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[indyofcomo]

I was planning on using a pressure plate to control when reservoirs (for wells) got too low and open the floodgate controlling that particular reservoir. But after reading the wiki page on pressure plates, that doesn't sound like it will be possible. Well, not without getting into logic machines, which I'm just not interested in. Is there another way, or will I just need to manually manage them?

[ancistrus]

sounds possible to me, why not?

[Urist Mcfortwrecker]

Usually I just hook it up to a running water source like a river or aquifer and don't have to muck about with floodgates much. however if you wanted to hook it up to automate you might be able to do something with a pressure plate that closes the floodgate then when it stops being triggered by the lack of water, it would open it and let a little more in, though I'm not sure that would work, manual refills aren't all that time consuming anyway, and a lever in the dining hall would work just fine

[greycat]

I prefer a passive, continuous fill design.  Just channel from the river, let the water fall down some stairs, flow through a diagonal to remove pressure, then into a cistern.  When the cistern is full, water will stop flowing into it, and since there's no pressure (thanks to the diagonal tunnel opening), it won't squirt up through the wells.

You can add a lever-linked bridge inside the channel if you want an emergency shut-off valve.  This would also prevent swimming creatures from invading your fort through the wells, at the cost of having to manually open the bridge once every few years if the cistern ever starts to get low.

[jcochran]

As regards pressure, the diagonal method works well. But an additional point is you can get the advantage of a pressurized flow without worrying about water flooding your fortress. Namely, water will only flow downwards, or horizontally IF directly connected. So if you have your pressure reducer at level Z and then have the water connected at level Z-1 where there's a tunnel leading away. If you have an opening at level Z (for a well), the water won't climb back up to level Z, it will remain at level Z-1. The advantage of this is the horizontal flow at level Z is as fast as any pressurized flow and not the extremely slow motion you get for normal fluid flow.

To illustrate.

Horizontal diagram. Infinite water supply from the left.

~~~~~~~~################ ##
~~~~~~~~################~##
~~~~~~~~################~##
~~~~~~~~################~##
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~##
###########################

The water at the well at the right will never climb to the original level of the water on the left. It will however climb to 1 Z level lower.

Level Z.  High pressure water coming in from left. (Each stairwell has a diagonal connection to pressurized water. The water then falls downward 1 Z level.
###############
#######>#>#####
########~#>####
~~~~~~~~~~#####
########~#>####
#######>#>#####
###############

Level Z-1.   High flow water leading off to the right that will never climb above level Z-1.
###############
#######<~<#####
#######~~~<####
#######~~~~~~~~
#######~~~<####
#######<~<#####
###############


For a faster flow rate (no real limit), you can make the structure at level Z more "spiky" and have appropriate connections at level Z-1. The 3 spikes shown give an estimated 10/7 water per tick flow rate. Each additional spike should give about 3.5/7 additional flow provided the source is fast enough to keep each spike filled at 7/7.

Doing this allows me to have rather long horizontal channels filled with water in a timely fashion. Whereas if I had the pressure reducer at level Z-1, it would take years for the water for flow from one end of the channel to another assuming it didn't evaporate first.

[Quietust]

The problem with pressure plates and floodgates is that sloshing water can cause the pressure plate to get out of synch with the floodgate - if that happens to leave the floodgate Open despite the pressure plate being covered with 7/7 water, it could end up flooding your entire fortress.

Horizontal diagram. Infinite water supply from the left.

~~~~~~~~################ ##
~~~~~~~~################~##
~~~~~~~~################~##
~~~~~~~~################~##
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~##
###########################

The water at the well at the right will never climb to the original level of the water on the left. It will however climb to 1 Z level lower.

...unless the body of water happens to be a river which you've dammed downstream, in which case it will climb up that last Z-level.

[ELF-rhymer]

[snip]... and a lever in the dining hall would work just fine

And can be a lot of FUN, if somebody will pull it while mad. Go with it, seriously, but make sure that floodgate is a couple Z levels above the whole fortress. You know, for FUN... 

[I am Leo]

You can easily make a river or similar fill an undergorund cistern constantly. Dig a hole in this cistern and cap it with a pump attached to a waterwheel powered by the water beneath it.
Above the pump build your reservoir, with a few more layers of pumps if you want it to be deep. You'll never need to turn the pump off, it will only pump as high as it's own level and never go higher. Any time there is space for it to pump it will pump.

Side View

Ground Level->              __                       ______
Resevoir->                       {       Pump       }
                                     {____Pump_____}__________
Cistern->                         {              Waterwheel           -> to river

[indyofcomo]

these are all good helps, thanks. I think I'll go with a basic floodgate-controlled reservoir for now, see if I can build it the right way so that the water pressure doesn't push water up out of the well. And later I may just go off from the river is some disconnected area and try out the other approaches.

[joeclark77]

These ideas all seem over-complicated to me.  I just build an overflow drain at the top level of my cistern/reservoir.  That's a horizontal hallway dug to the edge of the map, smoothed, and carved as a fortification.  Just like your bathroom sink.  Water continually flows in from your river or aqueduct, fills the reservoir, and never rises higher than the level with the overflow drain.  In my current fort (fed by aquifer) it seems to have filled that level with all 7s, so it shouldn't even be impacting FPS.

The only floodgates you need are (1) to cut off the flow from the source and (2) for the other drain which is at the bottom of your cistern.  And you never even need to use those unless you want to empty the cistern for cleaning or modification.

[Sutremaine]

You might be able to use one pressure plate if it's set to trigger when there's any water at all on it. It'll be a little slower to respond to drops in water level because you'll have to wait for that bit of 1/7 water to evaporate, but with two levels of water beneath the level with the plate you should be fine.

[Urist McWangchuck]

Can't you just hook the pressure plate up to a drawbridge instead of a floodgate?  Set for 5/7, it should shut the water off before the reservoir is full, and then open flow again 99 ticks after it drops below trigger.  Unless you were burning a lot of water fast, sloshing shouldn't have much impact either. A few extra open signals only means that you might not start filling again until 3/7 instead of 4/7.

Or am I misunderstanding the question?

[kingubu]

Doors and hatches don't have any delay so they can't get out if sync.

[Codyo]

If you had a river or something nearby, you could just carve a fortification in the path of water going down into your reservoir. So water can flow through and creatures can't get past it.

[jcochran]

If you had a river or something nearby, you could just carve a fortification in the path of water going down into your reservoir. So water can flow through and creatures can't get past it.

I wish.
Unfortunately, when the water gets to 7/7 on the fortification, creatures can go right through the fortification.