[WIP][1.3] SolarSailNavigator v1.0.9

[mrsolarsail]

[quote name='Kreole']Along with Solar Sail Navigator found at the top of this forum page, you'll need the SM-Solar-Sail-MK2 part which comes in the [URL="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/133735-WIP-1-0-5-PersistentThrust-v1-0-4-alpha"]Persitant Thrust Mod[/URL][/QUOTE]

Also make sure you have the latest versions. I don't know how different versions will interact with each other and KSP 1.0.5. It sounds like the sail thrust is working - it's just that the navigator isn't commanding the attitude.

[COLOR="silver"][SIZE=1]- - - Updated - - -[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[quote name='NotAgain']Where do you get solar sails anyway?[/QUOTE]

The [URL="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/133735-WIP-1-0-5-PersistentThrust-v1-0-4-alpha"]Persistent Thrust mod[/URL] includes one, which is available in the VAB under "Engines". I eventually plan on adding others, based on real and conceptual sail designs.

[wolfman29]

Bug report - when I try to start time-warp with the engine on (ion in this case), the game warps for just a second then drops back down to non-warp. Not sure what causes this, but when I change ships after successfully warping through a burn on one ship, it stops functioning. In particular, the altitude doesn't lock anymore until I restart the game, and occasionally, when I do restart the game, even if it the altitude locks, the warp problem described above occurs.

Thoughts? 

[columini]

On 17/11/2015 20:34:11, mrsolarsail said:

[quote name='Kreole']Greetz and Thanks ...

First a question on the tutorial. Do I orient the sail so I am looking from the backside (anti-pro grade) of the sail directly at the Sun and have it centered (on all axis) and then set cone to 0 degrees, set then time and lock attitude? This is a point of maximum force on he sail and acceleration. I see that in the numbers.

Secondly, when you say "command", is the sail supposed to orient in real time as I adjust the cone +- 90 or the clock +- 90? If this so, I am not seeing any kind of sail reorientation occur, even if I time forward. I do see that acceleration persists so that is kewl, it's that I can't seem to get the control GUI to orient the sail real time or planned. I also cannot preview on the map. I can't see a predicted orbit (just flashing on occasion from my icon in whatever the select orbit color is), but I do get final element results. They don't seem to matched or at least they are showing the persistent calculation.

I'm running KSP 1.0.5 in two different test installs, one 32 bit the other 64. I've done every version combination of solarsailnavigator and persistent-thrust to no avail. Both of these installs are the bare minimum to try and figure this out....

My base playground in both 32/64 is the following:

KSP 1.0.5
Module Manager 2.6.13
Mechjeb 2.5.4.0
Haystack 0.4.1.0 (Haystack isn't supposed to have any relationships, but I can't a button without toolbar 1.7.10
Hyperedit 1.4.1

Ultimately I want to use Interstellar Extended most importantly, followed closely by Near Future. Of course I dived right installing until I ran into this issue.. tried going backwards and stuff. Then finally started clean with the two above playgrounds... still the same issues.

Anyway, I hope this helps some. I've never been able to play with solar sailing type sims other than GMAT and that is too antiseptic among other issues.

~K

Thanks for the feedback. Do your controls have a "Lock Attitude" toggle button? If this is active, the sail should follow the controls. You also want to click "Set to Now" button when starting a new command sequence, to reset the start time to the current KSP time.

A positive "Cone" angle will tilt the sail so the sunlight bounces off of the sail to the left, if you're looking through the sail at the sun. The reflected sunlight will act like rocket exhaust to boost the orbit. A negative cone angle will reflect the light to the right, pushing against the orbit and shrinking it. Hope this makes sense. Once you get the hang of the controls, you can switch to "Map" view and see how different sail angles for different durations affect the future trajectory (check the "Show preview" toggle button).

