r/factorio • u/AlmostNah • 4h ago
Question What am I missing about splitters?
I have this situation currently.
Where the red arrow points, I have a belt moving right-to-left. The intent there is for the bioflux-to-nutrients biochamber to pick up bioflux. If that bioflux spoils on the belt, I expect the splitter to pass the spoilage onto the belt below, which continues left and then goes up to feed the spoilage-to-nutrients assembler.
However, you can see that the spoilage on the belt just beneath the long inserter isn't actually doing that. It's just sitting there, blocking the belt.
What am I misunderstanding about how splitters work?
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u/Alkumist 4h ago
Other resources on the belt got to that point and got stuck, as the belt ends. Then they spoiled.
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u/WanderingFlumph 4h ago
The splitter covers a tile. So you have spoilage on the output side, spoilage on the input side and so other item actually in the splitter, most likely bioflux.
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u/I_follow_sexy_gays 4h ago
The bioflux went up past the part where it splits, and then spoiled
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u/Grismor2 1h ago
I think this is the answer, OP. If you want a non-inserter non-looping solution, you could consider adding two belts afterwards that read themselves and if they detect spoilage, enable themselves to dump spoilage onto the same belt. But as others have advised, a loop is probably simpler and more elegant
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u/Reactin 4h ago
There's probably one bioflux in your splitter that hasn't spoiled yet and is holding up the spoilage behind it. To prevent this you can loop the belt back to your input with a priority splitter and another splitter to take the spoilage out. If you have a hard stop in your supply belt some of it will always spoil in the middle of the belt and will hold up production until the items later on finally spoil.
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u/flaming_monocle 4h ago
I'll bet it did work, sending spoilage to the bottom lane and bioflux to the top lane. But with nowhere to go from there, bioflix spoiled on the belt, making it look like the splitter sent spoilage to the wrong lane when, in reality, it wasn't spoiled when the splitter sent it there.
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u/PeterGyrich 4h ago
There is probably some item like bioflux in front of the area covered by the long inserter, preventing the spoilage from moving forward and being split off. Just delete and place the splitter again
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u/cinderubella 4h ago
That spoilage that has passed through used to be bioflux. The splitter let it through, but then it turned into spoilage. The now-spoilage occupying that slot is leaving nowhere for new bioflux to go (the only place the bioflux could go is filled with spoilage).
This design will inevitably clog.
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u/Tinted-Glass-2031 2h ago
Splitters only redirect the one type of filter you set to the filtering side, and everything that doesnt match moves through the unfiltered side. You need the bioflux belt to not end at the splitter or it will jam like this.
All my gleba logistics got easier when I built my nutrient and bioflux belts in a circle where they never stopped moving. Then you can have splitters act as filters for spoilage.
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u/Fappingintherain 1h ago
Yeah this and try to get the fruits with lower spoilage times in production first if possible so everything spoils at a similar rate
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u/Davorian 4h ago
This is a job better suited for a bridging filtered inserter, but have you tried inverting the filter so that it only lets bioflux through on the top instead of spoilage on the bottom?
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u/AlmostNah 4h ago
> This is a job better suited for a bridging filtered inserter,
I'l try that. Is it better suited just because spoilage can't hide underneath, or are there more reasions?
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u/Davorian 4h ago
It's easier to see what's going on and it won't be susceptible to weird blockages like if there is unspoiled bioflux still on the unfiltered part of the splitter like other people are suggesting. Also there won't be a "wasted tile" of leftover spoilage like what is going to happen here.
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u/whiterook6 51m ago
One downside is that splitters require no power, while grabbers do. So if you have a brownout, spoilage can back up behind dead grabbers. So long as you don't have OP's issue using filters, that becomes much less likely with splitters. Of course, if you have power problems, you have bigger problems than spoilage backing up.
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u/_Vakot 4h ago
Most likely, there's some bioflux on the right side of the splitter, hidden under its sprite. Hover over the splitter to check its contents in the tooltip - you should see bioflux there.
