Self-Sustaining Closed-Loop Lava Turbine Generator

[Inaeo]

Just remembered a tidbit from testing that I thought I would share. The bottleneck at Lava Generation is not the Fluid Transposer (especially since a Level III augment makes it fly), but rather the Lava Fabricator. I'm thinking you could run up to six max sized BR Turbines off a single Fluid Transposer abutting a pair of Fabricators.

Adding this to the list of things to test.

 

[Inaeo]

So, I updated my album again with a couple new shots. I managed to power 8 max sized BR Turbines using a single augmented Fluid Transposer and a pair of Lava Fabricators. All in all, ~216kRF/t net gain. The Fluid Transposer sits waiting on the Lava Fabricators, and I'm sure if you added another Fabricator to the mix, you could get even more milage out of the Transposer. It is scary how fast that thing whips through buckets when its been augmented.

 

[Phoxtane]

I did find a power sink for all this power that could be produced - MFR Laser Drills!

 

[Inaeo]

I did find a power sink for all this power that could be produced - MFR Laser Drills!

Unfortunately, you're kind of right. Still, at default settings, that's still 10 Laser Drills (20k each) with processing power left over. The unfortunate cycle is to build power, use the power to gain resources, use resources to build more power gen, the use that to accumulate more resources, rinse, and repeat.

 

[RavynousHunter]

Oh my, I'll have to bookmark this for later today. My server had to do a map reset because something got badly corrupted, so I've been looking for neat and/or different power setups. Already have a RoC water pump set up, so I've already got one part down.

 

[Inaeo]

Oh my, I'll have to bookmark this for later today. My server had to do a map reset because something got badly corrupted, so I've been looking for neat and/or different power setups. Already have a RoC water pump set up, so I've already got one part down.

My current world has RoC as the primary tech mod, so I'll be exploring some of those options along the way. The pack includes TE, but I intentionally left MFR out, due to it being amazingly overpowered (personal opinion, but as much as I love it, it's too easy for what it offers in return).

Time's been a bit short lately, but when I have some tinker time, I have a few theories that need a good flogging. I am curious how much rotational power the above setup would provide, and I may add RoC into the pack just to sait said curiosity.

 

[Ashendale]

I've noticed you said that you can't use lava on the dynamos, but what about magmatic dynamos? You'd skip the steam boiler part. I'm not home, but either someone tests this, or I will, when I get home. It seems like an interesting option.

 

[Inaeo]

I've noticed you said that you can't use lava on the dynamos, but what about magmatic dynamos? You'd skip the steam boiler part. I'm not home, but either someone tests this, or I will, when I get home. It seems like an interesting option.

You could send the Lava to Magmatic Dynamos, but the return isn't the same. The reasoning here is the way that the Augments work. The RF boosting Augments use a proportionally increased amount of fuel to provide the upgraded power, but there is a base fuel inefficiency built into them to discourage just this behavior. Otherwise, people would just use TE closed loops involving Magma Crucible, Igneous Extruder, and Magmatic Dynamos. With the base inefficiency built in, you can still manage to do this with a positive return, but it's so minimal that it's just not worth it (especially since by the time you can make it work, you have better things happening). The reason I have opted to pump steam into the dynamos is the fact that doing so bypasses the fuel inefficiency while maintaining the upgraded power output.

 

[Ashendale]

Also, you're advice on using 4 boilers for 5 dynamos did the trick. 3k RF/t not counting feeding the transposer and fabricator.

Edit: also,a fter some trial and error testing, I've come to the conclusion that a transfer node with 8 World Interaction and 8 Speed upgrades is enough to feed 4 boilers. No need for a stack.

Edit 2: my mistake - I did not notice that I was feeding the system without the energy cell. 3k RF/t is TOTAL output including feeding the system itself.

 

[Inaeo]

From what I've tested, a fully maxed out Lava Fabricator uses about 4krf/t. I've found it hard to get an accurate reading on smaller systems due to constant fluctuations as the Fabricator fills, idles, then drains and repeats. In my experimentation now, I just assume my small scale systems need a baseline of over 4krf/t to be energy positive, then tune from there.

When it comes to the XU Nodes, I've never actually had an explanation of the upgrades and what moves how much. I tend to intentionally overestimate unless materials are a limiting factor (in which case, I just keep adding more till it exceeds my needs). I really should do some research on this, but I rarely use XU when other options exist. Infinite pumps and cobble generators are the only places I turn to XU first.

Just scaling off your claim (8 World/8 Speed for 4 Boilers), a half stack for a setup like I used above (16 Boilers) should be sufficient to keep up. Good to know.

 

[RavynousHunter]

My current world has RoC as the primary tech mod, so I'll be exploring some of those options along the way. The pack includes TE, but I intentionally left MFR out, due to it being amazingly overpowered (personal opinion, but as much as I love it, it's too easy for what it offers in return).

Time's been a bit short lately, but when I have some tinker time, I have a few theories that need a good flogging. I am curious how much rotational power the above setup would provide, and I may add RoC into the pack just to sait said curiosity.

With enough resources, the setup can theoretically scale infinitely, all you have to worry about is actually building the things and/or making room. Just dupe the setup a few times and you've got enough power for most reasonable uses. Just note that you're gonna need a LOT of liquid nitrogen if you're getting into the high-tier RF->shaft conversions.

