How to Engine

[TheNewTeddy]

Hello and welcome to this thread. I'm Teddy. Below you'll find a method I personally believe to be the best way to set up the engine. However, everyone has their own personal favourite. Due to that I've also included the methods used by other people, quoted, below. Please check all of them and pick the one that you feel fits you best.




NEW INFORMATION





Each furnace will last 30 minutes. Remember to check back in on things every 30 minutes.

THIS IS HOW TO ENGINE!




EDITED TO ADD

Alternative method

Here is my super !!FUN!! engine setup that easily gets to TW+

• Attach two plasma canisters to the cold loop.
  
• Attach two plasma canisters to the hot loop.
  
• Attach one plasma, and one oxygen canister to the mixing loop.
  

• Run over to the Pump Control Computer and set all but the purge vents to OPEN/ON and set their level to 5
  
• Run over to the Gas Mixer Control Computer and set the gas mixture to 33 Oxygen 66 Plasma and set the output to 150KpA
  

• Turn all cold loop valves open, and allow it to run trough the system, do not forget to open the freezer bypass valve(s)
  
• Turn the combustion chamber pipes open, and slowly start building a fire.
  
• After roughly one to two minutes, open the vent and grab the RCD.
  
• Use the RCD to open one of the tiles with a red dot on it. http://i.imgur.com/7WzsjDE.png
  

• Once the combustion chamber looks hot, open the hot loop valves and allow it to heat the plasma.
  

Small notes:

• See a pipe burst? That's normal! It wont affect the burn in any way!
  
• Removing the tiles under and around canisters will allow them to live longer, try it!
  
• Never use OXYGEN or NITROGEN inside the hot or cold loop.
  
• Enable the PTL once you are above 100MW for maximum $$$$
  

Heres a video of someone starting the engine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iizwsNp9CY&t=14m15s

There is other ways of doing.

If you just want/need power:

Grab a loop of wire and head to the north and, or south solars:



Stand over the white thing next to the apc (looks like a data terminal but isn't) and activate the cable in hand (click on it while selected in hand or another method), and it will say something akin to 'Now laying wire", which means it will lay wire where you walk, automatically:


Connect the wire coming from the solar panels into a nearby wire, bypassing the apc. In the case of the northern solars (pictured) I got right one and up one, because I think it looks prettiest:



Congrats! You solved the station's power problems indefinitely with nothing but a loop of wire and maint access! :downs:

OLD POST:


I read the wikipage but it was unclear on exactly what to do. I've asked people and got some answers, but those answers make no sense to me.

I was told to put 66% plasma and 33% oxygen into the loops, both loops. I said "won't that make them catch on fire" and was comforted that everything would be okay.

I also asked if the cold loop should not be different from the hot loop and was again comforted.

So I did this, and the engine caught on fire, and the cold loop was so hot I died.


Curious to ask this in a bigger audience; exactly how to engine? I'm not interested in creating an engine that produces 100 yottawatts or 10 novettawatts of power, simply something that will give me a constant, stable 400KW so that I can set up the SMESes and walk away (to, for example, tinker with the solars, or carry out a traitor objective)

[TheNewTeddy]

apparently I can't edit that post.

I wanted to add that my idea was to put N2 in the cold loop (since N2 is known for getting cold) and CO2 in the hot loop (since it's not flammable)

[Lantern]

First off, its 66% oxygen 33% Plasma. Second, i only use plasma in the cold loop, and its fine. Third, when the pipes burst, that's normal. Just get out and let it run its course. Seriously, ive watched the engine, with all the pipes busted, reach over 2 Zeta Watts worth of power output. The best way to learn how to engine is just watch an engineer that looks like he knows what he's doing. See the Chief Engineer putting holes in the floor? ask him to give you pointers. Im fairly sure that a lot of dudes would be more than willing to teach you (including me) because its real nice to consistently have power for the whole round.

[mozi]

Whoever gave you that advice was fucking with you, putting plasma and oxygen in the same pipe cause the mix to catch on fire. That causes the temperature to get really high, which is good for the hot loop, but as the temp increases so does the pressure. Once pressure exceeds 15,000 kpa the pipes tend to burst.

