Generator back flow prevention?

[Vertigo81]

Okay so, I’ve been agonizing over a way to isolate generators from the “spine” of heavy watt wire, so that generators or batteries could be on 2Kwire, to allow for wiring through walls so they can be properly insulated.

why?  Well really just for the very specific case of trying to make a decent lava powered steam generator without overheating everything.  And yes there are other ways to do this but I really want to do things “this” way

i saw other posts where it was claimed that you could use a transformer with the generators on the in side, and heavy wire on the out to isolate them on the circuit, but on testing it just doesn’t work,  the small wire still overloads despite being on the other side of the transformer.  Which ... as I’m saying it I realize could be because the transformer allows 4K but the wire handles only 2.  Why is that anyway? What’s the point of a 4K transformer without 4K wire?  If I use a 1k transformer it won’t be able to handle a heavy generator which is the whole point..

the only way I can think of to handle this is to isolate the batteries between the generators and the grid, and disable either the input or output, so they can’t charge and discharge at the same time, with all the 2K wire on the charge side... but this is very awkward and feels ridiculous.

is there a better way?

[Saturnus]

Why not just insulate the heavy watt wire connection by running it through a vacuum you can make from the diagonal deconstruct and build.

Like this

[Neotuck]

I would say it's possible but you would have to separate the 2KW wires on individual transformers.  If you try to add 2 on one line they overload. 

[Mantak]

[Vertigo81]

2 hours ago, Mantak said:

... does that seriously work? Just putting 2 1k transformrs on the line?  That’s ridiculous...  lol

the vacuum insulator I suppose I never thought of since I assumed the metal line would transfer heat through the vacuum like in reality, argh.  Sometimes this game is incredibly counter intuitive.  Assuming that works it’s a very simple idea I can’t believe I didn’t think of >_<. Thanks

[Neotuck]

5 minutes ago, Vertigo81 said:

... does that seriously work? Just putting 2 1k transformrs on the line?  That’s ridiculous...  lol

or 1 large transformer, ether will work

6 minutes ago, Vertigo81 said:

the vacuum insulator I suppose I never thought of since I assumed the metal line would transfer heat through the vacuum like in reality, argh.  Sometimes this game is incredibly counter intuitive.  Assuming that works it’s a very simple idea I can’t believe I didn’t think of >_<. Thanks

heat will transfer between plates, but not wires unless there is some sort of gas or liquid which is why it needs to be a vacuum

[Vertigo81]

4 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

or 1 large transformer, ether will work

heat will transfer between plates, but not wires unless there is some sort of gas or liquid which is why it needs to be a vacuum

The large transformer doesn’t actually.  Someone else claimed it so I tested it before the original post, the 2k wire overloads.  Presumably because the transformer draws 4K.

[Neotuck]

Just now, Vertigo81 said:

The large transformer doesn’t actually.  Someone else claimed it so I tested it before the original post, the 2k wire overloads.  Presumably because the transformer draws 4K.

I forgot about that, then yes you want to use 2 small ones

[Mariosevin]

I've used large transformers all the time to feed my main line and have never had a problem with overloads as long as there are no consumers or batteries on the Gen side. The one time I had a consumer, an auto sweeper to feed the coal gens, I had issues of overloads. Do you only have Gens on your Gen side?

 

[Neotuck]

9 minutes ago, Mariosevin said:

I've used large transformers all the time to feed my main line and have never had a problem with overloads as long as there are no consumers or batteries on the Gen side. The one time I had a consumer, an auto sweeper to feed the coal gens, I had issues of overloads. Do you only have Gens on your Gen side?

 

the transformer counts as a consumer, if the pull exceeds the wire's capacity then it overloads

[Glassyfo]

1 hour ago, Vertigo81 said:

... does that seriously work? Just putting 2 1k transformrs on the line?  That’s ridiculous...  lol

the vacuum insulator I suppose I never thought of since I assumed the metal line would transfer heat through the vacuum like in reality, argh.  Sometimes this game is incredibly counter intuitive.  Assuming that works it’s a very simple idea I can’t believe I didn’t think of >_<. Thanks

There's no radiative heating in the game so vacuums do not transfer heat.

