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====== Guide to Mechanics ======
Getting Equipped
A good mechanic is nothing without being fully-equipped, so be sure to have at least

A full toolbelt, or a toolbox if you're a schmuck
Insulated Gloves
A device analyzer - the one in your PDA works fine
Some welding protection
A gadget bag for picking up and putting down parts
You can get extras of most of these from various parts of the station, but you should start with a toolbelt and something to weld with. Device Analyzers can be a bit rarer but there are several in the workshop and can be manufactured with sufficient research and materials. Your PDA has an application that turns it into a device analyzer so the value of taking a device analyzer is based on how you intend to use it.

Knowing Your Workplace
Machines
It can feel a bit difficult to keep track of everything in your work, but be sure you know exactly what each of the machines does.

Reverse Engine - takes the things you scan and lets you print them out as blueprints. Requires a console connection to make blueprints, but can research on its own just fine.
Blueprint Printer - makes paper and nanopaper blueprints. Load it with a paper pack or just with individual sheets. Like the protolathe, it has no UI of its own, so you have to use it from the Reverse Engine.
General Fabricator - takes an item blueprint and lets you build whatever was on it either a limited or unlimited number of times depending on type of paper the blueprints were printed on.
Flatpack Fabricator - works the same as the general fabricator, but only takes machine designs and spits out flatpacks. Flatpacks are like crates, except you open them with a crowbar to get instructions to assemble the machine inside.
Protolathe - lets you make machine components, among other things. You won't use this much unless you remind miners you exist and need their ores too.
Circuit Imprinter - lets you print out circuits for machines. Very useful, if you can keep it stocked with acid.

Plastic
Plastic is one of the mechanic's best friend. You have many ways to acquire more than the handful you get at roundstart:

Purchase 50 sheets of Plastic from Cargo.
Disassemble the plastic flaps across the station for easy 10 sheets each.
Scan your plastic with a Material Synthesizer and turn compressed matter into plastic.
Ask the botanist to make Plastic for you. If they're at all competent, they'll splice you high yield quick plastellium that harvests into plastic sheets.
Creating Designs
Scanning
There's no real comprehensive list of what the device analyzer can and cannot scan. Keep trying out everything and see what works. You should be able to recreate most of the machines and computers on the station with a little effort, but items are a whole lot more convoluted. Once you've got some designs scanned, you can use your device analyzer or PDA on the Reverse Engine in your workshop to load the scanned designs onto it, where the Reverse Engine can then research them. If you're not using your PDA, you also have the option of loading single chosen designs onto the machine, by clicking your analyzer and toggling modes.

Research and Printing
Once you've got something scanned, load it onto the Reverse Engine to begin researching. You need to start the queue or a specific design, and you can then wait for it to move from the queue to the list of researched designs. How long a design takes is based on its origin tech levels, and the Reverse Engine's components. Once you've got it researched, you can print paper or nanopaper blueprints of the design using a nearby Blueprint Printer. Paper blueprints have limited uses based on the quality of the printer's components. Nanopaper blueprints are a little costlier, but let you make a design an infinite number of times. Loading two paper blueprints of the same design will add their uses together on the machine, while adding a nanopaper blueprint of a limited-use design will make it unlimited-use. Both are destroyed when loaded into a machine, so know which one you want to use and where you want it to go before you start printing away. If you need to refill the printer, use the paperpacks or paper bins in the workshop.

Making the Product
Research blueprints aren't much use on their own, so load one into the appropriate nearby machine to start making something out of it. Machine blueprints go in the Flatpack Fabricator, and item blueprints go in the General Fabricator. Once you've loaded the design into the machine, it'll let you queue or build the design a number of times based on the type of blueprint used. There's not much to this, other than loading your materials into the fabricators and watching them go.

Putting the A in Mechanic
As a mechanic your responsibilities are limited to your own initiative, the Chief Engineer and Research Director don't even acknowledge your existence don't ask much of you, and the crew's impression is that you're merely a walking toolbox. However, there are a few guidelines with regards to doing your job effectively.

