If I put buffer chests at the beginning of the line that happens.
I use inserters to take stuff from the line and put it straight into buffer chest to provide it to the network for building. The system is not taking from those buffer chests to put into other buffer chests (of course, that would make a buffer-buffer loop) I need to use other buffer chests to cache items far away. So stuff isn't making it to those other, distant buffer chests.
I want to use provider or storage chests: I want to take stuff off the line using inserters and put the stuff into yellow chests. That would solve my long distance buffer problem. But I can't, because if I do it introduces a different problem:
I want to put requestor chests at the beginning of my lines to get all the extra junk sitting in long term storage back onto the lines. For example green circuit boards that I may want to request, but I don't need 20,000 of them in storage. I can just put a requestor chest at the beginning of some of my lines that make green boards and they'll just be fed back in.
So I have to choose: I can use yellow or red chests to feed my network OR I can use blue or green chests to get rid of the junk. How can I get rid of the junk AND feed distant buffer chests?
Let me know if this makes sense. The simplest way to solve that would be making sure you are using the right chests at the right locations.
- At the green chip output use buffer chests
- Use requestor chests at the beginning to recirculate
- Use requestor chests at the far location with the "request from buffer chests" option ticked
This way the bots won't refill the requestor at the beginning from the greenchip output buffer (due to not having the option checked), but they will refill that chest with items from storage.
If you do need the chests at the beginning to request from the green chip output buffer chests, then the solution gets much more difficult. At that point you should really take a step back and evaluate the issues in the layout and structure of your factory before attempting some half-cocked patch like using a ton of wired circuit networks.
I should use requestor chests at the far location? The robots will use those for construction?
Side note: I can hop on multiplayer anytime if you'd like some in person help. Just let me know.
Ahh, I see. You're also trying to optimize construction robot flight time with buffer/storage chests at the far location. That's a fools errand and the devs have said so themselves. If your bots are taking too long to build something far away, then you have one of two problems.
- You don't have enough roboports, and the bots are just sitting around waiting to recharge.
- You don't have enough bots.
So if I have two buffer chests, each marked "request from buffer chests" they won't request from each-other and loop?
Only Requestor chests have the "request from buffer chests" option. So no.
Imo, buffer chests are meant to be used as a buffer at the output location. Not a buffer at the input location. If you need to buffer the input location you just have a requestor chest, then inserter, then steel chest, then inserter, etc.
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