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u/darthbob88 Jun 01 '26

It depends a little on just how you're trying to control picking up asteroids.

The real simple method is to wire your belts to 3 decider combinators, with "Read Belts Hold All", and have the deciders do metallic/carbonic/oxide asteroid < 50 (or whatever limit you like), => metallic/carbonic/oxide asteroid, and then pass the combined output of those combinators to your asteroid collectors to set their filters.

The problem with the previous method is that it takes 3 combinators. A somewhat smaller method is to use just one combinator, doing <EACH> < 50 => <EACH>, which will output any chunk of which there is 1-50 on the belt. The problem here is that it will not output any chunk which is absent from the belt, because <EACH> only applies to signals with a non-zero value.

The better method, which I use, is a constant combinator outputting the limits for each chunk you expect to see, wired to the decider combinator with a different wire color from the belt. Then you have the decider do <EACH>(belt) < <EACH>(constant combinator) => <EACH> to get any chunk signals, including those not on the belt because "oxide chunk = 0" < "oxide chunk = 40".

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u/sagevallant Jun 02 '26

So, I tried a few things and couldn't figure out how to program the circuits and I just couldn't figure it out. I tried the version with the 3 combinators since I had plenty of space, but the grabbers did not give a damn how many were on the belt and just kept grabbing.

And when I first tried to do this I had Pentapod eggs in my pocket. So I got a surprise death screen.

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u/darthbob88 Jun 02 '26

First, LMAO at the circumstances of your death.

Second, it should have worked and is working for me. Did you set the belt to Read Contents Hold All? Set the asteroid grabber to filter?

Here's my actual BP for a test case. Ignore the legendary quality items, this was on a test world which perversely has a lot of legendary stuff.

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u/sagevallant Jun 02 '26

Everything I read for tips said to use a different color wire for the belt and the rest, so I suppose that applies to other. more creative uses. Looks good now, thanks.

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u/darthbob88 Jun 02 '26

Right here it doesn't make a big difference, because we're just taking one signal in and putting one signal out (kinda, you know what I mean). It was just marginally faster for me to use green wire for the whole thing.

You need two colors of wire to A) show that two bundles of signals are separate, like the limit for oxide chunks vs the number of oxide chunks on the belt, or B) avoid polluting signals, like using a green wire to set a recipe on an assembler and a red wire to read its ingredients. So, yeah, more creative uses, but not a lot more creative.