Simple Diode Desired

[Allen Snowdon]

Experimenting with ion drive, problem is that when power from solar cells is unavailable automatic guidance shuts down because the battery is connected to the engine.

The diode was a significant invention in electronic history, and a mystery how the Kerbals missed it.

[Red Iron Crown]

How would a diode prevent that?

[Sovek]

A diode prevents electrical current from flowing the opposite direction... soooooo in your case it would either stop the thing from working entirely or prevent charge. A Zener diode "MIGHT" get what you want, but I sincerely doubt it.

[Alshain]

A zener diode would do that. A zener diode prevents electrical flow in reverse when the voltage is low. So if the battery was getting low, the engine would shut down, but you would still have limited control.

The problem he speaks of is the inability to do anything if you run out of juice while the ion engine is enabled. The engine keeps sapping the battery even when getting minimal charge so you never get a chance to do anything. This of course is really just a bug IMO, there should be a way to turn off the engine when there is no power on a probe, or the throttle should reset when there is no control (the latter would be the best option because it would work even without ion engines).

For realism naysayers, this is actually rooted in truth, many devices have low power shutdown functions, if the battery drops below a threshold, it starts cutting off stuff to reduce consumption and keep the device RAM alive as long as possible. The gas well controllers I used to work on did this, we didn't want to lose all control of the well so if snow was covering the solar panel we would shut down the radios.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Alshain

[Streetwind]

MechJeb just added this feature in its latest dev build. It'll auto-throttle electric engines down if Ec approaches zero, and will throttle them back up if Ec recovers.

[Azimech]

I 100% support the idea of introducing a bit more realism in the electrical side of things. I'm slowly busy with an electronics mod myself.

[Guest]

When designing a probe, slap an extra battery in it, right-click it and disable resource usage (there'll be a green v on the right side of the amount of energy units, meaning that it can be used, click that v and it'll turn into a red x, meaning that it won't be used.). When your power runs out, right-click on that extra battery and enable resource usage (click the red X, it'll turn into a green v). You'll be able to control the probe until the power runs out, so you can disable the engine or extend solar panels, anything, really.

Unless if you're using RemoteTech. If you're using RemoteTech and power goes out, you're pretty much screwed.

[Red Iron Crown]

The problem he speaks of is the inability to do anything if you run out of juice while the ion engine is enabled. The engine keeps sapping the battery even when getting minimal charge so you never get a chance to do anything. This of course is really just a bug IMO, there should be a way to turn off the engine when there is no power on a probe, or the throttle should reset when there is no control (the latter would be the best option because it would work even without ion engines).

I believe you can still tweak the thrust limiter when the probe core is out of charge, setting it to zero should help recover from such a situation.

[Waxing_Kibbous]

When designing a probe, slap an extra battery in it, right-click it and disable resource usage (there'll be a green v on the right side of the amount of energy units, meaning that it can be used, click that v and it'll turn into a red x, meaning that it won't be used.). When your power runs out, right-click on that extra battery and enable resource usage (click the red X, it'll turn into a green v). You'll be able to control the probe until the power runs out, so you can disable the engine or extend solar panels, anything, really.

Unless if you're using RemoteTech. If you're using RemoteTech and power goes out, you're pretty much screwed.

This is happening on every vessel I make from now on

[Snark]

When designing a probe, slap an extra battery in it, right-click it and disable resource usage (there'll be a green v on the right side of the amount of energy units, meaning that it can be used, click that v and it'll turn into a red x, meaning that it won't be used.). When your power runs out, right-click on that extra battery and enable resource usage (click the red X, it'll turn into a green v). You'll be able to control the probe until the power runs out, so you can disable the engine or extend solar panels, anything, really.

Unless if you're using RemoteTech. If you're using RemoteTech and power goes out, you're pretty much screwed.

Actually, I think RemoteTech will still let you edit tweakables (with no lightspeed lag!) even when you don't have any power or control (e.g. adjust engine thrust limiter, toggle resource containers on/off, etc.) So the spare-battery thing ought to work just fine even in RemoteTech.

