Levels of automation

[Mehbark]

Others: Build beautiful automated machines that are incredibly efficient.

Me:

[DarkReaper115]

I I would like to flex with a hydrogen gen setup but I susually mismanage heat and die

[Nightinggale]

This is one of the things I love about the ONI automation system. All you have to do to get started is one building and one sensor and you gain something, which is worth a lot. Shut down the aquatuner if the room gets too hot. Stop the pump if the liquid/gas pressure is too low (fill the pipe when running). The list of benefits from simple setups is near endless. Modded sensors adds a whole lot more options for such simple setups.

At the same time allowing the simple setups doesn't remove the ability to make more complex setups. This means the automation system is beneficial to a wide range of players.

One thing I dislike about it is people usually post complex layouts, which makes people loose faith in building their first automation system. Despite being able to make large complex system, which I do frequently, simple systems like the one in the screenshot is likely my most used kind of layout. This gives a false indication that the learning curve of automation is steep.

[Pentalis]

2 hours ago, Mehbark said:

Others: Build beautiful automated machines that are incredibly efficient.

Me:

I think that was my first automated setup too, and it is a great one, a timeless improvement to a bare coal generator. Suddenly I stopped wasting coal and my starting biome reserves lasted me the whole early game! I say that's all you need. Plus you're using a fire pole, I didn't build any of those until I was like 300 hours into the game  XD

[beowulf2010]

2 hours ago, Mehbark said:

Others: Build beautiful automated machines that are incredibly efficient.

Me:

And next you'll automate power transformers. Then start using atmo and hydro sensors to shut off pumps. Don't worry, it certainly is a slippery slope, but in the good way. 

[Majorchubby]

I cant say how excited I was when I got a simple pressure plate, memory setup to turn the lights on and off while dups are eating. But mostly I use very simple setups.

[Nightinggale]

47 minutes ago, beowulf2010 said:

Then start using atmo and hydro sensors to shut off pumps. Don't worry, it certainly is a slippery slope

That depends on where you pump the crude oil. If you let it drip down a slope, then yes I guess we can agree it could become a slippery slope

[LucidFugue]

Classic setup. When I learned about this one I restarted my game and for the next half dozen games I basically went outhouse/washbasin, research station, and then beelined everything needed to make a smart battery, automation wire, and coal generator. I'd celebrate on like cycle 20 when I deconstructed my hamster wheel & batteries and dupes never needed to provide manual power again. 

[DemainaNyx]

Hey, everything matters when saving yourself time.  These small automations do wonders for a starting colony to save on power or resources.  So despite seeming simple, it's one less thing you need to deal with. 

 

4 hours ago, Nightinggale said:

One thing I dislike about it is people usually post complex layouts, which makes people loose faith in building their first automation system. Despite being able to make large complex system, which I do frequently, simple systems like the one in the screenshot is likely my most used kind of layout. This gives a false indication that the learning curve of automation is steep.

Anything coding wise falls into this issue though.  Programming in general isn't as complex as people think it is, it just seems complex because most people don't show off their "Hello World" programs and instead show off the "this program automatically waters my plants depending on soil conditions, rotates the plants daily, and opens the curtains so they can get light".  The Hello World program doesn't seem impressive, but without it, we wouldn't be able to create the other.

Gotta learn somewhere.

[QuQuasar]

6 hours ago, Mehbark said:

Others: Build beautiful automated machines that are incredibly efficient.

Me:

I was going to say, "That's fine, everyone starts somewhere", but then I realised you've put the battery on the left rather than the right, which requires one more tile of automation wire, which means you are wasting 5 kg of refined metal on this setup.

 

You monster.

[dereq]

4 hours ago, beowulf2010 said:

And next you'll automate power transformers. Then start using atmo and hydro sensors to shut off pumps. Don't worry, it certainly is a slippery slope, but in the good way. 

I'm pretty bad at automation, what is the transformers automation? I read something about putting the smart battery before the transformer for efficient rather than after but I dont quite understand.

[PhailRaptor]

4 minutes ago, dereq said:

I'm pretty bad at automation, what is the transformers automation? I read something about putting the smart battery before the transformer for efficient rather than after but I dont quite understand.

Basically you use a Smart Battery to control a Power Shutoff on the high side of the Transformer, to disconnect the Transformer from the main grid when all the Batteries are full on the low side.  This will lead to the Transformer itself running empty very quickly, and causing it to stop producing heat.  Both sizes of Transformer also have a higher power runoff rate than Smart Batteries do.  The combined effect wastes less power on runoff, and produces less waste heat (which in turn saves more power offsetting the heat).

There was (and I think still is?) a lot of back-and-forth about simply using the automation port that was added to the Transformer itself, but doing so apparently deletes all energy currently stored in the Transformer at the time.  The quantity is valuable to some people, and not to others.

[LucidFugue]

4 minutes ago, dereq said:

I'm pretty bad at automation, what is the transformers automation? I read something about putting the smart battery before the transformer for efficient rather than after but I dont quite understand.

Power transformers generate heat when they are active, which is all the time if there is no automation to shut them off. While the first step in power automation is to turn off the power generator when the smart battery is fully charged, saving fuel, you can prevent excessive heat buildup in your power plant by also placing smart batteries in front of transformers and turning off the transformer when its battery is full. 

