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Insulated Copper Cable

alaindustrial:insulated_copper_cable

Energy TransferLVImplementedtier-lvtransferenergyrubberinsulation

Summary

✅ Safe to touch: the rubber sheath completely prevents contact shock at every energy flow, regardless of neighbouring cable tiers or configured damage.

The Insulated Copper Cable is the rubber-upgraded version of the Copper Cable. It retains copper's 12 EU/FE/tick throughput and 32 EU/FE packet cap, but halves attenuation from 0.02 to 0.01 per block. It is the main long-run LV wire unlocked by the oil, sulfur and Vulcanizer chain.

The rubber sheath also communicates electrical safety and fully prevents energized-cable contact damage. supplies the insulation's energy advantage, while supplies electrical safety. The old wool-and-water-resistance design is retired: wool is not a substitute for rubber, and water resistance is outside this delivery.

Energy

Field	Value
Role	transfer
Tier	LV
Max voltage	32 EU/FE/packet
Throughput	12 EU/FE/tick = the segment working buffer
Loss	0.01 attenuation per block; positive flow delivers `max(1, ceil(N × 0.99^distance))` EU/FE/tick
Insulation	rubber; complete shock protection

The formula follows the model: a positive packet always delivers at least 1 EU/FE, so a long line cannot prevent exact storage top-off. At the full 12 EU/FE/tick segment flow, insulated copper delivers 11/10/8/5/1 EU/FE over 10/20/50/100/1000 blocks; bare copper delivers 10/9/5/2/1 EU/FE.

In a mixed network, the cable with the higher packet cap determines the network loss. At equal caps, a bare grade takes priority over its insulated counterpart, so one insulated segment cannot improve a whole bare line. The reduced 0.01 rate therefore applies only to an entirely insulated copper network.

Block Properties

A thin wire with a rubber sheath that connects to neighbouring blocks. Any tool breaks it, and shears are especially handy.

Field	Value
Shape	thin rod (6px core + sleeves),
Hardness	0.2
Tool	any / shears

Flowing fluid washes the cable away, just like a vanilla torch or redstone: if water spreads into the wire's cell, the cable drops as an item, and lava destroys it without a drop. This goes for every grade — copper, tin, gold, electrum and their insulated versions. Do not run a line where water can spread — next to a pump's pool, for instance; wall the water off.

Dyeing

An insulated cable can be dyed in any of the 16 vanilla colours — purely cosmetic.

Right-click with a dye on the cable dyes one segment and uses 1 dye (free in creative), with the dye sound. If the segment already has that colour, nothing happens and no dye is used.
Shift + right-click with a dye dyes the whole connected run of the same grade: it follows the drawn connections and stops at another grade, a bare cable or a machine; up to 256 segments, 1 dye per 8 segments painted, as far as the dyes in your hand reach.
A bare (uninsulated) cable cannot be dyed: no dye is used and the action bar shows "Only insulated cables can be dyed".
Right-click with water on a dyed segment washes the colour off — the segment is plain black rubber again; Shift + right-click washes the whole connected run of the same grade (same walking rules, up to 256 segments). The water is used up: 250 mB for one segment, a bucket (1000 mB) for a whole run; nothing is used in creative; the dye is not returned.
- A water bucket gives its water only whole: it comes back empty for one segment or a run.
- A water bottle washes one segment — with Shift too — and turns into an empty glass bottle.
- The Portable Fluid Tank with water pays by the amount: 250 mB a segment, 1000 mB a run with Shift; when it holds less than a bucket, Shift washes only the segment under the cursor.
- Any container the item fluid API can take water out of works — our capsule, other mods' tanks — and the container itself decides what it turns into; it pays the same way as the tank (the capsule, like a bucket, gives only a whole bucket).
- A bucket or a bottle in hand never pours its water beside the line and is never drunk: with nothing to wash (an undyed segment or a bare cable) nothing happens and no water is used. A tank with nothing to wash is placed as usual. Cauldrons, rain and nearby water do not wash the colour off.
Crafting: 8 insulated cables of one grade around 1 dye (like stained glass) give 8 cables of that colour; an already dyed cable can be re-dyed the same way. The recipe shows in JEI/REI and in the recipe book (unlocked once you hold the cable).
Colour does not change connections (cables of different colours connect as before), loss, the segment buffer, shock safety or the cable breaker.
Only the black rubber sleeve changes colour; the small conductor-coloured flecks stay, so the grade is still recognisable. Undyed cables look exactly as before; black dye gives a slate grey so it differs from undyed.
The colour is kept when the cable is broken (wrench dismantling included) and on middle-click pick-block; the item tooltip shows "Color: …"; stacks of different colours do not merge. Old worlds load unchanged — cables read as undyed.
Works the same on Minecraft 26.3 and 26.2, on Fabric and NeoForge.