The volume pump in depth

The Volume Pump is one of the first devices every base needs: it pushes gas from one pipe network into another – even when the other side already holds more pressure. You use it to fill tanks, empty rooms or separate two networks.

At a glance#

The key numbers: 200 W base draw, a setting from 0 to 10 (default 5), one pipe input, one pipe output and a shared port for power and data.

Connections#

Gas always flows from input to output. If you placed the pump the wrong way round, turn it – only the turbo version can switch direction.

How much gas it moves#

The setting is a volume: every tick the pump takes that volume of gas from the input network. How much that is in moles depends on pressure and temperature at the input:

• Input at 100 kPa, 20 °C, setting 10 L: n = 100 · 10 / (8.3144 · 293) ≈ 0.41 mol per tick, about 0.8 mol per second.
• The same input at 1,000 kPa moves ten times as much.

That explains a common observation: the emptier the input network gets, the slower it goes. The volume stays the same, but it holds less and less gas.

Volume pump or turbo?#

So the turbo manages ten times as much at three times the base draw. For liquids there is the Turbo Volume Pump (Liquid).

Control with IC10#

The pump knows these logic values: On and Lock for switching, Setting for the amount, plus readable Ratio, Maximum, Power, Error and RequiredPower.

A typical job: fill a small tank up to a target pressure and then stop. The tank is part of the pipe network and has no logic of its own. So a Pipe Analyzer on the pipe between pump and tank reads the pressure – it measures the whole network, the tank included. Always limit the target pressure yourself – a gas pipe holds at most 60,795 kPa.

# Fill tank up to target pressure
define PUMP -321403609         # Volume Pump (StructureVolumePump)
define ANALYZER 435685051      # Pipe Analyzer (StructurePipeAnalysizer)
define NPUMP HASH("Tank Pump")       # name of the pump
define NTANK HASH("O2 Tank Analyzer") # analyzer on the tank line
define TARGET 5000             # kPa target pressure in the tank
define AMOUNT 10               # pump setting (0 to 10)
alias pressure r0
alias run r1

start:
yield
lbn pressure ANALYZER NTANK Pressure 0
bnan pressure start            # no analyzer with this name
slt run pressure TARGET        # below target: pump
sbn PUMP NPUMP Setting AMOUNT
sbn PUMP NPUMP On run
j start

How lbn and sbn work with names is explained in IC10: control a device by name.

Building#

The pump is built from a kit made by the Hydraulic Pipe Bender:

Placing takes one step: put the kit onto the pipe line. To take it down you need a hand drill, and you get the kit back.

Common mistakes#

• Pump runs but nothing happens: input and output swapped, or the input network is empty.
• It keeps getting slower: the pressure at the input drops – see above.
• Everything else switches off when the pump starts: the power network is short. A network is only supplied when generation is greater than demand, see Power grid basics.