Circuits

Sometimes components will have good synergy with each other and behave in ways that can be useful to the player.

Capacitor/Inductor Ringing

Placing an inductor into a capacitor will cause it to flow forwards, and then backwards. Be careful in accidentally setting up one of theses, as the AC signal it produces is unhelpful if not intended. If your network suddenly starts swaying between a low voltage and a high voltage, you may have accidentally placed a capacitor and inductor on the same line! A diode can prevent ringing, though there are more clever ways to stop it as well.

Inrush Protector

Placing an inductor before a rheostat can give it a little bit of time to react to a sudden inrush. As a result, one can use a current detector, into a rheostat with an inductor between them both to prevent even a short-circuit from destroying your wires.

Full Bridge Rectifier

If diodes are placed in a certain pattern, the load can accept a negative voltage or current as a positive voltage/current by re-routing electricity. This is primary used to restore DC from an AC system.

Capacitor Overcharge

An inductor can be used to overcharge a capacitor if a diode is placed on the power's source, as long as the inductor is given enough time to build up charge. If the inductor is allowed to charge up on its own before being attached to the capacitor it will almost instantly pass its current charge into the capacitor when connected. This will almost certainly cause a component failure if this forces its voltage higher than twice its maximum.

Capacitor Transformer

While one can use an inductor and diode to overcharge a properly-rated capacitor, it's also possible to use this to step up an under-volted system to match the capacitor's rating. The voltage transformation ratio is based on the inductance, with a 100H inductor allowing for remarkably high voltages to be achieved.

Inductor Amplifying

When using an inductor, its maximum storage capacity is based on its current. As a result, placing a transformer before it will allow for one to step down the voltage for increased capacity.

Easy Turbine Startup

Starting up a turbine can be difficult, and often a task one wishes to avoid as much as possible. However, with the clever use of some capacitors, restarting a turbine can be as effortless as flipping a switch. First, place a capacitor bank rated for 3.1kV next to a switch coming off your generator. Next, fill up the capacitors with enough charge to kick-start the turbine. Finally, when you're ready, flip the switch and watch as the charge pours into your generator causing your turbines to kick into life. After the generators are running at full speed, flip the lever again. Because of the charge created by the turbines, your capacitors will already be charged ready for the next spindown! At this point, you can take out the setup used to charge the capacitors initially.

Replicator Farm

Replicators are created when a thunderbolt hits the ground and immediately search for an electrical wire to eat electricity from. If you find one, kill it and it may drop a spawn egg. Use this egg in a small hole and give it a line. As it feeds on the wire it will reproduce creating more replicators. Once the population is high enough they will begin to fight over the line, causing a few to starve to death and drop an ore dust. With automated item collection, this can be used to obtain a lot of ore dust with no effort. Just make sure that they don't all die off since only thunder-spawned replicators will drop spawn eggs on death.

Current Capper

Wires burn when they get too hot and as your new replicator farm has shown you, it's not always possible to control how much power is drawn. By using a rheostat, one can set the maximum amount of current that can pass through a set location to ensure the wires never overheat. Because ohms law states that (Amps = Voltage / Ohms) it means that as long as the Ohms are set properly with the voltage, the amps will never get too high. Actually doing so will require clever use of signals.

DC-DC Buck Converter (Step down)

The existing DC-DC converter works really well, but gives the player very little control over the transformation ratio. Why not build your own with a few parts? Have your high voltage power supply connected to a relay and then attach it to a loop with an inductor, a diode, and your load. The longer the relay is closed for, the higher the voltage. Disconnect the relay for longer periods of time to achieve a smaller transformation. Be very careful that the High Voltage line isn't allowed to overheat as its reduced current limit will make it heat faster. Also be mindful of the voltage on the other end, and ensure the wires you have are rated for the new voltage.

Here's an example of a Buck Converter

DC-DC Boost Converter (Step up)

This works exactly like the Buck Converter, only in reverse. The power supply goes directly into the inductor, with the diode going into the load, and the relay creating a short. To step up the voltage, hold the relay closed until enough power is stored in the inductor then let it go to unleash the now increase voltage into the load. It is extremely recommended to use a capacitor to filter the output, since otherwise the increase voltage won't last long enough to do anything meaningful.

Here is an example of a Boost Converter

Voltage Pump

If you want a converter which is isolated and won't send kiloamps through your power supply when you accidentally short the output, consider making one of these. By adjusting the capacitance of the first capacitor, you can limit the maximum amperage which can enter the system. This design is especially efficient due to the only losses being the minor resistive losses in the wires You can adjust the voltage transformation by building the array differently.

Here's a design which converts 50V all the way up to 1.2kV http://tinyurl.com/yc997x4m

Dish Converters

The power dish may be pretty niche but it does have an extremely easy method of voltage regulation. Since a dish is only allowed to send a certain amount of power, and that amount can be varied by adjusting the control signal, it makes it pretty trivial to use it as a converter. To convert down, simply have the high dish transmit power until the voltage reaches the correct low voltage on the other end. To have it convert up, have a low voltage dish sending into a high voltage one and restrict power usage until the voltage accumulates high enough to run whatever you need. In both situations, having a filtering capacitor makes your life a whole lot easier, but the dish itself has a little capacitance, so it's not needed outright. The only downside is that the efficiency will halve every time it rains, so it might be worth turning off in those situations.

Timerless Clock

Clocks are cool and compact when using timers, but the ticking can get annoying. What if there was a silent alternative? Well guess what, there is! By using a lowpass filter, into a Schmitt trigger (or op amp) then into a not gate and finally an amplifier, you can create a loop where the signal rises and drops causing it to output a variable-pulse width clock. If you're smart with how you build it out, it can be more compact than the timer clock, and way quieter too!