POS material guide

POS material guide

How do I use a POS to produce intermediate materials and composite materials?

To produce intermediate materials you will need the following: (See bottom of article for info on composites)
The appropriate moon materials

Each reaction specifies what moon materials it takes in and what intermediates it outputs. You will need to have Moon Harvesters outputting the required moon materials or an online silo containing them.

A Reactor Array

This is the structure that "changes" moon materials into intermediates. Warning: on the contrary of all other structures, the reactor has to be onlined when setting the links up, otherwise they are going to be reset when pressing the "apply" then "reload" button.

An output silo

It is necessary to have a silo to store the output from the reaction along with every input material that you do not mine directly at the location. Silos must be offline when items are placed in them or taken from them.

A Simple Reaction

Simple Reactions enable the Reactor Arrays to change moon materials into intermediate materials.

A coupling array

A small silo that directs the material stream from Silo to Reactor. The usage of these is optional but if they are not used, the reaction will consume more raw materials then listed and so from now it will be assumed that coupling arrays are used for input from silos.

Getting on with the intermediates

• Make sure that you have supplies of the input moon materials.

• Anchor the reactor array but do not put it online.

• Approach the reactor, right-click the control tower and select "manage", and pick the "production" tab.

• Drag the reaction blueprint from your cargohold onto the question mark on the reactor listing.

• Locate your output Silo and click the "change type" button, selecting the type the reaction will output.

• Online the reactor and the silo(s).

• If only Moon Harvesters are used: Find the listings for the Moon Harvesters and drag the icons on the right-hand sides to the corresponding icons in the left-hand sides on the Reactor to create a link.

• If Silos are used as well: Drag the appropriate icons from the right-hand side of the Silo(s) to the left hand side of the Coupling Array(s) and then from the right-hand side of the Coupling Array(s) to the Reactor

• Drag the icon on the right-hand side of the Reactor to the left-hand side of the output Silo and click "Apply" and "Reload".

• The production should now be active but it might take 2-3 cycles until it starts outputting materials.

Composite Materials

Producing composites is done in almost exactly the same way as intermediates, though with the following difference:

• You need a complex reaction blueprint instead of a simple one.
  
• Intermediates are the input into the Reactor and composites the output.

Apart from this, composites are produced in exactly the same way as intermediate materials, as described above.