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[ThatAussieGuy]

Well, I've learnt two things; 1: You cant power a water wheel with falling water.  2: i should remember to supervise properly when filling a water reservoir for my magma level.  Dwarf the Bilge Pumps!

[andyman564]

if you have an aquifer or other infinite water source i strongly suggest using it to directly fill your reactors. it takes some extra care to remember to reset the water pressure, but if you do it right your reactors should always be filled to the correct level and never overflow.

and my water reactors tend to look something like this

Code: [Select]

Z= 0

#########
#.......#
#SWWWWWS#
#sWWWWWs#
#.WWWWW.#
#########

z = -1

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

# = wall
. = Open Space
Ss = Screw Pump - little "s" is walkable tile
W = water wheel
~ = water

i find that the water reactors featured on the wiki run dry relatively quickly, where this design keeps running for much longer, and i've tested this design with up to seven wheels between the pumps and the power output is pretty much constant. 600-700 Uristwatts is usually more than enough power for my forts.

[ThatAussieGuy]

Trying building one of those now.  If i can build it correctly, it'll power a good ol' magma pump stack.  Those dirty elves are gonna regret declaring war on Knifemurders...

[ThatAussieGuy]

i find that the water reactors featured on the wiki run dry relatively quickly, where this design keeps running for much longer, and i've tested this design with up to seven wheels between the pumps and the power output is pretty much constant. 600-700 Uristwatts is usually more than enough power for my forts.

I've got it built and it's not starting.  Do i need to prime it? I had it working at a failed point where the place was flooding out, but it was only doing 100 Uristwatts of output.  It's the same design as your example, with 5 waterwheels

It's putting out 500uW and pumping MAGMA.  It LIIIIIIVES.  Oh those surface-dwellers are gonna pay....

[andyman564]

Glad to be of assistance 

and i didn't include it in my diagram, but it's wise to put a couple of hatches over the intake tiles. connect these to a lever for a convenient shut off switch. and yes you need to manually start the pumps every time you want to do a cold start, no matter what reactor design you use.

 

[ThatAussieGuy]

Just one problem - I don't know if it's supposed to, but the power fluctuates from 300 to 500uW as it cycles round.

[BloodBeard]

and yes you need to manually start the pumps every time you want to do a cold start, no matter what reactor design you use.

Not quite true. If you keep the reservoir below the pumps dry and instead keep the water held in a cistern above all the machinery, you can stratigically let the water drop through a linked hatch into the reservoir so that it kick-starts the waterwheels and turns the pumps on. It's a little more complicated, and making it repeatable would complicate it further, but for the mad dwarf scientist there is no such thing as a simple solution!

(I got this idea after this one time I was filling up the reservoir of my monstrous reactor (mentioned on the first page) and the act of filling it up turned enough waterwheels to turn the whole thing on.)

[ThatAussieGuy]

Yeah, that was pretty much why i asked.  It happened to me when i was building one of the standard design to see if i could make it work.  It kicked off on it's own just from the dwarves filling it with buckets

[andyman564]

Just one problem - I don't know if it's supposed to, but the power fluctuates from 300 to 500uW as it cycles round.

this is normal, and one of the downfalls of this design. the pathing of water is random so some wheels may not receive flow for a few steps. usually there's enough water in front of the wheels to automatically restart the reactor if it stalls.

i suggest building a reactor design featured on the wiki if you don't like the power fluctuation.