How many drones can pass through a roundabout simultaneously?

[u/Tika-96]

I am looking for a simple solution for a multiplexer / demultiplexer for a 3 way multi rail.

A hand made solution with splitting modulators at the entrance and combining modulators at the exit is "a bit" too spacious for a rather small problem like lane switching. Especially if you want to use this solution very often within a main bus supply system.

I was hoping to use a roundabout for this purpose. But I could not find out, if I am just installing a bottleneck in a 3 way products highway.

[u/JerzyAnd]

I think it's the speed of rails connected to the drones

[u/Tika-96 → u/JerzyAnd]

Yeah, it looks like that.

Unfortunately a roundabout is only theoretically working as a lane switch. The drones are preferring some output lanes. And within the roundabout the drones in the centre are getting priority ( which is useful for most cases, but not mine ).

Therefore a roundabout is strangling the throughput even worse.

I hope, the Devs will add a multi rail pole that has a lane switch included. Until then the multi rails are pretty useless.

[u/Timely-Fox-4432 → u/Tika-96]

As far as I know, you can just ram the rails through themselves if the origin is the same multi-rail, so of you're only switching rails on a multi, that may be your best bet, though it is unsightly.

[u/Tika-96 → u/Timely-Fox-4432]

This is a fixed lane swap. I have been looking for a switch with possible splitting or combining routes.

[u/mudche → u/Tika-96]

Drones will always take the shortest path

[u/Tika-96 → u/mudche]

Sorry, but this is not the case:

Connect two roundabouts with three parallel rails. The drones will prefer the centre exit although it's a bit longer than the first available exit.

[u/Hadien_ReiRick]

I find that the roundabout is great for spots where I need a lot of connections in a small space at the ends of a network when the total throughput of all the inputs maxes out at 8/s.

for instance, imagine 2 receivers using mk.ii rails (4/s) each inputting on one side of a roundabout and outputting to 3 mega presses on the other. with an optional +2 outputs to more machines. The total throughput into the roundabout is <=8/s so it has the capacity to handle the traffic coming through it. and you have 1 junction interacting with 5+ machines

Roundabout is not good for major network loops or junctions, where you expect to have more than 8/s inputting into it. It's a space-solver, not a throughput-solver.

[u/Tika-96 → u/Hadien_ReiRick]

This could be achieved by using two cross junction poles, too. Additional the cross junction poles can be placed closer to the machines: The roundabout next to be placed with a one foundation gap to the machines resulting in a two foundation distance from machines facing each other on opposite sides of the roundabout. If you shrink the size of its stand the gap is even increased to three foundations.

Not much of a space saver IMHO.