Building an Elevator

Hello Everyone!

So I'm new-ish to Space Engineers. I've been working my way through the components that you can build, experimenting with systems that can be built using them.

I've been playing survival since I got SE and I've started building a base in an asteroid. I've create a large reactor room and above it I'm wanting to build a battery storage room and above that there will be a solar farm.

I'm looking to now create a 3 level elevator system that connects to these three tier rooms. I've done a bit of reading and it seems pistons is maybe the way to go.

The elevator doesn't need to be big, maybe one or two blocks just for a couple of people to stand in!

The first thing I did was put a piston in at ground level and place a modded elevator catwalk ontop. Adjusting the piston seems to work fine raising and lowering the platform. The problem is the piston only reaches the ceiling of the ground floor.

Can anyone recommend a good technique for a tight elevator? It would be great to just have 3 buttons for each level. A video walkthrough would be amazing if anyone can point me to one. I couldn't find anything showing a step by step process.

Cheers,

James

 

i have one that does just that HOWEVER it is a bit finiky at the moment and it is much larger than you realy want

i tyend to use small blocks using the rotor trick to make them smaller but you need 2 rotors, made small and then the pistons need to be attached together which is an issue at the moment



but a screen shot of the sizes and space you want would really help and ill see if i can make something quickly for you later

 

Yeah size really differs here.

There are different techniques that are only feasible for low weights while others allow very high weights but are slow and currently bugged.


The easiest is simply using suspension wheels on rails. That is a method that allows you to move with up to max velocity along a linear rail. However that has a rather medium-low weight limitation. Furthermore you have to manually control it.

Rotors with wheel blocks on them however give acceptable weight lifting abilities but they speed is very limited. On the plus side however is that you can automate them.

If you however need to lift weights in the order of a few MN and above, the two above mechanisms will likely fail. In that case you could try to toy around with landing gears on pistons as both of them act upon infinite forces and only the havok constraints between both piston parts is what could cause issues. Though there currently is a big issue with landing gears and pistons. The pistons seem to disconnect when their both ends are connected through landing gears to the same grid.
One workaround for that could be to add another rotor/piston as separator for grids in between. Though that also induces another element of flexibility you dont want when working with high forces and moments.


Here is an example for how one of my elevators looks from above. The free surface on the elevator platform is a little over 70 m x 70 m and it also has "safety locks" (airtight hangar doors) to prevent entering/leaving the platform when it moves.
Though it sadly uses a piston mechanism that currently is bugged.
But you can essentially add any kind of propulsion to the bottom. Wheels, rotors and pistons.



That elevator is a medium elevator imo. Large elevators are in the range of 250 m x 250 m and above.

I hope that gives you a few ideas of how one could build an elevator and you either find a nice setup with these methods or even a completely new method based on these inputs.

 

@plaYer2k

thats an excessive size tbh my Samson welding crane is probably only twice the mass off that and that is a multi axis construction tool,

alsp PM me re havoc issues

also to the Op, life got in the way and i wasnt able to get on to knock a basic design up for you including any timer groups today and tomorrow is looking busy as well.

 

I wouldnt say that it is an excessive size as only four of my planetary exploration cars fit on that elevator and i got a large planetary drill that is supposed to be mobile aswell which barelly fits on the elevator at all as its meassures when "compressed" are roughly 55 m x 50 m x 75m.

As for the havok constrains, i didnt say that they cause issues but that they would be the only big remaining issue and source of errors due to their flexibility in a setup with landing gears and pistons.

 

Hey guys!

Many thanks for all the replies.

Basically I'm only looking to create a small elevator which will be inside my main base. It only needs to accommodate 2 or 3 people so maybe 3 x 1 blocks. I was going to place it in the middle of a large room so it would have a single thick block wall around it. 3 buttons would be sufficient to cover each tier. So the player can access;

Reactor Room (Ground Floor)
Battery Room (1st Floor)
Solar Array (2nd floor)

I got as far as attaching a catwalk to a piston on the ground floor level and manually changing the piston velocity to raise and lower it. The first problem I ran into is that the piston only goes so high, barely reaching the ceiling. I'm well aware that the system is going to be much more complex having to accommodate multiple stopping points. I'm just not sure what the most efficient way to approach it is. I'd like it to take up as little space as possible and avoid using programmable blocks as I'm not a coder myself!

If anyone has any suggestions that would be great!

 

You need to build a deep shaft and place some pistons on top of each other.( you may have to experiment on how deep the shaft is.
Im currently experimenting with this, and though manually i have the pistons working fine and can traverse about 10 levels, ive yet still to work out how to put the floor on because it touches my main levels shaft even though im trying to build below the lower level. Ive placed buttons on each level to call the lift, no doors atm, will work on it bit by bit. I think i may have to go down 1 more block then re-build the ( (3 long Pistons) 3=example) to make the elevator compartment floor which is 3x3 blocks, just for spacious personel elevators, which i have twin shafts side by side with dividing wall, sides and back 3x3 glass panels for view into space.

 

You won't be able to build an elevator without encountering a shitty bug.

That's what happens 500-800 hundred blocks.

 

sorry due to things i didnt get one ready for you

for what you want, and depending on how hight you make the rooms, you will want:

2 pistons
3 timer blocks MINIMUM (make the small ones)
a rotor
a small ship with rotor attach trick (assuming its working it has been iffy of late) to make the lift cage
3 buttons small
3 buttons large (for the floors)
3 regular or sliding doors for neatness as they can be set to close and open on leaving and arrival


the timer blocks are there to extend and retract the pistons ONLY so to goto floor 1 itis both RETRACT, for floor 2 its one retract one extend and for floor 3 its both extend, triggered by a button

the reason i say use a small ship is they can be made to fit into a shaft more easily

give it a try and when i have been to the shops and had some lunch i will make one for you.

 

MMaster has some elevators in his workshop. If you're going to use a mods, then just go-for-broke and use one of his.

The other solution (mentioned above) is to use pistons stacked on each other. The difficulty is getting the elevator to stop at the right floor.

Two methods:

One. Use a script from the workshop that allows you to set exact numbers on pistons and rotors.

Two. Use sensor blocks at each level you want the elevator to stop at. Set them to detect players and stop the pistons when it reaches the level of the player. Though you'll need a few buttons and to develop some logic as to how the elevator behaves (resetting itself when the player is no longer in range for example and turning on and off the correct sensor block when you punch in the floor that you want to get to).