Power Converters

This mod adds several new blocks designed to make BuildCraft and IndustrialCraft interact better.

A quarry takes 20 EU or 9 MJ to operate efficiently. The Energy Link is close to 100% efficient ( see below )



Engine Generators
The Engine Generator takes in BuildCraft power (from an attached engine or Conductive Pipe) and generates EU. It comes in LV, MV and HV variants.

Usage
Engine Generators convert BC power to EU at a 1:1 ratio, based on the energy output of Coal in a Generator vs. the energy output of Coal in a Steam Engine (for more information on how this value is calculated, see the "Balance, math and other numbers" section below). You may not see an exact energy return for a given input if the Engine Generator doesn't have enough energy in its small internal buffer to form the next output pulse, since some energy will be used to fill the buffer.

All three Engine Generators have an input cut-off higher than the output of a single Redstone Engine - therefore, if you want to use Redstone Engines with an Engine Generator, you'll need to construct a large number of them and link them using Conductive Pipes. It is much easier to use a smaller number of more powerful engines (e.g. Steam Engines or Combustion Engines) instead.

Energy Link
The Energy Link is equivalent to Forestry's Electrical Engine.



It converts electrical energy (in the form of EU) to mechanical energy. The mechanical energy produced can then be used by machines (e.g. a Quarry).

Passing energy from a filled storage (Batbox, MFE etc) directly to an Energy Link, directly to an Engine Generator and back to secondary storage returns around 99.6% of the initial energy, which implies that the Energy Link efficiency is close to 100%.

A power source must be connected to one side of the Energy Link - the source can either be placed next to the Energy Link, or it can be connected using cables. The Energy Link must then be connected to the block which requires the mechanical energy - again, it can be placed next to the block or connected using cables.

This is useful, as it means that Powered Teleport Pipes can be used to transmit mechanical energy across large distances, allowing an Energy Link to be placed next to a power source and the mechanical energy to be used at much higher efficiency than if the electricity were to go through many blocks of cabling. In order for the Energy Link to output power into Conductive Pipes, a Wooden Conductive Pipe must be connected to the Energy Link before the Conductive Pipes.

The Energy Link can also be toggled on/off via redstone signal to any free side, which with the addition of Wireless Redstone's Wireless Transmitter and Wireless Receiver can allow for remote operation so long as both chunks are loaded.

Energy Links will continue to draw power as long as its on, regardless of if it is actually connected to something, or if that something is "off" (i.e. not working).

To use with a Quarry follow this setup:

MFSU (1 dot) > Energy Link > Wooden conductive pipe > Power Teleport Pipe

At quarry end:

Quarry > Wooden Conductive pipe > Power Teleport Pipe (set to recieve)

Provided the MFSU can take the constant drain of power the Quarry will run at max speed. You will need to feed a quarry approximately 20 EU/tick to keep it running full speed. An Energy Link will drain up to 72 EU/tick if it's hooked to a power network or power teleport pipes and can power up to 3-4 quarries at max (or near max) speed.

Video Tutorial
Video Tutorial for Energy Links

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Oil Fabricator
The Oil Fabricator produces Oil when powered. Although the voltage of the input power does not matter, it requires a large amount of power to operate at any meaningful speed, since a single oil bucket is worth 50,000 EU. However, if the fabricated oil is refined into fuel, the energy of the fuel will far exceed the energy used in fabricating the oil.

Lava Fabricator
The Lava Fabricator produces lava when powered, and requires an input of 52, 500 EU to produce a single bucket of lava. The rules for input voltages are the same as for the Oil Fabricator.

Geothermal Generator Mk2


The Geothermal Generator produces EU when provided with Lava Buckets, or when connected directly to a lava source - this can be achieved by placing the Geothermal Generator next to a Pump placed above lava, or by using Waterproof Pipes to transport lava from the Pump to the Generator.

Since the IC2 Geothermal Generator now accepts lava from Buildcraft pipes, there is no longer a reason to make a Mk2 Generator.

Water Strainer


The Water Strainer serves two functions: it generates EU from water and it acts as a filter for liquids that aren't water - e.g. to prevent water getting into your pipes when pumping oil from the sea, connect your oil pipeline to the Strainer and the oil will come out the opposite side, whilst the water will be consumed to produce EU. If it can't consume water fast enough, or you want to use it as a filter without producing EU, providing the Strainer with a Redstone signal will cause it to destroy any water which exceeds its storage capacity.

