Source
r/Oxygennotincluded•
thipp

Does anyone know why my NG gen is only working half time?

https://i.imgur.com/IEtdAbZ.jpg

I had the left generator running on its own for 50+ cycles with no issue. Then my power demands increased and the geyser was reaching max pressure, so I turned the second generator on. A few cycles later I noticed the left generator was only running half the time; every other second. Does anyone know why?

It's not hooked up to any automation, so it should be running constantly while there's gas. In fact the generator itself has a full gas tank, so the flow of gas in isn't the issue. None of my batteries are full and none of my circuits overloaded. The CO2 vent isn't over pressure.

I've used almost this exact same setup several colonies before this one and never seen such an issue. Currently I'm fine on power. I'm running a surplus on coal, but the geyser's over pressured and that just feels wasteful.

Posted Jul 19, 2018, 10:00 PM UTC

418
micahsw•

Odd, without seeing all views I can't say for sure. I would just delete and readd all the piping for c02 between the 2nd and 3rd generator and the one pipe that feeds the 3rd one. It wouldn't be the first time that a pipe glitched.

Edit: I realized the problem. You can't just dump the c02 from those in a straight line. Make a little u shape with each of the outputs leading into the central line across, that should fix the problem.

4
Exeunter•

I'm having trouble envisioning what you're describing about the u shapes.

1
micahsw•

So he has a length across which all the generators are attached to, and each generator has a single pipe upwards that is connected to that main pipe. Instead, for each generator drop the pipe down 2 squares, over 1, and back up three (I guess it looks more like a J). This shape fits perfectly within the body of the nat gas generator itself so you don't need to leave extra space.

Edit: this video has a description around 16 minutes 11 seconds https://youtu.be/-4G9csYiNLE which shows the shape and the problems.

1
Ubergringo420•

I think he means to have extra space between the forks in the pipes and the input/output. I find it works better that way. Also,remember when you have multiple forks it divides the load evenly, if you split the path too much it could have trouble keeping everything supplied.

1
Konstantin_J•

That's right I think, if you only have one length of airtube connecting your generator while it is thinking if it can unload on the general the generator think is full and stops, as I remember having a length of at least two connecting to the general tube would do the trick. Anyway I recommend using bridges or valves when joining or splitting tubes (for liquid or gas) it makes everything go much smooth.

1
thippOP•

Welp, that was indeed the solution.

Kinda odd that I've used this same setup several times and never had that issue, but then again this isn't the first time I've seen some weird problems with the plumbing (and it certainly won't be the last).

Thanks!

1
micahsw•

Glad it worked!

2
Harpr18•

Can you post the power overlay picture

2
Morgalion217•

Is there a section of pipe that's not connected? If there is nothing being pumped through there is nothing to push the gas into the generators.

1
thippOP•

Nope, pipes are fully connected. The gas flow isn't the issue, as the generator constantly has a full tank of gas.

1
infinityATX•

Did you try saving and reloading your game? There are still bugs and this helps sometimes. =)

1
Morgalion217•

Max pressure could be an issue. They could be overheating/freezing if you're pulling in hot/cold gas

Or if you're pulling from one geyser of NG it is also possible that you observe if half of the time when the geyser is dormant and half not.

Though my guess is that it's a temperature thing. Check the properties of the machines and if the temp coming in is outside nominal range you may have to change to using a different material for building them (gold I think has a high tolerance)

1
Fribbtastic•

There was a glitch where the same Gas did not merge in a previous upgrade which could be happening here. Did you try to reload the game and if you did try to put each on their own output pipe of the CO2.

1
AstorWinston•

Dont rely on natural gas geyser. I'm going to post a build tomorrow about using magma and huge oil reserve to run 10+ natural gas generator providing unlimited power and water from the setup.

The idea is simple: oil turns to petroleum > gas as you heat it up at 1:1 ratio. Dig a hole down to the lowest portion of your map to find magma and oil, which are plenty. Make a pump to pump oil and start dripping it onto another insulated tunnel withh contact with magma. Each pump drip 10kg oil per sec which turns immediately to 10kg natural gas per sec. 1 natural gas generator only uses 90g gas per sec so that's enough for 100 gas generator, if you want to build that many.

The limitation is actually pumping the gas out to generators. 1 gas pump max at 500g/sec. The temp there is more than 160 degree, which can easily overheat gold pump. You can either build the gas tunnel to the closest ice biome, or use a system of oil radiator around the pump to remove heat to a pond of polluted water using aquatuners. You make so much energy with this you can easily afford 4-5 aquatuners to cooldown the gas pumps. Hot polluted water (higher than 40 degree) can be treated through water sieve to destroy heat.

1
TheDisillusionist•

Wild guess, there is a max amount of gas that can move through a pipe. Is it possible not enough is making it to the end of the loop?

0
thippOP•

IIRC one pipe can feed 10 NG generators. Or, at least, way more than 2. The pipes are barely flowing and my pump only turns on once every five seconds or so.

1
TheDisillusionist•

I've never had it happen to gas but I know there used to be weird issues with T intersections and moving fluids, and it would look a lot like this.

If I were testing it I would do a save and go to sandbox, build this with seperate pipes feeding each one and see if that solves it. If so then its just that weird bug again.

1
CommonMisspellingBot•

Hey, TheDisillusionist, just a quick heads-up:
seperate is actually spelled separate. You can remember it by -par- in the middle.
Have a nice day!

^^^^The ^^^^parent ^^^^commenter ^^^^can ^^^^reply ^^^^with ^^^^'delete' ^^^^to ^^^^delete ^^^^this ^^^^comment.

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