RT Noob needs help

[TotallyNotHuman]

So, I just discovered RemoteTech and I liked the difficulty of having to micro-manage signals and time delays. This mod, along with TAC and KCT, are serious game changers.

But, in my experiment save, I tried to establish system-wide comms for the Kerbin system. I already had a triplet of comsats in a low-ish (625 km) orbit and that covered comms up to 4.5 Mm altitude. I built another satellite, with two dishes, one for each of the moons, and two omnis, and launched it into a 4.5 Mm orbit. I set Mun and Minmus as the targets for the dishes.

It should help if I added my crappily-drawn diagram in MS Paint^TM.

Spoiler

Here's the part where I encountered a problem.

I sent a probe out to Mun, thinking that "Aha! I have the relay-sat's dish pointed at Mun; therefore, I must be able to have comms even there!"

Wrong.

I lost the probe after passing 4.5 Mm, and didn't acquire until it came back into sight of the low-orbit commsat system.

Experienced RT2 users: What am I doing wrong (based on both the diagram and what I've told you)?

Edited June 30, 2016 by TotallyNotHuman_

[RA3236]

You need to have a dish to be set to Active Vessel, overdose nothing will happen.

Unless you did that, it's probably that. Over wise I don't know.

[p1t1o]

To clarify what @RA3236 said, I think this is the issue:

So you have a sat in LKO with a dish pointed at the Mun.

You launch a probe to the Mun.

The probe is heading towards where the Mun will be when it arrives.

The dish on your comsat is pointing to where the Mun is right now.

So once your MunProbe leaves the Omni coverage, it is now outside of any coverage.

 

In your diagram, the probe heading towards the Mun would actually be about a quarter of a revolution anticlockwise from where it is currently illustrated, outside of the cone of coverage of your LKO DishProbe.

 

To send a probe to the Mun before you have anything else in Munar orbit, have a dish on the probe directly connected to a dish-probe in LKO. Target the vessel (either "active vessel" or specifically the probe in question by name) as RA3236 suggested, rather than the planet/moon itself. There isn't really that much call for targeting a body in RT.

Once you have several omni-equipped probes around the Mun (or any other target body) you can just lob omni-equipped probes there as normal. You will lose contact with them when they leave LKO omni range, but will reconnect once in range of the network around the target body.

 

Obviously there are coverage/occlusion issues when you only have one probe around a body, deal with this as you see fit

 

What I do:

Basically, spam the Kerbin system with probes of all kinds.

In Kerbin system I generally put long-range interplanetary comm probes in very high (5-8Mm) polar orbits.

When setting up networks for other planets I generally send one big probe to the target planet. The probe will be a large one with a dish link back to Kerbin system, it will also carry 2-3 mini-probes equipped with omni-antenna, which will be distributed around the target planet. If possible i will arrange for more than one dish link back to Kerbin.

Mission probes dispatched later will also usually have their own independant link back to Kerbin, using the previously emplaced network only to provide coverage when out of line-of-sight.

**edit**

My landers generally rely on the in-place omni network, though the delivering orbiter itself will likely have a dish connection back to kerbin as well as acting as an omni node, adding to the coherence of the local net.

These networks are still important for manned exploration for sending back transmission-recoverable science.

Edited June 30, 2016 by p1t1o
detail on landers

[TotallyNotHuman]

@p1t1o: Sorry, forgot to clarify.

The probe in question that has no connectivity is actually in Mun SoI, not during transit. It's logical that I have no connectivity during the transit (since my low-orbit commsat network only reaches ~4.5 Mm), but once I arrive in the cone (more specifically, Mun's SoI), there is still no connection home.

So what am I doing wrong here?

[EliasDanger]

@TotallyNotHuman_I assume you activated the dish in Mun SOI and had it pointing at Kerbin or specifically the Relay Sats you have in 4.5 mm orbit? You have to remember to activate the dish and set to Kerbin or whatever before losing connection enroute, or you'll never be able to activate it (unless you enable the cheat in RT settings).

Edited July 1, 2016 by EliasDanger

[TotallyNotHuman]

I automatically assumed that if a planet was covered by a dish, then I wouldn't need a dish. Apparently not. I'll try that out. Thanks!

[EliasDanger]

@TotallyNotHuman_, yup, you need a dish on both sides, there's yer problem.  

[TotallyNotHuman]

Oh pfft. I added a dish to my Munar Orbiter, it works fine now. Thanks @EliasDanger!