Status Combinator
Bottleneck Lite tells you why a machine is idle. Status Combinator tells your circuit network.
Place it next to a crafting machine, furnace, mining drill, rocket silo or lab, point the arrow at the machine, and it outputs one signal describing what that machine is doing right now:
| Signal | Meaning |
|---|---|
| W | Working |
| I | Input starved: no ingredients, missing fluid, ore patch depleted, missing science packs |
| O | Output blocked: output full, waiting for space |
| P | Power problem: no power, low power, no fuel, not connected |
| X | Anything else: no recipe, disabled, marked for deconstruction, ... |
Vanilla's "Read working" only tells you whether a machine is idle. This tells you why.
Usage
- The arrow on the combinator shows which side it reads. Rotate it to change sides.
- It has to touch the machine directly (any tile along any edge, not diagonally).
- Hover over it to outline the machine it's reading.
- Click it to see the machine and its current status.
- Wire several together and the signals add up: I = 5 means five starved machines.
Ideas
- Light up a lamp when a smelter column is output-blocked
- Count how many drills on a patch have run dry
- Throttle or switch a mall machine when its inputs run out
- Alarm when anything on a line loses power
Performance
Machine status isn't exposed to the circuit network, so this mod checks it from script. It updates a fixed number of combinators per tick (60 by default, adjustable in map settings) and only writes a signal when the category changes. The cost scales with how many status combinators you place, not with the size of your factory.
Recipe
1 constant combinator + 1 electronic circuit. Unlocked by the same technology that unlocks the constant combinator.
Compatibility
- Factorio 2.0 and 2.1. Space Age not required.
- Works with any modded machine that is an assembling machine, furnace, mining drill, rocket silo or lab.
- Recipe and unlock adapt to mods that change the constant combinator.
Inspired by Bottleneck Lite by raiguard.