Automated Factories

[Neon_42]

Im wondering if it is possible through clever use of storage and logic blocks to create and automated factory.

Step 1. What I want to do is create a factory that automatically fills a cargo area, but when it is full the cargo area turns off the factory. When I take items out of the cargo area the factory will turn on to refill it.

Step 2. Once I have many of these cargo/factory setups is it possible to link them to a shipyard so that the shipyard pulls what it needs?

I'm curious if anyone knows if this is possible before I attempt to design such a system.

 

[KiloZulu]

Yes.
My last station was largely automated. You could click a button to order any item, and the factory would build it as long as it had resources to do so. All of the produced items were placed into a central inventory, so once you had everything necessary to fill a ship recipe, you could have your shipyard build a ship.

 

[Neon_42]

But what about making it stop before it runs out of resources? Say i have a cargo space of 1,000,000 and I want to fill it up with hull. Can I build a factory that fills the cargo space (assuming i have enough raw materials) and turn off when the inventory is full to avoid leakage?

 

[KiloZulu]

My system had to be turned off manually. You would go back to the button for say, gray hull, and turn it off once you had produced the amount you needed.

Perhaps with the new sensors and display mechanics you could create a system that stops production automatically. Just off the cuff, you could have a storage locker for each material type, and a sensor that measures how much the locker has in inventory. That sensor is tied to a display that shows how much inventory the locker has. Now, you have another display where you enter in the amount of material you want. A sensor then compares the two displays, and when the numbers match up it sends a signal to turn off the factory.

Frankly, I haven't played with sensors enough to know if that would work, so it's purely hypothetical.

I suspect that you would only want to set such a system up for items that are used in large quantities regularly - grey hull, shields, power reactors, etc.

 

[DrTarDIS]

But what about making it stop before it runs out of resources? Say i have a cargo space of 1,000,000 and I want to fill it up with hull. Can I build a factory that fills the cargo space (assuming i have enough raw materials) and turn off when the inventory is full to avoid leakage?

When did factories start to leak? Last I checked they just stopped pulling and producing once they were full...though they migh have still consumed power?

 

[KiloZulu]

I misinterpreted the question based on my own experience. DrTarDIS is right, my own response was in reference to over-producing an item. So, if you only wanted 10k of something and forget to turn off the factory, my system would keep pumping out the item until it ran out of raw materials or cargo space, which could be annoying if you needed the raw materials for another ingredient.

 

[MacThule]

I'm super disappointed that shops don't stop pulling from automated factories when they reach Max Stock level of the item. They just keep pulling right into the red. I thought we would be able to cap stock using that, but I guess it only helps with preventing over-purchase of an item.

 

[Neon_42]

When did factories start to leak? Last I checked they just stopped pulling and producing once they were full...though they migh have still consumed power?

I thought all storage leaked. Factories as well as cargo if it over fills?
[doublepost=1480641766,1480641710][/doublepost]otherwise we could just use factories as storage and not have a need for storage blocks except on ships.

 

[DrTarDIS]

I thought all storage leaked. Factories as well as cargo if it over fills?
[doublepost=1480641766,1480641710][/doublepost]otherwise we could just use factories as storage and not have a need for storage blocks except on ships.

It's an irony you say this, cause my "builds everything" factory relied solely on each factory's individual storage as a method of inventory control. I didn't notice anything "dropping" from it doing that (and each stage definitely filled up, weather with completed blocks or with the available "parts" of it's recipe). I'd expect the dropped items to be picked up as soon as I was in a build block, but never saw that, and never saw any sprites to show free-floating objects in space...

 

[StarWars1981]

I would suggest utilizing a rather difficult process, but can be shortened if factories when used in a template save their connections. What you do is rig a storage block with exactly the storage needed for a particular ship; you set the factories with the correct numbers of enhancers to run exactly one cycle to produce the entire batch of, say, shield caps for that ship. Then a logic clock shuts it down; this is so things like armor production can run multiple stages without overproducing at other factories. Or you set these other factories to run exactly 1/3 the required number of parts each time, and let them run three times as the armor factories are shut down one after the other, until you have advanced or whatever it requires. Then you have the linked shipyard build the ship. This gets more complicated and difficult the larger the ship, and the more parts it uses; but much of the blocks used only require one factory. A connected set of storages each taking just one item for the ship (and having capacity as close as possible to the necessary capacity) could be used to divide up salvaged resources from pirates or whatever. Display modules could be used as well ... dunno how that'll work.

 

[Az14el]

Raisinbats awesome logic auto-production factory (awesome but also very ancient) Factory Base

Concept is pretty easy to copy, letting you add all the fancy new stuff, remove blocks & handle all the ratios to your preferences. But obviously due to its age its missing a lot of blocks that were not released back then, and it also has no rail docking yet, just old style.

Note the size of the thing...