Nitrogen in the coldloop and CO2 in the hot loop is the default safe way to set up the engine. (Or is it the other way around? There's a piece of paper lying around with the basic instructions). It creates pretty crummy output but it's easy and better than nothing.

what i've heard but not really tested to confirm:
plain old plasma is good for the cold loop
a little skoosh of plasma is good in the hot loop
if you add a bit of oxygen to the hot loop you will start a 'hellburn' which can be kept going if you properly vent it every time the pressure gets high

What you really want to accomplish is to get a crazy hellfire going in the Combustion Chamber. It's safe to have that running hotter than the sun because it's a separate system. The hot loop gas pipe runs through there, warms up from the fire without catching on fire itself.

[John Simmons]

Heres a video of someone starting the engine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iizwsNp9CY&t=14m15s

There is other ways of doing.

[Splatpope]

hi i am a real life engineer and the engine makes absolutely no sense so do not worry my friend i feel you

[Amuys]

From my experiments, a 66 o2 33 plasma for combustion, one plasma in hot, and two plasma in cold with all pumps set to 1 can power the station very well. The major difference seems to be closed vents and open vents. If the vents are closed, it gives a nice steady burn at around 500 kw. If the vents are open, it can go up to several hundred gw or even a pw.

[Convair880]

[...]I'm not interested in creating an engine that produces 100 yottawatts or 10 novettawatts of power, simply something that will give me a constant, stable 400KW so that I can set up the SMESes and walk away[...]

Perhaps this example is something you could give a try. Ran the engine like this a couple of times and as far as lazy setups go, it seems to serve the purpose.

1. Set all engine pumps to one.
2. Dump some char ore in the furnaces.
3. Connect one tank of plasma to the cold loop and another one to the engine room's auxiliary port.
4. For the hot loop, take a canister of plasma and connect it to the auxiliary port on the opposite side.
5. Take care of the usual stuff (valves, SMES etc).
6. Come back ~25 min later and load more ore in the furnaces.

In my experience, you can expect a stable output of around 1.3 MW for the duration of a typical shift. Using plasmastone instead of char ore will add another 1.5 MW or so, if QM or miners are cooperative.

[Lantern]

if QM or miners are cooperative.

That made me laugh. Thank you.

[TheNewTeddy]

I've been trying again to engine without using the combustion chamber, and never seems to work.

I'm also not sure how to properly get a 33%-66% mixture without dumping 3 tanks into the same line.

[Erik]

Here is my super !!FUN!! engine setup that easily gets to TW+

• Attach two plasma canisters to the cold loop.
  
• Attach two plasma canisters to the hot loop.
  
• Attach one plasma, and one oxygen canister to the mixing loop.
  

• Run over to the Pump Control Computer and set all but the purge vents to OPEN/ON and set their level to 5
  
• Run over to the Gas Mixer Control Computer and set the gas mixture to 33 Oxygen 66 Plasma and set the output to 150KpA
  

• Turn all cold loop valves open, and allow it to run trough the system, do not forget to open the freezer bypass valve(s)
  
• Turn the combustion chamber pipes open, and slowly start building a fire.
  
• After roughly one to two minutes, open the vent and grab the RCD.
  
• Use the RCD to open one of the tiles with a red dot on it. http://i.imgur.com/7WzsjDE.png
  

• Once the combustion chamber looks hot, open the hot loop valves and allow it to heat the plasma.
  

Small notes:

• See a pipe burst? That's normal! It wont affect the burn in any way!
  
• Removing the tiles under and around canisters will allow them to live longer, try it!
  
• Never use OXYGEN or NITROGEN inside the hot or cold loop.
  
• Enable the PTL once you are above 100MW for maximum $$$$
  

[Vitatroll]

Hell burn is 99% burn chamber, 1% not doing stuff like putting burn mix in the cold loop and nitrogen in the hot loop or leaving a main valve off.

You can hit pw with nothing but an air pump on each loop with enough time. Get the combustion chamber as Hanson has shown and ye'll be gravy.

[TheNewTeddy]

Thats great, the next time I plan to do a hellburn I will do that

However I'm also wondering as well how to pull this off with furnaces and not using the combustion chamber

[Erik]

Furnaces only go up to a few MW at most.

[TheNewTeddy]

Furnaces only go up to a few MW at most.

I am aware of this. 400K will satisfy me.