Are you sure about your numbers for the blulectric engine? I was doing some experimenting in creative with solar panels, using a blulectric engine for the output, and I'm getting numbers around 8 MJ/t for each kW (I've only managed to push it to 20 kW, but it seems consistent up to that point).
A Player's Guide to Redpower 2 Blutricity
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I have a question;
I keep having a recurring problem with Windturbines, Batteries and solar. They will not produce bluelectricity or ocassionally will produce on a basic simple setup (1 solar, 1 wire, 1 battery). However when I connect the wind turbine to a series of 3 or 4 batteries or solar to a series of 3 or 4 batteries they will sometimes charge but if I run the wire to a large bank of batteries (20+) or run the line into a Voltage transformer - 10kV cable-Voltage Transformer setup the grid will go dead and give me a volt meter reading "Reading NaNV NaNA NaNW" on every item (the turbine, the lines the batteries)
I've tried everything I can think of, breaking every single block and resetting, omitting the wind turbine or the voltage transformer and nothing I still get "Reading NaNV NaNA NaNW"
Any suggestions please?
I keep having a recurring problem with Windturbines, Batteries and solar. They will not produce bluelectricity or ocassionally will produce on a basic simple setup (1 solar, 1 wire, 1 battery). However when I connect the wind turbine to a series of 3 or 4 batteries or solar to a series of 3 or 4 batteries they will sometimes charge but if I run the wire to a large bank of batteries (20+) or run the line into a Voltage transformer - 10kV cable-Voltage Transformer setup the grid will go dead and give me a volt meter reading "Reading NaNV NaNA NaNW" on every item (the turbine, the lines the batteries)
I've tried everything I can think of, breaking every single block and resetting, omitting the wind turbine or the voltage transformer and nothing I still get "Reading NaNV NaNA NaNW"
Any suggestions please?
Sure thing.
S=solar panel, W=blue alloy wire, the X in the center is a hole with a ring of wire around the inside, below that is a blulectric engine pointed down, with a lever next to it on the underside of one of the blocks supporting the wiring+panels. Under the engine are two lengths of redstone energy conduit, one receiving power from the engine, the other outputting to two redstone energy cells.
Measuring the engine with a voltmeter gives the following readings: 93.32 V, 222.83 A, 20795.43 W
Measuring the energy conduit attached to the cells with a multimeter gives the following reading: average distribution 155.31795
S=solar panel, W=blue alloy wire, the X in the center is a hole with a ring of wire around the inside, below that is a blulectric engine pointed down, with a lever next to it on the underside of one of the blocks supporting the wiring+panels. Under the engine are two lengths of redstone energy conduit, one receiving power from the engine, the other outputting to two redstone energy cells.
Code:
......SSS......
.....SSSSS.....
....SSSSSSS....
...SSSSWSSSS...
..SSSSSWSSSSS..
.SSSSSSWSSSSSS.
SSSSSSSWSSSSSSS
SSSWWWWXWWWWSSS
SSSSSSSWSSSSSSS
.SSSSSSWSSSSSS.
..SSSSSWSSSSS..
...SSSSWSSSS...
....SSSSSSS....
.....SSSSS.....
......SSS......Measuring the energy conduit attached to the cells with a multimeter gives the following reading: average distribution 155.31795
Hmmm. Strange.
I used the following setup: A pulverizer, powered by the blulectric engine, which was in turn powered by a couple solars. Since the pulverizer shows me exactly how much MJ/t it is consuming down to the first digit after the comma, it was easy to relate the wattage in the blulectric engine to the MJ consumption in the pulverizer.
Try repeating your test with a smaller setup... half of what you have now, or even less. See what you get.
I used the following setup: A pulverizer, powered by the blulectric engine, which was in turn powered by a couple solars. Since the pulverizer shows me exactly how much MJ/t it is consuming down to the first digit after the comma, it was easy to relate the wattage in the blulectric engine to the MJ consumption in the pulverizer.
Try repeating your test with a smaller setup... half of what you have now, or even less. See what you get.
I started with smaller setups, and still have a few running next to the big one. Readings on those:
Engine: 66.44 V, 50.00 A, 3321.97 W
Conduit: 24.751768
Ratio: ~7.45 MJ/t/kW (~7.84 if you adjust for the 5% loss from the conduit)
Engine: 64.02 V, 32.00 A, 2048.53 W
Conduit: 15.142484
Ratio: ~7.39 (~7.78)
Engine: 61.41 V, 12.00 A, 736.95 W
Conduit: 5.214881
Ratio: ~7.07 (~7.45)
(The big one gives a ratio of ~7.47 (~7.86))
Like I said, I've been getting consistent results all the way up to 20 kW.
