Making Thrusters horizontal flipable

[Neko]

It is quit a hazzle to pipe the fluids with the Thrusters when they have inputs like that.
it would be easier to make them flipable like with the oilrefinery or other buildings that use more than 1 fluid.

[PunCrathod]

The thrusters are like that on purpose. It is not supposed to be trivial to pipe the fluids into them.

[RiO]

Originally posted by PunCrathod:

The thrusters are like that on purpose. It is not supposed to be trivial to pipe the fluids into them.

That said; it still actually is trivial.
(Hint: look to the pyramids.)


Alternatively, you actually can just place them in a straight line and abuse the fact that flow-through connections like the thrusters use, still flow through even when pushing in the wrong fluid.

This means depending on which fluid you send down the upper connection and which down the lower connection, either the even engines or the odd engines will be supplied the correct fuel type to function.

You can use this by creating a circuit-controlled fluid network that pumps fuel and oxidizer from left to right, and reverses the flow direction as well as the up/down assignment of the fluid in the pipes one tick after the tanks at the emptying end are fully drained. Effectively ping-ponging the available fuel and oxidizer left-to-right.

Why would you do a cursed thing like that?
Because it duty-cycles the engines.

Platform thrust actually has its most efficient use (check the thruster graph in Factoriopedia) around the 40% ~ 45% usage point.

Guess what? Duty cycling your engines in odd-even fashion like that nails the efficiency point.


Patch 2.0.16 will actually make this even easier to achieve, because it will start actively erasing all but the highest amount component of fluid being pumped into a mixed fluid pipe. Meaning you can simply reverse flow as soon as the tank on one end empties and things will magically work out.


...

...

(Cursed knowledge is cursed.)

[Dreepa]

Originally posted by RiO:

Originally posted by PunCrathod:

The thrusters are like that on purpose. It is not supposed to be trivial to pipe the fluids into them.

That said; it still actually is trivial.
(Hint: look to the pyramids.)


Alternatively, you actually can just place them in a straight line and abuse the fact that flow-through connections like the thrusters use, still flow through even when pushing in the wrong fluid.

This means depending on which fluid you send down the upper connection and which down the lower connection, either the even engines or the odd engines will be supplied the correct fuel type to function.

You can use this by creating a circuit-controlled fluid network that pumps fuel and oxidizer from left to right, and reverses the flow direction as well as the up/down assignment of the fluid in the pipes one tick after the tanks at the emptying end are fully drained. Effectively ping-ponging the available fuel and oxidizer left-to-right.

Why would you do a cursed thing like that?
Because it duty-cycles the engines.

Platform thrust actually has its most efficient use (check the thruster graph in Factoriopedia) around the 40% ~ 45% usage point.

Guess what? Duty cycling your engines in odd-even fashion like that nails the efficiency point.


Patch 2.0.16 will actually make this even easier to achieve, because it will start actively erasing all but the highest amount component of fluid being pumped into a mixed fluid pipe. Meaning you can simply reverse flow as soon as the tank on one end empties and things will magically work out.


...

...

(Cursed knowledge is cursed.)

Why do you need to ping pong left right?
Don't you just need to flip upper and lower continously?

[RiO]

Originally posted by Dreepa:

Why do you need to ping pong left right?
Don't you just need to flip upper and lower continously?

Yes, you could also flip upper and lower as you cycle fluid back via an outer loop.

But mixed fluid in a single 'line' can still block intake arbitrarily anywhere in the line.
(This is part of why 2.0.16 is going to force lines to conciliate to a single fluid auto-magically, actually.) So you need some kind of interface with pumps to guarantee A ends up flushed so B can temporarily flow through the pipe and B ends up flushed so A can flow through after again.

So maybe you're looking at a system where you batch up N and M fuel and oxidizer on the left and when both tanks are at level and catch tanks on the right are empty, start pumping. Then pair with a flip-toggle that switches upper and lower every time catch tanks on the right reach empty state (single tick pulse).

Thing is:
it's easier to do the ping-pong. Because you can just alternate enabled pumps on a timer while space platform velocity (V) is non-zero.
What you send from the left upper tank, ends up in the right lower tank, and vice versa. And you can top both sides off to some arbitary amount (e.g. 5k?) that will leave enough to receive the residual from the 'other side'.
Meanwhile which direction starts pumping is controlled by the timer. And which fluid is taken from the mixed line is controlled via filtering the pumps that pump out of the lines running through the engines, and into the left/right hand tanks. (Yes; 2.0 allows pumps to have filters.)