The use of smart lockers

[Ketmol]

I have been trying to figure out if there is any real use for the output signal from smart lockers. And I might have one.

However if it is useful or just pointless depends on something else. 

Do convoy loaders, and other power-consuming machinery connected to they convoy system draw power when idle or just when actually active, picking up stuff, moving stuff etc?

If they do use power when idle you could set a smart locker connected to your convoy system to shut it off when storage of the item is full. Lets say you move coal from fertilizers where hatches produce coal from fertilizer via convoy belts to a storage next to coal plants where they automatically get loaded to the coal plants themselves. If the convoy machinery draw power when idle it would be useful to have the locker at the coalplants connected to the convoy-belt and all convoy machinery connected to that belt shutting it off whenever  the storage at the coal plants is full of coal since that would save power.

[Neotuck]

I checked and idle machines don't draw power 

[JonnyMonroe]

You can still use this to only load items onto a conveyor when there's room for them at the receiving end. If you use a single rail to move multiple items and sort them at the recieveng end this is an important function to prevent an item clogging up the system when it's storage is full.

Problem is its so much easier to just use seperate rails instead.

[Ketmol]

23 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

I checked and idle machines don't draw power 

And that goes for loaders and receivers too?

edit: If so I am almost a bit sad about it despite it saving me energy and making it less complicated to set up convoy systems in a power efficient way because it could have been an actual use for smart lockers....

[Saturnus]

Just now, Ketmol said:

And that goes for loaders and receivers too?

Yes. Although receivers don't even have a power input so it's not really relevant.

[Neotuck]

1 minute ago, Ketmol said:

And that goes for loaders and receivers too?

Receivers don't use power to begin with but yes

[Ketmol]

1 minute ago, Neotuck said:

Receivers don't use power to begin with but yes

oh yeah, did not have the game open when writing this and had forgotten that they didn t

 

So ..well this idea down the drain then, anyone of you guys who found some use for them because I have tried to think of something but coming up short?

[Saturnus]

Smart storages are still very buggy. The only way to sort of reliably getting them to work is to once some stuff is loaded into them you slide the maximum storage slider to zero and then back to maximum while the game is running. It will not work reliably if you're on pause while moving the slider. You can currently only use them with maximum setting. Anything lower and it will not always trigger. You also can't use them with materials that sublimates or you'll get random crashes.

[Lacost]

56 minutes ago, Ketmol said:

So ..well this idea down the drain then, anyone of you guys who found some use for them because I have tried to think of something but coming up short?

You can use them for semi-automatic Hatch farms. Once the fertilizer smart storage is full, a signal is triggering that catches the attention of the player (constantly closing doors or something else). You then manually empty the storage and do something else until it is full again.

 

Credit to:

 

[Neotuck]

16 minutes ago, Lacost said:

You can use them for semi-automatic Hatch farms. Once the fertilizer smart storage is full, a signal is triggering that catches the attention of the player (constantly closing doors or something else). You then manually empty the storage and do something else until it is full again.

You can go full auto hatch feeding with a sweeper and a 3 second ticking logic circuit 

[manu_x32]

Aren't smart lockers as unusable as smart fridges?  When I try to use the smart fridge, it always gets like 97, 98 or 99 percent full, rarely hits 100%, so it rarely triggers. There's always partial portions in there. And even if you set the fridge or locker to contain less than 100%, you still get the problem, it rarely reaches the max you have set.

If they worked properly, I would use them for turning off machines like the rock granulator when I have enough metal, or enough sand, etc... Just like turning off cooking machines when I have enough food.

[Saturnus]

2 minutes ago, manu_x32 said:

Aren't smart lockers as unusable as smart fridges?

See my post above

[Supraluminal]

I'm trying to use smart storage to maintain a certain quantity of materials at a remote supply depot, shipping out from a central warehouse. The compactor is supposed to send a signal back to the warehouse to stop sending material once it's full, but the buggy behavior makes it frustratingly unreliable.

[manu_x32]

10 minutes ago, Saturnus said:

See my post above

Lol, thread must have been open as you wrote that. Didn't know the sliders were buggy, will have to try again.

I did get them to trigger, but not reliably, so that may be it. Thanks!