Solar Panel setup?

    Im looking at setting up a large solar array on my roof. I think its a pretty common setup, but it looks like and upside down T. The one layer is solar panel, tin wire, then solar panel, with a 3rd panel on top of the tin. Now tin looses EU after 40 blocks. My question is if i run tin up out the top of my MSFU 2 blocks and then head out in opposite directions like 37 blocks? Which makes 222 solar panels in a row. But with the MSFU in the middle i shouldnt loose any EU correct? Then is running a bunch of MSFU's in parallel after that with any mass fabs the best setup?

    Firstly, that is a huge setup you have planned 8) . Kudos


    Secondly, it looks like your numbers are sound. I don't use tin as i don't like it for some reason. Copper cable all the way ;) . However if the wiki numbers are correct it looks good, you could even have 2 more wings for 442, (or 443 if you place one in the very center), if you so desired.


    With a huge setup like that you could use a parallel circuit of MFSUs, however I might recommend the following.


    have one main trunk line of MFSUs, and then have branches with at least one MFSU just after each junction on each branch and one MFSU on the main trunk line just before each branch. this way with switches on each MFSU you can control how far the Eus go while the system is filling up, and once full have so much energy in storage that it doesn't matter if the Mass fab is pulling 512 as it won't be able to access the EUs on the MFSUs on each branch.


    If you wanted to limit the mass fab to save energy, keep the levers on the MFSUs (just the ones on the main trunk line) on so they only give it energy when full.


    hope this helped, oh do feel free to say "what...? errrr, come again? 8) happy to clear things up.

    Hell, prove me wrong, Happy to be so 99% of the time, then I can learn stuff :)

    That is what I was assuming you said you were doing, perhaps I will do a tmi of what I was thinking.


    Usually I just have one line with plenty of storage for my workshop and have my mass fab on another system. I find there a too many limitations for power management to have a Mass Fab run well on one system combined with workshops and other operations.


    Edit:


    couple of images, one with the basic branch, and one with the final branch for the Mass Fab.




    This way you keep your high voltage all the way for max power supply (ignoring EV) and you still have the 512 system for your Mass fab at the end.


    disadvantages would be the necessity for all the MFSUs to be exposed for maximum control of power

    Hell, prove me wrong, Happy to be so 99% of the time, then I can learn stuff :)

    You /do/ know you could replace the control section with MVTFs right?


    In 512 -> MVTF (stepdown) -> 128*4 -> MVTF (step up (redstoned))
    + another MVTF (redstoned on) from the 'middle' part leading over to the massfab.


    When on it will 'step up' the 128 to feed the mass-fab up to 512.
    When off it will try to 'step down' (nothing) and thus turn off flow to the MVTF.

    Not sure how practicle this is, but once IC2 gets updated to 1.0 then ill be restarting my server and my friends can play again. So there will be about 5 people all chipping in on resource gathering.



    There is 234 solar panels. I know im not past any limits of the wires, so there is no eu loss. But not all the MSFU's in the parallel get equal eu. It gradually gets less the further out from the central point. Now i was thinking that it was going to output 20 packs of 512 into the mass fab once the one was filled, but they would have to be right after the the main parallel. So im guessing i would have to apply redstone to each of the msfu's in the parallel for it to only feed the mass fab once they are full? If thats the case im just going to set them up with switches and manually shut them on and off. Now im not just going to have 1 solar array setup like that feeding that many msfu's. But i can figure that out later.

    Why don't you just redstone the MassFab itself?
    Considering that these setups require you to flip a switch to give power to the MassFab, why not just put that switch right on the machine?


    Am I missing something? Because that's how I've been doing it.

    If you have a MSFU that has redstone power applied to it, then it will only supply power to a mass fab once its full and doesnt have anywhere to go with the extra power.


    Edit.


    This is a basic cut out of how im thinking of feeding everything. Feeding each of those MSFUs would be 234 solar panels. Makes the total about 1638. Now how should i run them to the to the other MSFU parallel im looking to have? Run those 7 into 1 msfu then go into the parallel or go direct into the parallel?

    you learn something new every day. didn't realize you could do it that way.


    one other thing i have found while meddling with the forces of EUs, is this. If you have a solar panel input that generates more than 512EU/t it is just wasted if it is all going into one MFSU due to the MFSU only outputting 512.


    my solution to this is rather than a MFSU at the central point put a HV transformer instead, convert it to EV and then back down, then you have 4x512 pulses coming out a glass fibre you can split into several MFSUs.

    Hell, prove me wrong, Happy to be so 99% of the time, then I can learn stuff :)