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Automation Guide: Conveyor, Sorter & Fractionator Patterns

Automation in Dyson Sphere Program is the set of buildings, conveyors and controls you use to move, transform and store resources so production runs unattended and at predictable rates. Good automation minimizes chokepoints, prevents byproduct clogging (notably Hydrogen), and scales cleanly as you upgrade belts, sorters and labs.

Core transport: conveyor belts, splitters and stacking

  • Conveyor Belts are the basic item transport. Tiers: Conveyor Belt MK.I, MK.II, MK.III. Higher tiers increase throughput (use MK.III for high-throughput mid/late-game lines). Belts can be routed in three path modes, raised or lowered to make over/underpasses, and placed at different altitudes for vertical routing.
  • Direct interaction: you can place or pick items directly from a belt tile via the interaction port or flip the whole path direction.
  • Splitters distribute and merge belts reliably. They have four ports, three placement patterns (cycle with Tab), per-port priority and a filter on the prioritized output (one item filter). Use splitters for main-bus splitting, for priority feeds (send local products first), and to separate multi-output building lines.
  • Automatic stacking (pilers and stacked outputs): Automatic Pilers can stack identical items on a belt up to 4-high; mining machines and logistics stations can be set to output in stacks when unlocked. Stacking multiplies belt capacity but requires compatible downstream handling (Pile Sorters or appropriately upgraded Sorters). Use piling to economize high-tier belts over distance or to let slower sorters act like faster ones.

Point-to-point transfer: Sorters, Storages, Logistics

  • Sorters move items between belts and buildings. Tiers: Sorter MK.I (1.5 trips/s), MK.II (3.0), MK.III (6.0). Mk.III and pile-capable sorters may move stacked cargo once tech allows. Sorters support filters so you can pull only the required item from mixed belts. Use at least MK.II for fuel delivery to Thermal Power Stations to avoid brownouts.
  • Storage (Depot/Storage MKs) provide configurable buffering. Storage MK.I can sit on top of a Splitter; Logistics Distributor can be placed on top of storages to allow logistics bots to service that storage automatically.
  • Logistics Distributors and Logistics Bots let you lift items across a planet within distribution range (unlock upgrades to expand range and carrier numbers). Configure minimum/maximum slot quantities to keep Icarus stocked. Logistics Distributors handle one item type each; they are ideal for remote buffer–factory interactions and moving items where building belts are impractical.

Building automation: Assemblers, Matrix Labs, Refineries, Chemical/Arc buildings

  • Assemblers (Assembling Machine Mk.I/II/III etc.) craft items automatically when supplied. They have sorter ports on each face and different speeds/power draw per tier. Use Mk.I assemblers when energy is scarce; upgrade when throughput or footprint requires it.
  • Matrix Labs: produce and consume science matrices. They can be set to production or research mode. When producing matrices, plan lab counts to match belt throughput (example: Energy Matrix production needs substantially more input than Electromagnetic Matrix). Labs stack vertically for space-efficient scaling; ensure supply belts/input sorters can sustain stacked throughput.
  • Oil Refineries, Chemical Plants, and other continuous-process buildings: some outputs are byproducts (Hydrogen from refineries). Those byproducts must be handled (recycled or prioritized) to keep the producing chain operating at full efficiency.

Fractionators and gases (Hydrogen / Deuterium) — continuous belt buildings

  • Fractionator is a continuous-process building that takes Hydrogen on belt inputs and outputs Deuterium on its front with Hydrogen passing through otherwise. Its output rate depends on belt speed, stack size and input saturation — it converts ~1% of the moving hydrogen into Deuterium per pass, so belt tier and stacking dramatically affect yield.
  • Fractionators draw full power while processing any hydrogen; power consumption and deuterium-per-energy change with input flow (higher flow requires more belts but produces proportionally more Deuterium provided the loop is arranged properly).
  • Common fractionator setups use MK.III belt loops with T-junction refill or automatic pilers to maintain high saturation. Watch for produced Hydrogen accumulating and clogging loops — use T-junction priority or splitters to give local hydrogen priority over imported hydrogen.

