Mk5-CASUC 640 eu/tick 4.27 eff with redpower 2 pre3b (Outdated does not work properly on 1.0)

  • When i make a less risky one i will. Current reactor sometimes explodes when you login. Still dont know exactly what causes this but it have be caused by the way minecraft loads the world. I dont know a solution to that but i can make the reactor shutdown when it overheats problem is once cooling system is off it will happen in a matter of seconds so it has to be really fast.

    Yepp, that's the problem, these reactors explode. When you have a reactor that can't even run for 30 seconds (with no cooling) from 0 heat... starting at 4k heat and losing cooling = not much time to stop the explosion. I was thinking about using TMI on my world that's already toast, I think if the entire system is on one chunk it might prevent the loading issues.


    I assumed the problem is that the filter stops pulling out empties, cos I found tons of filled buckets, but only 11 empties when my reactor went nova. (And it's the only part of the system I didn't test individually)

  • attatched is a .schematic of my version. i didn't realize other people had been doing this, so its called G.lass's A.lternative C.ooling S.ystem, thus the file name. Mine never ever blows up upon even rigorous unloading and reloading, because it fits entirely in one chunk. in fact, it can fit 4 into one chunk horizontally, and up to 60 if you put them vertically (although that dimension can probably be made slightly more compact). It does 640 EU/t, and can probably do more, but I prefer to leave the buckets in the top just in case. It uses 2 deployers, each with a 2x3 pool in front of them, because after much testing, my personal findings were that deployers can in fact go faster than water if on a .4 timer. It also uses 2 filters emptying the chest, and one tube leading to it from the reservoir chest, which has 2 filters hooked up to it as well. The chest also allows for a large buffer, I don't know if you guys had that. Also, if yours fit exactly into one chunk and still was blowing up with the unloading/reloading thing, it may have been the water. water doesn't reupdate upon reloading, so it needs redstone/redwire powering a block directly next to it. My design already had that, so I never experienced it in the first place, but just something you should check.


    There are improvements to be made though. I probably do not need as many transposers sucking out excess as I have running, but I wanted to be sure. The main improvement that could probably be made is to put a delay on the extraction filters, so that the empty buckets are pulled out just before full ones are shoved in, so that they aren't ever in the way, because then they wouldn't be going at the same time. Still I don't see how we'll ever be able to get more than 1250 heat per tick safely working with more than 3 added chambers, as 1 filter can only handle extracting 2.5 buckets per second, and even then, I don't think RP time and IC heat ticks always coincide that perfectly, so it would probably have to be slightly less than 1250 heat to be safe.


    Also, I don't know what you guys' systems are like, but reloading mine is a piece of cake thanks to the reservoir in the chest. all you do is put the uranium in, and switch out the second row of water where needed (it will fill up without the uranium in the way). then, put the water back in the system at some point in time, but it doesn't really matter when as long as its before the next cycle. with all the transposers i have running to get the extra buckets, i just throw them in a hole in the glass near them, although in the schematic i gave you I don't remember if the hole is there, or if there's any extra glass. I have two schematics, one with some reinforced glass protecting things just in case, and the other with it stripped away. I don't know quite how robust you guys' are, but mine is good enough to handle random items being thrown in the reservoir accidentally, along with buckets of lava about every couple seconds. You can know when its fully ready for another bucket of lava when the three buckets of water reappear full in the top right corner. If you do throw lava in for shits and giggles though, make sure to leave the bucket of water you get from it in your inventory, as throwing too many in can add up over time to too much being in the system.



    With allocators, it should be possible to make it much faster, as allocators can fire up to 5 time per second (more using the torch trick). I don't know if the torch trick can be used though because it would probably shut down the reactor. Still, that would amount to quite the improvemet per missing chamber, and would basically double the potential heat.


    Edit: be sure to turn on the cooling system (switch at the bottom) before turning on the reactor. Also, here's the layout inside if you're too lazy to use the schematic: http://test.vendaria.net/index…UXUUUUUXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
    Also, I've been testing with the top row partially full of uranium. so far, 3 has blown up upon rigorous loading and unloading. I may continue testing 2 and 1 (if 2 doesn't work), but I'd rather leave it be for now, because its already at a very convenient 640 EU/t, which is exactly 1 high voltage + 1 medium. (512+128).