 

[Firnagzen]

Have you guys considered feeding the Boiler to keep the temperature at 100°C? I feed my boiler one coal coke every 45s - therefore, you should be able to feed the boiler one bucket every 281s or so and keep it at maximum running efficiency.

 

[Inaeo]

Have you guys considered feeding the Boiler to keep the temperature at 100°C? I feed my boiler one coal coke every 45s - therefore, you should be able to feed the boiler one bucket every 281s or so and keep it at maximum running efficiency.

I've been toying with that idea recently, actually. I've been testing the limits of the Fluid Transposer, and in one of the setups I used two Lava Fabricators and the single Fluid Transposer to run eight BR Turbines. All previous tests had worked off the premise of keeping all the Boilers stocked with a full stock (4 buckets) at all times. As my testing moved forward, I realized that I could squeeze an extra few Turbines out of the Fabricators by keeping a smaller stock in each Boiler.

If we move this forward further, as you suggested, we could time delivery of a single bucket per Boiler to hover just over 100°. Since this would be a massive leap forward in fuel efficiency, it would allow the expansion of previous systems in a big way (seeing as we currently have 4 buckets per Boiler, one might propose quadrupling our output).

The issue I am struck with is one of ensured timing. My first instinct is to simply push the system till it breaks, then dial backwards till I have the timing I'm looking for. If I were a coder, I would try to tie ComputerCraft into the whole thing to monitor Turbine speeds, Boiler temperatures, and any extra info I could think might be useful, but alas, I have the programming history of a third grade class gerbil. If I was running a small scale version of this, I would consider using timers (or simple redstone clocks) to dictate the flow to a Boiler, but when dealing with a larger system (16+ Boilers) it gets messy very quickly. I haven't ever used Steve's Factory Manager, although I understand the power that can be attained through it, so I may consider seeing what it presents for options at some point (I'm not sure SFM is in DW20, but it was in Infinity where this testing began).

Currently, my systems have run off a TD Resonant Servo (whitelisted to Lava Buckets)/set to round Robin mode. This has helped to assure the next bucket out goes to the Boiler most in need, but I hesitate to rely on it in a system that would run fuel and temperature so close to a fail point.

In your Coal Coke fed system, how many Boilers are you running? What are you using to time delivery? Any advice for scaling it to absurdity?

 

[Firnagzen]

I've been toying with that idea recently, actually. I've been testing the limits of the Fluid Transposer, and in one of the setups I used two Lava Fabricators and the single Fluid Transposer to run eight BR Turbines. All previous tests had worked off the premise of keeping all the Boilers stocked with a full stock (4 buckets) at all times. As my testing moved forward, I realized that I could squeeze an extra few Turbines out of the Fabricators by keeping a smaller stock in each Boiler.

If we move this forward further, as you suggested, we could time delivery of a single bucket per Boiler to hover just over 100°. Since this would be a massive leap forward in fuel efficiency, it would allow the expansion of previous systems in a big way (seeing as we currently have 4 buckets per Boiler, one might propose quadrupling our output).

The issue I am struck with is one of ensured timing. My first instinct is to simply push the system till it breaks, then dial backwards till I have the timing I'm looking for. If I were a coder, I would try to tie ComputerCraft into the whole thing to monitor Turbine speeds, Boiler temperatures, and any extra info I could think might be useful, but alas, I have the programming history of a third grade class gerbil. If I was running a small scale version of this, I would consider using timers (or simple redstone clocks) to dictate the flow to a Boiler, but when dealing with a larger system (16+ Boilers) it gets messy very quickly. I haven't ever used Steve's Factory Manager, although I understand the power that can be attained through it, so I may consider seeing what it presents for options at some point (I'm not sure SFM is in DW20, but it was in Infinity where this testing began).

Currently, my systems have run off a TD Resonant Servo (whitelisted to Lava Buckets)/set to round Robin mode. This has helped to assure the next bucket out goes to the Boiler most in need, but I hesitate to rely on it in a system that would run fuel and temperature so close to a fail point.

In your Coal Coke fed system, how many Boilers are you running? What are you using to time delivery? Any advice for scaling it to absurdity?

Well, I'm playing Infinity Expert Skyblock. A single SFM Machine Inventory manager handles my entire system - it crafts coal from autosievers in blocks, chucks it into a pair of coal coke ovens, uncrafts the resultant coal, and sticks it into a barrel. Every 46 seconds, it delivers one coal coke to the boiler. (The MIM also handles filling the boiler with water, power distribution, and distributing the steam to the dynamos - if it has any throughput limit, I haven't found it yet!) I'm currently running just the one boiler, with plans on scaling to more as soon as I have the materials to spare.

 

[TheLoneWolfling]

The issue I am struck with is one of ensured timing.

Don't think of it as timing. Think of it as "if it needs fuel, add it". In particular, something like "if it has full water (meaning: it hasn't turned any water into steam that tick, meaning it's too cold), and no items in it, and it's been at least (say) 2 ticks since an item has been added, add another item". You lose one tick of it being operational per cycle, but that's not the end of the world.

As a bonus, this takes less time to start.

I suspect that one could run multiple in parallel with a single controller like this, although I don't fully know.