Project: smelter

The smelter is the goal of the production weeks: ore in, ingots out, exactly as much as needed – and never draw so much power that the base goes dark.

The plant#

Ore in#

The digital chute valve lets ore through while Open is 1. When closed, the ore backs up in the chute in front of it – nothing gets lost. That way the chip controls the inflow without doing anything at the furnace itself.

Minding the power demand#

The arc furnace needs energy per piece and switches itself off on a shortage. That is why the smelter only releases when the battery has more than 50 %, and locks below 20 %. Because the chip writes On every tick, the furnace starts again after a self shutdown as soon as the battery allows it.

Starting stacks#

On alone smelts nothing. As on day 225, every ore stack in slot 0 needs an Activate 1. The chip starts it when the furnace is on and released, ore lies in slot 0 and no stack is running right now (Activate 0). The furnace does the rest: when the stack is through, it sets Activate back to 0 by itself.

Target amount#

The dial gives how many ingots should lie in storage. The chip counts all slots of the ingot store. Once the target is reached, “Fertig” lights up, the valve closes and the furnace goes off. A target of 0 does not count as reached.

Milestones#

1. Release by battery level with hysteresis
2. Count ingots in storage
3. Stop at the target amount and report “Fertig”
4. Progress in percent on “Ziel”
5. Batteries missing: valve closed, furnace off
6. Start every ore stack with Activate