Handling Hydrogen byproducts and priorities

  • Several processes (X‑Ray Cracking in Refineries, some Matrix recipes, oil refining) produce Hydrogen as a byproduct. Excess Hydrogen can clog production lines that produce Hydrogen as a side-effect (e.g., Plasma Refinement or X‑Ray Cracking) because some buildings refuse to output when their designated output is full, slowing or stalling upstream production.
  • Solutions:
    • Local priority: arrange splitters or T-junctions so locally produced Hydrogen is consumed before imports (prevents orbital collector hydrogen from flooding the line).
    • Looping and recycling: route refinery Hydrogen back into the consuming recipe where possible (e.g., X‑Ray Cracking loops).
    • Use Traffic Monitors to detect flow and alert on low/high hydrogen movement conditions (see below).
    • Export surplus with Interstellar Logistics Stations (set collectors to remote supply and ILS to remote demand) or store in Storage Tanks/Storage (liquid storage) as buffering.

Stations, Orbital Collectors and Interstellar Logistics

  • Planetary Interstellar Logistics Stations have four slots of 5000 each. Set each slot to Supply/Demand/Storage and connect belts directly (no sorters required for belt ports). Use them to import/export large-volume items (Hydrogen/Deuterium/Energy resources). Remote Supply/Demand toggles determine whether Orbital Collectors will push resources.
  • Orbital Collectors harvest Gas Giant resources (Hydrogen/Deuterium/Fire Ice) and can be set to remote supply. Place Interstellar Logistics Stations with remote demand and power to pull these products down. When combining local and imported hydrogen, enforce priority so imported hydrogen doesn't block local production.
  • Energy Exchangers can convert local accumulators to Accumulator(Full) items for interstellar shipment; they draw up to 54 MW when charging. Use them to ship power long-distance via logistics.

Flow control and monitoring

  • Traffic Monitors measure belt throughput over a configurable Cycle (1–60s) and compare to a Target flow with logical Conditions (=, ≠, ≥, >, ≤, <). They can trigger global or speaker alerts on Pass/Fail, Pass cargo / No cargo combinations. Use them to:
    • Alert when fuel lines fall below target throughput.
    • Detect hydrogen byproduct clogging (monitor hydrogen flow; warn on “cargo present but flow below target”).
    • Control hologram beacons (IP sync) for remote status indication.
  • Use Splitter prioritization and Splitter filters to implement conditional routing. Sorters with filters can extract single items from mixed belts to feed specific buildings.

Scaling and ratio tips

  • Match building counts to belt capacities and sorter throughput. Reference values:
    • Belts: MK.I = 6/s (360/min), MK.II = 12/s (720/min), MK.III = 30/s (1800/min).
    • Sorters: MK.I = 1.5/s (90/min), MK.II = 3/s (180/min), MK.III = 6/s (360/min) (pile/stack tech may multiply throughput).
    • Smelters, assemblers and labs have specific “items per craft” and craft time—plan supporting assembler or smelter counts so their combined input/output match belt speeds and don't create backups.
  • Use piling and stacking strategically to reduce expensive MK.III belt usage across long distances: e.g., produce on MK.III, pile into MK.II or MK.I runs where appropriate, but track throughput loss from downgrading belts.
  • Avoid mixing assembler-count-per-belt and belts-per-assembler conventions inadvertently—pick a convention and convert consistently when doing ratio math.

Practical patterns and tips

  • Main bus and splitters: run concentrated main buses of raw materials on high-tier belts, split off with splitters and priorities to feed subfactories.
  • Fractionator loops: build closed MK.III loops with T-junctions and an Automatic Piler to re-stack hydrogen and ensure stable input for maximal Deuterium conversion.
  • Orbital collector priority: when using Orbital Collectors for hydrogen, place a T-junction/splitter so planet-produced hydrogen is consumed first; otherwise the ILS can inject excess hydrogen and clog local producers.
  • Matrix Labs: vertically stack labs and ensure strong sorter/belt supply to the base lab for stacked throughput; match lab production counts to research needs (Energy Matrix labs require more input per output than Electromagnetic Matrix).
  • Buffer and safety: always include buffers (storages, tanks) between high-rate producers and consumers; use Traffic Monitors to alert on under/overflow conditions rather than only noticing production slowdowns visually.

This covers the core automation building blocks and strategies you will use repeatedly: belts and splitters to route, sorters and storages to buffer and feed machines, fractionators and loops to handle continuous gas conversion, and traffic monitors plus logistical priorities to prevent byproduct clogging. Apply these principles when designing each production chain and expand capacity by upgrading belts, sorters and building counts while preserving priority and buffering to keep lines stable.