Behold, the next logical step in Mining Laser advancement: The IC-L-2000 Laser Accumulator. By combining the output of multiple mining lasers into a single point in a Lapotron crystal matrix, the resulting focused coherent light beam can bore tunnels through solid rock, deter intruders, and even transmit power over vast distances!
Allow me to introduce to you the IC-L-2000 family of components:
The IC-L-2000 (Laser Accumulator)
The heart of the system is the IC-L-2000 machine itself. The block is placed like any machine, and the laser’s exit aperture can be re-directed to any face using a common wrench.
It is created with three mining lasers and a Lapotron crystal around a machine block, with two advanced circuits in the corners between the lasers.
Upon supplying a sufficient amount of power, a targeting beam is emitted from the aperture. (This beam is similar to the beam from the survey beacons found in BuildCraft, in that while it is visible, it is completely harmless.) The targeting beam can be used for prism placement, or to mark out straight survey lines across the world.
However, upon supplying redstone power to the IC-L-2000, the laser is switched into duty-mode: the current draw increases almost tenfold and the beam becomes coherent. This is when the magic happens.
(A word of caution: touching the coherent beam is not advised, as it will result in deep tissue burns, optical nerve damage, and instantaneous loss of life.)
The IC-L-RP (Refracting Prism):
The beam coming out of the aperture travels in a straight line out from the face of the machine. The IC-L-2000 weighs just shy of a metric ton, making repeatedly moving it difficult at best. One of our design engineers suggested the use of wheels or casters, but he was promptly fired. The machine remains stationary, but the beam can be redirected through the use of prisms!
Prisms are created with four glass and four tin around a machine block.
Laser Refracting Prisms are blocks placed into the path (or anticipated path) of the beam, and the beam is the re-directed through the exit aperture: the face selected by a wrench after placement. A beam can enter a prism from any side, but will only exit the prism through the exit aperture.
Upon supplying redstone current to a prism in the path of a targeting beam, some of the beam is reflected back into the IC-L-2000, causing it to be switched into duty-mode: the beam then becomes coherent as long as redstone current is applied. Removing the redstone current brings the laser out of duty-mode.
The beam completely loses coherency somewhere between 150 to 200 meters from any exit aperture (either from the laser or from prisms), so it must be re-focused through a prism over vast distances. The boys in the lab have made this an intentional feature and not a limitation; an unattended beam can cause extensive collateral damage, and would eventually make it out to the Farlands, thus violating various established treaties.
The prism also serves one additional function: Firing a portable mining laser at any face of a prism will cause your beam to exit the prism's aperture in a straight line, thus guaranteeing your fired shot to be perfectly straight every time.
The IC-L-REG (Laser Receptor Electrical Generator)
An unobstructed coherent light beam carries with it a lot of power. The receptor can be placed into the path of a coherent beam, and as long as the beam hits the face of the receptor, it converts the coherent beam’s photonic energy into usable electrical current.
Receptors are created with three glass blocks and solar panels in parallel, two advanced circuits, and a machine block. Like the prisms, applying redstone current to a receptor in the path of a targeting beam will cause the IC-L-2000 to go into duty-mode.
Due to moisture and particulate matter in the air, the amount of current put into the Laser will not match the current received at the Receptor, even under ideal conditions. Even though the losses experienced over distances are much better than those you would get using glass fiber cable, there is a 10% reduction in received power for every prism the beam passes through, and there is also an overall 50% reduction in received power if the beam passes through rain or snow.
Suggested uses for your IC-L-2000 family of components:
Tunnel Boring:
Upon hitting a solid block, a coherent beam destroys the block and vaporizes the surrounding eight blocks in a plane perpendicular to the beam (a 3x3 panel, much like the Destruction Catalyst in EquivalentExchange) at the staggering rate of once per second.
The beam has no effects on liquids, as water and lava harmlessly disperse the beam. Obsidian, reinforced stone, and bedrock are currently the only materials that can withstand sustained laser exposure indefinitely. However, the beam is still hot enough that any sand bordering the 3x3 panel is fused into glass, and gravel is roughly fused into cobblestone, preventing unsightly cave-ins. Due to safety regulations, we are still deciding whether this feature will be included in the standard model, or the advanced model.
It should be noted that it is not advisable to use the tunnel-boring laser for resource gathering purposes, as only about 10-25% of the vaporized material can be reclaimed.
Laser Fencing:
If a harmless targeting beam is focused back into a prism already supplied by a beam, it creates a closed-loop, causing the beams power in the loop to instantly increase somewhat. The beam in the closed loop is not coherent, but can damage any living tissue it comes in contact with, much like uninsulated HV cable. Doesn’t your family deserve the peace of mind that only a laser fence can provide?
(Caution: it is not advised to feed a coherent beam into a closed-loop, as prism vaporization or harmful laser-leakage out of prism faces will occur)
Wireless Power Transmission:
Using the laser in combination with a receptor, you can ‘beam out’ power to forward bases and outposts; to charge equipment, run machines temporarily, or to provide an instant emergency boost to a facilities power infrastructure… whatever you need power for most, when you need it.
Future Advancements:
The boys in the lab are currently working on fitting the components into advanced machine blocks instead of regular machine blocks. They say that if we keep supplying them with top men to replace the ones that are killed during testing, then they will make even greater strides.
I’ve been told that an advanced laser can bore tunnels twice as fast and provide four times as much damage in a fencing configuration. They’re also working on a way to transport some of the vaporized material back to the accumulator, but that tech won’t be available for quite some time.
I’ve heard that optics in a Prism made with diamonds instead of glass are so clear as to provide no loss of beam strength through the exit aperture, and in most cases can even provide a very slight increase. A portable mining laser fired into an advanced prism can expect to have its effective range and power increased by almost 50%.
They say that an advanced Receptor, made by cramming two standard receptors into an advanced machine block along with a Lapotron lens, can collect almost all of the power transmitted, and have losses caused by inclement weather reduced almost completely.
Whether they can make good on these promises has yet to be seen.
We also have specialists working on a beam-splitter: a specialized prism that would reduce a coherent beam into multiple targeting beams, with an exit aperture on each face that can be opened or closed with a wrench. Targeting beams can be further split with no measurable loss, creating multiple arrays of laser fencing. If you can imagine fenceposts made of stacked prisms, creating a multiple-beam-high fence, then that is certainly a formidable thought, indeed.