  • I just tested mine which used a design that fit in a 5x5x5 area. I noticed that the output of empty buckets from the reactor does need a chest to help buffer. Was running on a 0.4 sec timer. Working fine, walked away ~300 blocks and came back to a crater. [It was running fine before] So there's definitely something wonky going on there. Also, that schematic isn't helpful but screenshots could be good. I only use 1 transposer with no chests on its line for the overflow, so that -might- be the problem, but I doubt it. [Upon further review of ground zero... Yepp it appears that the deployer got full causing the filter that was sucking buckets to bug out and start duping empty buckets (saw it happen in testing) .. so a chest between the extraction filter and the deployer is required ... and I'll try out the bit with water, that might have been what caused the deployer to break] --- And I should have saved a backup of the world before I decided to see if it would explode. Reactor was definitely all in the same chunk cos I had a funky chunk error on the backside of a volcano. (I'll upload some pics if anyone cares)


    But with the update to redpower things should be better, apparently we'll be able to do even splits with tubes (to send items to 2 deployers from 1 source). Along with some other bug fixes so maybe the filter won't pull out filled buckets when it's supposed to be taking empty ones ;)


    [I was going to run some tests to see if having a chest in the middle would stop the problem or if it's water not updating when a chunk reloads, and I think it's the problem where I get duped buckets with redpower pr2. Cos I just got a stack of 547,926,016 buckets... and another stack of 853,344,256 .... and a REALLY cool error message when I tried to break the chest they were in... ]

  • You know how the file attatched says v. 2.1? my initial version was very similar to what you just described. It seems to me that using the theoretical 2.5 buckets leaves room for the reactor to get ahead of the cooling system in times of lag, but not the other way around. Also, the full bucket glitch with the filter has been fixed, but that only occurred if the "pressure" was full in one tube, meaning you had a bottleneck somewhere as it was.


    If you were using hacked buckets, RP machines AND nukes don't like them, but you can save an inventory of non-hacked buckets in TMI and be fine.




    Finally, as to how on earth a schematic is not useful but crappy screenshots of an overcramped, barely visible guts of a machine that you can't see moving, my mind is full of f*ck. If you don't have mcedit yet, GET IT ALREADY. I was actually a bit frustrated that neither of you had schematic files and world saves, as then you can actually SEE WHATS HAPPENING AND TAKE IT APART TO LOOK. Instead, you ask for screenshots of a very compact machine which at no angle can you see even half of whats going on. Nevermind the fact that you're given a still of something moving, and its obviously better to see its dynamic actions rather than static pictures. Get MCEdit, download the schematic, and take your own screenshots if you want them so bad.


    Also, if you were using tmi buckets, or other hacked buckets, they won't interact well. However, you can save an inventory of non-hacked items in tmi and it's fine.


    Finally, as to how on earth a schematic is not useful but crappy screenshots of an overcramped, barely visible guts of a machine that you can't see moving, my mind is full of f*ck. If you don't have mcedit yet, GET IT ALREADY. I was actually a bit frustrated that neither of you had schematic files and world saves, as then you can actually SEE WHATS HAPPENING AND TAKE IT APART TO LOOK. Instead, you ask for screenshots of a very compact machine which at no angle can you see even half of whats going on. Nevermind the fact that you're given a still of something moving, and its obviously better to see its dynamic actions rather than static pictures. Get MCEdit, download the schematic, and take your own screenshots if you want them so bad.

  • With the new item detector block the previous safety mechanisms will prolly get obsolete but i gotta make one first :)


    How you get so many buckets lol? Failed hacks?

    Ya, the item detector makes things a piece of cake. The nice thing about it is that with any version of this system, all bottlenecks lead to one problem and one problem alone: no filled buckets heading towards the reactor. Therefore an inter-tube item detector is perfect. I was going to attempt it with having the buckets land on a pressure plate before continuing, but this allows me to keep my design just as compact and simple.


    As to escape routes and other preventions, I actually am planning on putting a teleporter in mine, and everything should be operable from that teleporter or very near by. If its about to blow, it automatically teleports the user to a safe nearby location whether they want to go or not. As far as saving the nuke, I try to keep the bucket system running in hopes that whatever kink it was will be unkinked once the reactor is shut down. The nice thing about item detector emergency stops is that we can detect when the cooling system has a problem before it actually effects the heat of the reactor. In other words, the length of tubing, even if short, allows the reactor to be shut down while the last of the full buckets (from before there was a problem) are still on their way.


