Question about AME core amount

[CornCobbiler]

So sometimes during a normal match engineering may decide to build a bigger AME, like an 8 core one for example. Does the direct core amount effect what level it's power can be set to? Like if a standard 4 core can only go up to level 8 before blowing up, does that mean an 8 core can go up to twice that amount before blowing up? I've never been able to test this and I haven't found a reliable source to explain it.

[kaishiba]

It's double of what cores you have. If you have two cores you can set it to four on injection.

If it has eight cores you can set it to sixteen injection

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Edited February 13, 2023 by kaishiba

[CornCobbiler]

Thanks 

[Del]

I've never seen a station so big that it needed more than four cores! Though admittedly I haven't played as engi on the largest servers in a while.

Also, having an injection amount lower than twice the number of cores is pretty much never a good idea, as it's less efficient. So if you find you are making much more energy than you're consuming, you should reduce the number of cores along with the injection.

The formula for energy output is, if I recall correctly, injection^2 / number of cores * 20kw. So a 4 core with 8 fuel input makes 320kw, and an 8 core with 16 fuel input makes 640kw. But an 8 core with 8 input makes 160kw!

[Fey]

Or just brute force it by having trial and error with reducing/increasing injections until the power stabilizes for better fuel economy.

[deltanedas]

Or just follow ceil((power monitor consumption - any generators) / 80kw) cores

[Del]

13 hours ago, deltanedas said:

Or just follow ceil((power monitor consumption - any generators) / 80kw) cores

This!

There are two things to keep in mind though.

1) Power monitor consumption monitors not what is being used by machines on the station, but what is being drained by substations or SMESes*. If the APCs/substations/SMESes are empty, then they're going to consume EVERYTHING THEY CAN until they are full. Then power consumption can be considered more or less stable, i.e. what is actually being consumed on station. It might still fluctuate, but probably not much.

* If the monitor is hooked up to the wires between energy production and SMESes, it'll show generators as producers, and SMESes as consumers. If it's hooked to the wires between SMESes and substations, it'll show SMESes as producers, and substations as consumers. I don't remember if stations are standardized one way or another... but it doesn't make much difference...

... unless you add an extra connection, not going through cable connectors and SMESes, but straight HV connecting generators, SMESes and substations. In that case, everything will work as normal, but the numbers in the monitor won't make any sense.

2) It seems solar panels are a pretty big deal in some stations. But if I recall correctly, energy production from solars is kind of irregular. I don't know how that affects measurements. If the monitor is hooked up to AME/singu/SMESes, solars won't show up at all, but will probably cause a false impression of fluctuation in consumption.

[deltanedas]

> I don't remember if stations are standardized one way or another... but it doesn't make much difference...

I think most stations have monitors before and after the SMESes and if not (like on marathon iirc) theyre close to both lines.

> energy production from solars is kind of irregular.

Haven't checked the code, but I think its based on station blocking the panel when the sun is behind it, which is why having panels on all directions is important.