Feeder Batch Mode - 2nd batch never feeds

Process Modeling
1

VC 4.8.

This is probably a silly thing, but I’m stuck on it. I’m simulating a system that switches between two different products coming down the input conveyor, and I’ve simulated each product individually. But, when I tried changing my Feeder Product Creator to Batch mode, I hit a strange issue: the first batch feeds fine, but the first part in the 2nd batch appears on the feeder and never moves down the conveyor.

If I simply switch the order of the batches, the problem repeats – the 2nd batch never moves down the conveyor. So this doesn’t seem to be product related, or to a specific batch, but rather something specific to how the Feeder handles batch switching.

There are no error messages, and the Feeder process is “hung” on the TransportOut step. So it’s as if the handoff from the Feeder to the Conveyor is somehow failing.

The Feeder is PnP-snapped to the conveyor, and I’m only making alterations to the Product Creator – no customizations in the Process.

BatchFeedIssue.vcmx (2.1 MB)

2

Replying to myself, in case anyone else ever runs into this issue.

The root cause really was something silly, albeit not at all obvious:
I had the time delay between the end of Batch 1 and the start of Batch 2 set too small. That, combined with the slow conveyor speed (and possibly the position of my Feeder on the conveyor) caused the 1st part of Batch 2 to “appear” partially inside the last part of Batch 1. And this apparently breaks the Feeder TransportOut command, if the overlap is bad enough.

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