Tank Treads literally suck up all the power in an engine

[Voin]

Hey, so whenever i try to make tanks work directly from the engine it legit sucks up all the power generated and then makes them unable to become neutral. The only way around this issue is using an diesel electric system like in old Porsche Tanks and work with that but honestly i just wanna save more space, any ideas?

[Ra-Ra-Rasputin]

Post your tank and i'll gently give it a kicking to see what's up

[Voin]

Originally posted by Ra-Ra-Rasputin:

Post your tank and i'll gently give it a kicking to see what's up

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1959810907 Leman Russ tank

[Tigerhawk71]

I also have this problem. Even if you load the example advanced engine and put small tracks on it, it'll just die out. But if you put wheels on it, it's fine.

Literally just that platform and the tracks can't move it. If you add a clutch and slowly ramp it up, you can get it moving slowly, but then it still dies if you go above about 50-60% clutch

Edit: even then the actual speed is incredibly slow. If you up that to two small engines they can't move one track above 60% clutch. Same with two tracks. Two medium engines have the exact same problem.

[CallidusVir]

Umm I recommend adding a big battery

[Voin]

Originally posted by CallidusBoy:

Umm I recommend adding a big battery

There are 3 small battaries at the back.

[CallidusVir]

your gonna need more I added a gauge and power was gone in a minute

[Voin]

Originally posted by CallidusBoy:

your gonna need more I added a gauge and power was gone in a minute

Yes because the engine cannot go into neutral mode, when it goes into neutral mode it no longer needs power. I have 3 small batteris for powering the minor stuff and start up the engine, adding in more batteries won't make a difference.

[Ra-Ra-Rasputin]

I will now begin giving it a kicking, but reading the other replies, 3 small batteries for anything but a starter motor is very low.
Keep in mind that they're like ordinary car batteries, and car batteries aren't very beefy.

A standard car battery in an everyday car is about 1000mAh and a starter motor runs 12V at 200A (though some are below this), this means that the starter motor can run less than a minute before the battery is completely dead.

[Voin]

Originally posted by Ra-Ra-Rasputin:

I will now begin giving it a kicking, but reading the other replies, 3 small batteries for anything but a starter motor is very low.
Keep in mind that they're like ordinary car batteries, and car batteries aren't very beefy.

A standard car battery in an everyday car is about 1000mAh and a starter motor runs 12V at 200A (though some are below this), this means that the starter motor can run less than a minute before the battery is completely dead.

I get what you mean, the thing is though any other engine i used when connected to anything but tank treads requires a split second push of a button to shoot a quick charge of power into the engine and naturally the engine will move into a neutral state depending on throttle input.

My current problem is that the engine doesn't get into a neutral mode, let alone becomes "self-sufficent" and i have to hold down the power button to even keep the engine going before the battaries die.The power has nothing to do with the engine, i know this for sure when i did a test, one giant diesel engine worked perfectly fine when tank treads weren't attatched, when one was link up with the engine, even if it's just one, small powered track piece, the engine cannot work without me holding down a button to give it constant elecrecity before the battary dies out.

[Ra-Ra-Rasputin]

Well, either you updated it or the fellows didn't see the big medium batteries.
The engine doesn't go into neutral because you have a load directly attached to the engine, so it can't do that.

Anyway, i made it run with a gentle application of a pair of clutches. To run it like a tank, you probably need a gearbox that's around 5:2 or greater ratio, but i didn't install it myself.


It also has an issue where it's pulling right, but it's not brought on by my tinkering. I installed an extremely simplified tank control scheme, i'm sure you can spot where it is and how it works:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1960054239

Don't lift the clutch too much above 50%, you'll stall the engine that can't handle the load. The engine literally cannot run with the load attached to it without only partial power or gearboxing dealing with it. Most tanks have 2 huge engines, one for each tread.

Also to put it out there: I like the overall design. It's also surprisingly spacious. With a little bit of tinkering it'll do great. If i can suggest something, you could bind the left and right tracks' power delivery to w/s and up/down so you'd have tank-like controls in the future. You're going to need some electronics to handle the clutch and automate the gears so you can make the treads go forward and backward on each side. This is much easier with 2 engines.

[Voin]

Originally posted by Ra-Ra-Rasputin:

Well, either you updated it or the fellows didn't see the big medium batteries.
The engine doesn't go into neutral because you have a load directly attached to the engine, so it can't do that.

Anyway, i made it run with a gentle application of a pair of clutches. To run it like a tank, you probably need a gearbox that's around 5:2 or greater ratio, but i didn't install it myself.


It also has an issue where it's pulling right, but it's not brought on by my tinkering. I installed an extremely simplified tank control scheme, i'm sure you can spot where it is and how it works:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1960054239

Don't lift the clutch too much above 50%, you'll stall the engine that can't handle the load. The engine literally cannot run with the load attached to it without only partial power or gearboxing dealing with it. Most tanks have 2 huge engines, one for each tread.

Also to put it out there: I like the overall design. It's also surprisingly spacious. With a little bit of tinkering it'll do great. If i can suggest something, you could bind the left and right tracks' power delivery to w/s and up/down so you'd have tank-like controls in the future. You're going to need some electronics to handle the clutch and automate the gears so you can make the treads go forward and backward on each side. This is much easier with 2 engines.

I appreciate the support, whilst i'm slowly getting their with all the fancy stuff in Stormworks, i'd still say i'm roughly at a sort of advanced of knowledge on how to do these things, i may need to do more research into that.

As for it going to the right, i've always thought it to be a physics problem with all the grids on the tank, however i'm glad you like the design, wish i could take credit but i pretty my designed it to the most part by the centimetre (To what can be achieved) of a Leman Russ tank from 40K, i'll look into learning about clutches but i only stuck with a single small engine because i wanted to keep it compact. Thanks for your support though, means a lot to me.

[Ra-Ra-Rasputin]

It's very hard to say whether or not it veering right is caused by a physics clipping anomaly or anything else. The easy way to figure out is to make a separate save where you gut out all the non-merged physics and see whether it veers right. If that doesn't help, remake the treads and try running it again.

If you aren't afraid of paragraphs upon paragraphs, i do have a guide on gearboxes and anything associated, although it's still missing a section dedicated to clutches.

[Voin]

Originally posted by Ra-Ra-Rasputin:

It's very hard to say whether or not it veering right is caused by a physics clipping anomaly or anything else. The easy way to figure out is to make a separate save where you gut out all the non-merged physics and see whether it veers right. If that doesn't help, remake the treads and try running it again.

If you aren't afraid of paragraphs upon paragraphs, i do have a guide on gearboxes and anything associated, although it's still missing a section dedicated to clutches

Send it over mate, will be glad to read it

[Ra-Ra-Rasputin]

Here you go! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1949442402

Also don't worry about loaning the design from elsewhere, you still have to adapt it to the medium and make it look good and work within the given limitations of it too. There's a lot of creative work in that. It's not like games workshop came up with the design of it themselves.

It's just a Mark V british tank with the cannon of a T34 or equivalent stuck on top, if you want to be snarky

[Voin]

Originally posted by Ra-Ra-Rasputin:

Here you go! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1949442402

Also don't worry about loaning the design from elsewhere, you still have to adapt it to the medium and make it look good and work within the given limitations of it too. There's a lot of creative work in that. It's not like games workshop came up with the design of it themselves.

It's just a Mark V british tank with the cannon of a T34 or equivalent stuck on top, if you want to be snarky :lunar2019piginablanket:

Mark V, T-34 and a Gustav cannon, but thank you very much regardless, i also made a Baneblade and Chimera (Sort of, engine kinda blows up) if your interested in that.