[0.15] Reactor Interface

[GotLag]

Mod Portal

Adds circuit interfaces to each nuclear reactor. Mouse over the interface to see the values, and connect red and green wires to use them in your circuit networks.

Output signals

• Temperature (custom signal with a thermometer icon)
• Fuel remaining - burn time remaining on the current fuel time, as a percentage (custom signal with fuel icon)
• Fuel inventory - fuel cells waiting to be used
• Spent fuel inventory - used up fuel cells waiting to be removed

The interface does not currently listen for any control signals as there is currently no graceful way to shut down or pause a reactor (pausing it via the scripting interface instantly halts fuel consumption but also stops all heat transfer).

Settings
The Update interval setting is a per-map setting that controls how often interfaces are updated. By default each interface updates every tick, if you find this causes performance issues then increase the interval. The interval is measured in ticks, with one tick being 1/60 of a second, so an interval of 6 would give 10 updates per second.

There's no upper limit enforced on the interval, but high values (eg half a second or more) may run into timing issues when trying to finely control fuel input with inserters or belt sensors.

Known issues
Interface circuit wire connections aren't kept in blueprints. The interface is a separate entity, and blueprints don't allow overlapping ghosts. A reactor crafted from a blueprint will have an interface, you'll just have to manually connect it to the circuit network.

Version History

• 1.0.0 - 2017/05/06 - Initial release for 0.15

[StoneLegion]

Very nice! I'm quite surprised this was not a vanilla feature to begin with!

[Speadge]

HI got,

great idea... buuuuuutttt..

could u please make that i can control the reactor? i need some way to switch off the reactor - or make it stop distributing heat.

I have a big setup of ~30 reactors and want to stop some from distributing heat when they dont get fuel.

[Aeternus]

That would require a switch/valve in the heatpipes - you don't want the "heat" resource to flow out of the reactor. It'll be a big problem if you have reactors clustered for the neighbour bonus because they have a 10GW transfer rate between eachother. So for practical purposes a reactor cluster is just one big heatsource. Better idea is to switch off water input to the heat exchangers, that'll prevent energy from leaving the system. You can use a circuit controlled pump for that.

[Speadge]

That would require a switch/valve in the heatpipes - you don't want the "heat" resource to flow out of the reactor. It'll be a big problem if you have reactors clustered for the neighbour bonus because they have a 10GW transfer rate between eachother. So for practical purposes a reactor cluster is just one big heatsource. Better idea is to switch off water input to the heat exchangers, that'll prevent energy from leaving the system. You can use a circuit controlled pump for that.

nice idea though

[GotLag]

HI got,

great idea... buuuuuutttt..

could u please make that i can control the reactor? i need some way to switch off the reactor - or make it stop distributing heat.

I have a big setup of ~30 reactors and want to stop some from distributing heat when they dont get fuel.

Sounds like your reactor setup is too large for your power requirements. I suggest splitting it into smaller clusters for better control.

[Aeternus]

That would require a switch/valve in the heatpipes - you don't want the "heat" resource to flow out of the reactor. It'll be a big problem if you have reactors clustered for the neighbour bonus because they have a 10GW transfer rate between eachother. So for practical purposes a reactor cluster is just one big heatsource. Better idea is to switch off water input to the heat exchangers, that'll prevent energy from leaving the system. You can use a circuit controlled pump for that.

nice idea though

A little illogical. Take for instance the idea of a radiator at home - you put hot water in it, but then want a switch for it to stop radiating heat when your room is at the right temperature. That doesn't work - you have to cut off the hot water feeding it, and after you do, it still takes a while for it to cool down. The reactors are the same way, and you can use that to your advantage. They have a -huge- heat capacity. It takes several fuel rods for a reactor to heat itself all the way to 500dgr, and the heatpipes too have some buffering capacity. This allows you to plan for a fuel cutoff to the entire system when enough energy has been converted to steam: Use a small steam buffer and measure when it's full - then reinsert fuel the moment the buffer is tapped. The actual energy buffer is the reactors and heatpipes - the steam buffer will be at maximum for some time after the reactor shuts down, but no energy is wasted, the heat exchangers will simply throttle themselves due to a lack of demand.

