Участник:Burrito Justice/Sandbox

Hello welcome to here

HELP IM THE ONLY ENGINEER

The engine room. Middle click to open the picture in a new tab so that you can see it better.

A gas filter set to configuration mode.

So you're new and no one else has joined engineering and you have no idea how to setup the engine? Well first things first: don't panic! You could try waiting for an engineer to join and teach you... unless you've joined during deadpop hours, in which case, the following steps will get the engine rolling quickly with minimal explanation. You should probably read the rest of this guide to understand how it works in greater detail once you're done:

• If everything is out of power, skip to here.

1. Open a radiation PPE locker (one is found near the entrance to the engine room) and put on safety goggles, a radiation suit, and radiation hood.
2. Retrieve three Phoron canisters from hard storage (the room with two doors across from the equipment room with all the lockers) and move them to the engine room.
3. Wrench one of the canisters into the north connector.
4. Wrench another canister into the south connector. Do not turn the pumps on yet.
   • You do not have to open the canister valve on the canister UI. Don't worry about that.
5. Move to the northern end of the engine room and click on the filters. Click "configure", then click the button that says "Nitrogen" and change it to Phoron. Do this for both filters, and turn them both back on.
6. While you're up here, click the engine SMES and maximize both its input and output values.
7. Move back south and click the pumps, maximize the pressure, and turn them on. There are three of them, and they're less than a few tiles from each other.
8. You should see the canisters beginning to empty. Once the indicator light starts flashing, unwrench the canister on the south connector and plug in another one. If you did everything correctly up until now you should see purple stuff floating around in the core.
   • If you cannot see inside the core, click the reactor blast doors button on the wall.
   • If you do not see purple stuff floating around inside, check the pump on the northern connector. Otherwise check your filters to make sure they are filtering Phoron, and not some other gas.
9. Move over to the emitter and click on it. Count the amount of times it fires. If you lose track you can always examine it to see how many times it has fired.
10. After twenty shots, turn the emitter back off by clicking on it.
11. Close the SM core blast doors so that radiation doesn't spread to the rest of the engineering hallway.
12. Head north and open the blast doors to the waste processing room. Turn on and maximize all pumps, and turn on all three of the gas coolers (their values don't need to be modified).
13. Head to the main distribution SMES and maximize its input value. You can maximize its output value as well, but it shouldn't be necessary unless the station is very well populated and you're somehow the only engineer.

Congratulations, you have successfully setup the engine, and everyone can enjoy their round in a powered station. You're a hero for as long as no one finds out you used Phoron, an incredibly scarce resource! Unless you set something up wrong and now everything is either still out of power or in the process of exploding. For the former's case, refer to the quick diagnostic list. In the latter's case, head to this section.

The Actual Guide

Now, assuming you aren't new and actually know a bit of what you're doing, then this guide will attempt to accurately describe the intricacies and in-depth mechanics of most of the systems related to the SM engine, from the SM itself to the SMES units connected to it at the end of the line. An informed mind is one that can potentially save the station from disaster!

How It Works

On the surface level, the default engine setup is very simple: SM is energized, SM heats up gas, gas goes to TEGs, TEGs exchange heat and produce power, power goes to the SMES, etc. The sections below will cover what makes each individual part tick.

The Supermatter

See also: Phoron
The Supermatter (often known as the SM) is a large crystal of tightly compacted Phoron with special properties. This particular crystal differs from typically large quantities of Phoron in that it is a semi-transparent yellow instead of an opaque purple, and it even glows. Another contrast is that the Supermatter is incredibly unstable, and is capable of vaporizing solid and liquid - and sometimes gaseous - matter in an instant (this includes you). It can even consume photonic energy in the form of lasers. This process usually results in the Supermatter becoming "energized", a state at which it will begin to slowly shed Phoron and oxygen particles (roughly at a ratio of ten moles of Phoron to one mole of oxygen, depending on the temperature of the environment), as well as radiate Gamma rays and produce incredible amounts of heat. It is also in this energized state that its visual appearance will distort in the minds of the beholder, assuming they are biologic (excepting Dionae), and will inexplicably stimulate the visual cortex of the brain to hallucinatory extremes. A footnote in its energized state is when high concentrations of oxygen are introduced, forcing the crystal to radiate a red glow instead of its usual yellow. Intermittently, the crystal will also cease glowing all together. This interaction between the SM and oxygen is poorly understood, but what is known is that the crystal will passively energize in its presence at a rate dependent on how much oxygen there is. Put simply, anything shot/thrown at the SM will energize it, producing heat and lethal amounts of radiation, and probably hallucinations.

