Guide to Engineering

(Rewrite guide to reflect all engines aboard the ship and a synopsis for each of them.) Guide to Engineering So, you're an engineer huh? Well here's the guide for you then. Engineering, the NanoTrasen way!

Contents 1 The Basics 2 The Engine, Solars and Power 2.1 Generating Power 2.2 Wiring 2.3 Power monitoring and Distribution 2.4 The Priority System 3 Station Structural Integrity 3.1 Walls 3.2 Pretty glass 4 RCD 5 Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Computers 5.1 Computers 6 Getting Crew out of Danger 6.1 Firefighting 6.2 Physical rescue The Basics Engineering is rather complex, but in itself teaches you many of the game's core mechanics. Even a new player can pick up a toolbox and become a good engineer. If you're a completely new player however, you should first glance at the starter guide.

The Engine, Solars and Power Generating Power The primary purpose of engineering is to maintain the station's power, to do this, you will need to start one of the Engines. The Singularity Engine and Antimatter Engines are the simplest ones for a beginner to set up and don't require much maintenance after being switched on, so consider using one of those.

The solars are the next thing you need to worry about. One engine won't always provide all the power the station needs, and the solars' locations let them serve as ideal sources of backup power while teaching you how wiring works. To do this you will need an Engie.pngEngineering Hardsuit as well as internals (oxygen tank and gas mask), all of which can be found in engineering. Note that it is a good idea to return the hardsuit once you're done, but it's not necessary to do so.

Managing the input and output of power at the SMES (Power Monitoring Storage Units) is sometimes confusing or tricky, but as a general rule of thumb you should set the input to max (200,000) and the output to half of that (100,000).

Wiring If a part of the station loses power it is likely wires have been cut somewhere. To search for cut wires under floors you will need a T-Ray Scanner. To cut a wire, use the wirecutters on it, to place new ones click on the floor where you'd like them to be placed. The wire will be placed on the targeted tile from the tile you're standing on. You can also place wires on the tile you're currently on by clicking the tile. the wire will be placed in the direction you're currently facing. To place smooth wires, click on the dot (end point) of an existing wire with more wire in your hand.

Wiring intersections demand special mention. Making an intersection requires all the wire pieces to be end-points. If you make a smooth wire going south to north and place a half-wire going east, they will not be connected. To connect them you have to remove the smooth wire and replace it with two half-wires. Once all of them are placed, if you right click the tile you should see three wire pieces, all of which meet in the center. In case of a knot, just cut the wire, and then hit the knot.

Wiring can be streamlined with the Rapid Cable Layer (RCL), commonly found inside electrical maintenance lockers. These can hold 90 wires (3 coils) and will wire on movement, letting you very quickly smooth-wire an area, going over an installed wire with an active RCL will place a knot instead. You can wire through space tiles with no support if you use the RCL.

Power monitoring and Distribution An APC or Area Power Controller is located in every room. It is usually locked, but you can unlock it by swiping your ID on it or alt clicking it. It contains a basic power cell. You can shut off a room's power or disable or enable lighting, equipment or atmospheric systems with it. Every room can have only one APC. The guide to their construction and deconstruction can be found in the Guide to Construction. APCs can also be hacked. It's also a good idea to know how to do that. DO NOT PRACTICE ON THE ENGINE APCs! If you mess up, you can seriously damage it through hacking which can break the engine or set the singularity free if you do it on the engineering APC. You know this warning is here because it happened before.

The Priority System

The priority of each device can be manually overwritten if you have engineering access. All machines request some power per cycle, this is called the Load. Once all power requests have been tallied, the load gets compared with the Supply, producing a Satisfaction percentage. Once the percentage is acquired, the machine multiplies last tick's demand by the satisfaction value. This allows for stability in the network. To decide which machine gets power first and thus fills it's satisfaction percentage higher, all power and direct power machines have a Priority value. The standard priority levels are: Critical, Highest, Very High, High, Normal, Low, Very Low, Lowest and Minimal. Emitters are on High priority, ensuring they won't accidentally turn off during a crisis and accidentally releasing the supermatter. APC draw, Radio Transmitters, Shield generators and most wired to the grid machines are on Normal priority. APC battery charge is on Low priority, meaning the batteries won't charge unless the APC draw is fully satisfied. SMES Unit charging is on Very Low priority, to avoid APCs losing power due to high load SMES configurations. There's also the normally unavailable Bypass level, which ignores the priority system entirely and exclusively feeds the rogue power consumers, which include Power Sinks, Singularity Beacons, Pulse Demons and artifacts; and the Excess level, with a priority lower than Minimal, available only on machinery that 'rewards' excess power, such as the Antique Matter Synthetizer. These non-standard priorities are out of bounds for the priority monitoring system and will appear as unchangeable gibberish if somehow found. Areas in the power monitor can be expanded to show all consumers wired straight into the grid within said area. Consumers located in areas with no APC or whose APC is in a different grid disconnected from the monitor will be classified as “Other”. Unlocking the power monitor with Minor Engineering access will let you change the default priorities to whatever you see fit.

