Antenna transmission problems

[Enorats]

Landed a science outpost on Minmus and set my lab up doing research. It's been working fine, but suddenly I can't transmit anything back to Kerbin. My antenna got stuck on "transmitting data" with nothing happening, and then stuck on "aborting transmission".. again to no result. It's just deployed and not doing anything. Went back to the space center and returned, the antenna went back to its undeployed state. Tried to transmit again.. and now it's just counting up to 100% over and over again without end. The station has enough charge/solar power to transmit 500 science several times over but it's completely drained it and is still trying to transmit continuously. No idea what the problem is, no mods or anything that alter antennas in any way.

Also, to be clear.. the research lab science isn't being reset to 0 and I'm not gaining any science. The antenna is just shooting electric charge off into space without end.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Enorats

[bunrotha]

My antenna got stuck on "transmitting data" with nothing happening, and then stuck on "aborting transmission".. again to no result. It's just deployed and not doing anything. .

I have had this happen to me as well. Check the logs (or Alt-F12 and the debug page.) Do you have an (orange in the live debug) line in there telling you it can't find an experiment called sciencelab@Minmus or similar? You may have to scroll for it. That's what I had. It seems to stop the antenna completing it's job.

I'm not an expert by any means (if one happens by, please step in. My first aid is no match for expert surgery!) but I think I may have something in a mod that's banjaxed the Science definitions (sciencedefs.cfg file) or the MPL research converter, either by superceding or stomping something vital. Are you running any mods?

I have a metric shedload of mods on my system, so my next step is to take out mods and try this in a new vanilla game, then slowly add stuff back in until I find the culprit. If you have mods, I think that's the way to go to isolate the culprit.

If you're not running any mods at all and the problem still happens, please reply and let me know, as there's always a possibility, however remote, of a bug- and it saves me having to do the same.

By way of a quick fix, at the cost of research: if you do have the problem of an experiment not found, you can quicksave, make a copy of the quicksave file, and go hunting in the copy with a text editor for the offending experiment using the name it couldn't find- then carefully delete that stored experiment, taking care to respect the XML structure (i.e. don't mess up the brackets!) then load your amended quicksave. If the edit fails, just reload the original quicksave to be exactly where you were before, but wiser.

Apologies if I'm giving egg-sucking lessons, don't know how much of a code geek you are.

Failing that, Plan B- let's compare mods lists, that might narrow down the possible issues if we do have the same problem..

Edit: Plan C, having read http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/120469-Transmit-Science-bug , is to nuke my steam install of KSP and do over. Bah.

Edited May 19, 2015 by bunrotha
Nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

[bunrotha]

OK, at risk of appearing to be talking to myself, as well as jumping to conclusions*, I'm nailing this one on steam.

The steps that fixed it for me:

Save KSP and quit to desktop.

Grab a copy of the saves and gamedata folder, except the Squad folder in gamedata.

Delete local content using Steam.

Then go in and actually delete local content, i.e. the whole KSP folder in .../SteamApps/Common/

Reinstall from Steam (optional: Make tea. Drink tea. Offer silent prayer to fibre broadband gods.)

Start KSP to make sure all is well.

Quit KSP, decant Gamedata and Saves folders back into install.

Restart KSP.

Check the offending spacecraft.

Watch transmission, rejoice.

Weirdly, the orange R&D error about the experiment name still appears, but now I do get science credit, and the antenna behaves again.

*It is said that Assumption is the mother of all messups.

Edited May 19, 2015 by KasperVld

[mcalisi]

There has to be a better way than completely reinstalling the program...or not. I am having the exact same problem on a Mun base. So infuriating.

.....and reinstall was NOT successful.

Edited June 17, 2015 by mcalisi

[mcalisi]

After the reinstall was unsuccessful in clearing the issue, I decided to take advantage of the unique design of my research base. It was built to carry two docked rovers to the moon with me, each of which were held attached by a junior docking ring, each of which carried the only antennae installed on the base. The first of the rovers was damaged during initial exploration, the second held the bugged antenna. I detached the rover, drove it a considerable distance from the base, and destroyed it to eliminate the bug. I then launched an autonomous rover equipped with a claw to land on the moon. After successfully landing only 3 km from the base, I drove over and attached to the base. Its antenna was able to successfully transmit the science data home, and since I loaded it with a few new science implements, I was able to increase the science production at the same time.