Deployable Fairing Workaround

[Guest]

Apologies if this is common knowledge, but with thousands of hours logged in the game, I only discovered this yesterday so thought I'd share.

Do you find that when you deploy your fairings, they sometimes take your solar panels out with them leaving your vessel underpowered/unusable esp a probe where there is no engineer on hand to repair? Really annoying. 

Well as a workaround, if you hit warp ( > ) as soon as you've deployed then cancel ( / ) the fairing pieces magically disappear, leaving your solar panels in one piece. Another benefit to this is you can make your fairings as small as you like and large pieces to save on memory.

* applies to standard warp ie not in atmosphere/physics warp. May still work but untested

[The Aziz]

Why would I deploy solar panels before I get rid of the fairing? I'm pretty sure any ship is capable of reaching orbit on internal power only. I don't see any of that as a problem, it's more of an error in design.

Edited March 6, 2021 by The Aziz

[SpaceFace545]

7 minutes ago, The Aziz said:

Why would I deploy solar panels before I get rid of the fairing? I'm pretty sure any ship is capable of reaching orbit on internal power only. I don't see any of that as a problem, it's more of an error in design.

Like The Aziz said, fairings aren't needed outside of the atmosphere. If your using fairings for a design choice then I can't help you.

[Guest]

6 hours ago, The Aziz said:

Why would I deploy solar panels before I get rid of the fairing? I'm pretty sure any ship is capable of reaching orbit on internal power only. I don't see any of that as a problem, it's more of an error in design.

You misunderstand. I'm not saying deploy solar panels before the fairing. I'm saying you deploy the fairing (solar panels retracted with no intention of deploying before fairing) and it destroys your solar panels as it (the fairing) deploys (to emphasise NOT the panels). Surely I'm not the only one this happens to?!

 

6 hours ago, SpaceFace545 said:

Like The Aziz said, fairings aren't needed outside of the atmosphere. If your using fairings for a design choice then I can't help you.

See above. Deploying fairings whilst still inside the atmosphere (especially under thrust) makes the problem worse as you are inevitably almost pointing nearer the horizon due to gravity turn, so they fly off backwards at strange angles, increasing the risk of catching an (undeployed) solar panel. I've always deployed once past 70k but that's personal choice and nothing to do with it destroying (undeployed) solar panels that happen to be underneath.

I now wonder if there's other weird bugs that only happen to me... 

Edit: on rereading the op, I can see I failed to clearly specify the state of the panels so could indeed be interpreted as being deployed. As the answers received imply, it would be ridiculous to deploy the panels before the fairing. I apologise for not being clearer.

Edited March 6, 2021 by Guest
Re-read op and realised I wasn't clear hence strange replies

[OHara]

It is not just you.  My fairings also sometimes destroy my solar panels,  when I build the fairing  close to the payload. 
(I never considered it a bug, since the now-free fairing pieces really could hit other parts.)

I started leaving more room inside the fairing.  Other people use the 'confetti' style of deployment.  I'll try the time-warp suggestion.

[SpaceFace545]

@FruitGoose I see, its a bug. Hasn't happened to me.

[Daedalus3000]

This has happened to me too, I just tend to change the deploy force to 300+. The main culprit for this though has been clamshell fairings. The confetti rarely breaks my craft.

[The Aziz]

Well that never happened to me in that case too so it's probably kind of bug. Then again, while I try to make fairings fairly close to the payload (not that they're super heavy or whatever) I don't make them super close. If the payload is 1.25m, and the fairing base is also 1.25m, the fairing itself will be visibly wider to keep, exactly, any parts safe from clipping or touching it whatsoever.

Also I usually deploy fairing after SECO-1, before circularization burn, so the pieces shouldn't hit anything on their way, because they simply go outwards.

[Dientus]

4 hours ago, Daedalus3000 said:

This has happened to me too, I just tend to change the deploy force to 300+. The main culprit for this though has been clamshell fairings. The confetti rarely breaks my craft.

Thats my solution as well, confetti and increased deploy force and it hasn't happened since.

 

[pandaman]

I have had fairings knock stuff off when I deploy them.  I have always put it down to design error on my part, and been able to stop it happening by making design changes/tweaks to the fairing and/or the vessel around where the fairing is mounted.

[paul_c]

Two solutions:

1. Space out the fairings and solar panels (and any other kit) so that the fairing will deploy safely. If needs be, stop accelerating, then deploy, then throttle the engine up again. Or wait until the engine is stopped etc (but see below).

2. Solar panels are delicate - don't rely on just one or a handful, put excess panels on in case of breakage. (Kerbals on EVA are good at breaking them too).

Also don't forget.......the actual most efficient time to deploy a fairing is when its weight penalty exceeds the aerodynamic benefit.......which occurs sooner than 70km altitude at Kerbin! (Think about it....)

Solar panels, on the other hand, can be deployed just before engine (with alternator) cutoff + battery depletion time. In other words, depending on how many batteries and what electrical demands, some time after engine cutoff, which will be much later than ideal fairing deployment time.

[Guest]

On 3/7/2021 at 11:38 AM, paul_c said:

...

Also don't forget.......the actual most efficient time to deploy a fairing is when its weight penalty exceeds the aerodynamic benefit.......which occurs sooner than 70km altitude at Kerbin! (Think about it....)

...

I agree IRL, however from the game perspective (a) I personally don't notice any difference in flight performance from the weight saving, (b) doing full efficient gravity turn gets a bit boring for me so I usually get the “exit atm in x seconds” between say 45 and 60k. So I'm coasting through the perceived efficient deployment altitude anyway, and (c) it looks better when done in space 

[paul_c]

I personally didn't notice it either, until I looked at the TWR before and after. I guess you have upgraded the launchpad and don't have the 18t limit?

[Snark]

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

I've run into this problem myself from time to time. Confetti fairings are the answer, as far as I'm concerned. I've never once had any sort of self-collision problem with a confetti fairing.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, paul_c said:

I personally didn't notice it either, until I looked at the TWR before and after. I guess you have upgraded the launchpad and don't have the 18t limit?

Usually yes, one of the first things I try to max out in career (and vab). 

2 hours ago, Snark said:

Moving to Gameplay Questions.

I've run into this problem myself from time to time. Confetti fairings are the answer, as far as I'm concerned. I've never once had any sort of self-collision problem with a confetti fairing.

I was doing the same, however it has happened doing that as well. Plus it's a bit like action groups, I inevitably end up forgetting to set them up in the editor. 

Nope my warp to remove them is the preferred answer I think...  (wasn't a question was a tip/workaround originally!)

[Snark]

4 hours ago, FruitGoose said:

Nope my warp to remove them is the preferred answer I think...

Glad that works for you! 

4 hours ago, FruitGoose said:

Plus it's a bit like action groups, I inevitably end up forgetting to set them up in the editor. 

Yeah, I used to forget that all the time myself.  Got to be so much of a persistent pain that I finally bit the bullet and wrote a mod for it so I wouldn't have to rely on remembering to do it every time.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Snark said:

Glad that works for you! 

Yeah, I used to forget that all the time myself.  Got to be so much of a persistent pain that I finally bit the bullet and wrote a mod for it so I wouldn't have to rely on remembering to do it every time.

Yes I've used it (although didn't work for me for some reason but I use quite a few mods so probably a conflict). Better burn time is still one of my first mods to add on a new install though 

As an update to this, tests have shown this hack DOESN'T work with physics warp ie in atmosphere thus rendering it useless for the majority of players who deploy fairings as intended. Apologies to all.