[Electricraft/Reactorcraft] How does amperage merging/splitting work?

Cypren

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Jul 29, 2019
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I've been experimenting with my first attempt at building Reactorcraft reactors, and playing with different ways of managing the enormous power output from the turbines. While doing so, I've run into something that's completely confusing my understanding of how Electricraft power merging and splitting works, and I'm hoping that someone can explain what I'm missing here. (This is Electricraft V6a and Reactorcraft V6e.)

I have two turbines running at full speed here, producing ~930 MW each:

2015-04-17_03.26.58-resized.png


When each turbine/induction generator pair is connected to a single motor, I get 930 MW out of each motor:

2015-04-17_03.25.56-resized.png


However, if I connect the cables together and then split them between the motors -- combining the amperage from the two induction generators -- EC shows the correct combined amperage on the lines (~3600 amps), and it splits correctly at the junction into two flows of ~1800 amps, but each motor outputs only 450 MW! The entire output of one of the two turbines is effectively being lost.

2015-04-17_03.37.09-resized.png


What am I missing here about the way that power merging and splitting works?
 

Reika

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ElC draws paths from each source (generator) to each sink (motor). Each source generates a set current and voltage. Voltage is reduced per block by the resistance value - in your case zero - and current, from a source, is split among all the paths starting there. So, the current at any point is the sum of the currents of all paths passing through it.

Resistors complicate things, as they clamp the current to a certain value and the "extra" is rerouted to different paths.
 

Cypren

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Jul 29, 2019
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ElC draws paths from each source (generator) to each sink (motor). Each source generates a set current and voltage. Voltage is reduced per block by the resistance value - in your case zero - and current, from a source, is split among all the paths starting there. So, the current at any point is the sum of the currents of all paths passing through it.

Okay. So if I'm understanding correctly, from a programmatic standpoint, two generators and two motors means that each generator draws a path to each motor which carries half of that generator's output (four paths of ~465 MW in this case). That would imply then that the two paths which terminate at each motor are not being re-combined to determine the motor's final output; only one of the two inputs is being used, and the other discarded.

Is that understanding correct? And if so, is that intended behavior? I know from experience that hooking two generators up with a single motor works fine; their inputs are combined at the receiving end just as you would expect and the motor produces ~1.8 GW output. It seems counterintuitive that giving them two receptors for the power results in each one receiving 1/4 the output and 50% of the input being wasted; I'm hoping this is just a bug.
 

Reika

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Okay. So if I'm understanding correctly, from a programmatic standpoint, two generators and two motors means that each generator draws a path to each motor which carries half of that generator's output (four paths of ~465 MW in this case). That would imply then that the two paths which terminate at each motor are not being re-combined to determine the motor's final output; only one of the two inputs is being used, and the other discarded.
They are recombined, with current being summative and voltage being the minimum (to avoid exploits and be most realistic).
 

Azzanine

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Correct me if I'm wrong but it feels like if you did something like that IRL you'd probably fry something.
 

Reika

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Correct me if I'm wrong but it feels like if you did something like that IRL you'd probably fry something.
Possibly; it depends more on the nature of the circuit. I am not an electrical engineer - ask me thermodynamics, aerodynamics, orbital mechanics, or kinematics all you want, but I have not touched this since my second year of undergrad - so you would have to ask someone like King for additional info.

Note: Probably a bad idea to bother him for this.:p
 

Cypren

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Jul 29, 2019
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They are recombined, with current being summative and voltage being the minimum (to avoid exploits and be most realistic).

Okay, thanks for the confirmation. When I get back from my current business trip, I'll see if I can create a clean test world (sans all non-Reika mods) that will demonstrate the problem I'm seeing for you, then, because the amperage is definitely not being recombined in this case. Splitting two sources of current between two outputs in my current world is causing each output to get 1/4 of the total input, rather than 1/2.

What's your preferred method for formal bug reporting in a case like this? Forum post on your main thread with a link to a world download?
 

Reika

RotaryCraft Dev
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Okay, thanks for the confirmation. When I get back from my current business trip, I'll see if I can create a clean test world (sans all non-Reika mods) that will demonstrate the problem I'm seeing for you, then, because the amperage is definitely not being recombined in this case. Splitting two sources of current between two outputs in my current world is causing each output to get 1/4 of the total input, rather than 1/2.

What's your preferred method for formal bug reporting in a case like this? Forum post on your main thread with a link to a world download?
If it is actually likely to be a bug, the new issue tracker is preferred, but if you want actual discussion my thread is preferable.