Power Supply Computer slave activates, although "master" does not

[skunkiferous]

I'm experimenting with using multiple "Power Supply Computer" in a "Power Generator Module", to reduce the need for large amount of power capacitors, and I'm having a strange effect.

I have logic that controls 4 "Activation Modules", one for each "Power Supply Computer". The activation modules are also connected to lights. I see the activation modules activate in order, as expected. And so do the connected lights. The second and fourth "Power Supply Computer"s activate as expected.

But the first and third "Power Supply Computer" always activate together.

I do not see any bad logic connections, and in this case, I am pretty sure it's not due to lag, as it is 100% reproducible every time in single-player, where basically nothing else is happening.

Could one of you tell me what is going on?

Blueprint: https://app.box.com/s/lv9xfjnit6jxe5dn3q0v6ldj6cve1vys

 

[Crashmaster]

"Instant Pulses," is your issue. Better explained in a thread of that name but basically changes in your circuit propagate along it allowing unwanted interaction between blocks that are already updated this tick and blocks that have yet to be updated this tick. Most commonly an issue with flip-flop counters it seems to me.

The best fix as far as I know is adding a NOT from whatever increments the counter (the button just below the rail rotator) and feeding it's output into all the AND blocks used to decode the counter. This means the array of AND blocks cannot activate until the counter incrementing step has finished and all possibilities of instant pulses leaking through are over.

 

[skunkiferous]

Great! This fixed my problem with the "Power Supply Computer". As a side-effect, the activation modules and the light are now blinking (which I don't really care about in this case).

I think I'm starting to see the hidden complexity involved in designing logic circuits for StarMade.