Welcome to a new planet!

The Hand Crank Generator is a small generator that you can salvage from the wreckage of your spaceship. It produces power from manual cranking. There is also a technology to research if you need more than one. And the technology also reduces the amount of button mashing required to power the HCG.

How to crank!

Simply hover your mouse cursor over the HCG and press the key that you use to rotate buildings. You have to be pretty close to grab the handle with your short arms!

Use it for Low Tech Modpacks or as Modding Tutorial

HCG fits well with low-tech mods and modpacks that require electricity for water pumps.
The mod source code also contains extensive comments intended as an intermediate level modding tutorial. See the FAQ for futher info on that or read the wiki page.

Power production

By default the HCG produces 20kW of power for up to 5 minutes, and it takes 15 seconds of cranking to fully charge.

Customization Options

• The Technology and recipe can be disabled to make it a starting-only item.

• The power production capabilities can be fully customized (output, duration, required cranking).

Public Domain

As of June 2025, due to unexpected and continued interest even years after I had to leave the Factorio community I dedicate this mod to the public domain. In the hopes that it may continue to serve the next generations of modders. I don't have time to update the included license files, so those historic files will stay as is. The codebase must grow!