Edit: the issue seems to be using the multimeter on conduits? I tried hooking up 6 pulverizers to the setup that the multimeter said was getting 24.75/t average. Each conduit attached to a pulverizer reported an average distribution just over 4/t, but they weren't getting enough energy to run continuously, even at minimum speed (which would be 1/t). So it looks like the multimeter is reporting values that are too high by a factor of 8 when used on conduits outputting energy, I guess.
Engine: 66.44 V, 50.00 A, 3321.97 W
Conduit: 24.751768
Ratio: ~7.45 MJ/t/kW (~7.84 if you adjust for the 5% loss from the conduit)
Engine: 64.02 V, 32.00 A, 2048.53 W
Conduit: 15.142484
Ratio: ~7.39 (~7.78)
Engine: 61.41 V, 12.00 A, 736.95 W
Conduit: 5.214881
Ratio: ~7.07 (~7.45)
(The big one gives a ratio of ~7.47 (~7.86))
Like I said, I've been getting consistent results all the way up to 20 kW.
Edit: the issue seems to be using the multimeter on conduits? I tried hooking up 6 pulverizers to the setup that the multimeter said was getting 24.75/t average. Each conduit attached to a pulverizer reported an average distribution just over 4/t, but they weren't getting enough energy to run continuously, even at minimum speed (which would be 1/t). So it looks like the multimeter is reporting values that are too high by a factor of 8 when used on conduits outputting energy, I guess.
Alright, I did test this out, and it seems there's indeed something wonky with TE's multimeter in the version I am using (Mindcrack 8.1.1). It gives you the expected numbers when the power source is something that outputs every tick (i.e. a redstone energy cell), but engines that burst output only every couple ticks are another matter entirely. For the blulectric engine, the multimeter counts every piston stroke as a tick, and shows a value roughly 7-8 times as high as it should be. For a biogas engine, which I also tested, there's even less rhyme or reason: a piston stroke might be counted as anywhere between 0 and 6 ticks (but only even numbers), and even a series of measurements taken at one-second intervals showed MJ values that were sometimes more than an order of magnitude apart. On average, it showed just over four times as much as the biogas engine actually outputs.
I then did a test with a blulectric engine, a redstone energy cell and a stopwatch; the result was once more around 1 KW = 1 MJ/t.
I then did a test with a blulectric engine, a redstone energy cell and a stopwatch; the result was once more around 1 KW = 1 MJ/t.
Yikes. Well, I guess I'll rely on just the voltmeter for checking my outputs, then. Thanks for bearing with me.
Wow, this is confusing ...
Could someone a fair bit less stupid than me help me out? I'm setting up a centralized power plant for my base, where I intend to have every kind of power generation going on, and I'm planning the redpower part of it at the moment.
Originally, I figured I'd set up the generators (Solar panels and thermopiles initially), connect them all to a few batboxes, and then run a wire from the plant into batboxes every 20 blocks or so to deal with energyloss (same as I plan to do with my EU setup). But apparently, if I understand this correctly, that won't work cause I'm stupid.
So, how would I go about moving RP power from my plant to the various locations that need it? It's about 100 blocks or so from the plant to my workshop, probably a bit more to my warehouse (where I plant o have quite a few managers). I know I could probably set up a few thermopiles underneath my warehouse and workshop and be completely fine for my uses, but a centralized powerplant is just ...way more interesting. Any help on this would be much appreciated!
Could someone a fair bit less stupid than me help me out? I'm setting up a centralized power plant for my base, where I intend to have every kind of power generation going on, and I'm planning the redpower part of it at the moment.
Originally, I figured I'd set up the generators (Solar panels and thermopiles initially), connect them all to a few batboxes, and then run a wire from the plant into batboxes every 20 blocks or so to deal with energyloss (same as I plan to do with my EU setup). But apparently, if I understand this correctly, that won't work cause I'm stupid.
So, how would I go about moving RP power from my plant to the various locations that need it? It's about 100 blocks or so from the plant to my workshop, probably a bit more to my warehouse (where I plant o have quite a few managers). I know I could probably set up a few thermopiles underneath my warehouse and workshop and be completely fine for my uses, but a centralized powerplant is just ...way more interesting. Any help on this would be much appreciated!
That is the picturebook use case for 10 kV wire, really
Build your power plant, hook the various generators up to a small bit of buffer storage (just 1 batbox is enough). Then plop down a voltage transformer (the low voltage part is facing away from you when you place it), and lead 10 kV wire from it over to your workshop and warehouse, respectively. There, use voltage transformers again to step it back down. Feed the power from the transformer into some kind of buffer storage - the warehouse probably doesn't need more than one battery box, but in your workshop where you use a lot of power, I'd put some more. Let's say 8, which is probably more than you need, but hey, why not? Nikolite is cheap anyway. Then connect all your consumers to the big buffer storage, and you're done.