Refuelling Jetpacks


To refuel a Jetpack, craft one of these and right-click on a tank containing fuel with it equipped. The Jetpack must be in your inventory and unequipped prior to use.



Fuel cans can be crafted using the recipe to the right. As always, the empty bucket is returned afterwards. The reverse recipe is not provided because the BuildCraft bucket is worth far more than the IndustrialCraft can.

Balance, math and other numbers
A particularly hot topic surrounding the use of this mod is the balance between fuel input and energy output (and vice versa). To this end, users are able to modify the configuration file to change these values. The following explains each of the settings, as well as their function, their use, and how the default values are derived.

First, some primers:


 * The IndustrialCraft2 unit of energy is the EU (Energy Unit).


 * The BuildCraft unit of energy is the MJ (Minecraft Joule).


 * There are 1000 "units" of liquid per bucket.

Onto the numbers:

Scale.BCtoIC.Denominator=2 Scale.BCtoIC.Numerator=5

These numbers are used by all three variants of Engine Generator (LV, MV and HV), and determine how much EU is produced per MJ: EU = BC * Numerator/Denominator. Two integers are used instead of a decimal to avoid floating point rounding errors, which can be fairly nasty when working with small numbers.

The default ratio is obtained by comparing the outputs of a Steam Engine and a Generator when powered by a single piece of Coal - in a Steam Engine 1600MJ is produced, whilst in a Generator 4000EU is produced. 4000/1600 = 5/2.                   To add inefficiency, decrease the numerator or increase the denominator.

Scale.ICtoBC.Denominator=5 Scale.ICtoBC.Numerator=2

These numbers are the reverse of those above, and are used by the Energy Link. Note that due to a bug in BuildCraft 2.2.5, some energy will always be lost in Conductive Pipes, irrespective of the material used to make the pipes and the distance they travel.

Scale.EUGeneratedPerLavaUnit=50

This value determines the EU produced by a single lava unit in a Geothermal Generator Mk II. If you want the Geothermal Generator to be less profitable, decrease this number.

Scale.LavaCostInEU=50

Same as the above, except this applies to the cost of a single Lava Bucket when using the Lava Fabricator. If you want the Lava Fabricator to be less powerful, increase this number.

Scale.OilCostInEU=50

This is the cost to produce an Oil Bucket using the Oil Fabricator, and the most controversial setting in this mod. The default of 50 is based on the energy value of oil - a bucket is worth 20,000 MJ or 50,000 EU, but this value could potentially be unbalanced when refining the oil into Fuel. If you want the Oil Fabricator to be less effective, increase this number.

Scale.EUGeneratedPerWaterOutput=1 Scale.WaterConsumedPerTick=2

This value determines how much power you get from the Water Strainer. Because the smallest EU per water unit (1) yields 1000 EU per Water Bucket, a number of people find this value too high for their tastes. Increasing WaterConsumedPerTick divides the 1000 by that number, thereby decreasing the EU produced per Water Bucket.

Scale.JetpackFuelFilledPerFuelUnit=468

The value above states that one unit of BC fuel will fill approximately 468 of the Jetpack's 18,000 fuel units - this makes Jetpacks incredibly cheap to run on fuel. As such, the value be changed to suit your tastes - a smaller number will make fuel less effective at refilling jetpacks.

Rate.GeoMk2EUPerTick=20

This value determines the the output (EU/t) of the Geothermal Generator Mk II. Note that if you set this value to a number that is not an even multiple of 1000 * EUGeneratedPerLavaUnit, the Generator's internal buffer will not be completely drained for each Lava Bucket you provide it with.

Rate.WaterStrainerEUPerTick=2

This value determines the output (EU/t) of the Water Strainer. The same rules apply here as for the Geothermal Generator Mk II.

Enable.FuelConversionCrafting=true

If you want to disable BC -> IC fuel crafting (which is very inefficient), set this value to false, since there's no way to set the relative values of either.

Enable.EnergyLink=true Enable.(...)=true

Any values set to false will result in the item they refer to becoming uncraftable. Any of these items already produced (or spawned in using TMI or other methods) will still function correctly. In SMP, if you disable a recipe but a client doesn't, they will still see the machine in the Crafting Table's output but won't be able to take it.