Engineer/machinist tool

[Fidd]

Over the last few week I've been working with Septimanien, to produce a tool for engineers and machinists, as part of his excellent Wolfpack Multitool, both are currently being re-written as an English-language version (the original was in French).

During testing, a stand-alone version of the engine/e-motor version was created, and this same program is also incorporated in the new version of the multi-tool. Personally I find the stand-alone one best for me to use, as it's possible to alt-tab into it and still be able to simultaneously read the battery more easily.

What does it do?
If you enter a desired speed, eg 6.3 knots it will out-put a precise rpm for that speed surfaced on diesels, surfaced on e-motor and submerged on e-motor, as forward movement, or astern. This is very useful when the captain wants to match the convoy's speed for a parallel attack. It also acts as a mechanism for generating battery-reports. I usually do these every 1Kah, or with speed changes, and more frequently when the battery is lower than 5Kah.
The battery report can be copied to clip-board, and you simply paste it into the WP text buffer and hit return. There are check-boxes so you can make a full report, or an abbreviated one. If you align the program time with the ship's clock, at games start then all your reports are expressed in WP time provided you "refresh" the time just before generating the report. Or you can align it with your pc' system time.

Where this comes in useful is for long submerged runs, where you can forecast the distance capable of being travelled at any given e-motor speed, and the endurance of the battery. This can be used used to help plan battery usage to achieve something - or to show that it can't be. It's particularly useful if caught in shallow water and repeatedly evading dc attacks, or making long submerged runs at depth to enter a convoy. It's reasonably intuitive to use, and we've added numbers in white-boxes to help show the sequences. You can also set an rpm, instead if an EOT speed, and generate battery reports based on a non-standard rpm. This remains a beta program, but there are now no known bugs.

Attached are a couple of images showing it's use, and a report as generated.

Septimanien's link to the smaller dedicated engineer/machinist tool is here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JWS...ew?usp=sharing

He or I'll post a link to the full WP Tool which incorporates the above, once Septimanien has finished it.

NB. In the example report, I'd unchecked the "WP time" element to the report. If checked, it would have expresed the WP time of battery exhaustion.

If anyone needs help using this, just post here or contact me on discord.

[Fidd]

Sequences to operate this tool.

1. Go to ships clock, enter WP time top left [1] of tool.

To establish rpm for any specific speed:

2. enter speed with decimal value eg "6.3"
Select diesel sfc'd, electric sbmrg'd or electric sfc'd.
Select fwd or reverse and "no" unless flamed above default spd.
click on calculate and read off rpm required to achieve that speed.

To generate a battery report:
Enter Kah remaining [2]
Enter EOT order OR rpm
click on "refreh time" then "estimate" then "copy for wolfpack"
Bring up the text buffer and hit enter.

NB. ensure before clicking on estimate, that you have ticks entered on each element you wish to incorporate into the report.

Suggested uses: After the control room crew have measured the speed of the convoy, get them to pass you the convoy speed. Enter that speed and calculate to generate the rpm required. Obtain that rpm on diesel controls (less accurate) or set rpm 50 higher than requested rpm on diesel throttle scale, then set parallel/parallel and balance motor and battery voltage within 60V of each other by adjusting speed controller. When balanced, put motor direction switch from off to forward. This should prevent breakers from blowing. Adjust rpm with slow gentle movements of the speed controller until desired rpm is achieved, read from the e-motor shaft rotation gauge. This very accurate, enabling speed correct to less than 0.1 knot. As the diesels cool, backing off the speed controller may be required to maintain rpm. If a diesel order comes in, ensure you turn off the e-motor panel before advancing diesel throttles.

On the reporting side of things, this is most useful in terms of providing the captain hard information concerning how long the battery will last at a given EOT order or rpm. As this is decidedly non-linear as speed increases, it's hard to guestimate this without a tool like this, or tables.

I tend to report every 1kAh or 500Ah dependant on our speed. Faster speed, more frequent reports. In order to make the reports more useful, I enter the next Kah value, before the battery reduces to that value, watch the battery fall to that value, then create and send off the report when the Kah falls to that value. In the event there's a large speed change order made, or, the KAh is low, then I'll make reports when the new speed order is rung on the EOT especially if it FASTER!

The rpm's/speeds have been tested fairly thoroughly, so should be correct, especially diesel/surfaced I've generally found the rpm out-putted for a given speed to be more accurate than most tables. If you should fine that's wrong, please let us know?

The "Phase" relates to the battery switches. \ \ (phase 1) is series parallel, / \ (phase 2) is parallel parallel and / / (phase 3) is parallel series. All read left to right obviously!

This tool was written by Septimanien, not me, all I did was to help with translation from French to English and suggest a few features. I'm sure he'd enjoy any feeback, and would find even negative feedback constructive and useful?

[Lignite]

Thats good stuff, thanks to Septimanian, and thank you Fidd for your work and passing it along here. I have a couple of RPM settings for a a given speed in my memory, but it would really take me some time if a captain said 'set screws for 11 knots'. Fun stuff.

[Fidd]

Thanks, but Septimanien did all the work, all I did was help him translate some French into English, and, iirc, I came up with the idea of being able to copy the report and paste it into the text buffer, which meant we didn't have lots of voice comms to relate it all. (although use of voice to relay is remains an option instead of pasting the report into the ingame chat) Sept' did the great bulk of the hard work.

[Lignite]

Hmm. This probably belongs in your other thread Fidd, but now I want a small chalk board on the bulkhead in the engine room so I can 'write down' (type) notes; such as time/date or speed/rpm, or charge times, etc. What a great game we have here.


I can't remember if a editable Captains Log was brought up or not either. I don't mean to be the guy that is always demanding 'I want I want'. I should probably go buy another copy of this fine game just to show some support. Thanks to our developers for a great game.

[Fidd]

Originally Posted by Lignite

Hmm. This probably belongs in your other thread Fidd, but now I want a small chalk board on the bulkhead in the engine room so I can 'write down' (type) notes; such as time/date or speed/rpm, or charge times, etc. What a great game we have here.


I can't remember if a editable Captains Log was brought up or not either. I don't mean to be the guy that is always demanding 'I want I want'. I should probably go buy another copy of this fine game just to show some support. Thanks to our developers for a great game.

I did suggest that the clip-board on the port-side bulkhead could be used by the chief engineer to upload an .jpg which could be clicked on, either to give "standing orders" - such as make 560C on all cylinders unless asked otherwise, machinist operates starboard side, (etc) or perhaps a perhaps a tasteful picture of Julie Andrews singing in the Alps. Or other such artistry! Don't feel bashful about giving ideas, as the Dev's can't think of everything, and sometimes a different perspective sees something the rest of us miss!