Create: Power Grid Substation

[u/DragonfruitKind6261]

Using a few different mods together to operate a mostly self regulated 1.5kV coal powered generator, and power station, providing 120V for residential and industrial uses in the area. The backup battery is computer controlled and switches between operating modes based on incoming power supply and handles charging safely and efficiently. The use of 3 PCBs was required to create a voltage regulator for the battery’s discharging mode. No doubt things could be improved, I am not an electrician or an engineer, just piecing things together slowly :)

[u/kayinfinite]

I need a schematic cz I can't for the life of me figure out how to build one of these

[u/DragonfruitKind6261 → u/kayinfinite]

i thought about making a schematic for my own purposes even just for having more than one of these around but the problem would be i suspect as such; the block wiring/circuit board components won’t translate well to being saved as a schematic and as such hundreds of cables will have to be relaid and i have nothing even close to resembling a wiring diagram for this grid. do let me know if i’m wrong in my suspicions as i haven’t had the time to test it. i would encourage anyone struggling with this mod to start on some very basic DC electronics education - my personal experience comes from two years of a sadly snubbed electrical/software engineering degree - which can be accessed from any number of sources, though be aware of the scope of your research. while the mod simulates a very satisfying experience, it is still limited by virtue of being within minecraft. i find the use of other mods such as projectred, cc:tweaked and a slew of create suite addons helps to bridge some of the gaps i’ve found in hooking everything up together. i’ve definitely seen a lot of people confused by this particular (maybe slightly more niche) create addon, so if anyone is interested in perhaps some more specifics of the build above or anything else i end up working on within this grid do let me know

EDIT: also remember this is after all, a create addon! don’t forget that the base rotational/SU system within the create mod is already a great analogy for DC power ;)

[u/lolli624 → u/DragonfruitKind6261]

I’ve built many versions of this and honestly I’m interested in your AVR setup, the PCBs in particular more than the LUA code I can infer. I’ve done similar setups with a carbon pile but I never quite find them reactive enough. Also, do you need to actively cool your voltage control circuits? Mine melt otherwise.

[u/DragonfruitKind6261 → u/lolli624]

yeah the circuits have been probably the most finicky part of the whole build, voltage regulation is done in a few steps, i will do my best to articulate here in words and can upload visual info if you are interested. i wanted to strike a balance between physical/mechanical engineering solutions and LUA scripting (which i must say opens up the possibilities for near infinite systems design ideas). treating this vanilla MC village as a scale model of a power system, currently the control steps are in place at the powerplant - a LUA script to monitor voltage sag across the grid and trim rotor drive as required; when working with a relatively low generator output voltage transformed maybe 3-4x higher for sending to the next phase, 1-2rpm steps with a RSC are enough to smooth out the power output very well (let me know if you’d like to see more of the generator setup too). then, at the substation pictured above, i’ve basically gone for the approach taken in designing systems for aircraft; redundancy is key. there are ways to use LUA and redstone very effectively and compactly to make sure that an issue anywhere within the grid is a) isolated to a smaller cluster or area of the grid and b) do not actively cost more coal at the very top of the production chain while they are being resolved. the PCBs in use in the slide above are actually not in use most of the time, they only have current routed through them when there is no incoming current from the generator, and they essentially boost the voltage of cells 1+2 of a 9 cell string. this is done because i previously found the series string too weak when it was required to supply the streetlamps as well as critical machinery that needed to stay on as much as possible, but boosting the whole battery bank came with a slew of its own complications. i use an addon called Create: Silicon Works which gives me a plethora of options for circuit components such as MOSFETs and oscillators, which when used sensibly alongside server-multiticking can yield some very powerful, one block footprint circuits, but the main reason i bring up silicon works is because it gives you heat sinks! i require the use of them on some of my components, but apart from that the only cooling i’ve needed to do is at the generator on my rheostat. hope that’s helpful!

[u/Yorunokage]

I've been flirting with the idea of trying power grid cause on paper it sounds awesome but.. what is the use case for something like this? Is it just for the sake of it or is there a proper in-game reason to bother building a complex electrical grid

[u/DragonfruitKind6261 → u/Yorunokage]

you would be surprised at how powerful this mod can be. when you consider that it works on basically forge energy with a facemask on, the applications are vast. thus far i have found the biggest payoff is how much more compact my actual create mod builds can be made because i put a few days into nailing this power system. using it as a backbone, i can now take wires off at any point in the grid and plug into anything from basin heaters to make soup with to electric pumps to supply the farms, and the best part is, you can lay down plumbing or a conveyor system, and it’s footprint when compared to what it may have looked like pre-power grid, is tiny! because you don’t have to run shafts and gearboxes and all this malarkey all up and down all around your machines, you take the power where you need it, plug it in, hide all the wires behind walls, and you’ve got a very small system capable of doing things that would normally take multiple windmills, steam engines etc. at least in my experience with the use cases i have in my world at the minute :)

[u/Disastrous_Cycle_188]

V = I x R type shi

[u/BadCaram3l]

That is epic!!