Fully automatic dirt farm design

[Neotuck]

Special thanks to @Kabrute for the idea on how to auto dig without player interaction 

In this design I cook fertilizer supplied from synthesizers on a conveyor rail and send dirt to be needed or stored elsewhere on another conveyor rail.  It's fully automated and requires little attention from the player and only needs one dupe free and nearby to dig the dirt.

Heat is provided by a volcano and temperature is controlled by doors connected to a temp sensor in petroleum set to 150C 

Fertilizer enters though the bottom rail and moves in an infinite loop inside the 150C metal tiles (need 2 conveyor bridges to make an infinite loop)

Once the fertilizer heats up enough to become dirt it falls off the conveyor rail and becomes a tile of dirt.  If there is no tile available the dirt will appear in the next available empty spot above it (which is above the open door)

  @Kabrute had pointed out that dupes will automatically dig any tiles that cover a blueprint so I have a stack of microbe mushers above the open door.  And since none of the mushers are on solid tiles they won't get built.  So as long as a miner is available he/she will continue to dig the dirt tiles as they are being formed.  All lose dirt is picked up by the sweeper and sent to another rail.

The only problem is the cooked dirt will generate heat, I had solved this with temp shift plates and radiant pipes that supply cold PH2O.  But I'm sure there are better ways to manage the hot dirt 

Tell me what you guys think?  Any questions?

[Denisetwin]

very interesting!  I'm hoping to get my current base to the point I can try some conveyor loops, still haven't played with them.  My biggest thing right now is I'm trying to decide how to boil oil to petroleum and use automation logic and pneumatic doors to dump it before it turns to natural gas.  I have never played in debug or sandbox and I'm thinking that's going to have to happen before I build and build in my normal survival.....

[Lilalaunekuh]

Neotuck your had the same thoughts about @Kabrute ´s suggestion about a way to automate dig order

 

The main problem I dropped the idea, before I knew about automated digging, was the dirt stacking through my ceiling and blocking some access routes. You try to solve this with a high stack of blueprints and the NEED for a dupe to dig before it reachs your ceiling

=> not 100%  solved but I´m tinkering with a liquid sensor to detect dirt reaching a specific tile (maybe 10 stacks or so)

The other problem would be the low chance your dirt acts as a foundation for one of the upper blueprints.

=> alternate open doors with other blueprints for automated dig orders

 

[Neotuck]

1 hour ago, Denisetwin said:

My biggest thing right now is I'm trying to decide how to boil oil to petroleum and use automation logic and pneumatic doors to dump it before it turns to natural gas

Not sure that's possible as you need to control oil temperature between 400C and 500C

But temp sensors only go up to 300C so it's currently impossible to control temps at that range

It is still possible to build a boiler it will just need player interaction to control the doors, you can also use CO2, H2, PO2, and hot steam vents as a heat source (500C) Use an atmosphere sensor to keep the pressure under 4Kg so the vent remains active keeping the room hot. (extra gas goes up into space)  Any oil in the tank will eventually turn to petroleum without burning into natural gas

It will need player interaction to chose when to fill the tank with oil and when to dump the hot petroleum 

[0xFADE]

The auto digging is pretty neat.

 

Not nearly as important to try and heat to petroleum when molten slicksters exist.  Especially when going all the way to gas is so good.

[Denisetwin]

3 hours ago, Neotuck said:

you can also use CO2, H2, PO2, and hot steam vents as a heat source (500C)

Nope, I have two minor volcanos and an iron one.  The others are not hot.  Did not realize the temp sensor only went to 300 that stinks.  I haven't done anything with the iron one, is there a way to use it in the build you show?  I know the minor ones are too hot,  One is in an ice biome, I'm not touching as I don't need water, would prefer the biome to stay cold....

[Neotuck]

3 minutes ago, Denisetwin said:

I haven't done anything with the iron one, is there a way to use it in the build you show?

you can but you risk cooking the oil into natural gas

[0xFADE]

11 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

you can but you risk cooking the oil into natural gas

More of a reward than a risk!

[The Flying Fox]

6 hours ago, Denisetwin said:

very interesting!  I'm hoping to get my current base to the point I can try some conveyor loops, still haven't played with them.  My biggest thing right now is I'm trying to decide how to boil oil to petroleum and use automation logic and pneumatic doors to dump it before it turns to natural gas.  I have never played in debug or sandbox and I'm thinking that's going to have to happen before I build and build in my normal survival.....

Oil to petroleum you say?  Yeah, you can do it, I built one a while ago.  Worked pretty reliability too.  Input oil cooled the output petroleum to a more pumpable temperature.  I'd imagine that with radiant pipes it could be compressed to a smaller size.  After all, I was just trying to squeeze as much heat as I could out of a batch of magma.  Now that we have unlimited magma/heat, squeezing out every joule of heat isn't really an issue.

