Power Regulator – Guide

The Power Regulator is a wall box between a main network and four sub-networks. It works like a circuit breaker, but instead of switching off it limits: no connection ever carries more than 95 % of the weakest cable in its network. Solar and wind fields on thin cables can feed into one heavy main line together, or small networks for doors and lights can be supplied from the main line – without a big transformer and without losing the data connection. All model labels, the display, buttons and device names appear in German or English, depending on the game language.

Overview#

Every connection is a cable network of its own. The regulator never joins the networks, it only passes power between them.

Requirements#

• Stationeers 0.2.6428, BepInEx 5.4.23.5, StationeersLaunchPad 1.0, see Installation
• Mod in the active mod pack
• In multiplayer: the server and all players

Building and recipe#

While building, choose with the mouse wheel whether MAIN sits on the left or right (device name "Power Regulator" or "Power Regulator (main right)"). The box is 1 m wide, 0.5 m high and 22 cm deep and takes two cells side by side. Front and buttons stay in front of any finished wall, even if the wall is finished after the regulator (since 1.0.1). The cables lie on the wall as usual. Ideally build it at eye level on a wall and bring the cables in from above, below and the side.

Modes#

Every output has an M button and an LED. Each press switches on:

Newly built regulators start on SUPPLY, adjustable with StandardBetriebsart.

Cable protection#

• No connection ever carries more than 95 % of the weakest cable or fuse in its network: 4.75 kW with normal cable, 95 kW with heavy cable, 475 kW with super heavy cable. Networks made of Power Cable+ have no limit.
• Other generators and consumers in the same network count too. So no cable burns, even when a solar field produces more than its cable carries.
• Feed in: all feeding outputs add up, each limited by its own cable. The sum at MAIN is limited by the weakest cable of the main network.
• From networks with their own consumers the regulator takes only the surplus, so nothing there switches off. Batteries in the sub-network charge first.
• If one output feeds in while another supplies, the power flows internally. The main network only covers the difference.
• On top of that, every connection has a manual limit (IC10 or console). It can only be lower than the cable limit.

A small buffer of two ticks evens out the order in which the game calculates the networks. It never creates energy.

Example#

Three solar fields on normal cables hang on outputs 1 to 3, all on FEED IN. MAIN goes to the heavy main line to the distributor. Each field feeds in at most 4.75 kW, together up to 14.25 kW. Output 4 is on SUPPLY and hangs on a thin cable for doors and lights – it never gets more than 4.75 kW.

Data bridge#

With the DATA button the devices of all connected networks are visible to IC10, logic readers, logic writers and consoles across the network border – with lbn/sbn, via the screwdriver on d0–d5 and also across several regulators in a row. Power stays separate. The data bridge is on for newly built regulators and can be switched off per device (DATA button, IC10, console) or completely in the config. The channels Channel0–7 of a network are not linked.

Operation#

Display#

Six pages with four large lines each, readable while standing: MAIN, output 1 to 4 and data bridge. Every page shows flow, limit and state. The key values also appear in the tooltip when you look at the box or a connection.

LEDs#

IC10#

Every connection has eight values for get and put. The address is connection × 8 + value, with connection 0 = MAIN and 1 to 4 = output.

Plus address 40 = display page (W), 41 = data bridge (W), 42 = buffer in J. Writable addresses are marked (W). clr clears all manual limits.

Example: show the flow, orange at the limit#

The regulator is named "Regler", a small LED display "Anzeige". The display shows the flow at MAIN in kW, green in normal operation, orange at the limit.

# Power Regulator: flow at MAIN in kW, orange at the limit
define REGLER -852807360  # Power Regulator (MAIN left)
define ANZEIGE -815193061 # LED display (small)
define KW 1000            # W per kW
define VOLL 0.99          # load from which the limit is reached
define ORANGE 3           # Color.Orange
define GRUEN 2            # Color.Green
alias fluss r0
alias last r1
alias grenze r2
alias farbe r3
start:
yield
lbn fluss REGLER HASH("Regler") PowerActual 0
bnan fluss start
lbn last REGLER HASH("Regler") Ratio 0
div fluss fluss KW
sgt grenze last VOLL
select farbe grenze ORANGE GRUEN
sbn ANZEIGE HASH("Anzeige") Setting fluss
sbn ANZEIGE HASH("Anzeige") Color farbe
j start

The variant "main right" has its own hash: 822286357.

Example: set output 1 to FEED IN#

# Power Regulator: output 1 to FEED IN, flow in r1
define REGLER -852807360  # Power Regulator (MAIN left)
define EINSPEISEN 2       # mode FEED IN
define A1MODUS 8          # output 1, mode (1 x 8 + 0)
define A1FLUSS 10         # output 1, flow (1 x 8 + 2)
alias regler r0
alias fluss r1
lbn regler REGLER HASH("Regler") ReferenceId 0
put regler A1MODUS EINSPEISEN
start:
yield
get fluss regler A1FLUSS
j start

The second example needs exactly one regulator named "Regler" in the network.

Console commands#

Console with F3. The commands act on the nearest regulator, regler status shows all of them.

The German words work too: modus, alle, grenze, bruecke, versorgen, einspeisen, aus, an.

Configuration#

File: BepInEx\config\dominik1199.leistungsregler.cfg, or via the mod settings in LaunchPad. The server's values apply.

Multiplayer#

New device: the server and all players need the mod. The server calculates, the players display. Modes, limits and the data bridge switch are saved and synchronised. See Multiplayer.

Known limitations#

• Consumers that want more than the limit only get the limit and switch off, as usual in the game. Only a heavier cable in the sub-network helps then.
• In the main network its own consumers come first. Outputs are supplied from the surplus or from batteries in the main network. If that is not enough, the lower output comes first (1 before 2 and so on).
• If a large battery is charging in the main network, supplying outputs get little until it is full – in the game a battery takes everything it can get.
• The data bridge links devices, not the channels Channel0–7.

Troubleshooting#