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Infinite Piston Ship Base (Realistic Multipliers)

This is the base model for a ship* with an infinite piston. You can use it to drill holes and tunnels, build bridges, or maybe even a space elevator. Add a comment for how you use it. This design relies on timer blocks, so no mods or scripting required. White blocks and pieces are for extending the piston, black are for retracting (I know I didn't quite get this right in this version, will republish soon).

* Some assembly required

You'll need the merge block extension blueprint at a minimum, which is marked as a child blueprint, and is needed for the retract projector. You'll probably want another extension blueprint. Below are the workshop links to a couple.

Merge block extension: https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1688835267
Light armor extension: https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1688834893
Conveyor extension: https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1688833862


Operating Instructions:
It is important to only use specific controls to extend and retract. This blueprint provides an extend button panel (white) and a retract button panel (black). Only press "Extend" after "Complete Cycle" on the retract panel (and after letting it complete the current retract), and only press "Retract" after "Complete Cycle" on the extend panel (and after waiting for the current extend to complete).

Extend Button Panel
1) Extend: Begin extending (Ext timers group toggle on)
2) Pause: Stop the timers. This will prevent the next stage from triggering (Ext timers group off)
3) Complete Cycle: Allow the extend process to finish its current iteration (Ext timer 1 toggle off)

Retract Button Panel
1) Retract: Begin retracting (Retract timers group toggle on)
2) Pause: Stop the timers. This will prevent the next stage from triggering (Retract timers group toggle off)
3) Complete Cycle: Allow the extend process to finish its current iteration (Retract timer 1 toggle off)


Note: the timing may need to be adjusted according to your server settings and your use case. The settings in this blueprint err on the slower side out of the box, which work with "Realistic" grind and weld speed multipliers, and which slow down during the extension so that drilling can continue safely even if the sim speed drops a bit. Below are instructions for examples of adjusting the timing.

Drill extension takes too long: Find "Ext Timer Block 4 (stabilize)" in the control panel and lower the value
Grinds too long when retracting: Find "Retract Timer Block (end grind)" in the control panel and lower the value

Warning!: Adjust timing values slowly and by small amounts, and watch how it affects the whole cycle. If a phase is too short, you can easily lose the connection to whatever you are extending and are likely to provoke Clang.

P.S I tried adding this to the "production" tag, but the only one available when I published was exploration. Am I doing something wrong?