New mod: heat exchangers with display and control

The game's heat exchangers do their job, but they don't tell you anything: no display, no data connection, no settings. That is what I wanted to change, and it turned into the Heat Exchangers mod.

There are three types. The plate heat exchanger works in counter flow and comes in sizes S, M and L, each for gas-gas, gas-liquid and liquid-liquid. The compact heat exchanger needs only one cell and sits right in the pipe runs; it works in cross flow and exchanges a little less. The ground probe stands on the terrain and cools or heats a fluid with the ground below it, without any compressor.

Every device has a display with five pages. The first page shows the heat transferred, inlet and outlet of both sides and the effectiveness. There is also a control panel, LEDs and a data connection through which IC10 can read everything and drive the control. You can hear it too: while it exchanges heat there is a quiet rush or trickle that grows with the power. Valve, buttons, main switch and a warning tone on faults sound like the game's own devices.

The heart of it is the bypass. Part of the fluid on side A flows past the plates. You set the share by hand, or you give a target temperature and the device controls the bypass itself until the outlet is right. A pointer on the valve shows how far it is open.

Honest physics mattered to me. It is calculated with the method used in real heat transfer engineering. Energy is only moved, never created, and the mod checks the balance every tick. For the ground probe, a ground store lies below every 2 m cell and slowly recovers towards the planet's soil temperature. Pump too much into it and you will see the output drop.

As always, all texts are in German and English, the devices can be painted and turned with C + mouse wheel, and the mod runs on dedicated servers too. The server and all players need it.

Everything else is in the guide.