Supermatter Engine

If you are intending to build your own Supermatter Engine from the ground up, see Supermatter Engine/Construction

Setting up an engine is a daunting process so work with your engineering team to make sure the powering up process goes smoothly. If you don't feel comfortable setting up this engine and there is nobody to help you, consider setting up Solars first so that the station has power and you can take the learning process at your own pace.

Atmospherics seems like magic to most people but just taking a peruse through the Guide to Atmospherics will help a lot.

The Supermatter Crystal

It isn't quite clear where the Supermatter Crystal comes from, or how Nanotrasen managed to acquire a stable one. First and foremost, a supermatter crystal is dangerous and extraordinarily radioactive once activated. It is one of the most dangerous things aboard the station, if handled improperly. Although it is very pretty, anyone who decided to touch it(willingly or not) turned into ash instantly.

When properly contained and left on its own in a stable environment, it will not do much except occasionally let out small bursts of radiation. However, when its EER level begins to rise it will begin shooting out much more radiation and start producing a highly flammable Oxygen/Plasma mix. Both of these effects become more violent as the stability of the crystal begins to falter.

Setup

Safety Equipment

In order to avoid getting irradiated by the glowing rock we call a SM crystal, you will need to don a radiation suit and hood as well as a pair of Meson Goggles.

If you fail to do this, you will get irradiated. The radiation will inflict toxin damage and will make your beautiful hair (washed with NT brand 32 in 1 hair conditioner and shampoo) fall out. If you neglect to wear mesons, vivid hallucinations will occur and once they start, there is no stopping them. You can only ride it out. These get more powerful as you get closer to the SM and the SM grows in power.

Note: The SM crystal only produces radiation when activated, so radiation suits are not required around docile engines. Mesons, on the other hand are always required.

Gas Loop

Default Setup

Optimized Setup

Default Setup

1. Set each pump outlined in green, as well as the filters also in green, to 4500kPa output. Alternatively replace the pumps (Not the filters) in green with pipes, for optimization.
2. After that you will want to turn the gas pumps circled in red off (forgetting this is how you speedrun blowing up the engine)
3. The Green outlined gas filters in the bottom should be set to filter back in whatever gas you are using as a coolant inside the engine.

WARNING: While this is the easiest setup, the pumps can easily end up clogging if anything goes wrong, including both sabotage and accidents. It is very sensitive and requires high maintenance and supervision to prevent it from fully delaminating. The optimized setup is preferred, as it does not explode so easily.

Optimized Setup

1. Replace all the pipe sections(where the pumps used to be in the default setup) outlined in red with regular pipes.
2. In the area outlined in blue, add regular pipes that circumvent the gas filter
3. Activate/Deactivate remaining pumps and air alarms as dictated by the default setup

The default setup works, however, the optimized setup will prevent most gas setups (CO2 and N2 especially) from going into a difficult-to-reverse delamination when John Greytider touches the Supermatter Crystal. This is the preferred and most commonly used setup and your Chief Engineer will likely direct Engineering to use it. It is often self-correcting and light monitoring will be enough to keep it stable.

Radiation Collector

Take plasma tanks and place them in the radiation collectors directly outside the SM chamber and then turn them on so you can produce power. It is generally advised to fill these tanks up full, for example by using the plasmatank in Secure Storage. (1012kpa is the max in a small tank). The tanks can suffice for a full 2 hour shift if not filled up, but they should be payed attention to for extended rounds.

Starting the Engine

1. Now go over to the air alarm inside the SM Airlock
2. Click vent controls and set each of the vents to 2000 (They max out before but an easy way to max them), as well as ensure they are set to BLOWING (This is true at shift start, but checking never hurts). Alternatively set the vents to 0, as well as INTERNAL, this is however only to be done if scrubbers are at siphon, or you risk a delamination.
3. Go over to scrubber controls and set each scrubber to scrub all gases, as well as extended (leaving some gases out, will cause build up of hot gas in the chamber. If following the alternative above, set the Scrubbers to Siphon and set Range to Extended (Then it auto drains all gases the quickest)
4. Start the engine with quite a lot of the primary coolant, make sure that the monitoring computer says it is over 70%. If there's a low amount of primary coolant, a gas unbalance in the chamber could be created (Oxygen+Plasma mix will take over) and a crystal delamination starts.
5. Set the SMES input to max and the output to just below that. Keep in mind that the emitters are powered by the SMESs, so if they do not provide enough power to the station and emitters, the emitters will of course not fire.
6. At this point you can connect more emitters to the emitter area if you wish. (This can be done at any point, even long into the shift)
7. Turn on the emitters in the room below and watch the magic happen. It is advised to activate one emitter at a time, and see the effects, before turning more on.

