Wind Turbines on large rover

[Zeedious One]

Hi all.

Am i the only one where wind turbines don't work on a large grid rover?

[rhinorulz]

turbines on mobile grids bug out. they need locked down before moving, and then should work when unlocked after moving

[Dr.Thunder7]

Wind Turbines are only for static Grids

[cptsavarus]

Like @rhinorulz says, they need to be locked down to the voxel before they'll work.
You can carry them on a vehicle but the turbines themselves wont turn or generate any power while the vehicle is a free to move.

You can use Merge Blocks, Connectors or Landing Gear to lock them to the deck but the turbines must be directly attached to the grid or sub-grid that's locked down.

If for example you have a landing gear on the ground, a piston on top, then a turbine on top of the piston, the turbine wont work because it's on a different sub-grid.

Here's a simple way you can get around it...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1669492436

Notice the turbines are on the same end of the piston as the landing gear.

[Zeedious One]

Oh cool, cheers! :)

I'll try that out next time i load up my map.

[cptsavarus]

You're welcome!
Drop me a comment on my profile or workshop or wherever if you need any more tips to make it work. Will be glad to help.

[RoofCat]

Originally posted by cptsavarus:

Like @rhinorulz says, they need to be locked down to the voxel before they'll work.
You can carry them on a vehicle but the turbines themselves wont turn or generate any power while the vehicle is a free to move.

You can use Merge Blocks, Connectors or Landing Gear to lock them to the deck but the turbines must be directly attached to the grid or sub-grid that's locked down.

If for example you have a landing gear on the ground, a piston on top, then a turbine on top of the piston, the turbine wont work because it's on a different sub-grid.

Here's a simple way you can get around it...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1669492436

Notice the turbines are on the same end of the piston as the landing gear.

Wind turbines as close to the ground will have roughly the same power solar panels do. While I do like your out of box creativity here a lot, this is not a finished solution or one with a questionable advantage. Wind turbine has to be 7 or more blocks above ground for optimal performance (370..390kW). A bit less will still be fine 300kW or so. But rather not as close to ground as yours.
so probably add rotors to setup so you can have higher pillars and store them along rover sides at 90° while driving to avoid extreme towering?

You might actually try to avoid piston with proper rotation axis offset and suspension adjustments so it captures ground just rotating or lowering your suspension once rotation is done? Haven't tested this with rotors myself, just as idea.

[cptsavarus]

@RootCat... You make good points & have some excellent ideas, though I can't help but feel like you may have missed my point slightly there.
The truck in the screenshot was never intended to be a useful survival vehicle. It's a bare-bones proof of concept to demonstrate what's possible and how to make it work.
I prettied it up for the screenshot is all.

TL:DR... Long-version clarification of point

If I was going to turn this into something that was useful in survival mode, the truck wouldn't use the wind turbines for its own power. As you say, there are other, more efficient ways to power a vehicle (though something like this would still have its uses on a large vehicle, since unlike solar panels, wind turbines output the same amount of power in the dark as they do in daylight; and don't need to be angled in any particular direction in order to work.)

The best reason for a vehicle to carry wind turbines however would be to deploy the turbines on small modules or pods, which could then be left in place to function as antenna relays / charging points for smaller vehicles / emergency survival shelters / weapon emplacements, etc.
For those purposes, a couple of wind turbines, even at ground level will provide more than enough power to be practical & useful.

My idea is for a vehicle that can project and weld such modules / pods as it's driving around and deploy them where they're needed - a mining site for example. When the mine is depleted, the truck could return & collect the pod, then deploy it to a new site.

As for optimal performance... I argue that "optimal" is the thing that does the job that needs doing at the time.
If a pair of wind turbines can run a survival kit long enough to make the components for a replacement wheel for your broken down rover, or charge your suit when you're 5 seconds from death, then those turbines are performing optimally & who cares how high off the ground they are!
If the alternative is waiting X hours until daylight for a solar panel to work; or dying & loosing progress then I'll take a sub-optimally placed wind turbine!

Plus, if you were in a survival game and found yourself so strapped for resources that you needed to bean-count & optimise the life out of every last component you spent, then you probably wouldn't yet be at the point where you could afford to build a vehicle big enough to carry wind turbines. Instead you'd more likely be looking to build something far smaller.
On the other hand, if you were in a position where resources were no problem, then chances are you simply wouldn't care how optimal your power sources were & would just build more whenever you needed more power.

Don't get me wrong - you're correct in what you're saying and absolutely yes, there are ways a design like this could be optimised & made much more efficient - but my point was never anything more than "It's possible, here's how."

[RoofCat]

With optimal performance I just ment the statement in control panels - you can read there poor - good - optimal for each wind turbine depending on elevation and distance in between (7 blocks below, 5 in between needed). And I really liked the "wind hack" idea per se. Must be my limited social skills or English :)

[Anoreth]

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/768353017203413542/6140F85BC9ECC1BC368A4437462F3B96844A86FC/
so if I read this thread right, this setup should work. I have a rig connected to the grid with a piston and landing gear, but the turbines on the rig aren't generating any power. What am I doing wrong? :/

[Weaver]

Instead of messing around with pistons and landing gear, you can just turn the grid static to charge, then change it back.

[Valen]

Originally posted by Anoreth:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/768353017203413542/6140F85BC9ECC1BC368A4437462F3B96844A86FC/
so if I read this thread right, this setup should work. I have a rig connected to the grid with a piston and landing gear, but the turbines on the rig aren't generating any power. What am I doing wrong? :/

The winturbines are not on the same grid as the landing gear. The piston puts them in a subgrid. (or rather the landinggear becomes a subgrid) You need a solid block path between landing gear and the windturnine. Put a windturbine on the heel of a landinggear (like a cowboy boot spur; an armor block in between might help fit it) and it should work when locked to the ground.