Codex Energy Little Star

Little Star

The Little Star is a tiny artificial sun in a glass cube. Six containment rods hold it; it burns hydrogen to helium and delivers electricity directly, plus heat from its shell. It is a tier V power plant: it needs a huge charge to ignite, its rods draw power all the time, and a lost containment ends in a breach.

How it works

1. Start: the controller charges the ignition from its input buffer.
2. Compression: the six rods drive in towards the centre.
3. Ignition: a seed of hydrogen ignites into a star.
4. Burning: the star burns hydrogen. The rods' field sets the core temperature, the temperature sets the burn rate. Most of the light becomes energy in the output buffer; a small share heats the glass shell.
5. Cooling: water boils away at the shell into steam, or the Heat Ports take the heat.
6. Fading: on Stop (or when the hydrogen runs out) the rods follow the shrinking star and it goes out calmly.

Building

Shown size: 9 wide, 9 high, 9 deep (adjustable: Edge 9–15).

One example of many: within the rules on this page, size and arrangement are up to you; the Build Projector shows the plan in every allowed size.

	Key	Block	Count
	B	Plasma Glass	281
	A	Stellar Frame	92
	D	Containment Rod	12
	C	Containment Rod Drive	6
	E	Energy Input Hatch (Tier 3)	1
	F	Energy Output Port	1
	G	Fluid Input Port	1
	H	Fluid Output Port	1
	I	Gas Input Port	1
	J	Gas Output Port	1
	0	Little Star Controller	1

Step by step

Each picture adds one layer, from the bottom up; the newest layer is bright. The controller wall faces you on the left.

Step 1: Layer 1

Parts in this step: Plasma Glass (B) ×48, Stellar Frame (A) ×32, Containment Rod Drive (C) ×1

Step 2: Layer 2

Parts in this step: Plasma Glass (B) ×27, Stellar Frame (A) ×4, Containment Rod (D) ×1, Little Star Controller (0) ×1

Step 3: Layer 3

Parts in this step: Plasma Glass (B) ×24, Stellar Frame (A) ×4, Containment Rod (D) ×1, Energy Input Hatch (Tier 3) (E) ×1, Energy Output Port (F) ×1, Gas Input Port (I) ×1, Gas Output Port (J) ×1

Step 4: Layer 4

Parts in this step: Plasma Glass (B) ×28, Stellar Frame (A) ×4

Step 5: Layer 5

Parts in this step: Plasma Glass (B) ×24, Containment Rod (D) ×8, Containment Rod Drive (C) ×4, Stellar Frame (A) ×4

Step 6: Layer 6

Parts in this step: Plasma Glass (B) ×28, Stellar Frame (A) ×4

Step 7: Layer 7

Parts in this step: Plasma Glass (B) ×26, Stellar Frame (A) ×4, Containment Rod (D) ×1, Fluid Input Port (G) ×1, Fluid Output Port (H) ×1

Step 8: Layer 8

Parts in this step: Plasma Glass (B) ×28, Stellar Frame (A) ×4, Containment Rod (D) ×1

Step 9: Layer 9

Parts in this step: Plasma Glass (B) ×48, Stellar Frame (A) ×32, Containment Rod Drive (C) ×1

Rules

• Shape: a cube with odd edge length, at least 9, at most perf.maxStructureSize (default 16, allowed 5–32).
• Edges and corners: only Stellar Frame.
• Faces: Plasma Glass, the ports, the controller and Stellar Diagnostics. No casing and no Inspection Hatch.
• Rod drives: exactly one Containment Rod Drive in the centre of each of the six faces, and nowhere else.
• Inside: Containment Rods on the six axes from the drives towards the centre; everything else is air. The rods start 2 blocks from the centre in cubes of edge 9 and 11, 3 blocks in cubes of edge 13 and 15, and reach out to the walls. The room in the middle is the star's.
• Controller: in a face (not on an edge and not in a face centre), front facing out.
• Ports (each works only on its outer face):
• Energy Input Hatch: energy for the ignition and the rods.
• Energy Output Port: the star's energy out.
• Gas Input Port: hydrogen in.
• Gas Output Port: helium ash out.
• Fluid Input Port: water in; Fluid Output Port: steam out.
• Heat Port: shell heat to a neighbouring plant.
• Stellar Diagnostics (optional) enables the automatic control.

