Gas Pipe Germ Sensor BUGGED!

Hi @Neotuck, I noticed this recently too with the liquid temperature sensor. If I set it to activate above X and the last packet was above, then when the pipe is empty it will display -273.2 oC (minimum temperature) and the output remains active.

Conversely, if I set it to activate below Y and the last packet was NOT below, then when the pipe is empty it will display -273.2 oC and the output remains deactive.

These sensors simply latch the output based on the last packet that passed, Klei could have implemented this either way: if no packet deactivate OR if no packet latch last.

My guess is they did this to avoid lots of automation signal changes when you have intermittent packets. Ie, pipes with lots of empty packets would causes lots of flip-flopping, so just latch last value to keep outputs steady.

24 minutes ago, yoakenashi said:

My guess is they did this to avoid lots of automation signal changes when you have intermittent packets. Ie, pipes with lots of empty packets would causes lots of flip-flopping, so just latch last value to keep outputs steady.

In the case with germ sensors don't you think it's odd that the liquid pipe one works fine while the gas pipe doesn't?

If this was intentional then why let one work and not the other? 

8 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

the liquid pipe one works fine while the gas pipe doesn't

You did say that but I didn’t quite follow, thanks for pointing that out. In that case, sounds like it needs to be fixed. I am a big fan of consistency

Since this also affects the liquid temperature sensor, I wonder if there is inconsistency with the gaseous temperature sensor. I may do an experiment later.

Experiment:

I built 3 gas pumps and 3 liquid pumps, each with a different kind of pipe sensor. They all started out deactivated.

So I changed the settings so that they would all activate above X or with a common element running through them. They all activated, but when I turned the pumps off and the pipes were empty, this is what I saw:

The germ and thermo sensors remained active. So I redid the experiment so that they would all activate below Y or with an uncommon element running through them. The germ and thermo sensors activated, but the element sensors did not. When I turned the pumps off and pipes were empty, this is what I saw:

So what I see is that all 4 sensors (liquid germ, liquid thermo, gaseous germ, and gaseous thermo) latch the status of the last packet to pass through them. This is different than what you, @Neotuck, indicated for the liquid germ sensor - strange indeed. Maybe my experiment doesn't cover your situation?

My simple septic system relies on liquid pipe germ sensor to activate the 140s timer for how long the germy water needs to sit in a reservoir with chlorine.  

This wouldn't work if the germ sensor got stuck but it works fine in my survival game

I tried to build the same thing for killing slimelung in oxygen and that's when I discovered the bug

It should work the same depending on where you have your shutoff valve. If you have your shutoff valve downstream of the sensor, then the germy water/oxygen stays in that section of pipe and will reduce count until it goes below your setpoint, causing the output to switch state. If the pipe’s empty, then you’ll never see that change.

If you want, upload a save file and I can take a look. At least it will also provide context for the devs to resolve.