Timers run all their actions at once in a single “tick” of the game’s 60hz clock. So it’s turning your ejector on and the immediately off in the same 1/60th second interval so nothing happens.
You need two timers: the first with a 3m countdown and actions set up to turn on the light, turn on the connector, and start the second timer. The second timer should have a short (1-10s but you’ll have to tune it) countdown with actions set to turn off the light, turn off the connector, and start the first timer. Start (or trigger now) the first timer to begin the process and it should loop forever, turning the connector on for a few seconds every 3m.
You might need to restart it on game loads. I don’t recall if the game restores the timer start on load. It may also behave differently in a local game vs. a server.
Cheers u/zeromeasure
Two timer blocks work perfectly and the process survives a game load. Set the timer for 5:00 and with two industrial refineries it works just fine dumping 21.6K gravel per time..
u/Hype365 \- Good to know, thanks. I still like the unifying of the gravel into one large blob. Feels like I accomplished something. :)
u/Capital-Plan-1563 Tried that after getting the two timers working and will take some time to figure that out. Will use it in the future, no doubt.
u/mickelan Love that, will save for later when I get off planet and sort out an asteroid base.
Unless you increase the limit, the default number of "floating" objects is like 64 I think so after 64 tiny pieces of stone are ejected, the first one ejected gets despawned when the 65th one ejects. The hole should never fill up.
A more advanced setup would be conveyor sorter set to whitelist gravel going to a cargo container, then another conveyor sorter to a connector set to collect all and throw out. One event controller set to turn on the second sorter once the cargo container fills to a certain point, and another event controller to turn off the second sorter once the cargo container drains to a certain point.
If you want a simpler setup, then use two timer blocks like zeromeasure shows.
I increased the number of refineries on my base and found the gravel was clogging the refineries up again. Fiddled with the timers, but as processing ramps up and down I was still getting periods of small gravel amounts.
Instead of playing with the timer blocks I just set up an event controller linked to the Collector holding the gravel. When the Collector gravel inventory is 95% or higher, it triggers the Collector on, then turns on the second timer block I used previously with a short countdown to turn it off.
Now it only fires when there is just over 20K or more gravel. It adapts to my production runs and keeps things moving regardless of the volume processed.
Am wondering if this can be weaponized. I wonder what damage 20K of rapidly moving gravel does when it impacts a pirate ship. :)
Thanks for the suggestion u/mickelan
Timers run all their actions at once in a single “tick” of the game’s 60hz clock. So it’s turning your ejector on and the immediately off in the same 1/60th second interval so nothing happens. You need two timers: the first with a 3m countdown and actions set up to turn on the light, turn on the connector, and start the second timer. The second timer should have a short (1-10s but you’ll have to tune it) countdown with actions set to turn off the light, turn off the connector, and start the first timer. Start (or trigger now) the first timer to begin the process and it should loop forever, turning the connector on for a few seconds every 3m. You might need to restart it on game loads. I don’t recall if the game restores the timer start on load. It may also behave differently in a local game vs. a server.
Cheers u/zeromeasure Two timer blocks work perfectly and the process survives a game load. Set the timer for 5:00 and with two industrial refineries it works just fine dumping 21.6K gravel per time.. u/Hype365 \- Good to know, thanks. I still like the unifying of the gravel into one large blob. Feels like I accomplished something. :) u/Capital-Plan-1563 Tried that after getting the two timers working and will take some time to figure that out. Will use it in the future, no doubt. u/mickelan Love that, will save for later when I get off planet and sort out an asteroid base.
Unless you increase the limit, the default number of "floating" objects is like 64 I think so after 64 tiny pieces of stone are ejected, the first one ejected gets despawned when the 65th one ejects. The hole should never fill up.
Use an event controller to turn on throw out option on your connector when a certain amount of cargo has been filled on that particular connector
A more advanced setup would be conveyor sorter set to whitelist gravel going to a cargo container, then another conveyor sorter to a connector set to collect all and throw out. One event controller set to turn on the second sorter once the cargo container fills to a certain point, and another event controller to turn off the second sorter once the cargo container drains to a certain point. If you want a simpler setup, then use two timer blocks like zeromeasure shows.
I increased the number of refineries on my base and found the gravel was clogging the refineries up again. Fiddled with the timers, but as processing ramps up and down I was still getting periods of small gravel amounts. Instead of playing with the timer blocks I just set up an event controller linked to the Collector holding the gravel. When the Collector gravel inventory is 95% or higher, it triggers the Collector on, then turns on the second timer block I used previously with a short countdown to turn it off. Now it only fires when there is just over 20K or more gravel. It adapts to my production runs and keeps things moving regardless of the volume processed. Am wondering if this can be weaponized. I wonder what damage 20K of rapidly moving gravel does when it impacts a pirate ship. :) Thanks for the suggestion u/mickelan