Two energy buffers

• The input buffer (100,000,000 E, at most 50,000,000 E per tick) is filled only through the Energy Input Hatches. The ignition and the rods draw from it, never from the star's own output.
• The output buffer (50,000,000 E) holds what the star delivers and is pushed out through the Energy Output Ports.
• So a Little Star cannot keep itself running: feed some of its power back into the input, or keep a store on the input side. A cut supply line means the rods lose their power.

Starting

• Start needs a formed plant, the phase "Off" and a rod condition of at least 0.5.
• Charging the ignition: the controller moves energy from the input buffer into the ignition charge until it reaches volt.littleStarIgnitionEnergy (default 2000000000, allowed 1000–1000000000000). It only takes what lies above a reserve: enough energy to run the rods fully inserted for 1,200 ticks (2,000 E per rod per tick, six rods).
• Compression starts once the charge is complete, the input buffer still holds the reserve, the hydrogen tank holds 500 mB and the water tank 1,000 mB.
• Compression takes 100 ticks, ignition 40 ticks; then the star burns.
• Stop during charging cancels it; the charge collected so far is kept.

The burn in depth

• Capacity: the star holds 10 mB of hydrogen and helium per interior block.
• Field = rod insertion × √(rod condition) × share of the rod power that arrives.
• Core temperature follows the field: 15 MK at a field of 0.7, more with a stronger field (up to 60 MK).
• Burn rate per tick = 0.04 × star mass × (temperature ÷ 15)⁴ × (1 − helium share), at most 0.2 of the mass. Every feed rate therefore has one stable star mass.
• Energy: every burned mB gives 1,000 E, times volt.generatorOutputMultiplier (default 1.0, allowed 0.01–100.0) and divided by volt.fuelConsumptionMultiplier (default 1.0, allowed 0.01–100.0). 0.02 of it heats the shell, the rest goes to the output buffer. At a steady state the star delivers about feed × 1,000 E per tick.
• Helium: every burned mB leaves 0.25 mB of helium in the core. A share of it is pumped into the helium tank each tick; when the tank is full, the helium stays in the star.
• Rod power: 2,000 E per rod per tick, times the insertion.

Feed and rods

• Feed (hydrogen per tick): starts at the nominal feed of the plant (it keeps the star at 0.7 full with the nominal field), adjustable in steps of 10 mB per tick up to 10 % of the capacity.
• Rod target: from 20 % to 100 %, steps of 5 %. The rods move 1 % per tick. More insertion makes the star hotter and brighter, and wears the rods faster.
• Rod condition wears with the insertion and the square of the temperature. The window shows how long the rods last at the current setting. When the star is off and the shell below 100 °C, the rods recover slowly (0.0005 per tick). A breach costs half of the rod condition.

Stability

The field must hold the star's pressure (fill × temperature ÷ 15). Their ratio is shown as Containment ratio.

• Below 0.8 the star pushes the containment: stability falls fast.
• Above 1.6 the rods squeeze too hard: stability falls slowly.
• More than 30 % helium in the core, a shell above 800 °C and rods without enough power lower the stability too.
• A nearly empty star (ignition seed, fading) cannot threaten the containment.
• Helium flash: above 0.5 helium share the ash ignites at once: the core gets hotter, stability drops by 0.3, the shell takes a heat pulse and half of the helium burns away. A loud bang, but no damage outside.

Automatic control

With Stellar Diagnostics in a face, Auto takes over:

• the feed keeps the star at 0.7 of its capacity;
• the rods are trimmed so that the field holds the pressure with a margin (1.1 times);
• the star fades out by itself when the stability falls below 0.35, the shell exceeds 1,000 °C or the helium share exceeds 0.42.

