what does "not enough data storage to research_____"?

[justicarab]

I just connected 2 research labs on Minmus and one is already researching 500ish science data, and the second one states "not enough data storage to research_____" when i attempt to research something.

reasons it may be this way?

1) i haven't upgraded the Research and Development building. it states "research limit: 500". is this what it's referring to... per "base"?

2) i forgot to attach an antenna to the second research lab.... does this also mean i cant transmit the science from here? is this the reason it wont take the research?

[KerikBalm]

each mobile lab can hold 500 units of data.... if you've already put a lot of stuff in there, then it may be full.

Transmit data, and you can fill it up again.

If your research is worth 60 points, and the lab can only hold 30, you unfortunately can't just put "half" in there.

What you really want to do is fill it to almsot exactly 500, and then just leave it researching, producing science.

You can't just endlessly put in more data to have an arbitrarily high science point production rate.

[justicarab]

i understand that, but the other one has 0/500 and is stating that it doesn't have room...

[Tarheel1999]

i understand that, but the other one has 0/500 and is stating that it doesn't have room...

The 500 data limitation applies to the vessel. Two labs on one vessel still have a 500 data cap. This applies to vessels built in the editor with two labs or two vessels with labs docked together (after docking they become one vessel).

[justicarab]

The 500 data limitation applies to the vessel. Two labs on one vessel still have a 500 data cap. This applies to vessels built in the editor with two labs or two vessels with labs docked together (after docking they become one vessel).

ahh ok, so making an outpost with more than 1 lab is pointless

[Tarheel1999]

It would appear so. In the tutorials section there is a post on the mobile lab that might be helpful.

[KerikBalm]

So what happens if you have two labs with 500 science, and then dock them together?

a 500 per vessel cap seems dumb

[BluetoothThePirate]

So what happens if you have two labs with 500 science, and then dock them together?

a 500 per vessel cap seems dumb

Two labs docked together retain their data payload from before docking and work fine. The problem is in the mechanism used to make experiment results into data. RoverDude didn't seem to account for multiple labs per vessel when he wrote the interface changes. The "convert to data" button works no matter where an experiment is stored on a vessel and doesn't include a way to specify, so it will always send it to the same lab and ignore any others. I don't see any easy work-arounds in the interface logic, so this is probably how it's going to be for the forseeable future.

If you still want to cheese it, this works: Store all the experiment results in one lab with an EVA. Review them and convert them to data. After the conversion they pop up again with the green and blue options for keep and transmit, keep them all. When all the processing is over, use and EVA and take the data back out of the lab. Walk or fly it over to the other lab nearby (but not docked), store the experiments in the lab and repeat. Once all the labs have their data buffers full you can dock them back together if you want and they'll work.

That said I don't see the point. I have several labs on the go on the Mun and on Minmus. Just the science I collected en route and on landing for each was enough to fill the buffers, and I left off the materials bay for engineering reasons. After I converted it to data I just transmitted it all. Once the buffers run down a bit lower I'll have rovers landed nearby to go get new data from nearby biomes and keep it all running. As it stands I recheck each lab in turn after a typical Mun or Minmus mission and I have 20-40 science per lab to transmit. The downside is all the Kerbals I have on semi-permanent assignment, but they were mostly rescues anyway.

[van_dell]

I had the same problem, and found another partial workaround: I emptied the lab with the full data storage of kerbals so it became inoperable. This way, I was able to fill the other of 2 labs on a station where I previously had been unable to. However, not all experiments could be researched. The "big" ones (over 150 Science from Minmus in Minmus orbit) still didn't register, even if I had plenty of free data memory at the time. I was able to fill up the second lab to 494/500 or something like that. Hope this helps someone for whom undocking the lab is not an option.

[nholzric]

... Once the buffers run down a bit lower I'll have rovers landed nearby to go get new data from nearby biomes and keep it all running....

I know the output of the lab decreases over time, does the amount of data stored decrease too?

I have a lab in Minmus and, like you said, the lab was full to nearly 500 after collecting science around Minmus and one biome or so. I've continued to store experiments from 6-7 other biomes in the command module attached to the lab thinking I could process those experiments into the lab to keep the output up. Is this possible?

It would be nice to have a way to split the experiments up. I hope I haven't screwed up by storing numerous biomes worth of experiments in one module because now they're stuck together - there's no way to take some of them out and leave the others behind.

[BluetoothThePirate]

As the lab runs, the stored data goes down and the stored science goes up (five times as fast). The conversion rate is based on the stored data so it slows down over time. Yes, you can hold on to those experiments in the command pod for as long as you like and process them when there's room.

The best part is that once you've processed the experiments into data, you still have them. So you can take them to another lab or return them to Kerbin or transmit them and get their original science payout. The one thing you can't do is process the same result in the same lab twice.

[n0xiety]

Making an outpost with more than 1 lab is not pointless. You just need to make them seperate vessels. Do not connect them to each other but just keep them side by side. Then lets say you have a science report on your kerbal and 5 labs. You can just use that same science report on all of the labs before you send it back to kerbin and get maybe 10 times more science out of it in the long run.

[lodger]

Sorry to bring this topic up again. See, I understand the limit issue. But I have just a single lab in Minmus orbit, there's no science stored in the lab yet. So I get down to the surface, collect data and want to process that in the lab. Like I said, there is no science stored in the lab so far. So I want to process a ground sample (+175 science) and still the lab complains about not having enough storage room. But then the 175 science are then stored in the lab and get processed. What am I missing here?

Edited December 14, 2015 by lodger

[Plusck]

It's a bug, AFAIK.

It worried me to start with but it still works.

So assuming you have a 175-data report somewhere on your vessel. You have a scientist in your lab. The lab has less than 325 data in it. You click on the "research" button, it takes a couple of minutes (and a load of energy) to convert, then it says there isn't enough storage.

In that case, it's fine and nothing to worry about. I have no idea why it says there isn't enough storage but it's clearly a bug of some sort.

[lodger]

15 minutes ago, Plusck said:

It's a bug, AFAIK.

It worried me to start with but it still works.

So assuming you have a 175-data report somewhere on your vessel. You have a scientist in your lab. The lab has less than 325 data in it. You click on the "research" button, it takes a couple of minutes (and a load of energy) to convert, then it says there isn't enough storage.

In that case, it's fine and nothing to worry about. I have no idea why it says there isn't enough storage but it's clearly a bug of some sort.

Ah, I see. As long as the science points come in I can live with that. Thanks for the quick reply.

[Plusck]

There is another bug that leaves phantom reports in your lab, i.e. you right-click the lab and it says it has a report, but you click on the button to review it and it disappears.

To avoid that, I never EVA directly into the lab with reports if I can help it. I EVA into another pod, leaving the reports in the pod, then transfer to the lab.