Module: Hard Hoof: Tech (hardhoof_tech)
Steam is a closed fluid loop: Water Pump → Fluid Pipe → Boiler → Fluid Pipe → Steam Turbine → copper wire. Fluid pipes are dumb; pumps and boilers push fluid to every sink on the pipe network that will take it. Steam never places as a world fluid.
Fluid Pipe
Workshop recipe, yields 16: 6 iron plates and 3 rubber (hardhoof_tech:fluid_pipe_1 ×16). Pipes take no casing. The layout is in JEI. The 0.6.0 download used an older pattern with more plates and rubber.
| Rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Network size | up to 256 pipes |
| Push budget | 100 mB/t per machine into its network |
| Behavior | No pumps-in-pipe; makers push, consumers accept |
One line may carry water and steam at once: water goes to boilers, steam to turbines.
Water Pump
New in the development build: a Hearth Casing, 1 Motor, 1 piston and 1 bucket, built at the Machine Workshop (hardhoof_tech:water_pump_1 ×1). It is a piston pump on a Hearth casing. Impellers start at Bronze.
| Quantity | Value |
|---|---|
| Power | None |
| Rate | 40 mB/t into touching fluid pipes |
| Water source | 3×3 under the pump. Water is finite: one wet block under it is enough to pump, but a small pool runs dry. Rain and rivers refill it (see Water) |
| Internal tank | 4000 mB water |
Status: pumping / no water / backed up. Device kind: water_pump (status only).
Boiler
New in the development build: the Boiler is the age's big build, a five-wide recipe at the Workshop on a Bronze Casing: 1 Bronze Casing, 2 Bronze Valves, 1 furnace, 2 cauldrons and 4 iron plates (hardhoof_tech:boiler_1 ×1). See Tech tiers.
| Quantity | Value |
|---|---|
| Fuels | Coal, charcoal, coal block (same family as the Coal Generator) |
| Heat-up | ~20 s to full heat |
| Steam while hot | 30 mB/t (1 mB of water → 1,672 mB of steam; about 1 mB of water every 3 s) |
| Tanks | 1000 mB water (about 46 min at full fire) + 8000 mB steam |
| Outside heat | Takes heat from a Graphite Pile: 1.5 J per mB of steam, up to 1.5 kW with its fire |
| Hold fire | Keeps burning while steam tank is full (no waste) |
| One coal | 48 buckets of steam at full heat |
One bucket of water goes a long way: a mB of water boils into about 1,670 mB of steam, so one coal's 48 buckets of steam take only 29 mB of water and one Water Pump can feed a whole boiler house. The Boiler's screen shows how long its water lasts. A Boiler that stopped and started again once made about 13% too much steam; that is fixed, and it now cools in about 20 seconds.
Water arrives from fluid pipes (Water Pump). Coal enters by hand, hopper, or Item Controller. Steam is pushed into fluid pipes toward turbines. Device kind: boiler.
Steam Turbine
New in the development build: a Bronze Casing, 2 Bronze Impellers and 1 Motor (hardhoof_tech:steam_turbine_1 ×1). The 0.6.0 download uses an older pattern; JEI shows your build's recipe.
| Quantity | Value |
|---|---|
| Electrical output | up to 240 W at 24 V (10 A), limited by its steam: 0.4 J per mB, so 30 mB/t for all of it |
| Steam use | up to 30 mB/t — only what loads need |
| Energy | 0.4 J per mB steam |
| Steam buffer | 4000 mB |
| Wire | Gauge that can carry 10 A for full output — Electricity & Wiring |
One hot boiler feeds one turbine at full steam. Rough energy: ~19 kJ per coal through steam versus ~7.7 kJ in a Coal Generator. Like other sources, one elected source owns a copper-wire network; a second turbine on the same island waits. Device kind: steam_turbine.
Away from home
New in the development build. A Water Pump, Boiler and Steam Turbine joined by fluid pipes, and the copper wire the turbine drives, keep running as if you had stayed when their chunks unload: the boiler burns its coal and the turbine powers its machines.
- A Fluid Tank, Steam Winder or Fluid Controller on the same pipes, or more than 256 pipes, keeps that set running only while loaded, for now.
- Computers (Terminal, Server Rack, Router, Exchange) on a factory's copper wire are fed while their chunk is unloaded, so their programs keep running for as long as the wire has power. Idle computers still sleep and cost almost nothing.
- The exception is the pump's draw from the world's finite water: a pump intake in an unloaded chunk stops drawing, while water already stored in the pipes and machines keeps flowing.
First loop
- Find a lake, river or pool with water in the 3×3 under the pump, and place the Water Pump above it. A small pool runs dry, so a river or lake is better.
- Fluid-pipe water to a Boiler; load coal; fluid-pipe steam to a Steam Turbine.
- Copper-wire the turbine to a load (for example Electric Furnace I).
- Light the boiler; after heat-up the turbine should show watts on Jade / its screen.
Common failures
- Pump: no water: no water under the pump, or the pool ran dry. Let rain refill it, or move to a bigger body of water.
- Pump: backed up: no boiler (or other sink) accepting water on the pipes.
- Boiler: no steam: still heating, no water, no fuel, or steam pipe not reaching a turbine.
- Turbine: waiting / no watts: another source owns the wire net, no steam, or no demand and buffer full.
- Turbine: low watts: not enough steam; one hot Boiler covers 240 W.
- Brownout at 240 W: wire gauge too small for 10 A — raise gauge or shorten the run.