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[Elliott_Thinas]

Thanks!
I'll get it to you in a bit my miners are still rotting and the miasma is making it impossible to see anything.

[Elliott_Thinas]

Ok I took the pictures but do you know how I post them onto DF? Do I need to upload them to another internet site first?
Actually never mind I've isolated the problem. My difficulty is that when I channeled out the 3rd part of the 4 different 3 part channels, it effects the level below and this must be increasing the water flow. However, I don't know what other way I could have done this.


ooooooooooo
oo~~~~ooooo
oooooo~oo~o
ooo.HHo.o~o
oo~o...Ho~o
o~oH.X.Ho~o
o~oH...o~oo
o~o.oHH.ooo
o~oo~oooooo
ooooo~~~~oo
ooooooooooo

[Brodiggan]

Ok I took the pictures but do you know how I post them onto DF? Do I need to upload them to another internet site first?
Actually never mind I've isolated the problem. My difficulty is that when I channeled out the 3rd part of the 4 different 3 part channels, it effects the level below and this must be increasing the water flow. However, I don't know what other way I could have done this.


ooooooooooo
oo~~~~ooooo
oooooo~oo~o
ooo.HHo.o~o
oo~o...Ho~o
o~oH.X.Ho~o
o~oH...o~oo
o~o.oHH.ooo
o~oo~oooooo
ooooo~~~~oo
ooooooooooo

Ahhh ok, I think I might see the problem, did you Mine them out first?

[Elliott_Thinas]

No they just got cleared because I channeled the tiles above them; was I not supposed to do this?

[Eduren]

Ok I took the pictures but do you know how I post them onto DF? Do I need to upload them to another internet site first?

Upload to a host such as imgur.com. Take that URL and wrap it in "[img]" tags.

[Brodiggan]

Doh! I see the problem as well now, I must have glitched something up when I typed up the instructions, looking back over some old saves to see where I must have left a step out. My apologies, and my condolences to the families of your fallen miners.

Edit: Located the problem, details below.

[Brodiggan]

Well, found where I screwed up, I left out one step towards the end, and I missed one issue in testing it all. When I was doing the testing I tried it on a couple single aquifer maps first, using these exact steps, and had no problems. Afterwards, I tested it on a single larger fort with multiple aquifer levels, but I used a different arrangement for the waterwheels, because I had a handy nearby river, and it was just easier to set up a few waterwheels and run it all to a gearbox.

To move down through multiple levels, the waterwheels will have to be moved, and power run to the pumps via gearboxes. The easiest arrangement for the gearboxes is just to place them directly over the input hatches, adjacent to the stairs. 3 gearboxes in any arrangement will transmit power to all four pumps.

Second goof on my part, the bit I left out at the end: When drilling through multiple layers, before moving the pumps down to a new level, build walls above all of the unneeded channels, like this...

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ooooooooooo
ooooooHoooo
ooo###.#ooo
ooH....#ooo
ooo#.X.#ooo
ooo#....Hoo
ooo#.###ooo
ooooHoooooo
ooooooooooo



And when you remove the screw pumps on each level, before moving them to the next level, wall in the channels they were feeding into as well.

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ooooooooooo
oooooo#oooo
ooo###.#ooo
oo#..H.#ooo
ooo#HXH#ooo
ooo#.H..#oo
ooo#.###ooo
oooo#oooooo
ooooooooooo


This prevents any waterflow from the aquifer(s) above making their way down into the work area and overloading the pumps.

[Nightwind]

Think you can post this "new" trick to the wiki, it works rather well I have to think

[Brodiggan]

Will do, first I'm going to go through a multiple aquifer pierce once more (with the corrected instructions) and be sure I haven't missed anything else.

[Tanelorn]

Here's an old guide I posted way back in the day, based on another guide I'd seen even wayer back in the day. Hope it helps.

