How to distribute TONS of power all over your Oxygen Not Included base.

This is a popular way to wire your base that works no matter how much power you have or how big your base is. (Exploity? Maybe... you'll have to judge for yourself.) UPDATE: Heavy watt wires have been beefed up to carry 50kw, so there is less need for these tactics.

[@FrancisJohnYT]

Thank you, you explained that very well.

[@darkmtbg]

Fascinating seeing you here Francis, Never seen you use the Exploit in your ONI worlds.

[@ShadoryKaine]

Francis : never put batteries on the other end of a transformer Tony :

[@rogeliovalentino3826]

you prolly dont give a damn but does anybody know of a method to get back into an instagram account?? I was stupid forgot the account password. I love any assistance you can offer me!

[@korbynholden3907]

@Rogelio Valentino instablaster :)

[@rogeliovalentino3826]

@Korbyn Holden Thanks for your reply. I got to the site on google and im trying it out now. I see it takes quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.

[@smaugcoath]

For the record, I've been testing this lately and it still working. I've been playing a little bit more and I didn't need any power transformer at all. Actually I tried to create a power grid with generators that uses only the 1kw wires and they don't break. They only seems to break when you connect consumers to them, the generators doesn't count. So basically, you only need heavy wires for the consumers only. You can "transport" the power from the source to all the places and put this device wherever you need to consume some power. I kinda create micro power grids in places. The only place where seems to be reasonable to use heavy watt wire is in industrial zones, but just to avoid building tons of generators for each machine that requires between 1-2 KW. I tested this using the current max capacity, 50KW. To avoid any flickering the main battery needs to be set up around 50%. Otherwise the consumption is so fast that the switches lag add some buggy cuts. For that scenario, 4 batteries is a safe choice. I don't know who could need 50KW but, hey...

[@ihyaakmal5995]

Wow, thank you for volunteering so that those of us who just discovered this trick can know that this trick still works

[@BouncingTribbles]

It's based on real life physics, so there is no reason for them to take it out. Petesmith13 has the top comment (for me) explaining it.

[@654pedro123]

ty

[@3DPDK]

> the cut-off switches are analogues to a real world relay switch. In high voltage they are usually controlled by powerful solenoids. They have been used to make or break a high voltage circuit for a long time and are simply an electro-mechanically automated blade switch (like the ones in every 1950s horror / mad scientist movie). *You are using the correct terminology* - when the switch is making contact, i.e. allowing electrical flow, it is considered "closed" - the blade is *closed* . When there is no electrical flow, the blade or electrical contacts are not touching and so are thought of as " *open* ". The terminology is opposite of that used for valves in a fluid system. > Yes! This is an exploit! As near as I can tell by the behavior of a system using several batteries, especially when scattered around the base, that the program uses the same algorithms for electrical flow as it does for fluid dynamics in a pipe ... which is also unrealistic. Both are based on distribution of "packets" of resource, rather than overall pressure or voltage. The electrical "damage" from overload is certainly NOT realistic and it took me a long time to forget my real-world knowledge of electricity to stop damaging wires in my base. In short - if a 10 watt light bulb is hooked with 20 feet of 1000 watt wire to an overloaded grid, that 20 feet of wire will never be damaged - it's only handling 10 watts of energy. The damage will only begin to occur from the first junction where the wattage totals more than 1000 watts back to the original supply point. Where the program really fails; if a 400 watt generator attempts to power a grid attempting to draw 1000 watts, it's the *generator* that gets damaged, not the wires.

[@sharathvasudev]

Only problem is in real world the switch will take a lot of physical damage. The battery life will also deteriorate over time like mobile phones. Else this system is not actually an exploit. The battery load is not must for those 1 kw wires. The game needs to get AC to DC converter just like in real world

[@astrid2432]

@@sharathvasudev not really. there is a thing called Contactor who likely work like that showed up. it can switch high power easily with small power needed. like that: the battery gives a small current to the contactor/power swich who then closes the circut.

[@sharathvasudev]

@@astrid2432 Sure yes but what about physical damage to the switches. The game doesn't account for physical damage due to prolonged use

[@astrid2432]

@@sharathvasudev I think that will be too much as it would be like you need to repair everything then

[@sharathvasudev]

@@astrid2432 Bots. Like robo miner

[@CryptolockerMD]

While seeming exploity, your end result is really how batteries should work naturally imo, where the capacity is acting as a buffer over that 1kw and not causing a draw on the power source until the batteries run out. Batteries definitely should not charge at a faster rate than anything that would normally consume 1kw though.

