So I have created something of an automatic power station setup, which automatically recharge the cells when they run out of power. Any input or questions are appreciative.
The main focus of my setup here, is the redstone setup, which controls the engines and when they are suppose to run.
This is the front of my current setup, where you can see the engines (which isn't that important, as the wires controlling them), and the levers which controls them, plus the Cell wall, which contains the power generated. I also made a little cell recharge station, where you can drop down your cells your use elsewhere and want to transport.
Now to explain how it works. The cells are arranged so all power will drain from top left to bottom right. When the bottom right cell is almost empty, the redstone behind it will detect it and active the engines to recharge the cells. When the top left cell gets power, the engines will be turned off and won't start until the power runs out again.
The engines can be enabled and disabled with the levers, so as long some engines are enabled, the cells will always get recharged when needed.
There is also two buttons, the stone button will stop the recharging before it's complete and won't start again until power is running out. The wood button will kickstart the recharging before power runs out, useful if for some reason cells wasn't recharged fully, or recharge got interrupted, and you don't want to wait for it to recharge when power is running out.
Here is some behind the screen pictures of the setup.
There is a Comparator up against the lower left and upper right cells, which detects the power level in the cells. When they detect that the cell contains power, it will send a redstone input.
There is a RS latch which will decide if the engines should be activated.
The black cable will be activated if recharging is needed.
This is the cables which is connected to the levers on the other side, which decides which engines should run, if the power runs out. There is an AND gate on each of them, so unless 1. lever is active and 2. the input from the black cable is active, the engines will only run if both of them is active.
So the cable bundle contains all the signals from the levers, which activates the engines. I'm currently just using a mix of lava and fuel engines from Thermal Expansion, as they were the easiest to work with, without anything blowing up.
Now if you like me have been using different machines, you discover a problem with automatic charging, and that is idle draining machines. Some machines drains power even when they are not running, a good example is the Rolling Machine from Railcraft. If you have this connected to your system, it will drain and recharge your cells until you run out of fuel.
So my recommendation is to power those machines with a separate cell, and recharge it using the charging station, this way you only use the power in that cell if you forget to disable/turn off the draining machines.
The main focus of my setup here, is the redstone setup, which controls the engines and when they are suppose to run.
This is the front of my current setup, where you can see the engines (which isn't that important, as the wires controlling them), and the levers which controls them, plus the Cell wall, which contains the power generated. I also made a little cell recharge station, where you can drop down your cells your use elsewhere and want to transport.
Now to explain how it works. The cells are arranged so all power will drain from top left to bottom right. When the bottom right cell is almost empty, the redstone behind it will detect it and active the engines to recharge the cells. When the top left cell gets power, the engines will be turned off and won't start until the power runs out again.
The engines can be enabled and disabled with the levers, so as long some engines are enabled, the cells will always get recharged when needed.
There is also two buttons, the stone button will stop the recharging before it's complete and won't start again until power is running out. The wood button will kickstart the recharging before power runs out, useful if for some reason cells wasn't recharged fully, or recharge got interrupted, and you don't want to wait for it to recharge when power is running out.
Here is some behind the screen pictures of the setup.
There is a Comparator up against the lower left and upper right cells, which detects the power level in the cells. When they detect that the cell contains power, it will send a redstone input.
There is a RS latch which will decide if the engines should be activated.
The black cable will be activated if recharging is needed.
This is the cables which is connected to the levers on the other side, which decides which engines should run, if the power runs out. There is an AND gate on each of them, so unless 1. lever is active and 2. the input from the black cable is active, the engines will only run if both of them is active.
So the cable bundle contains all the signals from the levers, which activates the engines. I'm currently just using a mix of lava and fuel engines from Thermal Expansion, as they were the easiest to work with, without anything blowing up.
Now if you like me have been using different machines, you discover a problem with automatic charging, and that is idle draining machines. Some machines drains power even when they are not running, a good example is the Rolling Machine from Railcraft. If you have this connected to your system, it will drain and recharge your cells until you run out of fuel.
So my recommendation is to power those machines with a separate cell, and recharge it using the charging station, this way you only use the power in that cell if you forget to disable/turn off the draining machines.