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[DDR]

I am having difficulties getting the water wheel in the upper right of the image to work. There is good flow through the water, an entire creek to be honest. The water wheel is connected to a gear assembly, and has only empty space beneath it, then the water 1 z-level down.
I am using the LL mod in DF 40d16, IIRC.

Thanks,
 --DDR

Spoiler: "-Engraving-" (click to show/hide)

[Jim Groovester]

While there should technically be no reason why your waterwheel isn't working, waterwheels can be finicky about that sort of thing and work when you think they shouldn't and not work when you think they should.

Try rebuilding the water wheel. Try pumping out some water from beneath or nearby the waterwheel. Try draining a little bit of water beneath the wheel.

Those are the only suggestions I can think of at this time.

[DDR]

I tried that.
It didn't work.
Thanks, though.

[Dakk]

Erm, AFAIK, waterwheels must be constructed directly on the water flow, not one z level above, to work. The waterwheel isn't working because its not touching the water at all.

[Desiderium]

Waterwheels work correctly if placed directly above a flowing body of water in the direction of the flow, they don't have to be submerged (I'm not even sure if they would work if they were completely submerged in water).

See: http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Water_Wheel

As for the OP's problem, I think the issue here is the submerged hallway that branches off as soon as the water flow reaches the wheel. It's breaking up the current causing eddies and turbulence, and not allowing for a constant flow of water under all three tiles at once.

EDIT: Clarification

[Loyal]

Consider putting a screw pump near the water wheel. Even if the water 'powering' the wheel is being eternally fed by an infinite water source you may need to simulate some 'flow' to get the thing working.

[Dakk]

@Desiderium
Erm, thats exactly what I said, what I see from OP's pic is that the waterwheel is one level above the surface of the water. Note there doesn't seem to be any water flowing on the waterwheel level.

Either that or my monitor is way too dark, because I don't see any water flowing close to the water wheel, at all.

[Desiderium]

Erm, thats exactly what I said, what I see from OP's pic is that the waterwheel is one level above the surface of the water. Not there doesn't seem to be any water flowing on the waterwheel level.

Your monitor is too dark, yes. If there was a gap between the waterwheel and the surface of the water, there would be no dark blue 7s next to the wheel. Instead, there would be two blue dots with darker blue backgrounds, and the water on the second picture would be a dark blue 7, not the lighter blue it is.

EDIT: After looking at the picture a few times and then my game, I must admit, the numbers are very dark, and difficult to see.

[Kanddak]

Oh man, I've struggled with this stuff for ages. I'm kind of the reigning DF water expert and waterwheels are a mystery to me. I still can't predict what kinds of power plants will and won't work. I try to stick to building the wheels directly in the river when I can because that seems to be the most reliable way to do it. I've also gotten pretty good at making them work in channels carved into aquifer. Artificial aqueducts are pretty much unpredictable.

Turn your water flow off and back on again; try doing it both upstream and downstream of the wheel. Try throwing a bucket of water into your water source from a couple z-levels up.

By the way, whether it works has almost nothing to do with whether water is flowing. Often, closing the drainage downstream of the wheel will cause the power to turn on and stay on permanently with no further water movement.

[Dakk]

Aye, the water looked pretty dark to me aswell, so I guess I just assumed it was one Z level above the surface.

It looks like you put the waterwheel in a junction in the flow though, try putting it elsewhere, see if it works. If it doesn't, then

[Quietust]

Turn off SHOW_FLOW_AMOUNTS and verify that the water in that channel is actually "flowing" (that is, alternating between ~ and ≈).

[Garrie]

Why are you using a gear there?

Personally I'm no expert but it is just "so easy" to dig a reservoir,

Code: [Select]

wwww
w.ff.w
wf..fw
wwwww=wall, .-channel, f=floor
put a screw pump on the two adjacent floor tiles ("f") and the water wheel over the f..f
If it doesn't work all by iteslf.. pump the screw pump for 5 seconds and it will!

[Sutremaine]

Why are you using a gear there?

Machinery can only be built hanging (ie.  completely over empty space) if it's connected to machinery that's sitting stably on the ground. Since waterwheels have to be built completely over empty space to work, they therefore have to be attached to a stable piece of machinery.

Personally I'm no expert but it is just "so easy" to dig a reservoir,

Expertise won't help you here! But seriously though, pumps are useful for kickstarting flow. If all else fails one can take the save back to a 40d game and use Tweak, but it's so much better to get it working yourself.

[o_O[WTFace]]

It looks like the water wheel is sitting in a little pool thats connected to water thats flowing.  The flowing/not flowing code is very strange, but I think it probly exists to prevent you from doing that, more or less.  Try connecting the other side of the waterwheel pool to the water flow.

[Deon]

For me it looks like the branch of the artificial river breaks the waterflow creating a turbulence. I

Also, are you sure there's a flow at all? Before rebuilding the thing, try to pump some water with a pump?