    Edit: There is one bottleneck though that does cause the same problem with full buckets not heading out, but not as quickly, which is empty buckets not being extracted as quickly. As such, this is the most dangerous bottleneck because it may stop full buckets from reaching the reactor long before they stop heading out, especially if there is a chest buffer. I don't suggest not using the chest buffer as it helps a lot, but what I would do is have a shut-down detection system on both extraction AND insertion if there is a problem with extraction.


    Edit 2: I checked going far away in all directions, multiple times, in increasing intervals of 300 blocks, and have yet to have a problem. Mine has never, ever blown up, and I am now running 64 at a time for greater sample size for testing. Still no problems. To be honest, I would call mine a mark I at this point. I can literally throw lava buckets in and it comes back to its equilibrium within 2 seconds or so. I think that that is proof that it can handle most any situations, and even a griefer who thinks he's funny by throwing lava buckets in lol :rolleyes: If you come up with anything else for me to test that may be a problem, let me know. Otherwise, I'll get to working on it legit and a way to use all that energy so it doesn't go to waste. I hate MF'ing without the proper amount of scrap, you wind up using almost 10 times the energy, and since uranium is now a finite resource (since they took out the uu-recipe), I'd rather not waste mine, even in an extremely efficient reactor.


    Edit 3: after running 64 at a time for a very short time, I found that the lag was too great to do anything else whatsoever on my computer at all, so I've reduced it to 16. Still, even with that insane amount of lag, it didn't blow up.

  • Nice test you dont there. Maybe the reason it bugs isnt related to the reactor but to how redstone (or redpower in this case) works when loading chunks? Maybe if one blows up all your 64 reactors would blow up due to the reason being a global one. Just a theory through :). I seen it happen 2 times on my world on singleplayer and on brickedkeyboards server so we know its there but its still a mystery why it happens.


    Detector block for empty buckets should be activated once reactor reaches its working heat (which is ~4000 in this case). Else it would shutdown before it can even heat up to 4000 heat. Problem is this is done rather easily by a manual switch but how to do it fully automatically? Iam thinking of a timer that will activate the sensor after a while for instance it takes 4 seconds to reach 4000 heat so sensor will go on after 5 secs. It will still be safe because the reactor cannot meltdown in just 4 secs. However i cant think up a fully automatic one that adapts itself to the reactor design.


    Also i read that ic2 is getting some sort of reactor control block so even this system may get outdated over time.

  • While messing around with redpower 2 pre3 i noticed machines work properly now when wired to a 0,2 timer. This would mean double cooling capacity. Currently modifying my reactor and testing it out.


    Edit: it works it now easily cools http://test.vendaria.net/index…UXUUUUUXUUUUUXXXXXXXXXXXX
    use 2 deployers through they dont work as fast as filters/transposers do.


    Edit2: Made a new reactor with detector block does require some wiring to make the sensor system automatically turn on after a certain time as you can see in the screenshot here:
    http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/217/20111028014338.png/


    So to start the reactor this would be the steps you have to take:
    -Load the reactor with uranium
    -Hit the lever
    -Win

  • With the new item detector block the previous safety mechanisms will prolly get obsolete but i gotta make one first :)


    How you get so many buckets lol? Failed hacks?

    No the buckets is a bug with redpower. I think it's when items a filter sends get bounced back, but the container it's pulling from is full. Then it starts doubling them I think cos it tries to pull a whole stack, but that would be bounced, so gets duped.... it only takes a few seconds to get out of hand and have an extreme amount of duped items. [not sure if it still happens with RP2pr3]


    @glasstables2 I have MCEdit, but I only use it to fix corrupt saves. I loaded the schematic up with that but it was just pink blocks, guess I'd have to import it to a world to "see what it looks like"?