[Thalasi]

I've noticed that when the remaining fuel is less than 1 but greater than 0 the Fuelremaining appears be rounded down to 0.
Would it be possible to have this round up to 1 until the remaining fuel is true 0?
Or am I just going crazy?



BTW thanks for this and your other mods, truly impressive work!

[Peter34]

Very nice! I'm quite surprised this was not a vanilla feature to begin with!

Me too. I just took for absolute granted that once I progressed to the Fission Era of Tech, I'd be able to wire up my Reactors.

However, the OP talks about the potential for using wires to shut down or pause fission, and I'm against that as a mod option, because it is an intrinsic element of the design, it seems, that once you put fuel into a Reactor, it'll keep going. No matter what. And that therefore the only method of control intended is for the player to choose if/not/when to put more fuel into it.

Currently, the mod lets the player use wires to gain information from the Reactor, which can then be used to affect elements external to the Reactor, but does not let the player affect any control on the Reactor itself.

I'd very much like this mod to stay that way. Or at least have a game setup option so that I can disable control-by-wire. (Keep in mind, in an MP situation, my ability to tell the other players to not use an option that is available to them is distinctly limited.)

[Breadbag]

I've noticed that when the remaining fuel is less than 1 but greater than 0 the Fuelremaining appears be rounded down to 0.
Would it be possible to have this round up to 1 until the remaining fuel is true 0?
Or am I just going crazy?


BTW thanks for this and your other mods, truly impressive work!

+1 This would be GREAT!

[GotLag]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that only 2 seconds at most?

However, the OP talks about the potential for using wires to shut down or pause fission, and I'm against that as a mod option, because it is an intrinsic element of the design, it seems, that once you put fuel into a Reactor, it'll keep going. No matter what. And that therefore the only method of control intended is for the player to choose if/not/when to put more fuel into it.

Currently, the mod lets the player use wires to gain information from the Reactor, which can then be used to affect elements external to the Reactor, but does not let the player affect any control on the Reactor itself.

I'd very much like this mod to stay that way. Or at least have a game setup option so that I can disable control-by-wire. (Keep in mind, in an MP situation, my ability to tell the other players to not use an option that is available to them is distinctly limited.)

In Reactors for 0.15, I had a shut down command that ordered the reactor to gradually throttle down to zero, and couldn't be cancelled once initiated. I had hoped for something similar, I'm not interested in an instant on/off switch. I guess we'll have to settle for starving the reactor of fuel, as there are no control rod equivalents in the Factorio reactor.

[Thalasi]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that only 2 seconds at most?

Probably less ya. Unfortunately that amount of time is more than enough for the inserter to shove 5 more fuel cells into the reactor.
So here's my setup, I know there are more complex setups that work and I'm currently using a s-r latch circuit which works great, I'm just seeing if it's possible to make it less complex.

The simplest setup I could come up with is using only 1 arithmetic combinator per reactor.
The combninator tells the fuel inserter that there is enough steam in the system while there is still fuel remaining in the reactor.
Once there is no longer any fuel remaining the combinator no longer outputs the steam signal so the inserter is left with the true amount of steam in the system and either inserts 1 more fuel or not accordingly.
In the 1-2 seconds time in which there is fuel remaining yet the combinator receives no signal indicating that it does, the inserter fills the reactor will a bunch of fuel cells.

If it's not possible to change this behaviour that's totally fine, I was just messing around and thought it would be a neat/simple little circuit to limit fuel insertion. The s-r latch is more complex but gets the job done.

[GotLag]

Another option is to use an arithmetic combinator to sum fuel count and fuel remaining, and only insert a cell if the result is 0.

In addition, sometimes it's better to use a basic inserter than a fast one.

[Lezreth]

For the inserter issue, limit the stack size. I'm using fast inserters with their stack size limited to 1 for fuel insertion. They are also connected to two combinators. One combinator emits a single F when the reactor fuel inventory is zero. The other emits a single F when my steam buffer goes down to a specified limit. The fuel inserters put a single fuel cell into the reactors when F = 2. The stored heat capacity in both the reactor/heat pipes and the steam in the storage tanks is enough to keep the system going while minimizing fuel consumption.