[@flytothemoon50]

My game say yes, but my ear and brain say no.

[@luxas5498]

You can disable automation sounds

[@mrbigh6776]

I'm an electrical engineering major, and the single input OR gate was kinda funny (cause I do the same stuff all the time), but you can just use the buffer gate to create the delay, cause thats its purpose. Timing shenanigans were one of the worst parts of fundamental circuits. Edit: Yes I know it's a year late to comment

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Can a buffer gate be set to have 0 delay now?

[@PyrokineticFire1]

I use a Filter gate set to the minimum 0.1 seconds to create the delay that prevents overload flashes.

[@smaugcoath]

@@PyrokineticFire1 I know, one year later... but. Is that 0.1 the internal the Not, And, Or and others has?

[@jensjensen7504]

Is it just me, or doesnt this work anymore? I get wire dmg from overloading.

[@mckudiey6750]

are this still working on the end of 2020? tried it but not working

[@NikoKun]

Yup, it still works, with some modifications. Here's my compact version: imgur.com/a/nZBGuYS

[@spicybaguette7706]

It's basically a power pump

[@alirachini2657]

i tried it today, Wed 03-04-2024, 01:07AM and it is not working, can someone confirm please ?

[@fermosofiore1336]

You dont need 2 inputs from the 2 smart batteries. Just one is enough the other will balance itself. So you can reduce the metal required to make one

[@yank31]

Very clever

[@cameronhoy5383]

So yeah this is an exploit, and it's probably not how the devs intended. However from a real world electronics standpoint it's not that unreasonable. IRL we use high voltage low current wires to transport power over long distances, they are very thin (and very cheap) and not even that conductive, but it doesn't matter because they never carry that much current, they do carry a massive voltage though. We get the power to that state using transformers and then we use transformers at the end point as well to turn it into a more usable form, pretty much just how we see here. (I'm sure that it's a coincidence and the devs haven't done that on purpose but it makes me feel better.)

[@InterntExplorer]

I did this but it looks like both batteries are losing power together instead of one being charged while one powers the base. 😓i don’t know how to fix it

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Post a screenshot of your automation and I'll have a look.

[@InterntExplorer]

@@tonyadvanced6315 I cant post screenshots. how do i show you? :(

[@tonyadvanced6315]

@@InterntExplorer You can upload a picture to imgur.com and post the link here.

[@InterntExplorer]

Tony Advanced here you go! : imgur.com/gallery/YVhQcob

[@wavytiger1]

i dont even know how to generate that much power, one or two geysers isnt enough....

[@dvfantail]

The most interesting thing about this is that you're a fellow Linux user 😂

[@ollllj]

you over-complicate this, only 1 battery needs smart wiring, and only 1 not gate is needed. or gates are not needed, but may make it "safer to load/reset" as long as there is no consumer over 1 kw, you can put any amount of power trough it without breaking. you branch off consumers of such a trunk-network by 2 oscillating batteries with 1 not gate an 4 switches.

[@IcoKirov]

do you even need the transformers?

[@tonyadvanced6315]

The transformers move the power out of the batteries that control the generators and into the main power grid. Without them that wouldn't happen. These days I kinda prefer to just connect generators to the small wire directly and not use batteries to control them at all, so if you do it that way you don't need transformers.

[@IcoKirov]

@@tonyadvanced6315 yeah, at the time of writing the comment i didn't see the generators were automated.

[@jovicakulja7031]

how does this influence FPS? if done many times would my fps spiraled into pits of 1,2?

[@tonyadvanced6315]

I've never noticed any effect on fps from this.

[@Arizon_Rose]

Hard to hear you over the static

[@BendingDuke19]

There is so much backround noise static that its hard to focus

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Yeah, this video is from back when my production quality was really bad.

[@let4be]

Wtf is with the sound... dat damn background noise

[@Hanyohime]

You effectively turned the batteries into capacitors. I like this.

[@TheDJroombaGaming]

I thought batteries and capacitors were the same thing. What makes them different?

