Storage Sensor

[FluxFaraday]

I'd like to see a new signal block that can be a slave to a storage or factory. The "r" menu would bring up an "add filter" menu just like the storage block's. The signal is true if the storage contains at least as many items as specified in the filter.

It would be used in automated factories.

Does this capability already exist? I see an OR-block being sensitive to a single item in storage, but that's not really the same thing.

 

[молоток]

I don't know if I grasp what you are referring to, but all of my automated factory needs are met by the logic controls already in the storage units.

 

[FluxFaraday]

Well, my goal is for the home base to maintain a stock of parts, say 1000 salvage modules. So if I pull 500 salvage modules from the home base, I want the factories (that make salvage modules) to turn on, replenish the stock, then turn back off again. I currently fake this by manually moving goods into the factory's input hopper, but that's not what I want. Are you able to do something like this in your setup?

 

[молоток]

oh.... no, I don't maintain specific stocks like that, and I don't think you can. I just have an assembly line for each component all hooked to the big ore bin. (B.O.B.) on one end and the parts library on the other. (different libraries for hull, ship parts, weapons, etc)
If I run out of a component, I just go to the control wall and activate the assembly process for that component, it is made start to finish, until I turn it off. The only annoying part of the process is feeding BOB with the HUGE proceeds from mining, which still has to be transferred by hand.

TLDR no, I don't have automatic stock keeping, I just have hot and cold running parts dispensers.

 

[FluxFaraday]

Ah, cool. That's what my factory is starting to look like. I've only just figured out that I need generic input bins to dump my mining/salvage/whatever with automatic sorters, otherwise I'm spending too much time running around sorting manually. My first couple of pirate kills taught me that there are way more kinds of parts than there are spaces in a single storage bin!

 

[jayman38]

This sounds like a good idea for fire-and-forget player-run shops.

Example: Someone buys out your shop's cannon blocks? Suddenly, the cannon block "arm" of your hidden shop factory springs to life and starts pumping out fresh cannon blocks to direct into the shop module, until the logical limit is reached.