Pumps at a glance

Gas does not go where you need it by itself. Pumps push it from one pipe network into the next. Three pumps come up again and again at the start.

The three pumps#

All three have On and Setting. Setting is the flow in litres per tick: at 10 the volume pump takes ten litres of gas from the input side each tick and pushes them to the output side.

sbn PUMP HASH("Fuellpumpe") Setting 10    # full output
sbn PUMP HASH("Fuellpumpe") On 1

Litres, not moles#

A pump moves a volume. How much gas is in it depends on the pressure on the input side. Ten litres from a full tank are a lot of gas, ten litres from an almost empty pipe almost nothing. That is why a pump seems to slow down the emptier its source gets.

Mind the direction#

• The volume pump always moves from input to output. Install it the wrong way round and it reliably pumps in the wrong direction. A pump also separates the two pipe networks from each other.
• The turbo volume pump moves ten times as much and has a Mode that switches the direction.
• The liquid volume pump sits in liquid pipes and otherwise works like the volume pump.

Steps and limits#

No pump manages more than its maximum. If your program computes a flow, limit it to the pump's range – with clamp from the last lesson. When the pump runs at 0, also switch it off with On 0: that saves power and makes it visible in the game that it is standing still.