3141

One thing to watch out for in 1.5 is that ladders will no longer work with a space in between each ladder segment. But the recipe will create two ladders instead of just one, at least.

3142

What is the power loss per length of cable? I haven’t found that info anywhere.

Also how much power does a machine need / use? Lets say I have a cable with 50 power powering two machines, lets just use two furnaces. Normally they are not in use so I would assume they are at full charge. Now I throw in a stack of 64 of stuff to smelt in each machine. How much of a power drain is that? Will they remain at full charge or will one machine run just fine while the other will discharge? I am just trying to understand the mechanics.

Here is what I am thinking as a plan. Find some mountain and put a bunch of wind farms. This power is collected and goes through one of those high voltage transformers which then sends the power however far, to your base of operations where it goes to another HV transformer. This feeds out the 50 units of power down a few cables to several MFE blocks which in turn have a split cable that supplies 2 machines each. This kind of power scheme seems like it should be able to efficiently power a large number of machines assuming that the total power in >= total power out.

The sticky points depending upon how power distribution works (and this is what I do not know) is how power is prioritized down cables and how various machines use power.

3143

The first 10 cable blocks are free. On the 11 cable you lose 1 EU, and then you lose 1 EU every third block. Build your self an EC manipulator. You can measure the current going through a cable by right clicking.

Industrial craft uses a simple packet system to simulate electricity. For example, an MFE will output a 50 EU packet every tick. The packet will have cable losses subtracted as it runs down the cable. On a split the packet will divide in 2. One 25 EU packet will go one way and the remaining 25EU packet will go the other way. Which means you can only have 4-5 splits before you end with an empty packet. If the packet isn’t needed by a machine it will be sent back to the MFE with no losses.

Machines only store enough charge for one operation. But when being used constantly the power drain averages to only a couple of EU per tick. A machine will gobble up any power packets it receives until it is full. There’s a list of how much power each machine uses at the bottom of the op in the industrial craft thread on the minecraft forum.

3144

I’m so fucking excited to set up a base with IndustrialCraft it’s amazing.

3145

See now that is the type of thing I would go bonkers for on a multiplayer server.

3146

Sounds like Love (the game).

3147

I’ve been interested in playing Industrial Craft, but every time I read the wiki I get so turned off by the writing style that I lose interest.

3148

I finally got Industrialcraft sorta working (crashing intermittently). I’ve started by constructing a generator, macerator, and extractor - under the theory that they’ll provide me with the most efficient use of materials to get going on bigger & better things. Does anyone have any suggestions on where I go from here?

Here’s a dumb question: I built a mining drill, how do I charge it?

nm figured that out. Now I’m on to wind power. I can’t seem to get my wind generator to generate more than 1 EU. Currently I have it built at cloud level, on a five-high pillar of wire. I’m measuring the EU of the wire and it’s only coming out at 0 or 1.

3149

OK Industrialcraft is great. BUT I have a question! Why did my HV Transformer just explode?

Scenario: I have a windfarm up around the clouds, 4 wind turbine things that are wired into the four sides of a single MFE transmitter. From the bottom of the transmitter I have a single cable, which is registering 8EU. Perfect, I’m getting some nice power here! I hooked up a HV Transformer to that cable so I can run a long cable down to my base where I can use this delicious source of power and finally wean myself off of coal… moments after I hooked up the HV Transformer, it exploded!

What did I do wrong here?

edit: A youtube tutorial indicates that HV xmitters only take current in from the sides, and they send output out of the top/bottom. So it turns out that in the configuration I’m looking at I don’t need the MFE, I can just send the four turbines worth of power directly into the HV and then run a cable down from the HV toward my base. :D

My planned wind farm is currently 4 towers, each with 4 turbines. If I can pull 8 EU from each tower, that should be enough to power all the machinery I care to power in my base. :D

3150

You guys really need to be posting screenshots of your madness.

3151

OH FINE

First: Here is a view of the four towers, from the top of the hill they’re built off of.

