The concept of a Main Bus is to put the most used and useful ingredients in a central spot to use for machines.
This is a good measure to combat "spaghetti factories" as it forces someone to plan a layout and move everything to use items from the bus.
Whether one uses a bus is often decided before starting a map or when first building an array of furnaces.
Content
What items one puts on a bus is personal preference, here are some things people have put on their bus in the past:
- Several belts of Iron plates usually a multiple of four as that is the length one underground belt can go underneath of.
- Some belts of Copper plates as well, usually less than Iron plates, as of 0.15 a lot less.
- Iron gears are seen on some buses as of 0.15 as they are denser than Iron plates and see usage in a lot of recipes.
- Electronic circuits and later on even
- Advanced circuits though that may not be necessary as they just get used up quickly in other steps and aren't used in that many products.
- Steel plates
- Processing units are rarely seen on a bus as they are used in even less recipes and also are mainly used as an intermediate product.
Some people like to have fluids part of their bus which could include:
Having all possible items on a bus results in a huge wide bus with a lot of belt-buffer and standing belts of output-items that wont get used in another process. These items are often just put into chests for personal use rather than on a bus.
Split-off
When one wants to use the items on their bus one could directly take items off the bus as if it is just a belt, though that would mean an extremely long bus and useless lengths off other belts.
This is sometimes done to get Items crafted into a chest for personal use like pipe which only uses Iron plates.
The Idea is that one wants to draw from every belt (and lane even) equally to not have too few items at the current planned production and not have empty and at the same time standing belts of items.
That way at every step along the bus a few items are split off and used up and when the production comes to a stop the items go on to be used by the next production.
The following are 2 designs for a split-off off a 2-wide bus (by reddit user /u/unique_2).
Blueprint string
0eNqVld9ugyAUxl/FnKstwRbwT1sfY7fL0mhLHIlFh9DMGN99qO1mWrrCFfHI9+NwvgP0UFSaNZILBVkP/FCLFrL3HlpeirwaY6prGGRw5lJpE0Eg8tMYmGeEFAYEXBzZN2RkQB7Kt4WSWpVcsdNC1lRcKSYXsshBpmQu2qaWKixYpRbiePhAwITiirN509NHtxf6VJhlMvKIgaCpWyOrxbiqQYUUQWeGeBgTusFQdwz5BxN5ZxPZMLE3htowiTMGXykIjlyyw/wrtjBT70LdQKkFuvmFamO7LGVtxidY01bXXqq1avTYNXfgrW8hsa2Ou/v2tqS1SubEiA1BsKcX+HnVCPH1lzhAqb8X+M8KLh44QSKHIl6sxavEIVHvQ2I3JvEx13rMSOqCwBeEPYuN72as9wbZ+p5OgzEX7HQZZ4tnBkGVG52J0XDaUyB5+amCl6IL1nqtBf/SbE9fg9xMPTPZTuA0jmmabiihu2H4AQXcOK0=
Blueprint string
0eNqVlNFugzAMRX8F+WmTwkpSSlc+Y6/TVEEbdZZoYMGphir+fYZOHVrTijwhQu7J9Y3xGcrK6caiIcjPgLvatJC/n6HFgymqYY26RkMOJ7TkeEWAKY7DwmVHrKAXgGavvyGXvQhQvk2UyqtE0seJrKmQSNuJbDlDRrYwbVNbiktd0USc9h8CtCEk1Jeix5dua9yx5GNyeY8hoKlbltVmOJVRMW/t+JH2g6F/GDUbkzygLIPNLH2YNBijfJjVbMzVjIA9Wr27fFIeZnZ707cJvaweuFpfCY6v2B5szc/HWQ++ftumdtS4oUFuuK+hoSU+d5sZ9cXXAqUPIZPA3L1GpAy9Pb8ZFRx38pc2mjthy+BO97tLQ+L2tpNcBXSk30QWWov3p5XrwBHCFJ5t4xzMJxNeQFWwjNdUPFYUWTx8UvRUdtHCLZzBL6e36jkqeetJ23bkZmmqsmytpNr0/Q+uzw2D
Putting a lane-balancer after a split-off is not necessary most of the time as the rest moves on if the belt has no draw or if only one lane is used. If there is enough input for the item to saturate a whole belt then putting a lane-balancer in wont help to get more items later on. Putting a lane-balancer after an inherently balanced build that produces the item is also not necessary as then half of the production pauses and the other half fills the moving lane to saturation. The following is a split-off off a 4-wide bus.
