Canister handling made easy. (Small footprint, very functional)

A guide to show you how to make a very small footprint canister handling setup that can mix most desired mixes, do strait gases with O2,H2,N2, and also empty waste and other canisters quick and easy.

Canister setup, simple and functional.

I wanted a canister fill/unload and flush system that was small, easy to use, and efficient. I didnt want a bunch of canister holders, I wanted one. After some pushing and prodding this is what I came up with.

Explaining time:

Operational stuff

This system takes advantage of the pipe gas mixer's ability to create pressure.

The pipe gauge can be subsituted for a pipe analyzer which would give even more information.

Once the desired ratio is set you turn the desired gas mixer on until you reach the desire pressure. Be warned this system does not have a failsafe installed, on other systems I have seen gas mixers burst pipe due to over pressurization, but the mixer builds pressure relatively slowly so a simple pipe gauge is enough for me for now.

This system does require pure filtered gases to work as desired.

When the mixer and volume pump are off they act like valves stopping any sort of back feed into the system.

You typically use 3 gases in canisters in Stationeers, Oxygen (O2) Hydrogen (H2) and Nitrogen (N2)

This setup allows you to mix any desired ratios that you may want for:

Breathable air: You can use a combination of O2/N2 or just strait O2
Welder tank: This uses a 2 to 1 mix of volatile to oxygen (H2 to O2)
Jet back: I use strait Nitrogen (N2) for this, but CO2 would probably be ok for this as well.


Procedure to fill a canister.
1. Check all mixers/pump valves are off for this system.

2. Make sure canister side (from mixers to canister holder) of system is clear of any other gases. (Check gauge/atmo analyzer with tablet).

3. Insert clean (empty) canister into the holder (make sure the valve on the canister is closed, when you look at it, it should say open, that means it is closed.

3. Set ration of mixer you would like, mixer on left is H2/O2, mixer on right N2/O2. Note: It is possible to set a mixer to 100% for a single gas allowing you to fill just oxygen if you desire.

4. Turn on desired mixer while leaving the second mixer, and volume pump valves off for now.

5. Monitor pressure, DO NOT EXCEED 10132.5 kPa otherwise the canister becomes a bomb.

6. Turn off gas mixer once desired pressure is reached I usually take my canisters to about 8000kpa and call it good.

7. Remove canister and do with it whatever you were going to do.

8. Turn on volume pump at 100L to clean any remaining gases (I have my plumbed to go back to filter system to be filtered back into the base gases and resused, no waste.) Monitor the pressure on the guage, or swap the guage to a pipe analyzer which is more specific, the tablet with the atmo catridge will also tell you what is in the pipe. Making sure the system is clear completely will stop cross contamination of gases. Once the pipe is at 0kpa, turn off volume pump.
............

Procedure for dumping and cleaning a canister. (This works to reclaim waste gases from waste canister, or to clean out contaminated canisters.

1. Check all mixers/pump valves are off for this system, and there is no pressure already on the system.

2. Insert canister you want cleaned. (You should see the guage climb to reflect a pressure increase.)

3. Turn on volume pump, monitor gauge, pipe analyzer, or use tablet with atmo cartridge, drain until it is at zero kpa with no gases whatsoever.

4. Once canister and system is clean, turn off volume pump.

5. Remove canister, or begin filling.
......

I hope this guide helps you folks, and you get as much use out of it as I have.

Thanks for reading.

[Silentguygaming]

couldn't you also have another IC as a safety measure to maintain pressure if the pressure gets to a certain value it vents the pipe system outside til the pressure value inside the pipe system is at a acceptable range?

[SciDerg]

Right now I have the "bunch of canister holders" solution, but I've been having good luck with filling standard canisters to 8900 kPa (they burst at a little over 10mpa) and smart canisters to 17800 kPa (they burst at a little over 20mpa).
Haven't burst a single canister yet, but I haven't played on Europa or Vulcan yet, just Loulan and Mars.
Also, if you want to cram more moles of gas into your canisters or storage tanks of any kind, the answer is simple: Figure out a way to chill your gases, the colder the better but try not to get to absolute zero as the game doesn't know how to handle that (and it's impossible to actually reach absolute zero IRL, just get arbitrarily close to it).

[SciDerg]

Even with pressure regulators you'd have to worry about pipes bursting, the only way to stop the pressure from rising after the gas mixer is to turn off the gas mixer. A few logic chips and a pipe analyzer instead of a pipe meter would make it pretty much foolproof.
If you used an IC10 chip instead of most of the logic, you could have it set up so you have two logic dials, one for "desired gas mix", and one for what kind of canister it's filling (smart or standard, since smart canisters can hold up to 20MPa pressure but standard canisters burst above 10MPa). I'd also recommend replacing the volume pump with a backpressure regulator set to 0kpa as that takes much less power (flat 100w instead of up to 800w) and empties canisters much faster.

[Mars Mullo]

Thank you. great help

[怀沙2049]

OK

[matjam]

Very nice. I'll probably add a pressure regulator anyway because I'm stupid and things blow up all the time.

[brunoqc]

thanks

[Gears]

You could very well add one if you wanted, but I wasn't worried about it The gas mixers flow slow enough it wasnt a problem for me, I usually stop filling my cans around the 7-8Mpa mark anyway. Like I said in the text of the guide, there aren't any failsafes present, as you may even be in jeopardy of outrunning the rate the pressure regulator checks by at, may be something to look at (if regulator will check as fast as the mixer pumps). A back pressure regulator T'd off after where I have the meter put, going back to tank (filters system) would be where I suggest you'd put it, but make sure to not put it in line with the volume pump.

[brunoqc]

Why not use a pressure regulator to prevent the canister from exploding?

[Bunyan]

Nicely done! Thanks for sharing this info.