Scan yourself a chem dispenser and ChemMaster 3000, so you can produce all the acid you need for the circuit imprinter, in addition to any medications for emergency purposes. Medbay and Chemistry are prey to Xenomorph infestations, Traitor bombs, and revolutionary brainwashing, you don't necessarily need to make pills for every leper running to your door, but if there are doctors and their station is overrun they can use the Mechanic's Workshop. In addition, one of the more frequent requests by the crew are personal chem dispensers so it helps to have one ready to unwrench and send out.
Scan a health analyzer, advanced trauma kit, advanced burn kit, emergency defibrillator, and Health Scanner HUD as the start of the round, nanoprint them, and put the blueprints in your General Fabricator. When Research provides, scanning and printing blueprints for the cyborg analyzer for the General Fabricator isn't a bad idea either.
Scan and build an autolathe with your blueprints and the flatpack fabricator. Alternatively, take the board from tech storage next door.
Medbay would appreciate it if you upgraded their cryo tubes, and cloning pods. Also, they would enjoy having a second cloner as well!
Building a chem dispenser for Botany and the Bar are also a good idea, the Bartender can make one-sip murder drinks Doctor's Delight and the Botanists can make Unstable Mutagen until they develop their carnivorous, glowing deathnettle kudzu walking mushrooms.
If you feel an obligation to go the extra mile, build an autolathe in the Engineering Lobby and hack it so that the Engineers can get RCDs and compressed matter cartridges.
Now you can pat yourself on the back and have the confidence to say you did a job well done and that your job isn't unimportant, unlike those mechanics who spend their days filling the workshop with arcade machines, Booze-O-Mats, ShadyCigs, and Soda Machines.

 
Mechanic components and you
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WizardSpellbookV2-32x32.gif	This page contains a transcript of ingame content.
The following information supplements the rest of the wiki. It is kept for documentation purposes.

Contents
1	Quick-start Guide
2	Component specific Information
2.1	AND Component
2.2	Button
2.3	Delay Component
2.4	Graviton Accelerator
2.5	Gun Component
2.6	E-Gun Component
2.7	LED Component
2.8	Microphone Component
2.9	OR Component
2.10	Pressure Sensor
2.11	RegEx Find Component
2.12	RegEx Replace Component
2.13	Relay Component
2.14	Selection Component
2.15	Signal Builder Component
2.16	Signal Check Component
2.17	Sound Synthesizer
2.18	Teleport Component
2.19	Toggle Component
2.20	Wifi Component
2.21	Wifi Signal Splitter Component
Quick-start Guide
To connect Components to each other you use drag and drop. For this to work the components need to be secured into place by means of a Wrench. You need to be holding a multi-Tool to be able to change Connections and Options of Components.

A basic construction would look something like:
Wrench a Button Component into Place.
Wrench a Graviton Accelerator into Place.
Drag the Button onto the Accelerator and drop.
Set the Button as Trigger.
Select the only existing target input on the Accelerator.
Using the Button will now activate the Accelerator.

You can see the Connections between Components when they are not covered by Tiles. Just use a Crowbar to reveal the Plating and you'll be able to see what's connected to what.

The Components can also be connected to some Machines and Gadgets around the Station. You could try messing around with Doors or vending Machines. If you want to connect two non-component objects together - say two Doors, you will have to use a Component between the two Objects. Relays are easily used for this. You would connect the Relay to Door 1 as Receiver and then connect the Relay to Door 2 as Trigger.

Most Components offer additional Options in their right-Click Menu when you are standing right next to them. These Options can range from Rotation to setting the output Signal and such Things.

Information about the specific Components follows below.

Component specific Information
AND Component
Sends specified signal when both inputs receive a Signal within a specified Time Frame.

Button
Sends set Signal when used.

Delay Component
Delays an incoming signal a certain amount of time before sending it to its connections.

