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One Wheeled Panda

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Posts posted by One Wheeled Panda

  1. It is a more precise(because of the smaller increments) and it is kind of based around human living conditions, at zero degrees you are in trouble, and at 100 degrees you are in trouble.

    When precision really matters you'd use decimals anyway, so that's kind of moot.

    Your other point could be made for Celsius and Kelvin using those same Numbers...

    *tongue in cheek*

  2. 2. Stressful? Afaik all the US people already know the metric system because it's thaught in school for what, 50 years? Also don't underestimate the adaptability of people. If you confront them with only metric units they'll understand it in less than a month even if they don't pull out a book and study it.

    From experience I'd say that is not true.

    It took a lot of people nearly a decade to get used to the Euro. "That's XXX in [former national currency]" is a phrase you heard a lot. For years.

    In Germany the Horsepower was replaced by the Kilowatt in 1978 as the official unit for measuring power. There was a transitional period up until 2009 for using hp in advertisment. Five and a half years of using the kW exclusivley later lot's of people still don't really have an intuitive grasp of scale when confronted with measures in kW.

    Old habits die hard.

    Not to say it shouldn't be done...

  3. Indeed. It might be a good idea to send seed ships instead of full colony ships.

    I never understood the particular concept of saving humankind. Humankind means nothing - only individual humans lives do. If they'd all die anyways, I don't see the point.

  4. I'd like to say I play stock - but I don't.

    I very quickly got mods for tedious work that I otherwise would use or create out of game tools or feel stock does not too well (e.g. managing multiple missions or maneuver nodes).

    KER, KAC, Precise Node, Enhanced Navball (because scaling and repositioning), RCS BA, Simple Science Fix, Stock Bug Fixes.

    Even my craft aren't stock although I'd like them to be for sharing and comparing. There's ScanSat (for ingame biome maps) and Godspeed Automatic Fuel Pump (because stopping a craft flipping by manually locking/unlocking fueltanks during launch, so COM moves forwards instead of backwards, is absolutley doable - but too hectic after a couple of times).

  5. Right now, we've got struts for 0.625m, 1.25m, and 2.5m, which is really all we need. Struts for 3.75m don't really make a whole lot of sense when there is no suitable 3.75m lander engine.

    I was going to make that point too. OTOH creativity. Look at what people built out of the parts available. Space stations, bases, robots, asteroids with wings. Sure, there is always going to be some Whackjob whose needs cannot be met by anything readily available.

    Give them something to play with and they'll find a way to (ab)use it.

    I don't miss it - but I won't argue against it either.

  6. Yeah, the easiest way is to wait on the launch pad until the orbit you need is approximately overhead, and then try to perform your gravity turn in the direction of the target orbit. You'll still need to do some correction, but hopefully only a few degrees.

    It's even easier when you rotate your craft in the VAB to turn in the correct direction when performing your usual launch profile.

  7. Due to circumstances (read: general laziness) there hasn't been much progress... I promise I'll do something about that.

    You could sell these.

    Maybe, but they'd be rather expensive. I guess price would have to be around 500-600 dollars - shipping excluded. Which is the next big problem. The console I want to build is rather sizeable - shipping in parts and having the recipient do some assembly and possibly soldering? Nah. I'd also feel obligated to offer some sort of support for something I'd be building, but I honestly don't want to do that.

    On the other hand the community offers lots of mods and advice that help to DIY - so that's what I'd recommend anyways.

  8. Even with heating set to 120% and while trying to recover as large parts of my craft as possible I have yet to lose a craft to reentry. I have lost small fins, solar panels and nearly even a parachute but with proper orientation of a craft you can manage heat.

    I've even brought extremely wobbly craft down no problem. 14 FL-T100 tanks with an engine on one and a capsule on the other end - oriented it towards normal to maximize drag - it flexed, it flipped out of control along the pitch axis, it came close to snapping in half but finally it came down in one piece - minus the small fins. This was from LKO tho.

    I wouldn't (till now anyways) think twice about directly bringing anything down from Mun.

  9. Hey! Thank you for this Mod!

    I think I found some small issues:

    The "reset" button in the experiment popup does no longer work - it behaves the same way the "keep data" Button does. The experiment will be kept. Only by reviewing and discarding data I can get rid of it. Seems to be the case at least for EVA reports and surface samples.