The SMES unit interface has been reworked to allow giving them a nametag for easier identification when using the power monitor.

Station Structural Integrity An educated word which basically means wall repairs.

Walls Walls come in two forms: Regular and reinforced. Building a regular wall is a two step process: constructing girders and adding plating. To construct a girder have a stack of two or more sheets of metal on you (shift-click see how many sheets are in the stack). Left click the metal for a construction window to appear. Choose “Construct wall girders” from the list and wait a few seconds while they're built. Once they're built, click on the girders with another stack of two or more metal to add the plating.

Note that only fully built walls will prevent air from escaping freely through them. Reinforced walls share the first step: the building of the girders. Once the girders are in place, reinforce them with rods and tighten the rods with a screwdriver. After this, you'll need plasteel, which can be made via mining or recycling, found in limited supply on EVA and Engineering Foyer or from partially destroyed reinforced walls. Use the plasteel sheets on the reinforced girder twice to finish the reinforced wall. R-Walls are much stronger than regular walls and take longer to get through using regular tools, though both are vulnerable to chemical and biological damage.

For more on construction see the Guide to Construction.

Pretty glass Notice how most of the glass around the station is built as a double pane, which surrounds a grille. Making this by hand can be a bit tricky at first, but is simple once you get the hang of it. To build such a wall, you'll need 4 sheets of glass and 3 sheets of metal, alternatively you can have 6 sets of rods. You'll also need a screwdriver and crowbar, though having wirecutters and a welder with you is a good idea, as you'll likely get it wrong the first time and will need those to dismantle the grille.

First you have to prepare your materials. Use the metal on itself and create 6 sets of rods (2 are made each time). Now pick the rods up (you can stack them, but don't click too quickly or the game might think you wanted to build a grille). After this, use 4 of the rods on 4 sheets of glass to create 4 sheets of reinforced glass. Now pick up all your tools (put them on your utility belt if you have one or in your backpack) and pick up the remaining two rods in one hand and the 4 sheets of reinforced glass in your other (remember, you can stack glass too). Now stand where you'd like the glass to be. Use the rods on themselves and this will create a grille. DO NOT MOVE! Now use the glass on itself 4 times and create 4 single panes of glass. Right/alt click on the glass to rotate it until you have 3 of the 4 sides covered. The remaining side is your escape route. use the combination of screwdriver - crowbar - screwdriver on each of the 3 panes which are already in place to secure them. Now move out of the grille and rotate the last window so it covers the last side. Fasten that with the same screwdriver - crowbar - screwdriver combination. Congratulations. You've just made a proper window. You're already better at construction than most.

For more on construction see the Guide to Construction.

Rcd.pngRCD A very powerful device found in the Chief Engineer's Office or made in hacked autolathes. These trade material efficiency for speed and versatility, since you'll need 6 metal sheets and 3 glass sheets (on an unupgraded autolathe) for a single compressed matter cartridge worth 10 matter inside the RCD. Simply use the RCD in hand to access the build menu, select the structure you want and use the RCD on the tile you want that structure to be built. Floors can be built for 1 matter each and can only be built on space/foam tiles or lattices, reinforced windows in any configuration can be built for 2 matter, and walls/airlocks can be built for 3 matter, you can even set the airlock access requirements before building. Deconstructing any structure with an RCD will cost 5 matter, regardless of complexity. Due to some limitations, RCDs can't interact with plasma-reinforced structures, such as plasma windows or reinforced walls.

Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Computers As an engineer, it is required of you to understand how most computers are operated, how they work, how they're created, dismantled and repaired. You're also the best equipped station employee to prevent the AI from taking a life of it's own.

Computers Computers are everywhere on SS13. Engineering has a power monitoring computer, several solar computers and a general alerts computer. Almost everything you can control is done through a computer. Making them is described in the Guide to Construction, as is their disassembly. To learn how to operate different computer you'll need to start using them and find out how they work while doing so. There are too many to explain them all here.

Getting Crew out of Danger It's your job to save lives when they cry out for help.

Firefighting Engineers get access to maintenance hallways, which contain several firesuits and extinguishers. If a fire breaks out somewhere, put it out. Firesuits let you walk in almost any fire with little issue, though they will slow you down a bit. Extinguishers have a limited capacity but can be instantly refilled from any tank (including welding fuel tanks) found throughout the station. To refill an extinguisher without a chemical tank, you need to unwrench the fill cap, dump the reagents inside then wrench down the fill cap again. The atmospheric lockers have the very valuable foam extinguishers, which place a foamy wall made of whatever reagent was inside that lasts for around 10s, physically blocking the fire from expanding, giving you valuable seconds to stop it.

