How in the world does the power switch work?

[✞ Star∞]

How just how

[MikeW.Yang]

if i am not wrong, connect a cable to a accumulator and another cable to a pole close to steam engine, then set the parameters on when it should switch from solar accumulator to steam engline, by default if i remember correctly is if accumulated energy is less than 10% it will automatically switch to steam engines.

but i might be wrong. hope someone with more knowledge can help you out

[Varenvel The Festive Dinosaur]

when condition is applied it shuts power to whatever its conected to basicly seperating whatever is conected from grid

It is useful if you got automated oil cracking , or want to easily "shutoff production" of certain items at certain times

it has conect normal wire to upper left and upper right , upper left will be disconected from grid if condition is applied , then connect green/red wire to bottom lower side and then that green wire to whatever place who will apply condition to shut it of at times

[haessliches Frettchen]

with that you can shut down some areas or save some energy, when nothing produce!
Machines who not produce need energy in standby, with switch you can say when x>y turn off energy for example

[GMC]

First, you need to know that you can make electricity connections manually. Shift+left-click on an electric pole removes the cables, so it's just a pole. Then use copper cable to connect one pole to another, or a pole to a power switch (in the same way that you'd use red/green wire for circuit networks).

A power switch has two halves. Connect one half to a pole that's part of the electricity network, connect the other half to an isolated pole. You'd typically also connect the switch to a circuit network so that you can turn stuff on and off based upon conditions, but you can also use it as a manual power switch.

[GMC]

Here's a screenshot of using power switches to automate cracking:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=887648702

Note that the only connection between the electric poles powering each bank of chemical plants and the rest of the grid is via a power switch. The power switches are also connected to a circuit network which monitors the state of the various fluid tanks. The switch controlling heavy-to-light cracking has the condition "(heavy oil) > (light oil)", the one controlling light-to-gas cracking has "(light oil) > (petroleum gas)". So each type of cracking is only active if there's more of the ingredient than the product.

[✞ Star∞]

So what im getting from this is i need to connect it to a pole?

[AlexMBrennan]

In addition to automatically placed wires you can build copper wires to manually connect power poles. A power switch has two power connectors, so you can use two pieces of copper wire to connect the two sides to different power grids (e.g. one grid with only steam engines, and another grid with everything else).

Optionally, you can connect a circuit wire to the switch to automate the process.

[✞ Star∞]

Can someone please put it in a simple matter

[GMC]

Originally posted by Starfox:

Can someone please put it in a simple matter

Do you understand how power works in this game?

If something needs power then to provide it with power you need to place it near an electric pole, and that electric pole itself needs to be supplied with power. Placing an object near a pole won't do anything if that pole is in the middle of nowhere. That pole needs to be connected to another pole which needs to be connected to another pole and so on until you get to a pole that is near a steam engine, solar panel, etc.

To use a power switch, you have to insert it into the network so that power has to flow through the switch to get somewhere.

Suppose that you have an assembler which is currently powered from a single pole (if it's in range of more than one pole, then it will help to move some poles away so that it's in range of only one pole). The fact that it's powered means that pole will probably be connected to other poles. Try to arrange it so that the pole powering the assembler is only connected to one other pole.

Now, hold Shift and left-click on that pole. The cable connecting it to the other pole will disappear, and the assembler will be unpowered. Place a power switch so that it's roughly between the two poles. Create two pieces of copper cable (intermediate products tab).

Click on the copper cable in your inventory, click on one pole, click on one side of the power switch. You should see a cable between the pole and the switch (as well as another cable from the switch which follows the mouse cursor). Press Q to end the wiring operation (the cursor will still show the copper cable icon, but not the cable tracking the cursor). Now click on the other pole, then click on the other side of the power switch, then press Q.

After all that, instead of one pole being connected to another by a cable, you'll have them connected as pole-cable-switch-cable-pole. You can now use the switch to control the flow of power.

[Sad Cat]

Originally posted by Starfox:

Can someone please put it in a simple matter

For the TLDR simple version, skip to the bottom where it says EDIT:, click the URL link, and read the part after the URL link for the simple version of all this.

Basically, you need to attach copper wires to the switch from poles using both connection points located on both sides of the switch. It needs to flow through it like a real switch IRL.

First, you need to realise that the copper wire item isn't just a manufacturing item. It is also a placable object that can be connected between two electrical points. One copper wire is consumed to make one connection point. You can also delete connection points by holding shift and clicking the pole or object with a connection point.

The power switch has two different connection points you can attach copper wires too located on the left and right side of it. Where you click on the switch determines which connection point the copper wire is attached too. To connect a copper wire, you have to hold it in your mouse cursor and then click on the switch and pole to make the connection. The connection points on the switch are on the right and left sides of the power switch. Holding shift while clicking will delete any copper wire connections while leaving the pole and switch still placed on the ground.

EDIT: A simple gif I found on google to illustrate how the connection should look. You can use any power pole instead of substations.

http://cloud-3.steamusercontent.com/ugc/284099289615217407/49FFB5499C89F50B594C50A34ED101A9B9B84742/

Remember, in order to wire up a power switch, you need to place down at least two electric poles near the power switch, hold shift and left click the poles so that they're not connected to each other, then use copper wire item to connect the poles to the power switch by holding the copper wire in your cursor and clicking on each object to make the connections. The power switch has two different connection points (left side and right side) that must be used for the power to flow through the switch. The two electric poles/substations cannot be directly connected to one another, or it will just by pass by the switch entirely.

[impetus_maximus]

one thing about power switches... if you want to connect two power switches together, you need to connect a pole between them. wish the devs would make it so you could wire power switches in series.

[AlexMBrennan]

wish the devs would make it so you could wire power switches in series.

Two switches in series is equivalent to ANDing their conditions so you could just do that instead.