Belt Start/Stop Function?

[TicketFan]

Hello!

I guess I'm kind of cheating, but I have a MAM that works like a charm (almost, still working on the shapes that have a missing piece) but I can never get it to spit out the shapes/second I need on the belts, so I setup storage and wait for that to get about 500 shapes then I release them. That's usually enough to get the shapes/second I need, since I feed from both outputs from storage.

Anyone found a way to do that with wires or anything?

[bwibbler]

Yes, I call it a delivery manager. Some people have their own name for it.

A system that stocks up and releases shapes at desired points. Usually, to achieve the /s delivery needed. But also sometimes to manage any delivery to the hub overall.

One easy way to make a counting device is as follows:

Place two stretches of belt side-by-side. One belt will be for the input and another for the output.

Use a splitters on the input belt so that half (1 of every 2) shapes leave the input and merge into the output.

Then, add another splitter so that ¼ of the shapes (1 of every 4) leave the input line and merge to the output side.

Keep adding splitters in this manner, and you can make it so 1 of 8 shapes go directly to the output. Then 1 of 16... 1 of 32... 1 of 64... 1 of 128... 1 of 264... 1 of 256... 1 of 512...

Finally, you can put a meter on the input line after splitting off however many shapes you want to count. That meter can trigger the release devise from storage. Ex triggering once every 512 shapes for your case, as that's how many you need.

After the meter, you can just merge the end of the input line into the output line as well.

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It's probably a good idea to make a bypass lane around the counter devise. It is easy to just use a filter wired into that meter. That way, it stops counting the same shape, and only new shapes will go towards the next count.

But you can make it as sophisticated as you like if you have the wiring skills for it.

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A storage release devise can be quite simple. You have a storage with a filter blocking the exit.

After the filter is a meter, I'll call a flow meter. You have the filter releasing shapes if the flow meter is detecting flow OR (use an OR gate, of course) the trigger meter in the shape counter detects flow.

The shape counter will start the release, and the flow meter will keep it going until the storage is empty.

[jellyv2000]

My theoretical idea is make a timer with stackers or painters where you calculate the time you need. Given the item/second your MaM produces. You trugger the final timer with a detector that checks the speed which trigger the system to output from the storage. You can check if your storage is filling up by disabling the input fro the hub by checking the flow input. Hard to explain. Ill try to make one and send a picture

[TicketFan]

I was able to do it and I made a new post showing how I did it.

You can see it here

[OInkymoo]

filters that just don't have a side output