Liquid reservoir automation

[PhoenixGaming69]

I find this type of automation port hard to understand. Can someone explain to me practical applications of the reservoir for automation ?

I want to make sure the reservoir shuts down a liquid valve once 80% of the water has filled up in the reservoir.

When does it turn green (does it mean go?), when it turns red ?

From what I can tell, it sends a green signal from 0% until Low Threshold, then turns it red until the high threshold (and beyond), when I empty the reservoir from that point (from the beyond high threshold) down, it stays red until the low threshold is hit again turning it green signal again.  So what would be the point of the high threshold?

[JRup]

Hi!
The reservoir will send a green signal once the low threshold is triggered. And will stay that way until the high threshold is met. Do click on the reservoir and adjust the levels as needed.

If, for example, the shutoff in the screenshot is providing directly to the reservoir seen here, then this automation line can be used in place of the switch that is currently red. Or you can keep the switch to override the reservoir's output signal.

Now, if you need the fill to be more exact, then you may want to either place the shutoff closer to the reservoir's input or add another shutoff to the build right before the reservoir's input and steal said input before it reaches its destination (with a not gate). Both cases would need to be right next to the reservoir's input.

Hope this helps.

[wachunga]

Think of it as a smart battery for liquids. When the stored amount of liquid drops below the Low Threshold, automation goes green until the High Threshold is reached. For batteries you do this to maintain a certain amount of charge (and charge level is used prioritize generator types). Do the same with a reservoir to maintain a certain amount of liquid, but instead of automating a generator you automate a pump or shutoff.

Another use is to enable a building only when you have a certain amount of liquid/charge. I do this early on with a manual generator powered metal refinery. Run the battery automation through a not gate and you can disable the refinery until you have a sufficient charge level. I do a similar thing with a reservoir in a heat based germ killer. My particular design works best with full packets so I use a reservoir to ensure no liquid flows until a full packet is there. This can be do without the reservoir, but the reservoir also buffers liquid which allows the device to work at near average flow rates for improved efficiency.

 

[PhoenixGaming69]

I understand the low threshold. Meaning from 0% to say 50% Low, the reservoir will send a green signal saying to a pump keep on sending me liquid.  But on the High threshold, the reservoir seems to continue to send a red signal (meaning to stop a pump from pumping in).  I still dont get the high threshold.

[Fyrel]

Say you set 50% low and 80% high.

The reservoir will send a green signal to the pump/valve until it fills up to the high 80%.

It will then keep sending a red signal until the reservoir drops below the 50% low limit.

On hitting the low limit it will turn the pump back on and fill up again 

[Steve8]

The point is the same as with any other other engineering hysteresis: prevent constant switching around a certain threshold. So you have two limits and there is no effect between the two.

Another example with dupe interaction is the oil refinery. Without a hysteresis a dupe would constantly come and do a little work each time you use up a little petroleum. With the hysteresis they work for some time and then don't have to do anything until a good amount of petroleum is used up

[PhoenixGaming69]

ok that makes sense to me now!  

So I get wachunga's comparison with a smart battery, used for activating a power generator.  I also appreciate the hysteresis wiki, although I will probably not dive into that just now... Fyrel your explaination had me retry a simulation in sandbox again to double check and you are of course right. 

So it can definately be used to trigger incoming water to pump in with a liquid shutoff.

On the output side of the water reservoir, the "not" operator tells me when the reservoir is in a plentiful state (from going to High threshold & above, until going back down to the low threshold back again). So this I could use to tell a nearby building to become enabled if there is enough liquid that warrants a duplicate to come and operate a machine (thinking of the oil refinery for example).

[TheMule]

On 12/22/2020 at 11:36 PM, PhoenixGaming69 said:

. So this I could use to tell a nearby building to become enabled if there is enough liquid that warrants a duplicate to come and operate a machine (thinking of the oil refinery for example).

If you do that, do it for the output as well. Operate the refinery only if there's enough input and there's enough room in the output tank. For example you can set the petroleum tank at 50%-100%. Connect the automation signal to a AND gate. Set the crude oil tank to 0-100%, NOT gate, then AND gate. Connect the output of the AND gate to the refinery. Now to activate the refinery you need 5t of crude in the input tank AND room for 2.5t of petroleum in the output tank. 

I never do the input part, really. Either there's oil in the pipe or something completely ran out. I don't expect to have only a fraction of the input, so the refinery almost never starts and then starves on input.

OTOH, having the output tank be consumed slowly (so having only a tiny bit of room) is very common... a polymer press does that, so does a petroleum generator controlled by a smart battery. If you don't control the refinery with the output tank, dups run there, produce a few kg of petroleum, then stop because the tank is full, and run away.

What you want is to activate the refinery only when there're room for a few tons in the output tank, so dups go and stay there for a while. I find 50%-100% a good setting for the output tank.