    Also there seem to be some conditions where the "review stored data" right-click option on a Kerbal does not appear. I got this when taking an EVA report on the capsules ladder sitting on the launchpad, then taking a surface sample from the launchpad. I could not reproduce this one though.

  10. RainDreamer: Well, the 64-bit problems of Unity 4 would actually be a technical point - but that doesn't come up in the whole review.

    Reading through the article again I also noticed that all they had to say about modding and the community is: They exist, they're commendable, there's buttons in the menu that'll take you there. Barely using more words than I just did.

    Monger: I know. I just don't see the point in forcing yourself to find something to list as a negative (that's how it feels to me) and then even mislabeling it.

  11. I was hinting at the fact, that missing graphical polish and effects are (mostly) not a matter of technology used. I do understand what the author wanted to say though.

    Well, must of the parts are based on 1960-1980's technology. Thats how I took it at least.

    Thanks, that made me laugh! :D

  12. Presentation:

    - outdated technology

    Game Design:

    - lame science mode

    Scope:

    + three modes with six scenarios

    Ridiculous.

    Simple looks could be a valid point (to some) - but outdated technology? What does that even mean?

    Also listing science mode as a positive and a negative strikes me as a litte odd. Putting lame things in is something good for the scope of the game?

  13. Thank you MrOnak! I've seen this before but decided not to do it.

    I'm not tight on pins anyways.

    8 PWM pins to connect the analog meters and mere 3 to drive those segment displays in a daisy chain. The seller says chaining more than three is not advisable, so i may need 6 pins. But i suspect that's only when supplying vcc through the chain - which i won't do.

    That still leaves 48 pins unused on the Mega2560 - which could drive a button matrix up to 24*24. That's 576 switches! I doubt I'll even go beyond 196 (28 pins in a 14*14 matrix configuration) :D

    Rough estimate: 30 matrix connections for rotary switches, 25 for the toggle switches, 50 for the keypads, 6 for the rocker switches and maybe another 10-20 for varios other buttons.

    That's 131 matrix connection points - 23 pins (11*12) should do the trick.

  14. I've got another (very small) update for you.

    Now the Arduino can display output on the panel meters (even if they are mounted upside down or on their sides) - still need to create custom scales for them though. This weekend maybe :)

    Code-wise the keyboard matrix still has to be implemented and I might just rewrite the Arduino LedControl library. It just doesn't feel right and I want some high-level functionality anyways.

    With the holidays coming up building the actual hardware might be done bevor 2015 :)

    Here's another Photo showing the panel meter displaying fuel (left) and el. charge (right). Note that el. charge says is 80% full even though it reads 20% on the current scale.

    0xlY7EO.jpg

  15. My feelings are a bit mixed.

    I love to manually control my craft but I hate it that absolute precision is nearly impossible to achieve.

    Definitely going to use that to get my aerocaptures right during the exit burn. I almost always have to place a second node a few minutes later to get it quite the way I want it...

    But I might just take another scientist or engineer... I mean, I could always just slap a probecore on top to replace that pilot, right?

  16. Hmm... Those buttons... Care to share where you got them? Is the cap transparent (and removable) by any chance?

    The keyboards are off of ebay here.

    Their caps can be removed and consist of two pieces: A clear top and a white inner piece. So labeling should be quite easy!

  17. Moar stuff in my mail today:

    CSX1jc6.jpg

    A Rotary Switch for timewarp, a shroud for my red abort button, a Big Red Button with LED for Staging, 10 5V meters and loads of Buttons (inspired by KK4TEE) for (science) action groups, EVA camera and whatnot.

    Now I've got most of the parts i wanted. Some minor stuff is still missing but i might get that tomorrow at a hardware store.

    Here are some schematics I scribbled. Sorry for the bad pic, my cam can't really do better with the lighting, cramped space and crumpled paper :S

    If you zoom in you might be able to see the Details. Measurements are in centimeters.

    EouZsNP.jpg

    If you got any ideas what to do with those unassigned toggle switches - I'd love to hear them.

    I hope to make some real progress this weekend :)

    For now I'm off trying to make a panel meter display monoprop levels.

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