Smart Battery hook up....?

[MaddCatter365]

Can anyone give me an idea on how to hook up my smart battery, to a battery bank, of say, 8 to 10 large batteries, so that it is the last battery to fill up and the last battery to drain?

I've been experimenting with positioning, and when there are only 3 or 4 batteries in the line, it works...but once the bank gets larger it doesn't seem to work as well....

[Dark Helmet]

I made a guide specifically on that topic you can look at it in guides/secret

[MaddCatter365]

Originally posted by Dark Helmet:

I made a guide specifically on that topic you can look at it in guides/secret

Thank you. :)

[Dark Helmet]

Battery smart loop
https://steamcommunity.com/app/457140/guides/?searchText=&browsefilter=trend&browsesort=creationorder&requiredtags%5B%5D=Secrets&requiredtags%5B%5D=-1#scrollTop=0

[AlexMBrennan]

Can anyone give me an idea on how to hook up my smart battery, to a battery bank, of say, 8 to 10 large batteries

You shouldn't do that because large batteries lose more than twice the charge per day

[MaddCatter365]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

Can anyone give me an idea on how to hook up my smart battery, to a battery bank, of say, 8 to 10 large batteries

You shouldn't do that because large batteries lose more than twice the charge per day

So what would your suggestion be? a bank of only smart batteries with just one hooked into the automation system?

[Bobucles]

Batteries just aren't very good energy storage. A single smart battery can hold 100W for 1/3 of a cycle. It'd take massive banks of batteries to hold as significant amount of power, especially as the colony grows.

The most effective energy storage is raw fuel. Stock up on coal, oil, and arbor wood, then turn it into power any time you like.

The automation of smart batteries is their biggest strength. A single battery can power down your generators, and in doing so save massive amounts of fuel. Multiple batteries can set up energy priority for the next level. Set up different battery limits, then plug each of them into different sets of generators. As the storage goes down, more generators turn on to save the day. Nice.

It can be tempting to build a massive energy bank to support solar power. But consider that when solar is up, everything else can pretty much turn off and save fuel. Use the fuel for powering through night hours, for example a single night coal gen can do the same work as multiple batteries.

[MaddCatter365]

Yeah...right now, everything is running on hamster power. But I feel like my base just hit the point where hamster power for everything isn't feasible anymore, as my base is starting to get a bit too big for my operators to run everything, hence the battery banks...but I suppose I don't necessarily need the power storage if I don't have to rely on my...hamsters to power everything....I'm trying to get all my water resources situated to create a hydrogen SPOM that will, hopefully, run everything...eventually.

[Bobucles]

Early game? Smart batteries are excellent for escaping hamster wheel power. In fact they're pretty much THE tech to start fully automated power.

The setup is very simple. Build a smart battery, build a generator, connect automation wire from the battery to the generator. That's it. The generator will now only activate and burn fuel on demand, using settings from the smart battery.

Spoms are their own kind of project. There are plenty of guides on them, either in the steam guides or a google search away.

[MaddCatter365]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Early game? Smart batteries are excellent for escaping hamster wheel power. In fact they're pretty much THE tech to start fully automated power.

The setup is very simple. Build a smart battery, build a generator, connect automation wire from the battery to the generator. That's it. The generator will now only activate and burn fuel on demand, using settings from the smart battery.

Spoms are their own kind of project. There are plenty of guides on them, either in the steam guides or a google search away.

Yes, I've found a SPOM set up that I've managed to get to work, the first time I built it. For some reason, the second time I built it, it didn't work right...but that may have been due to a couple of small changes I made after building the first one.

Thanks for your help and advice. I'm sure my hamsters will appreciate not having to build so much, or run so much...haha

[Clifford, Destroyer of Worlds]

Originally posted by MaddCatter365:

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Thanks for your help and advice. I'm sure my hamsters will appreciate not having to build so much, or run so much...haha

The hamster wheels are actually good for training athletics and operating. I keep one or two around connected to a light bulb and set on low priority so the dupes use them in their idle time

[MaddCatter365]

Originally posted by Clifford, Destroyer of Worlds:

Originally posted by MaddCatter365:

The hamster wheels are actually good for training athletics and operating. I keep one or two around connected to a light bulb and set on low priority so the dupes use them in their idle time

hahaha...that's good your dupes actually do something when they are idle...mine....they just stand around in odd places, even though there is plenty for them to do...and it's all within reach...

Everyone that comes into my colony has to have a high athletic ability to begin with...they I just train them in the places I need them...even if it irritates them...

[Shame]

I have the same question, except for rocket batteries in conjunction with smart batteries, however I want the charge to be split proportionally evenly across all batteries. None of this would be a necessity if the rocket batteries had an automation port.

[Bobucles]

equal charge would not be helpful, because the batteries have unequal decay.
In any event it's simple enough to just build more smart batteries, they're all equal with each other. Use generators as proper backups, and don't look at the other batteries ever again.

[Quyzbuk]

Putting automation on a single smart battery and wiring the rest of them (them being more smart batteries) together should suit your needs just fine. You can still keep a manual generator or two on standby to supplement it while you stabilize your grid if you have the spare manpower.

Alternatively, you can (again if you have the spare manpower with no pressing duties) wire a couple jumbos together to a manual generator or two and tap into that as a backup redundancy when and where needed. If you don't have a ton of work schedules set up for your colony, this could serve you well as the power for say, a rec room, where everyone will be converging at the end of each cycle.

But otherwise, don't overthink it. Do a bit of trial and error and adapt as need be.

[Shame]

My requirement scenario is completely different and the main thing I really wanted to power here is a radbolt generator to send iron over to the main planetoid as I have an iron volcano tamed on the cold planetoid, with no duplicants there at all. Shutting it off and on gracefully without having power wasted and then having it turned off mid-radbolt collection is the challenge for which I've added a lot of automation, and twice now I've just had to manually turn it on and off every now and then.

I guess the rocket batteries will not do. Was considering one smart battery and the rest jumbo batteries, but the runoff isn't proportional to the maximum power capacity so I would expect issues eventually. So I guess two dozen smart batteries, either connected by temperature with the volcano steam chamber or within the chamber itself will have to do, which is very space inefficient but will work and maybe also streamline some of the automation.