Power Priority Control(s)

[Epishade]

I know it's not what you're asking for, but if you want a build that uses power from hamster wheels first and only kicks on coal generators for backup, you might be interested in this thread.

forums.kleientertainment.com/forums/topic/103266-sequential-smart-battery-charging-guide/?tab=comments#comment-1159653

[goatt]

36 minutes ago, Saturnus said:

Another one who missed the point of the OP.

The OP specifically said he did not want a smart battery.

I did not say that smart battery is needed, I'm just saying, your simplest solution is not good because of the restriction from time schedules. And sorry i don't know any discord.

[Saturnus]

Just now, goatt said:

I did not say that smart battery is needed, I'm just saying, your simplest solution is not good because of the restriction from time schedules. And sorry i don't know any discord.

Still not quite sure what you mean exactly though. The OP said he wanted a dupe to run on the hamster wheel more or less at all times, so I'm assuming he made schedules to make sure there a 24/7 shift. I certainly do that on cycle 1, so I, perhaps erroneously, assumed that most other people that have been playing the game for a while used the highly efficient time slicing schedule technique.

[goatt]

16 minutes ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

I can refrain from posting in the future when my solution doesn't precisely match the request,

Pls no, it's free world.

17 minutes ago, Saturnus said:

Still not quite sure what you mean exactly though.

When providing opinions, we all assume a lot of things. I assumed that it's early game power grid, since cycle 4-6 was mentioned, if you run a 24/7 shift on manual generator, you definitely won't need a coal generator by cycle 6, not enough power consumers to eat up all the power left in batteries. But again, early game can mean cycle 4-50 or 4-500 for some people. I also assumed in early game there is no need to use 24/7 shift because doing that won't increase completion of tasks, which is because all dupes have been working full time already, changing sleeping schedule won't increase total work hours. What I assume is that everyone sleeps and wakes up at same time, and I assume that's most likely what OP was doing. And based on that assumption your solution is not good.

[Saturnus]

27 minutes ago, goatt said:

I also assumed in early game there is no need to use 24/7 shift because doing that won't increase completion of tasks, which is because all dupes have been working full time already, changing sleeping schedule won't increase total work hours.

There's great benefit in having 24/7 shifts from cycle 1. You only need one wash bassin and one outhouse (though a back up outhouse at cycle 4 is normally needed... just in case). You also only need to build one cot in the beginning as it's easy to micromanage 3 dupe to alternate sleeping in it. Progress is slow in the beginning so it's not much work on your part to start with. What does take a long time is research, and with 24/7 shift from the start you basically boost your total research by 50%.

Even with 24 dupes if you use 24 different schedules you only ever need one lavatory, one shower and one espresso machine in your base for example as your dupes will never overlap in times they use them, so there's no need to build more. 

[WanderingKid]

3 hours ago, goatt said:

What I assume is that everyone sleeps and wakes up at same time, and I assume that's most likely what OP was doing. And based on that assumption your solution is not good.

Similar to @Saturnus, I setup multi-shifting before I unpause the game on cycle 1.  I typically pre-build 10-12 different shifts, while also adjusting all my priorities and disinfecting values.  I also have more power draw on cycle 6 than most players.  On average I've now got two researchers using 2 of the 3 research areas (1 super, 2 benches), 2 diffusers, and a water pump.

The objective of this was instead of doing a direct coal switch was to use the runner *as much as possible* for xp gains, and support extra energy costs with the coal generator(s). 

On a side note, even a weak version of these setups has astronauts ready before cycle 25.

@KittenIsAGeek  Please don't start stepping away when you offer assistance. Your help was/is appreciated.  While Saturnus is correct that I asked for a non smart battery version, your example showed me it was basically impossible without spending more refined metal than any other solution, such as Saturnus' ideas.  He extrapolated them further on the Discord channel and at that point I think it was... double?... the amount of refined metal.

In general, thank you both for your assistance.  They've given me a lot of new ideas to play with and perhaps a few workarounds to other issues I've had as well.

[Gus Smedstad]

On 4/2/2019 at 5:11 PM, WanderingKid said:

When the dupe is running, you shut off external power draw via the power Shutoff or shut off the coal generator.

The problem I'm having is that I don't recognize the sensor at the start of the logic circuit. I guess that's a pressure plate, and it triggers when there's a Dupe inside the hamster wheel? The screenshot seems to be missing the pressure plate image, but the square outline only seems to match the pressure plate when I look over the list of sensors.

I never use pressure plates, so I'm not very familiar with them.

[WanderingKid]

@KittenIsAGeek I'm getting a weird event here.  My manual generator is on the high side attached to the lower event.  It thinks the batteries are full.  They *are*, actually, but I'd expected the transformer to not know that.

However, a small battery next to the manual generator seems to control the issue.

 

EDIT: Upon further tinkering and removing the small battery, it may have something to do with save/reload and the power grid.

[Gus Smedstad]

I’ve never run a hamster wheel upstream of a transformer. It seems unlikely that it can see the batteries. If I had to guess, I suspect that the hamster wheel is reading the transformer’s internal 1000 joule buffer as a battery.

[WanderingKid]

10 minutes ago, Gus Smedstad said:

I’ve never run a hamster wheel upstream of a transformer. It seems unlikely that it can see the batteries. If I had to guess, I suspect that the hamster wheel is reading the transformer’s internal 1000 joule buffer as a battery.

It's possible.  I'm adding more load into the system as I go.  I'll have a more costly grid up shortly.

[KittenIsAGeek]

2 hours ago, WanderingKid said:

@KittenIsAGeek I'm getting a weird event here.  My manual generator is on the high side attached to the lower event.  It thinks the batteries are full.  They *are*, actually, but I'd expected the transformer to not know that.

However, a small battery next to the manual generator seems to control the issue.

 

EDIT: Upon further tinkering and removing the small battery, it may have something to do with save/reload and the power grid.

I suspect that after a reload, if the batteries are full and no power is being drawn, then the transformer isn't going to lose its 1kJ of power, so the hamster wheel won't "see" that there's anything to do.  Once something draws power, the transformer should lose its 1kJ and the wheel will need a run.