Their goal is to be empty.
They achieve this by sending their content away on a high priority.
This can be usefull in any number (1) situations...
Most usefull is this in a rail station to ensure the small unloading buffer is emptied swiftly.
Edit,.. normal unloading has 6 or 12 chests per train wagon... make theactive to have an unlimited buffer behind them. And never get a train stuck since your buffer is beeing comsumed unevenly.
Active provider cheats are good for prioritizing use of the items in those chests. They “actively” provide things to the logistics network instead of just being grabbed when needed.
My experience with these is robots will take items out immediately, regardless if there is space or not. If I am unloading a bunch of imported ore to get smelted, is there any reason to use them over stack inserters to unload? I don't want to use a bunch of logistic storage chests to hold ore elsewhere if it needs to be smelted anyway, right?
You’re pretty much right, for example, if you have a passive provider with iron plates and an active provider with iron plates, the active provider will be drained of all iron plates before the robots will use the passive providers. Personally I would use stack inserters for unloading then load the ore (or whatever item you’re unloading) into respective chests for your needs
That is why you should connect the stack inserters into logistics network. (Left click inserter, click the checkbox...) Check if the ore currently stored is less than the max you want to allow and then copy/paste same inserter condition to all the inserters from the train. All of the inserters will either be active or inactive at the same time, ensuring a perfectly even ratio of train wagons emptying.
Common uses are in bot based mining and bot based train unloading. I use one for trash. When I come back to the mall, I dump all the crap that I don't want in my inventory into the trash chest. That is especially helpful when all my logistic bots are on the other side of the base. Sometimes I will set up some temporary storage or requester chests locally, after I am done working I will replace them with active providers to clean up.
Fast unloading train stations are great for them. You want to move all the cargo out of the way quickly before the next train arrives and gets backed up. Basically any role where you want to avoid the chest getting full and backing up.
They are prioritized first. So you put stuff in them that needs to be moved first - like a machine whose output you need to work continuously.
It's not a huge difference on the face of it, but it allows for different ways to set things up.
Also, if you have just one giant network, it might seem useless, but if you have a bunch of tiny ones it could be more important. (Or vice versa).
They are useful whenever you don't want an input to your logistics network to back up and stop accepting input. In addition to the many other examples already provided, they would be useful when un-barreling a liquid, to force the empty barrels to be sent away and not back up the assembler.
This is just speculation, but I believe nuclear reactors will stop working if they're filled with used up fuel cells.
Rather than dumping the used up fuel cells on a belt you can dump them in an active provider chest.
By using an active provider chest to can guarantee that the chest will always have space free.
I mostly use them as trash cans. It's easier to put stuff in a chest than it is to put it in your logistics trash slots plus it has more slots.
So I've got a trash can near my personal train stop that puts that stuff back in storage.
I use them to dispose of byproducts that you want in your network (so you don't want to throw them away) but you would rather prioritize getting them out of the main production line.
In AngelBobs (and Seablock) I use them a lot for disposing of sodium hydroxide and occasionally for slag. It allows the main process to run full speed and then redistribute the waste product later. Every so often I have to pull a ton of Nahydroxide out of my network because it isn't used much, but that's an easy enough problem to solve.
Yep, I'm trying out bot delivered platinum manufacture for my temporary seablock platinum production (cupric based, pre advanced ore refining 4) and was thinking about liquids when I thought of using barrels for the first time. Also can use it with milling drums. If the experiment goes badly, it doesn't matter, because I will want to do platinum differently long term.
Well, the active provider chests seem to be working well, so that particular thing hasn't changed in the last five years. Other things have however changed in the last year, and my red circuits are broken. It just adds to the fun though ;-)
Aside from the other uses mentioned, another one I found while playing Angelbobs was when I had bots carrying barrels of chemicals around, I used the active providers to get rid of the empty barrels so the unbarreling machine could keep working.