Two factors that determine how energized a Supermatter crystal is are power and decay. Power represents how much energy has been projected into the SM, whether it be from an emitter or even large quantities of oxygen. Power determines how hot the crystal can get, how much radiation it emits, how far its hallucinatory effect travels, and how much Phoron and oxygen it will shed. Its power level also influences decay, and decay - in turn -, influences power: decay determines how fast the crystal's power level will drop. What this means is that an emitter shooting the SM constantly will eventually cause the SM's power and decay to reach an equilibrium state, a point that cannot be passed unless even more energy is projected at the SM.

The Supermatter in its default state does nothing unless you do something to energize it. It does not produce Phoron or oxygen, it does not radiate Gamma rays, it does not generate heat, and it does not cause hallucinations. Though viewing it without protection in an unenergized state is poor form, it is safe nonetheless. It is also safe to pull the SM around freely. It is not safe to walk into/against the SM, nor is it safe to click on it; this will disintegrate you immediately. Removing the SM from a crate in an environment with oxygen (such as a hallway or poorly maintained SM chamber) also isn't safe for the reasons outlined above.

While being basically space magic is all well and good for the purposes of generating power, it's also incredibly dangerous if not managed properly. Besides being able to heat up its surrounding atmosphere to rather high temperature extremes when energized, it is also capable of exploding spectacularly, known as a "delamination event". Most commonly this occurs when the crystal's structure begins to decay as a result of extremely high heat, particularly at five thousand Kelvin and above, and the SM will eventually detonate if this is not corrected. It can also decay if it is exposed to vacuum while energized. Though the Supermatter can be "damaged" in a way, it is also capable of regenerating itself if allowed an environment in which it can do so. It is prudent, then, to keep the SM from becoming over-energized and heating its environment up to a point where it can self destruct, a task that isn't that difficult since all Supermatter crystals provided by NT come with a device that will broadcast over the radio its status if it is concerning.

TL;DR: Energizing the SM (shooting it with the emitter/a gun, or touching it with something else/yourself, or introducing oxygen to it) will make it produce heat and radiation, and start spewing Phoron and oxygen, and make you hallucinate without safety goggles. It begins to take damage at 5000 Kelvin (though the borosilicate windows in the core begin to break at 4273 Kelvin), and this damage scales with temperature. It can also take damage if exposed to vacuum (even 0.1 kPa of gas will save it) while energized. It will explode and irradiate the entire map if allowed to take damage for too long and everyone will get pissed at you, mostly because the SM itself will yell at you over the radio if it's taking damage.

The TEGs

Your typical TEG UI in an unpowered state.

Something much better understood compared to the SM are thermoelectric generators, or TEGs as they're often shortened to. The basic operating principle of any TEG is that it uses the difference in temperature between gas to generate electricity, the result being power based on the difference and slightly colder/hotter gas. In practice, the Supermatter - when energized - will heat up its surrounding atmosphere to a rather high degree. These gases are then pumped into one of the turbines (the north one) on the TEG, where it will exchange heat with the turbine on the opposite end (the south one) that hopefully has gas that is significantly colder. This turbine has gas being pumped in from a somewhat extensive radiator network in space, where it is slowly chilled. The two gases exchange heat with each other, producing energy, and the difference in temperature between the two is lowered slightly. Note that TEGs can safely produce up to five hundred kilowatts individually, beyond which they will begin to grow a little less consistent in their power generating capabilities. There is no danger in going above this threshold, however.

