Guide to Wiring the Solars

Written by Folia, transferred by Blukey.

Welcome to Engineering, scrub!

A good engineer will know how to set up the solars, when all else fails.

Getting Started

Here, we see we are equipped with our hardsuit gear, oxygen and breath mask, then our tools (from the toolbelt): a pair of wirecutters and plenty of cable cord.

Configuring the SMES

It is important that you configure the SMES as shown above, verbatim. The TG wiki explains why:

A common mistake is to immediately set the input to 90,000 watts (the amount produced by full sunlight) and the output to 80,000 watts. 
 However, this will not work. Solar batteries (SMES cells) start at 20% power, but if the engine is off, the station drains them to 0% 
 in a few minutes. An input of 90,000 watts (full sun) might charge the battery for a little while, but once the sunlight is blocked 
 by the station, the battery charge begins to drain. This causes the battery to turn off - and even when the panels receive sunlight 
 again, the battery won't be sending power unless an engineer turns it on again.

If you test this yourself in-game, you will find it to be true.
So, to restate: set the SMES as shown in the image!

Wiring

Wiring is a bit finicky. There's a certain way to do it. Once you learn how to do it properly, it's very easy.

See that end? That's a knot. Knots are bad. You will want straight, clean lines.

Let's snip it with the wirecutters for now, so that we can demonstrate how to properly wire.

First, face where you want to place a wire. Then, with cable cord in your active hand, click in front of your character on the plating.

Facing the opposite direction, you will set down another wire to straighten out that knot.