(Note that with this much 10 kV cable, you will need to give the system a good amount of time to initialize. On the upside, once charged, 100 blocks of 10 kV cable is probably worth another 6-8 battery boxes worth of buffer storage)
Build your power plant, hook the various generators up to a small bit of buffer storage (just 1 batbox is enough). Then plop down a voltage transformer (the low voltage part is facing away from you when you place it), and lead 10 kV wire from it over to your workshop and warehouse, respectively. There, use voltage transformers again to step it back down. Feed the power from the transformer into some kind of buffer storage - the warehouse probably doesn't need more than one battery box, but in your workshop where you use a lot of power, I'd put some more. Let's say 8, which is probably more than you need, but hey, why not? Nikolite is cheap anyway. Then connect all your consumers to the big buffer storage, and you're done.
(Note that with this much 10 kV cable, you will need to give the system a good amount of time to initialize. On the upside, once charged, 100 blocks of 10 kV cable is probably worth another 6-8 battery boxes worth of buffer storage
)Another alternative is to recharge BT batteries at the power plant into an enderchest, and use them to keep the battery boxes supplying power to machines elsewhere topped up. This allows you to transfer or use power from your plant anywhere, even in other dimensions (nether, mystcraft) and also to moving contraptions like redpower frames tunnel bores. Also it's very efficient AFAIK, perhaps even more so than the HV cable. e.g
Recharging station at powerplant
Recharging station at powerplant
- Enderchest (empty batteries) -> Transposer -> Tubes to top of battery boxes -> Retriever (full batteries) -> Enderchest (full batteries)
- Enderchest (full batteries) -> Transposer -> Tubes to bottom of battery boxes next to or near machines -> Retriever (empty batteries) -> Enderchest (empty batteries)
I've a question regarding jacketed bluewire: does it incur greater losses (either thru resistance or internal capacitance) when compared to regular blue alloy wire? I've noticed that connecting a power generator (let say, a solar panel) to a battery box via only a few blocks of jacketed bluewire causes the power to creep by very, VERY slowly, taking an inordinate time to build up when compared to a (at times, less elegant and easily-hidden) blue alloy wire-based setup.
Hey omicron, i read this entire thread, but i still dont understand how you get a loss of energy with the longer wires. I understand how you get a loss of power, but not a loss of energy. Could you, or anyone, explain how this occurs?
Yeah, I must apologize; I bet some of my posts in this thread didn't help your quest for understanding, as I myself got it wrong for some time
But try looking at it from this angle:
Power is energy over time. If less power is coming out at the end than you put in at the start, then that means if you declare time a constant (you look at what happens over the course of five seconds, for example), then you will see less energy coming out the end than you put in at the start.
If you put in 200 W and receive 180 W on the other side, then you have a 20 W power loss; and over a course of five seconds that means that you put in 1,000 J and received 900 J at the other end, and you have a 100 J energy loss.
Does that make sense, or was your question meant in a different way?
But try looking at it from this angle:
Power is energy over time. If less power is coming out at the end than you put in at the start, then that means if you declare time a constant (you look at what happens over the course of five seconds, for example), then you will see less energy coming out the end than you put in at the start.
If you put in 200 W and receive 180 W on the other side, then you have a 20 W power loss; and over a course of five seconds that means that you put in 1,000 J and received 900 J at the other end, and you have a 100 J energy loss.
Does that make sense, or was your question meant in a different way?
No, it does not. Today, after posting my question, i did some testing to see if you actually did lose power or not. When i tested the difference in energy between just one full batbox and one full batbox wired to an empty one, the total voltage was the same. No matter how long the wire was, the total voltage was constant. Note, i tested the voltage when every piece of both systems were at 0 amps, so it was a pretty accurate read.
Why are you testing voltage? I thought you were concerned with power or energy, not potential.
Also, I'm not sure what you're trying to test by wiring batboxes to another. A battery box cannot charge another battery box because its discharge point is lower than its charge point. The full battery box will stop discharging when the energy network is brought to 80 V. But the empty battery box will not begin charging until the energy network is at a minimum of 90 V (usually nothing major happens until 91V, in fact).
We may be misunderstanding one another - check if you're using the terms energy and power in the same context as I am.
Also, I'm not sure what you're trying to test by wiring batboxes to another. A battery box cannot charge another battery box because its discharge point is lower than its charge point. The full battery box will stop discharging when the energy network is brought to 80 V. But the empty battery box will not begin charging until the energy network is at a minimum of 90 V (usually nothing major happens until 91V, in fact).
We may be misunderstanding one another - check if you're using the terms energy and power in the same context as I am.
the best way to test energy is to use it, put a full batbox right next to a blutric furnace, and one separated by a stack of blutric cabling; let equalize and refill and put in a stack of cobble and smelt until the batbox is empty