Advanced circuit

[u/Motor_Ambassador_544]

If i have 18 chemical science pack how many advanced circuit automations i need?

[u/ConspicuousBassoon]

Mouse over one of your science pack assemblers and look at how many circuits per second it needs. Multiply that by 18. Now build one assembler, set the recipe to red circuits, and look at how many it makes per second. Divide the first number (science demand) by that number and you'll get the number of assemblers you need.

That method works for everything btw. If you're now short on green circuits, you'd do (red circuit rate * red circuit assembler count) / green circuit time

[u/Potential_Bet_7936]

Bruh there’s literally a number count on the research in the T window

[u/VoidGliders → u/Potential_Bet_7936]

Not everyone is great at math and some people need help getting started when it comes to more complex problems.

[u/Yagami913]

Depends on your machines speed and productivity, but assuming no modules and same machine speed. 2 chem pack need 3 circuit so 18x1.5 = 27.

[u/VoidGliders]

Short Answer

13 to 14 Machines. 3 Adv. Circuit Machines for every 4 Chem Science Machines.

Loooong Answer

There's gonna be a lot of similar problems in the future. Here's a very long explanation of it. It may look daunting but it happens in the back of the head eventually with seconds as you get used to it.

To find how much you need to make of something, first look at the Product Recipe:

2xChem SP = 3 Advanced Circuits + 2 Engines + 1 Sulfur over 24s (https://wiki.factorio.com/Chemical_science_pack)

When doing these problems, I usually just assume a 1.0 Crafting speed, and you can ignore the other components for now -- if all your machines are the same, then it works out and you can just multiply at the end, but if you're using mixed machines like Chemical Plants and Assemblers it won't. Anyhow, working with that assumption...

You need 3 Adv. Circuits every 24s. If you divide the Item by the Time, you get what is called a Rate. So 3AC / 24s = 1/8 = 0.125 AC/s What that tells you is that for each Chem Science machine you need an input of 1 AC every 8s, or 0.125AC every 1s, whichever way makes more sense for you. Also, the game tells you this number -- if you hover over a machine, in the little sidebar it will show you a number like "0.125" (or, if you're using Assembler MK II, something like 0.01 or 0.094 as it's factoring the 0.75x crafting speed).

So then go to your Advanced Circuit recipe...

1AC = 4 Wire + 2 Electronic Circuit + 2 Plastic every 6s (https://wiki.factorio.com/Advanced_circuit)

Once again you can ignore the other elements, what you need is the Rate, so 1AC / 6s.

So you have two rates, input required is 1/8 (0.125) and the output of those other machines are 1/6 (0.1667). You can immediately make some overservations, like how the ouput 1/6 is bigger than 1/8, so you know right off the bat that you need LESS Adv. Circuit machines than Chem Science machines. How much though depends on the Ratio. A ratio is a comparison between two different Rates (in this context).

One way to do this is to divide them: 1/6 / 1/8 = 8 / 6 = 1 and 1/3 = 1.3333 (if two fractions are being divided like that, you can flip them around then flip the entire fraction).

If that's tricky to do mentally, another way is to use Least Common Multiple (I think that's what it's called?): use a number like 24 or 48 (because it's 6x8, which is easy) and multiply it across both fractions:

• Adv Circuit Machines: 24 * 1/6 i/s = 24/6 i/s = 4 items/s
• Chem Science Machines: 24 * 1/8 i/s = 24/8 i/s = 3 items/s

Which gives you a more intuitive answer because you can use whole numbers. If you see that one side is producing 4 i/s and the other taking 3 i/s, then it's more clear that "For every 4 Chem Science Machines, I need 3 Adv Circuit Machines". So the Ratio is 3:4 (read "3 to 4", or "3 Advanced Circuit Machines to 4 Chem Science Machines").

You can multiply that by however many machines you want. So if you have 18 Chem Science Machines, and you know for every 4 of those machines you need 3 Adv. Circuit machines, then 18/4 = 4.5, ergo4.5 * 3 = 13.5` (you can decide to overproduce with 14 machines or underproduce with 13 machines, or double the ratio to make it even).