How to Engine

[TheNewTeddy]

Furnaces only go up to a few MW at most.

Oh sorry, I thought you were going to tell me how to do this once I made it clear I was okay with that.

[Vitatroll]

A furnace engine is still more or less the same; just with a few more valves.

You need to open up the cold loop main, the hot loop main and the combustion chamber bypass ("hot loop inlet") valve. Then you load up the furnaces and fire them up. Then you drag two plasma canns into the engine core. You wrench one onto the southern hot loop aux port, and the other onto the southern cold loop aux port. Then you open up both of those aux ports. Then you set up both SMES/PSUs in the control room to 200k/200k once the engine output passes 600kw (or whenever they will stay 'Online'). The engine will actually pass into one of the panic phases (engine monitor graphics), peak, then fall off over time. Keeping the furnaces stuffed, especially with plasma ores or something, will keep the output high. Not that it's needed.

I didn't reread this so I don't know how confusing it is, but it should be fine if you don't want to hellburn. :saddowns:

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:

[TheNewTeddy]

This seems more like glitch exploitation.

I'm starting to get the feeling that you actually can not start up the engine without exploding the pipes and setting things on fire.

[Vitatroll]

The method I mentioned at the top of my post is considered the vanilla engine and if you do it right it causes no fire and creates a 1-2mw engine.

The game itself is a giant glitch, really. I'm amazed that our coders are still somewhat sane.

[TheNewTeddy]

I will do that, exactly as it says, word for word, and take screenshots. Hopefully it will work perfectly, and this thread will forever be there for anyone else wanting to know how to engine.

DISCLAIMER: that is not sarcastic.

[TheNewTeddy]

it worked!

edited for clarity (someone missed something I'd not circled)

[TheNewTeddy]

Updated to be more clear, easy to follow, and professional looking.

See opening post for new images

[Armchair]

Would anyone be willing to share some more information about the engine?  I started playing back on devstation when everything was powered by a singularity, but this combustion engine is new to me.

First question.  There is a gas sensor in the middle of the combustion chamber.  I am interested in observing that sensor's output as I experiment with the engine.  Where, if anywhere, is that information displayed?


Secondly I suspect that I'm doing something dumb with the combustion chamber.  I tried following ErikHanson's advice, but  I've never seen the flames reach that cool blue color depicted in his picture, and the highest I've ever seen power output go is ~11 MW.  At that point the pipes burst and despite assurances that it is normal and won't affect the burn, the engine sharply declined in power output until I fixed the pipes.  Even then, at the rate it was climbing, I have a hard time imagining that it would have reached a GW much less a TW by the end of the round.

I don't know if I'm running the hot loop through the combustion chamber prematurely, if I should be messing with these auxiliary ports for something other than siphoning off hot gas for traitoring, or if I should using that pressure tank in the upper left of engineering to try to stave off a pipe burst until the hot loop crosses some critical threshold where pipe bursts can no longer slow it down.


I'll keep experimenting on my own, but I would really appreciate it if someone could at least shed some light on that gas sensor.

[medsal15]

You need vacuum to make blue fire.

[Grayshift]

I'll keep experimenting on my own, but I would really appreciate it if someone could at least shed some light on that gas sensor.

The gas sensors are accessed on a DWAINE terminal with the file /mnt/artlab/gptio
The problem is that the engine gas sensor is problematically not connected to the right wired network - it's on the isolated engine/PTL circuit and not on the general station/mainframe network, so gptio literally won't detect it unless you hotwire the engine or do some more advanced rewiring.
Gptio wll detect the gas sensors in the toxins burn chambers, though they're both named GAS_BOTTOM which is a funny ass name anyway.
I'll make a bug report in the Cogmap2 fix this shit thread.

[Erik]

Setting the engine up for a hellburn is easier than a normal burn, here are the results of a proper hellburn that was left alone to rot and grow for a hour or two.

https://i.imgur.com/5RRI4uf.png 1.000YW+

[Armchair]

I had my first TW burn tonight.  But apparently I was an assassination target a few rounds in a row.  I managed to turn on the laser with my dying breath.



