Solar power at 200m. (Spoiler)

[MarkJohnson]

I am on the floating islands and make a base on one of them from all of the magnatite. Plus lost river access.

Anyway, I am at 222m and I put a solar panel and it wouldn't keep power, then I added a second one and still not enough power. Now I came back and added 2 more solar power panel and it stays at a constant 0/300 power

Will solar panel operate below 200m? I have plenty of daylight, and the scanner seems to work, but I can't craft anything.

I figured if one panel at 0/75 would power the scanner, then four panel at 0/300 would generate a little. maybe enough to keep it full at night so it wouldn't keep losing power at night.

Is this normal?

[Redbull102]

As far as I now, Solar Panels do not work below 200m.

But for Magnetite I prefer the Jelly Shrooms Caves and place some Thermal Plants there.

[PrimeSonic]

Available solar energy gradually diminishes as you go deeper.
Maximum energy is available if you're above water.
Once you go past 200m, there's no more sunlight to capture.

Past those depths, you need rely on other forms of power generation.

[bongerman85]

http://subnautica.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_Panel, heres a chart

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by bongerman85:

http://subnautica.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_Panel, heres a chart

Yeah, I found that chart already, but it says it will work at 10% power generation. But 4 solar panels is 40% power, which should be enough to store more power than the scanner can use. No scanner upgrades yet either, if that causes more power consumption?

No thermal power, so maybe I try a few more panels, I have tons of copper, quartz, and titanium. And in this area.

If not, I can move it up to a higher island maybe?

[PrimeSonic]

Originally posted by -DI- rmjohnson144:

Originally posted by bongerman85:

http://subnautica.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_Panel, heres a chart

Yeah, I found that chart already, but it says it will work at 10% power generation. But 4 solar panels is 40% power, which should be enough to store more power than the scanner can use. No scanner upgrades yet either, if that causes more power consumption?

No thermal power, so maybe I try a few more panels, I have tons of copper, quartz, and titanium. And in this area.

If not, I can move it up to a higher island maybe?

That chart appears to be woefully outdated.

Having seen the C# code that calculates available solar energy, it's hard capped at 200m as the max depth.
This is the same capculation being performed by the Solar Panel and the Seamoth Solar Charger.
Once you're past 200m, sun is out.

If you insist on using Solar Panels, your best bet will be to build them above 200m and use Power Transmitters to relay the energy to your base.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by Alexstratos:

Originally posted by -DI- rmjohnson144:

Yeah, I found that chart already, but it says it will work at 10% power generation. But 4 solar panels is 40% power, which should be enough to store more power than the scanner can use. No scanner upgrades yet either, if that causes more power consumption?

No thermal power, so maybe I try a few more panels, I have tons of copper, quartz, and titanium. And in this area.

If not, I can move it up to a higher island maybe?

That chart appears to be woefully outdated.

Having seen the C# code that calculates available solar energy, it's hard capped at 200m as the max depth.
This is the same capculation being performed by the Solar Panel and the Seamoth Solar Charger.
Once you're past 200m, sun is out.

If you insist on using Solar Panels, your best bet will be to build them above 200m and use Power Transmitters to relay the energy to your base.

Like I said, the solar panels appear to be working, just not supplying enough power. But it has enough power to run the scanner and supply oxygen, but once the sun goes down, it loses oxygen and scanner turns off. although, the scanner still highlights my magnatite locations.

I keep forgetting about those wireless power transmitters. Sounds like a much simpler solution.

EDIT:

I just remembered earlier that I tried this method with a thermal plant, but I needed a platform first, then the power was stuck at the platform and wouldn't transfer to the base with the transmitter.

Or am I doing it wrong?

[Redbull102]

I always placed the thermal power plants on the ground, used no platforms.

Sometimes it is not that easy to get a green spot on the ground, but I always found some locations.

Edit: Read somewhere that the platforms/foundations are counted as base. Since the power transfer goes to the nearest base, it will go from the thermal plant to the platform and not to your further away base. But I am not sure about that.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by Redbull102:

I always placed the thermal power plants on the ground, used no platforms.

Sometimes it is not that easy to get a green spot on the ground, but I always found some locations.

I was going for the most power in the lava area. The platform was the only way, and it was above the lava a lot. I still get 55C, but with the thermal plant on the outside of the volanoe, the bets I got was 50C. so I had to leave it there as the power wouldn't transmit to the scanner room, not even with the transmitter. But 50C seems fine for scanner room.

Edit: Read somewhere that the platforms/foundations are counted as base. Since the power transfer goes to the nearest base, it will go from the thermal plant to the platform and not to your further away base. But I am not sure about that.

That seems the case, but can I build a solar panel on the ground too? Or does it need a base type structure?

[DieselCat]

You can build solar panels on the ground.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by DieselCat:

You can build solar panels on the ground.

Yes, I built them on the 100m cliff and had to run two transmitters down to the scanner room and it worked great,

I then added the bioreactor to give me 500 more battery storage, but it didn't work. It only seems to change its own solar batteries, and not reactor batteries. I think they should have made a battery storage device to add on for extra power. A single solar panel won't fully power a scanner room, and shuts off in the middle of the night for a short while. 75 power just doesn't cut it.

I had 5, but I just used them all, so I get 375 power for the scanner room. Way overkill, but I didn't want to carry the extra resources around, so just used them up.

As a side note, I found a water vent at the top of the cliff, for the golden peepers. I took some back to my base and they cured my infected tanks. Really fast too.

[MrGrudge]

One of the "floating" islands is actually connected to the seafloor by a narrow column and has a thermal vent, this is also the one with the cave system. Since you already have magnetite get some rubies from the caves inside, grab some gel sacks from the blood kelp trench zone nearby, and make yourself some Thermal Power Plants instead.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by MrGrudge:

One of the "floating" islands is actually connected to the seafloor by a narrow column and has a thermal vent, this is also the one with the cave system. Since you already have magnetite get some rubies from the caves inside, grab some gel sacks from the blood kelp trench zone nearby, and make yourself some Thermal Power Plants instead.

Yeah, I seen that island on my return trip. It was very big. I can even see it in the scanner room now that I've upgraded it. looks near with all of the island on the radar. I never fully explored this area before as I was focusing on the missions. I plan to explore it better. But the solar panels seem fine and provide excess power for now.

But I plan to place another scanner room on the other side of the island area for a better picture.