Physical rescue If someone cries that he can't get out of somewhere and no one can get him out, then it's your job to do so. Hacking airlocks, deconstructing walls, basically whatever it takes to get to them. I don't need to point out that you should never put others or yourself at risk in doing so!

Understanding the intricacies of the power dynamic aboard the ship is key to keeping the ship in order. Many, especially the Head of Personnel, believe that the Captain is the seat of power on the station. This is untrue as having the Captain wired into the station's power grid provides minimal power at best.

The real source of power comes from Engineering because without Engineers to set up the power sources at the beginning of a shift, the ship would cease to function normally and devolve into a degenerative society with no more power than a uncivilized horde of lowly Assistants, who, it should be noted, also provide even less power when wired directly to the grid.

The supermatter is a giant pile of exotic material capable of emitting both ionizing radiation and (flammable) gasses. While the generation of these elements is normally rather low, the supermatter can be “activated” into releasing more by, well, most anything: even gasses can start the delamination process if they hold enough energy (heat, usually). You see where this is going? That's right, self-induced chain reactions. Your main job as an engineer will be to cool the supermatter down to prevent it from exploding (luckily a very easy job), while simultaneously exciting it to harvest radiation pulses. It's not an unforgiving engine and some would say it's even too stable to sabotage in a timely manner; read the Supermatter Guide carefully and it will be hard to mess it up.

The singularity and tesla engines are the primary source of power of some ships. By harnessing either the radiant energy produced by a locally-controlled cosmic Singularity (otherwise known as a man-made black hole), or straight-up capturing the electric arcs from a giant ball of lightning, an enormous amount of energy can be generated for the station.

The harvestable power emitted by a singularity takes the form of ionizing radiation pulses. These can interact with the mysterious substance called “plasma” so as to generate electricity. The more plasma available, and the stronger and more frequent the pulses, the more power is generated. The net power output can be measured directly by using a multitool on the collector's wire, checking the first SMES unit connected for available power, or by looking it up on a power monitoring console (though the latter will give skewed results when other power sources are connected).

This giant ball of incandescent energy regularly regurgitates power in the form of electric arcs. These arcs can be partially captured by tesla generators, and will generally flow along the most conductive/least resisting path. Metal structures are prime targets for its strikes, and grounding rods are the safest there is, drawing arcs to themselves and subsequently dissipating them into the whole station. The latter are regularly used to direct lighting through tesla generators, and are best deployed between the engine and anything you hold dear.

The solar arrays act as an auxiliary power source in emergencies. They are composed of 20 to 24 panels per array and there are 4 arrays on most ships. Each panel can produce 5 kW of power for a total of 100 to 120 kW per array.

Solar arrays only produce power when directly facing the local star. (The star is off-screen and cannot be located by the player directly, as flying close enough to see it would generally be bad.) A solar tracking module can be wired into the solar array circuitry and, with the help of a solar power console, the solar panels can be made to automatically track the local star, which maximizes the power generation for each panel. However, as the ship revolves around the star (which, again, is unseen by the player), the solar arrays often land in the shadow of the ship which negatively affects solar power generation at the affected arrays. This effectively gives the solar arrays a solar day-night cycle, where it generates power during the day cycle and does not generate power during the night cycle. Because of the solar cycle, a given array will be able to generate power about 50% (estimated but unconfirmed) of the time, which can be translated to an average 45 kW per unit time, rather than the full 90 kW.

The solar panels themselves can be, and often are, broken by debris floating in space. Each broken panel reduces the total power generation of the array. They can be protected with shutters when not in use, which is recommended when the ship plans to engage FTL travel.

The solar arrays can often power the entire ship on their own, once the arrays are wired properly.

There are two main schools of thought when wiring the solar arrays:

• Use the Solar SMESs to distribute power into the grid.
• Wire the solar array directly into the power grid.

Distributing solar power through the SMESs is the generally preferred method of wiring the solars, mainly because it provides a steady power output and requires no extra wiring. One benefit of the pre-laid wiring to the SMES is that during a night cycle of the solar array the Engineer does not need insulated gloves to wire the solar array.

While the maximum power generation of a given solar array is 90 kW, it is advised to set SMES inputs to slightly lower level to account for solar panels that might break during the course of the shift.

For example, setting the SMES input levels to 85 kW may not collect all 100 kW produced by the array, but allows for the SMES to charge even when up to three panels get broken on the array.

Otherwise, should the Engineer set SMES input levels to 90 kW and should a single panel get hit by space debris and break, the array will always produce less than 90 kW, so the SMES with a required 90 kW input will not charge.

The output on the SMES should be at most 50% of the input level due to the revolution of the station around the local star (percentage estimated but unconfirmed). Since the solar has to collect enough energy in the day cycle of the array to output for both day and night, it's usually good to round down a little more. Additionally, if the solar is initially wired during its day cycle, it typically won't be able to collect enough to keep it charged for the first night cycle, resulting in a little bit of lag in the output of the solars.

