Power transformer is very user-unfriendly

[Lilalaunekuh]

20 minutes ago, Mlah said:

So why then should the power transformer be special and draw power ever tick?

Power transformers aren´t special in that way, they´re like batteries.

[Kabrute]

They hold a kilojoule in their buffer, I was actually thinking you could run main power through 1 xfmr, feed that through 2 in parallel kinda like -.=:-  so you have 1 input 1 output, 3 xfmr between them, no battery but using their buffers could possibly power an aquatuner.  Need to test the concept.

[Technoincubus]

We have power batteries and Smart batteries, why not have power transformer and Smart\High capacity power transformer? They can supply power with 2kW per tick and could be suitable for circuits without battery needed to run 1200 W machinery

[Kabrute]

 if you wanna get serious about it, make the heavy  conductive wire 50kw, make conductive 5kw, and the heavy transformer transfer 5kw per tick so that it could run industrial grids.

[KittenIsAGeek]

IDK, it seems to work just fine as it is.   Most of my power grids are between 1600 and 2500 watts.  I run aquatuners and refineries off transformers all the time.  Since they were first introduced, I've always run them with batteries on the small side -- to prevent brownouts when my total draw is greater than my power production.  With the addition of the automation port, it makes sense to use a smart battery to control the state of the transformer.  

[FIXBUGFIXBUGFIX]

53 minutes ago, Kabrute said:

 if you wanna get serious about it, make the heavy  conductive wire 50kw, make conductive 5kw, and the heavy transformer transfer 5kw per tick so that it could run industrial grids.

Then you still need a battery, or the power transformer won't be able supply a aquatuner

[Kabrute]

hence the suggestions of an Industrial Transformer that carries 5kw

per tick

[UziMaster]

1 hour ago, Kabrute said:

 if you wanna get serious about it, make the heavy  conductive wire 50kw, make conductive 5kw, and the heavy transformer transfer 5kw per tick so that it could run industrial grids.

I agree with this, heavy conductive wire is pretty silly with how it only reduces the decor, and conductive wire's refined metal cost is a bit out-of-tune with it's uses over the unrefined wires.

[Technoincubus]

5 kW is nice. I'd like to see some steel involvement because now steel is kind of pointless.

[abud]

3 hours ago, Technoincubus said:

now steel is kind of pointless

Beside +200C overheating point? I mean, you can even boil your (p)water with smart batteries alo... wait a minute...

[PhailRaptor]

24 minutes ago, abud said:

Beside +200C overheating point? I mean, you can even boil your (p)water with smart batteries alo... wait a minute...

Your throughput would be relatively small, due to how "flooding" is detected.

[abud]

Just now, PhailRaptor said:

Your throughput would be relatively small, due to how "flooding" is detected.

Probably flooding can be avoided using waterfall. But I just double check heat production is 2.5W, too small. I don't even want to calculate how much smart battery needed to boil 5kg/s pw.

[martosss]

8 hours ago, abud said:

Probably flooding can be avoided using waterfall. But I just double check heat production is 2.5W, too small. I don't even want to calculate how much smart battery needed to boil 5kg/s pw.

you can power a Power transformer(PT)=> then cut its power on the low end(it keeps the 1k charge inside) => cut its power on the high end => free 5W heat generation. Not sure what would happen if you flood it, though, you can't remove tiles below it or it loses charge(just tested). Here's the best you could do:

 

[abud]

4 minutes ago, martosss said:

you can power a Power transformer(PT)=> then cut its power on the low end(it keeps the 1k charge inside) => cut its power on the high end => free 5W heat generation. Not sure what would happen if you flood it, though, you can't remove tiles below it or it loses charge(just tested). Here's the best you could do:

 

But PT max temperature before overheating only 125C (gold amalgam), we are talking about steel.

[TLW]

On a very related note, is it just me that finds it confusing that the method that has less heat output has more power loss?

[martosss]

2 hours ago, abud said:

But PT max temperature before overheating only 125C (gold amalgam), we are talking about steel.

I thought you meant things made from steel. You were talking about boiling Polluted Water with Smart batteries, that's why I intervened. Making steel is a totally different question that I'm not ready to answer.

[CardCrusher]

I think I understand the gist of how the new 4kw power transformer works. Is there a way to split the downstream side into 2 different circuits though? So that I can theoretically power 2 2kw conductive wire circuits from 1 4kw PT without any overload damage? Or should I only do 1 conductive wire circuit per PT?

[beowulf2010]

5 minutes ago, CardCrusher said:

I think I understand the gist of how the new 4kw power transformer works. Is there a way to split the downstream side into 2 different circuits though? So that I can theoretically power 2 2kw conductive wire circuits from 1 4kw PT without any overload damage? Or should I only do 1 conductive wire circuit per PT?

The only way I know of to do this would be to have 2 Smart Batteries, one on each circuit, with some sort of XOR based automation logic for the power shutoffs so only one circuit is charging at a time. 

[KittenIsAGeek]

The advantage of the 4kw transformer is that you can run up to 2kw of machinery AND recharge your batteries at the same time.  This will not melt the wires.  Lately I've been doing a setup like this:

Spoiler

This lets me turn off the transformer most of the time, cutting down on the heat generated. When power is needed, the transformer kicks on, charges the batteries back up, and the rest of the circuit continues to function without a problem.

[Djoums]

4 minutes ago, KittenIsAGeek said:

This lets me turn off the transformer most of the time, cutting down on the heat generated. When power is needed, the transformer kicks on, charges the batteries back up, and the rest of the circuit continues to function without a problem.

It's better to have a power shutoff before the transformer, and link it to the smart battery.

Spoiler

Reason being the transformers are also batteries - small ones hold 1Kj, big ones 4Kj - and disabling them destroys all the power they store.

[KittenIsAGeek]

@Djoums I've found that really isn't necessary.  Maybe in quantity, perhaps.  4Kj of power will run a gas pump for about 8 seconds.  In my base, I don't feel that its necessary to go through the additional complications of building a cut-off switch.

[Djoums]

You certainly don't have to, but there's no reason to lose that power. Adding a power shutoff is trivial really.

Also if you consider that a big transformer may be turned on/off quite a lot every cycle, the wasted power adds up to a fair amount actually (20% of a smart battery each time). The ones that are mostly inactive won't have that issue though.

[KittenIsAGeek]

2 minutes ago, Djoums said:

Also if you consider that a big transformer may be turned on/off quite a lot every cycle, the wasted power adds up to a fair amount actually (20% of a smart battery each time). The ones that are mostly inactive won't have that issue though.

That is true.  Most of my transformers are active for a good portion of the cycle.    If I have a circuit with a constant  high load (which would result in the transformer switching on and off) I generally just skip adding the smart battery to the circuit and leave it on continually.