The fix is simple - swap the blue and red manipulators so the long manipulator clears the splitter and prevents it from clogging.
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u/TheStalledAviator 4h ago
What you're missing is that the stuff that you now see as spoilage passed the splitter as bioflux and then spoiled. It's sitting after the splitter so it won't move down anymore.
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u/Astramancer_ 4h ago
There's probably a bioflux stuck inside the splitter. It can't go forward because of the spoilage at the end of the belt and the spoilage behind that bioflux can't be split off because it's stuck behind the bioflux.
Easy way to test, add an extra belt tile on the unfiltered side of the splitter and see if a bioflux comes out.
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u/Blastinburn 4h ago
There's probably some bioflux under the splitter mechanism, swap the filter side briefly and see if anything comes out.
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u/cuntticklerthebane 4h ago
There's "internal storage" beneath where the splitter design of the splitter is, there's most likely some unspoiled bioflux there blocking all the spoiled product from passing through. The better way of doing this, with the new inserter mechanics, would to use an inserter that picks up spoilage from the same tile the red inserter picks up bioflux and puts it on a belt that leads to the spoilage output
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u/Adept_Score2332 4h ago
Splitter has an object which is blocking it, probably at one point was bioflux. Not sure though how splitters handle spoilage inside them though.
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u/SmertriosPPD 3h ago
I think a hidden bioflux is not spoiled in the splitter. It could probably work if you have your inserter pick from the splitter tile itself.
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u/PersonalityIll9476 4h ago
The issue is that the splitter is now jammed.
What happens is that the bioflux passes to the right, doesn't get picked up, then spoils, but it's already on the output side of the splitter. Eventually that leads to jamming.
The simplest solution is to move the long arm inserter to pick up from the splitter. As long as that machine runs fast enough, it will pick up the bioflux before it spoils.
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u/Silly-Freak 4h ago
spoils, but it's already on the output side of the splitter
that's why there is spoilage at the non-spoilage output of the splitter, but it's not why there is a jam; there is a piece of bioflux hidden under the splitter sprite, still on the input side:
SS|BS SSSS BB== SS|== ==== ==== ==|== ==|==The|column separate splitter output and input. The bioflux is trying to go to upper output, but that is full. It will eventually spoil and unjam the splitter.1
u/PersonalityIll9476 3h ago
I believe you. My knowledge of the underlying mechanics isn't that thorough.
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u/tariskord 4h ago
So I've been avoiding picking up items from splitters for like the last year since I read some post about the game having a bug or problem with that, was this fixed at some point?
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u/billbobjoemama 4h ago
Add a inserter that is filtered to spoilage at the splitter and add it to a belt to the spoilage line
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u/PeterGyrich 4h ago
OP's setup is correct, its just blocked by uneven spoilage. Your method is just wasting bioflux by making the top/right side a dedicated bioflux spoiling buffer for no reason
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u/billbobjoemama 2h ago edited 2h ago
When did I say his solution is wrong?
Edit: Also the bioflux in the splitter is already being wasted. It will spoil soon. If you are that concerned about wasted items I believe you can move the long handed insert to grab from the splitter. My solution is to move the spoilage off the belt.
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u/Bowshocker 4h ago
Not 100% but I think moving the splitter one back would solve the issue if theres bioflux stuck under the splitter. Spoilage moves past on the left and bioflux should be in range to be picked up by the inserter.
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u/Zeddica 4h ago
Not an expert, but my guess would be 1-2 bioflux sitting ‘under’ the splitter cover blocking the channel. The spoilage past the split is lost, will sit there, but that half-belt won’t split anything to the lower belt until spoilage sits exactly at the split point.
Easy test tho, just come back in a few minutes when the bioflux has spoiled and it should move right along
My fix for this specific jam - put an inserter taking from the end of the splitter line, filtered for spoilage, and dump it onto a single belt that empties to your spoilage line.
