Engine Room

Note: direction in this article will be relative to how you enter the room.

Note: A lot of this doesn't apply if the Engine Room Assist is turned on.

Purpose
The engine room is an easily forgotten but important part of your submarine. It controls power to all the sub's systems, everything from lights to the electrical engine which is connected to the propellers and makes the submarine move forward and back (ahead/astern). Your activities in the engine room include charging the batteries with the diesel engines, controlling the speed of the submarine, managing each systems power draw using the switch board, and changing fuses if the power draw is too high.

Charge & Draw Rate
The left dial has two indicators. The red one is draw rate - the speed at which power in the battery is being consumed. The black one is charge rate - the speed at which the battery is being charged. If the black one exceeds the red one, the battery will be charged. If the red one exceeds the black one, the battery will drain.

Load Warning
The middle dial has an indicator that shows how much power is being used. This is influenced by what switches are enabled/disabled. When the indicator moves into the red part on the right of the dial, the grid will be overloaded and fuses will start breaking. If a switch has no fuse or a broken fuse, it will not work. It is heavily recommended to stay in the non-red area of the dial as overloading the electrical grid can have catastrophic consequences.

Battery Level
The right bar-dial shows how much the battery is charged. Make sure the battery is at a decent percentage before diving as it is impossible to charge the battery with the diesel engine below blue depth.

Pressurized Air
The right round dial shows how much compressed air the submarine is holding. This air is recharged by enabling the air compressor and exhausted by resurfacing or draining the torpedo bays.

Switches

 * MAIN BREAKER
 * If the main breaker is turned off, all modules on the switchboard will be disabled. The main breaker is tripped automatically if load far exceeds the maximum.


 * Lights - there are light switches for each one of the 4 rooms. Self explanatory.


 * Electric Motors
 * The more of these switches you enable, the more RPM you can set the electric engines to and the faster you can move. The minimum for moving is one.


 * Torpedo Computers
 * Torpedo Computers influence how quick and accurate the targeting solution in the sensor room can be. The minimum for locking on is one switch
 * Planes & Rudders
 * Enabling these switches will let the submarine's rudders and hydroplanes turn. If these are turned off, the submarine cannot turn, nor can it angle itself to rise or submerge quicker. Enabling both will let the rudders and hydroplanes be turned faster, as well as letting the captain enable "set heading" on the wheel.
 * Torpedo Racks
 * Torpedo Racks dictate how fast new torpedoes can be moved into position to be reloaded. If all are switched off, no new torpedoes will be supplied to the torpedo bays. New torpedoes will only be moved into position if the corresponding torpedo-bay is empty.
 * Air Compressor
 * The Air Compressor compresses air to be used for draining the torpedo bays or resurfacing the submarine.
 * Hydrophone
 * The hydrophone is a tool in the sensor room used to locate targets. If this switch is disabled, the hydrophone will not work.
 * Map Display
 * These two switches change how much of the map in the Control Room is shown. 1 switch enables the inner 500 meters of the map & 2 enables the full 2000m map. If both switches are off, the map shuts off completely.
 * Terrain Display
 * Terrain Display is a small storable display that shows the captain the terrain in front of the sub, as well as how deep it is. This can be useful for avoiding collision with the terrain or resting the submarine on the seabed to avoid detection by sonar.

Engine Management (Right)
There are 4 dials and 2 handles on the right for engine management.


 * Charge Output Dial
 * This dial shows how much the batteries are being charged.


 * RPM Dial
 * This dial shows you the RPM of the diesel engine that generates electricity. To increase the RPM, increase fuel flow and make sure the engine is in the green on temperature.
 * Temperature Dial
 * This dial shows the temperature of the engine. Overheating or overcooling/smothering the engine will cause it to stall. If the engine is too cold when it's started, it will take longer to hit the proper operating temperature & higher RPMs, thus making it take longer to start charging the battery effectively.
 * Cooling Dial
 * This dial shows you how much cooling is being applied to the engine. If the engine is at max fuel input & RPM, 50% cooling will keep the engine at its current temperature. Setting the cooling to max will cool down the engine rapidly whereas setting the cooling to zero will let the engine heat up rapidly.
 * Fuel Lever
 * The fuel lever dictates how much fuel is being fed into the engine. The higher the fuel throughput, the higher the RPM of the engine and the quicker it heats up & charges the battery.
 * Cooling level
 * The cooling lever dictates how much cooling is being applied to the engine.

Engine Management (Left)
There are several dials and switches on the left for engine management.


 * Depth Meter
 * The depth meter shows the current depth of the submarine. Anything lower than blue depth makes it impossible for the snorkel to take in air and for the diesel engine to run.
 * Snorkel
 * The snorkel wheel can be turned to stow away the snorkel or to extend it upwards. When the submarine is in blue depth the snorkel will take in air for the air compressor and engine. The three displays show whether the snorkel is stowed or extended and whether it's can take in air or not.
 * Battery Dial
 * The battery dial shows how much the battery is charged
 * Diesel Dial & Engine lever
 * The diesel dial shows how much diesel is left in the submarine. Flipping the switch kickstarts the diesel engines to start charging the battery at the cost of diesel.
 * Engine Order Telegraph
 * The Engine Order Telegraph relays commands from the Control Room to the Engine Room to be followed by whoever is operating the engine room.
 * Heading Lever
 * The lever underneath the telegraph decides whether the submarine moves backwards or forwards.
 * Electric Engine RPM Dial & Lever
 * Electric Engine RPM decides how fast the submarine moves. Move the lever up to raise the RPM. The cap on the RPM can be raised by enabling more electrical motors.

Charging the batteries
The RPM of the diesel engine decides how quickly the sub's battery is charged. Before starting the engine, the submarine must have an open oxygen intake for the engine to breathe - the sub needs to be above water or the snorkel has to be extended at snorkel or periscope depth. To start the engine, you must flip the switch under the "battery" gauge on the left side of the room. Flipping this switch will fire up the engines, after which the player must feed the engine with the fuel lever on the right of the room - the engine must also be cooled with the cooling lever right of the fuel lever. The higher the fuel throughput, the higher the RPM of the engine. If cooling isn't managed properly, the engine can overheat (causing it to stall) or be smothered by cooling (also causing it to stall). If the engine is at the lowest temperature, it will take much more time to heat up & reach peak efficiency. It is heavily advised to keep the temperature in the green for the engine to run as efficiently as possible and to have it be easily restart-able. When the engine is turned off, either by losing oxygen or because it was turned off by the player, it is advised to turn off both fuel and cooling throughput so the engine is easier to restart when it is necessary to use again.

Controlling the speed and direction of the submarine
To make the submarine move, you must move the electrical motor handle up or down. The higher the handle, the higher the RPM & the higher the speed. To raise the RPM cap, you can turn on more Electric Motor switches on the switch board at the cost of more battery power.

The handle on the left allows you to set the direction the submarine will accelerate in. Ahead = forward & astern = reverse.

Managing power on the switchboard
There's a bunch of labeled switches on the switchboard. Each will consume a certain amount of power. Certain modules of the ship have multiple switches - enabling multiple can make them quicker or more efficient.

It is recommended to flip switches and distribute power as needed. Avoid overloading the grid at all costs and be conservative of power if needing to go under for an extended period of time. Make sure to recharge batteries if on the surface or in blue depth as running out of battery deep underwater can be disastrous for your mission.