is there a better way to charge small grid vehicles?

[Kodaxmax]

The only way ive found to recharge them is to replace batteries, which is obviously ridiclously inefficent and expensive, or adding a cumbersome connector or hydrogen setup.

The connector takes entire days to charge at times, despite the base or other vehicle having tonnes of power.

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, I create "Charging stations", a station with only Wind Tubines, Solar Panels, Large Batteries and one Connector (no need of conveyors) so they have only One Job to do that is recharging the connected ship.

It does not recharge fast if you use the Refinery + Medic room ... Station to recharge a car or a ship so better create "Charging Stations".

Here is a example of a Charging station, notice how much Turbines and Solar panels it needs on it and that is used to recharge tiny car/ship only :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2168585150
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2168590228

[Dan2D3D]

More precisely to recharge faster 2 to 6 Large Batteries on a small block ship.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Change your batteries to have "recharge" on to recharge them the fastest. It shouldn't take more than about 10 minutes if you have sufficient power to max-out the recharge rate.

[UbioZur]

This mod is your friend to not have a bulty connector, and set the batteries to recharge.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1828763924

[Kodaxmax]

Originally posted by Spaceman Spiff:

Change your batteries to have "recharge" on to recharge them the fastest. It shouldn't take more than about 10 minutes if you have sufficient power to max-out the recharge rate.

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

More precisely to recharge faster 2 to 6 Large Batteries on a small block ship.

thanks ill experiment with this stuff in my next session

[Buzzard]

Batteries on Auto will try to supplement any grid they're attached to. When set to Recharge, they will pull in power as normal, but NOT supply any as they would on Auto. This makes for an efficient recharge.
Even a completely empty battery will recharge fully in 15 minutes if you have enough power coming in.

Something else for bases that need to charge small craft is to have buffer batteries that exist for the purpose of dumping massive loads of power into those small craft (set to recharge, of course). Charging from another battery isn't exactly efficient, but it is fast. If the base is sufficiently powered by wind/solar, the wasted power really isn't a problem.

[ArchieGremlin]

If you have access to uranium then you could use a small reactor. They're very compact and recharging just means throwing in some ingots.

[Kodaxmax]

Originally posted by ArchieGremlin:

If you have access to uranium then you could use a small reactor. They're very compact and recharging just means throwing in some ingots.

the whole point of charging them over making them self powered is to reduce weight and size. atleast for me.

[Jel]

Originally posted by kodaxmax:

Originally posted by Spaceman Spiff:

Change your batteries to have "recharge" on to recharge them the fastest. It shouldn't take more than about 10 minutes if you have sufficient power to max-out the recharge rate.

Originally posted by Dan2D3D:

More precisely to recharge faster 2 to 6 Large Batteries on a small block ship.

thanks ill experiment with this stuff in my next session

That should be all. No rocket science behind it :) You´ll see

[Valen]

Batteries do have a charging power limit. Meaning there is a minimum time they need to get charged fullt. Even if you have a thousand large grid batteires to charge from. Divide the stored power capacity by the max input power. MWh divided by MW returns the number of hours that it needs. I think 15 minutes minimal as Buzzard writes.

[ArchieGremlin]

Originally posted by kodaxmax:

Originally posted by ArchieGremlin:

If you have access to uranium then you could use a small reactor. They're very compact and recharging just means throwing in some ingots.

the whole point of charging them over making them self powered is to reduce weight and size. atleast for me.

I just had a quick look at the figures for a couple of my small grid designs. These are all battery powered at the moment. My vehicles are all things that I fly or drive for a while, park for a bit and then come back to later. I leave them connected whenever I'm not using them so they're always fully charged. I put enough batteries in them so that the power consumption never redlines.

If I were to replace some or all of the batteries with a reactor then the total mass would be the same but the volume would be smaller. (It depends a bit on the peak power delivery that the vehicle needs.)

I guess your needs are different to mine. Maybe if you described your designs and what you're trying to achieve we may be able to give some better advice.