What happens when a probe loses signal?

[Ethen Sun]

I have a probe orbiting the Mun very low, currently on Munar farside, with no comm links to any of my relays or Kerbin. But I still have full control over it, and it's even able to transmit science. I have Require Signal for Control turned on.

Under what circumstances do I lose control?

The probe has a Communotron 88-88 transmitter.

[steuben]

To answer the subject question: it just tumbles through the dark cold lonely void that is space.

To answer the body question: you loose control when signal hits 0%, is blocked by a body, or power hits 0. Depending on what you ground station level is at will determine if the C8⁴ is enough to maintain contact... I think it is. There are a few calculators, and the one formula </black speech>to in the darkness bind them</black speech>, out that will be able to say for sure.

Edited August 28, 2017 by steuben

[Ethen Sun]

1 hour ago, steuben said:

To answer the subject question: it just tumbles through the dark cold lonely void that is space.

To answer the body question: you loose control when signal hits 0%, is blocked by a body, or power hits 0. Depending on what you ground station level is at will determine if the C8⁴ is enough to maintain contact... I think it is. There are a few calculators, and the one formula </black speech>to in the darkness bind them</black speech>, out that will be able to say for sure.

Thanks. but does that mean the the Communotron 88-88 is capable of transmitting through the Mun? I am in sandbox, have max ground stations.

[Superfluous J]

Sounds to me like you don't have that game setting enabled. I think it's in difficulty options.

[steuben]

C88-88 with 3g ground station should be able to talk to Eeloo without much trouble. CommNet, wiki.

But nothing will be able to transmit through a body, just to it. You'll need a relay to transmit to the Kerbin-relative dark side of <insert body> here.

[bewing]

Actually, you can transmit partway through a body. It depends on how you set your "Occlusion Modifier" setting.

But sandbox mode also is designed to keep things working -- rather than being harsh about limits.

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by bewing

[Ethen Sun]

1 minute ago, bewing said:

Actually, you can transmit partway through a body. It depends on how you set your "Occlusion Modifier" setting.

But sandbox mode also is designed to keep things working -- rather than being harsh about limits.

 

It's at 1.0 right now. What should I set it to so that the Mun actually blocks the signal?

[bewing]

0 means "don't block the signal, ever". A vacuum occlusion of .9 is typical. 1.0 should almost always block the signal if you don't have LOS. 1.1 is the most severe it can be.

If you have a green line between you and kerbin, or if your signal strength is showing bars, then the signal is getting through.

If no signal is getting through, but you still have control of the craft -- then the problem is not commnet, it's something completely different.

 

[Ethen Sun]

2 minutes ago, bewing said:

0 means "don't block the signal, ever". A vacuum occlusion of .9 is typical. 1.0 should almost always block the signal if you don't have LOS. 1.1 is the most severe it can be.

If you have a green line between you and kerbin, or if your signal strength is showing bars, then the signal is getting through.

If no signal is getting through, but you still have control of the craft -- then the problem is not commnet, it's something completely different.

 

Any idea what it could be?

[bewing]

If your game is still perfectly stock, you can put the persistent.sfs file in a text editor, and copy and paste it at pastebin -- or copy it to a public dropbox or google drive. And then all of us can take a look. Otherwise it's just a little too much guesswork to be feasible. A picture can help, but a savegame is definitive.

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by bewing