AID - Automatic Item Delivery
for vanilla factorio, no mods needed!
please see second post for feature relatet stuff and my last post for latest news
V5.4a
this is for everyone who is tired of setting up train routes for small amounts of items to remote stations (like mining outposts, military outposts or whatever).
it should work with cityblocks aswell. i made this to connect independent robot logistic networks (RLN) without covering long train tracks with roboports.
every station you build will be automatically supplied with the items you request there. so you don't have to worry about missing stuff at your factories.
think of a station like a combination of a requester and a passive provider chest.
what it looks like - the depot
watch and see - the station
how it works (roughly):
all stations are disabled by default, so the trains aren't moving around when they are not needed (as trains will not go to inactive stations).
each station will activate as soon it requests something and will stay active until its request is fullfilled. also every station will activate when they can fullfill a request.
next to the train stop are a couple of lamps which indicate if the station is active (red = inactive, green = active).
the depot will be active at all times, but after the stacker is a closing signal. it will be closed if there are no trains needed.
the depot is an advanced stacker and central part of the system. you only need one, but that is essential.
you can connect the depot to your starter base or build it somewhere else on the map. the most important thing to keep in mind: you cannot provide/request liquids!
think of the depot as a kind of storage chest.
how to build:
at first you need the depot. it is the central part of the AID system. you only need it once. it can be build in your starter base or somewhere else on the map, that doesn't matter.
after that you only need to build stations.
all stations and the depot need to be connected by the red wire for the requesting service and general functionality. the green wire is for remote requests only.
so if you need a wire for other purposes, go without remote requests. connection point is the big electric pole next to the train stop.
after building the depot there are a few things to do:
2. check the robot amounts at the CC which are supplied to the RLN [preset to 250 logistic and 100 construction robots].
3. next to the station is a set of CCs for fuel. its a thresholded request -> requesting.
4. if you extend the stacker, connect the signals with the green wire (like the first three ->bp-book).
depot sections
after building a station there are a few things to do:
1. remove the CC (remove after build) next to the requesting CCs.
2. check the robot amounts at the CC which are supplied to the RLN [preset to 100 logistic and 100 construction robots].
3. set station name at train stop (e.g. 'AID Q05') [preset to 'AID Q01'].
4. set station ID at CC next to train stop (e.g. 'Q'5) [preset to 'Q'1].
station sections
setting up trains:
the only place to build trains is in the depot! there is a stacker with three tracks (easy to expand).
al trains have to be composed 2-2-2 (2L-2CW-2TW, as seen in the first picture). for a system without liquids you can go 2-2 ofc.
if you need more trains, build more tracker stacks and put new trains on those tracks. this is important as the depot counts in and outgoing trains (-> reset section).
build at least as many tracker stacks as you build trains. it is not necessary to allocate items slots in the waggons (in a matter of fact it would be contra productive).
the train schedule is always (wait conditition: 5s):
1. 'AID Depot In'
2. 'AID Depot Out'
3. 'AID Q01'
4. 'AID Q02'
5. 'AID Q03'
...
N. 'AID Station QNN'
train schedule
requesting:
you have a couple of sets of CCs for your requests. the three on the right are for static requests. here you simply add your items with the amount you want to be stored within the stations RLN ('any item'#).
if you need more CCs just add and connect them with the red wire. those are the CCs you will/should use the most.
there are two identical sets of thresholded request CCs. here you can set a low limit ('L'#) and a high limit ('H'#) and in the middle 3 CCs the items you want to request ('any item'1).
the amount for the items must be 1. it would be one more step of work for you and f*ck up the AID-System if you increase the amount.
there are two sets for two different threshold values (if you need them). in case you need more than three CCs add and connect more with
for the liquids: next to the tanks are some CCs to request the liquids. the type of liquid you want to request must be set with a value of one (e.g. 'crude oil'1). liquids are always delivered by full loads (50k).
don't forget to activate the request CCs. they are turned off by default.
