(my) Most effective time-gated reactors (the nuke-battery you didn't know you wanted)

    Working on the point of use design got me thinking about that prior suggestion for rotating reactors. However my goals are different:


    Thank you Talon for the excellent reactor planner which allowed me to so easily toy with designs and then collect these numbers.
    0) My Metascore = AverageOutput * Eff^3 / (1.5*Iron + 2 * LapisLazui + 4.4 * GlowStoneDust / Eff)


    1) Eff
    2) Power
    3) Component cost


    I'll determine runtime by diving the excess heat by the cooling rate; which then determines the number of reactors needed.


    I produced these designs, targeting various runtimes using the best design I could deduce within a few moments; it might be possible to get a little more out of them, but the true advantage is in having enough cooling water cells, and enough IHDs touching them, that it's possible to constantly use all the water cells; thus absolute fine-tuning doesn't matter nearly as much as not leaving any hotspots. The formula for evaluating these was deduced after collecting all of the data and adjusted based on my goals to reach the correct range; no design was favored in the weighting.



    Edit:


    I noticed that 5 of my designs had issues with isolated cooling water cells. I -believe- I have reviewed and fixed them, but am not entirely sure. In any event, it turns out that the most effective design still is (it simply needed IHDs to replace hull-plating, since the hull-plating would eventually overheat and thus be consumed/suddenly make it explode).



    Winner:
    Chambers=Core + 0
    Eff=3.833
    Burst=460
    Ratio=1:14.86
    AvgPower=28.75 (1:15 ratio)
    http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…=1o10101001501521s1r11r10


    Assumptions: A torch beneath a block providing redstone signal from under the reactor will 'shut down' the reactor. (this allows for 24 blocks of water around the chamber.)


    Here's the forumas and table in CSV format, you can edit your weighting and re-sort to see which design works best for /your/ needs.
    =E2*B2*B2*B2/(1.5*F2+2*J2+4.4*L2/B2)
    =C2/(1+CEILING(D2,1))




    Edit (again):


    In case you were wondering how to limit the reactor; it /should/ be possible within a single 16x16x16 chunk (for SMP) even without RedPower 2; however RedPower 2 makes this /FAR/ easier and safer.


    If you do choose to set this up, remember to test the output with a torch and confirm it's doing what you want.



    http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Redstone_circuits


    (count 10) = 5 - clock + pulse limiter
    (count 16) = 8 - clock (modified 5) + pulse limiter
    (count 80 (via LCD of clocks)) = NOR gate the output of the pulse limiters


    T-FlipFlop Design H as a clock divider (double the length).


    D-FlipFlop C or F to hold the value of count 80 & TFF

    I confirmed that a torch beneath a block supporting the reactor and acting as a plug for water beneath it disables the reactor. This would be a dangerous setup if the reactor were ever allowed to get hot; but all of these (water cooled) designs are only intended to remain active for only a single second before slumbering for a given duration. The 1 out of 16 (1:15 second) reactor will work if turned off from beneath. It also has the bonus of being the cheapest to build (as far as super-rare stuff during startup goes; such as glowstone dust).

    Is this reactor configured to run for one second then turned off for 15 seconds, or is it supposed to run for the whole 46 seconds before critical then cool down for 11 minutes 31 seconds?


    Sorry, I'm still getting used to nuclear reactors.

    Short answer: Run for exactly 1 second, cool for the specified ratio of seconds. (1 second on, 15 seconds off; for 16 total, in the case of the 'winning' design (cheapest/most effective balance))
    The reactor planner that's linked assumes you run until it will pop and then stop to let it fully cool before trying again. My designs are intended to run at /my/ specified timing intervals. (1 second on, 15 seconds of cooling). Some of the initial designs (the ones marked *revised*) needed adjustment to the layout of the cooling cells to ensure heat was being distributed effectively and not building up. Particularly the old version of the first design with the hull-plating was an ill-advised cost savings attempt.

    Thank you for your informative reply. I will be sure to use your reactor design with the circuits in the "self regulated reactor" tutorial thread.

    Yeah, that's a nice tutorial. You'll need RP2, but the images lay things out fairly well. You may want to modify the design slightly as follows.


    Redpower wire out of your timer such that it's 'lit' for 15 seconds and off for only one. Routed up beneath your reactor area and then around on to the /underside/ of the single block sticking up in to the 3x3 'water' area your reactor core will be centered in. (the power wire can come out any other side)


    I have /not/ however tested that such a configuration actually disables the reactor as it should. My test was with a torch beneath that block. RedPower2 might or might not be effective, but I suspect it will be. If in doubt use a redstone torch as I did and pick up the inverted signal to feed to the block beneath it (the torch acts as a 1 rs-tick delay inverter for the output).

    Since you need redpower 2 ANYWAY, how do the active bucket pumping systems do in this contest? I would assume that you need 6 filters, 2 deployers, and a whole double chest full of buckets to be on the safe side. Also, assume each bucket costs 3 iron (since if you leave the tin recipe switched on you can easily cheat)

    Mind elaborating on how to cheat with tin buckets? I have never heard of that before?


    EDIT: Unless you are talking about turning tin into iron using RP2?

    For the record:


    1) The above designs /can/ be controlled with just IC2 + normal minecraft redstone (it's just a total /pain/).
    2) I tested out RP2 redstone wires, if uninsulated redstone wire is routed on to the underside of the block beneath the reactor (or presumably a block /beside/ the reactor, this I did not test) it can replace the redstone torch you'd otherwise use. Insulated redstone wire -did not work- for shutting down the reactor (in case anyone asks I did test this too).

    Quote from Cadde

    Redstone dust leading to one of the reactor chamber sides also works. And is outside the cooling region of the reactor.

    That presumes you have an extra chamber attached; the most effective (resource overall) design is actually a crazy little core-only module with 2 IHDs and 4 cooling water cells; the rest is all uranium O.o

    Quote from Rick

    external heating is op thats why 0 chamber reactors are so imba. If each chamber would provide like 4 or 5 cooling things would change i think.

    That doesn't seem likely. The reason that won out is because it offered the cheapest access period. Reactors are just plain expensive and the 'winning' design had the best balance of resources to power production while still having tollerable efficiency. If you check out the table and possibly use your /own/ requirements equation other options might be better for that case. The question here is more or less, 'how can I get the most out of my uranium without spending lots of resources?'

    just FYI cause i didn't see anyone mention it, i have been able to turn my reactor on/off with redpower connected to a chamber with a covered cable and then using shit+right to put a piece of red alloy wire. some times you have to break the covered wired and put the red alloy wire first cause it doesn't register. also it will block a colunm of water so you might as well using this as a lower access point.

    Yeah, (sneek/)shift-clicking really changes the game. However I haven't tested encased redpower wires yet; those might be usable from the side.