more consistant power for quarry

[T0phellcat]

I am looking to find a more consistent power supply for my quarry.  I currently have 4 combustion engines powering it but I notice that the power coming out of the 4 engines is not consistent.  any more consistent

ways to power my quarry?

 

I was looking to maybe connect a reactor in some fashion to my quarry if I can figure it out.  Still a newbie to tekkit.

[plowmanplow]

Combustion engines put out differing amounts of power based on type of fuel. Even on "Fuel" (as opposed to oil or lava) they only put out 6 MJ/t. With four of those that would be 24 MJ/t. Quarries max out at just over 48 MJ/t. When running on other power sources, they put out much less power which exacerbates the issue.

[kla_sch]

You shouldn't use combustion engines. Use the dynamos of thermal expansion. They are much more efficient. But they produce Redstone Flux (RF), not Minecraft Jouls (MJ). So, you have to connect them with a conduit, to convert the energy (1MJ = 10 RF). I have made some power calculations on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/tekkit/comments/2qor4n/tekkit_main_question_best_way_to_transport_energy/cnakd11

 

[Curunir]

Combustion Engines are practically Stone Age equipment. Use Thermal Expansion's Dynamos and attach them via Conduits (buffer Energy Cell recommended, but the last piece connecting to the Quarry needs to be a Conduit). A Quarry has a variable power intake, but will peak at about 800 RF/t. That's 10 Dynamos of either flavour, or maybe one or two less if you have an Energy Cell buffering the power. Peak draw is not reached very often.

 

Of course, a reactor is way more efficient. I included the recipe for a simple one in my >starter guide (point 17). My design gets you 960 RF/t at the recommended setting, so you will have enough for that Quarry and still some to spare. Either way, you need Redstone Energy Conduits to carry all the power. Leadstone only carries 80 RF/t and Hardened ones max out at 400 RF/t.

Edited January 15, 2015 by Curunir

[T0phellcat]

I think Im going to do a reactor. now my friend had a Passively cooled big reactors reactor. the physical dimensions were 3x3x3. I can't find anywhere how to build it.

[EvilOwl]

3x3x3? Simplest one but not very efficient and the power output will be low but it will do the trick.

 

http://wiki.technicpack.net/Big_Reactors

 

The only thing I would change is to add a second reactor access port on the 2nd layer at the back of this picture and set it to output mode and place a chest besides the port.

[Curunir]

I did link you to my >starter guide, which includes the recipe for a safe 4x4x4 reactor (frame size) that outputs 960 RF/t at 70% Control Rod setting.

Edited January 15, 2015 by Curunir

[jakalth]

I would also give the suggestion of using your fuel infrastructure to implement compression dynamos.  They work the same as the combustion engines you already have, using fuel and water, but are easier to operate in that they can self regulate their power output.  Other then that, very much the same as the BC version.  Just use some redstone conduits to transfer the power to the quarry since the compression dynamos output RF and the conduits can convert that to MJ energy.

 

If you really want to go with a big reactor, and want to keep it as small as possible, I'd suggest going with a 3x4x3 reactor.  1 fuel rod and 1 coolant block inside a reactor made of casings, 1 control rod, 1 controller, 1 power port, and 2 access ports.  It's minimalistic, but the 1 coolant block slightly increases it's efficiency but more importantly, increases it's heat transfer rate(which means more power).  Works just fine with just water as the coolant, but other coolant types, like graphite, diamond, or resonant ender, work better.  In a small reactor like this though, do not use gelid cryothium, the reactor will not be able to get warm enough to produce sufficient power.

 

C = casing

F = fuel rod

X = coolant

R = controler

A = access port

P = power port

N = control rod

 

First layer:

 

CCCC

CCCC

CCCC

 

Second Layer:

 

CRPC

CFXC

CAAC

 

Third layer:

 

CCCC

CNCC

CCCC

Edited January 17, 2015 by jakalth

[T0phellcat]

ok, I got the reactor going. I have been looking up the dynamo things you were talking about. how do I use them in conjunction with the reactor and quarry.  I have the redstone energy conduit like you said. 

