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[Ruttiger]

I'm whipping up a bitchin Magma pump array that I hope will pump magma out at a tremendous rate (it's four pumps hooked up to tunnels that connect after a short distance.  I didn't think out the power setup though, and since I want the ability to shut down the pumps rather than just seal the tunnel with a floodgate. The problem is, I'm thinking about the power setup and I'm seeing that the array is going to contain hanging gears and axles to make the whole situation work.  I don't want it to collapse the second I hit the switch.  

I've got shafts tunneled down but they are only separated by one space.  No room to place the windmills directly over them.  I also don't know how splash back is going to affect things.  I plan on pretty thoroughly sealing the pumps in and hope to avoid placing mechanisms next to them.  The only thing I can think of that would help is to have a line with the mechanisms over shafts, and have an entire array of windmills off to the sides, with mechanisms that can be shut off  there.  It would be inefficient.

I also need to know how to seal the Pumps.  Should I build walls on the sides of the pump?  Maybe behind it too, to prevent splashback.

[Run Comrades]

Yeah, if you put the front of the pump between two walls, it is impermeable.
xxxxx
_%%---->liquid flow--->
xxxxx

x =wall
%% = pump
_ = channel

[corc]

to be safe this is all you really need for a pump:

code:

..##
_@>~
..##

where @> is the pump, pumping left to right, ~ is the lava, _ is the channel, and # is a wall.  The ">" part of the pump acts as a wall and won't leak backwards. The  "." can be floors or anything else you want, because it will be safe from the lava.

[Andir]

Yeah, the Wiki page has an isometric view of the pump that's pretty spot on.  Think of the pump as having a wall section to keep the water/lava from coming back.  As long as the outlet of the pump has walls beside it, nothing will "splashback".

[Loki]

Perhaps channel some water onto the same level and build a perpetual motion device instead of the windmills? It'd be more efficient, at least.

What I like to do for power:

code:

Level 1:
.......     
.WWWWW.     
.W-g-W.     
.W.|.W.     W- Water Wheel. There's 5 close together, all over open space, so 
.W.|.W.        you have to build the axles first
.W-g-W.     g- Gear assembly
.W_@>W.     .- floor
...g...     - and | - axles
...|...     _- channel
...|...     @>- pump pumping to the east
Level 2:

XXXXXXX     X-Wall
X77777X     7-Water
X7XXX7X     
X7XXX7X     
X7XXX7X     
X7XXX7X     
X77777X     
XXXXXXX     
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX

This generates 500 power, minus a trivial amount for the gear assemblies and pump. As long as you're trying to power something across the map, this will work.

...if you ARE trying to power something across the map, this still might work.

[ June 13, 2008: Message edited by: Loki ]

[Ruttiger]

I already did the windmills.  It's a mess but it works.  Now I'm just waiting for the lava reservoir to fill so it'll start pumping.  Why did I make the thing so deep, while the pumps can only skim off the top level.

[ShadowDragon8685]

quote:Originally posted by Ruttiger:
<STRONG>I already did the windmills.  It's a mess but it works.  Now I'm just waiting for the lava reservoir to fill so it'll start pumping.  Why did I make the thing so deep, while the pumps can only skim off the top level.</STRONG>

Good question. Though you might consider putting the pumps at the bottom of a sloped shaft to channel the magma down into them. This way you'll have a true resivoir effect going, and can pump for awhile even if the flow gets cut off.

[Ruttiger]

I'm curious as to whether the design will work at all.  I'm concerned that once the lava has filled a few squares of the closed system it'll consider it blocked and stop pumping the magma.  I'm also worried that I might not be able to supply the pumps with a sufficient supply.  If it's a supply problem, I'll be able to flood the access area I built, since the pumps area all magma safe materials, and that should allow me two z levels worth of lava to work with, rather than one.  That's assuming as well that the pumps will operate at all when completely submerged with lava.

The reservoir is three quarters full.  Nearly there.

[ June 13, 2008: Message edited by: Ruttiger ]

[Osmosis Jones]

Simultaneous evolution... read my sig  :p

[Ruttiger]

I got a partial success from this.  The Resevoir is far too small for what I'm doing, so later I'm both going to test flooding the z-level the with more lava, and I'm also going to consider just expanding the reservoir.  

The Lava filled up the first part of the corridor pretty quick.  It ran out of lava on the top z-level before the lava filled the delivery tube, which I think I left a tad long.  

This is giving me grand ideas.  If the magma pipe doesn't take long to refill, I'm thinking of whipping up maybe 15 or 20 of these in an array, and have maybe two or three output spots (if I'm right, the amount of lava your getting from your array will simply be divided by the number of outputs it has in it).

If there's something I'm still overlooking here, and the system won't work for any reason, it'll still be capable of filling a sealed tube with lava, which you can then dump on enemies that show up and let the pumps refill it.