How much power can PSBs transfer?

[Riddly]

I started playing this game last year and developed a bad habit back then of chaining multiple PSBs together for a row of smelters, macerators, enrichers, research assembly etc.

However lining up PSBs in a row doesn't seem to be nearly as effective as it was a year ago.

What changed and more specifically, how much power can each psb transfer to an adjacent psb?

[Nailfoot]

There is a PSB throughput but I don't know what it is. It seems kinda slow. What I do is chain PSBs on top of smelter so, coal enrichers, or whatever, and put PTGs on top of the PSBs.

Seems to work well enough.

[mudfarmer]

I think it is somthing like a fraction of the diference between the block's max and curent charge, so higher tier PSBs have better potential for pushing power overall. But they try to balance the power sent between all it's faces, so the problem with a line is that most of the blocks can waste thier capacity by pushing power back the wrong direction. But if the power draw is small enough compared to the capacaty of the blocks, you can get away with it.

[vektuz]

I actually still use a lot of chains of PSBS, and its okay most of the time. However, there's the new induction chargers or whatever they're called which are for that exact purpose. They appear to act like a big battery that has 1500 charge, though. So they follow the same rules (ie, they try to balance charge out with connected cells, which can come as a surprise). I have my best luck with induction chargers by charging them directly via laser, and only putting cells on their surface to help buffer power.

[Flirtle]

I also believe they can only transfer 20% of their total power storage capacity per second.

[Riddly]

I guess I'll have to do some experimenting. I use induction chargers quite a bit, but sometimes you don't want a 5x5 platform. If it is a percentage, then I probably just need to build bigger batteries so that 20% of it's capacity (or whatever the % is) is enough to power stuff at the end of the line.

[steveman0]

Or use lasers like the rest of us :P

[Riddly]

Originally posted by steveman0:

Or use lasers like the rest of us :P

So if you have a row of macerators (or any other single block machine), you always place them 1 block apart so you can fit a lazer between? I suppose I could start doing that, but it's just bulkier and requires 1 lazer and 1 battery for every machine instead of just 1 battery.

Or an induction charger, but again the size isn't always ideal as sometimes it blocks space that I would have liked to use to place more filters or conveyor directions.

[steveman0]

If you're powering multiple machines the induction charger is the way to go. I don't know why you're worried about it's size. The world is practically infinite, you aren't going to run out of space. It shouldn't be an issue.

Besides, it should be under the machines so that shouldn't be in the way of any logistics.

[Riddly]

Fair enough, but the infinite argument isnt always as good as it sounds. Sure I could build stuff 5,000m away, but that would be tedious and frankly I'm already skeptcal about how well my solar powered turrets and falcors are performing ~200-300m away by the overminds.

I'm going to try larger batteries first, if it doesnt supply enough power, I will change my designs to be more spread out to accomidate lazers and chargers,

[steveman0]

A base spread over 200m is still plenty large to support using induction chargers quite liberally. If you're struggling to find space for things the issue might be more organizational than an actual lack of space. Don't forget to make use of the 3d space.

[Riddly]

Nah, it's not lack of space. I like compact, but expandable designs should I need the extra capacity later. I also like making things aethetically pleasing if possible and in order to do that, I tend to hide unsightly things like a mess of conveyors and power transfer underground. Using a 5x5 block instead of a 1vX block just makes things a bit more complicated for me to keep clean.

[steveman0]

5x5 means fewer power storage and easier means of hiding things away. A row of induction chargers can easily distribute power to an entire line of machines and be hidden under the main layer of distribution conveyors. Overall you'll have more of a mess trying to distribute power to individual machines than in bulk.

[epgeek]

Originally posted by mudfarmer:

I think it is somthing like a fraction of the diference between the block's max and curent charge, so higher tier PSBs have better potential for pushing power overall. But they try to balance the power sent between all it's faces, so the problem with a line is that most of the blocks can waste thier capacity by pushing power back the wrong direction. But if the power draw is small enough compared to the capacaty of the blocks, you can get away with it.

That is more or less the jist of it, except PSBs do not transmit power from lower-capacity to higher-capacity except when the higher capacity PSB has a lower charge than the higher one.

A couple things to note: the organic PSB has a 500pps throughput capacity; and the induction charger has a 7500pps through-put capacity with 1500pps per facet (an induction charger has 90 facets). Those values may have changed in the months since I remember reading them.

[CajunInABox]

Daisy chaining induction chargers has the same problem as rows of PSBs, where they attempt to balance their power level with all of the adjacent ones. For most machines this isn't a problem, however things like resin ablaters and mk5 power core chargers will not get enough throughput to operate at full power.

My solution is going to be to slap down a grid of MK4 PSBs linked by conduits, and put a set of 9 induction chargers on top of the PSBs. Because a MK4 directly touching an induction charger can fully power 5 ablaters, 5 liquifiers, and 5 refiners, twice (as in 2 sets of induction, ablater, liquifier, refiner), and can almost fully power 3 sets.

TL;DR: An induction charger touching a MK4 PSB has a ridiculously huge throughput to everything on top of the induction. An induction charger, touching another induction charger that is touching a MK4 PSB, only has a slightly ridiculous throughput. The 3rd off is barely enough to power 5 smelters with t3 inductions.

Better TL;DR: Don't daisy chain induction chargers.

[steveman0]

For production purposes your throughput requirements aren't nearly high enough to worry about that. A manufacturing plant or GAC has an order of magnitude or better lower power requirement than any of the resin machines. With the exception of the imbuers which you aren't going to be running en masse on a line anyway.