It's possible to drill down through any number of aquifer layers, if you're careful, without needing any extra space on each level. You'll need some wood and glass if you have access to it, to make mechanisms. Without glass, you'll need at least enough stone to make the mechanisms for four screw pumps and (possibly) some gears. To begin with, I should say this idea isn't mine, I tweaked it a bit to make it work for what I needed, but the basic idea came from someone else (unfortunately I can't remember who it was, or I'd give credit where credit is due). (Edit: Found it, the original idea came from Tanelorn.)

I'm honoured to see that someone has found my method useful.
I have perfected it since my original post: instead of using mechanisms and axles to power the pumps (which is arguably very dwarfish), one can simply use dwarves to power the pumps.
There is no more need for any stone, and it's considerably quicker - but it can be tricky to get four dwarves pumping at the same time, without one going for a drink, or a nap and so on.

I shall soon create a new post on another invention of mine, if it passes my test successfully: a self reloadable collapse machine that works at the flick of a lever !

 

[Elliott_Thinas]

Ok thank you Brodiggan as soon as the tantrum spiral quiets down (6 killed so far sadly) I'll train some new miners and get the carpenters down there. I'll tell you guys how it works out.

[Brodiggan]

Ok thank you Brodiggan as soon as the tantrum spiral quiets down (6 killed so far sadly) I'll train some new miners and get the carpenters down there. I'll tell you guys how it works out.

I'm sorry to say it, but if you used the waterwheel design from the original, you may be out of luck unless you can do something to plug the connection between the waterwheel pools and the rest, that's where I goofed up testing it. A nice one tile cave in above each connection might do nicely, if you can arrange it.

[Elliott_Thinas]

Alright I guess we'll have to start a new one; it shouldn't be too bad because we already have all the pump pieces and a pretty good mechanic. Where do I put the water wheels though/do I need to get my power from somewhere else?

[Brodiggan]

Alright I guess we'll have to start a new one; it shouldn't be too bad because we already have all the pump pieces and a pretty good mechanic. Where do I put the water wheels though/do I need to get my power from somewhere else?

Well, you can run the whole thing off one waterwheel honestly, it supplies more than enough power, as long as you have a few mechanisms for gearboxes, for the first floor, just put the gears directly over any three of the input channels, like this: (I guess this would also work with axles between the pumps, need to double check that though, and you'll need the gears anyways once you move down to the next level)

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.........
.....H...
.....^...
.H<@*@...
...*XH...
...@*@>H.
...v.....
...H.....
.........


Then run sufficient power to any of the pumps and all of them will start. For example, a setup like this should work:

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.........
.........
.H@>HH...
.HWWWH...
...|.....
...|.H...
...|.^...
.H<@*@...
...*XH...
...@*@>H.
...v.....
...H.....
.........


As long as the channels under and around the waterwheel can't flow into the area you're digging, you'll be fine, it was that extra flow that was pulling miners out of position after the first level.

To run power down to the next level, after dismantling your pumps, you'll need to cut at least one channel at the end of the axle leading from the waterwheel, under the spot the input side of that pump was on. Testing out various arrangements now to see what uses the least power.

[Brodiggan]

Multiple Aquifer Pierce II: Electric Boogaloo
All credit for this idea is due Tanelorn, I've just done my best to spread the idea around and make it common knowledge (along with a bit of testing and a few tweaks).

It's possible to drill down through any number of aquifer layers, if you're careful, without needing any extra space on each level.

You'll need a good bit of wood. At the minimum you'll need enough for one waterwheel and 6 axle segments plus 1 additional axle segment per aquifer level. I'd suggest assuming the worst and keeping more wood on hand for extra axle segments.
At least one unit of stone would be useful, though not necessary, for making a mechanism for a gear assembly and you'll need enough Wood, Stone, Glass, or Metal to build the components for 5 screw pumps (If you have no stone, you'll need enough for 6 screw pumps, one of which will be used to transfer power to a vertical axle in place of the usual gear assembly.)

Lastly, you'll need some material to build 16 walls per level of the aquifer, this can be stone, wood, glass, whatever works, and depending on what sorts of material your aquifers run through, you may be able to recover some of this from the stone left behind as you mine. (but don't count on it).

