A lamp will not turn on
- Check the item name. Use Circuit lamp for a power-network lamp. A Coal lantern is fueled directly and does not join the network.
- Feed the dynamo actual Coal. Right-click with Coal to add one stored unit. Charcoal can substitute in some crafting recipes and fuels a kiln, but the machine refuel interaction checks Coal specifically.
- Read its status. With a non-coal item selected, right-click the dynamo. No stored coal and no burning reserve means it cannot produce power. Crafting a dynamo or lantern does not automatically give the placed device operating fuel.
- Trace faces from the dynamo. Every path step must be a conducting block immediately above, below, or beside the next. Diagonal contact, a gap, ordinary stone, ordinary rail, or a coal lantern breaks the path.
- Toggle the lever on. A newly placed lever starts off. A button is only on for about 0.8 seconds; an unoccupied plate is off.
- Shorten the test. Try Dynamo → Lever → Conduit → Circuit lamp near your player before debugging a network that is near the 64-step or 1,024-cell limit.
- Allow an update. Machinery updates around ten times a simulation second and periodically rediscovers nearby loaded devices. A distant unloaded area is not a reliable live test.
A lamp stays on with the lever off
The lever must cut every route, not merely sit next to a wire. Search for a second conduit around, above, or below it. Lamps, piston bases, dynamos, relays, and booster rails can also carry a connection. Temporarily remove the parallel route, then retry the lever.
If the item is Amberlight or Copper lantern, it is a permanent emitter rather than a switched Circuit lamp. Switches do not change it.
Right-click keeps toggling or showing status instead of placing
The game prioritizes a lever/button/dynamo/lantern interaction when you aim at that device. Aim at the floor or an ordinary support beneath the empty cell where the next component should go. Place separate components at the same height so their faces touch. Do not assume Shift bypasses every machinery interaction: Shift does choose a piston's placement-face direction, but these device handlers run before ordinary block placement.
The dynamo runs out faster than its displayed number suggests
The number is burning reserve. Lamps, piston bases, and booster rails increase its consumption rate; the basic formula is on power and switches. Even a powered piston that is standing still is still a connected load. Turning a downstream lever off reduces the connected load but does not fully stop the dynamo's baseline burn.
A piston will not extend
- Power the base through an adjacent conducting path.
- Check its facing. Normal placement follows your horizontal look direction; Shift placement follows the support face.
- Leave a free cell at the far end of the push. Eight movable blocks is the maximum chain.
- Remove containers, doors, machinery, basalt, plants, and other ineligible blocks from the push line.
- Move yourself, animals, and residents out of the head and destination cells. A blocked push is cancelled before the blocks move.
- Keep the operation inside loaded chunks and away from the vertical world boundary.
A piston pushes but does not pull
A normal piston only pushes. Use a Sticky piston, made by placing Tree resin above a piston in the grid. Sticky retraction pulls one eligible block that is immediately beyond the old head position, provided the destination is clear. It does not pull an entire pushed train, reach across a gap, or retrieve an immovable block.
A cart will not move
- Place it by selecting the cart and right-clicking an actual rail cell.
- Board it; an unattended cart is not an autonomous delivery vehicle.
- In a handcart, hold W. In a coal cart, add actual Coal and use W to raise the throttle after boarding. Boarding resets throttle to zero.
- Confirm the track continues forward in the cart's travel direction. S reduces motor throttle; it does not reverse out of a dead end.
- Brake rail reduces speed. Booster rail must be powered, and its speed benefit applies to a burning motor cart, not an unpowered handcart.
- Look toward your intended branch at junctions. Design a loop if you need the cart to return.
A relay does not extend the range or create a timer
The current relay is an indicating conductor. It does not reset the generator's reach, add a configured delay, or output a new timed pulse. A push button provides a short manual pulse; it does not automatically repeat. Build within the supported behavior rather than expecting a programmable controller.
A charge has not gone off yet
A charge's adjacent-powered-cell check runs periodically, then starts its fuse. Confirm the last powered conductor touches a face of the charge and the switch actually controls the route. Do not walk up to inspect a newly triggered charge: it may be waiting on its fuse. Saving is not a disarm command. See blast charges before trying another remote trigger.
A new material is missing in an old world
Terrain additions apply when new terrain is generated. Updating the game does not rewrite every saved area into the newest version. Use a fresh test world for new deposits and geography, or check the version-specific world-generation notes. The wiki's recipes describe the current build; they do not imply that every older saved spawn has every new resource nearby.