Cooling the Convert-o-tron 250

[Gargamel]

Searched before asking, but I can't seem to find an answer.

My Convert-o-Tron 250 is going over the optimum temp, reducing it's efficiency.  I have the converter sitting on a top of a fuel tank, and a Large Extendable Radiator attached to that.  I can't seem to get a radiator to attach to the converter, radially nor on it's free inline attachment point.

So How do I cool the converter?

[Spricigo]

 

If memory serve me well,  the Radiator will l cool the fuel tank and it's child parts but not the parent part. So if you attached the tank to the converter it may be your problem.

 

Edited April 3, 2017 by Spricigo
memory dont serve me well enough in this case

[bewing]

The extendable radiators cool the entire ship. The fixed radiators only cool outward one part from their attachment point. And no, you can never attach things radially to the converters.

How many types of fuel are you trying to convert at one time? And which of the two converters are you using? Your overheating issue is likely to be from using the small converter -- if you look at the "max cooling" value, you may realize that it is designed to only be used in pulses, and will always overheat if you use it continuously.

 

[MrBonk]

For the mining/fuel production craft I've done so far, I've used 2 x medium extendable radiators per converter, just attached to whatever would allow me to extend them without hitting something else.

My largest miner has 2 x large drills and 1 Convert-o-tron 250 and is using 4 x radiators (and 4 x gigantor solar panels).

[Aegolius13]

Ah, this is my queue to evangelize for the static radiators.  Two large ones will cool a large lSRU nicely (at least for normal use).  Just slap a couple on a tank attached to the converter.  They're light,  easy on electricity,  and less prone to breaking.

Sure the extendable ones will cool anywhere on the craft.   But that's more useful in theory than practice,  since only a few parts need cooling to begin with. 

 

[Gargamel]

Well, I'm using the near future mods, so I currently have 4 Nuclear reactors running, so each of those have a large deployable radiator on them, plus 4 more large radiator arrays on the 30 or so Li tanks, so cooling is an issue.  The ISRU (the 250 as mentioned in the OP), is attached to one of the tanks that one of the arrays is on, so it's difficult to get any more radiators close to this converter.   Power consumption really isn't an issue, as I have 50k EC in batteries, and can produce 12k per second (The engines take that entire 12k when they are running). 

So It seems I'll just have to find a better arrangement for the large arrays so I can get some static ones in close to the converters.

Only converting Li, but trying to do it while running the 4 engines and 4 reactors at max.   It probably won't be an issue when the ship is adrift, as I'll have 3 of the 4 reactors offline, and the fourth only running at 10% or so.   Enough to cover comms, life support, converters, etc. 

Edited April 4, 2017 by gargamel

[Z3R0Gravitas]

I updated and added a bunch of information and data tables to Wiki's pages on radiators, the other day. perhaps this is helpful?: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Radiator#Function                   

I don't know anything about any mods, but could it be possible that your reactors are using up most of the radiator's core "Core Heat xFer" capacity (see wiki page above)? I think a single large (fixed) panel radiator should be enough, on it's own, to cool a single Convert-o-tron 250, when running only one fuel conversion. Try having that type of local cooling radiator attached to a tank that the 250 is attached to, while making sure all other core heat sources (only drills, in KSP vanilla, I think?) are greater than 2 part connections distant.

I've not managed to update the actual Converter pages fully yet, but their production rates (and EC use) scale up with the highest level of engineer aboard your craft, as with drills: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Resource_harvester#Ore_extraction_rate

However, I think I've not yet managed to pin down entirely, for sure, if (or how, exactly) heat production and it's management scales with engineer level. My detailed question (to @RoverDude) has not yet been answered in any detail: 

Of course I'd appreciate any knowledgeable input on my questions from other members here. :-)

[Gargamel]

Yes, I did check the wiki's before asking, and they did sort of steer me in the right direction. 

But I have found that the 8 large arrays are keeping the converter at the perfect temp when the reactors are not running (well, one is).  But with the nucs firing at full blast, there's no way they can keep up with other high temp parts.   Added a couple static radiators on the tank that holds the converter, and voila, problem solved.   Converting while under burn.  Now I'll just leave the Mono, LFO, and Li converters running all the time, and just eat the losses when they come. 

Thanks for the help guys.

 

And a bit of eye candy if you want. 

 

Edited April 4, 2017 by gargamel

[bewing]

39 minutes ago, gargamel said:

Now I'll just leave the Mono, LFO, and Li converters running all the time

In the end, that may have been the source of your problem. The large converter can only handle a max of 500kW of core cooling -- and 3 channels of conversion running at once can sometimes generate 600kW of core heat  (depending on the level of your engineer, your thermal efficiency, etc, etc.). Under that particular circumstance, it doesn't matter how many radiators you have; your converter will overheat.

[Gargamel]

12 hours ago, bewing said:

In the end, that may have been the source of your problem. The large converter can only handle a max of 500kW of core cooling -- and 3 channels of conversion running at once can sometimes generate 600kW of core heat  (depending on the level of your engineer, your thermal efficiency, etc, etc.). Under that particular circumstance, it doesn't matter how many radiators you have; your converter will overheat.

Well, I wasn't running them before, but I still can't either.  

After having tried this, I realized, that when you have 4 nucs producing 3000 EC/sec, and 4 Engines each requiring 3000 EC/sec, that left me with ummm, let me see, carry the seven, yes, 0 extra electricity to spare.   Now While I Do have plenty of battery charge to run the converters, I'd rather be close to breaking even while under thrust.  As it's a 350 part ship at 1,000 tons, and a TWR of around .2, so not only are they long burns, but my computer drags down to about a 8:1 real time seconds to game time seconds ratio.   The games playable, it's just in slow motion.  Meaning what is may be a 5 minute burn in game, is closer to 30-40 IRL.  So I may not be at the controls the entire time, letting the MJ run the burns while I cook dinner. 

 

Now If I am running a converter overheated, or under heated I guess would apply too, If I am not running it at 100% effeciency, am I still getting a 1:1 conversion ratio lets say, but only producing it slower, or does the ratio change?   If the ratio is changing, then it doesn't make sense to not run these under optimum conditions. 

Edited April 4, 2017 by gargamel

[bewing]

2 minutes ago, gargamel said:

Now If I am running a converter overheated, or under heated I guess would apply too, If I am not running it at 100% effeciency, am I still getting a 1:1 conversion ratio lets say, but only producing it slower, or does the ratio change?

Just runs slow. The ratio does not change.