Cable (Straight)

All cable pieces that touch each other form one network – for power and data at the same time. Devices hang on it through their ports, and a chip sees all devices with a data port on its network.

Normal cable carries 5,000 W. What counts is the flow in the network: the smaller of what all generators offer and what all consumers request. If it is above 5,000 W, a part of the network breaks – at most one per tick, fuses first. A few numbers for orientation:

• Nine tracked solar panels deliver up to 4,977 W at noon on Mars – that just works. Ten are too many when a battery is charging.
• A Generator (Solid Fuel) with 20,000 W is too much for normal cable as soon as a battery charges behind it or the load rises above 5,000 W.
• A battery output on a consumer network is no problem as long as the consumers stay below 5,000 W together.

According to the game data normal cable is flammable, with a flash point of 140 °C. Near fire and hot lines the Heavy Cable (Straight) is the safer choice – it practically does not burn.

A straight piece costs one Cable Coil, a corner as well, a Cable (Junction) two. Long straight pieces save coils: the 10-piece costs seven. Wire cutters remove cable and give you the coils back.

So that a fault does not happen somewhere inside a wall, every network with normal cable gets a Fuse (5kW), and a branch on the big network gets a Transformer (Small) in front. How to size it all is in Sizing cables, fuses and transformers correctly.