[Mariosevin]

1 minute ago, Neotuck said:

the transformer counts as a consumer, if the pull exceeds the wire's capacity then it overloads

Other than when I had an auto sweeper on the Gen side on the transformer, I've only had the wire show what the gens are producing. I have never had them pull more than the Gens produce. 

[Neotuck]

3 minutes ago, Mariosevin said:

Other than when I had an auto sweeper on the Gen side on the transformer, I've only had the wire show what the gens are producing. I have never had them pull more than the Gens produce. 

do you have a screenshot?

[Mariosevin]

Just now, Neotuck said:

do you have a screenshot?

i haven't a clue how to do that, kinda funny but true

[Neotuck]

2 minutes ago, Mariosevin said:

i haven't a clue how to do that, kinda funny but true

F12

[Mariosevin]

2 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

F12

 

[biopon]

This works because your generators don't exceed 2kw. You can't do the same with 4 coal generators or 3 hydrogen generators on one conductive wire without overloading.

 

[KittenIsAGeek]

3 hours ago, Vertigo81 said:

... does that seriously work? Just putting 2 1k transformrs on the line?  That’s ridiculous...  lol

the vacuum insulator I suppose I never thought of since I assumed the metal line would transfer heat through the vacuum like in reality, argh.  Sometimes this game is incredibly counter intuitive.  Assuming that works it’s a very simple idea I can’t believe I didn’t think of >_<. Thanks

Yeah, you can put two 1k transformers on a single conductive wire and it will limit power flow to 2kw.  I have used this method to move power from steam turbines to the main power grid when the location meant I couldn't simply run heavi watt wire to them.  If your generators exceed 2kw, then you can't use a large transformer because the transformer itself will count as a load.

[Christophlette]

6 hours ago, bleeter6 said:

There's no radiative heating in the game so vacuums do not transfer heat.

The actual misconception Vertigo81 had is not related to radiation. It's a specificity to ONI. The wires are touching literally and not exchanging heat.

Radiation would mean that the two wires are not touching and still exchanging heat.

[Vertigo81]

On 2019-02-04 at 2:35 PM, Saturnus said:

Why not just insulate the heavy watt wire connection by running it through a vacuum you can make from the diagonal deconstruct and build.

Like this

Waaaait a second...  you can’t actually build this.  You can’t build on the connection knobs to create the vacuum through deletion.  Guess it’s the 2 transformer option then.

[Christophlette]

3 minutes ago, Vertigo81 said:

Waaaait a second...  you can’t actually build this.  You can’t build on the connection knobs to create the vacuum through deletion.  Guess it’s the 2 transformer option then.

Can't you build it with regular tiles instead of the heavy watt bridge and then replace regular tiles with the heavy watt bridge after the vacuum is created ? I don't know if gas would leak in during the transition time.

[Vertigo81]

41 minutes ago, Christophlette said:

Can't you build it with regular tiles instead of the heavy watt bridge and then replace regular tiles with the heavy watt bridge after the vacuum is created ? I don't know if gas would leak in during the transition time.

No the connection knobs themselves on the plate block building.  I think it’s still possible by making it 4 wide and curving it.  But a 4 block wide insulation wall is just nuts.  6 counting the extra space for the plates.

[Christophlette]

2 minutes ago, Vertigo81 said:

No the connection knobs themselves on the plate block building.  I think it’s still possible by making it 4 wide and curving it.  But a 4 block wide insulation wall is just nuts.  6 counting the extra space for the plates.

I was maybe not clear but did you try "replacing" a tile with the plate ? You just have to build this with regular tiles. Then put the plates down by replacing the two tiles where they are in the screenshot.

[Saturnus]

58 minutes ago, Vertigo81 said:

Waaaait a second...  you can’t actually build this.  You can’t build on the connection knobs to create the vacuum through deletion.  Guess it’s the 2 transformer option then.

Yes. You can. You build the connector on top of tiles. Delete the tiles and build the wires after.

EDIT: Scratch that. Seems you can't anymore. I'll report the bug.

[Xuhybrid]

53 minutes ago, Vertigo81 said:

Waaaait a second...  you can’t actually build this.  You can’t build on the connection knobs to create the vacuum through deletion.  Guess it’s the 2 transformer option then.

You'd need to make the vacuum 4 tiles and use the corners to place the joint plates. Start with 2 tiles before placing the wires, then expand the vacuum to 4.