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Second: here is a view of the actual cluster of 4 generators on top of the tower structure (NOTE: the floating cable is from the great HV transformer explosion. The explosion actually destroyed ALL the cabling above the transformer as well as the transformer itself, leaving only the one lonely piece of cable. I’m just happy it didn’t blow the four generators!):

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Third: a view of the towers from the “base” level of the overall structure, which is where I’ll be routing power to.

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Finally: Here’s a view of the overall construction. The framework jutting forward is the base, I’ll be filling that in over time - right now it’s just a few support pillars and the frame. Also note: the roof to my house on the right!

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In summary: four towers, each producing (theoretically) 8EU worth of power each. That’s enough to run several macerators/extractors/etc as well as a few MFEs for battery storage. Once I finish this construction my power needs will be complete and I can get on to bigger and better projects… For starters, I want to see just how big a nuclear reactor meltdown is!

3152

Current base of operations. Just finished work on a workshop, just needs a High voltage connection to be finished. At the moment I’m dumping batteries into the main MFE. The mess of wires is the mining operation. Once the mining is finished I’ll start working on a proper power station. The wooden box is just the remains of my initial hut.

Inside the workshop. everything is wired up and working including the lights.

3153

What about Tesla coils? A fence of Tesla coils in mandatory. Just remember to switch it off when you need to work on it.

3154

NEED HALP AGAIN.

I’ve constructed a line running down from my first set of wind farms. I want to move my current extractor & whatnot up here so I can eliminate my dependence on coal before I get the other four towers up and running. The problem I’m having is that I can’t figure out how to step down the HV current.

I currently have a line running at 48 EU. From what I gathered all I need is another HV transformer to get the current to go down, but when I hook another transformer in it doesn’t seem to work; any lines coming uot of the second transformer show as 0EU.

edit: Hrm, it looks like I don’t actually have HV current. I just (bravely) hooked an MFE up to my “HV” line and nothing exploded; the MFE functioned normally. So what gives?

3155

Are you sure you have the first transformer hooked up in the proper configuration?

3156

I think so. I have 32 EU coming out of an MFE that’s going into the side of the transformer. The output from the bottom of the transformer is 50EU, so it’s increased the output - it’s just not HV!

3157

I could be dead wrong here but that sounds like the wrong configuration to me. If you want to use a HV to transport current over a long distance, you want the output current to be way lower. That’s how real transmisison cables work at least, they pump the voltage up super high and the current gets dropped to a super low number so that there is less loss of energy along the transmission cable, then you convert back to a reasonable voltage and higher current close to where you want usable power.

Assuming these HV converters are basically supposed to be ideal transformers:
(Vin/Vout)=(turns ratio)=(Iout/Iin)

So while we don’t know what the turns ratio is you should assume that if you are stepping up your voltage your current is going to be stepped down proportionally*.

*Though who the hell knows whats really going on, so it’s probably not proprtional but current should definitely step down not up.

3158

Hrm. OK I’m no EE, so I have no idea how this is supposed to work. What you’re saying is I should get a lower EU reading with my EC Manipulator?

3159

Yeah basically how a transformer works is it makes the current useless but preserved in the transmisison state. You can’t power things from it without explosions (I’m guessing in Minecraft, in practice I’ve never applied 50,000V to anything and don’t plan to), but you don’t get power decay, then you step the voltage back down and the current back up right beside your machinery. In the real world this happens in stages in transformer stations and boxes, but since power will decay after what, ten cables? you probably want to step back down very close to the machines you want to use.

I don’t know for sure but I think I remember reading that you should get a reading of 0EUs from cables that are in long distance transmission mode. They should really add a meter that could measure the electric potential as well as current.

3160

boggles

Jeff, your preliminary structures are beginning to remind me of Stalker, of all things.

Doc, that workshop is amazing. I could never be that organized, nor have the patience. Heck, I haven’t even gotten to the Nether in the standard game because the build-up takes too long and the payoff is minimal (since the portals are broken). :P

Both of you are pretty inspiring though. I’m about 50% closer to trying out the industrial mod than I was before reading/looking at the pics.