I have a windmill and it is transmitting power to a gear assembly below. The gear assembly is connect to an axle so it looks like this:

ground level: X is windmill

XXX
XXX
XXX

below:

G is gear A is axle

OOO
OGO
OAO
OAO
OGO

DF says this is all powered, so no problems yet. I built my pump so that it's half on the bottom G, ie. the gear assembly is directly one tile below my pump. However it does not have power. Any ideas?

Edit: Sideview would be

 WWW P GAAG

1

3 Answers

A windmill produces 0, 20, or 40 power depending on the embark location. Each gear assembly consumes 5 power, and each tile of axle consumes 1, so your power transmission already consumes 12 power. A pump needs another 10, which brings you to 22 requirement. So if your windmill produces 20 power, that's enough for the whole power line, but just a tad too little for the pump.

According to the DF wiki page on pumps, pumps can be powered from below, but only on the output tile, and that tile must have its floor removed before construction of the pump.

4

You need to channel a hole, in the tile under the center of the windmill, before building it - otherwise the floor prevents the power from transferring through.

Screwpumps consist of 4 tiles:

1) The input tile where water or magma is pulled from the Z level below. 1/7 fluid depth will not be pumped.

2) The passible tile where a dwarf stands to power the pump.

3) The impassible tile which nether dwarves or fluid can pass through.

4) The output tile where the fluid is pumped to.

The pump is powered by a powered tile above, below, or on either side of the pump's "impassible tile". If the touching powered tile/mechanism is on a different Z level (above or below) the pump, the floor between the Z levels must be removed (channeled) to allow power to connect.

The adjacent powered tile can be a powered axle, gear assembly, windmill, waterwheel, or another screwpump. A screwpump consumes 10 power from the connecting power train or requires a dwarf to manually pump it to work.

I suspect that in your fortress you connected your windmill to the passible tile that the dwarf pumps at and not the impassible tile. If this is accurate, adding a gear assembly or axle next to the impassible tile that also touches your windmill would power your pump.