Automatic Reactor Controller HTS

EDIT: August 22th, 2026. Hooray, they added more pins to the circuit board. To clarify, the wires must still go into SIGNAL_IN_1 through 8. SIGNAL_IN_0 and SIGNAL_OUT_0 are not used! Furthermore, since they fixed the start of round problem, SIGNAL_IN_8, which used to turn the reactor off while docked, is no longer necessary. You may reuse this pin for any other conditional reason you want to temporarily turn the reactor off, or just leave it out entirely.

UPDATED: March 28th, 2025. Modified the HTS PF variant so you can safely add fuel rods whenever without the auto-calibration going haywire. Keep in mind this will still temporarily but potentially massively increase output whenever turbine is higher than required for output, so it is best to disable 100% turbine mode and wait for turbine to come down before adding rods. When you optionally wire the docking hatch to the 8th input pin, it turns it off while docked, this allows you to more safely use it at start of round because it will reset the turbine to 0, and only slowly climb back when the round has begun.

UPDATED: September 16th, 2024. Added a variant (HTS v2 PF) with improved performance (see video for new slider movement) and overvolt circuitry built in. This is now the preferred circuit and is displayed in the video (with 100% turbine and overvolting not used) and images. v2 Box was kept due to a differently functioning performance mode that may be preferred by some, older versions have been removed.

A new automatic reactor controller (ARC) designed specifically for the Hoist the Sails update with auto-calibration that can be built during a campaign and does not require the sub editor.

This is primarily a fission-based controller, but unlike every other controller that locks turbine at 100%, this one keeps turbine only as high as it needs to and has asymmetrical response patterns, giving very quick power drops to protect your junction boxes, but being slower on the way up, more akin to fuel efficient controllers. This provides it with mostly the efficiency of an efficient controller and the response rate of a fission-based one. Opposing needle movement further enhances response rates both on the way up and down, allowing response rates to be even faster than a full fission-based during wild power swings both up and down when starting with high output.

Additionally, it comes with circuitry for both overvolting as well as an input pin for turning it into a full 100% turbine fission-based controller should you so desire for sudden idle to high power situations in the near future, and you can safely switch between modes without overheating or any other problems.

Maximum power output is automatically calculated and no configuration is required, but you may want to change the overvolting component before use. It is set at 1.7 by default, this may be too high or low for your liking and/or submarine.

For reference, after installing this mod the following item assemblies will be available: Automatic Reactor Controller HTS v2 PF (you will probably want to use this one) Automatic Reactor Controller HTS v2 Box

Specs:

• 20% per second power drops
• Up to 20% per second power increases
• Self-calibrating continuously, no need to figure out the reactor's maximum output
• Works for any max reactor output
• Never overheats and does not suffer from brown-outs (with exception of fuel changes..)

Important things to know:

1. You must turn on the reactor itself (but not mess with sliders) before you turn on this circuit's on/off switch to avoid overheating during start-up. 2) You must adequately lower fission rate manually or turn off the circuit while adding more fuel rods to avoid overvoltage, to minimize having to do this, it is recommended (and safe!!) to just use 4 rods at all times. This is now only needed if you are running it on 100% turbine mode.
2. It cannot be used together with the built-in automatic control. They do not mix.
3. While this works flawlessly in singleplayer, desyncs in multiplayer can break down the auto-calibration mechanism by randomly jumping temperature around. :/

If you enjoy this design, please leave a like to help it get rated. Thank you.

======================= FOR V2 BOX ONLY (old but included):

Performance mode can be tweaked by changing the output value of one of the OR components, you can recognize the component by the default value of 1500 (Bottom right component, or connected to the 6th input of the Circuit Box). Valid values range from 0-5000, every 50 will pre-slide the turbine by an extra 1% on top of current load. This does not affect power output but makes it more responsive on the way up at cost of efficiency. A value of 5000 locks your turbine at 100% and will make it behave like a simple fission controlled system.

Works best with more heat potential, at least 150 is recommended but more is (slightly) better. Using only a single Thorium rod reduces the drop of output per second by about half!!

Link to Reactor Torture Device: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2835949658 used in video