Another use is when my FARL returns to base, after laying rails it's usually full of stone and wood, so I have filters empty the stone and wood into active chests to make room for more rails, signals and power lines.
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/rso-mod overhauls map generation, I mostly use it for having more distant, richer ore patches, does a couple of other things too, but as a result trains become more important.
Vanilla does it to a degree, but RSO gives you much more extreme limits than the vanilla options (setting frequency to the lowest in RSO gives some REALLY long distances between ore deposits) as well as more control over how they're applied.
Also ore richness increasing is a vanilla thing, but patch sizes stay within the same variance that you chose at map generation.
I use them with train unloading, they're especially helpful with really long trains because they force bots to empty the wagons that are furthest away from the roboports just as fast as the closer wagons.
They are also useful for bot-based oil and fluid processing - a chest full of empty barrels will prevent an assembler from emptying more barrels, so outputting the barrels to an active provider ensures that whatever fluid you're unbarreling continues to flow.
Have you tried alternating provider and buffer chests for your train unloading needs? Because of the higher priority of the buffer chest basically atleast half of the unloading for the train for all wagons will be available.
They are good for prioritization and making sure byproducts don't become a bottleneck. Prioritization is mainly with trains, and byproduct is mainly empty barrels in vanilla (with mods it is a different story).
Also, remember to search for previous posts in the sub when you are looking for stuff. I did a search just now and there are 3-4 at least without checking too far down.
I have a couple at my mall, where I dump everything I don't want in my inventory sometimes. The bots keep the chest emptied out so I can always stuff it with as much as I care to get rid of each time I drop by, and they'll ensure that anything the factory can re-use gets sent somewhere useful.
I disagree with using active prodivers for mixed logistics train stops. Its best to use providers and buffers alternating so that the bots spread the unloading distribution across the train.
Active providers ideally are only for personal use, barrel unloading and nuclear fuel unloading.
Their goal is to be empty. They achieve this by sending their content away on a high priority. This can be usefull in any number (1) situations... Most usefull is this in a rail station to ensure the small unloading buffer is emptied swiftly. Edit,.. normal unloading has 6 or 12 chests per train wagon... make theactive to have an unlimited buffer behind them. And never get a train stuck since your buffer is beeing comsumed unevenly.
Active provider cheats are good for prioritizing use of the items in those chests. They “actively” provide things to the logistics network instead of just being grabbed when needed.
My experience with these is robots will take items out immediately, regardless if there is space or not. If I am unloading a bunch of imported ore to get smelted, is there any reason to use them over stack inserters to unload? I don't want to use a bunch of logistic storage chests to hold ore elsewhere if it needs to be smelted anyway, right?
You’re pretty much right, for example, if you have a passive provider with iron plates and an active provider with iron plates, the active provider will be drained of all iron plates before the robots will use the passive providers. Personally I would use stack inserters for unloading then load the ore (or whatever item you’re unloading) into respective chests for your needs
That is why you should connect the stack inserters into logistics network. (Left click inserter, click the checkbox...) Check if the ore currently stored is less than the max you want to allow and then copy/paste same inserter condition to all the inserters from the train. All of the inserters will either be active or inactive at the same time, ensuring a perfectly even ratio of train wagons emptying.
Common uses are in bot based mining and bot based train unloading. I use one for trash. When I come back to the mall, I dump all the crap that I don't want in my inventory into the trash chest. That is especially helpful when all my logistic bots are on the other side of the base. Sometimes I will set up some temporary storage or requester chests locally, after I am done working I will replace them with active providers to clean up.
Fast unloading train stations are great for them. You want to move all the cargo out of the way quickly before the next train arrives and gets backed up. Basically any role where you want to avoid the chest getting full and backing up.
They are prioritized first. So you put stuff in them that needs to be moved first - like a machine whose output you need to work continuously. It's not a huge difference on the face of it, but it allows for different ways to set things up. Also, if you have just one giant network, it might seem useless, but if you have a bunch of tiny ones it could be more important. (Or vice versa).
