How to charge batteries of small car?

[Edw4rd]

Is there a way to charge the batterie of my small vehicle? I place a big connector on the ground, but there is no space to place such a big connector on my small vehicle. How does it work?

[Pembroke]

Put a Medium Cargo Container on your rover so that the *large* port of the container faces the way where you want to place the connector. Place the connector on that. When you dock your rover to the connector of your base you can recharge your battery from the power supplied by the base. Hitting "P" will also connect the inventories so that you can, for example, move ore from your rover's cargo containers to the base.

[M.Red]

Originally posted by Pembroke:

Put a Medium Cargo Container on your rover so that the *large* port of the container faces the way where you want to place the connector. Place the connector on that. When you dock your rover to the connector of your base you can recharge your battery from the power supplied by the base. Hitting "P" will also connect the inventories so that you can, for example, move ore from your rover's cargo containers to the base.

You can use a timer block to turn the Battery recharge on/off when docked

[Arctic Ice Fox]

Reactors or solar pannels. Also small block connector is smaller then large. Worst case you can just slap a connector on there temporarily or better yet use a merge block pair.

I.E use a piston on your base from above with a connector on the end in an L shape then on your car build a merge block pair with one side connected to the connector while the other is on the car. Use the piston on the base to set the correct hight for the base connector to connect properly to the car one then charge, when you are done unlock the merge block and pull the piston up with both connectors leaving only the bottom of the merge block. Then when you need to charge reverse the process

you can do it with solar pannels too, just use a piston above the car with a landing gear to lift the solar pannels off when not in use and you disconnect the merge block. then do it in reverse to connect.

[Thalyn]

Originally posted by Pembroke:

Put a Medium Cargo Container on your rover so that the *large* port of the container faces the way where you want to place the connector.

You don't actually need a valid conveyor connection to transfer power. So long as the connector is locked, it doesn't matter if it just has a single solid block connecting it to the rest of the grid - power will transfer.

If a connector (3x3x2) is too large, you could use a rotor to do it. Much the same, it doesn't need a conveyor link to transfer so you can use a standard conveyor motor or head (1x1x1) and attach it to the corresponding part on another grid - even if it's a different grid size. It's a little more awkward to detach but it still works just fine. Plus if you really wanted to you could mount one side of the rotor on a piston so you could lift your vehicle and turn it around while it's charging, like a rail turntable of sorts.

[Edw4rd]

"Put a Medium Cargo Container on your rover"

Where? There is no place, it is a small vehicle as I said.

[Edw4rd]

Originally posted by Arctic Ice Fox:

Reactors or solar pannels. Also small block connector is smaller then large. Worst case you can just slap a connector on there temporarily or better yet use a merge block pair.

I.E use a piston on your base from above with a connector on the end in an L shape then on your car build a merge block pair with one side connected to the connector while the other is on the car. Use the piston on the base to set the correct hight for the base connector to connect properly to the car one then charge, when you are done unlock the merge block and pull the piston up with both connectors leaving only the bottom of the merge block. Then when you need to charge reverse the process

you can do it with solar pannels too, just use a piston above the car with a landing gear to lift the solar pannels off when not in use and you disconnect the merge block. then do it in reverse to connect.

I can't imagine that, do you have a screenshot?

[TwinChops]

Put a Rotor base on your base surounded by half blocks, and put a small rotor head on the very bottom of your little vehicle, drive over the rotor base !LOWER! the supsension so you lay on the rotor and connect the rotor head with the rotor (base controll panel on the rotor), and when did it right you vehicle will now "merged" on the base, when you did it wrong the vehicle will vibrate like mad and when you touch it you will die.

[Buzzard]

Make it even easier: Put a connector on your rover... somewhere. Make a connector on your base that can match up. (or go the other way around)

An easier place to put a connector is on top, or on the back of the rover. Putting a connector on the bottom requires a bit of prior planning as it would tend to drag the ground and hang up on stuff.

Having a full conveyor connection is nice and all for moving cargo, but power just requires a simple connection of blocks.

[Pembroke]

Originally posted by Ivar:

"Put a Medium Cargo Container on your rover"

Where? There is no place, it is a small vehicle as I said.

Well, then you can't draw power from your base. Why not make it a bit larger so that you can attach a connector to it? As said above you don't really need a cargo container to attach it to but that way the connector is useful for cargo transfers as well.

If you really don't want to put a connector on it then your only other option to power it is to have a H2 engine or a solar panel or a nuclear reactor. The engine and solar are quite large so if you couldn't fit a cargo container then you will have trouble with these as well, and the reactor needs uranium which you won't find on planets. So, suggest you build a connector...

[Lystent]

I find it easy to use a connector on the chassis. That way you just need to have the other port on the ground, rather than having to align the height of the vehicle with the height of the connector on a wall. Also, connectors in the chassis are not exposed (except to a well placed land mine).

Edit: and if there is not enough room for a connector anywhere, you could try a rotor head (not easy though).

[Edw4rd]

Originally posted by Arctic Ice Fox:

use a piston on your base from above with a connector on the end in an L shape

What do you mean by that?! How can I put the connector in an L shape to the piston?

[Edw4rd]

Originally posted by Arctic Ice Fox:

build a merge block pair with one side connected to the connector while the other is on the car

It does not even work, you can't connect a merge block to a connector... you are just confusing me

[Pembroke]

Originally posted by Ivar:

What do you mean by that?! How can I put the connector in an L shape to the piston?

He means that you can put a vertical piston on your base and then put a conveyor junction or curve on the head of the piston so that you can then put the connector on that pointing horizontally. This allows you to lower or raise the connector vertically so that it's level with the connector of your rover so that you can dock into it.

[baddoggs]

Solar panels work as well.

[Wastefield]

Originally posted by Ivar:

Originally posted by Arctic Ice Fox:

build a merge block pair with one side connected to the connector while the other is on the car

It does not even work, you can't connect a merge block to a connector... you are just confusing me

I had trouble wrapping my head around that one too... I think he means that you put a merge block pair before the connector so you can detach the connector and leave just the merge block? I thought it was same size but it must be 3x3x1 then instead. Still, the small-grid connector is only 3x3x2 so not bigger than a battery and smaller than cockpit.