Factory Gauge

Factory gauges are used for automating logistic requests and production, for their conventional usage and foundational concepts of higher logistics, see the in-game ponder. When placed in a factory controller, they operate in recipe mode.

Figure 1. A new factory gauge placed in a factory controller

Place and Monitor Item

Factory gauges need to be tuned to a logistics network before being placed in a factory controller. To do so, either interact with a stock link in the game world with the gauge in hand, or use the network selector in dashboard UI to tune to a network that is already tuned to by another gauge in the factory controller.

Once placed, the new factory gauge need to be configured with an item to monitor. You may do so by clicking on the unconfigured gauge with the item in cursor, or use the "set item" screen. Either way, you may also drag a ghost item from JEI or EMI to the filter slot.

Figure 2. "Set item" screen

If you use the "set item" screen, the item’s NBT data can be chosen to be respected or ignored. NBT is respected by default.

Once an item is set, the gauge starts monitoring the number of this item in the tuned logistic network, and displays the count on its label.

Figure 3. A factory gauge monitoring iron ingots, for which there are 6

Recipe Settings Screen

Clicking on a factory gauge with an item set opens its recipe settings screen.

Figure 4. Recipe settings screen for a gauge monitoring iron ingots

❶ Output

The type and number of items this gauge is set to produce. See Basic Production.

❷ Ingredients

The types and numbers of ingredients required to produce the output.

❸ Add connection button

Click to add a connection to other factory gauges or other components.

❹ Relocate button

Click to move the location of this gauge on the virtual board.

❺ Destination address

The address the ingredients will be packaged and sent to.

❻ Storage amount

The number of the monitored item stored in the logistic network.

❼ Target amount

The amount of items in storage this factory gauge is targeted to reach.

❽ Item measure

Unit of measurement of the target amount: Items/Stacks

❾ Mode of operation

How the target amount is set or determined. See On-Demand Production.

❿⓫⓬ Promises

Requests made by factory gauges awaiting their outputs, and options for limiting them. See Promise Limits.

⓭ Reset button

Click to clear all configurations of this gauge, including the set item.

⓮ Confirm button

Click to confirm the configurations, and close this screen.

Basic Production

Beyond monitoring storage, the most basic usage of a factory gauge is to reperesent a recipe to produce an item, for example, smelting 1 raw iron into 1 iron ingot. The type of the output is simply the monitored item. To define the ingredient(s), connect this gauge with other factory gauges set to monitor those ingredients.

This connection can be made by clicking "add connection" (Figure 4 ❸), and then the gauge responsible for the ingredient. Such connections are shown as item icons in the ingredient list (Figure 6 ❷), and can be removed by clicking on them.

Figure 5. A gauge monitoring raw iron is connected to a gauge set to produce iron ingots

Figure 6. Recipe settings of a gauge smelting 1 raw iron to 1 iron ingot

In its default mode (❾), a factory gauge monitors the amount of its item in the logistic network storage it is tuned to (❻). When this amount is below the set target (❼❽), it requests a set of ingredients to be sent to the destination address (❺), expecting the output (❶) to later arrive in storage (❻).

Both the number of each ingredient and output can be adjusted by scrolling on them, allowing an arbitrary of number of output to be produced from arbitrary numbers of ingredients. Scrolling on an ingredient allows you to configure more than 1 stack of the same item. However, there cannot be more than 9 stacks of ingredients in total, the output is also limited to 9 stacks.

Table 1. Examples

Smelting raw iron to ingots in 32-item batches
Mixing concrete powder in 256-item batches

When a factory gauge A is used as an ingredient to another gauge B, most of the configurations of A are irrelavant to B, except the item A is set to monitor and the network A is tuned to. This means A can be producing its item by any means, or merely monitors it, all accepted by B identically.

Mechanical Crafting

When the ingredients and output matches a mechanical crafting recipe, a "use mechanical crafting" button (Figure 7 ❶) is revealed. With this option toggled on, when packages created by this gauge are unpacked onto mechanical crafters, the ingredients are automatically arranged into the crafting pattern (❷).

Figure 7. Crafting 1 iron sword

The crafting recipe may be at most 10×10 in size. When it is larger than 3×3, ❷ no longer previews the pattern.

Figure 8. Crafting crushing wheels

The mechanical crafters must be connected by a wrench, and arranged in a square grid of a size between 3×3 and 10×10. Smaller recipes may be sent to larger mechanical crafter arrangements, hold Ctrl and scroll on the ingredients to adjust the crafting grid size to match the crafter arrangement they will be sent to.

It is recommended to use a repackager before unpacking onto mechanical crafters, see the in-game ponder on repackagers.

Batch Crafting

A factory gauge may be configured to send ingredients enough to craft multiple output items at once. When mechanical crafting is turned on, scroll on the output slot (Figure 9 ❶) to adjust how many items to craft each batch. The number of ingredients (❷) are matched automatically and cannot be adjusted individually.

Figure 9. Crafting iron swords in 64-item batches

The maximum number of output using mechanical crafting is 64.