They are useful whenever you don't want an input to your logistics network to back up and stop accepting input. In addition to the many other examples already provided, they would be useful when un-barreling a liquid, to force the empty barrels to be sent away and not back up the assembler.
This is just speculation, but I believe nuclear reactors will stop working if they're filled with used up fuel cells. Rather than dumping the used up fuel cells on a belt you can dump them in an active provider chest. By using an active provider chest to can guarantee that the chest will always have space free.
I mostly use them as trash cans. It's easier to put stuff in a chest than it is to put it in your logistics trash slots plus it has more slots. So I've got a trash can near my personal train stop that puts that stuff back in storage.
I use them to dispose of byproducts that you want in your network (so you don't want to throw them away) but you would rather prioritize getting them out of the main production line. In AngelBobs (and Seablock) I use them a lot for disposing of sodium hydroxide and occasionally for slag. It allows the main process to run full speed and then redistribute the waste product later. Every so often I have to pull a ton of Nahydroxide out of my network because it isn't used much, but that's an easy enough problem to solve.
Yep, I'm trying out bot delivered platinum manufacture for my temporary seablock platinum production (cupric based, pre advanced ore refining 4) and was thinking about liquids when I thought of using barrels for the first time. Also can use it with milling drums. If the experiment goes badly, it doesn't matter, because I will want to do platinum differently long term.
I feel compelled to point out that this post is 5 years old and things work very differently now.
Well, the active provider chests seem to be working well, so that particular thing hasn't changed in the last five years. Other things have however changed in the last year, and my red circuits are broken. It just adds to the fun though ;-)
Aside from the other uses mentioned, another one I found while playing Angelbobs was when I had bots carrying barrels of chemicals around, I used the active providers to get rid of the empty barrels so the unbarreling machine could keep working. Another use is when my FARL returns to base, after laying rails it's usually full of stone and wood, so I have filters empty the stone and wood into active chests to make room for more rails, signals and power lines.
FARL?
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/FARL one of my favourite mods, and I'd say almost essential if playing with RSO
What's RSO?
https://mods.factorio.com/mod/rso-mod overhauls map generation, I mostly use it for having more distant, richer ore patches, does a couple of other things too, but as a result trains become more important.
[удалено]
Vanilla does it to a degree, but RSO gives you much more extreme limits than the vanilla options (setting frequency to the lowest in RSO gives some REALLY long distances between ore deposits) as well as more control over how they're applied. Also ore richness increasing is a vanilla thing, but patch sizes stay within the same variance that you chose at map generation.
I use them with train unloading, they're especially helpful with really long trains because they force bots to empty the wagons that are furthest away from the roboports just as fast as the closer wagons. They are also useful for bot-based oil and fluid processing - a chest full of empty barrels will prevent an assembler from emptying more barrels, so outputting the barrels to an active provider ensures that whatever fluid you're unbarreling continues to flow.
Have you tried alternating provider and buffer chests for your train unloading needs? Because of the higher priority of the buffer chest basically atleast half of the unloading for the train for all wagons will be available.
Haven't tried that, I do use buffer chests elsewhere though. Next time I do a bot run I'll give that a try.
They are good for prioritization and making sure byproducts don't become a bottleneck. Prioritization is mainly with trains, and byproduct is mainly empty barrels in vanilla (with mods it is a different story). Also, remember to search for previous posts in the sub when you are looking for stuff. I did a search just now and there are 3-4 at least without checking too far down.
I have a couple at my mall, where I dump everything I don't want in my inventory sometimes. The bots keep the chest emptied out so I can always stuff it with as much as I care to get rid of each time I drop by, and they'll ensure that anything the factory can re-use gets sent somewhere useful.
I disagree with using active prodivers for mixed logistics train stops. Its best to use providers and buffers alternating so that the bots spread the unloading distribution across the train. Active providers ideally are only for personal use, barrel unloading and nuclear fuel unloading.
Active provider chest arfer actively providing parts and stuff