Powering Steam engines?

[Livebait]

I set up a system to automatically create some items using energy collectors/condensors series of pipes furnaces macerators blah blah blah, I ended up having a problem with overflow at certain areas so I set up obsidian pipes in those areas trying to use steam engines (steam engines suck up farther then redstone and more so i figured that would be best) I am trying to power those said steam engines with energy from energy link using gold conductive pipes... If i set a steam engine right next to energy link it blows up so i know theres power there... ive tried using wooden conductive pipes to pull the energy out but not getting anything. So the energy link has power and ive tried connecting gold conductive and wooden conduct pipes to energy link, am i forgetting something? ive also tried turning the steam engines on with red stone but still no results..BTW does gold conductive pipe carry redstone signal to the steam engines as well to save me some space? Any Ideas?

[warpspeed10]

Are you placing fuel inside the steam engines?

[Jay?]

Wait, what? I don't think you can power steam engines with BC energy... You need to put some kind of fuel in them. Lava, coal, charcoal, coal coke, those things all work, but i'm pretty sure you can't activate them with the energy they're supposed to produce.

[TinyTim917]

Yes you can power a steam engine with an energy link. You need to supply the engine with a Redstone signal and 22eu per tic per engine. Have the steam engine touching the energy link and this will only work with a wooden pipe.

[LUCer]

Why are you using an energy link to power a steam engine? Energy link already makes buildcraft energy.

[TheBard]

Yeah, you might as well just connect the Energy Link up to the Obsidian Pipe directly. Both the Energy Link and Steam Engine output BuildCraft energy.

You could also look at using an Electrical Engine if you have Forestry installed, or there's some Electrical Engines in some of the IC2 mods as well, to convert EU into BuildCraft energy if that was your reason for wanting to use an Energy Link in the first place.

[TinyTim917]

The reason for the energy link is to run your steam engine off of your ic2 power. Because when using the energy link you don't need to put fuel in the engine. And in tekkit this is the only way to have a engine use electric power.

[Livebait]

So i have to use wooden conductive pipes to run the steam engines instead of gold conductive? i think that has some terribad drop off on the eu and you can run an engine on less then 22. 22 is peak power, and wooden conductive pipes dont seem to work either just set up right beside... theres gotta be a way to transfer power

[TinyTim917]

No you can't use any conductive pipes. You can only put the engine directly beside the energy link. Take a look here http://thetekkit.wikia.com/wiki/Steam_Engine and scroll down and it show you how to hook up 4 steam engines.

[TheBard]

The reason for the energy link is to run your steam engine off of your ic2 power. Because when using the energy link you don't need to put fuel in the engine. And in tekkit this is the only way to have a engine use electric power.

But the purpose of a Steam Engine is to produce BC power.

The purpose of an Energy Link is to produce BC power from IC2 power.

I'm still not seeing the purpose of using an Energy Link to power Steam Engines which power X... instead of simply using the Energy Link to power X.

Is there something I'm missing?

Instead of having:

Solar Panel -> cables -> Energy Link -> Steam Engine -> Wooden Conductive Pipe -> Stone Conductive Pipes -> X

Just do:

Solar Panel -> cables -> Energy Link -> Wooden Conductive Pipe (can't remember if needed) -> Stone Conductive Pipes -> X

What are you powering with the Steam Engine that you don't want to just power directly with the Energy Link?

[TinyTim917]

He is trying to put a steam engine on a obsidian pipe, you cannot put an energy link right to an obsidian pipe.