 

I have the exact same problem. The mod doesn't work, it doesn't rotate my ship.
That makes me pretty sad because it looks like a great mod :'(

[mrsolarsail]

On 12/18/2015 at 1:18 PM, columini said:

 

I have the exact same problem. The mod doesn't work, it doesn't rotate my ship.
That makes me pretty sad because it looks like a great mod :'(

Are you getting thrust during timewarp by manually steering the vessel? If so, the PersistentThrust plugin is working. Sounds like the navigator isn't turning on. Did you try the "Lock Attitude" and "Set to Now" buttons? The "Lock Attitude" button turns on the automatic steering, and "Set to Now" sets the start time of the steering commands to the current time. Otherwise, the steering may not be turning on. If you did all this and it's still not working, I'll need to look deeper.

Sorry I've been offline. I'm starting a new job and have been moving across a continent.

[iliketrains0pwned]

Does this mod work with 1.1?

[_Astra_]

Has no controls in 1.1.2

So the answer is no

Edited May 9, 2016 by _Astra_
typo

[mrsolarsail]

I have updated this plugin to work with KSP 1.1 and Unity V. See the 1st page for details: 

 

Edited July 26, 2016 by mrsolarsail

[_Astra_]

Thank you a lot for this update.

 

How do i bring the control panel shown at page #1? I found it.

Do you plan adding a jumbo version of sail ?

Edited September 8, 2016 by _Astra_
update

[mrsolarsail]

On 9/8/2016 at 8:54 AM, _Astra_ said:

Thank you a lot for this update.

 

How do i bring the control panel shown at page #1? I found it.

Do you plan adding a jumbo version of sail ?

Good to hear. I'm learning how to model new parts, so I can add different sails, small & big. I would like to add some big ones from the literature, like the Halley's Comet rendezvous designs from the 1970s (800 meters wide), current concepts for interstellar precursor missions, and 2-mile wide Martian freighter concepts. Maybe some giant interstellar laser sails.

[_Astra_]

Dear mrsolarsail ,

Sad to report but it seems there is a bug in the math.

 

I put a Solar Sail on a Infernal Robotics Rotatron but the persistent trust direction always points its unrotated position, despite the actual rotatron state.

The result is an incorrect orbital manoever - orbits decreasing instead of increasing when the sun shines straight into my ship's back.

 

I suppose the problem is caused by multiple rotations of sail vector.

[mrsolarsail]

On 12/10/2016 at 6:10 AM, _Astra_ said:

Dear mrsolarsail ,

Sad to report but it seems there is a bug in the math.

 

I put a Solar Sail on a Infernal Robotics Rotatron but the persistent trust direction always points its unrotated position, despite the actual rotatron state.

The result is an incorrect orbital manoever - orbits decreasing instead of increasing when the sun shines straight into my ship's back.

 

I suppose the problem is caused by multiple rotations of sail vector.

Interesting. I'll look into it. Does that rotate the sail independently of the rest of the spacecraft? The ordinary rotations I do with the KSP controls change thrust direction, as does the Persistent Rotation mod and this one, normally.

Edited August 9, 2017 by mrsolarsail

[_Astra_]

8 hours ago, mrsolarsail said:

Does that rotate the sail independently of the rest of the spacecraft?

Not exact. The sail package was deployed by rotatrons and extendatrons and then packed back just before landing. Sadly i cannot remember more details as it was a half year ago and now the Infernal Robotics fails to handle the same craft. But the acceleration  was incorrect, mostly opposite to the sunlight.

[nubeees]

Looks like this addon and the original PersistantThrust still works!

Unfortunately, Solar Sail Navigator seems to not be compatible with KSPI-E anymore. Anyone out there want to help track down why? I suspect something to do with PersistantThrust being integrated into KSP interstellar

[nubeees]

@mrsolarsail Would you mind if I (or anyone else for that matter) recompiled your mod for the latest version of KSP?  

