• A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    78
    ·
    1 year ago

    Basic overcurrent protection? In my sci-fi?

    Next you’re gonna tell me you can’t just “re-route power” by pressing buttons on a screen and not, you know, actually unhooking any wires!

    • admiralteal@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      64
      ·
      1 year ago

      Building everything to be able to re-route to everything is WHY all the consoles are constantly exploding.

      • BloodSlut@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        28
        ·
        1 year ago

        What do you mean you dont want to reroute all the power for the warp engines into the navigation console?

      • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        O’Brien constantly breaking good cardassian engineering with infernal federation secondary backups.

      • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Exactly, sure you could have relays or Automatic Transfer Switches like we use from generators. But if you’re just slamming more power at stuff than it’s meant to use, where’s your overcurrent protection?

    • wrath_of_grunge@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      41
      ·
      1 year ago

      one of my favorite jokes about this is on TNG. i think it’s the episode where the bridge gets cut off from the rest of the ship, and Troi is in charge of running the ship. O’Brian makes a comment to Ro about how you can’t ‘just reroute power from things’.

      it’s a funny little nod from the writers.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      34
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t know about you people, but personally, I always write programs at work by removing boards from my computer and plugging them in a different order.

        • marcos@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          Well, it really wasn’t. You’d program by punching the cards, and then insert them into the computer. If they brought the boards from a terminal (or replicator), and switched the old ones to the new ones, the entire thing would make sense.

          It’s a bit similar to how people programed analogical computers at the 50s. But it’s actually a lot like programing old sewing machines. The thing those have in common is that their programs were always an order of magnitude smaller than this comment.

    • Norgur@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      31
      ·
      1 year ago

      How do you know the buttons don’t trigger relais or the like which then actually unhook the wires?

    • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      you can’t just “re-route power” by pressing buttons on a screen and not, you know, actually unhooking any wires!

      High-voltage switches might be a bit complicated. One I’ve seen requires you to tighten a spring and then have it released extremely fast to prevent sparking. Still, there should be a way to do it safely, without having to go near or touch the wiring.

  • mkwt@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    64
    ·
    1 year ago

    Once again I remind you all that these consoles are not powered by a substance as boring as regular electricity. Oh no. It has to be highly energetic tuned plasma…straight to the user interface consoles…for, uh, reasons.

    • aeronmelon@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      1 year ago

      The reason is because the engines produce this material as a waste product. So instead of venting it into space it’s processed and funneled back through the ship to power everything from lights to equipment.

      Very efficient and very VERY dangerous. Many Vulcans retired from the VSA because Humans pulled shit like this.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 year ago

        Wouldn’t it be easier and safer to just use it to generate boring old electricity and send that through the ship? Maybe the danger is there to keep the crew excited and working at maximum efficiency…

        • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          I like the theory that it’s sent to the bridge to uplift the morale of the regular crew. They knew the officers will be the first to get blown up in any hostile encounter.

          It keeps the captain in check if he knows he’s going to get a blown up console to the face instead of a lower deck red shirt dying .

          When those protocols can’t be used like in landing parties, it’s the red shirts who die first.

      • mkwt@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        All I’m saying is, there’s no way this would pass a MIL-STD-882 safety assessment in the twenty first century. So I have no idea how they got their spaceworthiness certificate.

    • Zorque@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      1 year ago

      Gotta have a way to effortlessly kill redshirts. Whoops! Another plasma conduit blew out. Poor Gary.

  • Sdnimm543@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    57
    ·
    1 year ago

    Battle shorting the practice of negating the fuses in a ship or other war machine because a blown fuse disabling a key system could lead to the loss of the whole ship in battle, and the equipment can maybe work over its rated limit for a time when necessary. Cathode Ray Dude did a video about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpJ_6LCly4A

    • Spot@startrek.website
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      70
      ·
      1 year ago

      “In a battle or emergency, where the survival of the vessel (or other protected asset) is dependent upon the continued operation of the equipment, it is sometimes wiser to risk equipment damage than have the equipment shut down when it is needed. For example, the electrical drives to elevate and traverse the guns of a combat warship may have “battleshort” fuses, which are simply copper bars of the correct size to fit the fuse holders, as failure to return fire in a combat situation is a greater threat to the ship and crew than damaging or overheating the electrical motors.”

      Huh. Learn something all the time.

    • bouh@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Something can probably be done though with matter synthetiser and teleporters.

  • bouh@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    1 year ago

    Another problem is about where to redirect the overcharge. In space there is no ground where the current can go. Yet you need to dissipate the energy somewhere.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Do we have fuses that can safely dissipate like 350Megajoules? I don’t remember which specific episode it was, but I remember on DS9 they were going to overload the warpcore to stop something and someone said the only system on the station capable of absorbing that much raw electrical energy was the shield system, since that’s literally what it is; a giant fuse.

    • Neato@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      1 year ago

      Fuses don’t dissipate electricity. They pass electricity and then blow when exceeded. Blowing is either flipping off (like your breaker) or breaking (like replaceable fuses). The point of a fuse is to be the weakest link so if a surge occurs it doesn’t damage equipment or wiring.

      In the case you described, they were looking for a load (where energy is used or dissipated to do work) to absorb that much energy at once. There might be a fuse that could withstand that kind of load; there was wiring that could afterall. But if the shield system could absorb the full power of an overloaded warp core, it might not have needed one if there was no downside to overcharging it.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Hum… I have a 75MJ varistor on each phase of the main wiring of my house. Those are not fuses (because fuses don’t have a total energy specification) but I can certainly get a few more for the Enterprise it they want.

        • marcos@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yes, I’m sure. I used to have 5MJ ones, but one burned down once. So I got the large ones. AFAIK, they are the largest that will fit 1 unity in a DIM panel. It’s supposed to change phases more than once if it receives that kind of abuse, but keep safely conducting electricity all the way.

          It’s a common component around lightning protection. You’d want something better to actually deal with the lightning if your network is unprotected (there are plenty of options), but mine is protected.

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      In the 24th Century they discovered that liquid napalm was a highly efficient electrical conductor … so they used it to wire their ships.

  • lemillionsocks@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 year ago

    When you consider that the bridge is on the top and center of the saucer section and a very enticing target the constant explosions make a bit of sense. It’s not that the enterprise got shot in the ass and it sent a current up to the computer that monitors shift rotations, no the high powered energy weaponry is aimed right on the other side of the wall. Structural integrity fields, shields, ablative armor, and other technobabble keep the the whole bridge from popping like a balloon when something bad happens.

    It’s like if your tv is plugged into a house with breakers and safely on a surge protector it’s not going to keep your tv from getting fried if zeus decides to target that outlet specifically and strike it.

      • lemillionsocks@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        The enterprise c did have a battle bridge that they used mostly for saucer separations, but there were times when they used it saucer in place and there are some ships which have more protected configurations.

        Disregarding the IRL reasons of that’s just where it always goes, I believe the in universe reason is that starfleet at its core does not like to identify as a true military organization. It’s why the enterprise C is built like a cruise ship and why despite being a swift science vessel voyager is also very spacious and sleek and elegant on the inside. They do make plenty of starships that are top in class and capable of holding their own against anything else out there, but starfleet is not in the business of making warships. They overtly mention this in DS9 when it is mentioned that the Defiant is officially an “escort vessel” even though it is a very no frills combat vessel.

        Of course they can get away with this concession because generally the shields do most of the work when it comes to absorbing hits anyway. Once shields are down if another vessel wants to go for the kill it wont take long for it to tear through the hull. In theory the centralized location also means that the bridge can get additional protection by tilting the saucer away from the enemy(sorry lower decks).