Which one is true? Charge battery at full speed or slow speed?

[Silence Suzuka]

I play both Uboat and WolfPack and found an interesting difference that in Uboat you charge your battery faster when you running your diesel engine at full speed. And in Wolfpack you charge slower when you do that.

Which one is closer to the real world? I have no idea how the battery charger works on submarine, but for normal generator, it should generate more power when it runs faster, So it sounds to make more sense to get more power charged to battery at higher RPM of your diesel engine.

Please point out if i made any mistake about this. Thank you guys.

[BRRRT]

I would guess that Uboat is more correct as I believe the batterys charged as the propeller on the boat turned so if the propellers rotated faster the battery would charge faster. Dont quote me though

[The Dirktator]

The slower the propeller turns in Wolfpack, the more power is diverted to the generator for charging the batteries. I believe in the latest patch, they made it so that if you charge the batteries on one engine, all the power from the engine is used to turn the generator which charges the batteries. Previously, if you selected "Charge batteries", the engine would still run at a high speed by default. Now the prop gets disabled by default to provide full power to the generator. The more power you use to turn the prop, the less power can be diverted to turning the generator. Does that make sense?

Anyway, here's a link explaining it better. https://uboat.net/articles/54.html

By the way, you can't see the actual engine RPM in wolfpack. What you see in the command central (the dials) is the propeller RPM, not the engine RPM.

There's currently a bug where if you select "Charge batteries", the sound still tells you that the engine is revving down, which it shouldn't.

[Silence Suzuka]

Originally posted by The Dirktator:

The slower the propeller turns in Wolfpack, the more power is diverted to the generator for charging the batteries. I believe in the latest patch, they made it so that if you charge the batteries on one engine, all the power from the engine is used to turn the generator which charges the batteries. Previously, if you selected "Charge batteries", the engine would still run at a high speed by default. Now the prop gets disabled by default to provide full power to the generator. The more power you use to turn the prop, the less power can be diverted to turning the generator. Does that make sense?

Anyway, here's a link explaining it better. https://uboat.net/articles/54.html

I can understand that more power is redirected to Electric engine to generate power, but the Electric engine should be powered by the diesel engine, in the article you given also said
“In this situation the diesel engines are full loaded. When the submarine's speed is faster the time of the battery charging is longer, because fast speed needs more electric power.”

It is based on the situation that diesel engine are full loaded.

[The Dirktator]

Except the electric engines aren't powered by the diesel engines. The electric engines, when hooked up to the diesel engines work as generators. They are on the same propeller shaft, so you can't power the electric engines by using the diesels. The system you're thinking of was used on the american Gato class submarine if I'm not mistaken. On the german sub, you have a straight shaft. It's a double clutch shaft with reduction gears.

And yes, the diesel engines would be fully loaded if you're going at full speed for example. You can't have both full speed and fast charging. The engine either spins the prop at full speed and the generator very slowly, or both at medium speed, or the prop is completely dead in the water while the generator is spinning at max speed for maximum charging.

IRL, you could of course reduce the RPM on the diesels as required, but since we don't have an engine room, the controls are simplified.

[Silence Suzuka]

Originally posted by The Dirktator:

Except the electric engines aren't powered by the diesel engines. The electric engines, when hooked up to the diesel engines work as generators. They are on the same propeller shaft, so you can't power the electric engines by using the diesels. The system you're thinking of was used on the american Gato class submarine if I'm not mistaken. On the german sub, you have a straight shaft. It's a double clutch shaft with reduction gears.

And yes, the diesel engines would be fully loaded if you're going at full speed for example. You can't have both full speed and fast charging. The engine either spins the prop at full speed and the generator very slowly, or both at medium speed, or the prop is completely dead in the water while the generator is spinning at max speed for maximum charging.

IRL, you could of course reduce the RPM on the diesels as required, but since we don't have an engine room, the controls are simplified.

But no matter how you distribute the power, the diesel engine should be running so it can drive the generator, but in the game if you switch to lower engine order, your engine is running slower (based on its noise). And will full stop when you select charge battery. Is that the case you are saying?

[The Dirktator]

Yes. The noise reduction from the engines is a known bug when selecting to charge the batteries.

[Milly <3]

U-boats have to run at a slow speed to charge the battery.
Going full power charges it slower.

[Silence Suzuka]

Originally posted by MilManson:

U-boats have to run at a slow speed to charge the battery.
Going full power charges it slower.

I understand the idea that the boat will go slower because the extra load to the engine. Just like you drive a car and turn on/off the AC will affect your drive power.

But the engine itself should run at full power imo.

[The Dirktator]

It does run at full power when you charge the batteries. That's why you charge the most when the propeller isn't moving, such as the game is right now. You essentially decouple the engine from the propeller shaft to only run the generator. Thus, maximum power is diverted to charging the batteries. The fact that the engine sound gets lowered is a known bug.