[@Hanyohime]

@@TheDJroombaGaming Capacitors charge and discharge extremely quickly and hold their charge in the electric field while batteries, by comparison, charge and discharge much slower, and they hold their charge in chemicals. Their function is similar, but they are not the same thing. Peace.

[@TheGreatFapsby]

@@Hanyohime wrong capacitors start with "c" while batteries start with "b". Peace nerd!

[@petesmith13]

You can technically do this in real life in DC applications, if you have a high current draw device it needs thick cables to draw the amps so you can place a battery nearby, use thick cables from battery to device (like a high power motor) then have thinner (cheaper) cables for charging the battery as long as the device is never on long enough to drain the battery you're safe, as soon as the battery is flat though, you've got a fire on your hands

[@adamthethird4753]

Will probably never use because the beeping of the switches makes me insane. But awesome application!

[@divat10]

You can turn that of

[@MegaElderscroll]

@@divat10 how?

[@luxas5498]

@@MegaElderscroll in game options turn off automations sounds

[@SirMesmer]

I absolutely love it. I always struggle to distribute power through my base, and this is great solution.

[@lazysax9987]

How is this an exploit and stuff like creating natural tiles for "wild" farms, using carbon pits to store food instead of having to power a fridge, and using polluted water to produce breathable oxygen aren't? This looks like it's working exactly as the developers intended in my opinion.

[@HerraMonoTooni]

Because those batteries charge with 20kW power through 1kW wire between the transformers and batteries and it's not counted as a load on the wire. It should just break.

[@ShadeAKAhayate]

@@HerraMonoTooni IMO it's these little exploits that spice the game quite a lot. Of course, I'd prefer tiles with conductors and pipes already wired inside, us only deciding where to cross and to connect those. But we don't have these -- so at least these simple wires replace these to some extent. Also, wires made of metal ore just shouldn't work. What's more, you shouldn't even be able to make such wires.

[@AnotherSpaceCowBoy]

It's not intended and clearly exploit. OR it looks like this to give you the feeling you're discovering something "secret" and actually devs are well aware of those little tricks. Proof is "most of the time" they don't update the game against it. Their goal is to entertain you and they're good at it.

[@Shammikaze]

Does this still work post-launch? (Can you still run 20kw of power through a normal wire?)

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Yes.

[@cupcake769]

Great!

[@buder5116]

at 11:35 is struck me this is and H bridge controller irl aka motor controller for flipping the electric motor forward or backward with mosfet/transistor xD hehehehe

[@angrygreek1985]

how is this helpful? you're still using heavy gauge wire which is what you want to avoid doing I am in the early game but trying to figure out how to distribute power to all my machines which only total around 1500 if they were all to be turned on at once, but I only have 1 circuit, so things get overloaded sometimes. I don't want to make a bunch of transformers because they create a bunch of heat. I saw on the wiki some kind of automated power switch like this but I don't see how this is helpful because you're still just using heavy wire which I don't want to do because of the hit to decor

[@魔幻行者]

Tony's design splits machines into grids connected to the same power spine. For 800 refrigerators in Oxygen Not Included (120W each, 1000W wire limit), you'd need 100 grids of 8 fridges. He uses 'Power Shutoff' to isolate machines and keep batteries charged. You only need better wires if a machine uses over 1000W or splitting grids becomes too complex.

[@ColinTimmins]

You could just roll play that you are running high voltage wires then the battery setups are converting it down... or it’s a smart cheesy way of doing things. lol

[@PyrokineticFire1]

it's cheesy because the wire insulation is so perfect. that type of high voltage would arc through a lot of materials. I still loved using it for a base.

[@vulkandrache1928]

No more cheesy than putting Scanners and autominer on doors to give them plot armor from regolith.

[@lionellosanti]

It's all party and fun until you have a "real" base made of walls, floors, ceilings and you also have to deal with morale and decor and other structure which occupy space. In sandbox mode you don't have all other limitations.

[@alirachini2657]

are large transformers required for this build to work ?

[@theironninja314]

Altho that looks cool i dont see how I would use it for real. Every small appliance i have i would have to make a new battery and thats all provided i have infinite power source. Im open to advice obviously. Good video tho

[@larrylindgren9484]

If you have a power hub. It's cheaper and easier to string 1000w wire. It could go right throw anything with no bad effects. Get it where you want it and build the exchange system. No more need to have the heavy wire running up 1 side of you base. Having to make sure it's hidden. Small 2000w wire that don't kill you dupes having to be next to the heavy stuff.

