[0.17] Electrical Energy Plugin | v1.5 (Oct 12)

[dishycourier]

I could implement all these possibilities (it will at least always be possible to have them infinite), but I also have to balance the engines and I honestly whouldn't like it if VB is totally different than MMI, DCCPW or DSM, there'd be no point in that.

If it sets you at ease, I'm planning on getting as close to your numbers as possible. None of this 48 thrust/.something consumption. It will be slightly less than LFE's, but not to the level of cheat parts. Thrust is capped on my engines now at 42.

The batteries have been cut way down as well. The real number I'm having an issue with is where to put the reactor. Current mass is 4 and it holds a lot of power, but the recharge is slow enough in 1x. The issue I'm getting to is that when you're waiting for injection, the damned thing refills back to overcharge very quickly at 4x+ -- I don't really want this. There are also some smaller RTG models I'm sitting on. Is it possible to have a mission timeout for them in a future version? Or, if possible, an internal fuel supply to sip off until dry? I managed to set a reactor to eat liquid fuel, but nothing else. I gave up on it a while ago.

Also: planned panel efficiency somewhere around %13.

[Kreuzung]

>dishycourier

I've been playing around with numbers a bit, everything has to be rebalanced, I'll give you the numbers once I'm happy with the thing.

I also fixed the part resource consumption for the reactors (used function wrong -.-), so you could make them finite.

I'll probably add the possibility to block generators off-rails, the heat system doesn't work then and you'll run out of resources too fast anyway.

[kyle.mk.howard]

>kyle.mk.howard

Are you trying to make a part be an ion engine?

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Serpentine]

It seems with every attempt, there is always one mistake or problem.

It's me again (probably don't remember), and this time, the Solar Panels in the DynaSat fix aren't working. I have all updated EPS, Zo2, PowerTech, and the Electrical Energy plugin; however, the Panels don't recharge Zo2 or work with EPS. There's probably some missing compatibility fix I didn't see, like the already tried EPS to PowerTech one for Zo2 that I found on the EPS page.

Am I doing this right?

*EDIT* Okay, well I messed around with the EPS fix for Dynasat and got something acceptable. It isn't that good at giving an accurate display of sunlight detection/absorbancy.

Edited October 4, 2012 by Serpentine

[CrashnBurn]

I'm not trying to criticise your design decisions, and also I'm no expert on solar cells, but you might want to consider the 5-20% figures are probably true for consumer grade solar panels (the whole assembly including converter etc.) with 5% in cheap stuff like toys or solar garden lights, and 20+% in "serious" consumer panels, aka. photovoltaic power supply. Modern high end solar cells (as might be found in cutting-edge space systems) can have up to twice that efficiency. Also something to keep in mind is that the quoted solar cell efficiency rating is measured through quite a thick layer of atmosphere.

Anyway, thanks for your excellent plugin!

I agree with higher numbers for solar panel efficiency. Current "off the shelf" "space grade" solar cells start at about 30% efficiency and can be purchased today for commercial applications from several companies. For example:

http://azurspace.de/index.php?page=88

http://www.emcore.com/space-photovoltaics/space-solar-cells/

Top end cells currently reach 43%.

[Dartmauk]

Somehow i can't get the "Solar Buddy 2000" panels to work....I once saw it producing energy but i didnt pay attention when and i wasn't able to reproduce it.

Does it only work with specific batteries? It only produces energy while energy is consumed or whats the matter with it? I tried editing the cfgs with no success ;(

All other solar panels that are that should produce energy, do as intended, so I'm quite clueless atm. Anyone got an idea?!

[Kreuzung]

>Dartmauk

It sometimes behaves a little weird. Make sure that the solar panel has been activated by staging (this won't be required anymore from the next version on).

>CrashnBurn

The Solar Buddy 2000 is currently at 35% efficiency, but I think I'll go with 30%.

[Turnip199]

Do you know when this update will be out?

[Kreuzung]

Hopefully in the next week.

[Dartmauk]

Aight, thank you. I totally forgot to test activating it by staging....

[Bluekommeh]

I'm sorry, I've read through the entire thread, but I still cant figure out the .cfg edits...I like realistic rockets, and not being able to fit the big DSM panels under a fairing infuriates me. How do I turn the Kosmos panels into a Kreuzung panel?

[Kreuzung]

You add

partResGenerator = True
power = [something]

to the part.cfg.

[FishyFishy13]

Solar panels are not working for me, I have the latest version of this plugin but they show up as sas and don't collect any energy. What am I doing wrong?