The shell and its heat

• The glass shell takes 0.02 of the light. Its heat capacity grows with the number of shell blocks (20 per block).
• Above 100 °C water boils away at the shell: every mB of water takes 10 HU and becomes 10 mB of steam. Steam leaves through the Fluid Output Port, for example to a Steam Turbine.
• The Heat Ports take the heat above 100 °C as well. The switch Heat first to: Ports / Cooling decides who comes first (default: ports); see Process Heat.
• At 1,400 °C the containment breaches.

Breach

A breach happens when the stability reaches zero, the shell reaches 1,400 °C, or the structure breaks while the star burns.

• The star is gone; the ignition charge is lost and the rods lose half of their condition.
• A blast hurts living beings nearby; it never breaks blocks. With terrain damage on (and safe mode off) the Plasma Glass shatters. See Incidents.
• After 80 ticks the plant is "Failed". Reset works once the shell is at 100 °C or below.

The screen

• Lines: Status (the phase), Last event and Automatic control (on, off or "needs stellar diagnostics").
• Bars: input buffer (ignition, rods), output buffer, hydrogen, helium, water, steam, star mass, stability, shell temperature.
• Values: luminosity, core temperature, star mass, helium in the core, stability, containment ratio, rod insertion, rod condition, rod life left, shell temperature, heat removed, containment (rod power), rod supply left, ignition charge, hydrogen feed, rod target, helium flashes, breaches.
• The switch Heat first to and the line Heat last tick.
• Buttons: Start, Stop, Reset, Auto, -/+ for the hydrogen feed (±10 mB per tick) and for the rod insertion (±5 %).

Status and last event

Status	Meaning
Off	Ready to start.
Charging the ignition	Energy flows into the ignition charge.
Compression: rods drive in	The rods move towards the centre.
Ignition	The seed ignites.
Burning	The star runs.
Fading out	The star goes out calmly.
CONTAINMENT BREACH	The containment failed.
Failed – let the shell cool, then reset	Wait until the shell is cool, then press Reset.

Last event	Meaning
stopped	Stopped with the Stop button.
automatic fade-out	The automatic control faded the star out.
out of hydrogen	The tank was empty and the star burned down.
rods lost their power	Breach: the input buffer could not feed the rods.
instability	Breach: the stability reached zero.
shell overheated	Breach: the shell got too hot.
structure broken	Breach: the structure broke while the star burned.

Error messages

Message	What to do
The plant must be a cube with odd edge length (is …)	Build the same odd edge in all three directions: 9, 11, 13 or 15.
A containment rod drive belongs exactly in the centre of each face (near …)	Put one drive in every face centre and remove drives elsewhere.
Wrong block at … (expected: Containment Rod)	Fill the axis from the drive inwards with rods, up to the rod start.
Wrong block at … (expected: Air)	The rest of the inside must be empty.
Wrong block at … (expected: Stellar Frame)	Only Stellar Frame on edges and corners.
Missing parts: Containment Rod Drive ×…	Six drives, one per face.
Structure too small (…)	At least 9 × 9 × 9.
The controller must sit in a wall, front facing out	Put the controller into a face, front outwards.

In the world

• The star is drawn as a glowing sphere that grows with its mass and shrinks when it gets hotter; it lights up its surroundings.
• The ignition, every helium flash and a breach have their own sounds; a burning star hums.
• While a star exists, it radiates up to 4 damage per second at its centre.

Tip

First light Fill the input buffer from a large store (a Capacitor Bank or SMES), have hydrogen and water ready and build Stellar Diagnostics in. Start with Auto on: the controller then holds the star by itself and fades it out before anything breaks.

Warning

Watch the rod supply "Rod supply left" shows how long the input buffer feeds the rods. If it runs dry, the field collapses and the star breaches. Route part of the output back to the input.