Piping problem advice needed.

[Beermachine]

Hi all,

Started playing fairly recently and just registered to see if the experts here could enlighten me as to why this piping doesn't work. I thought I understood the piping system fairly well but evidently not as I can't figure out why this fails.

The issue is the two highlighted bridges. If I remove either bridge 1 or 2 the system flows as expected (bridge 2 is future proofing for a possible secondary input to the infinite pwater storage area on the left, with geyser water taking priority). Tried enlarging the system with bigger gaps but it makes no difference. The issue with the design is easily rectified by relocating bridge 2, but so I understand the piping system fully I'd appreciate it if someone could explain why it doesn't work as designed.

Thanks in advance.

 

[SharraShimada]

Dont take this for granted (its late here, and i should go to bed...)....

If i understand your setup right, the right pump benath the geyser is pumping to the left. The upper bridge left of the wall is not connected to anything. The lower bridge left of the wall is connected to a vent. So the water cant flow up, but could flow through the lower bridge to the vent. (its hard to tell, if there are pipes hidden).

So, if i´m correct, the problem is the lower bridge at your right pump. (marked with 2). Thats because anything coming from the white input of this bridge could flow back to the input of bridge 1. Thats calle a backflow, and it confuses the system. Liquid and gas can always only flow in one direction. If there is the possibility (even if not connected) of a backflow, it backs up, and stops working. 

A solution would be, to place the complete lower row one tile down, and build a bridge between the 2 pipe segmens 1 and 2, input on the upper, output on the lower. That way the water can only flow one way. 

 

For future problems, check every output. Is there any output connected to an input that should not happen? If so, the system will most probably break. 

[Beermachine]

Thanks for the post, and your correct, the geyser pump pumps left into the system and the lower bridge leads to a vent.

Everything left of the wall works perfectly. There is a hidden pipe that connects the upper bridge output to the pipe that goes up/down the wall. This allows the output of the geyser to take priority over the storage area to save on needing to power the pump when the geyser is outputting. I tested everything and it worked flawlessly until I added bridge 2.

I assumed it had to be some kind of flow issue, but it seems odd that nothing flows into the pipe that leads to the vent. I was at least expecting some confused flow with bouncing packets, but nothing.

[SharraShimada]

The problem is, the new pipe-code checks pathing first, and let the stuff flow then. If the chek is negative it stops. So no bouncing anymore. like it was prior to the upgraded code in such cases.

[Fleetfeet]

It is possible that I'm dumb, and you cannot build valves under bridges, but if you can build a liquid valve replacing the vertical pipes connecting (1)'s input to (2)'s output, that would also correct the backflow issue without taking up more space.

 

Just leave the valve wide open!

[Beermachine]

Ah, that explains a great deal. Didn't know the algorithm had changed, and hence my confusion.

Thanks again, very useful information.

[SharraShimada]

6 minutes ago, Beermachine said:

Ah, that explains a great deal. Didn't know the algorithm had changed, and hence my confusion.

Thanks again, very useful information.

If you are a long time player, you may noticed a big deal of lag with huge piping networks prior to launch upgrade. Thats gone, thanks to the new code. It has some minior downsides though, but the huge performance improvement outweights everything.

[Bobasour]

The problem is the pipe connecting the two bridges. It's undefined which way water should flow.