Blueprint string
0eNqlld1ugzAMhd/F1+lEwl/LM/QNpmmCNqoiQRKFUA0h3n2hjIJEOsXbVYThfDm24zBAVXdcGyEtFAOIi5ItFO8DtOImy3qK2V5zKOAujO1chIAsmykwf3FIYCQg5JV/QUFHglCeN0rmVQrLm1VmTSlbrYw9VLy2G3H8H3EyfhDg0gor+Jz646H/lF1TceOSejI6pzA3o9w6Uwho1TqhktO+DnZgBHq3OEeLDdVZ3U0b7sAMAY4Q3BhjmCLAyatq7rBPqoeS/qGedLUn5At3WbC7heoOHVyF4Zf5XeaB5uFQGgw9rpOga2Gti+1x0Vu65O5BnLCtYD4KjbAYrxlKQxKiPwlFXgTDds/vJA5wEv1qJEFPZcjhpCl+KIO4GbKD/rLlmAb6j9IRUXlHcJfu44IuNj8gAndu2nlskoRlWc4oO43jN0/WNGQ=
Blueprint string
0eNqdld9qgzAUxl9lnOs4TBq19Rl6tdsxhrahBGyUGMuK+O476jqFxpGzq+DR75fv/DHpoaw61VhtHOQ96FNtWsjfe2j1xRTVGHP3RkEON21dhxEGpriOgfmLSMLAQJuz+oKcD8yj1E5dF5mzhWmb2rqoVJVbiYVXvLXtcaXckZRvK6UcPhgo47TTas57erh/mu5aKosZ/ao7VNiLrXGdnTNo6haFtRk3RVgkGNxxQTsPD3Xnmm5M8gksCOCYwN1RDHMCWBLAFG7yjwrzBazNBjfdmrhNKg4gnLVVp/ld6oFmwdDYyxQe5j7cKA82elimvqm0cxh7xsWvyaOeHgSP6R0PaQznwQnz4CJyEZIw/0k49ua7o06Mv2wywEn8p5GEfDYE1T2lHw1B3IzYT3/Z9pQGCi/iQKg8EvDon66mfHUHMqgK9I4xGU2Ql2qE3JRt539NSpGmmeDiMAzfI+ZmDA==
Blueprint string
0eNqlldFugzAMRX9l8nOYcEih5TP2Ok0TbaMqEgQUQjVU8e8LdAy0hirWniIM9+TajsMNjmUnG6O0hfwG6lTrFvL3G7TqootyjNm+kZDDVRnbuQgDXVRj4P5FJGBgoPRZfkGOAyMo31ZK7lUqK6tFZk2h26Y2NjrK0q7EyX/EYvhgILVVVsl76tND/6m76iiNS2qLwaCpWyer9birQ0WcQe+WZBgN/cHwX0znNjYXU7t1AxTPHDYnU3e26UbbD9yEwI2QABYEMIW7I9eT++qZkjHow2TBmHg2w+CsjDzdX3EPc7+c9KZU1rrYo6n4dffE1iHYFgbbwpjeUVw6qvRGQxFD8sWffGNfusip3fRWDZMAJ/FTI4I8pkEl2tGnNIibEs+Jv2wZpYHeacQ9ofKO4O7c6X7OV/8fBmXhvLuYiCbIy8i4StNOiFQInqYZR34Yhm/sYzpB
The following are two designs for a split-off off a 4-wide bus that feature an in-line lane-balancer(by reddit user /u/moomaka).
Blueprint string
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
Blueprint string
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
See Also