Thanks for all of the advice.

[TheNewTeddy]

Setting the engine up for a hellburn is easier than a normal burn, here are the results of a proper hellburn that was left alone to rot and grow for a hour or two.

https://i.imgur.com/5RRI4uf.png 1.000YW+

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 $$$$
  

Just want to be clear that you are trying to argue that this list is easier than "open 5 valves, grab 2 cans, and turn on a furnace"


EDITED TO ADD

hellburn
open no less than 10 valves
operate pipe computer, including needed canisters, and chamber settings; as well as RCD the floor
grab 4 canisters for the pipes

furnaceburn
open no more than 5 valves
operate furnaces, including needed char, and re-filling every half hour
grab 2 canisters for the pipes

So you open more valves, and grab more canisters

you also need to set up the pipe computer VS dragging a crate of char to a furnace and click-dragging it in
you also need to grab two canisters VS turning on a furnace

I will accept your argument that maintaining a hellburn may be easier than maintaining a furnaceburn. 

But if you think setting one up is easier you are either trolling me, or have gone round the bend.


EDITED TO ADD

Just to be clear. I am responding to your claims that a hellburn is easier to set up. I am not trying to counter your claim that it produces more power (which it does) looks cooler (which it does) allows for the PTL (which it does) or is easier to maintain (I will save that debate for another day)

[Armchair]

I think what erikhanson is trying to say is that the hellburn is "easier" because it will be mostly self-sufficient from that point forward.  With a more tame burn like a furnace burn, you'll need to be periodically replacing the fuel in the engine or babysit the hot loop pressure to prevent engine death from a pipe burst.  There is more overhead to starting up erikhanson's hellburn procedure, but it's not that much of a difference.  

The recommended burn mix pressure should last you about an hour before you'll need to replace a canister.  That should be enough for most rounds, and the 100% full SMES cells should last you a good deal beyond that point.



That said, all this talk about hellburns has made me realize that "how to engine" goes beyond setting up the engine and on to responsible usage of the engine.


It's satisfying to sit around chuckling about "MORE POWER" like Tim the Toolman Taylor, but the result of all that power is indeed a safety hazard.


The most obvious threat to the crew is the PTL laser.  At high power it can instantly vaporize a man.  How does the station and the admin staff view high powered PTL lasers?  Is it something to be frowned upon and reserved mostly for the traitorous, or are the safety doors considered adequate safety measures and anyone who disables those safety measures to walk into the laser deserves the consequences of their actions?   My personal approach as the CE for my few GW-TW burns was to warn the crew to exercise caution around the laser, and I moved the reinforced tables in the checkpoints near the laser west a square so that the crew could toggle the PTL doors to allow safe passage.

Another hazard is the power within the grid itself.  Obviously hot wiring the engine directly into the power grid is a terrible terrible thing to do and something that non-traitors should never do.  However I was surprised last night when I bumped into a grille and was instantly killed (for a little over 2 billion burn damage according to goonhub).  

I thought that the electrified grilles on the station were drawing power from the comparatively safe output from the SMES cells.  I was also wearing insulated gloves at the time, and I'm not sure what happened.  My thoughts for potential explanations are:
1:  Somebody snuck into the engine and hotwired it when I wasn't looking.
2:  An arc of electricity from the engine hit a power grid wire and temporarily boosted the station's power level and I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time (is this a thing that can actually happen?)
3:  The grille in question was overlooking the engine.  Perhaps they are directly wired into the engine by default?

I got quite a laugh out of my shocking demise, but I am thankful that it looks like nobody else got zapped for 2 billion damage that round.  I'm going to go out of my way to make sure that those grilles stay protected with glass because I'd prefer the safety hazards of my engine to stay confined to engineering and not overflow into the station proper.

[Gannets]

How does the station and the admin staff view high powered PTL lasers?

Make a beam as big and as strong as you like. Just don't go throwing people in to it.