requesting
remote requests:
you can set up requests remotely. it is quite simple: just use the 'remote request' CC and input the station ID (eg: 'Q'5) and the items (with amounts) that you wish to request. turn the CC on for a short moment (a couple of ticks are enough) and turn it off again. thats it.
every remote request you send, will be added to the stations memory (so do not activate/deactivate the same remote request CC more than once).
there is an indicator lamp whether the station has active remote requests or not. it will be lit in cyan if it has active remote requests. next to the lamp is an combinator where you can see what items are requested (info by mouse-over).
i would recommend to transfer the remote requests to the request CCs if you want them to be permanent (when you are nearby). it is not possible to request liquids atm.
there are a couple of ways to reset the remote request memory -> reset section
remote requests
reset section (may be used for troubleshooting):
there are three CCs for various reset options. to reset, just turn them on and off again (signal is needed only for a couple of ticks). thats it.
1: it says what it does: it resets the stations memory (including remote requests).
2: the middle one is for (remotely) deleting remote requests. just enter the station ID 'Q'# (+ 'R'1). [preset to 'Q' and 'R'1]
3: this one will reset the whole AID-System. all stations and the depot memory will be purged (including all remote requests).
reset section
at the depot are two special reset CCs. in case one of your trains got destroyed or dismantled for some reason, do the following:
use the one with the red signal to close the stacker (stacker will be closed as long as the CC is on). no more trains will leave the depot, even when there are active stations.
wait until all trains are back on the stacker and activate - deactivate the reset CC (signal 'R'1). this will reset the train counter.
special depot reset
there are CCs to reset single parts of the station memory, but you won't need those. they are a left overs from my construction process.
others:
i've added some comfort features at the depot:
next to the stacker exit is an indicator lamp which will be lit in yellow if there are one ore more trains en route.
between the depot-train-stops and the liquid tanks is a large lamp indicator row. it shows how full your stacker is (red = occupied tracks/trains in stacker, green = free stacker tracks).
next to the stacker is a track with a couple of deactivated stations. they are pre-named with my naming scheme, so you can pre-program the train schedules.
this can be done by putting a locomotive on the small track below the stacker exit. from there you can copy paste train schedules after building new trains and see what(/which) stations are active. also there is a chest with small amounts of fuel for new trains.
there is a train stop 'AID depot P' at the depot. this is where the player can go to in case of maintenance. this station will not be used by the AID trains, its exclusive for the player (max lenght: 4 cars).
some nice things added to the bp-book:
- stacker tracks
- 2 outpost CCs (some items needed in outposts, connectable to static request CCs)
- railway crossing (just a suggestion for track-building)
- station material collector (all items needed to build a station will be delivered, connect the electric pole with the static request CCs of the station, if you need those item to be delivered. de-construct this tiny setup manually to get all the items in you inventory.)
some things to keep in mind:
- if you request items you do not produce, some stations might be active all the time and the trains will drive in circles without reason
- please do not connect the depot to liquid processing facilities, use a station for that
- do not put two stations/depot in the same RLN, in our tests it fucked up the AID-System (exept you request the same items with the same amounts)
- build new trains only on stacker tracks, as the depot counts in- and outgoing trains
- requesting items at a station which are produced there might lead to problematic behaviour (this is subject to further testing)
- you cannot remote-request liquids, i do not plan to implement it in the near future as i would need to add a quite some combinators
feel free to ask about this. this is still beta, but should work quite nice. especially the liquids aren't fully tested yet. would be nice to get some feedback.
this was build (and tested so far) in version 0.16.51. first version was this one: Smart Trains.
there are some similar approaches like:
'Chunk-aligned modular railway system with LTN Stations' or
'Noob attempts train deliveries' or
'Smart Train Deliveries with Combinator Magick [0.13/0.14]' or
How to Build Point-to-Point Logistic Trains in Base Factorio or
'Decentralized Logistic Train Network' or
Vanilla Train Network by Haphollas
and more to find. other inspirations were found in the factorio forums, wiki and other sources.
Can't wait to try it out!
additionally liquids are always transported as full load (50k).