So in the end you'll need:
12+ wood
5 Blocks (6 if you have no stone)
5 Enormous Corkscrews (Again, 6 if you have no stone)
5 Pipes (Also 6 without stone)
16 Miscellaneous material per aquifer level, for walls.
And if you do have stone, one Stone Mechanism.

Examples provided below use the following:
X = Up/down stairway
H = Channel
* = Gearbox
@> = Pump, with water pumping in the direction of the arrow/caret
- | = Horizontal axles
WWW = Water wheel
. = Empty square
+ = Constructed floor
o = Damp stone
~ = Water filled square

Part I: Preparing to mine and powering the pumps

The first step is to dig out an up/down stairway into the aquifer, channel out the 4 squares on each side of the stairs from above, like this:

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.........
.........
.........
.........
.........
.........
.........
....H....
...HXH...
....H....
.........
.........
.........


These four channels will allow you to pump out water from around the stairs, giving your miners a place to work from safely on the aquifer level. Before you can begin though, you'll need a power source and a place to pump the water to without flooding your fortress. First, place 4 screw pumps around the stairs in a spiral, like this:

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.........
.........
.........
.........
.........
.........
.....^...
..<@H@...
...HXH...
...@H@>..
...v.....
.........
.........


Then cut a channel in front of each pump, allowing you to pump water back into the aquifer...

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.........
.........
.........
.........
.........
.....H...
.....^...
.H<@H@...
...HXH...
...@H@>H.
...v.....
...H.....
.........


Now you just need a power source. Originally I attached one waterwheel to each pump, and used the flow of the aquifer into the drainage channels to run the wheels, but there were problems piercing multiple aquifer levels using that arrangement. Any power source will do, as long a it supplies sufficient power, but for the purposes of this guide I'm going to use a single waterwheel/screw pump generator nearby. The first step in preparing for this is to cut a channel for the waterwheel like so:

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.........
.........
.........
..HHH....
.........
.....H...
.....^...
.H<@H@...
...HXH...
...@H@>H.
...v.....
...H.....
.........


Then extend one end of the channel by one tile, and add a hook at each end, like this:

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.........
.........
.H..H....
.HHHH....
.........
.....H...
.....^...
.H<@H@...
...HXH...
...@H@>H.
...v.....
...H.....
.........


The hooks will be the input and output tiles for a screw pump driving the waterwheel shortly. (And yes, this is a cheap perpetual motion exploit. For those that find that undwarvenly, well, privately I agree with you. You'll need a nearby river, a windmill farm, or sufficient dwarven labor to provide an alternate supply of power if you choose not to use this trick, and I leave the details of that to you.)

Before you build the waterwheel, you'll need to place the screw pump to support it:

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.........
.........
.H<@H....
.HHHH....
.........
.....H...
.....^...
.H<@H@...
...HXH...
...@H@>H.
...v.....
...H.....
.........


Then you can add the waterwheel and a three tile horizontal axle connecting it to the first screw pump.

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.........
.........
.H<@H....
.HWWW....
...|.....
...|.H...
...|.^...
.H<@H@...
...HXH...
...@H@>H.
...v.....
...H.....
.........


Don't worry if the waterwheel/screw pump kicks on and you start getting some 1/7 or 2/7 water moving around, that's normal, and the aquifer channels will prevent it from flooding, though it's going to get a bit muddy around each screw pump regardless of what you do.

If the pumps don't quite kick in, just run the pump adjacent to the waterwheel manually for a few cycles, and the whole system should kick on. Once you have the waterwheel going, everything should keep moving on it's own.

To power the other three screw pumps, just build three single tile horizontal axles over the "input" channels adjacent to the stairs. These axles won't interfere with the pumps picking up water from below, and they'll transfer power between each of the pumps. When placing a horizontal axle running north/south between two pumps, be sure to to change it's orientation by hitting (s) before placing it. When you're done, you should have something like this, with all four pumps working.

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.........
.........
.H<@H....
.HWWW....
...|.....
...|.H...
...|.^...
.H<@-@...
...|XH...
...@-@>H.
...v.....
...H.....
.........


More to follow in Part II: The First Aquifer Level...