[Standecco]

@nubeees I have a recompiled and updated version of the mod here on github, but I am now working on updating it to play with the new Persistent Thrust Continued mod by @FreeThinker  (atm it requires my updated fork of the old PT mod, which has mostly the same code to the Continued version but lacks various features). The license allows everything, so you're free to work on your own fork, but it would be more productive if we joined forces. If you want to help in developing the new SSN (mainly fixing the preview to work with circular orbits and be less laggy in general), you can send a message to either of us or write here in the forums

[nubeees]

12 hours ago, Standecco said:

@nubeees I have a recompiled and updated version of the mod here on github, but I am now working on updating it to play with the new Persistent Thrust Continued mod by @FreeThinker  (atm it requires my updated fork of the old PT mod, which has mostly the same code to the Continued version but lacks various features). The license allows everything, so you're free to work on your own fork, but it would be more productive if we joined forces. If you want to help in developing the new SSN (mainly fixing the preview to work with circular orbits and be less laggy in general), you can send a message to either of us or write here in the forums

Fantastic!

It might be worth starting a new forum thread, though completely taking over someone's mod without permission is generally considered pretty rude and I don't see any recent activity on mrsolarsail's profile... 

I don't have a whole lot of spare time recently, else I'd be more actively developing my own addon, Munwalk. Still, excited to see progress on reviving my all-time favorite ksp mod!

[Gwilides]

I have installed a newer version of Solar Sail Navigator for version 1.8 with an old Persistent Thrust fork. The ship with the sail is working fine, but when the ship is with the engine, the time does not accelerate and always gives the error "Thrust warp stop - the propellant depleted". What could be the problem?

[ROCKETGOOSE]

On 6/16/2020 at 9:09 AM, Standecco said:

@nubeees I have a recompiled and updated version of the mod here on github, but I am now working on updating it to play with the new Persistent Thrust Continued mod by @FreeThinker  (atm it requires my updated fork of the old PT mod, which has mostly the same code to the Continued version but lacks various features). The license allows everything, so you're free to work on your own fork, but it would be more productive if we joined forces. If you want to help in developing the new SSN (mainly fixing the preview to work with circular orbits and be less laggy in general), you can send a message to either of us or write here in the forums

This sounds very interesting! I'd love to give it a go

Please excuse the noob question here, but I'm not familiar with compiling from a Makefile and feeling very LOST! any pointers of where to get started?

[Entropian]

Hey y'all,
I'm trying to get SSN working on 1.12 (as I've been unable to find any up-to-date versions of the mod), but I'm having a lot of trouble building @Standecco's fork with PersistentThrust.  SSN seems to want a bunch of definitions and references from PT that don't seem to exist in any past or present version of PT (I've now tried building it with every past version of PT).  Has anyone managed to get a working build for more recent KSP versions?
Thanks!

[nubeees]

On 6/29/2022 at 1:26 PM, Entropian said:

Hey y'all,
I'm trying to get SSN working on 1.12 (as I've been unable to find any up-to-date versions of the mod), but I'm having a lot of trouble building @Standecco's fork with PersistentThrust.  SSN seems to want a bunch of definitions and references from PT that don't seem to exist in any past or present version of PT (I've now tried building it with every past version of PT).  Has anyone managed to get a working build for more recent KSP versions?
Thanks!

Hi!

I've just built and released an updated version of SSN! It doesn't feature solar sails anymore, but is compatible with the most recent version of PersistentThrust and seems to work reliably for me in the latest version of KSP.

Here's a link:

https://github.com/JarredEagley/PersistentThrustNavigator/releases/tag/v1.1.0

Source:

https://github.com/JarredEagley/PersistentThrustNavigator/tree/PTNavigator

 

This also fixes a few bugs with hyperbolic orbits (A lot of the original math is understandably dependant on orbital period, which blows up to infinity). I'm currently looking to see if I can fix the timesteps being uselessly large in planetary SOI's.

(Looks like for some reason coasting phases look wonky. I'll look into that tomorrow)

 

Edit

On a sidenote, has anyone yet figured out why PT so aggressively believes ships are running out of propellant when they're in fact not?

Edited July 7, 2022 by nubeees

[Entropian]

Thank you!  I managed to get the old version running, though with significant buggyness; I'm glad to see that some of the orbit problems have been fixed - I was running into those all the time.  I'm not sure why PT behaves that way, though I usually am able to get around it with (don't laugh) pressing Alt, or quicksaving and reloading.