For example, if the input is set to 85000 W (85 kW), the output shouldn't be bigger than 42500 W (42.5 kW). Typically, 40 kW is a good round number for long-term power output.

If more power storage is desired, say in the initial stage of the set-up, the engineer may want to reduce or even eliminate power output for the first few solar cycles, before setting the long-term power output.

Once all four Solar SMESs are adequately charged and outputting long-term power, they will provide a very dependable power output with almost no oversight needed. In our example, the ship would receive 160 kW (4 arrays x 40 kW SMES output) from solars, which is usually more than enough to sustain the ship on its own without the engine. This system is also modular, so that even if only three out of four Solar SMESs are used, the total power output is reduced accordingly but still completely steady.

That being said, if unchecked, power sinks can drain the solar SMESs, which if depleted would need to go through a solar cycle again before being able to provide steady, adequate power to the station.

The biggest failure of the Solar SMES system is more often the fault of the Engineer, not the power sink. A rookie Engineer usually sets input levels and output levels too high or too low to meaningfully sustain the station, and/or fails to re-set the SMESs to a more adequate output level after initially charging the SMES.

Pros: Steady power supply, no additional wiring necessary, stores power, modular, does not require insulated gloves.

Cons: Lag due to first night cycle and initial SMES charging, prone to being set up improperly, some power loss to correct for potentially broken panels, can be drained by power sinks.

Wiring the solar arrays directly to the grid is often used as a more straight-forward approach to hooking up the solars, which benefits the Engineer by bypassing the intricacies of the SMES and generating a generally larger power output but at the expense of a less steady, less modular electrical source. This is often helpful in the emergency circumstance when the singlo is loose or otherwise not available, effectively making the solar arrays the primary power source.

To achieve this, the Engineer usually just wires together the cable leading from the array directly to the cable leading out from the solar maintenance room. Typically, insulated gloves are a necessity since the Engineer will need to tap the solar power lines into the main power grid. However, as easy as that sounds, rookie Engineers tend to mangle the wiring so much that the array power lines never make it to the grid.

Once all the arrays are wired, and because of the day-night cycle, on average, about two solar arrays worth of power will be generated at any given time, equating to about 180 kW of power. However, the exact number will fluctuate depending on how much light reaches individual panels. Additionally, if not all of the solars are wired to the grid, the output will be drastically lower and may cause brown outs in the station.

On the plus side, wiring the solars directly to the grid prevents wiring sabotage since anyone cutting the wires also needs insulated gloves. Also, power sinks pose little risk as the solar power is immediate and not distributed from an SMES.

Pros: Straight-forward explanation, avoids setting SMES, deters sabotage, acts as primary power source, not prone to power sinks.

Cons: Minor fluctuations in power if fully implemented, severe fluctuations if incompletely implemented, requires insulated gloves, often incorrectly wired.

There is another, less used option that utilizes the benefits from both wiring ideologies while mitigating the risk: dual-wire the solar arrays both to the Solar SMESs and directly into the grid at the same time.

Initially, the Engineer would want to charge the SMESs enough to where they could give an adequate supply of power. Then, if the Engineer is skilled enough at wiring, both the SMES and the solar arrays can be wired to the grid at the same time. Since the station only draws about 150 kW, but the solars wired to grid produce 180 kW, there's a spare 30 kW to split between the Solar SMESs for recharging. Setting all four Solar SMESs to charge at 6 kW is feasible (reduced from 7.5 kW to account for broken solar panels). The output setting on the SMES can be any value so long as the station draws full power from the solars wired directly. This effectively makes the Solar SMESs a backup power source.

The drawbacks though are that the Solar SMES input levels should not be put higher than 6 kW since a Solar SMES located at an array going through the night cycle will attempt to draw power from a Solar SMES higher upstream in the power queue, cannibalistically draining that SMES.

Also, the 2 conventional Backup SMESs can't be charged for the same reason of the power queue. However, since the 4 Solar SMESs act as backups, this trade-off is in favor of the dual-wiring of the solars.

The Solar SMESs will still be prone to power sinks, but since the solars are wired directly to the grid it doesn't matter as much.

The drawback that all solars must be wired directly to the grid to prevent severe fluctuation. The same is not true of the SMES-side of this set-up. Each SMES acts like an independent backup, so any undesired SMESs don't have to be set, making the system semi-modular.

Pros: Acts as primary and backup power source, deters sabotage, resistant to power sinks, semi-modular, resistant to brownouts.

Cons: Severe fluctuations if incompletely implemented, requires insulated gloves, often incorrectly wired, requires initial charging and follow up on the SMESs before implementation.