I should say the question I am trying to ask is exactly how to wire/connect everything to get this working

[T0phellcat]

nvm, I figured it out!

[Curunir]

The reactor is an alternative to using Dynamos. You could use a reactor with a coolant port to produce steam and pipe it into Steam Dynamos. But that is not very efficient, as it is really meant to be used in Turbines instead (another multi-block structure from the same mod). Turbines are rather late-game, because you need to produce enough Cyanite before you can make the parts (which is only produced by reactors in the first place).

[T0phellcat]

I am trying to add a coolant block like Jakalth to his reactor design but I can't find the block.  maybe Im just stupid.

[Curunir]

There is no block called "coolant". Rather, the reactor will accept various mineral blocks or liquids as coolants. The easiest and cheapest way is placing a few buckets of Destabilized Redstone or (if you can spare it) Resonant Ender at the top layer of the reactor, before you close the roof. Flowing blocks will count just as well as source blocks, so placing only the top layer is the economic way. You could of course just use a Floodgate and fill all empty space up with a coolant, if you have enough of it.

Edited January 18, 2015 by Curunir

[jakalth]

Sorry, I was just using coolant as a generic term for any of the fluids/blocks that can be used in a reactor to cool the fuel rods.  If you have the redstone, yeah, Destabilized redstone is another good fluid to use.

 

I thing too note: the smaller the reactor, the less consistant the power output.  The design I suggested outputs between 270 and 320 RF when first turned on, with a full fuel rod of yellorium.  But as it runs, it will convert some of the yellorium into cyonite and slowly drop in power output.  It drops down to about 200 RF by the time it has used up 1 ingot of yellorium.  Just set one of the access ports to output(blue) by right clicking it and selecting the blue arrowed icon on the bottom right of the interface.  This way, you can place fresh yellorium in the yellow access port, and the reactor will output cyonite into the blue access port once it has a full ingot(1000mb) in the fuel rod.  When it outputs the cyonite, it will pull in a fresh ingot of yellorium and the power output will raise back up to full power again.

 

Curunir's suggested reactor is more expensive to make, but it is far more consistant with it's power output, due to more fuel being in the fuel rods.  His suggestion is also far more powerful.  More then 8 times more powerful if my guess is right.  So upgrading to his suggested design at some point, if you can't make it right away, is a good idea.  His design would be able to run the quarry and a good ore processing setup with power to spare.

 

Nice thing about big reactors, it is easy to upgrade your reactor, when you start out small.  Just wait until you have enough resources to add more to the reactor, remove the top blocks from the reactor, scoop out the coolant with a bucket, and then modify the reactor by removing then replacing the blocks into the new, larger design.  Adding in the coolant again, if needed, as you build it, or once it is nearly finished.

Edited January 18, 2015 by jakalth

[T0phellcat]

thank you guys so much. I used Redstone Energy Conduit to go directly out of my passive reactor to my quarry. it powers it at full speed almost but just under max power input for the quarry so it doesn't blow up. it is amazing how fast the quarry

is moving...  Now I just gotta figure out how to make a monitor to display the readings of the reactor and stuff.  I am also looking into maybe making a computer system to control the fuel rods so that I can put in a command and it would set all the

fuel rod settings at the same time instead of having to go into each fuel rod control seperatly

[Curunir]

Yes, those are some applications you can look into.

Keep in mind that the current Tekkit is ancient and still has ComputerCraft 1.5. Version 1.6 had some (major?) changes, so maybe you want to wait for the new Tekkit to be released before really getting into CC stuff (assuming that IskanDar includes CC, but that should be safe to assume).

The 1.2.10 beta does have CC 1.6, so that one might be a compromise for the time being.