It's been some time since the last update, but today I am back with a first video showing the basics of automation! Our first case study will be power cells.
In Drovoid power cells deplete over time. They recharge when turned off, but this requires manual operations. While this is fine early in the game, with dozens of ships this stops being practical.
The answer is ship automation!
To automate the recharge cycle we use four logical modules. Two will detect when the power cell is empty or full (IsEmpty, IsFull) while the two others turn the power cell on/off on these events (If_PowerOn, If_PowerOff).
The event modules (IsEmpty, IsFull) detect whether a neighboring module triggers the event (empty/full), so they have to be in direct contact with the power cell. The 'If_' modules generate an action (on/off) upon an event. To receive the event they have to be in direct contact with an event module. To drive a module (turn it on/off) they either have to be in direct contact with it, or connected via a DataBus.
This construct (Is/If_) can be used for anything! For instance, you might want to turn off a ship's refineries when there is no ore in a container, so that power is not wasted in mining ships.
The video below gives a quick tutorial of power cell automation: