QQ Heavy conductive Joint

[Oozinator]

6 minutes ago, Gus Smedstad said:

.. low voltage device to a high voltage wire caused the device to explode...

[Saturnus]

3 minutes ago, Gus Smedstad said:

I can understand that. I’ve played games where hooking a low voltage device to a high voltage wire caused the device to explode.

Oxygen Not Included doesn’t have that concept, though. It’s only total draw on a wire that matters, and “voltage” isn’t even a game concept, despite the presence of watts as a unit of measure.

There are cases where hooking directly to a Heavi Watt wire is a problem, but they’re very much edge cases, and not common. For example, if you have a really large base, and you’ve got an elaborate distribution system where a Heavi Watt wire connects via 5 large transformers to another Heavi Watt wire, that wire is constantly carrying the full 20kw load. Adding any load at all to such a wire is inviting overload.

But as I said, that’s a very unusual case, and it has nothing to do with a specific limitation on small devices like mini pumps.

To the last point first, especially considering that the minipump will only be working for less than a cycle while it vacuums out the 3 tile space and then never again draws power after that point it's highly unlikely to be a problem for anyone.

On the point of voltage being related to watts. Interestingly if you see all wires in the game as serially connected superconductors it explains their behaviour quite well. Especially considering that superconductors does not carry voltage but only current using Ampere's Circuital Law based on Maxwell's equations. Ohm's Law does not apply to superconductors.

[Gus Smedstad]

3 minutes ago, Oozinator said:

Wat

It’s a common design pattern in Minecraft tech mods. I was discussing Factorio with a Gregtech player a while back, and he felt one of Factorio’s “weaknesses” was that wires didn’t burn and machines didn’t explode if you made a mistake. Railcraft’s trains detonate like bombs if they go too fast on the wrong kind of rail.

I don’t care for it myself.

1 minute ago, Saturnus said:

To the last point first, especially considering that the minipump will only be working for less than a cycle while it vacuums out the 3 tile space and then never again draws power after that point it's highly unlikely to be a problem for anyone.

That crossed my mind. I just have a tendency to talk about exceptions and edge cases even if they’re unlikely, unusual, or probably won’t cause any real damage.

Worst case, if you managed overload a Heavi Watt wire with this setup, it’s do a tick or to of damage and then stop. 

I’m a retired programmer, and I’m in the habit of worrying about worst case scenarios as a result. Because an out-of-bounds state often results in a crash.