots to have their own isolated energy needs taken care of locally while simultaneously getting them off of my central power net's burden when it comes time to conduct an emergency reboot back at home.
Any ideas?
You may want to try turning on & off the Train Stations that receive the emergency steam power train. So if power at an outpost falls below a certain level, the station opens and the "steam" trains can begin delivering.
P.S. SR Latches work perfectly in 0.15.
Well I already intend to bank the steam at the outpost during peacetime, that's not an issue. My issue is that if I'm primarily drawing from mainbase electricity, I don't want a mainbase brownout condition to create the scenario where the outpost's banked steam power is carrying the mainbase through a brownout. I have steam banked at the mainbase for this purpose. My question is how to make it so that a brownout will trigger a condition that actually breaks the electrical connection between the outpost and the mainbase, such that the outpost's power only goes to that specific outpost's needs. I can trigger events with brownout, but I'm stuck on how to trigger an actual powernet breakage.
Have you tried using a switch connected to a latch?
An electrical switch connected to an SR Latch? I can rewatch this tutorial to see if I can muddle. :D
btw no need for green wire.. u can just use red everywhere:-)
Factorio makes my head spin but I love the game
Perfect video
How about a failsafe rail crossing that doesn't have trains crashing into walls as they're forced shut as you approach or trap you inside while the train approaches?
Great tutorial!
Thanks!
gracias maestro!
Very in-depth explanation, I think 1 missed thing was: why the green wire? I don't think the red wire carries anything "across" (rather than "through") the decider as its input isn't directly linked to the output (red wire has no contiguous signal path?)
excellent explanation
Thanks!
How do I set up 2 chests to send x amount of goods to another chest?
ex.
Chest_1 sends 100 bullets, Chest_2 sends 50 belt. If Chest_3 has less than this. it will send the exact amount needed.
The example is redundant now, since 0.15 made steam engines the lowest priority, meaning they will only provide power (and require fuel) whenever ALL other power sources (including accumulators) provide less than satisfaction requires.
The lesson is still good though, since we now have Kovarex to worry about. Reverse the condition and you can make sure your Kovarex has the 41 uranium required for processing, while the rest of your factory gets the rest.
While there's 42 or more uranium, activate the inserter sending it elsewhere and deactivate the one to the Kovarex process. Reset condition at 41, so that when all other uranium is gone, the Kovarex process restarts and the diverting inserter stops operating.
If your accumulator charge drops below 100%, then steam engines turn on. (This was the case prior to 0.15.) The point of the Emergency Power Latch is to prevent the steam engines from turning on until accumulator charge drops below some other arbitrary value and then to have them remain on until accumulator charge reaches another arbitrary value.
The lesson is not good... It's fantastic! It's about learning how to create an SR Latch giving an example that is just as relevant in 0.15 as it was in prior versions.
Sure, but that's not what you said in the video though.
this is different than other ways ive seen
Ok, here’s why I wanna learn about circuits: I use single traincarts for multiple resources to transport them simultaneously. This works until consumption of one of the resources is halted. That resource will now start clogging the cart until it has pushed out the other resources altogether.
Is there any way I can control the relative amounts of resources so one cart will maintain equal space for each resource?
Wait, I think I can cap the destination chests and automatically turn off the corresponding inserters at the resource station. OMG I THINK I SOLVED IT!
If you connect a circuit network to the train stop, you can read the contents of the train. From there, wire up to a combinator (or if you're lazy, directly to the inserters) and tell them to only activate if the contents of the train are below a certain level.
Anyone know why this setup flickers on electricity on the discharge cycle, but a 3-decider combination (as in the wiki tutorial) stays steady in both charge and discharge? Testing it to control a switch to a load powered by an accumulator, so part of that may be that it doesn't have any start-up time like a power plant going online would. I figure that means this setup is still drawing some (fractional) amount of power from the main grid on the discharge cycle if used with a power switch.
Just messed around a bit more. Turns out that it was the number of accumulators in a test setup. Once there is more than one, then it smooths out. So I'm guessing that the simulated power is AC? A single accumulator on its own only feeds half the phase? (Or at least I'm going to pretend that is the case.)
Very nice!
Thanks brother!
How can I Let my Steam engine (On) till my Accu is 80% because that setup Is amasing the only prob i see is that my pumps gets ON & Off in a matter of a second it work but ...........
Nice tut, now make one on scrolling displays:-)
A definite maybe!
I just used this so I have 400 x steam engines on standby should my new nuclear plant ever need a helping hand. I had to go nuclear the coal drain was becoming an issue and painting landscapes in solar panels gets old fast...
The power network reads the steam engines present but not active, and if I drain the accumulator they kick in, which is almost perfect. One thing, I'd like to adjust the level the steam kicks in at. So if the accumulator drops below 40% the steam kicks on, and stays on till accumulator charge climbs over 80%. I'll hook it up to a light and audio alarm in the main factory area to let me know I'm using steam power. I've tested the light at the power site and it works fine A = 1.
The nuclear plant potentially kicks out 480 MW (?? 4 in a block) so the steam is merely a buffer now in case I go too crazy building, but it can't be relied on for much more than that. I had 3 blackouts getting to this point :D
I figure with a couple of sets of values (the original, plus what to enter for a 40% switch on and 80% switch off) I might follow the numbers and grasp all this a bit better.
And thank you, most combinator builds seem superflous and overly complex. Not so with this.
The 10% cut on and 35% off were only a recommendation from someone in the comment section... But I've had good luck with those numbers. However, those numbers are not set in stone and should definitely be adjusted to whatever works best for your factory... And different settings may work better at different stages in your factory build!
