Originally shared on the public FactorioPrints / Factorio School archive (factorioprints.com · factorio.school). Authorship preserved from the public catalog.
A set of two blueprints to produce T3 modules without relying on advanced production facilities. It employs direct-insertion of T1 to T2, and T2 to T3. Belt-fed for all the required circuits, but planet-specific ingredients are requested from the logistics network.
How to build:
Build one instance of the "Start" blueprint
Blueprint is parameterized - this sets the initial T3 module recipe and the logistics storage chest filter
Recipe type and/or quantity can be changed on the fly using the appropriate constant combinator
Caveats: after switching the module type, it is necessary to clear the trash slots of the assembling machines (ctrl-click them), and then alter the filter on the logistics storage chest (can't be set via circuit network)
Changing only the quantity does not require manual intervention
Connect the right-hand belts to the required resources:
Top: Electronic Circuits (green)
Middle: Advanced Circuits (red)
Processing Units (blue)
Consumption per minute of each is listed in the blueprint description
Ensure that a roboport is in-range of the logistic requester and storage chests, and that the logistics network has access to something that provides the relevant planet-specific resource(s) for the module type(s) you intend to craft
Ensure that the blueprint is entirely isolated from other circuit network(s)
That's it, you will have one complete T3 module factory
How to Expand
Use the Continuation blueprint
Not parameterized
Uses a passive provider chest instead of a storage chest - change it to an active provider if you want your bots to shift all the modules to the filtered storage chest from the Start blueprint
Automagically sets machine recipes by connecting to the circuit networks from the Start blueprint
Attach this blueprint to the left-hand side of the Start blueprint (or a previously-constructed copy of the Continuation blueprint)
Overlay the right-hand power poles over the matching ones on the left-hand side of the Start blueprint (or a previously constructed Continuation blueprint)
Super-force-build so that the underground belt entrance replaces the plain belt at the end of the previous blueprint
Connect 2 green wire networks so that the machine set-recipe signals are passed down the chain:
Connect the top-right assembling machine of this blueprint to the adjacent assembling machine from the previously-constructed blueprint (the top-left of that blueprint)
Connect the bottom-right assembling machine of this blueprint to the adjacent assembling machine from the previously-constructed blueprint (the bottom-left of that blueprint)
All other circuit network connections are handled by the overlaid power poles
Now you have two (or more) T3 module assembling subfactories connected and managed by one control combinator block
Up to 11 total instances of these blueprints can be connected to one another (i.e. 11 machines producing T3 modules) - connecting more results in a shortage of advanced circuits (red)
Upgrading all belts to the fast (red) variant doubles the amount of instances that can be chained to 22
How it works:
The chunky block of combinators on the Start blueprint reads the T3 module signal from a constant combinator
This signal is then used to automagically set the recipes on all assembling machines and also set the requester chest(s) to import the needed planet-specific resource
The T3 assembling machine (top-center) has its recipe set using the configured T3 module signal
The T3 recipe ingredients are read back from the machine and used to determine the dependent planetary ingredient and T2 module
T1 modules are selected by then examining the T2 recipe
Selector combinators are used (by index) to select the needed ingredient signals for all tiers of related modules
Efficiency modules are a special case, given that the index order of their planetary and T2 module ingredients are flipped compared to the other T3 modules - this is handled for you by the control block
There are many notes in the descriptions of most combinators to explain what they are doing and why
Generally speaking, the F and I signals shouldn't need to be altered
The F signal is the scaling factor for how many of the planetary resource should be requested by each requester chest (default 5)
The I signal is the base index used by the selector combinators to correctly identify the resource signals from the T3 module recipes - if your green network has more signals on it for some reason, you might need to adjust this number
The main red circuit network contains a virtual signal "3" which is based on the T3 module demand compared to the count of T3 modules in the attached storage and provider chest(s)
Negative values indicate how many modules remain to be assembled before the configured amount is ready
Positive values indicates a surplus - maybe you disassembled something recently and the bots stored some modules here
All red-network-connected assembling machines and inserters have an enable condition based on the "3" signal, meaning that they turn off once the target amount of modules have been produced
This "generified" virtual signal is used so that the module types are not hard-coded in the conditions (this is a big part of the magic that allows switching the T3 module recipe and having things "just work")