Upkeep

SOP states that if the emitters are firing the engine must be monitored constantly. Also, you should periodically verify the filters, pumps, and air alarm are all correctly configured. Consult with other engineering staff if there is a nonstandard configuration.

Note: Do NOT attempt to change a stable engine if it looks off. If the numbers on this page do not match with the readings from the engine, contact your Chief Engineer, or call another engineer immediately. These numbers are rough generalizations meant for newer players.

Monitor Checklist

1. Verify the pressure is under 100 kPa.
2. Verify the temperature is under 310 kelvin.
3. Verify the relative EER is under 5000 MeV/cm3.
4. Verify the primary coolant (usually N2) is over 70%.

What to do if energy (EER) is too high

1. Turn all emitters off
2. Flush some gas away, so as to limit the gas in the loop. Make the filters on the bottom filter nothing back in, while having no external input. Do not do this for too long, or there will not be enough coolant for the SM to, well cool.
3. If any other gas than N2 is used, flush with more N2. This is most easily done by filtering out the gas you used, for example pure CO2, while pumping in N2 instead, and filtering N2 back into the chamber, until stable. Do keep in mind that too much of any gas, will cause higher energy, so keep the volume down as well.

What to do if the pressure is too high

1. Turn off the emitters.
2. Verify all pumps and filters are on max flow rate. Verify all supermatter engine scrubbers are siphoning on extended. Verify all supermatter engine vents are at max output.
3. Use an analyzer to check the coolant loop pressure and gas composition.
4. If there is too much nitrogen in the system adjust all the filters to bleed some off or use the canisters.
5. If there is anything other than nitrogen in the cyan pipes, check the filter settings.

What to do if the temperature is too high

1. Turn off the emitters.
2. Verify all pumps and filters are on max flow rate. Verify all supermatter engine scrubbers are siphoning on extended. Verify all supermatter engine vents are at max output.
3. Using the freezer loop, inject cold N2 or N2O into the coolant loop to bring the temperature down. (Note, by default this will be scrubbed out after cycling through the chamber)

Delamination

Oh shit oh fuck it's on fire

While it may be panic-inducing, the SM Delamination usually gives a long enough time for it to be fixed, or at the very least limit the damage, as such do the steps under Upkeep, most likely for all three of heat, energy, and pressure, before attempting the extreme emergency steps in this section

If there is too much power, temperature, or pressure the crystal starts losing integrity. If this hits zero it will delaminate.

The Steps towards a Delamination

1. As it reaches 5000MeV/cm3, 1800 moles of gas in the chamber, or just too much gas in the chamber the delamination will start.
2. If there is above 5000MeV/cm3, the SM will begin arcing, as well as spitting out anomalies (See below). This is a very visible sign of a possible delamination. Note: Just because the EER of the engine is above 5000MeV/cm3, this does NOT mean it is in a state of delamination.
3. With more energy, the crystal will also create more gas, which in turn will burn and increase heat (fire), which also damages the crystal. (This is why all the three values run off when it starts. It's a chain reaction.)
4. As it grows nearer the actual delamination event, the SM will give out periodic warnings, informing the crew of its integrity and if it is still in a state of delamination. This means it will often be possible to be warned in time, and will often to be able to stop it if you can figure out the issue.
5. When the time is up, and the crystal finally delaminates, one of three things will happen. If there was over 1800 moles of gas in the chamber when it delaminated, it will become a SM Singulo. If there was over 5000MeV/cm3 in power, it would become a Tesla, and if none of those were true, it will "simply" explode.

