so simple Why is this small electrical circuit strained?

[The Plum Gate]

I've tried both conductive and regular wire coming off the transformer - and it's always yellow. What am I missing here?

 

[Luminite2]

Transformers only send just as much electricity as is necessary, so those circuits will always appear to be "strained." You can safely add more stuff onto the circuit.

[clickrush]

Exactly as @Luminite2 said.

If you want it to appear as the white "energy surplus" then you need to add a battery on the consumer side.

Think of the transformer as being greedy. It will always suck as much power from its input to its output (in your picture right to left), as the output/consumer side can consume up to its maximum transfer capacity*. Putting a battery on the consumer side will force the transformer to try and fill the battery, while draining its producer side. This way your consumer circuit on the left will always have an energy surplus as long as the producer side can handle it.

(*As I've recently learned that is currently 4*1kJ/s, which isn't 100% equivalent to 4kW, but to 4x 1kW and you need a battery on the consumer side to merge the 1kJ packets to make a 4kW circuit).

[randomdupe]

That happens when there aren't any generators on that circuit, the transformer is not considered to be one, the Circuit then has more power drawn than generated and is then considered strained.  The power the transformer pulls from the other side is not considered consumed so that wire will always show white even with just the manual gen on it, and an aquatuner on the other side.

[Kasuha]

Don't get bothered by the yellow wire color. It doesn't mean anything useful. Hopefully one of minor problems that will get fixed somewhere before the game leaves Early Access.

[The Plum Gate]

Thanks everyone, I had a feeling it was irrelevant on transformed circuits - and let much came to the conclusion that it meant that there was more power being used than was being generated. 

The problem would then be knowing when a circuit is actually strained rather than when the power is coming from batteries.

[Kasuha]

2 minutes ago, The Plum Gate said:

The problem would then be knowing when a circuit is actually strained rather than when the power is coming batteries.

You can figure it out from the tooltip when you put the mouse over the wire.

[The Plum Gate]

I meant from a visual observation of the power overlay - I check that tool tip quite frequently. I thought the intent of strained was indicate that there was a near-wire-capacity load on the circuit - that, to me, is strained.

[clickrush]

1 hour ago, The Plum Gate said:

I meant from a visual observation of the power overlay - I check that tool tip quite frequently. I thought the intent of strained was indicate that there was a near-wire-capacity load on the circuit - that, to me, is strained.

But that is actually what happens here. The consumer side of your circuit only has as much power as it consumes, because you dont have any generators and batteries there. This is 100% fine though. With a centralized HW producer circuit you don't care about the consumer circuits except the producer circuit is strained, which shouldn't happen if you plan ahead.

If it does happen (you have consumption spikes you can't handle in the short term), then you start adding batteries on the consumer side and possibly shutoffs or other automation so you can prioritize consumer circuits over others. As previously explained transformers are greedy. So adding batteries there will prioritize the energy buffer to that circuit.

The other case where you want 1 battery on the consumer side is for merging the 4*1kJ/s packets into actual 4kW, so you can supply >1kW equipment with conductive wire.

[The Plum Gate]

In that case [I'm the one] confusing circuit load strain vs wire strain, lol. As far as the strain is concerned, I get now.

@clickrush

What I don't understand is your example - what scenario would there be where you want 4k on the low side of the transformer? This example is also using packets - which I don't entirely understand either. Pictures help - or just explaining what you mean by packets. As far as I can tell, we have 1,2, and 20kW lines, where does 4kW come into play?

[Saturnus]

42 minutes ago, The Plum Gate said:

As far as I can tell, we have 1,2, and 20kW lines, where does 4kW come into play?

Transformer transfer up to 1000J (see the tool tip). So you can have a maximum of 1000W power draw in one go. However, it can transfer that 1000J four times per second, so you can actually draw up to 4KW from one transformer. If any of your consumers consume above 1000W by themselves, for example an aquatuner, then you need a battery on the consumer side of the transformer as a buffer. Any type of battery will do.

 Here's an example. The heavi-watt wire goes into the first transformer. All power is drawn from that transformer and the tiny alone. There's an aqautuner, a tepidizer and 4 pumps connected so it draws up to 3120W simultaneously from that one transformer and tiny battery without any problems at all.

[The Plum Gate]

3 minutes ago, Saturnus said:

However, it can transfer that 1000J four times per second

This, was the missing piece for me, thanks!

[MythN7]

So I tried your solution of putting the battery on the consumer side, and its still blinking yellow all the time.  Am I not understanding what you meant by the consumer end?

[The Plum Gate]

15 minutes ago, MythN7 said:

So I tried your solution of putting the battery on the consumer side, and its still blinking yellow all the time.  Am I not understanding what you meant by the consumer end?

 So my initial though on the matter is unclear here - I believe the issue your having on the heavy side is that total power produced ( coal generator ) is insufficient compared to you're power draw ( despite battery placement ).

Those circuits are going to flash yellow as machines cut on and off. 

I would just join the two generators and see if that helps mitigate the the flashing. It's my experience that not having adequate wattage producers on the circuit and only buffer batteries causes yellow lines.

[MythN7]

ok, ill try that.

Na still yellow. the wire turns white when i am not using transformers at all, its gotta be a kink with those.

if it is the case of potential draw vs power given, i can see how the game code would flash it yellow.

If that is the case, they should have another color in the over lay for power required being close to the power being supplied to the line, cause i am sure to many, and I have basic electricity training from my college engineering credits, that strained means there's a chance you will blow the wire from uh well it being "strained"

[The Plum Gate]

2 hours ago, MythN7 said:

If that is the case, they should have another color in the over lay for power required being close to the power being supplied to the line, cause i am sure to many, and I have basic electricity training from my college engineering credits, that strained means there's a chance you will blow the wire from uh well it being "strained"

Exactly why I was confused - I thought more or less that yellow meant that it was approaching the wire's tolerance. 

Instead it means something else.