Howto get just one chunk from a conveyor meter

[madcat1188]

I recently completed my first successful nuclear power generator. To test how it responds to various amounts of enriched uranium, I wanted to use conveyors and auto sweepers to load the uranium into the research reactor, and keep the uranium in a locked room where dupes couldn't get their grubby hands on it. I wanted the conveyor meter to send one, and only one 10 kg chunk of uranium when the automation line from the reactor changes from red to green, and wait for it to change from red to green again before sending another chunk. Initially I just connected that line directly to the reset port of the conveyor meter, but I found that it continually reset itself and sent out a continuous stream of 10 kg chunks while reset was set to green.

Next I tried my usual "one-shot" automation build, which is a memory toggle with a filter gate connected across the set and reset ports. When the input is set to it is green, it changes to green, then back to red after the filter gate delay time passes, since a memory toggle will output red if its reset port is set to green, even if the set port remains green. Even if I set the delay time to 0.1 sec, I would sometimes get just one chunk, and sometimes two.

I tried all sorts of things to prevent it from sending two chunks in a row, like AND gating the conveyor meter output to the reset signal, and using conveyor shutoffs, but nothing worked. The problem was that I wanted the conveyor meter to not do anything while I was resetting it. Then it dawned on me, if I don't want the conveyor meter to do anything, why not just disconnect its power? That's where the power shutoff comes into play.

I connected the output of the "one-shot" into both a buffer and a filter. The buffer adds one second to the length of the green signal, and is then sent through a NOT gate and controls the power shutoff. The filter delays one second and is connected to the reset on the conveyor meter. This makes it so that the power is disconnected from the conveyor meter for three seconds, and reset is set to green during only the second of the three seconds. The conveyor meter is powered down while reset goes from red, to green, then back to red again.

In the picture below, the filter gate on the left side is set to 2 sec, and the buffer and filter on the right are both 1 sec.

PS: I did see the Francis John video where he does this with two auto sweepers and a storage bin, but I wanted to get it working with a conveyor meter so I could try out the new toy.

 

[mfd]

This should work.

[madcat1188]

Yeah, I can confirm that that works too. The way you have it set up there you set both the set and reset ports of the memory toggle to green at the same time, or perhaps there is a tiny delay while the green signal propagates through the buffer. The output of the memory toggle is green for such a short period of time I don't even see it go green even on slow speed, but it does appear to reset the conveyor meter just once.