Using a repackager is mandatory when batch crafting is used. When a repackager receives a package containing ingredients for multiple crafts, it is repackaged into multiple smaller packages containing ingredients for 1 craft each, which may be then unpacked onto mechanical crafters.

Batch crafting may not be used, if any of the ingredients comes from a factory gauge that ignores the NBT data of its monitored item.

On-Demand Production

By default, a factory gauge operates in "maintain stock" mode, which activates (requests ingredients to be sent to the destination) when the monitored item in storage is below the configured target amount. By clicking Figure 10 ❷, you may switch it to "follow demand" mode, which instead activates the gauge when there is downstream denand, that is, when another gauge uses this gauge as an ingredient, and that gauge would like to request this ingredient.

Figure 10. A gauge producing oak planks in "follow demand" mode

In this mode, the target amount (❶) cannot be modified manually. It is automatically set according to downstream demand. Specifically, it is the total quantity requested by all currently active factory gauges that use this gauge as an ingredient.

Figure 11. An example setup to produce barrels from oak logs

For example, to produce barrels, one may use 6 oak planks and 2 oak slabs. 6 slabs may be crafted from 3 planks, and 4 planks may be crafted from 1 log. The planks and slabs can be produced with gauges in "follow demand" mode. The gauge for slabs receives a demand of 2. The gauge for planks receives a demand of 9: 6 from barrels, 3 from slabs. First, 3 logs are crafted into 12 planks, then 3 of which are crafted into 6 slabs. After crafting 1 barrel, 3 planks and 4 slabs are left over.

Ordering from Stock Keeper

Another mode of the factory gauge, "follow demand and order", additionally allows the item produceable by a gauge to be manually ordered from a stock keeper tuned to the same network. In stock keeper UI, each gauge in this mode appears as a production task, signified by a blueprint background.

Figure 12. A production task of oak planks

Sending an order containing production tasks creates a production order, causing the corresponding gauges to add the number of items in the order to their demands. When the produced items arrive in the logistic network, they are sent out again to the address specified on the order.

Pending production orders can be viewed in the "production orders" tab in the stock keeper UI. They are automatically removed when all ordered items arrive in the logistic network, or stuck if they never arrive.

Figure 13. Production orders UI

❶ Production orders tab

Click to switch to this tab.

❷ Destination address

The address the items are sent to after they arrive in storage.

❸ Elapsed time

Time elapsed since the order was created.

❹ Cancel button

Click to cancel the order.

❺ Ordered items

Type, amount, and status of the ordered items.

Table 2. Statuses of ordered items

Icon	Name	Description
	Waiting for ingredients	The responsible gauge does not have sufficient ingredients to produce the item, or they otherwise have not been sent.
⏶	Processing	The responsible gauge has sent the ingredients to produce this item, but it has not arrived in storage.
✓	Sent	The produced item has arrived in storage, and dispatched to the destination address.
🗙	Invalid gauge	The responsible gauge has been destroyed or swicthed a mode other than "follow demand and order".

Fluid Transport

When you have a compatible fluid transportation mod installed, factory gauges placed in factory controllers may utilize that mod’s ability to transport fluids, and use fluids as ingredients or outputs.

Table 3. Compatibility of fluid transportation mods

Mod	Compatibility
Create: FluidLogistic	Yes
Create: Fluid	Yes, but may drop support in the future
Create: Repackaged	Yes
Create Factory Logistics	No, will crash the game

When using Create: Repackaged, place fluid gauges provided by this mod to monitor and produce fluids. The other mods add such ability to regular factory gauges.

When using a fluid as an ingredient or output, scrolling on the ingredient or output UI adjusts the amount by 1 B. Hold shift while scrolling to adjust by 10 mB, hold ctrl while scrolling to adjust by 1 mB. Output is limited to 10 B per batch.

Promise Limits

Each time a factory gauge requests a set of ingredients to be sent to its destination address, a promises is created (also referred to as a pending request). Promises record the number of output items expected to be produced, but has yet to arrive in storage, referred to as the number of promised items. When accounting for the number of the monitored items in storage, the number of promised items is added to the actual storage amount before being compared to the target amount. Doing so stops the factory gauge from excessively sending ingredients before the outputs of previous requests arrive.

Figure 14. UI elements related to promises

❶ Promised items

Displays the total number of promised items created by all gauges in the same network producing the same item. Click to void all promises.

❷ Expire time

Scroll to set the time interval for a promise to expire after its creation. Can be 1 to 30 minutes. Promises never expire by default.

❸ Pending requests

Displays the number of pending requests created by this gauge , or click to switch to display pending requests sent to the same address . In either state, scroll to set a limit on the displayed number. When the limit is reached, the gauge pauses sending new requests.

Redstone

A factory gauge can be connected to some other components, such as logical tubes and redstone links, via redstone connections. When connected as the the source, it outputs a redstone signal when the amount of monitored item in storage is equal to or greater than the target amount. When connected as the sink, the factory gauge is disabled when it is powered by redstone.

Figure 15. A factory gauge disabled by an incoming redstone signal, and is outputting a redstone signal

Additionally, when a factory controller block is redstone-powered, all factory gauges inside are disabled.