A TEG also needs some sense of flow in order to function, meaning a turbine's input and output sharing the same pipe network without something to break it up will function rather poorly, if it functions at all. In particular, the turbine's input requires gas to be moved towards it specifically. Most commonly, a pump of some sort can be found connecting much of the cold loop to a small section of pipe connected to the turbine's input. While it may not be obvious, the hot loop does actually possess a pump in the form of a vent constantly scrubbing gas from the air. A TEG turbine has specific sides that its input or output can be found on, which can be found by simply examining the turbine.

In all honesty, most of the values shown in the UI aren't necessary at all to know except for output. If the TEG's sprite looks green then all is well on the TEG's end. Regardless, the values will be described anyway:

• Total Output: The amount of power available that can be output into a wire. You even get a cool looking bar that shows how much power is being generated! Wow!
• Thermal Output: The actual amount of power being generated. Due to inefficiencies with the system, some power is lost, hence the existence of the Total Output value.
• Turbine Output: How much power the turbines themselves are generating, independent of thermal exchange. Probably.
• Flow Capacity: Literal mystery number.
• Inlet/Outlet Pressure/Temperature The pressure and temperature of the inlet and outlet, measured in kilopascals and Kelvin respectively. As you can imagine, the inlet refers to the pipe network connected to the input of the TEG, while the outlet refers to the pipe network on the output side. You can examine the turbines to see which side the input and output are on.

For more information on how gas interacts with the TEGs, refer to the coolant section of this guide.

Gas and Heat

See also: Guide to Atmospherics
So you have some fancy rock that could, by some metrics, be described as the spawn of some eldritch horror dwelling in the cosmos and some spiny machines that can make power from spicy interactions with said rock. Cool! But it won't just produce power right off the bat; no, you need to supply a medium that can be used to make the TEG do TEG things! The coolant subheading should be able to give you a brief summary of what gases do what! It even tells you about heat capacity, which is important, so go read it!

Of course it's not like the gases can just wangjangle all together in open air, that'd be weird! Instead, the gases are pumped into a series of pipe networks that flow into and out of the TEGs, as well as the SM core and the large radiator in space. They're even color coded: cyan is on the output end of the hot loop turbine, where it will be re-injected into the SM core to heat back up. The orange/brown loop is on the input end of the hot loop turbine, where it takes in hot gas from a vent pump siphoning gas from the SM core. The green loop is on the input end of the cold loop turbine, where the gases in the radiator network are pumped in. The black loop is on the output end of the cold loop turbine, where gases that were warmed up in the exchange of thermal energy are output into the radiator network to be cooled back down.

The pipes can be safely pressurized up to 70000 kPa - a figure that can be pretty hard to reach depending on the size of the pipe network -, beyond which the pipes might begin to explode. One of the biggest determining factors for pipe pressure is heat, particularly something called thermal expansion. In the context of gas in pipes, hot gas results in higher pressure. Higher pressures mean that atmospheric devices like pumps attempting to force gas from a lower pressure network into the higher pressure network can be slowed down significantly. The most immediately concerning thing that can result from this is the hot loop functioning at a very high pressure during an emergency, and being unable to inject significant amounts of dump coolant because the pump either cannot force the gas from a canister into the loop fast enough, or the pressure simply exceeds the pump's maximum possible target pressure setting. See the emergency procedures section on how to deal with this.

With the above in mind, it's important to realize that pressure does not equal the amount of gas actually inside a medium. Gas quantity is measured in moles, which should be used as the real determining factor as to how much gas is inside a medium like a pipe network or a canister. Pressure and temperature can be measured with pipe meters, while moles (with pressure, temperature, and gas composition) can be measured with a gas analyzer.

Worth mention is something called the fire triangle. Put simply, the three corners of the triangle represent heat, fuel, and an oxidizer. If all three of these are present then a fire will occur. Conversely, if one of these elements is removed, then you have no fire: Phoron spewing out all around a room and some broken light is sparking, but there's no oxygen or N2O? No fire, no problems, simple as that! This principle may be important to keep in mind if you choose to run an engine that has an oxidizer in the hot loop.

