Battery Switching and New Transformers

[BLACKBERREST3]

 

I thought I would share this with people because I was planning to for a while, but transformers have well...transformed. I was using an exploit to get unlimited draw out of them, but now they do what they were meant to do, limit the power going through them. For anyone who doesn't know, transformers act like a consumer and a producer. They consume 1000watts while producing 1000watts. The larger variant consumes/produces at 4kw. Here is a design that I was using for Battery Switching.

Spoiler

 

Here is the new design that I have come up with. I use two batteries to keep the power stable, but you could use one if you wanted.

Spoiler

One problem that I have with the new design is that now I need to match the generators with how much power they produce to their respective transformer. No more unlimited power draw

Here I add an OR gate for the gen bats so they can fill both

Spoiler

Some more clarification might be needed, Battery to Battery does not work, you cannot charge a battery with another battery. You need to have a producer on the same network (i.e Power gens or transformers). If i were to stop a generator when the battery closest to it is full, then the battery level to the load would deplete before the generator activates again because the load drew power from the battery closest to it. Here is a pic of a bad battery switching system that explains this.

Spoiler

As you can see, there is no transformer or Consumer/Producer to keep the circuit stable. The battery on the load would deplete and the gen would be idle. Right now I cannot find a way to battery switch with unlimited draw without adding transformers that match it's power supply. I know this is an exploit, but I'm wondering if this can still be bypassed. I'm trying to save space on power infrastructure here. lemme know what system you guys use on a massive power scale greater than 50kw on the same line.

[BLACKBERREST3]

Spoiler

Instead of building transformers after every gen, you could also build a 50kw relay as well.

Edit. Nvm, forget the relay, just noticed how useless it is cause you would need to route all the generators to it on the same line which removes the flexibility on placement of the system. The problem that I’m seeing with these builds is that in order to get maximum draw full-time regardless if a gen is on or not is to use a constant consumer(to draw from batteries on gen side) producer(to supply batteries to load), but if we use the transformers then they will be limited on their throughput. There are certain rules that I notice when setting up something like this.

1. a battery is needed to tell the generator to stop producing to not waste power

2. there needs to be something consuming the power on the gen line so it can run again.

3. you cannot have transformers in series without limiting throughput to the load, this is the new restriction that came with the update. the restricted throughput is good on the load side, but not so good on the gen side.

4. producers can go anywhere on the line. wires only overload if you draw more than your maximum. idk why it was designed to work this way, it just is.

5. batteries can supply infinite flow rate to consumers, but not to other batteries on the same line.

6. transformers are 1kw/4kw consumer/producers and can overload the wires on it’s consuming end if you put too many on the same line.

with all these rules in place, it seems transformers are necessary as a bridge between the supply and load. the new design i’m using still stands.

[BLACKBERREST3]

Redirect for more info on battery switching

Original post this mechanic came from

 

[KittenIsAGeek]

I have been using transformers since they were brought into the game.    Generally speaking, I have my generators on a shared network where each is  controlled by their own smart battery.  I have also done some other configurations for load balancing or power limiting.  I have almost never used dual-battery switch systems.

I can write a long post about the usefulness of transformers in moving power around, but my current base would not be a good example because everything's spaghetti.  As it was a difficult start, things were initially built in a "I need this to survive NOW" mode rather than planning for the future.

If there's enough interest, maybe I'll write up a post about managing your power within the base, including managing many generators, high-load circuits, and hard-to-reach locations.  No dual-battery switching automation necessary.

[beowulf2010]

12 hours ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

If there's enough interest, maybe I'll write up a post about managing your power within the base, including managing many generators, high-load circuits, and hard-to-reach locations.  No dual-battery switching automation necessary.

I'd definitely like to see something like this. I'm currently happy with my power management systems, but there's always room for improvement. 

[BLACKBERREST3]

My internets back up.

Whoops, didn't mean to revive this thread even if it is still relevant. If you want to do a whole guide on power management, that would be pretty cool to see all the different methods.

ie.

• original
• switching
• exotic
• generator priority
• UPS
• breakers (I'll have to post this simple build later to my blueprints page)
• power limiting
• load balancing
• etc.

In another thread, nakomaru pointed out that build order affects transformer priority if you wanted to use that. I was using the low threshold of a smart battery to do just that. Handbook's new design also uses this too.

 

[Khaim]

On 9/8/2019 at 4:59 PM, BLACKBERREST3 said:

Here is a design that I was using for Battery Switching.

Maybe I'm dumb, but can someone explain what Battery Switching is?

I can see that BB3 has automation controlling power switches next to the batteries. It looks like one is connected to each side, and the signal flips them? Okay... but why? What problem does this solve? My base has none of this, just a bunch of batteries connected directly to all the generators. I might be wasting a bit of power but it's not enough that I've noticed.

On 9/8/2019 at 4:59 PM, BLACKBERREST3 said:

If i were to stop a generator when the battery closest to it is full, then the battery level to the load would deplete before the generator activates again because the load drew power from the battery closest to it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "closest" - is physical distance relevant to my electric grid? My experience is that batteries on the same circuit generally stay in sync with each other. They don't balance immediately - if you connect an empty battery to a line of full ones, it stays empty - but over time they end up even. I assumed that excess power from producers is distributed evenly to all connected non-full batteries, and conversely that excess load is drawn evenly from all non-empty batteries. Is that not what's happening?

[BLACKBERREST3]

 

2 hours ago, Khaim said:

can someone explain what Battery Switching is?

This post was meant for people who already knew what it does. You should watch the video that gamer handbook has made for an introduction on how this works.

The benefits include

• Less heavy watt wire usage
• Greater flexibility in your power grid
• Prioritization for your generators

Try making any one of these builds in game and play around with it.

[nakomaru]

Battery switching lets you run an unlimited amount of power over any type of wire.

[ChickenMadness]

On 01/10/2019 at 3:55 AM, KittenIsAGeek said:

I have been using transformers since they were brought into the game.    Generally speaking, I have my generators on a shared network where each is  controlled by their own smart battery.  I have also done some other configurations for load balancing or power limiting.  I have almost never used dual-battery switch systems.

I can write a long post about the usefulness of transformers in moving power around, but my current base would not be a good example because everything's spaghetti.  As it was a difficult start, things were initially built in a "I need this to survive NOW" mode rather than planning for the future.

If there's enough interest, maybe I'll write up a post about managing your power within the base, including managing many generators, high-load circuits, and hard-to-reach locations.  No dual-battery switching automation necessary.

i would read it