 

As you can see, it just works with hydro switches and the fact that oil is always under petroleum and a little bit of petroleum is always left on top after most of the petroleum has spilled out.  This causes both hydro switches to go on and prevents the door from closing.  The oil cooks with the heat in the iron tile for a while until it converts to petroleum.  When it does, the top layer of petroleum drops into the hole and that signals for more oil to drop in.  Once more oil drops it, it pushes the petroleum out of the pocket and most of the petroleum spills out into the heat exchanger.  There's an automation timer setup that will force close the door to transfer more heat in if the cooking is taking too long.  Once the thing got going, it worked like clockwork.  The only issue was thorough-put.  It worked better with the input flow of petroleum was less then 2KG/s set by the manual valve you see.

 

Now that I look back on it, if I had the hot plate on the bottom of the pocket.. couldn't I just make the pocket longer for more thorough-put longer?

 

[0xFADE]

Very nice.

[Denisetwin]

9 hours ago, The Flying Fox said:

Now that I look back on it, if I had the hot plate on the bottom of the pocket.. couldn't I just make the pocket longer for more thorough-put longer?

OOOOOO  Thank you!!!  I think I am following this, but why the row of metal tiles at the bottom of the petroleum run? Was that area a lot colder and you were transferring heat?  You are right, this is perfect build for the new radiant pipes.  I think you are right, if the "pocket" was wider you could potentially increase throughput.  I'm going to experiment with this.  Thanks!

[The Flying Fox]

1 hour ago, Denisetwin said:

OOOOOO  Thank you!!!  I think I am following this, but why the row of metal tiles at the bottom of the petroleum run? Was that area a lot colder and you were transferring heat?  You are right, this is perfect build for the new radiant pipes.  I think you are right, if the "pocket" was wider you could potentially increase throughput.  I'm going to experiment with this.  Thanks!

I had a go with this last night, this is basically what I came up with.  The heat source is too close, however.  You really need more of a buffer between the heat source and the hot plate for something like this.  Because of that, it tends to produce some natural gas in the process as it's not nearly as reliable with multiple pockets, but it does work.  It just need more turning/tweaking to make it work better, I think.

 

 

As for the metal tiles along the bottom of the original machine, they don't really do anything.  At the time, I was experimenting with the idea of using metal tiles over pipes in hopes that would transfer heat faster into the pipes. (There were no radiant pipes then, of course)  And yeah, that didn't work since it was limited by the lowest conductivity back then.  Both oil and petrol have a conductivity of 2 so over laying metal tile on top of the pipe did nothing. 

[Denisetwin]

okay I really like your build, the extra NG doesn't bother me, right now I'm swimming in NG because of fert. makers because the PH20 is getting out of hand, but the PH20 geyser has a super long dormant phase a little extra then wouldn't go amiss!  Thank you so much for posting!

 

 

[Neotuck]

I have another design for dirt farming that works in the new cosmic update.  I'll make a new post Sunday night

[Alfons100]

I am a rookie at volcano usage but, wouldn't the magma eventually turn into rock?

[TheExceed]

On 6/7/2018 at 4:40 PM, Neotuck said:

  @Kabrute had pointed out that dupes will automatically dig any tiles that cover a blueprint so I have a stack of microbe mushers above the open door.  And since none of the mushers are on solid tiles they won't get built.  So as long as a miner is available he/she will continue to dig the dirt tiles as they are being formed.  All lose dirt is picked up by the sweeper and sent to another rail.

 

Is this something new? Or Just something I never experienced. I swear I have dupes build with a floor but could be wrong.
Could probably have a pool of of slush next to it that gets piped in a constant cycle through a hydrogen wheeze room to  keep the pool cooled and have the rails go through it. Unfortunately, haven't been able to experiment in real automation without debug much

 

[PhailRaptor]

4 hours ago, Alfons100 said:

I am a rookie at volcano usage but, wouldn't the magma eventually turn into rock?

It will as it loses heat, yes.  It will solidify into Igneous Rock.  That's why Kabrute's Neotuck's build in the OP has an access point for Dupes to enter, and move down the Ladder and dig it out at that point.  You'd want to make sure you do this during Dormancy, though, because it's going to get reeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaally hot in there while it's erupting.

[Neotuck]

11 minutes ago, PhailRaptor said:

It will as it loses heat, yes.  It will solidify into Igneous Rock.  That's why Kabrute's build in the OP has an access point for Dupes to enter, and move down the Ladder and dig it out at that point.  You'd want to make sure you do this during Dormancy, though, because it's going to get reeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaally hot in there while it's erupting.

Right...  "Kabrute's build"   

[PhailRaptor]

3 minutes ago, Neotuck said:

Right...  "Kabrute's build"   

Derp...  I just got off work, leave me alone.....  >.>