Safety First

Before entering the engine room you should always wear proper PPE. The following will suffice, and are always found inside radiation lockers:

• Safety Goggles to prevent hallucinations from developing by looking at the SM. How do they work? Who knows...
• Radiation PPE to keep you from receiving a lethal dose of radiation that can very easily kill you within minutes. Dionae and IPCs are exempt from wearing this.

As long as you have these two sets of items you are pretty much safe unless the engine room is either an inferno or vacuum. Certain hardsuits and voidsuits are immune to radiation as well if you need to wear those out of necessity.

Файл:SMES.pngSMES Configuration

There are two SMES units that are immediately relevant to the engine: the engine SMES and the main distribution SMES. The former is what receives power from the TEGs and powers the engine room APC directly as well as the emitter. If the output is not high enough, the emitter may not fire, or the APC may not have enough power to allow the pumps to operate. The other SMES also receives power from the TEGs, but it outputs to the rest of the station. It should have its input maximized, since every kilowatt not used is another kilowatt wasted. The output can be adjusted as needed, of course, but one should take into account how populated the departments are and how much power the station will need in general.

Coolant

An intrinsic property of matter - particularly gas, in SS13's case - is something called heat capacity, a variable that determines how much energy it takes to increase the temperature of a substance. In the context of setting up the SM: how energized the SM needs to be in order for the gases in the hot/cold loops to actually rise in temperature. Heat capacity also factors into how power is generated with the TEGs; higher heat capacity allows a gas to hold more thermal energy, which means more energy can be transferred between the turbines, allowing more energy to be produced.

• Phoron: Arguably the most stable and safe gas to use, Phoron carries with it a stupidly high heat capacity, at least compared to most other available gases. There is a lot of leeway with this particular gas, making it easy to train new apprentices with. It's worth noting, though, that phoron is a fuel, and can start fires. It is also a very scarce resource, and its use should be rationed out carefully if it is actually used. The SM will generate Phoron passively as long as it is energized. This gas is viable for either the hot loop or the cold loop.
• Hydrogen: Second best gas to use with the second highest heat capacity, and it compares pretty well to Phoron, at least compared to the other gases. Like Phoron (sans all the wacky space magic that comes with it), Hydrogen is a fuel, and can start fires. It is otherwise inert and safe to breathe as long as you don't light a match. This gas is viable for either the hot loop or the cold loop.
• Nitrous Oxide: Not nearly as good as Phoron or H2 (in fact it's leagues below these two), it's still a respectable gas nonetheless. Its only caveat is that it is an oxidizer, and it will start a continuous fire if used in the hot loop, though the heat generated from such isn't as bad as one might think. It can also knock people out if exposed to the atmosphere, but almost all of these gases are dangerous in high quantities anyway. This gas is viable for the cold loop, but less so for the hot loop unless it is monitored.
• Carbon Dioxide: Just under N2O in terms of heat capacity is CO2. This gas pretty much has nothing going for it other than that. You'll probably see this in the chamber anyway as a result of the SM producing Phoron and oxygen passively (which almost immediately burns up into CO2). This gas is viable for either the hot loop or the cold loop.
• Nitrogen: Lowest heat capacity, twined with oxygen, N2 has been regarded as the standard coolant for the SM engine, but the fact of the matter is that this is definitely no longer the case, and N2 should really only be reserved for experimentation or as emergency dump coolant. This gas is barely viable for anything.
• Oxygen: Same heat capacity as N2, except it's also an oxidizer (obviously). Oxygen can also energize the SM. Because of this, using this in the hot loop will almost definitely result in a roaring, nearly uncontrollable blaze eventually. That's not to say that it can't be controlled, but this shouldn't be the first gas you look at for coolant. The SM will generate oxygen passively as long as it is energized. This gas is barely viable for anything.
• Air: Literally just 79% N2, 21% O2. Why would you use this. I mean, you have a lot of it, sure, but... why? For the reasons listed on the O2 section, using this is a terrible idea.

