Backup Power

[Lee_newsum]

I have had a look at "https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... Production" the pint "How to switch off steam engines in the night, when enough accumulator capacity is available? " I can not get it to work.

dues ne one have a small save game with it working on

thanks for your help

[Psycho0124]

What problem are you having exactly? Maybe post up your save game and I'll take a look at what went wrong?
It's not exactly small but it's the only one I have for the current version:
http://www.filedropper.com/fortress

[ssilk]

Recommend to click on the pic to see the details:
https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/imag ... twork1.jpg

The smart chest is connected with the red wires to the smart inserter. The program for the smart inserter is in this case "wood lower than 1", because under normal circumstances, there should be always wood inside the chest.

The big power pole at the left has no connection to other poles! You can use smaller poles also, just use shift-key to place it without wires.

The other pic on the above page shows, how you create an array of inserters.

[Lee_newsum]

What problem are you having exactly? Maybe post up your save game and I'll take a look at what went wrong?
It's not exactly small but it's the only one I have for the current version:
http://www.filedropper.com/fortress

thanks you.

power pole not mixup

[CherryKiss]

I have to admit trying to figure out the logic of that thing and how it works was too much for me I ended up just falling back on building up solar until it can self sustain, before then unhooking and retiring my coal/steam power completely and packing it up.

I might try to tackle the logic of that system again later and use it...because having a hybrid solar/steam seems like it would be really useful at times, but if I can't figure out HOW it works, I'm not going to try and set it up just from the pictures....

[Psycho0124]

Ahh yeah, it's a little confusing just looking at it. It's actually pretty simple though. Lemme see if I can explain it clearly..

1. You have your plain old main power grid with batteries right?

2. You create a second, tiny grid with just one pole. Use shift to place it with no wires near one of your main grid poles. Pop down a single battery so it overlaps both coverage areas like this:

The cool thing is that battery will be doing double-duty; it will drain down with your main grid, as well as handling the additional drain from the inserters/lights we're going to be adding. It dies first!


3. Now let's pop down an inserter near the edge of the tiny grid (the small poles blue coverage area). Let's also give it a smart chest to keep full. If that battery every runs empty, this inserter will stop and the chest will empty out.



4. Now let's add in another inserter to empty the chest. It needs to be in your "main" grid so it can keep running when the tiny grid runs dry. Let's also pop down some conveyers to circle the items back around to the filler inserter:



5. Done. Add in 6-12 items to the chest (enough that it doesn't get empty while running normally) and watch it go:



6. So we have an inserter that shuts off before your main grid runs dry, and a smart chest that will send the signal we can use when it empties out. Now just wire your boilers' Smart Inserters to turn run if "Item < 1" like this:

When the filler inserter runs out of power, the smart chest gets emptied, "Item < 1" and your boilers turn on just before the power cuts out! Works every time, even with varying loads and main battery banks that aren't big enough yet!
If you want your steam to cut in sooner, add more drain to the tiny grid with some lights. If you have a huge battery bank in your main grid and want backup power to turn on a little later, add another battery or two between both grids. A good way to see how it's working and tune the system is to right-click your main-grid pole and then hover over the stranded battery with your mouse. You can compare the total "Accumulator Capacity" on the left to the "Energy" reading over on the right for the single accu:

[CherryKiss]

WOW! That's it! I finally get it...thank you!! cool, I might use this in my next game my current game I've already made the full switch to solar...but wow I like this.

I'd love to use this during the transition from coal to solar, but I realized I have another problem to think about...my coal won't handle full power needs during most of the transition period, and still would need to be supplimented with stored power...hmmm I guess that is where earlier activation comes in...but it would have to be adjusted each time I layed more solar down, or increased power demand...

and I guess each night the boilers would be loaded to 5 coal when the switch is flipped...though I guess it would burn through some of that while the accumulators were recharging... hmm... well now that I understand how it works, I've got a whole new set of things to think about for it!

Well, still I very much appreciated having this explained, and to finally get it is huge to me.

[ssilk]

@Psycho0124: cool. Very clear. Can I use that for the wiki?

Btw: that confirms that for Factorio a pic or better a series of pics (because all is moving) can replace more than 1,000 words. Or shorter: more pics, less words.

...

I should put that on my monitor...

[Psycho0124]

WOW! That's it! I finally get it...thank you!! cool, I might use this in my next game my current game I've already made the full switch to solar...but wow I like this.

I'd love to use this during the transition from coal to solar, but I realized I have another problem to think about...my coal won't handle full power needs during most of the transition period, and still would need to be supplimented with stored power...hmmm I guess that is where earlier activation comes in...but it would have to be adjusted each time I layed more solar down, or increased power demand...

No problem! Glad it was helpful!

You'd be amazed how little adjustment is really required to the system. Since the trigger accu drains along with the main grid accus, it sorta self-adjusts when you draw more power or add more capacity. I bet you could just pack in a few lights so it cuts in at ~50-75% power reserve and you'd be okay for a long time. I honestly don't even tune mine, it just sorta does its thing and I don't worry about blackouts any more.

Even on playthroughs with full solar, it can still be worth it to build a backup generator. You never know when the neighbors are going to come and 'visit' en-masse and chew down your power reserves at night. Blackouts get ugly fast. A brown-out from too few steam engines will keep the turrets firing at least (I think they have higher priority in the power grid than other machines). If the power is WAY less than you need (so low that inserters quit working entirely), you could put the Boiler inserters on their own little independent grid (a few accus and a single steam engine). Shouldn't be too hard to do.

@Psycho0124: cool. Very clear. Can I use that for the wiki?
Btw: that confirms that for Factorio a pic or better a series of pics (because all is moving) can replace more than 1,000 words.

Of course, always! I just created a Wiki account finally. It'll be fun, I love doing little write-ups.

[ssilk]

Welcome. Nice, you have a good writing style.

[CherryKiss]

Even on playthroughs with full solar, it can still be worth it to build a backup generator. You never know when the neighbors are going to come and 'visit' en-masse and chew down your power reserves at night. Blackouts get ugly fast. A brown-out from too few steam engines will keep the turrets firing at least (I think they have higher priority in the power grid than other machines). If the power is WAY less than you need (so low that inserters quit working entirely), you could put the Boiler inserters on their own little independent grid (a few accus and a single steam engine). Shouldn't be too hard to do.

You talked me into it I'll put in some backup power in my current game...definitely it will be good to have SOME power if/when accus run out on a night where I'm firing a lot of lasers....