Batteries and hydrogen engines

[Paxination]

Why isnt my batteries getting charged by my hydrogen engines? And yes I have the batteries set to recharge.

[Codo]

Maybe because you don't produce enough energy to charge them.
Batteries will only recharge if your grid produces more energy than it needs to function, try to turn off some stuff you don't need to save power

[frag2k4]

How many batteries do you have? How many engines? How full are the engines and go you have extra tanks. From memory a single battery can take 2.2 hydrogen engines to take maximum charge speed but requires about 3 engines worth of H2 to fill a single battery.

So if you have say 20 batteries and a single engine then its not going to really register.

Maybe some screenshot or a blueprint/world save to troubleshoot.

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, I never made a setup like yours but I know we have to redo different when a "Not working" setup is found.

I would turn OFF the not needed blocks to see if the engine will start to recharge the batteries, well that would be my next Engineer testing.

[Capt Fuzzy]

I've experimented with this a little bit, and I've found that I can recharge a max of 4 large batteries with one engine pretty quickly and consistently.
Anything above that and I generally end up adding either more hydrogen engines or converting over to a reactor and using the batteries as basically a backup source of power.

[Dan2D3D]

I use the Hydro Engine as backup Generator on stations because I tested on ships and way much better concepts can be done.

I use batteries on planet Atmos ships only and build "Recharging stations" here and there to recharge faster.

-> That station will have only Wind Turbines and one connector on it so to have only One Job to do that is recharging the connected ship.

+ Free power on planets :
Wind Turbine need 8 blocks of clearance around it to be Optimal and give Maximum Power, keep an eye on those in control panel to see if Optimal or not.

= You will be able to connect to that Recharging station using connectors and keep the Batteries on "Auto" mode, so no need to set on "Recharge" mode because the Recharging station got only one Job to do that is recharging the connected ship/car.

It will recharge faster the more Wind Turbines we add.

Recharging Station example :
16 Wind Turbines
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2782864540

[Ronin Planetary Industries]

So there's an inefficiency in charging batteries with anything but solar or wind. How bad? I don't know anymore because Keen has been tweaking the consumption of hydrogen and output of power from the hydrogen engines.

But the bottom-line is that using hydrogen engines to recharge batteries is something you can avoid unless you have a huge supply of ice and hydrogen.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I believe there is still a 20% penalty if nuclear reactors are used to charge batteries.

[Paxination]

Here is the ship from the workshop

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1963731309

has 2 small batteries and 1 hydrogen engine

[Paxination]

2 engines sorry

[Paxination]

I've turned everything off except for the batteries and vents and 2 engines and not charging

[Dan2D3D]

Reading the item description tells me he made it for space and a bit like a real car that need a small battery to start and the engines will provide the needed electricity using Hydrogen, so turn Off the batteries when the engine take over.

I will go try that space mining ship and feedback more about it later ...

[Paxination]

They recharge when connected to a base, but when im not connected they are not charging at all.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Make sure the ship has at least one battery installed; it can be a small battery. The hydrogen engine(s) will NOT run without first having a source of power (yeah, go figure; why wouldn't they include a pull-start??). Maybe that's the problem.

[Paxination]

Originally posted by Spaceman Spiff:

Make sure the ship has at least one battery installed; it can be a small battery. The hydrogen engine(s) will NOT run without first having a source of power (yeah, go figure; why wouldn't they include a pull-start??). Maybe that's the problem.

The engines running isnt the problem. They run, and as i've stated, i have 2 small batteries. The problem is they are not charging unless im connected to a base.

[Dan2D3D]

Testing done = The Hydro Engine recharged the batteries very well.

Testing details :

1 - It uses the batteries all the time and turn ON the Hydro Engine only to recharge the batteries once in space (tested Earth to Space), better do so to save Hydrogen for the thrusters.

Turned ON the HYdro Engines once in NO Gravity so I can turn OFF all thrusters and set the batteries on "Recharge" mode, and took 3 minutes to recharge :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2834796067

2 - I have noticed the Hydrogen is used in a few minutes on planet where the large Hydrogen upward thruster must be on when full load to be able to return to the refinery station, so we must keep an eye on the Hydrogen to have enough to go back.

Just flying with all Hydro thrusters ON uses the Hydrogen very fast, I just made a cercle around my stations on Earth planet and it was already at +50% H2 used :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2834795780

3 - I also noticed it goes full load in about 5 minutes drilling so it is well done to have enough power and Hydrogen to return home to refill.

-> so go mine + take 5 minutes to Full + return to refinery and recharging station

4 - I recommend to use the parachutes, tho they are not aligned with center of mass when full load they will help on saving Hydrogen, so to land with all thrusters OFF :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2834796689

Conclusion = It may be bugged in your save or did not followed my steps shared above.