Waste Processing

While this whole shebang doesn't impact SM performance too much, it's a good idea to set it up anyway, otherwise TEG performance might be negatively impacted, or worse. The filters up north are what will keep the coolant gas in the loop and the byproducts/gases you don't want out, pushing them towards the room to the north, assuming you set them up right. Towards the top of this guide is a picture of a filter's UI in configuration mode. Pressing "configure" will bring that screen up, allowing you to tweak the settings of the filter. The button that says "nitrogen" is what you'll want to change assuming you're not using nitrogen as coolant. You should do this to both of the filters, then turn them both back on. The picture on this subheading is what an operational filter may look like. Incorrectly setting these filters will most likely result in the SM chamber slowly depressurizing until there is no gas left, or the gas leftover is so miniscule that it heats up to dangerous values instantly.

The room beyond these filters has a black pipe network known as the waste line with two pumps, a connector, and three gas coolers. As it turns out, siphoning gas from the blazing hot almost-inferno of an engine chamber gives you very hot gas, which has expanded considerably, making most atmospheric devices function slowly, particularly the devices in Atmospherics, assuming the waste gases are allowed there via the pump connected to the scrubber line. Thus it's a good idea to cool the gas down with the gas coolers. The simple way to set this up is to turn on and max both pumps and turn on all three gas coolers. Alternatively you can plug in an empty canister into the connector instead of pumping the gases into the scrubber line, but there's no real reason to unless you just want to expand the volume of the waste network.

Because of how the filters are setup, using two different gases in the hot loop isn't possible without modifications. Why you would bother using more than one gas in the hot loop is a mystery, but it is worth mentioning.

Turn It On

Once everything is all said and done - the pipes are full of gas, the filters are filtering properly, the cold loop pump is turned on, and the TEGs look like they're working -, it's time to turn this sucker on! Assuming you didn't use oxygen in the hot loop (why would you), the SM should be in an inert state, ready to be energized by this big ol' laser thing, the emitter. The emitter is basically a very high power laser that fires in bursts of four. Because of how the SM's power and decay function (described in this section), each shot to the SM will be functionally weaker than the last, though this effect is really only noticed if you shoot beyond fifty shots. Speaking of shots, an important variable in an engine setup is how many shots the emitter takes, which you should probably be counting. If you managed to lose count, don't sweat it: you can examine the emitter to see how many times it has fired.

The emitter is connected directly to the engine SMES; it does not receive power from an APC, it must be wired into a powered grid directly. That grid specifically requires thirty kilowatts in order for the emitter to fire. In the context of the engine power grid, the engine SMES output should probably be set far above this value so as to take into account the power draw of the engine room APC.

Emergency!

First you should make sure you have power lmao So for your first or second go-around, the SM seems like a pretty complex and cruel engine, but that's only half true: in fact, compared to all of the other engines in the code, the SM is actually incredibly forgiving: it takes more than a few minutes to blow up during which it can be saved, it yells over the radio if it begins to take damage, it yells loudly over the radio if it's about to blow, and its scale of destruction - while discouraging - hardly compares to the level of chaos that something like the singularity or tesla can cause. Now that we know that not all hope is lost and that you can easily rescue the engine, it's time to get to work!

Firstly, the biggest thing that can go wrong with the engine is the SM overheating. This occurs when the temperature of the core exceeds 5000 Kelvin, a value that can be gleaned by looking at one of the engine core control consoles. What exactly causes it to reach that temperature can be based on a variety of things: poor coolant choice, over energization, coolant backup, missing pipes to name just a few. The sections below will cover how to correct this.

Coolant Dump

Assuming the pipes are not pressurized beyond 15000 kPa, dumping a random coolant (like nitrogen) into the hot loop via the canister connector has proven to be quite effective. How it works is it takes a room temperature gas (usually 20C, unless you chilled it before hand) and introduces it to an incredibly hot inferno. The thermal difference between the new coolant and the old coolant is huge, and it will cool down the core almost instantly. As a bonus, the dump coolant (assuming it isn't the same gas that you set the engine up with) will gradually filter out of the loop via the filters, keeping everything nice and clean once all is said and done. This, of course, is not a permanent solution, but it will buy you a lot of time. There are four N2 canisters sitting around in the corner of the engine room, ready to be used as dump coolant.