[@gp5313]

So you're tricking the simulation

[@Misterscout]

Was this patched?

[@MasterZenII]

Does the Not gate still have enough of a delay to allow overload damage in the launch update? I've seen this kind of system but only using a single not gate.

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Yes. At least it did when I made this video. If the timing isn't on the exact right tick then you'll get overloads.

[@PyrokineticFire1]

I've always used a NOT and a Filter. it's like 5 kg of metal.. you're already sinking hundreds into the batteries, just to avoid the split second of overload, imo.

[@stevanlargacha5885]

dude your awesome

[@scaltra6709]

This was really interesting and clever. Thank you for sharing! I've been enjoying all of your videos a lot. Keep it up. This one makes me think of some weird amalgamation of alternating and direct current electricity.

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Thanks! I happen to be uploading a new video right now. ETA like... 75 minutes.

[@AznDumbum]

This video example is used with the power consumption being loads. If the consumer is other batteries, can this be flipped so all power generators could be used to charge into the main power brick/batteries? Would that mean it could be done in reverse such that for all sources of power, they can push power back into the main power grid/supply?

[@BouncingTribbles]

I remember watching a video about this trick back when I had no idea what I was doing, 200 hours later this is basic circuit building. Great video

[@axelp2104]

this doesnt work since the last update ;)

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Oh. Wow! I'll have to try it out. I guess that makes a certain amount of sense since the limit for heavy-watt cables has gone up to 50kw.

[@psteels]

That was bound to happen since it seems so exploitative

[@larrylindgren9484]

@@psteels Actually it's not. There is no load on the wire until it's used. Just like in real life power is moved the same way. You don't have massive wires moving the power. You'd have wires as big as houses moving power. It's the current that matters. You aren't using the current until his make shift transformer setup. If you never close both switches there is no current draw across that connection.

[@flexoking8047]

Blueprint mod would make it easier

[@PyrokineticFire1]

and a better design! 2 smart batteries side by side 4 power switches above them. 2 wire bridges above them, linking 2 loops of wire that go down through the switches and link with battery then return through the other switch touching that battery. the bridges connect the left sides and right sides (one will be the source, the other the load) link the automation wires for the power switches on the inside and outside together. have 1 battery control the automation, link the not gate to the switch (and it's inside/outside pair) leading to that battery's load and a filter to that battery's supply switch (and pair)

[@Mgis90]

@@PyrokineticFire1 I would need a screenshot please

[@Scott_Burton]

You mentioned how the power grid draws from one point and then when that supply is depleted, it moves on to another source. I would say it is akin to how gasses and liquids sorting horizontally leaning to one side, but in the case of power, the query goes like this: Am I receiving enough power now for what I need, from the last location I accessed? If yes, draw from that source again, else locate next available source. Basically, if there is enough power coming from the last source, save processor activity by not searching for another source. But this is my interpretation, not a dive into the code of the game.

[@tonyadvanced6315]

That makes sense. I toyed with it once long ago, and it seemed like it prioritizes power from sources starting from the top left corner of the map, left to right, across each row, to the bottom corner of the map. I didn't experiment very hard to check it, but it makes sense programmatically if each circuit has a list of "sources" that happens to be sorted by map position.

[@andreweaston1779]

I've never seen this before. Great!

[@moldycarrot9267]

About the automation you warned about. What is that?? I cannot make sense of it, it should jam up first that happens.

[@tonyadvanced6315]

It's pretty hard to figure out but it's very clever. To understand it you'll have to keep in mind that it takes one tick of time for a gate to change state. It takes advantage of those very short delays. For example, gates that feed back into themselves can flash on or off for just a moment.

[@JD_Mortal]

Power isn't the only thing in the game that defies logic and physics... It all does. Which is funny because of how much effort they put into adding actual physics and logic into the game, where it isn't truly needed. 🙄 Honestly, they should have just used simple logic and physics for power. A battery is a load when charging and a supply when draining. Wires loose power, based on distance from the source. Amps, not watts, determines load on a wire. (You can use thin wire at 4000000watts, if the voltage is high enough, because the amps are the same. Thus, you would use voltage transformers, not the garbage they created and thicker wires.) You would have a 120v or 240v wire transformer, a 1200v transformer and a 12,000v transformer at various stages. But all the wiring would be the same. Length limiting what can be powered, before a battery is needed, in-line, to extend the reach. While also being used to buffer a source or draw. I'm still waiting for faster moving gasses and "heat to rise", "heat to cause expansion of gasses", and the reverse for cooled gasses. Actual "volume flow" would be nice too. As well as gasses mixing, per block, so they don't keep getting stuck and creating all these exploit solutions to make-up for bad programming hacks. Which oddly, create more problems and are slower than basic logic to process. 😂 This game actually makes every player more dumb, to reality. You learn horrible physics and logic that defies reality.