Anomalies

If, as said above, the MeV/cm3 value is above 5000, the SM will spawn certain anomalies:

• Gravitational: Sucks nearby loose entities and objects in and throws them around. These anomalies can propel projectiles fast enough to penetrate hardsuits and lodge debris in places like your pelvis.
• Flux: Electrocutes everything that it touches. A shock from this WILL stun you for approximately 10 seconds and cause heat damage to all body parts.
• Pyroclastic: Fills the room with burning plasma and spawns hostile red and orange slimes. (These slimes can sometimes gain sentience and are more often than not little assholes.)

Radiation coming off the crystal and hallucinations inflicted by a lack of mesons will increase exponentially with EER.

If all else fails

If the normal upkeep steps have failed and the super matter is past the point of no return (Runaway reaction). There are some final steps towards limiting the impact of the Delamination. First of all, an explosion is a single event, while big, does not continue on as the Tesla or Singulo does. The first you should do is as such to make sure these cannot happen. Second, you will want to limit the explosion of the SM, assuming you managed to hinder a Singulo or Tesla. The Tesla is spawned if EER is above 5000 MeV/cm3, which will go down fast if the SM has no gas to cause the energy. On the other hand the Singulo needs a certain gas density, which will not be there if there is no gas. The explosion is based on the type, as well as amount of gas around the crystal. All these make for one goal, suck the gas out, so one needs to RCD the floor in the chamber.

1. Put on something with fire resistance and magboots (This will not let you survive it, but may help you survive long enough to be the hero only the ghosts remember)
2. Make sure the magboots are on (If you don't you will be sucked into the crystal and vaporized)
3. MAKE SURE THE MAGBOOTS ARE ON (No seriously, you will be vaporized)
4. Use an RCD to deconstruct the floor under the SM (You need to use ALT+click to target the floor or it will eat your RCD)
5. RUN (If you can)

Alternative Setups

The notes on gases below do not tell you what to do but what you can expect of different setups. Which setup is ideal and which setup turns engineering into a crater is up to you to find out.

Pure Gas Setups

Pure setups are the easiest, as they require no mixing. However, they are not the most efficient, and many of them will make the engine fail a very specific way if a delamination starts. Additionally, the Default Setup likely cannot handle anything other than Pure N2.

Pure N2

A very stable variant, and the basic setup. It will hardly ever delaminate by itself. N2 will work as emergency coolant in other setups but is a very inefficient gas power wise. To get sufficient power by N2, emitters are most likely needed. If it delaminates, it is most often by explosion or a singularity.

Pure O2

In some ways similar to N2, O2 will not cause high EER or high temp by itself, and does require emitters to create sufficient power. O2 as a gas will increase the power output. The danger with a pure O2 should be clear, however, as the moment a delamination starts, more plasma will be made by the SM, and the chamber will already be full of the reactant needed most for a plasma fire: Oxygen. If it starts to delaminate, and is on fire, expect pressure and temperature to rise very quickly.

Pure CO2

A relatively stable setup that produces slightly more heat than N2. This is often seen as one of the most effective and safe(outside of N2) setups. The nature of CO2 prevents plasma fires from becoming a major issue.

Pure Plasma

While plasma is a naturally reactive and dangerous gas, it fails to be effective as a pure coolant. Surprisingly enough, plasma will not produce much power and will result a very ANGRY SM, Plasma heats the SM up A LOT, do test out setups involving plasma on a test server before trying a plasma setup. Plasma is best used in a gas mix rather than by itself.

Pure N2O

Will not last very long as N2O will break down into Oxygen and Nitrogen when hot enough. If you want a very inactive engine, use this.

Sabotaging

If you're not a hijacker antag then you should definitely ahelp before messing with the engine.

Whatever this guide tells you to do in the case of preventing delamination. Do the exact opposite.

A good way to delaminate the SM on purpose is to pump plasma and oxygen into it. A delamination of lots of oxygen and plasma will be fast and violent. It would be helpful to either turn off the scrubbers or to cause them only to scrub N2 from the chamber.

Slamming two supermatter crystals together will yield fun results