Electricity Used By Antenna To Transmit Results From Science Instruments

[GeneCash]

So I put a lander on Duna, and I was peeved it couldn't transmit Gravioli Detector results because it ran out of electricity.

I knew the amount of electricity used depended on the amount of data (mits) from the experiment, and the antenna stats.

I looked at the wiki and used my Google-fu, and it seems nobody has actually done a table for each antenna and each experiment.

So without further ado:

Electricity Used By Antenna To Transmit Results From Science Instruments
	16/16-S DTS-M1	RA-100 (relay)	HG-55	HG-5 (relay)	88-88	RA-15 (relay)	RA-2 (relay)
Crew Report (5 mits)	36	48	40	54	60	72	120
2HOT Thermometer/EVA Report (8 mits)	48	48	60	72	80	96	192
Mystery Goo™ Containment Unit (10 mits)	60	72	80	90	100	120	240
PresMat Barometer (12 mits)	72	122	80	108	120	144	288
SC-9001 Science Jr (25 mits)	156	168	180	234	260	312	600
Double-C Seismic Accelerometer (50 mits)	300	312	340	450	500	600	1200
GRAVMAX Negative Gravioli Detector (60 mits)	360	310	400	540	600	720	1440
Atmospheric Fluid Spectro-Variometer (200 mits)	1200	1200	1340	1800	2000	2400	4800

I took a MK2 lander can, put a 4K round battery on top (giving 4100 electricity total), slapped the antenna on top, and the experiments on the side. (I had to add another 4K for the very last result)

I took a reading then transmitted the data. After it was done, I subtracted the remaining amount of electricity from 4100 to get the amount used.

The results did really surprise me. I thought the 88-88 was much worse, and I expected the RA-100 to place on the other end of the table.

I figured I might as well share the results. Enjoy. I don't know where this would go in the wiki... maybe under the antenna stats table?

[AlamoVampire]

@GeneCash awesome table! I think antenna stats is a good place for this data. I wonder if we will see it added to the in game one? Side thought are these numbers consistent with all command pods and cockpits or a function only of antenna and data transmission?  op 06:40:30

[Rocket In My Pocket]

Very nice list!

About your original issue though, did you try using "send partial?"

[swjr-swis]

1 hour ago, GeneCash said:

The results did really surprise me. I thought the 88-88 was much worse, and I expected the RA-100 to place on the other end of the table.

Yay for consistency and/or logical progression.

The same can be said about the 'mits' of data each science instrument uses. One would expect reports that comprise just a single biome name/sensor value to need only tiny amounts of data that vary very little from each other in size (mits) - thermometer, barometer, accelerometer, gravioli detector. Then would follow the composite experiments that return values of multiple sensors - materials bay and atmospheric. More sensors in one but basically still the same concise biome/sensor value pairs, so still pretty compact in data size. Then there's the experiments that require verbose reports, like the crew report and goo containers, which would basically be descriptive texts of undetermined length, probably including photo or video material.

Tiny remark: it's not immediately obvious that the first column combines the results of three separate antennae.

Interesting observation: the Communications table in the Parts wiki page lists the 16, 16-S, DTS-M1 and RA-100 as needing 6 EC/Mit. This corresponds -disregarding decimal differences- with the values we can calculate from the in-game part information (EC/sec divided by Mit/sec, which is the same thing). However, your results deviate considerably from that. The wiki table also suggests the HG-5 and HG-55 to be the next less EC-hungry antennae, in that order, while your results show the opposite order. If you stand by your results, this would mean the part information is incorrect. The odd part is that those values in the part information are derived directly from the actual part configuration details... so they should be correct.

 

1 hour ago, GeneCash said:

I figured I might as well share the results. Enjoy. I don't know where this would go in the wiki... maybe under the antenna stats table?

Thanks for doing this.

I would say as a separate page linked from the Parts table column headers?

[GeneCash]

15 hours ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

About your original issue though, did you try using "send partial?"

Yeah, but I didn't want to... :-)

15 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

Tiny remark: it's not immediately obvious that the first column combines the results of three separate antennae.

Yeah, I consider the 16/16S to be the same antenna, and then I threw the DTS-M1 under there because it matched.

15 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

your results deviate considerably from [the wiki]

I had a W.T.F. moment with the wiki page stats so I spent a while trying things with different pods/cockpits, levels of Tracking Station upgrades, and different distances from the Tracking Station (i.e. orbiting Minmus or Duna) and in the end, power seems to be just a function of "size of data from experiment" and "antenna stats".

So I looked at all the cfg files for the antennae, and it seems the packetSize & packetResourceCost are the things that determine the power cost for an antenna. I think the "Electricity (⚡/s)" column on the Parts wiki page is just plain bogus and doesn't mean anything, and (⚡/Mit) = packetResourceCost/packetSize

The power expended is then ROUND_UP(experimentDataSize/packetSize)*packetResourceCost. I did up a spreadsheet and this matches.

Edited November 26, 2018 by GeneCash

[GeneCash]

Revised table:

Electricity Used By Antenna To Transmit Results From Science Instruments
Experiment	mits	16	16-S	DTS-M1	RA-100	HG-55	HG-5	88-88	RA-15	RA-2
Crew Report	5	36	36	36	48	40	54	60	72	120
2HOT Thermometer/EVA Report	8	48	48	48	48	60	72	80	96	192
Mystery Goo™ Containment Unit	10	60	60	60	72	80	90	100	120	240
PresMat Barometer	12	72	72	72	122	80	108	120	144	288
SC-9001 Science Jr	25	156	156	156	168	180	234	260	312	600
Double-C Seismic Accelerometer	50	300	300	300	312	340	450	500	600	1200
GRAVMAX Negative Gravioli Detector	60	360	360	360	310	400	540	600	720	1440
Atmospheric Fluid Spectro-Variometer	200	1200	1200	1200	1200	1340	1800	2000	2400	4800
Packet Size		2	2	2	4	3	2	2	2	1
Packet Resource Cost		12	12	12	24	20	18	20	24	24

Packet Size & Packet Resource Cost are from the .cfg files. Note that the power expended is ROUND_UP(mits/packetSize)*packetResourceCost.

Edited November 26, 2018 by GeneCash