Appreciate the reply. I've made all sorts of neat stuff since you introduced me to 'understandable' combinatorials....
The steam buffer for nuclear power of course
An alarm to tell me when I have 40 x U235
Lab facilities that regulate science pack input keeping the belts unclogged. Many variants of this for any expensive recipe with lengthy belts
Regulated train loading/unloading onto belts (via Mad Zuri via Xterminator video)
And more! All within days.
You'd make a great teacher. Scratch that. You are a great teacher.
Thanks bud... Understanding the SR Latch is a key step in unlocking combinator magic. I use Madzuri's loading and offloading from belts in just about every map. Understanding whats going on with these setups is another great way to get a handle on combinators. Madzuri said I was free to make a video on both variants so hopefully some day!
I've recreated this setup on my main map to test things out after I couldn't get it working on my main power supply. my current signal is was reading 100 until the charge dropped. The pump never turned on and I'm getting a negative 25 signal. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here.
Assuming you have everything wired up correctly, make sure you have the Decider Combinator "Output" set to "1" and NOT "Input Count"... Let me know if that works.
Ty!!
Your welcome... I'm glad it helped!
How to make computer cpu using decider constant switch *lamp for lcd* arthmetic?
Wowser. Thanks.
can you make a sr latch for fluids so that i can have it fill to x amount and shut off then trun back on with its loe to x amount is that possible
Could I do something similar to make it so my furnaces, manufactory, and everything but lights and laser turrets go off if power in accumulators goes below 20% and wait until power gets to 60% to ensure maximum defense?
Definitely... Connect the SR Latch to a Power Switch instead of the offshore pumps.
And you don't have to run a wire all the way from where your accumulator build is located. Just place down an accumulator next to the SR Latch which can be next to the Power Switch. Make sure all the power to the furnaces goes through the power switch... No extra connections.
You could also set up a SR Latch and Power Switch for each different part of your manufacturing process and shut them down at different levels. Maybe you shut down the furnaces when power goes below 20% and you shut down oil refining when power goes below 30%. That way your factory powers down in stages depending on how bad your power situation gets.
Thanks, I got it all set up. I also have multiple "processors" at different sections of the power grid. Meaning if a section of my train line is overrun (compartmentalized with defenses dotted around to make it so it's less of an artery), and the power line is cut, the satellite fortress or foundry will be able to shut down non vital machinery and rely on its local accumulators. It also means that I don't have to worry about the signal being cut off by a breached compartment.
It seems to work very well.
Star Foth That sounds like a neat idea!
Amazing, thanks for the effort put in to explain! So the setup works with multiple accumulators?
Thanks Ian... Yes. Multiple accumulators is no problem. Just make sure all your accumulators are part of the same electrical system. When multiple accumulators are all connected on the same electrical network they act as one.
Actually I realise hooking to one accumulator is enough, because they all lose power at the same rate, one accumulator is enough for the circuit.
Yep... Exactly!
can someone show my a way to turn light Green/yellow/red at 25%/50%/75% chargelevel of the akkumulator?
Thanks, a lot.
At 09:56 in your final notes you suggest that it would be better to put the latch close to the steam engines, and then run a long wire to an accumulator.
That won't work. If the steam engines shut down, the latch combinators will lose power, and stop working. They need to be powered by the solar area of your
network.
Solar and the Steam Engines are all one network... If the latch loses power than something isn't set up correctly. In the vid I say run a wire to the closest accumulator. I typically place the latch next to the steam generators and put down a single accumulator next to the latch. Not because it has to be there... But for convenience's sake in not having to run a red or green wire all over the map.
ShredGuy99 Sorry, complete brain fart by me. I was using you vid to build me a latch with a power switch, and completely forgot that you just powered down the pumps instead!
No worries... Keep on building bro!
what if i have many offshore pumps? all i have to do is connect red wire from decider output to each offshore pump?
Yes... You can connect the red wire from offshore pump to the next!
I don't claim to be an expert at this, but in testing this build there seems to be a couple of problems. #1 - During the day time, this build (as it is) will only allow the accumulators to charge up to 35% rather than 100% before turning off the steam engines. This results in undue cycling, as well as having 35% or less accumulator charge when the sun goes down. #2 - If the total accumulator output isn't enough to run your entire factory (based on how many accumulators you have), then when the steam engines are turned off, your factory won't be able to run.
Ideally, you need to have enough accumulators to run your entire factory, and you need to allow them to charge to 100% before turning steam power off. It should be cycling between 10% and 100%, not 10% and 35%.
This setup is for emergency power... When your accumulator charge gets critically low. The entire point of this is to reduce the amount of coal your factory is using.
Ideally, your steam engines should never turn on! But when they do, we want them only to operate over the shortest window possible... Just long enough to keep your factory from going dark.
The cycling of steam engines is irrelevant since we don't have to worry about wear and tear... Essentially no maintenance is required. But worrying about coal is a problem.
The primary method of charging your accumulators should be solar panels... If your steam engines turn on at 10%, turn off at 35%, but accumulator charge never gets to 100%, the problem isn't this setup... The problem is you don't have enough solar panels.
However, if you're not using solar panels for some reason, I guess I would probably agree with setting the "off" level at 100%.
P.S. The 10% and 35% levels were merely a suggestion someone left in the comment section on another video. These levels should be tweaked to whatever works for your factory. Also, the main point of this video was to demonstrate how to use combinators to build an SR Latch (a very useful tool). That being said, I use the 10% and 35% level in my mega factory and it works flawlessly.