[luizopiloto]

a way to control electricity consumption... like fuel lines does...

[magnemoe]

When designing a probe, slap an extra battery in it, right-click it and disable resource usage (there'll be a green v on the right side of the amount of energy units, meaning that it can be used, click that v and it'll turn into a red x, meaning that it won't be used.). When your power runs out, right-click on that extra battery and enable resource usage (click the red X, it'll turn into a green v). You'll be able to control the probe until the power runs out, so you can disable the engine or extend solar panels, anything, really.

Unless if you're using RemoteTech. If you're using RemoteTech and power goes out, you're pretty much screwed.

Does this work? I thought you could not enable battery if out of power. If you could enable battery you could also shut down the engine.

Has not experienced this with ion engines however I have run out of power sending science.

An manned mission let you do all sort of stuff even without power so here the reserve battery makes sense.

[magnemoe]

A zener diode would do that. A zener diode prevents electrical flow in reverse when the voltage is low. So if the battery was getting low, the engine would shut down, but you would still have limited control.

The problem he speaks of is the inability to do anything if you run out of juice while the ion engine is enabled. The engine keeps sapping the battery even when getting minimal charge so you never get a chance to do anything. This of course is really just a bug IMO, there should be a way to turn off the engine when there is no power on a probe, or the throttle should reset when there is no control (the latter would be the best option because it would work even without ion engines).

For realism naysayers, this is actually rooted in truth, many devices have low power shutdown functions, if the battery drops below a threshold, it starts cutting off stuff to reduce consumption and keep the device RAM alive as long as possible. The gas well controllers I used to work on did this, we didn't want to lose all control of the well so if snow was covering the solar panel we would shut down the radios.

I say anything smart will power down then low on power, phones and laptops are most known here.

Simplest way would be to power down engine if out of power.

In my experience you can still control craft if you have power inn, so having an RTG or solar panel with light let you control, no you can not do anything who require power like turning the craft.

[technion]

Having recently had a similar issue.. you should also be able to right click the xenon tank and disable it. This further breaks the realism for me, given that you can do that, but can't shut down the engine. Any way, do that, the ion will die, and you will gain control.

[Sovek]

Does this work? I thought you could not enable battery if out of power. If you could enable battery you could also shut down the engine.

Has not experienced this with ion engines however I have run out of power sending science.

An manned mission let you do all sort of stuff even without power so here the reserve battery makes sense.

Yes, I've enabled batteries when I dont have a connection in RT, this allows me a backup in case the solar panels are not turned right and craft starves of power due to the antenna.

[Wcmille]

When designing a probe, slap an extra battery in it, right-click it and disable resource usage (there'll be a green v on the right side of the amount of energy units, meaning that it can be used, click that v and it'll turn into a red x, meaning that it won't be used.). When your power runs out, right-click on that extra battery and enable resource usage (click the red X, it'll turn into a green v). You'll be able to control the probe until the power runs out, so you can disable the engine or extend solar panels, anything, really.

Unless if you're using RemoteTech. If you're using RemoteTech and power goes out, you're pretty much screwed.

This is an excellent idea. Maybe you can just disable the probe core's native battery and do this without having to add an extra battery?

[Greenspan]

Does this work? I thought you could not enable battery if out of power. If you could enable battery you could also shut down the engine.

Has not experienced this with ion engines however I have run out of power sending science.

An manned mission let you do all sort of stuff even without power so here the reserve battery makes sense.

I think it will work if you have solar panels in the sun that are constantly delivering a small amount of charge. The Ion engines will almost instantly drain that charge, but if your able to click in that instant you can re enable the battery and turn off the engine.

Still a little dicey, I see what the OP means, it would be nice if you could dedicate some electrical charge (e.g. a specific battery) dedicated to keeping the probe core alive; and make sure the Solar Panels maintain that charge before just dumping all available energy into the ion engines and killing the probe.