[@tonyadvanced6315]

The game contains its own fantasy version of physics. I find it compelling. We get to game out the workings of a different reality.

[@JD_Mortal]

@@tonyadvanced6315 Yes, it turns everyone into a hacker, using exploits, just to simulate something more like reality, or defy logic even more. Like the electrolizer that, without exploits, never actually comes close to outputting what the device states as an output. Best case, you get 75% of the output. Exploited you actually get 100% output. 🙄

[@AnotherSpaceCowBoy]

You're talking about exploits... in a solo game ! Nobody will be "hurt" by this. People do what they want solo. Everything you say is not really true, since the game got so much success. I've searched very deep in what people can really do in this game and it's absolutely crazy. Those people are sometimes real engineer and they don't care apparently. It's FUN obvisouly. Maybe not for you.

[@Ibian666]

The fact that power providers don't overload wires is a massive design flaw. Needs to be fixed asap.

[@tuanomsoc]

Aren't you still running heavi watt wire to your appliances?

[@tonyadvanced6315]

I did that in the video in an attempt to demonstrate that this works even when you need to send lots of power to high demand circuits. In practice I find it more useful to keep everything on 2kw circuits instead of 20kw circuits.

[@komasdfg]

That's because the appliance side is using more than 2kW for the sake of this video. The main point is the distance from the main battery station to the appliance source battery uses only 1kW wire which will save you a lot of metals.

[@karlh5645]

Instead of using 4 gates you could just use one not gate and then wire all the switches that needs to be close to input end and the other two to the output.

[@tonyadvanced6315]

The timing for all the switches has to be on the same tick or your wires will get overloads. The not gate would switch them on an off-by-one tick.

[@efethecaptain6]

Nice tutorial but I can't imagine where would I use it tho. I mean at the stage which I'm producing 20kw+ power I can afford all kinds of wires everywhere. Thanks anyway. If anyone uses this early stage of the game let me know.

[@PyrokineticFire1]

how early stage? I have used a low-watt wire system in a base. I started with standard low watt circuits for research and rock crushing. I started linking circuits, used jumbo batteries that switched based on a timer sensor, making "battery packs" for my 1kw or 2kw load circuits. once I got a metal refinery setup, I started using smart batteries (& refitting the jumbo packs). fairly standard energy progression: started with hamster wheels, moved to coal (setting it up to be controlled by a cycling smart battery signal is tricky), tapped a natural gas geyser, dug down into oil biome, started setting up steam and burned some petroleum. built a monument and moved on.

[@Mgis90]

I use this early because of Decor and the fact that I dont want to make dedicated shafts horizontal and vertical for heavy-watt wires. I just got my first two smart batteries.

[@redcube9629]

I think the common problem is that how to efficiently distribute power, how to use proper wiring so that the wires dont leak negative decor, I think what you did was basically useless since I wouldnt like heavy watt wire to flow everywhere. Thats just what I think

[@redcube9629]

cause sure youve distributed a ton of power using a 1k watt wire, but used heavy watt wire on essentially every "machine" in your base.

[@tonyadvanced6315]

@@redcube9629 The heavy watt wire is unnecessary. I only used it to demonstrate that that heavy-watt circuits can be supplied this way Just use conductive wires and lighter circuits.

[@astrid2432]

I think you won't use 200 fridges on one place who needs 20KW or like running everything on one cable

[@ZielAmerak]

you can use power transformers after the batteries and distribute the power in 1k wires. this trick is just so you now could build your power source at the other corner of the map and not to build heavy watt wire all the way to your base, just a way to spend less resources.

[@tachau88]

Is this still a thing after official launch?

[@tonyadvanced6315]

Yep. Still works.

[@LordGentle]

Ubuntu. Nice.