Design to use a power switch to stop a belt feeding?

[zOldBulldog]

I know it is probably staring me in the face but I don't see it.

Is there a simple design that I can use to disable a belt?

For example, in the early game I normally produce solid biofuel and then split it with half going to storage and half to the generators. And once I start my coal plant I simply cut the belt to the biofuel generators. It would be nice to flip a switch instead, just in case I ever need to turn them back on, or even better, to feed from the storage during an emergency.

[mcb0ny]

Biofuel burners generate power only if they have to, so cutting them off of fuel supply is not needed. Not only not needed but counterprodictive, in fact ;]

Leave them as they are, they will turn on if you need them.

[Vectorspace]

Biomass generators are unique in that they scale their fuel burn and power output to meet demand. If there is enough power that the biomass burners are not needed, you can leave them connected to the grid with a fuel feed and they will only burn fuel if necessary. No need for a switch.

Or if you prefer to manually enable them, you can unlock a power switch in the MAM caterium research so you can control if they are or are not connected to the grid.

Although, power storage is a better solution to that - they charge themselves from excess energy and discharge when demand exceeds supply, with a nice alert that notifies you when this happens

[kLuns]

smart splitter
any or any undefined into sink
overflow into factory
connect sink to power switch
when you turn the switch off the items overflow into the factory

[zOldBulldog]

Originally posted by Vectorspace:

Biomass generators are unique in that they scale their fuel burn and power output to meet demand. If there is enough power that the biomass burners are not needed, you can leave them connected to the grid with a fuel feed and they will only burn fuel if necessary. No need for a switch.

Or if you prefer to manually enable them, you can unlock a power switch in the MAM caterium research so you can control if they are or are not connected to the grid.

Although, power storage is a better solution to that - they charge themselves from excess energy and discharge when demand exceeds supply, with a nice alert that notifies you when this happens

I didn't think of this. Thanks.

I think this might be the best after having coal:

- Reroute all solid biofuel to the container (and dimensional storage). Overflow to sink.
- Output from the container to the bio generators, but use a manual power switch to keep them off as they would not be powering anything if the switch is off.
- Set priority power switches on the coal generators and water extractors of coal, so that they are activated first.
- If I ever run out of power, fix the issue, then flip on the bio generator switch to power the supply to the coal generators, long enough for them to go fully active. Then turn back off as they won't be needed anymore.

Or use the power storage. I never bothered with them because I thought they'd be useless unless they gave you a notification when they started drawing power... and I never saw any sign that they actually do give that alert.

Or both :)

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by zOldBulldog:

Originally posted by Vectorspace:

Biomass generators are unique in that they scale their fuel burn and power output to meet demand. If there is enough power that the biomass burners are not needed, you can leave them connected to the grid with a fuel feed and they will only burn fuel if necessary. No need for a switch.

Or if you prefer to manually enable them, you can unlock a power switch in the MAM caterium research so you can control if they are or are not connected to the grid.

Although, power storage is a better solution to that - they charge themselves from excess energy and discharge when demand exceeds supply, with a nice alert that notifies you when this happens

I didn't think of this. Thanks.

I think this might be the best after having coal:

- Reroute all solid biofuel to the container (and dimensional storage). Overflow to sink.
- Output from the container to the bio generators, but use a manual power switch to keep them off as they would not be powering anything if the switch is off.
- Set priority power switches on the coal generators and water extractors of coal, so that they are activated first.
- If I ever run out of power, fix the issue, then flip on the bio generator switch to power the supply to the coal generators, long enough for them to go fully active. Then turn back off as they won't be needed anymore.

Or use the power storage. I never bothered with them because I thought they'd be useless unless they gave you a notification when they started drawing power... and I never saw any sign that they actually do give that alert.

Or both :)

Don't over think it. No switches needed really.
The burners just idle the entire time so long as you don't have any demand for power beyond your primary power source.

They pretty much take care of themselves.

Treat Biomass Burners as a backup generator system.

They only power up when/if their's demand.

You need only to have enough of them to be able to produce as much power as you need should you lose your coal gens.

Keep in mind each burner can only pump out 30MW. (this includes the HUB Burners - but they are only 20MW a piece and not belt fed)

Power storage can push 100MW - but they need an hour to charge up and only provide that power for a an hour - and that's per battery/unit. (The time it needs to charge is longer if you don't have enough to cover each 100MW Unit - so if you only have 50MW excess for 1 batt unit - its going to take twice as long and so forth)

They behave in the same way - only in that they charge on excess power.

In short you don't need to add any elaborate switching system.

[Nellvan]

For your coal powerplant you could go 100% maintenance free: Make a seperate small grid with the coal miners, water extractors (pumps if necesseray) and just enough coal generators to power them and never connect that part to anything else.

After kickstarting that system with bio gens you'll never need to touch it aggain.

[Bobucles]

Power storage can push 100MW - but they need an hour to charge up and only provide that power for a an hour - and that's per battery/unit.

Batteries are more useful than you might think. Maintaining stable power production is difficult enough, managing stable power demand is outright impossible. Build a blueprint with a pile of batteries, then stack the hell out of them. They'll take care of things. Don't batteries have unlimited supply rate? A single battery should be able to run your entire factory, for a few seconds at least.

Bio burners are pretty much obsolete around tier6. Keep a stack of then next to your fuel production to reboot a grid trip, but don't worry beyond that.

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Power storage can push 100MW - but they need an hour to charge up and only provide that power for a an hour - and that's per battery/unit.