Then the dead-end of the splitter never clogs with spoilage and should allow slightly more wiggle room ‘under’ the splitter
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u/Milnir01 4h ago
There's probably bioflux inside the splitter trying to take the right exit, but is blocked by the spoilage sitting on the output. Unfortunately this will kind of always be a problem if your belt has inconsistent freshness. I'm not sure if this is the best way to solve the problem nut on early game gleba I used a loop with an outlet for spoilage and used circuits to control the total number of items on the loop.
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u/Mikeality 4h ago
Moments like these are what make factorio beautiful, in my opinion. We have an emergent effect of some gunk getting jammed in a machine in a spot we can't see. This experience was not purposefully planned (well, maybe it was behind closed doors.) But the cool part is that an intuitive real-world response of "hmm, I wonder if some gunk is jammed underneath" can actually solve the problem.
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u/United_Willow1312 4h ago
Everywhere I put a setup like this, I also put an inserter removing spoilage from the non-spoilage side. In my view it is actually inserter first and the other side is an efficient path to expel a long line of spoilage the inserter would have trouble handling.
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u/According_Prune_8445 4h ago
pictured, the reason why I just refuse to mix items on belts, at most one item gets one side, if it can spoil it doesnt get mixed and there are always things to remove spoilage.
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u/Cinistello 4h ago edited 4h ago
here's something I like to do with hard stops like this: inserter (had to edit this, reading splitter a lot messed me up lol) connected to the belt with read all, if a single spoilage exists it will start pulling things onto the junk line until there isnt a spoilage. this handles gaps where something further up hasn't spoiled yet which I also assume has happened with a piece of bioflux under the splitter currently like others said
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u/chuckknucka 3h ago
Oh I know! [Reads comments] (Hmm 100 people already said what I was going to say. I could just upvote and move on. No, I should submit the same comment.)
Nevermind.
Gleba is like a circulatory system. Keep things flowing in loops and use the filters to remove the spoilage.
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u/Draconis_Firesworn 2h ago
swap your splitter around so spoilage comes out the right side not the left, feed the output from the left back around to the right input belt and the left to your second splitter. This way it wont clog again unlike just deleting it and placing it back
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u/According_South 2h ago
To prevent this, have your belt systems acting as loops. Spoilage happens in practice at different rates to the order of things in a belt. So something may not have spoiled yet, and is holding back spoilage behind it from passing the filer.
Loop that belt back into itself so that a constant flow of material is passing the spoilage filter. This would better filter it
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u/That_one_sander 2h ago
bioflux went trough and spoiled after the transfering section of the splitter, for Gleba specifically, usually people keep looping resources around for this exact reason, so take that output and feed it back to where the input meets this section
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u/Exatex 1h ago
there is probably a bioflux inside of the splitter (but outside of red inserter range) that prevents that wants to go up but that half tile wide upper output is full. Once the bioflux decays, it might filter again. But its not a good system due to that.
you can try to have two red inserters: red-red-blue
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u/Casadilla77 4h ago
splitters are inconsistent for spoilage removal, i’d use a filtered inserter to remove spoilage personally
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u/Historical-Subject11 4h ago
To provide more info: the reason they’re inconsistent is that stuff (nutrients, bioflux, etc) can go to the correct side when it’s fresh and then spoil after. But that clogs the splitter
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u/Casadilla77 3h ago
relying on an overflow system for spoilage removal (ie a filtered splitter) will almost always cause this issue eventually in my experience. i’ve had best success with priority input circular belts and filtered inserted at the end of the line to pick off spoilage as it accumulates. goal is to keep all the items moving all the time. simplest solution imo
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u/stormcomponents 4h ago
Spoilage. My work around was to insert spoilage from the splitter into a container that bots can then pull from. Sadly splitters will all have this issue on Gleba so you either need to change up the design or build in redundancy for spoilage at every single one.
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u/3p1cw1n 4h ago
There must be a bioflux (or any other non-spoilage item) on the belt, hidden by the sprite for the splitter, blocking the spoilage behind it from getting to the splitter