More circuit signals and controls: pumps, heat pipes, exchangers

[vanatteveldt]

I would like to propose some new circuit signals to help monitor and control esp. fluid and heat flow:

- Pumping speed signal: Pumps have a new (ish?) feature where you see actual "pumping speed" in user interface (i.e. pumping speed: 1259/12000). It would be nice if this could be measured on the circuit network. Use cases: I know that my exchanger bank should consume 1258 water/second, so I could have a light or alert if flow drops below that. This could also be used to monitor whether a fluid wagon is still being drained.

- Pumping speed cap: You can now enable/disable a pump. It would be nice to be able to cap pumping speed, e.g. to make sure flow is distributed evenly over branches. The interface could be similar to the 'set stack size' control, where you select a signal (e.g. "X") and the value of that signal becomes the cap.

- Heat pipe and exchanger temperature: It would be nice to be able to measure the temperature of heat pipes and heat exchangers

- Exchanger (and boiler, steam engine, turbine) fluid consumption. In the interface you can now see actual fluid consumption (e.g. 60/103). It would be nice if we could measure this on the circuit network to monitor whether e.g. an exchanger is active and at full production.

- Steam engine and turbine power production and available. The interface shows "Power output" and "Available power". It would be nice if we could measure these on the circuit network.

[ssilk]

Some of that has been already suggested some times , for example
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=80711

The inventory sensor https://mods.factorio.com/mod/Inventory%20Sensor
reads already temperature and stuff.