You can, of course, inject more of the gas you used during setup, but for obvious reasons this will offset the balance you set the engine up with... not that it matters that much, probably. If you care about ratios that much, just do the above.

Coolant Valves

The white squares shown in the picture of the engine room at the top of the page are the emergency coolant mix valves. These will join the hot and cold loops together to allow the hot loop - the gas that is probably incredibly hot - to be cooled down, at least initially, with the gas from the cold loop, and also cool it off with the radiator network. This will almost certainly result in the TEGs power production being killed off, and will invariably disrupt your gas ratios if you really care about them. This solution is a little more long term than dump coolant, but you should make sure your SMES units have enough power to function while maintenance is being conducted on the SM.

Using the mix valves when you're using two different types of coolant is a much harder endeavor. Unless the filters are turned off, all of your cold loop gas will eventually be filtered out. Even if the emergency is handled, you'll be stuck with two different gases in at least one of your loops. Just something to keep in mind.

Direct Cooling: Maverick Style

First two methods aren't getting you anywhere, or the pipes were sabotaged in such a way to prevent them from working? Well, this is it everyone. I guess engineering is going to explode now.

Well, maybe if you're a quitter. Throw on a voidsuit and grab an extinguisher and inflatable door. Break into the CE's office Politely ask the CE to unbolt the engine hatches (they may need to press the button twice for it to actually unbolt), setup an inflatable door outside one of the hatches, open the hatch up, and let loose with the extinguisher foam. The result is the room cooling down to such an extreme that you might wonder how you can even wield such power. The day is saved and the SM won't be exploding for a while. Now that that's done, you should probably get the heck out of there since your voidsuit most likely doesn't shield you from as much radiation as you'd like.

Core Venting

If you've managed to determine that the gas used in the core just simply sucks and can't support the energized state of the SM, it's probably time to just swap to a different gas all together. First you should set the filters to the new gas that you plan to use so that you don't waste any when you begin injecting it. This will slowly filter the core's old coolant out, but this is going to be way too slow and the SM will probably blow up before you can actually inject a new coolant, thus we will just vent the core instead. The button up north next to the nitrogen canisters behind a glass window (that you can smash easily) is what will open up the core vent to space, which will rapidly drain the core of all gases. As long as the core has some pressure, the amount of damage it takes won't spike terribly as a result of being exposed to vacuum. You or another engineer should confirm that the vent is actually open by checking on the camera inside. Once the gases have been drained sufficiently, close the vent and start dumping in the new coolant into the hot loop. If all well and good then the day is saved and you don't have to worry about anything else. Good job!

Ejection

This is the last resort. If the engine room is already somehow blown up, the core cannot be secured in time, and/or many of the pipes are missing and you are very short on time, then maybe it's time to consider ejecting the SM to save the engine room from exploding and saving other people the trouble of being blasted with radiation. You will notice that the SM rests on a mass driver, basically a slingshot. When activated, this will send the SM flying. For obvious reasons, the core vent should be wide open before attempting to use this. The button for the vent can be found on the northern end of the room next to the nitrogen canisters, while the button for ejecting the core is in the CE's office. Considering the severity of the situation, no one will really blame you if you decide to break in and launch the SM out yourself, assuming you really are out of options.

Note that the SM takes damage if it is powered and exposed to vacuum. Because of this, you must either be swift or accurately coordinate the SM's ejection so that it doesn't blow up before you launch it.

Something Went Wrong!

The mass driver does not know whether or not the vent is open, it just drives mass, that is all it does. Hitting the mass driver before the vent is open will just launch the SM into the blast door and nothing will happen. This severely complicates everything since now you must place the SM back onto the mass driver in order to eject it properly. Yes, this means you have to go into the core yourself to pull it back into position. Yes, you will probably die, but such is the consequence of a grave mistake like this.

Upgrades

SMES upgrade, more TEGs, better use of coolant, more pumps, blah blah blah