Supermatter Engine ErisEn

The supermatter is the core of power generation aboard the Eris. Don't touch, or even look at it unprotected.

Quickstart

Hope you aren't colorblind.

You'll need this computer.

1. Wrench canisters in ports in green squares. Plasma for (2) and Nitrogen for (1), but you also can use Plasma for both
2. Turn on pumps in yellow squares. IMPORTANT: Set them to max, else your TEGs won't be efficient
3. Set up omni-filters in red squares. Set it to filter gas that was wrenched in ports in green squares (1). Turn on pump in red square. Wrench empty canister in port in red square.
4. (Optional, but highly recommended) Wrench a Nitrogen canister to the port in the purple square and turn the purple pump to max.
5. Head to the computer in cyan square. Search for the inject port.
6. (Optional) Double check everything.
7. Start SM.

Usually you don't want your EER be too high, so use about 12-16 emitter shots for Nitrogen setup. It will eventually get lower, so check it sometimes. Plasma setup can withstand EER up to 1500+. You can simply just leave emitter on since it's bottlenecks at ~1400. If you can keep your cooling good enough you might even leave emitter on, but I would not recommend that.

TEG power output depends on: differences between temperatures in both loops and amounts of moles in both loops. More moles = more power, so it's good idea to introduce more gases to the loops.

It's also a good idea to upgrade the two SMES units (the ones side by side in the computer picture) using the parts in one of the crates south of them.

Basic Principles

The Generators

A TEG at work.

The core power generation is done by the Thermo-Electric Generators (TEGs). There are four in the engine, and they are powered by the flow of two gasses of differing temperature through their two sides. The larger the temperature difference, the more power generated. Note that they are less efficient when generating more than 500kW, but are not harmed by doing so, despite the intermittent sparks generated.

Gas Loops

There are two gas loops in the engine, the cold loop and the hot loop. By mixing in the generator, the temperature of the gasses are equalized somewhat, so the hotter gas should be reheated, and the cooler gas should be cooled. This is where the supermatter comes in. The cold loop flows from red pipe, to generators, to the green pipe, then out to radiators in space to cool back down. The hot loop flows from yellow pipe, to blue pipe, then into the supermatter chamber to be reheated. The supermatter, when excited, produces a large amount of heat, and will probably burn some of the plasma in the hot loop. In order to remove the products of this combustion, everything except plasma is filtered from the hot loop.