Create Wiki · Fluids
Portable Fluid Interface
The Portable Fluid Interface moves fluids between a moving contraption and a fixed setup. Tanks carried on a bearing, a piston or a train never connect to a pipe; two interfaces facing each other, one on the contraption and one on the ground, open a passage while it stops. It is the liquid counterpart of the Portable Storage Interface for items.
Quick facts
- Category
- Fluids
- Crafting
- Copper Casing + Chute (shapeless)
- Gap
- 1 or 2 blocks between the two interfaces
- Exchange
- The fixed interface stands for all of the contraption's tanks
- Departure
- 3 s without exchange (psiTimeout setting, 60 ticks)
- Redstone
- A signal on the fixed interface cuts the connection
- Version
- Create 6.0.8 · Minecraft 1.21.1
Crafting table recipe (shapeless)
→ 1 Portable Fluid Interface
Tanks on the move
One interface on the contraption
The first interface is attached to the contraption, glued to the rest of the structure, facing outwards. It moves with it and gives access to all of its tanks, without having to stop the contraption by hand. One interface is enough however many tanks are on board: it handles them as a whole, filling one before moving on to the next.
The second one, 1 or 2 blocks away
The second interface sits on the ground, along the path, facing the first one. There must be one or two blocks of gap between them: touching interfaces do not connect. Pipes and the pump are connected to this fixed interface.
For the length of a stop
When the contraption passes and the two interfaces face each other, they latch on: the contraption stops and the exchange begins. The fixed interface then acts as one big tank standing for all of the contraption's tanks. The pipes connected to it cannot tell the difference from an ordinary tank.
Filling…
A pump pushing towards the fixed interface fills the contraption's tanks one after the other. Here, chocolate goes from the big tank on the ground into the two tanks on board.
… or emptying
Flip the pump with a wrench and the flow reverses: the contraption's tanks empty into the fixed setup. The same station can load a tanker train on the way out and unload it on the way back.
Departure
Once nothing has been exchanged for 3 seconds, the interfaces let go and the contraption moves on. That delay is set on the server with the psiTimeout option. A redstone signal on the fixed interface also cuts the connection, for instance to release a train on schedule.
What the animation shows
In our render, the tanks fill and empty as in the game, but the small motion of the interfaces reaching towards each other is not animated.
The tanker train
The most common use is the tanker train: tanks on a wagon, an interface on its side, and a fixed interface at the edge of each station's platform. The train stops at the station, the interface latches on, the pump fills or empties the tanks, then the train leaves once the exchange is done. That is how you haul lava from a Nether sea, milk from a farm or water to a distant boiler.
Common mistakes
If nothing happens, check the gap: the two interfaces must face each other with one or two empty blocks between them, never touching. Also check that the moving interface is actually glued to the contraption, and that the pump pushes the right way.
Related pages
Sources for the numbers (Create 6.0.8 code)
- Recipe: crafting/kinetics/portable_fluid_interface.json (shapeless)
- Gap: PortableStorageInterfaceBlockEntity.startTransferringTo (distance ≤ 2)
- Departure: CLogistics.psiTimeout = 60 ticks; redstone: PortableStorageInterfaceBlockEntity (powered)
- Tanks on board: PortableFluidInterfaceBlockEntity (all of the contraption's tanks)
- Scene: FluidMovementActorScenes.transfer; levels drawn after FluidTankRenderer
Original texts and animations by Create France, rendered from the mod's Ponder scenes. Create is a mod by the Create Team, not affiliated with Create France.