Rocket Battery for main base power

[Ryzikiel]

I noticed that rocket batteries actually power your base when accidentally routing my main solar array through them. Upon inspection, they are superior in every way to Smart batteries, so I went about experimenting with them.

Pros: 
5x storage capacity of Smart Battery (100,000 kJ)
Less space (1 silo takes up 7x12=84 tiles for 400,000 kJ, vs 10x12=120 tiles for similarly packed Smart Batteries)
Less wiring
Less power leakage (400 J/cycle, but with more storage, 5x Smart Batteries would leak 2000 J/cycle)
No heat generated
Overheat temperature of 2000C, will melt before overheating
Can be built with crummy ore (iron/cobalt ore best with melt temperature of 1500C)

Cons:
They are stupid, so no automation output
Requires advanced tech, both for gates and rocket platform/battery

Solution: 
Using wattage sensors, some transformers, and some logic gates, we can get a failover to backup power if our batteries run dry. Ideally, with how cheap and efficient rocket batteries are (see Pros list), you can simply build enough of them to have this rarely be the case. As these generate no heat and do not overheat, it should be relatively safe to place this array wherever you want, without any active cooling. The only heat from this should be from your backup generators, which hopefully never run.

Oxygen Not Included - Rocket Battery - Imgur

Main View:
On the left you can see the rocket platform with a CO2 engine and a single battery (can build 4x on CO2 engine, 1 battery better for testing).
On top you can see our test load of refrigerators. 
At the bottom, we have our simulated solar power, being controlled by a cycle timer.
Above and beside the tower we see our backup power system and cutover switch.

Power View:
This should be pretty straight forward, however there are a few things to note. 

1. For the solar(main) power, we have a 4k transformer between it and the main battery. Primarily, it allows the wattage sensor located between the power source and the transformer to detect when line power has reached above a certain threshold, and to then signal to turn off the backup generators. This could be eliminated if a) you want main & backup to continue running until batteries are full or b) you use something else (like a cycle timer) to determine when solar will return to acceptable power levels.

2. For the backup generator, we have both a 4k transformer and smart battery before the backup generators. What this does is, when power is switched to backup, power will first be drained from the Smart battery, which will kick on the backup generators. They will run until the Smart battery is charged as per usual setups, however, the Smart battery will not accumulate a charge until the main array is full. This is how we can detect a full charge of the main array despite it being dumb. Once the Smart battery is fully charged, we can turn off the backup generators and cut back over to run off the main battery. 

Automation View:
This is the most complex part and I had to steal the rising edge detector as I'm not an electrical engineer.

The backup generators are hooked up to their Smart battery in the usual way, with battery set to 90/10.

The wattage sensor for the battery circuit (right of lamp) is for detecting when the power goes to 0, set to send green when below 0.1W

The memory cell is for controlling the backup power. It's output is controlling both the cutoff switch and the transformer, preventing heat generation when backup power is not running. The input is from the wattage sensor above it. The reset switch is triggered by the rising edge detector directly below it.

The rising edge detector is made of 1 XOR and 2 FILTER gates. The XOR output goes to the memory switch reset. The FILTER gates are hooked to each input of the XOR, and have their inputs combined. The trick is that 1 filter gate is set to 0.1s and the other to 1s. This will mean that when the input goes green, they are in sync and you get a short pulse of green from the XOR output, but when it goes red, this is not true and so no pulse is sent from the XOR.

We then have an OR gate combining the wattage (main power) sensor and the backup smart battery output. The main power sensor is set to send green above 1000W (this should be whatever you think is acceptable power from your main array), and the backup smart battery output is so the backup can turn itself off. The OR switch is optional and you can simply connect your main power directly into the batteries and only have the cut off controlled by the smart battery.

[SixbySix]

I hope they patch this out.  That said, there should be upgraded batteries and storage tanks that equal the ones on the rockets... Kinda silly that rocket gas tank takes 3600 kg  and regular tank takes 150.    (yes I could use the liquid over the vent for unlimited storage but I think that cheaty.)

 

6x6

[ghkbrew]

I think you can avoid most of that automation by splitting your grid into 3 circuits instead of the usual two.

Keep the generators on a heavy watt wire circuit, each connected to a smart battery on the same circuit for automation.

Use large transformer(s) to transfer power to a second heavy watt circuit which has the rocket module batteries.

Then draw power off this circuit to power your machines.

[Ryzikiel]

5 hours ago, ghkbrew said:

I think you can avoid most of that automation by splitting your grid into 3 circuits instead of the usual two.

Keep the generators on a heavy watt wire circuit, each connected to a smart battery on the same circuit for automation.

Use large transformer(s) to transfer power to a second heavy watt circuit which has the rocket module batteries.

Then draw power off this circuit to power your machines.

Is this solution not 3 grids already, like you say? The automation is to prefer filling & running off of the Main line as much as possible, and only using backup power when absolutely necessary, which can be eliminated by simply building enough batteries to get through the night.

If you simply have 3 grids without automation, each set of generators will equally fill the main batteries, wasting available solar.

[n_t_p]

Simple fix, batteries only charge when grounded, and discharge or charge freely when in flight.

[Electroely]

2 hours ago, n_t_p said:

Simple fix, batteries only charge when grounded, and discharge or charge freely when in flight.

They need to be able to power the rocket's inside while grounded, too. It's important for output fittings.

I think it'd work fine if rocket batteries were to only take in charge rather than both give and take like regular batteries.