[Circuit Network] Getting electric satisfaction data

[BlakkCooper]

Is there a way to get data on the current electric satisfaction in the circuit network? Is there a vanilla way or a mod that can do it? I don't mean the amount of energy available (e.g. accumulator charge) or the binary info if there is enough power but the percentile the electric satisfaction bar shows when you hover over an electric pole.

Pic related: the bar I mean


(Hope this is not a duplicate but the search function of the forum appears to be offline atm.)

[Shokubai]

I typically keep such an overcapacity of power that I don't need to check satisfaction...

I seem to remember a mechanism though its been quite a while. It would seem to me that you need a separate small power network and a speaker connected to a single accumulator on that network. You would need some way to switch and draw power from your accumulator when main network power drops triggering the speaker.

Look up "Backup Steam" or something along those lines and adapt it to simply give a warning instead of boost power.

[BlakkCooper]

I typically keep such an overcapacity of power that I don't need to check satisfaction...

I seem to remember a mechanism though its been quite a while. It would seem to me that you need a separate small power network and a speaker connected to a single accumulator on that network. You would need some way to switch and draw power from your accumulator when main network power drops triggering the speaker.

I don't necessarily want a warning system but a general way to figure out the satisfaction for various reasons. For example I could turn on additional radars in times when the rest of my factory doesn't draw maximum power. Since the amount of radars could possibly in the hundreds I can't keep them simply turned on all the time. Another thing would be to turn a nuclear power plant on only when all other ways (solar, steam, modded power supply) have failed to provide enough power.

I do not want a solution for a specific problem but a general, all purpose way to acquire that specific bit of information.

[Shokubai]

See my edited comments. You could adapt the idea to switch on "alternate networks". It would get tricky to seperate the various levels of power priority but the game does help you by letting you Shift click a pole and manually run copper wire.

[BlakkCooper]

See my edited comments. You could adapt the idea to switch on "alternate networks". It would get tricky to seperate the various levels of power priority but the game does help you by letting you Shift click a pole and manually run copper wire.

That doesn't really help me. It's a binary you-are-below-100%-satisfaction thing. When you connect a accumulator to the circuit network it outputs signal A with its content being the current percentile of it's charge. I want a signal like that but not for accumulator charge but power satisfaction of the power grid.

[urza99814]

Pretty sure that's not possible at the moment.
Also pretty sure you don't really need it. If you're at 50% or at 70% does it really matter? Either way you need more power...

In my last game I had several different power networks. Solar was always providing power. If power started to fall it would trigger the steam engines to start producing. If power kept falling, it shut off the main base and diverted all power to the laser defense turrets. And if power still kept falling right at the end it would cut off the steam engine again so it wouldn't dip so low that the inserters stopped feeding coal. Did all that just by reading accumulators at the edges of the networks. And it only takes a pair of accumulators and a couple circuit components at each interconnect. Just a matter of switching inputs and outputs on and off in the right priority. If power is below 100% (same as accumulator below 100%), switch on the next input; otherwise enable the next output.

Remember that those power switches can toggle sixty times a second. Link that to an accumulator, it will toggle as fast as it needs to in order to use your excess power and ONLY your excess power.

But the one thing you could try to get the approximate satisfaction data is by checking the rate of drain on an accumulator. You'd need some memory and timer circuits... Then you can try to count how many joules per tick is coming from an accumulator (or group of them, since I think each can only drain to a maximum rate) and from that determine how many MW short of full satisfaction the base is. You'd need to calibrate it for how much power you generate though to get an actual percentage.

[t-lor]

Actually it is possible.

I saw a post a few days ago (on reddit i think) of a guy who made a counter for how much power was being used.
it was acurate to like 1 KW or something. He was measuring something like the amount of steam being made or used every tick.
Looked pretty impressive. but ofcourse i cant find it now.

But ofcourse thats more spielerij than actually usefull.
just hook your non essential power drains up, so they kick in at 100% accu, and shutdown at 60% or something

[Lav]

Actually it is possible.

I saw a post a few days ago (on reddit i think) of a guy who made a counter for how much power was being used.
it was acurate to like 1 KW or something. He was measuring something like the amount of steam being made or used every tick.
Looked pretty impressive. but ofcourse i cant find it now.

But ofcourse thats more spielerij than actually usefull.
just hook your non essential power drains up, so they kick in at 100% accu, and shutdown at 60% or something

I suspect it would be easier to count the amount of coal delivered to the boilers. Counting steam accurately would require some intricate and bulky pump setup unless some really tricky trick was used.

[XKnight]

Is there a way to get data on the current electric satisfaction in the circuit network?

Old trick is still alive: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=23130
The answer on you question is a subtask that was successfully solved in that post, hope you will find it by yourself.