[Bluekommeh]

You add

partResGenerator = True
power = [something]

to the part.cfg.

So you can just add it anywhere? Aight cool thanks.

[csshanks]

Solar panels are not working for me, I have the latest version of this plugin but they show up as sas and don't collect any energy. What am I doing wrong?

I tend to have these issues also, but I have found that when my ship is just perpendicular or so to where the kerbol rise/set on kerbin, I gain a lot of power really quickly then it tapers off until its done.

[rkman]

Once there is an ion engine that also uses fuel it's easy to turn that into an ion engine that used no fuel (edit cfg fuelconsumption=0), the other way around is not so easy.

[Corax]

The Solar Buddy 2000 is currently at 35% efficiency, but I think I'll go with 30%.

Not sure if it can be done from in-game data, or if it had to be determined empirically, but it would be absolutely awesome if you could figure in atmospheric losses.

Once there is an ion engine that also uses fuel it's easy to turn that into an ion engine that used no fuel (edit cfg fuelconsumption=0), the other way around is not so easy.

Very true, and although the majority of the voting crowd seem to prefer "no fuel", that would only be correct for a photon engine, an ion engine does require some sort of reaction mass, ie. fuel. With rkman's suggestion, you could have both types in one go.

[Kreuzung]

I share your opinion about the engines, but there whould be little sense in implementing it if nobody wants it.

I dunno about the atmospheric losses, I didn't even write the new sun detection code, that was all Innsewerants' awesome work, I don't even have the physics knowledge I whould need for that (did I really go to school for 9 years just to sit in front of a '_(physics)' Wikipedia article and think "WTF"?).

[Corax]

I share your opinion about the engines, but there whould be little sense in implementing it if nobody wants it.

It seems to me as though roughly half the voters would actually like some form of fuel consumption...

For example, I voted for (read: I'd prefer) a separate fuel type, but I guess I would be fine with any kind of fuel consumption, after all.

I dunno about the atmospheric losses, I didn't even write the new sun detection code, that was all Innsewerants' awesome work, I don't even have the physics knowledge I whould need for that (did I really go to school for 9 years just to sit in front of a '_(physics)' Wikipedia article and think "WTF"?).

I don't think it needs to be physically perfect, just plausible enough to be believable. It's still just a game

I haven't really looked into this, but maybe it could be as simple as finding the height of the atmosphere, calculating the distance light has to pass through in the direction of (from) the sun, assuming a linear decline in atmospheric density between the current altitude and zero (at the edge of space), and applying some attenuation factor to that, before applying any other factors like angle of incidence etc.

Edited October 10, 2012 by Corax

[Thourion]

Search doesn't help me much with my quick question. Will i have any problems/conflicts with the various solar panels/batteries etc, if i keep using the 1.4.4.0 plugin from kosmos pack?

My first not thorough test showed no problems with that, but i like to be sure because of the configs needed for the different panels and such.

This "local" 1.4.2 version makes the Angara engines to act weird.

And of course your next version update, will it be "newer" version than the kosmos? or should i just stick with that, and wait for 1.4.4.1 or higher from here.

Thanks in advance, and for this great plugin.

[Kreuzung]

The version from KOSMOS should be fine.

Edit:

Updated to 1.5

Edited October 12, 2012 by Kreuzung

[Space ghöst]

I'm getting a strange error with the new update. It happens when I load up my ship with three EPS batteries, one EPS nuke battery, and four VB ion engines.

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at ModuleKrBattery.Update () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

(Filename:  Line: -1)

<del>I'm not sure what it could be. Should I re-launch my ships?</del>

Are ion engines required to have 'Energy' resource listed now? I added the resource line in part.cfg and now it works, the engine was reading at -1kw, but at least it's fixed!

Edited October 13, 2012 by Spaceghöst

[Kreuzung]

Hmmm, the error is thrown in ModuleKrBattery, so it cannot be the engine (works fine for me with included config too).

You said that you're only using EPS batteries, but the error is thrown in my part module, how can that be?

[Space ghöst]

Sorry for any confusion. It was probably user error on my part.

As you know VB ion engines don't use the battery module out of the box (besides the module = IonEngine), so I decided to add that part to the cfg file a while ago. I believe that I added another value which didn't belong and it somehow got saved in the persistence file until I changed the cfg settings. I suppose I could probably prove this to myself by removing the resource line and it still working with no errors.

But yeah, my fault.

Edited October 13, 2012 by Spaceghöst