This also provides some resiliency to your power grid because if you hit the point where your grid's load exceeds the capacity of all your generators, you won't have complete blackouts because the consumers on one transformer can't access the batteries on the consumer side of the other transformers. 

[KittenIsAGeek]

10 hours ago, Mehbark said:

Others: Build beautiful automated machines that are incredibly efficient.

Me:

This is the only way I build Coal generators.  

[OxCD]

3 hours ago, QuQuasar said:

I was going to say, "That's fine, everyone starts somewhere", but then I realised you've put the battery on the left rather than the right, which requires one more tile of automation wire, which means you are wasting 5 kg of refined metal on this setup.

 

You monster.

Maybe its coal storage is on the right, so it's faster for dup to supply rather than if the gen was on the left. Think about it ^^

8 hours ago, beowulf2010 said:

And next you'll automate power transformers. Then start using atmo and hydro sensors to shut off pumps. Don't worry, it certainly is a slippery slope, but in the good way. 

I never get the point to automate transformer since it do not loose charge over time... heat ?

 

EDIT : get my answer from previous reply. Nevertheless, I do not agree that much. I'm not using battery after transformers actually. If I want to turn off my transformer, I will need one. So I'll bring heat also and moreover bring something that loose charge. Considering that each battery looses an amount of watt every second, the more battery you have in your system, the more power you waste, no ?

[Lilalaunekuh]

1 hour ago, OxCD said:

So I'll bring heat also and moreover bring something that loose charge.

The obvious effects if you use batteries:

• Less heat generation if you use smart batteries to control a power shutoff before the transformer.
• More wasted power (if we consider the cooling to be powerless)

 

But there is more to that changes:

• If you use no batteries on the consumer side of your transformers, your peak wattage for the whole grid is limited to 20kw.

 

[OxCD]

13 minutes ago, Lilalaunekuh said:

But there is more to that changes:

• If you use no batteries on the consumer side of your transformers, your peak wattage for the whole grid is limited to 20kw.

 

I don't get it. If all your transformers are dragging simultaneously, undepending if you have batteries on consumer side or no, as far as I get it you can overwhelm your max 20kW wattage, isn't it ?

[Lilalaunekuh]

3 minutes ago, OxCD said:

If all your transformers are dragging simultaneously, undepending if you have batteries on consumer side or no, as far as I get it you can overwhelm your max 20kW wattage, isn't it ?

 

The point is not the battery, more the level of automation it enbales.

 

Even if your all consumer sides use at a given moment more than 20kw, that doesn´t mean all transformers have to work simultaneously.

=> It´s just about handling peak situations (which may be "easier" solved by an additional independent heavy watt wire).

[metallichydra]

levels of automaton:

 

1. connecting a smart battery to a coal generator

 

2. connecting multiple batterys to multiple generators

 

3. connecting a sensor to a pump

 

4. using AND and NOT logic gates

 

5. making a SPOM

 

and a lot more

[ONIfreak]

On 7/25/2019 at 9:02 PM, Mehbark said:

Others: Build beautiful automated machines that are incredibly efficient.

Me:

I don't get it. It is beautiful, effecient and geniously simple piece of automation

[Nightinggale]

11 hours ago, metallichydra said:

levels of automaton:

[snip]

5. making a SPOM

and a lot more

You mean you make SPOM before you make a germ killer by opening and closing doors under reservoirs?

[Lifegrow]

Nothing wrong with that @Mehbark - you've just taken your first step into a long and winding rabbit hole of compactification and refiningisticals.

God speed brave soldier - we await your return.

[Loscil2]

19 hours ago, metallichydra said:

making a SPOM

I thought they didnt need automation? Just plug your hydrogen gens to the main grid and if need be, control them via smart batteries; oxygen generation stops when base becomes choke-full of oxygen.

[PhailRaptor]

7 minutes ago, Loscil2 said:

I thought they didnt need automation? Just plug your hydrogen gens to the main grid and if need be, control them via smart batteries; oxygen generation stops when base becomes choke-full of oxygen.

Depends on your filtering method.

If you're using natural separation based on gas weight, you need to turn the pumps on and off based on the per-tile mass to preserve the filter line.  Keep the line of separation between the different types of pump to prevent wrong packets going into the wrong lines.

If you use Element Sensors to trigger Shutoffs to filter....  well, you're using at least 1 Element Sensor to control at least 1 Shutoff.

If you're using a mechanical filter you're not using Automation at all.

[Loscil2]

37 minutes ago, PhailRaptor said:

Depends on your filtering method.

If you're using natural separation based on gas weight, you need to turn the pumps on and off based on the per-tile mass to preserve the filter line.  Keep the line of separation between the different types of pump to prevent wrong packets going into the wrong lines.

If you use Element Sensors to trigger Shutoffs to filter....  well, you're using at least 1 Element Sensor to control at least 1 Shutoff.

If you're using a mechanical filter you're not using Automation at all.

Ah! Yes I totally forgot about the gas pressure automation... Yeah, disregard my post then.

I do it by naturally separating the elements and pumping them out when the gas reaches certain atmospheric pressure.