|
|
Have you ever wanted to make your energy creation more efficient while using less space? Or simply wanted everything to be neatly sorted away and out of sight? The solution is simple: Cells of engines, creating a standard of energy, which can then be sent away to wherever you need it!
This tutorial will show you how to make a small, self-sustaining Steam Engine Cell that will never explode, as well as send your energy any distance, all in a small space and using only EE and Buildcraft!
An uncovered cell, next to a covered one. Both are fully functioning.
Materials[]
21x Redstone Alloy
1x Lever
1x Jack O'Lantern
1x Energy Collector (MK III Reccomended)
2x Energy Condenser
15x Stone Pipe
1x Wooden pipe
10x Steam Engine
5x Wooden Conductive Pipe
4x Stone Conductive Pipe
1x Energy Teleport Pipe
1x Redstone Engine
A Stack or Two of Stone Brick (Or some other nice looking brick to cover the machinery up with and make it look good)
1x Charcoal
1x Diamond (Or some other Desirable)
1x Sign (Optional)
Instructions[]
To start, you should have a 10x8 open, flat area, and the neccesary materials.
The first layer of the cell. On the left is the Condenser to use excess coal, and on the left is the Condenser making the coal.
Firstly, begin making the first layer. This will include the wiring that will power the Engines, the Engines themselves, the 2 Condensers (One to make the Charcoal, the other to turn excess Charcoal into diamonds), the Energy Collecter that will collect the EMC to infinitely make Charcoal, and the Wooden Conductive Pipes to accept the Energy from the Engines.
The machinery with only 2 layers. The Condenser making Diamonds is on the right this time, and the Coal making Condenser is on the left.
Next, the second layer. This will include the Pipes to carry the Charcoal to the Engines (and any excess to the Diamond Condenser), the Jack O'Lantern to keep the Collector at maximum productivity, a little extra wiring, the Wooden Pipe to take the Charcoal from the Charcoal Condenser and send it to the Engines, the Stone Conductive Pipe to carry the energy to the Energy Teleport Pipe, and the Teleport Pipe itself. Also, a Lever will be added onto the front side of the Jack O'Lantern (facing away from the Engines) to act as a switch to turn the entire machine on or off. Note that the machine can be left on forever and never explode, and should only be turned off if it causes lag. To the right is a picture of what it should look like so far.
An example of setting the frequency. Go ahead and type in the number you want, then hit 'Set'. You don't want it to receive any energy, so leave that alone for now.
Finally, add the Redstone Engine on to the top of the Wooden Pipe, so that it is connected to the Red Alloy Wire. At this point, you should set the Energy Teleport Pipe to the frequency of something you will remember, such as your year of birth.
An example of placing the coal into the Condenser. Place it into the top left slot, and the produced coal will appear in the middle slots. Excuse the cheats, they are for educational purposes only.
Next, go ahead and place a Charcoal into the Charcoal Condenser's top spot, so that it starts to make some. Don't worry, it will make more than enough Charcoal for your Engines, provided you have a reasonable amount based off of your Collector Level. The higher level your Collector (i.e. MK I, MK II, or MK III), the more Engines you can have off of one it. Table Coming Soon.
T
Placing the diamond into the top left slot will make it so that any excess coal will be turned automatically into diamonds. Note that is is the condenser FURTHEST from the Energy Collector.
hen, do the same thing in the Diamond Condenser with the Diamond. Note that you can also do this with any other desirable item. Generally, your Charcoal Condenser will create more Charcoal than your Engines can use up, so there will be some excess. Without your Diamond Condenser, the Charcoal will turn to pick ups, and cause lots of lag. With the Diamond Condenser, though, your Charcoal will not only not cause lag, but also go into making a few extra diamonds for you.
A demonstration of the sign above the lever on a covered cell. The sign shows that this cell (a standard with 10 Engines, 5 on each side) outputs 200 MJ/s which is just about enough to run a Quarry at a decent speed.
Lastly, you should consider putting a casing on your cell. This will make it appear nicer, and also aid in creating a sort of factory feel if you make many of them. Also, you can put a sign on the front of the cell (The side with the lever) stating the energy output of each cell. For info on the energy output, each Engine gives out 20MJ/s (or 1 MJ/t), or you could check out www.minecraftbuildcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Energy_Quick_Reference. This page also contains useful information on the output of engines, and the maximum input of machines
A covered cell, with an uncovered cell visible in the background.
Note that the cell shown in this tutorial will forever be self sustaining, and is just enough to run a Quarry at a decent speed. About 2.5 of these cells will be enough to run a Quarry at Maximum Speed. Also note that you can have a tonne of these cells scattered throughout your world, and they can all power different things at different locations at the same time, improving their usefulness ten-fold. Simply have an Energy Teleport Pipe at the machine you want to power, set the frequency, and toggle 'Recieve' to True.
The Collectors can only support so many Engines, because of the limited rate of EMC generation. You can determine the number of Engines each Collector can support using the formula:
(EMC/sec * fuel burn time(sec)) / fuel EMC = # of engines
Using this equation, and some info on Collectors and Engines (Thanks Anon!), a table can be compiled.
| Collecter Level | Type of Fuel being Generated | |
|---|---|---|
| MK I | Charcoal | 10 |
| Coal | 2.5 | |
| Bucket of Lava | 4.81 | |
| MK II | Charcoal | 30 |
| Coal | 7.5 | |
| Bucket of Lava | 14.42 | |
| MK III | Charcoal | 100 |
| Coal | 25 | |
| Bucket of Lava | 48.08 |
Now we can see that is best to use Charcoal, because it burns as long as Coal, while only costing 1/4 as much EMC. Also, it is best not to use Lava Buckets, as the bucket will remain after the Lava is used, clogging the system!
At last, we come to the end of this tutorial. I thank you for reading, and wish you happy building!