Grays

Ok...I could embed that information. I was intending it to go at the top of a table.

Draft of omni-directional illustration. Thoughts?

I've seen other people refer to it as the Active Vessel "bug", and I called it a "problem" because I recognize that it's simply a misunderstanding of what's going on with the operation of the Active Vessel function. I'm not saying that RT2 is at fault, I was asking whether he had ruled out Active Vessel as the source of the problem. As it turns out, that reminder was all he needed in order to fix the problem with his network. The "fix" for the Active Vessel problem is to remove Active Vessel altogether, which I would honestly be in favor of for unrelated reasons. As-is, it operates as intended, but the intended operation causes a counter-intuitive issue that is often overlooked because the vessels that appear to be the problem aren't actually the vessels where the problem originates. No, the operation of dishes and omni-directional antennas is quite intuitive and the whole system makes sense. The Active Vessel problem is the single most counter-intuitive problem in the entire operation of the mod and the most common RT2 question we get over at /r/kerbalacademy. Even if you read and grasp the documentation, it's okay to miss something and ask for help. No need to antagonize. This was a troubleshooting question. This thread is for discussion and questions. Even if you're aware of the issue, it's easy to miss the issue because people don't often check in the right place for the source of the issue. When the network connects to the station, but not the lander, the intuitive solution is that there's a problem between the station and the lander. It doesn't occur to people that the problem is one step back, so it's a common source of confusion that often is asked as troubleshooting. There is nothing wrong with that.

Itchy, did you double check you're not having the Active Vessel problem?

Hi, I've posted about this before and messaged before, but still am not really getting a response. I'd like to get involved with the official documentation. Who would I contact about that? I'm the author of the reddit guide, I'm drafting a new update to that guide, and I'm creating some diagrams for new users to get a better visual idea of what's going on. All of this will be in the reddit guide, but I've tried contacting people (Cliph a few months ago, woogoose recently) about helping with the official documentation and haven't gotten any replies.

Hey, a new version! I'm the author of the reddit guide "Complete Novice Tutorial to RemoteTech 2" that pops up as a high-ranking Google result when searching for RemoteTech 2. I wrote that prior to the availability of official documentation and have been keeping it maintained up to the December release. I'm planning to update the guide and add illustrations of the ranges of various parts. If you'd like, I'd be happy to get involved with the official documentation process as well, and redirect the thread on reddit to that guide. Please let me know if you'd like me to assist with the official documentation. Thanks!

I solve the problem with Kerbal Engineer...just have to get the orbits close, and then match the period exactly, down to the 1/10th of a second. Once you get within a few seconds, you can burn/RCS right next to the normal vector to feather the period a bit until it's exact. If all of your satellites have the same period in that range, they will stay aligned for years. Also, having them as far apart as possible (longest period possible) will cause less error over time. Finally, using the 5 Mm antennas at max operational range between relays will still guarantee that the 3 Mm antenna will attach to one of your satellites while in LKO.

Most likely you aren't connecting your dishes in both directions, make sure they're active and pointing at each other.

Get a few omnidirectiinals in low orbit to cover unmanned craft with LKO transfers. I'd attach a few 45 or 90 dishes to cover comms with your first trips to the Mun and Minmus. You'll also need at least one or two relays orbiting the Mun to get science comms back to Kerbin from the far side of the Mun. Once you're ready for interplanetary, set up some higher orbit long range relays.

You can establish perfect orbits with KER, giving all three the same orbital period (feather the orbit to 1/10th second using normal adjustments once prograde adjustments are close). You can even establish a network with Communotron 16s, which I currently have for a low orbit network, and it works fine--although the 16s can be a maximum of 800 km above the surface of Kerbin. Split the difference and set three satellites 120 apart at 700 km, and you can establish a low orbit network almost immediately when the game starts. http://i.imgur.com/oDkgqgU.png Also, you can use this blackout calculator to make sure you've got enough battery to survive the dark side of Kerbin with all your antennas up: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkXf-77s6gmFdEdVeGFqX0xobTczYkhEaEVrVTdWV3c&usp=drive_web#gid=0

Icons at the bottom right hand corner of map view let you toggle those.

Thanks for the update, Cliph!

Alright, that's reasonable. (Certainly makes more sense than "Active Vessel" as a target.)

Part of the appeal of RemoteTech is that it forces you to think about network engineering, and automation of that type of component seems contrary to the spirit of the mod. Realism as to what NASA programmers would have done isn't really a factor; there are quite a few things in KSP that real space programs would have done differently because of the time and man-hours put into design work. I like the fact that "no connection = no recovery", because it makes me focus on getting my engineering right. Honestly, I would actually prefer "current vessel" not be a valid target, and I very rarely use it.

How would a probe that is unable to get instructions be directed to reposition its antenna?