The gas turbine generator is a tertiary power source that was recently installed in the incinerator. By utilizing the temperature differential between very hot air and very cold air, the turbine generator is able to create a nominal amount of electricity. The hot air is created by burning plasma and oxygen gas mixtures. The cold air is creating by passing air through cooling tubes located in space.

Although it's usually the last power source set up on the station, it's the only power source that can be accessed by Atmospherics. Also, they're the only ones who can turn on and mix the gas feed needed to sustain the generator without the use of gas canisters. The exact gas mixture for optimal power generation is unknown at this point, but some Engineers have reported values as high as 100 kW and in typical Engineer fashion forgot to write down their recipe. Be prepared to field questions from proactive AIs who notice plasma in the mixtank.

Portable generators are failsafes when all other systems fail. They require fuel that is fed directly into the generator by hand. The type of fuel is dependent which type of generator is being used.

Portable generators can be upgraded using parts created by a protolathe.

One PACMAN generator is located in the SMES room, with plasma located in secure storage, and it is suggested to use it while setting up the singularity to prevent early release.

Power cells are used to power devices smaller than the ship such as APCs and cyborgs. Constructed with a protolathe, typical power cells come in several different flavors, in increasing capacity: the default power cell, the high-capacity power cell, the super-capacity power cell, or the hyper-capacity power cell.

There are also atypical cells such as a potato cell and a slime core cell.

To most people they're just wires that burn the shit out of you when you try to cut them without wearing insulated gloves. But really, the power grid is the electrical backbone of the station, powering everything from the emitters containing the singularity to the APC that controls the bathrooms in the locker room that you never go to. Also, it burns the shit out of you if you try to cut it without wearing insulated gloves.

A Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) Cell is the spaceship equivalent of a giant rechargeable battery. The standard set-up for an SMES involves:

1. A wiring input from a power source, such as Solars or the Singularity Engine, or from the power grid itself, in the case of the Backups SMESs, and

2. A wiring output to the local power grid, or to a closed system like the AI or outpost stations.

SMES have a modifiable storage capacity, dependent on the power cells installed in the SMES upon fabrication. All SMESs present at the beginning of a typical shift have a default capacity of 3.33 MW.

{| class =“wikitable”

! rowspan = 2|Power Cell !! colspan = 2|Capacity

! per cell installed !! per 5 cells installed

! colspan = 3|Typical

! colspan = 3|Atypical

SMES input (charging) and output levels can be modified using capacitors. All SMESs present at the beginning of a typical shift have a basic capacitor with default i/o levels of 200 kW.

{| class =“wikitable”

! Capacitor !! Max Input Level !! Max Output Level

SMESs will only charge when the input power is equal or higher to the input levels specified on the SMES settings panel.

Likewise, SMESs will only output when the level of charge is above the output level specified on the SMES settings panel.

APC2.gif

APCs, or Automated Power Controllers, are found in or, more likely, in maintenance just outside every room with power. They can be used to turn on or off the room equipment, lightning and environmental (a.k.a. ventilation) systems.

System power is the amount of power available to the station at any given time. Power is made available through charged SMESs outputting power and through immediate power from power sources wired directly to the grid.

(System Power) = (Total Output Power of SMESs) + (Power Sources Wired to the Grid)

To maintain a stable source of power for station equipment, the station power grid follows a power queue where an electrical component with higher rank on the queue has its power draw from the grid evaluated before an electrical component with a lower priority. APCs are typically the lowest priority since they only draw power, while the power sources on the station are the highest priority since they only produce power.

{| class=“wikitable”

!colspan = 3|Power Queue

! Rank !! Category !! Location

!colspan = 3|Isolated SMESs

The most visible effect of the power queue is that if there is not enough output power available on the grid because a component with higher rank is requesting it, then a lower rank component will not charge. For example, if the Backup SMESs are set to input 200 kW each from the grid and the APCs draw 150 kW, but the grid only provides 250 kW total, then the second Backup SMES will not charge and around two out of three APCs will go unpowered as well.

thumb|right|400px|The three Singlo SMESs in the SMES Room.

Similarly, if a higher rank component has a high enough output level to handle the station's power draw, then the station will draw all of its power from the higher rank component instead of splitting the draw with a lower rank component. This phenomenon is seen often when the singlo is set up. An unaware Engineer will purposefully set all three Singlo SMESs to output at a very high value, say 100 kW, or 300 kW, thinking that this will be more than enough to power the station. While this is technically correct, it isn't advised since it slows down the time it takes until all SMESs are completely full.

An example is the best way to see this. The total power draw on the station is usually near 150 kW. This means the station will draw 100 kW from Singlo SMES #1, 50 kW from Singlo SMES #2, and 0 kW from Singlo SMES #3, resulting in different charging rates of the SMESs. Since SMESs have a capacity of 3,333,333 W (3.33 MW) and assuming an input level of 200 kW, it should take 33.3 cycles before all the SMESs are completely charged (9.99 MW total power stored).

