Posts by peterix

  • 820 EU ICE CASUC reactor with a power controller

    OK. Here's a little something I've been working on for the past few days and think is cool.


    Say you have a CASUC nuclear reactor that outputs around 820 EU/t. Fairly small for this type of reactor, and nowhere near the top output. Still, 820 EU/t is a good bit of power and my storage/power systems can't really handle that reactor going full blast all the time. A system to manage the reactor automatically is needed :)


    Here's the reactor:


    Reactor parts list:

    • 2 pneumatic tubes
    • 2 block breakers
    • 2 transposers
    • 2 singularity compressors
    • Infinite snow straight from the elemental plane of ice.
    • Timer
    • 4 redpower wires (2 for triggering the RP machines, 2 for keeping the compressors running)
    • Reactor chamber
    • Reactor
    • 3 HV cables
    • 3 HV transformers
    • 3 MFSUs
    • Wireless receiver


    The snow is converted into ice blocks, which are inserted directly into the reactor. The timer is set to 0.5 seconds. The reactor contains 20 uranium cells and empty space for 4 stacks of ice. If you replace the cells in a timely manner, it's possible to run this thing indefinitely.


    Here's the back of the reactor:

    So far pretty simple, eh? Let's add some crazy stuff to that. The wireless receiver is hooked up to the outputs of this thing:



    Namely, the red cable is connected to both the reactor* splitter and a wireless transmitter that connects it to the reactor. The machine is fairly simple when it comes to wiring, although the splitter and detector cables don't work with redpower cabling and need plain loose redstone instead. There are two branches with splitter cables, EU detector cables, MFSUs and a bunch of redpower cables leading to a Computercraft based controller.


    With this design, it's possible to turn the reactor on and off based on the state of the MFSUs.


    There are several distinct modes:

    • Charge both MFSUs - this leaves the whole left branch passable and closes right output splitter. When right is full, switches to 'Charge left'
    • Charge left - left input is open, right output is open. This charges left MFSU and discharges right. Reactor is running.
    • Charge right - mirror image of previous
    • Starved - this state is entered when the reactor stops providing power or the whole system is totally saturated with EUs. Basically opens the whole circuit until power flow is detected
    • Discharge left - only left output is open. Reactor is stopped.
    • Discharge right - mirror of previous


    Depending on the state of the EU detectors, the current mode is changed every 5 seconds.


    Code for the controller is here: http://dethware.org/pics/reactor/startup


    It probably still has some bugs because I only ran it with a system that can't use all the generated power. So, in the 'Starved' state, it can do weird stuff. A reasonably sized load has to be attached to the output at all times, or the detectors will start to flash and confuse the programming. I use a mass fabricator behind a batbox for that. 32 EU/t is fairly minimal compared to the reactor output while keeping the detectors stable... and it makes me some UU matter when I don't run anything demanding :) Power for the compressors is taken out of the controller output, although it should probably use something more stable like a solar flower combined with a MFE. Loss of cooling = house gone ... and the village next to the house. And all the villagers :P Some improvements to the wiring of the wireless receiver could be done - instead of shutting down on a ON signal, using OFF signal would be safer.


    So. There. An automated reactor manager :)