Cable

The Cables are the primary means of transferring EU from one device to another. There are several different tiers of cables, depending on how much current they can tolerate. If too much current is applied to a cable, it will instantly melt. Different tiers are made out of different metals. Furthermore, all cables suffer from distance-related energy losses - long cables will inevitably lose energy in the process of transferring it. There are several ways to offset it - Transformers and insulation. For higher-tier cables, the insulation also reduces the amount of shock damage the player and NPC's receive from touching the cable under high voltage.

Cables can also be painted using the Painter. This separates them, preventing cables of different colors from interacting with each other. This also greatly reduces the strain on CPU, as large cable meshes with many intersections require the game to peform many CPU-heavy calculations.

Insulation

Insulation reduces the amount of EU lost as it travels through a cable, it can be added simply by placing the cable in a crafting grid with some rubber.

A cable placed in the world can have insulation added or removed with a pair of Insulation Cutters.

Uninsulated cables (except glass fibre) cannot be coloured with the Painter.

Cable Efficiency

All cables suffer distance-related energy losses, and depending on the tier and insulation of the given cable, the losses can vary greatly. The general unit for cable efficiency is EU/block. It shows how much EU the given cable loses per block. The number is accumulated along the whole length of the cable, and then rounded down to the nearest integer.

	Tin Cable		Copper Cable		Gold Cable		HV Cable		Glass Fibre Cable
	EU/b	EU loss	EU/b	EU loss	EU/b	EU loss	EU/b	EU loss	EU/b	EU loss
Uninsulated	???	???	0.3	1 EU every 3.33 blocks	0.5	1 EU every 2 blocks	1	1 EU every block	0.05	1 EU every 20 blocks
Insulated (1")	---		0.2	1 EU every 5 blocks	0.45	1 EU every 2.22 blocks	0.95	1 EU every 1.05 blocks	---
Insulated (2")	---		---		0.4	1 EU every 2.5 blocks	0.9	1 EU every 1.11 blocks	---
Insulated (4")	---		---		---		0.8	1 EU every 1.25 blocks	---

• The stats for Tin Cable are not finalized.

Cable Splitting

Up to 6 cables can connect to one other cable. Current will only flow through a cable when requested by a consumer if the loss from the cable length will allow some energy to get to the consumer. i.e. a batbox (32UE) will send across insulated copper to a furnace up to 155 blocks away (5x31). No energy will be sent to a furnace 156 blocks away.

Cable types

More detailed information and a larger recipe list is available by looking at the page for each cable type.

Tin Cable

Tin cables can only tolerate very low current (4 EU/t, needs to be confirmed) but they're very cheap to make and has low energy loss.

Copper Cable

Copper cables are the most common cable tier. They are only capable of handling Low Voltage (up to 32 EU/t), however, they suffer the smallest distance-related energy losses out of all the conventional cables, with insulated copper cables having even less energy losses.

Gold Cable

Gold cables can transport Medium Voltage (up to 128 EU/t) but has higher energy loss than copper. The loss can be remedied to some extent by giving the cable upto two layers of insulation.

HV Cable

HV Cables can handle the highest amount of current possible at up to 2048 EU/t however it loses energy very quickly and should only be used when there's no other choice. HV cables can have upto three layers of insulation to help deal with the energy loss.

Glass Fibre Cable

Glass Fibre cable is a special type of cable capable of transporting up to High Voltage (512 EU/t). It does not shock anything standing too close and has only a tiny amount energy, however it is very expensive to make.