{| class=“wikitable”

!colspan = 4| !! colspan = 3|Charge at n Cycles

! Singlo Cell !! Input Level !! Draw !! Charge Rate !! 17 !! 23 !! 34

A better way is to set output levels on Singlo SMESs #1 and #2 to a third of the total power draw of the station (here, 50 kW), while allowing the remainder (also, 50 kW) to draw from Singlo SMES #3, which would be set higher than that to account for power fluctuations. For the same case where the total draw was 150 kW, we would set SMES #1 and #2 to 50 kW and SMES #3 to something higher like 200 kW. This would have all three SMESs charged in 22.2 cycles – 33% faster than the situation above.

thumb|400px|right|The optimal number of cycles it takes to charge the singlo SMESs is dependent on both not outputting too little, and not outputting too much.

{| class=“wikitable”

!colspan = 4| !! colspan = 2|Charge at n Cycles

! Singlo Cell !! Input Level !! Draw !! Charge Rate !! 17 !! 23

Sooner or later, on every barely functional space station, the power will go out. This is where you - YES, YOU, YOU LAZY FUCK - come in and call out to recall that shuttle because you can fix it! Power can go out for many reasons. Your first port of call should be the Power Monitoring console in engineering, assuming it still exists. Then, ask yourself what's going on:

*'Power goes out everywhere, in under 10 seconds or so?' This is most likely a power sink. Power sinks have the odd quirk of still powering the area they are placed in, so your best bet is to get searching for somewhere where the lights are still on, or if it's in maint, where you don't have to crowbar the doors. *'Power goes out everywhere, but gradually, section by section?' This means there's a problem in Engineering itself as the rest of the station is being topped up with charge. It'll be immediately obvious if the engine isn't on/has escaped. Your next port of call should be the SMES cells. Check they're outputting enough power to overcome the drain OR if no APCs are showing on the Power Monitoring computer, it means a wire has been cut either inside or immediately outside the Engineering area and is not being supplied to the rest of the station. *'Power is out across a small area?' This is most commonly a broken wire, the easiest way to find it is with familiarity with the power-net and using that in conjunction with the power monitoring computer. If an area has had all wires sending power to it snipped, its APCs will no longer show on the power monitoring computer. For example, if Medbay as a whole has lost power and isn't showing any of its APCs on the power monitor. The wire cut is most likely in the maint tunnel behind Medbay. The more familiar you become with the power nets, the quicker you will be able to work out where the break is and be able to recognize common spots used. *'Power is out across 2 small rooms or in one room?' This is most likely an APC that has been tampered with in some way. Either hacked by an AI/Saboteur, destroyed somehow or just had its cell ripped out. Again, if the APC doesn't show up on the Power Monitoring computer, it means it's been severed from the power net and wire either inside that room or very close to the APC has been cut. *'Power is intermittent across the station. Stuff turns off for a while, starts working, then goes off again?' Your SMES aren't outputting enough power to keep the APCs charged. This happens most often when the output is just under the drain so therefore some APCs get enough power, while others don't. *'The smes'es cycle between getting power and not getting power for seemingly no reason' Bug. admin help it. Can be fixed by admins by restarting the master controller. *'Power isn't actually out?' Either someone is crying wolf or something else has happened to make it look like power went out, most likely an electrical storm.

Now that you know what's wrong with power, it's your job to fix it! If the singularity is about to be fucked, TURN OFF THE PA IMMEDIATELY (it may be worth asking the AI) and wire solars, if they aren't already wired. It might also be necessary to replace equipment. There is a PACMAN located in the SMES room and a spare SMES unit located in Electrical Maintenance, both of which no one ever remembers. You could also rebuild everything. The tools to build a new SMES are located in Tech Storage, and cargo can order new solar equipment and even a new goddamn PA! …Assuming they haven't already done so and pointed it your way, that is.

Guides

Power is one of the biggest and most important concepts of engineering, and the sooner you learn about it, the smoother your rounds as an engineer will be regarding how power is distributed and contained.

Engines Interns that were somehow put in charge of what the colony uses as a power source can't seem to stop arguing, therefore the engine is changed every shift, currently between the supermatter and the tesla, though there's word of more engines being utilized in the rotation.

Supermatter.png Supermatter Engine The supermatter is basically a highly unstable crystal made up of exotic material, which is able to emit radiation and certain gasses once energized. It can be energized by pretty much anything, but is mainly powered by an emitter. This particular setup uses the SM to heat up gas in the core to be extracted and piped into TEGs, which is utilized in tandem with the cold gas from heat exchanging pipes in space to produce power instead of using radiation collectors. A familiar but somewhat unforgiving engine if allowed to delaminate.

