Question about transit tube system

[jfc]

In terms of power, is it always consuming 960W per transit tube Access?

[Kerd]

7 minutes ago, jfc said:

In terms of power, is it always consuming 960W per transit tube Access?

No, only when recharging. It holds up to 3 uses at a time.

[ShadowOfALegend]

note they are more like batteries that are also consumers

[madcat1188]

Do they need to be powered via heavy watt wire directly from generators? I have a tube system setup, where all my transit access tubes are powered via heavy watt wire and directly connected to generators, no transformers in between. Now I want to set one up with conductive wire and a transformer in between it and the power sources, and it says "Insufficient Power" and won't charge.

[Azunai333]

11 hours ago, madcat1188 said:

with conductive wire and a transformer in between it and the power sources

Do you have a battery on the tube transit access side? The power coming from a transformer can be buggy without this.

A screenshot from the power overlay would surely help, too.

[madcat1188]

Yes, I do have a battery on the secondary side of the transformer (the same side as the transit access tube). I figured out the issue. With this particular transit access tube, I hadn't added any plastic transit tubes coming out of it. It says "Insufficient Power", until after I connect tubes to it, which is definitely a bug. I'll report it when I get a chance.

[impyre]

The "insufficient power" thing is relatively recent. Basically the small transformers can only supply a max of 1kw at any time, this is to prevent overloading circuits. If you have enough connected to a circuit so that it's maximum draw is more than 1kw, the transformer refuses to supply power at all to prevent accidental overloading. The only solution is to switch to the large transformer. Since you're using tube access points, I'm going to assume that means you have multiple points connected to the same transformer. Just switch to the large transformer and it should work, since the heavi watt wire can definitely handle the load.

EDIT: another potential solution is using power switching and automation. Connect a smart battery to each access point, and use a power shutoff to disconnect it when it doesn't need to be charged. You should some switching logic to ensure that only one at a time can be charged though, or otherwise use some logic to disconnect the access point while the battery is charging (since batteries won't overload a circuit) and then reconnect after the battery has been disconnected from the main power.

[madcat1188]

That's the first thing I did. I upgraded from a small transformer to a large one. It didn't solve the problem. I also didn't connect more than one transit access point to the same transformer, as that would use too much power.

As far as I know, the difference between the small and large transformers is that the small has a 1 KJ power capacity, while a large has a 4 KJ (which I think makes them act as small batteries in addition to their normal circuit isolation function). I think the maximum number of watts a transformer can deliver depends upon the type of wire connected to it. 1 KW for normal wire, 2KW for conductive wire.

[impyre]

Yeah, I just saw that a minute ago but I was going to leave it up anyway in case someone else had an issue with the transformers. I don't think the small transformers will supply 2kw, regardless of the wire used. I had an issue with a water treatment setup where I had the insufficient power thing happen. I was using conductive wire already, only switching to a large transformer fixed it... but then, maybe it changed since then, lol. 

Edit:

Just verified on a thermo aquatuner setup:

Large transformer + small wire = wire overload + power supplied

Small transformer + small wire = no overload + no power

Small transformer + conductive wire = no overload + no power

The available kJ don't seem to change, it just doesn't supply power. This is also true for the tepidizer.

Also tested on a set of five liquid pumps set to pump continuously:

Large transformer + small wire = wire overload + power supplied

small transformer + small wire = no overload + partial power **

small transformer + conductive wire = no overload + partial power **

**basically the fifth pump only ran for a small fraction of the time. watching available kJ showed that the small transformer supplied the fifth pump from it's available charge so as to not overload the circuit, once the charge was depleted the pump went without power until the transformer was fully recharged. So it can exceed 1kw for short periods without causing wire damage... but since everything over 1kw is drawn from the available charge, the more you pull the more things will be without power. I also noticed that it was always the same pump without power, the pump furthest from the transformer.

It's also worth mentioning that you can supply one circuit from two transformers. Two small transformers provides exactly 2kw of power, which can help prevent overloading conductive wire (since a large transformer can and will overload conductive wire if you place too large a load on it).

[Icywolf]

Two transformers + conductive wire to supply two access points is what I usually use. Without a 4KW conductive wire I haven't found a real use for the large transformer. I've tried having big -> four small -> normal wire (or 2x2 conductive), but why not cut the middle man in that case?

[KittenIsAGeek]

On 9/11/2018 at 3:25 PM, jfc said:

In terms of power, is it always consuming 960W per transit tube Access?

OK, we've got a slight conflict of ideas on this page, so I'll clarify some things about the transit tube access points:

This problem is not about how much power the transit consumes from the grid per second.  That is limited to 960w, which is easily handled by a small transformer.

Each access point stores up enough power to transport 4 dupes (I haven't counted exactly, but whatever).  Looking at the tooltip it stores a total of 40kJ of power, so I'm assuming its 10kJ per dupe launch.  Anyway, it recharges that power at a rate of 960 watts, meaning it will take about 50 seconds to recharge after being fully depleted.  So you can send dupes at a max rate of about 4 every 45 seconds, even if you connect it to a large transformer.  Since one small transformer can provide 1kW of power, it should have no problem providing the amount of power a single transit tube requires and a large transformer will not be any faster.