[nubeees]

2 hours ago, Entropian said:

Thank you!  I managed to get the old version running, though with significant buggyness; I'm glad to see that some of the orbit problems have been fixed - I was running into those all the time.  I'm not sure why PT behaves that way, though I usually am able to get around it with (don't laugh) pressing Alt, or quicksaving and reloading.

Fortunately most of the orbit issues seem to be purely visual. Still trying to track down exactly why having a throttle of 0 for coasting phases in transfers borks that section of the line.

The issues with PT I've had luck fixing by just using the cheat menu... It seems that at high timewarp values occasionally it'll try to use more electric charge in a game tick than your ship stores, and thus regardless of how much your ship is generating it kicks you out of timewarp anyways. Ticking 'infinite energy' for extremely long transfers usually makes it behave. I've also had issues with overheating, but of course temporarily turning on ignore max heat fixes that.

At some point I'd like to look into these issues with persistent thrust. The check for whether or not your ship has enough of any given resource oughta be checking if you're actively generating that resource!

[nubeees]

Managed to figure out why coasting trajectory segments are broken! I'll toss another release up later tonight.
Edit: Done!

https://github.com/JarredEagley/PersistentThrustNavigator/releases/tag/v1.1.1

 

Gimbal locking yeeted my fusion ship into the NaN realm, going to see if I can address that next!

 - - -

Update, 7/12/2022

To avoid spamming, I'll just place this in the same post

https://github.com/JarredEagley/PersistentThrustNavigator/releases/tag/v1.1.2

Changes:

Spoiler

• Predicted final orbit is now a dotted line.
• ICN reference frame overhauled to nolonger depend on position, only velocity. This means no more coordinate singularity with the settings (90, 0, 0) on a torch drive. Note that (90, 90, 0) will probably run into a vertical coordinate singularity however.
• Two new reference frames added: Worldspace, and counter-clockwise. These two can be used for reversing the direction of your orbit without breaking the addon.
  • (I initially wanted to just make it so that RTN would hold onto the direction you're initially orbiting and use that, but I couldn't pin down a good way to do that)
  • I recommend counterclockwise over worldspace, personally.
  • Worldspace should default to (0, 90, 0).

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by nubeees
Another update!

[arkaik]

On 7/8/2022 at 7:48 PM, nubeees said:

Managed to figure out why coasting trajectory segments are broken! I'll toss another release up later tonight.
Edit: Done!

https://github.com/JarredEagley/PersistentThrustNavigator/releases/tag/v1.1.1

 

Gimbal locking yeeted my fusion ship into the NaN realm, going to see if I can address that next!

 - - -

Update, 7/12/2022

To avoid spamming, I'll just place this in the same post

https://github.com/JarredEagley/PersistentThrustNavigator/releases/tag/v1.1.2

Changes:

  Hide contents

• Predicted final orbit is now a dotted line.
• ICN reference frame overhauled to nolonger depend on position, only velocity. This means no more coordinate singularity with the settings (90, 0, 0) on a torch drive. Note that (90, 90, 0) will probably run into a vertical coordinate singularity however.
• Two new reference frames added: Worldspace, and counter-clockwise. These two can be used for reversing the direction of your orbit without breaking the addon.
  • (I initially wanted to just make it so that RTN would hold onto the direction you're initially orbiting and use that, but I couldn't pin down a good way to do that)
  • I recommend counterclockwise over worldspace, personally.
  • Worldspace should default to (0, 90, 0).

 

Hey! Just downloaded this to test it out but game is complaining about a duplicate PersistentThrust.dll, I have both this mod and Persistent Thrust Extended installed so that seems to be the conflict. Should I ignore this or delete one of the .dll files?

[linuxgurugamer]

27 minutes ago, arkaik said:

Hey! Just downloaded this to test it out but game is complaining about a duplicate PersistentThrust.dll, I have both this mod and Persistent Thrust Extended installed so that seems to be the conflict. Should I ignore this or delete one of the .dll files?

How did  you download it?

Which version did you download?

What version of the game are you using?

Log files are also necessary

Edited July 15, 2022 by linuxgurugamer