Overview
After trawling through the Forums, checking Reddit and getting more brain-ache than I like at my (advanced) age, I finally figured out how to build a circuit which will do the following:Take a dummy signal (eg “number of iron plates required”) and switch on (inserter loading chest)When the contents of the chest = the dummy signal, switch offStay switched off (even if the chest is subsequently emptied) until the Master Reset is activated.
Introduction
This circuit was conceived to work in an automated production belt and will do the following:
Receive an input detailing the number of (iron plates) required
Swtich on (eg loading a chest)
Check the chest contents until they equal the requirement
Switch off
Remain off, even if the chest is subsequently emptied, until reset
Detail
There are two constant chests, representing the Input signal on the left (I am using the dummy Blue signal, set to the number of iron plates that I need), and the Reset signal on the right (which would be a “Master Reset” switch and needs to be set to dummy signal B to reset the circuit).
The Smart chest (lower left) is where the iron plates would be stored.
The other components, going anti-clockwise from the top left, are:
Decider “Blue > 0”, “A =1” (turns the circuit on when a ‘Requirement’ signal is received)
Decider “Iron Plates = Blue”, “B = 1” (turnrs the circuit off when Requirement is met)
SR Latch (2 identical Deciders each wired with their output to the other’s input) set to “A > B”, “A = 1”
Lamp to indicate on/off status (this would be wired to the actual smart inserter loading the chest)
SR Latch set to “B = 0”, “B = 1”
Arithmetic Combinator set to “B * -1”, “A” (when the second latch activates, this nullifies the original requirement signal so that the circuit doesn’t turn back on again if the chest is emptied)
Wiring is as follows, and is all red (the green wires are only used for the latch ‘internal’ wiring):
Constant #1 Output to Decider #1 Input
Constant #1 Ouput to Decider #2 Input
Decider #1 Output to Latch #1 Input A (upper)
Smart chest to Decider #2 Input
Decider #2 Output to Latch #1 Input B (lower)
Decider #2 Output to Latch #2 Input A (left)
Latch #1 Output (lower) to Lamp
Constant #2 to Latch #2 Input B (right)
Latch #2 Output (right) to Arithmetic Input
Arithmetic Output to Latch #1 Input A (upper)
Apologies, as the wiring would have been slightly clearer if I had put the Arithmetic Combinator with the Input at the top instead of the bottom.
I haven’t seen another version of this, although I am sure that it will be out there somewhere, but I hope that by posting it here it will help other players new to the Dark Art of Factorio combinators to settle in to building some useful and fun automated production belts.
Any questions, comments or suggestions for improvement will be gratefully received!