ReactorCraft steam boilers not accepting water, Monster 1.1.0

[viveleroi]

I'm trying to make my first ReactorCraft reactor. Just a simple one with a few fuel cores and steam boilers. According to the handbook, wiki, and tutorial videos, the water pipes should be connected to the bottom of the boilers.

I've tried using rotarycraft liquidpipes/pump, fluiduct, and water transfer nodes/pipes and no matter what I do, the angular transducer reports "Tank 0: empty". I've confirmed my fuel cores are working but no steam is ever made and the source tanks never drain.

Am I missing something?

 

[Ausyarr]

I would update if possible since many versions have come out have brought many improvements. I think the steam boilers have 2 internal tanks and tank 0 refers to steam and the other is water. Use your angular tranducer to check the boiler temp, they should be about 96c - 100c when they produce steam. Let me know how you go.

 

[viveleroi]

That works - the boilers now show full tanks and I'm getting a tiny bit of steam. Do you have any good designs/examples you can point me to? The examples I've seen in some videos aren't producing enough steam to do anything for me.

 

[TheCupcakeisaLie]

That works - the boilers now show full tanks and I'm getting a tiny bit of steam. Do you have any good designs/examples you can point me to? The examples I've seen in some videos aren't producing enough steam to do anything for me.

Watch Reikas base tour videos and pause the video when he is showing his reactors. Also be in awe if the rest of his stuff.



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[viveleroi]

I've managed to get something working, though there have some "undocumented" issues to get through. I have a 3x3 fuel core with 1 row of boilers on the outside, and that seems to hover between 50-300MW. In some early tests it got up to 450MW, but overall I need to find a way to get it higher. People with a very similar setup have been able to get the full 920MW (or the turbine max). Even if my average is 450, that's around 80k rf/t for me... which is fine.

 

[Pyure]

See my post on your other thread about this

Also I just read that elevation can be a factor. Reika says lower depths are hotter, in addition to time of day and sunlight exposure. So an easy fix might be just to build your reactor deeper underground

 

[viveleroi]

I saw your reply on the other thread... I'm not sure what the issue is because mine is built at sea level, in the desert. An update corrected the water issue described here and my boilers always report being full even when hot, so I know flow issues aren't a factor. I'll take some pics and try your described setup, see what I notice.

 

[Pyure]

Look forward to the pics

 

[viveleroi]

Here's my current setup:

http://imgur.com/I3HFzKF

I'm trying a 3x3 fuel core with boilers on the edges based on a description from another thread. I have a single steam vent, with a single turbine connected to a shaft power bus controller with about 16 shaft buses. Seems to top out at 300-400MW but tends to hover around 100MW. Jumps a lot.

Other people describe getting 900MW+ so I'm wondering what's wrong.

 

[Pyure]

Awesome!

1) Can you show another pic from below so we can see where you're capturing the steam blocks?
2) Remind me, which version of ReactorCraft is this? (Reika releases versions waaaaay faster than Monster/Horizons can keep up)
3) I haven't tried joining four steam lines like that before. Its conceivable (very unlikely) that the code doesn't handle combining the steam lines very well. Rather than running a steam line up from the center of your reactor, you can try running it up from a corner where you'll incur fewer joins.
4) Output your steam a bit closer to your turbine if you can. Steam blocks move randomly, not always straight up. You might be losing some.

 

[MajPayne21]

All good points by Pyure. Monster 1.1.0 is RC 19b. 1.1.1 is RC 20c (I think).

Two issues that have caused fluctuations and low power output have been poor steam capture by the turbine and insufficient water to the boilers. I recommend updating to Monster 1.1.1 if possible. Some WAILA interaction is improved, so you can now see how much water and steam are in each boiler. If the boiler is starved of water, steam production is reduced.

On my reactors, I have used two RoC pumps powered by 2 steam engines each and geared for min torque and max speed. Each pump operates every 0.05s and sits on a 4x3 pool of water. I use these two pumps to supply 6-7 boilers on a heat exchanger. I'm running an HTGR, so my heat exchanger is hot.

I don't remember how tall/wide my turbine chamber is, but I placed the turbine by right clicking up the wall and placing it on the first block it would attach to.

I think turbines need 7x7 to operate, so 3 free blocks on each side from the central shaft. If not, then it's 4 free blocks on each side. I made my chamber as small as possible to ensure that steam was most likely to get to the turbine.

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[Pyure]

@viveleroi, Its probably an optical illusion, but in your image its hard to tell if the first turbine piece is correctly placed directly above the steam vent. It sort of looks like the vent is under the 2nd turbine piece. Can you indulge me and confirm?

 

[MajPayne21]

Also, it looks like you only have 4 turbine segments. Add a fifth if you only have 4, and relocate your steam grate so that it is 4 blocks under the centerline of the turbine and located directly underneath the smallest turbine segment.

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[Pyure]

Also, it looks like you only have 4 turbine segments. Add a fifth if you only have 4, and relocate your steam grate so that it is 4 blocks under the centerline of the turbine and located directly underneath the smallest turbine segment.

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I'm embarassed I missed that, you're right.

 

[MajPayne21]

I'm embarassed I missed that, you're right.

But by our powers combined, we become Captain Planet! I mean, a good Rotary/ReactorCraft troubleshooting team.... right. That. Definitely not the first thing.

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[viveleroi]

Ok, so:

I've added the fifth turbine, didn't realize it needed so much room, I just figured it wasn't allowing me to add one because 4 was the max.

I've changed the steam lines to not merge, but connect to the grate directly.

Here's an upwards-ish shot: http://imgur.com/RRgVkXh

Here's a better look directly at the grate/turbine. It is directly under the first turbine section. http://imgur.com/OaVEEkc

Also, we are on Monster 1.1.1.

With these changes, it seems to vary quite a lot between 100MW and 450MW. It even hit 500MW once. However, my diamond 8:1 gearbox exploded, so I guess I need to make a bedrock one or change how the power is being sent through my power shaft buses/rotational dynamos.

 

[MajPayne21]

CVTs have unlimited power capacity and no speed/torque limits, so I recommend that you use those or just run bedrock shafts right to a shaft power bus controller and split from there.

I have not seen any issue with merging steam lines ahead of the grate, so I do not think that is an issue. Your turbine looks good now.

I would examine your boiler water supply to ensure that you aren't starving boilers or only supplying water intermittently. Then I would go looking for boilers that aren't getting to or sustaining 100 C.

It seems most likely that you aren't supplying steady water or you have a few boilers fluctuating between 96 and 102 or something.

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[YX33A]

Bedrock is really your best only option for pretty much any decent reactor in terms of shafts and stuff. Unless you count ElectiCraft as an option. Or build one of those newfangled Multiblock RF Generator things from ReactorCraft.
Can't remember what they're called, or even if they are released yet, honestly.

 

[Pyure]

It seems most likely that you aren't supplying steady water or you have a few boilers fluctuating between 96 and 102 or something.

This theory is sort of testable. Add one or two more reactor cores and see if your production increases.

If it does, it means its your steam production and likely nothing to do with your infrastructure. Afterwards you can examine why your reactor isn't as efficient as it should be.

 

[MajPayne21]

Bedrock is really your best only option for pretty much any decent reactor in terms of shafts and stuff. Unless you count ElectiCraft as an option. Or build one of those newfangled Multiblock RF Generator things from ReactorCraft.
Can't remember what they're called, or even if they are released yet, honestly.

They're called turbine generators, I believe, and they are released but the version they are in has not been added to Monster yet. Hopefully they get in the next modpack update.


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