Graviton Accelerator
Accelerates objects on it into a given direction for 3 seconds after being activated.

Gun Component
Shoots a Gun in the given Direction. Needs to have a Gun installed before it can be used. Simply use the Gun on the Component.

E-Gun Component
Shoots a Gun in the given Direction. Needs to have a Gun installed before it can be used. Simply use the Gun on the Component. This Component only works for Energy based Guns with Power Cells in them. Can recharge the Gun inside it at the Cost of temporarily deactivating itself. Additionally, there is a short cooldown Period between Shots.

LED Component
Provides light when triggered. The "set rgb" Input takes a Color in the HTML Color Code Format.

For Example: #FF1200

Microphone Component
Forwards nearby speech as signal. The "Toggle Show-Source" option determines whether the component adds the source's name to the signal or not.

OR Component
Sends a specified Signal when it receives a specified Signal in one of its Inputs.

Pressure Sensor
Detects Pressure and dispatches Signal.

RegEx Find Component
Attempts to find an expression within a String. If found it can either forward the found String as Signal or send its own Signal. The variant of RegEx used is described here.

RegEx Replace Component
Attempts to find an expression within a String and then replaces it. Forwards the modified String as Signal. Also has an Input that lets you set the Expression. The variant of RegEx used is described here.

Relay Component
Forwards an input signal to another Target. If Signal changing is enabled, the Component will change the incoming Signal to its own before relaying it.

Selection Component
Holds a List of Signals that can be manipulated, browsed and sent. Can be set to randomly select Items for sending or triggered to send a random Item once.

Signal Builder Component
Builds a String out of incoming Signals until it is triggered to send whats in the Buffer at which point the accumulated String will be sent and the Buffer cleared. The starting/ending String Settings allow you to define a String that will be put at the Beginning or End of each String.

Signal Check Component
Sends either its own Signal or the input Signal when it receives a Signal that has the set Trigger String in it somewhere. Can be toggled to trigger when it does NOT find the specified string.

For Example: Trigger -> cat, Incoming Signal -> "catswithhats" -> the Component activates. This is not case-sensitive.

Sound Synthesizer
Speaks whatever Signal it receives out loud. Rate-limited to 2 Seconds.

Teleport Component
To link Pads set the ID to the same string on both Pads. If there are more than 2 Pads with the same ID, Destinations will be picked at random. Has an Input that allows a message to change the ID of the Pad and through that its Destination. Individual Pads can be set to send only Mode - in this Mode they can not be the Target Location of other Pads with the same ID. This is useful if you want to have several Pads teleport to one exit Pad. Teleporters can only teleport to locations on the same Z-level.

Toggle Component
Can be turned on, off or be toggled. Outputs 2 different Signals depending on its new State - one for on and one for off. Can also be triggered to just output the appropriate Signal without doing anything else.

Wifi Component
The "send radio message" Command accepts Messages in the Format of command=herp&data=derp which will then be sent on the set Frequency. The Component can recieve a sendmsg Radio Signal that will send the Data in the "data" Portion of the Signal to the Outputs of this Component. Following the previous Syntax a sendmsg Signal would look like this : address_1=WIFICompoAddHere&command=sendmsg&data=MyCompoCommand

Normal PDA Messages can also be used to trigger the Component. The frequency can be changed wirelessly as well by using the setfreq Command : address_1=WIFICompoAddHere&command=setfreq&data=1419

If you enable the forward all option, the Component will forward any Radio Messages it receives, unprocessed and in the above format, to its Outputs. By disabling NetID filtering you can make the Component react to any and all Radio Messages on its frequency. The Component will blink green when it receives a wireless Message and blink red when it sends a wireless Message.

Wifi Signal Splitter Component
Returns the value of a field within a Radio signal. The components Trigger Field is the Field you want the Value of.

For example: Set the Trigger Field to "user_id". When a Signal with "user_id=captain" arrives the Component forwards "captain"