Energy ball.gif Tesla Engine The tesla is the engine that started the rotation. It's similar to how the singularity engine functions in that there is a containment field holding an unstable, moving, power generating anomaly, except that it is a ball of energy instead of an angry swirling black hole, but the particle accelerator is still present. Power is generated whenever the ball of energy arcs electricity into a tesla coil, harnessing and transferring the energy into the power net to charge the SMES. A rather safe engine, the only thing that could go wrong would be if the grounding rods weren't secured or if the containment field fails due to a lack of power.

R-UST.gif R-UST The R-UST fusion reactor is an experimental nuclear fusion engine that, on it's own, utilizes fusion to generate power, though the proposed setup will involve TEGs as well, much like the supermatter setup. Usually deuterium and tritium are fused in a super heated field into helium, releasing a large amount of energy once it occurs. Very safe, will explode if the field is turned off, though, which would probably release super heated kill gas everywhere and EMP a large amount of the equipment surrounding the core.

Singularity.gif Singularity Engine A seemingly popular engine, this setup generates a black hole and keeps it contained by means of a containment field after being shot with particles from a particle accelerator with the resulting radiation being captured by radiation collector arrays. A lot can go wrong with this setup if the singularity is fed carelessly, particularly when it's set loose and begins consuming the station, which would probably warrant an evacuation order.

Secondary/Backup Power Sources Solar rotating.gif Solar Farm See also: Solars

Out west of Surface 1 is the large solar farm, which is always present. The panels are already setup, all that's required is to scan for panels, turn on auto tracking, connect the output wire to the SMES units, and turn the SMES on. Most engineers will deconstruct two of the three SMES units to consolidate the coils into one single SMES, which helps with power management.

Superpacman.png P.A.C.M.A.N. The PACMAN generators are normally used for emergencies when power goes out and must be restored quickly, usually used for the engine room if a crisis strikes there. Wrenching a generator on top a wire knot and turning it on will supply power to that power net. Note that setting their power level to max will generate a lot of heat, and remaining at 300 Celsius (800C for Mrs. PACMAN) will cause the generator to explode. It should also be noted that PACMANs have stock parts and can be upgraded by Research. There are three types of PACMAN generators:

P.A.C.M.A.N.: Utilizes plasma to generate power. Rated for 80 kW, can output 100 kW max. Super P.A.C.M.A.N.: Consumes uranium. Rated for 80 kW and can output a maximum of 100 kW, but the fuel lasts twice as long with the side effect of emitting low levels of radiation. Mrs. P.A.C.M.A.N.: Uses tritium for fuel. Rated for 200 kW and can output a maximum of 250 kW, and the fuel lasts twice as long. The Net The power net can pretty much be summed up as the nervous system of the station, with wires running all throughout the entire facility, connecting everything and powering important rooms. Below are headings that give a rough idea as to how power flows.

SMES animated.gif SMES See also: SMES Manual

A SMES (Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage) unit is basically one large rechargeable battery, capable of storing several megawatts of energy for later distribution, depending on the coils installed inside the unit. These large storage devices are basically what (safely) controls the flow of power throughout the station, determined by how much energy it has and what the output level is set to. In order for a SMES to receive power, a wire must be knotted under the terminal connected to the unit and input must be turned on. In order for a SMES to output the energy it has stored, a wire must be knotted under the unit itself and output must be turned on.

SMESCoil.png Upgrading The level at which a SMES can output energy and how much energy it can store is based on the coils installed inside the unit. There's no penalty for mixing different coils. To place coils inside a SMES, unscrew the maintenance panel and simply place them inside, but the SMES has to be completely discharged, otherwise the safety mechanism will prevent you from placing any coils inside (and it's probably a good thing, otherwise you'll explode from arc flash). To remove coils, unscrew the maintenance panel, wirecut the terminal wires out, and crowbar the internal mechanisms out, then just retrieve the coils that you want and rebuild the SMES. A SMES can hold six coils, but all pre-built SMES units around the station will have a couple coils inside already. The following are the types of coils that can be installed:

Basic Superconductive Magnetic Coil: The most basic of the coils that can be installed in a SMES. Adds 20 kWh to capacity and 150 kW to transmission ability. Superconductive Magnetic Coil: The standard coil that you'll be seeing in a lot of units. Adds 100 kWh to capacity and 250 kW to transmission ability. Superconductive Capacitance Coil: A coil suited for storing large amounts of energy. Adds 1000 kWh to capacity and 50 kW to transmission ability. Superconductive Transmission Coil: A coil suited for taking in and distributing larger amounts of energy. Adds 10 kWh to capacity and 1000 kW to transmission ability. Breaker.png Substations and RCON There are quite a number of SMES units around the station that are easy to overlook, but the purpose of these units is to provide power to particular areas of the station (medbay, security, etc.), which will divide the grid into sub-grids, which carries a few nice reasons for using these:

Grub damage/power draw localization Control over specific department power usage All pre-built SMES units (except for the AI Core SMES) have something called RCON (Remote CONtrol) enabled, which allows for anyone with access to a RCON console to adjust the input and output of a SMES unit remotely, which is rather convenient given how many units are present on the station, but the console is also used to control the breaker boxes next to the substations which, when toggled (bypass disabled), will separate the area from the main grid, relying on the area's SMES for power.

