Stuck on electricity plant

[Hexen]

Hey guys, its my first time playing this game but really loving it so far. iv'e been following a template for an electrical plant using an offshore pump and having a few problems getting it all to run so its all automated (as in the coal comes through to feed it, the inserter's insert the coal which gives it power, causing the drill to produce more coal sending more back into the same system),

Iv'e attached a screen shot of the current state of play, could anyone take a look and point our where I'm going wrong here?

p.s I am aware the conveyor belt isn't fully attached but I don't think that's the entire issue here

[Puddintaters]

try manually adding some fuel to those boilers, should bootstrap the whole shebang. i'd go ahead and hook up the coal first though, that way as long as there's some ready to go on the belt it should be automatic after starting it up.

[Zerias]

Firstly, the drill as it is faces the wrong direction. The yellow triangle/arrow indicates the exit point for produced ore, which can go directly on a belt: no need for that inserter next to it. Rotate the drill ['R' while hovering over it] three times and replace that inserter with a belt.
Next, connect the belts and as Puddin said you need to give your boilers and the drill a little fuel to kickstart the whole thing.
Replacing the burner drill with an electrical one will remove your need to kickstart and eventually refuel your drill.
Fourthly, I recommend finding more coal A.S.A.P., as that little bit won't last very long as your factory starts getting bigger.
Fifthly, I recommend updating your Factorio, for the bugfixes if not for the content.
Optionally, you can move your boilers and their inserters one tile left to reduce heat loss a bit: boilers can connect through all four sides just like regular pipe.

[Puddintaters]

Hah i didn't even notice the miner, seconding Zerias on all accounts. Also, i didn't know boilers could connect as anything besides a straight line, so thanks still sticking to 10/14 lines but i'm sure i'll need that knowledge at some point.

[RoddyVR]

i'll add a couple other suggestions.
the poles that are powering the inserters, move the right ones, one tile to the right, because as of now, your rightmost inserters are not powered (wont be even when you have electricity running).

in case the whole bootstraping (put coal into burners manualy) thing doesnt make sense (you wouldnt be the first). the problem is that your inserters need electricity to put coal into burners that will make electricity. when the whole system is standing nothing will get it running except you.

once you put coal into some of the boilers, they'll use it to heat the water that ill make the steamengines produce electricity and that will power the inserters to add more coal (if there is some one the belt by the time the boilers need more)

[starholme]

Another good option is to replace the two unpowered inserters with burner inserters. Then as long as you can get coal on the belt, it should bootstrap.

For future posts, it helps us a lot if you take the screenshot during daylight!

[Kalanndok]

I would even go so far to make ALL inserters for the powerplant burner inserters as the pickup burnables by themselves even if the electrical power is completely gone.

[Hexen]

Wow thankyou so much for your replies guys, as soon as i saw the drill was facing the wrong way, but the inserter wasn't needed I face palmed inside xD

I will begin making these adjustments now!

[Hexen]

Okay so Iv'e managed to get it all up and running (I think), what worries me is someone said something about the poles not being in the right place? Iv'e taken another screen shot (this time in the daytime xD) would moving these things then fix the problem and the various parts to the plant would then work acting as one module to always produce electricity for other modules?

I am making more belts and setting up more drills for coal, so as long as I do this and the plan always has a supply of coal, will this then be able to provide a constant flow of electricity for other systems? Sorry for my newbieness, It is fun though going through all of this technical stuff!

[ratchetfreak]

you can also use an inserter to pull coal off the belt and put it into the burner drill. That way you don't need to worry about it running out.

[Hexen]

Sorted it, thanks anyway.

I did try to buy the game recently, but im too little too late as it appears there is some kind of hiatus going on with the developers and no ones heard of them, so I have a cracked version, would love to actually have an account someday though, hopefully they will come back and re open their shop.

[starholme]

Not sure what you mean about the hiatus... There is a post every Friday here: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=38
You can buy the game on the factorio site here: https://www.factorio.com/order
They accept mastercard/visa/paypal/bitcoin/paysafecard. I'd advise buying now, as the price is expected to increase when released on Steam, which should be in the next month or so. Too lazy to find the post with real dates.

Shop is most definitely open! Support the devs!

[Smarty]

Not sure what you mean about the hiatus... There is a post every Friday here: https://forums.factorio.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=38
You can buy the game on the factorio site here: https://www.factorio.com/order
They accept mastercard/visa/paypal/bitcoin/paysafecard. I'd advise buying now, as the price is expected to increase when released on Steam, which should be in the next month or so. Too lazy to find the post with real dates.

Shop is most definitely open! Support the devs!

The official date is 25 February.