Batteries are more useful than you might think. Maintaining stable power production is difficult enough, managing stable power demand is outright impossible. Build a blueprint with a pile of batteries, then stack the hell out of them. They'll take care of things. Don't batteries have unlimited supply rate? A single battery should be able to run your entire factory, for a few seconds at least.

Bio burners are pretty much obsolete around tier6. Keep a stack of then next to your fuel production to reboot a grid trip, but don't worry beyond that.

Not denying their usefulness.

The problem however that occurs many with new players is they do not take into account the "time" needed to charge and the "time" they get when things go wrong.

Majority of them built a ton of them (rightfully so) and realize they need something like a day or something to charge them all - and only get an hour of emergency power (variable based on what you really need so maybe more?)

Bottom line - whatever path you choose - remember the "fine print" is my point.

I have an obscene stockpile of solid biofuel (like 8 ICU's?) - so figured why not use them for backup purposes.

Course at the end of the day it's down to making sure you always have excess power to work with so you never need to implement such things.

Only one caveat/exception however- Geo Thermal - you need batteries to mitigate the curve - not that the overall rules change - its just a good idea. (As geo fluctuates between min/max)

[Bobucles]

Only one caveat/exception however- Geo Thermal - you need batteries to mitigate the curve

Not really. After a few go online they start to cancel each other out. Getting the power curve nearly flat isn't too difficult, a handful of batteries at the most.

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Only one caveat/exception however- Geo Thermal - you need batteries to mitigate the curve

Not really. After a few go online they start to cancel each other out. Getting the power curve nearly flat isn't too difficult, a handful of batteries at the most.

Not seeing this.

Every time I get in game - I see a nice rolling wave on the power grid.
I've intentionally isolated the geo therm plants off my main grid to aid in troubleshooting Fuel - and its been very consistent for 3-4 days now. (got like 6 now?)

They seem to be in sync at least - when I "throw the switch" to join the geo grid - the graph scales up and gives the false impression the lines flattened - obviously that's not the case if you watch the numbers bounce up and down.

Cant ever flatten that line - the batteries are only there in case you "toe the limit" and get too close - geo's fall below and the batt's kick in - etc.

[Mihle]

Originally posted by Kage Goomba:

Originally posted by Bobucles:

Not really. After a few go online they start to cancel each other out. Getting the power curve nearly flat isn't too difficult, a handful of batteries at the most.

Not seeing this.

Every time I get in game - I see a nice rolling wave on the power grid.
I've intentionally isolated the geo therm plants off my main grid to aid in troubleshooting Fuel - and its been very consistent for 3-4 days now. (got like 6 now?)

They seem to be in sync at least - when I "throw the switch" to join the geo grid - the graph scales up and gives the false impression the lines flattened - obviously that's not the case if you watch the numbers bounce up and down.

Cant ever flatten that line - the batteries are only there in case you "toe the limit" and get too close - geo's fall below and the batt's kick in - etc.

Their periods are the same length, so they will be as synced up or unsynced as they are when they are built forever.

They exact timing is apparently decided when the generators are built and can get a different cycle if you dismantle and rebuild them. That's what the wiki says. My power bar isn't flat, but it became less spiky when I tried to do that, so seem correct to me.

I would have some batteries no matter what tho. It can be useful especially when you start using machines that have spiking powerdraw :)

For OP:
If your goal is to turn on the biomass to run on the same time as coal when coal can't do it:
Just let them stay on with constant feed of biomass, they will regulate themselves as needed and only use biomass when they run.

If your goal to have an energy source in case power grid turns off and you need it to "prine" the coal:

If your goal runs perfectly by itself and don't have any problems, that shouldn't be a problem even if grid shuts down.

If you just want to stop the whole factory to not stop, place Priority power switch between the gens and the factory and they will break instead of the whole grid.

[Kage Goomba]

Originally posted by Mihle:

Their periods are the same length, so they will be as synced up or unsynced as they are when they are built forever.

They exact timing is apparently decided when the generators are built and can get a different cycle if you dismantle and rebuild them. That's what the wiki says. My power bar isn't flat, but it became less spiky when I tried to do that, so seem correct to me.

I would have some batteries no matter what tho. It can be useful especially when you start using machines that have spiking powerdraw :)

I suspect the "consensus" is pre-1.0 - it was an understood fact that they where never really in synch - but I never got far enough to mess with Geo's - spent too much time being an OCD Perfectionist - now that 1.0 is here I was committed to going for the long haul - come hell or high water. (pun not intended)

All I can say is if the timing was different the peak of the graph wouldn't equal the Maximum MW potential off the geo - its like a perfect "Sine Wave" (is that the right term?) - it seems to be consistently same timing across the spectrum - or maybe I misread it? Not exactly a breaking point or obsession for me.

Which is why I isolated the Geo Thermal grid - wantted to watch it over time and make sure it didn't mess with my calcs/troubleshooting elsewhere - so I dropped a power switch on the connection point between my grid and the geo grid.

All of which to just fiddle with. I'll run the numbers again when I get a chance and see if I can sus out the timing/cycle thing.

[Kage Goomba]

So for the geo therm discussion - yeah its not perfectly synched.

I have a potential of 1500 MW max atm - and peaking around 1250MW give or take - so its not entirely perfect - ill be looking into how to sync them up to min/max the heck out of that thing.

It's not terrible - but its not perfect either.

[Gal Kraft]

In terms of disabling a belt, Smart Splitter can be used. Toggle between Any and None. Boom. Belt switch.