Cablecoil.png Wire Wire cables are what transfer power throughout the entire station, usually from a SMES unit to an APC. The amount of power they can transmit is restricted only to what the power source they're connected to is generating, and the power currently in the cable can be measured by using a multitool on it.

APC.gifAPC An APC (Area Power Controller) is a console localized to any room that supplies power to equipment, doors and peripherals, and lighting. All APCs have an interface that allows you to control the three categories mentioned, but they all remain locked unless you swipe an engineering ID over it. APCs have terminals connected to them that are, in turn, connected by wire to the power net. Based on the charge of the cell and how much power the APC is receiving, as long as the categories are set to auto, it will automatically turn off equipment to conserve power, starting with turning off equipment, then lighting, then environment once the cell eventually runs out of charge. Conveniently, the screen color on an APC will change depending on it's status:

Green: Receiving power, cell at full charge. Blue: Receiving power, cell charging. Red: Not receiving power, therefore not charging. There are also lights on the side of the APC that show what equipment is receiving power:

Black: APC breaker turned off. Blue: Category is set to auto and is turned on. Green: Category is set to on. Red: Category is set to off. Orange: Category is set to auto but is turned off. Powercell.png Power Cell Power cells are most commonly found inside APCs, but are certainly found in other pieces of equipment as well. Without cells, the APC would quickly cut power to all equipment it's in charge of the moment there's a discrepancy in the grid. Below are the different types of power cells as well as their charge capacity:

Potato Battery: 0.3k Heavy Duty Cell: 5k Default Borg Cell: 7.5k Charged Slime Core: 10k, plus passive recharging. High Capacity Cell: 15k Super Capacity Cell: 20k Hyper Capacity Cell: 30k Infinite Capacity Cell: Infinite charge, duh. SMES Settings Below is a list of RCON settings for the multiple SMES units around the station. Ensure the substation bypasses are disabled when you turn the input and output on for the substations. Note that these are only one configuration, and that others can be perfectly acceptable. Feel free to experiment.

SMES Input Output Notes Engine 250 250 Powers the engine room. Draw is variable depending on the engine, though these two values should remain maxed. Main/Distribution 1000 950 Powers anything not covered by a substation. This is considered the main grid, though care should be considered regarding the input based on how the engine was setup. It should also be noted that this SMES unit takes priority when drawing power from the engine over the Engine SMES. Atmos 200 250 Powers atmospherics. Draw is variable depending on how atmospherics was configured that shift. Cargo 40 80 Powers the cargo department. Normally draws 8 kW, has 1 recharger. Civ West 40 80 Powers surface EVA, tool storage, and first aid station. Normally draws 7 kW, has 2 rechargers. Civilian 80 160 Powers laundry room, holodeck, cryo pods, and library. Normally draws 32 kW, can raise higher than 80 kW if holodeck is in use. Command 60 120 Powers bridge, CD and HoP offices, teleporter, meeting room, IAA office, and EVA. Normally draws 18 kW, has 3 rechargers and 1 cell charger. Engineering 80 160 Powers the engineering department, including the three space-side telecomms relays. Normally draws 37 kW, has 4 rechargers and 3 cell chargers. Medical 100 200 Powers the medical department. Normally draws 36 kW, has 2 rechargers and 1 gas cooler. Given high input due to value to the facility. MedSec 40 80 Powers surface triage and surface drunk tank. Normally draws 8 kW, has 1 recharger. Mining 40 80 Powers the mining department. Normally draws 7 kW, has 1 recharger and 1 cell charger. Research 100 200 Powers the research department. Normally draws 46 kW, but has a lot of different rechargers, hence the high input. Science Outpost 40 160 Powers the toxins outpost. Normally draws 15 kW, but houses atmospherics equipment which can increase power usage greatly. Otherwise it is mostly unused. Security 80 160 Powers the security department. Normally draws 32 kW, has numerous wall rechargers. Surface Civilian 60 120 Powers hydroponics, the bar and kitchen, reading rooms, plasma shelter, and backup shuttle landing pads. Normally draws 23 kW, has 1 cyborg recharger. Telecomms 60 120 Powers surface telecommunications. Normally draws 22 kW. Mining Station 250 200 Powers the off-station mining outpost. Normally draws 5 kW, has 1 recharger, 1 cell charger, and 1 mech charging station. Maxed input is for miners to turn on the PACMAN to power the SMES. AI Chamber 200 200 Powers the AI Core. Normally draws 10 kW, but increases to 60 kW if an AI is present. This SMES cannot be accessed remotely.