Confused!!??

5 solar panels will always produce 5 packets of 1 EU per tick. Packets won't combine into one on a cable.

Quote from Saga286

Hello, I am new to IC2 and have been reading the wiki. I seem to be even more confused about how energy works in here than before.

Is EU the same as EU Packet? From what I can tell from the wiki, if 1 Solar Panel outputs at 1 EU/t, that means the EU Packet in the cable has 1 EU in it. Right? So that would mean that for every tick, there is a 1 EU Packet going through the cable right?

From the wiki: "Cables are limited by the size of EU-Packets that may travel through, NOT the number of packets, NOR the total EU/t contained by these packets."

I think this statement from the wiki confused me, what confused me was the "NOT the number of packets, NOR the total EU/t contained by these packets" part.
How does more than 1 packet travel through the wire at one time? If I connected 2 Solar Panels to a single cable, wouldn't that mean there is a 2 EU packet running through the wire per tick? Not two 1 EU packets? Or does it all depend on how they are connected, does a Solar Flower with 5 Solar Panels generate 5 EU/t making a 5 EU Packet, while connecting 5 Solar Panels to different sections on the cable generate five 1 EU Packets?

The other part makes it seem that EU/t can be contained within a Packet. Is it just the wording?

Maybe I'm dumb, I don't know. I still love what this mod is capable of, but I'm afraid to go into this tier in my world until I get a better understanding. I don't want machines blowing up in my face.

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Each item outputting X EU/t makes a single X EU packet each tick(20 ticks/second, if your FPS>=20). For example, you could connect ten solar panels with a tin cable and then to an storage device/transformer/machinery without melting the cable even though there is 10EU/t flowing through and the tin cable can only withstand 6EU/packet. The cable would have ten 1EU packets(1<6, the cable won't melt) flowing through it.
A tin cable could theoretically transfer several thousand EU/t as long as each packet would be less than 6EU. The only limit on energy flow is the packet size, not the total current flowing through.

What is the effect of the hv, mv, lv transformers on packets? Are they combined/split? Does that effect how much energy total can be transfered per tick? Also, can a batbox's output be downgraded to tin for long distance transfer and then upgraded again using an lv transformer? I thought you could, but I've tried it without success.

Quote from fearsomegenie

What is the effect of the hv, mv, lv transformers on packets? Are they combined/split? Does that effect how much energy total can be transfered per tick?

Quote from Zjarek

In IC2 electricity is only a buzz word for small magical dwarfs carrying nanobatteries. From every energy source or storage there is one dwarf released every tick. Size of a dwarf is determined by amount of energy they are carrying. Cables are in reality just a tunnels where they run. If a cable or machine don't provide enough space for a dwarf it will get angry and blow up.

However many dwarfs are happy to run alongside each other and will in cooperation carry any amount of energy through a cable. Big dwarf will still prefer to blow up, then to split, but he can split into smaller dwarfs in transformer. Every smaller dwarf which is produced by transformer can go to the same output tunnel.

These useful little creatures are also sometimes nicknamed packets.

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I love how this guy explain it.

greatest explanation ever XD