    Edit:

    Quote

    So I loaded up your reactor to test it. When I turned it on, it would cycle through the first 3 buckets on the top row ... is that correct? Went 300 blocks away; came back and... it only had 2 buckets of water in it, the rest were empty, and it seems like the filter extractors weren't able to keep up as it wasn't gaining more filled buckets (I took a screenshot but it's just like full, empty, empty, full, empty, empty buckets on the top row. So I figured if I repeated the 300 blocks away and coming back [to get the chunk to unload / reload again] that it would blow up... and it did. [Is it because I might not have placed it on a single chunk? --- I really dislike MCEdit so I didn't bother going "where are the chunks at" :)]


    Edit2: Maybe you gave the wrong schematic, cos this one doesn't have a buffer chest between the filters (that pull from the reactor) and the deployers. [Made sure to place it inside just one chunk this time... exploded after going away from it and coming back] (it's just the two levers, the one next to the timer to start the cooling system, let it fill up, then the lever to turn on the reactor... right?)

  • Well, its possible i gave you the wrong schematic. Also, it seems I have lost it somehow myself by trusting myself in having the most recent version and deleting my world. I am now having the same problem (even though I'd been testing this for hours earlier). However, if RP machines now respond to a .2 timer, I would want to redesign it anyways. Also, it was so incredibly jam-packed that I kinda wanted to redesign it anyways. I have something big and secret as an improvement to reactors as a whole, although our bucket style cooling systems will be the easiest to adapt it to.


    Personally, I love MCEdit. Unless you have a touch pad, it is very easy to use, especially once you learn the ropes, and saves tons of time with big structures, as well as with big tests.


    It is a bit sad that somehow I took the wrong schematic, but I suppose there isn't much loss. Still, I was looking forward to taking a break from the cooling system (since it looked fine) and working on other improvements. Oh well. Seems there's never any end to troubleshooting sometimes, but this new timer speed should make life a million times easier. I will also be looking forward to the computer things to control reactors in the future, although I don't think it will make our systems particularly obsolete. Also, the emergency system wasn't hard for me to install, though I did have to space things out a tad to get it to fit. It wasn't a big deal though, so I'm sure that if it becomes obsolete it won't be a big deal either. Especially as long as it works.


    However, I think that even with the new timer speed I will look into adding more deployers, as that seems to bottleneck whenever chunks are unloaded and reloaded as you pointed out and I just saw myself recently. Deployers are cheap. They may add more space, and my next version may or may not be able to fit so many into a single chunk. In reality though, these reactors we're making burn through uranium more than fast enough for one reactor to be more than enough to keep up with, especially if you tend to go afk or plan on installing this on a server where it will possibly run when you aren't there. I want to make one robust enough to go on a server, although that may or may not be as easy.

  • I see that there's only one transposer/filter involved in extraction, and I was wondering: how does it fare with logging out, leaving the area, etc.? From what I can tell you are cutting it within a one bucket heat range of closeness, although that should be at least decently safe. Please tell me how it goes. Also, if you guys wouldn't mind making schematics or providing world saves, I am a big fan of those, as then I can see it working. Also, if either of you would prefer world saves to mcedit schematics, I can use those instead if you like, its just as easy either way. Personally, whenever I take screenshots I find that it barely captures what I want it to, or what needs to be seen. In addition, I can't play around with it, or add my own adaptations.

  • Rick, just tested filters and umm... what version of RP are you on? I'm on Prerelease 3b, and unless I've installed something incorrectly or something really weird is going on, my filters only respond once every .4 seconds, even with a .2 timer hooked up to them.

  • Rick, just tested filters and umm... what version of RP are you on? I'm on Prerelease 3b, and unless I've installed something incorrectly or something really weird is going on, my filters only respond once ever .4 seconds, even with a .2 timer hooked up to them.

    Idk what all this .2 timer stuff is about. Mine always ran on .2 timers (even with prerelease 2) ... but the deployers don't fill faster then 0.4 anyways cos the water has to replenish.
    I still have to finish the reactor I was working on... I got a little carried away and it's a bit convoluted [I discovered glass panels]...
    now I just need to figure out how/where to hook up the redstone power :)


    Figured I'd run the filters on 0.2 timers and the deployers on 0.4 just to be safe. [But when I was testing loading/unloading the chunk via distance would cause ~9 empty buckets to bounce back to the buffer chest... not sure if that'll be a problem. Or well, it'll be a problem but only a ... 4 second problem (maybe only a 2 second problem)? :P Which might be a problem with an 8 second reactor.]


