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[flameaway]

Step 1  Channel a 1x3 hole
Step 2  Build a gear assembly right next to the hole, in the middle position.
Step 3  Build a waterwheel in the hole.
Step 4  Have your dwarves fill the hole to 4/7
Step 5  Watch in amazement when the last bucket hits the hole and the waterwheel starts spinning and keeps right on spinning.

>>>

Questions:

1. Why bother to build a dwarven power reactor?
2. I thought this only worked on an aquifer, by inducing flow in the 1x3 channel with a pump -- why did I think that?

Code: [Select]

X
Xg
X
g = gear assembly
X = one tile of a water wheel

I built three of these in the same fortress (just because I couldn't believe it).  The first was in hard rock, Diorite, the second in Peat.  The third I build on a layer that had no aquifer either on that layer or below the channeled hole.  None of them are connected in any way to any aquifer on my map.  (My map does have several aquifers).  They all power pumps with no problem. 

An interesting note is that the hole must be evenly filled with 4 slices of water or more -- 4/4/4, 5/5/5, 6/6/6 -- every thing works fine.  But, 4/5/4, for example, doesn't work.

Materials list:

1 Mechanism
3 Logs
12 slices of water (at minimum)

Net Power Produced:
85

I haven't built one of these in 40.xx yet.

***Edit:  Bobnova confirmed below that this setup works in 40.03.

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***Edit:

I've noticed that these generators will sometimes stop working.  This appears to be related to channeling in the proximity of the generator.   Channeling doesn't always break the generator only sometimes.  I've been messing about trying to figure out why the generators sometimes stop.

It is also a bad idea to initially start one of these generators under load.  So, don't have them hooked up to pumps before you turn the power on.  The generator will almost certainly fail if started under load.

The good news is that the devices are recoverable.  The bad news is that you have to add another 1x3 trench and two pumps, (dwarf operated)

Code: [Select]

X<<X
X..X*
X>>X

X = a tile of trench
<< = pump pumping from the east
>> = pump pumping from the west
* = gear assembly
. = floor
Note: waterwheel is in the right trench, the one with a gear assembly.

Once a generator has failed, the only way I've discovered to recover it, is to completely drain it of water and refill it.  So, the extra trench and pumps provides the means to do just that.  If your generator stops, use the pumps to transfer the water to the holding trench and then right back again.  A dwarf even with no pump operating skill can handle the job very quickly.

To start the generator for the first time, fill the holding trench with 5/5/5 water, then pump the generator trench full.  The pump will transfer 4/4/4 of water to the generator trench, leaving 1/1/1 behind.  Thereafter the pumps simply swap a 3/3/3 load of water between the two trenches, as needed.

[escondida]

Yeah, it sounds like the thing where if water has the flowing property and there's nothing to change that (like different water levels sloshing around at random, as you noted), it keeps the flowing property forever. The same trick can actually be used to make an aquifer-powered hydro plant even more efficient by building a hatch over the drain once it's full and cutting the power to the pumps; you'll be generating potentially massive amounts of power, with only waterwheels and gears as an ongoing power draw.

[flameaway]

Pumps?

What pumps?   We don' need no stinkin' pumps.

That's why I posted this.  There are no pumps involved... well except if you want to power a few with the free power from the fake aquifer thingie this process creates.

To shut it off, I just link a lever to the gear assembly by the water wheel. 

[Bobnova]

That's a new one on me, I hadn't heard of a no-flow-needed dwarven reactor before this. Self-pumping, sure. Aquifer, absolutely. This? No.

I'll have to try it in 0.40.03.

[Melting Sky]

It's super effective!

[Bobnova]

Yup, works great in 0.40.03 too.
The moment it hits 4/7 in all three tiles it goes active.
Awesome stuff, thanks!

[flameaway]

@ Bobnova

It works? Nice!

Thank you for checking. 

[Bobnova]

Absolutely!

Usually dwarven Science is beyond my patience or my fort's abilities. I'm psyched to have been able to do some