    I'll hook some power into my reactor [and then save a backup] then test it out to see what happens. But so far every redpower reactor I've had has exploded.

  • Idk what all this .2 timer stuff is about. Mine always ran on .2 timers (even with prerelease 2) ... but the deployers don't fill faster then 0.4 anyways cos the water has to replenish.
    I still have to finish the reactor I was working on... I got a little carried away and it's a bit convoluted [I discovered glass panels]...
    now I just need to figure out how/where to hook up the redstone power :)


    Figured I'd run the filters on 0.2 timers and the deployers on 0.4 just to be safe. [But when I was testing loading/unloading the chunk via distance would cause ~9 empty buckets to bounce back to the buffer chest... not sure if that'll be a problem. Or well, it'll be a problem but only a ... 4 second problem (maybe only a 2 second problem)? :P Which might be a problem with an 8 second reactor.]


    I'll hook some power into my reactor [and then save a backup] then test it out to see what happens. But so far every redpower reactor I've had has exploded.

    My filters and transposers have always run on .2 timers, but the actual item empty rate, even on a .2 timer was still .4 seconds for me, as in, there was no advantage. same for deployers, they ran on it, but only because the .2 timer hit at the same time as the .4 when it was ready again .4 seconds later.


    I have no idea what rick is talking about, but would love to see it working. I doubt it will on my world though, as my filters can't empty stuff that fast for sure. If they could, this all would be a million times easier.


    I assume that whatever rick has is in PR 3, not 3b, and that they will probably not work on .2 again later.


    Yes, it is frustrating that they all seem to blow up so far, although we've certainly come a long way. The only thing now is the loading issues, but with a robust enough system we should be able to surmount those. If we can, then these ought to be able to be run as if they were mark I's, as that is how they run without the loading issues. I will try more deployers in my next design and see if that takes out the last of the bottlenecks. I also really hope rick gets back to us on what all this .2 stuff is, as I've been testing a lot to be sure, and it seems that mine definitely still only can respond every .4 seconds.

  • http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/190/20111028093922.png/


    Just see the distance between the buckets for proof its on a 0.2 timer. This was done with redpower 2 pre3 (did it changed back in pre3b?). Only thing i did was changing my timer from 0.4 to 0.2.


    Also the redstone circuit is working perfectly now and is a bit smaller. After you turn the reactor on there will be 5 secs that it wont matter what the output is of the item detector block (which is located on the empty bucket tube). This is to ensure the reactor can heat up and start turning filled buckets into empty ones. After those 5 secs the item detector will be active and as long as it sees empty buckets going out the reactor will stay on. Only thing i gotta do now is optimalise the timings but i do that later. I post some screens of the instalation later dont have time for that atm.

  • Guess what, it blew up.
    @glasstables: I ran a filter (sucking just empty buckets) on 0.2 seconds and it instantly jammed a deployer that was on the same 0.2 sec circuit. Because the depolyer would have to wait for water. So I assume that the filter was faster [which is why I haven't gone to 2 filters on the reactor yet]. I think the real problem is that RP and IC load/unload at different times or something.... I just know that I can make a system that run flawlessly as long as it's in a loaded zone (pretty easily too), but anytime I leave/re-enter the zone it'll explode (well your schematic was the best so far, in it did load once.. but then was unable to withdraw the extra empty buckets from the reactor). So it definitely must be that the filter stops pulling buckets... causing the reactor to over-heat and explode. Tempted to try an allocator for the withdraw to see if that makes a difference (but it would require installing yet another mod) :P [Or I could just use a detector kill switch].


    I'm tempted to cheat and just put one of zeldo's teleport pipes near the reactor so that the chunk always stays active :P (I know player once mentioned is_simulating.. vs is_loaded so ... idk if that has anything to do with it, I'd actually have to look at what happens when a chunk loads... but I'm not going to do that. :) [And it's odd that (well for me anyways) it's only loading/unloading that occurs from distance, as I was able to logout/login several times and never had a problem that way]

  • Use 3x2 water and put the deployer in the middle so it can suck up 2 water source blocks instead of 1.

    Yepp I think he was already doing that, I use 3x3 to try to get the water to replenish faster (not sure if it does or not)... then ran 2 deployers on 3x5 water


    btw, the last 2 reactors of mine had 3 rows of water and 3 rows of uranium and still exploded...