How does data transmission work?

[Masiong]

I've been playing KSP only for a couple of hours on career mode trying to understand the game and its mechanics. An update came out and it's just now that went back to playing it and I've noticed that choosing to transmit data even with an antenna it won't transmit at all. The antenna won't extend it just sits there.

Did something change while I was gone?

Thanks,
~Mas

[ineon]

Have you got enough electrical power?

[Harry Rhodan]

Are you using the mod Science Alert?

[Brainlord Mesomorph]

There is a new (to me) tweak for the antenna: "Require complete." I have to turn that off.

[Masiong]

Yes, the only mod I'm using is ScienceAlert,(and it won't work properly, but that's expected since it's for 1.0.4) and I have electric charge.

[Venusgate]

As far as I understand, you need enought battery storage to completely do a full transmission. no longer can you each out a transmission, byte at a time, while your solar panels pump out electricity

[sardia]

[quote name='Venusgate']As far as I understand, you need enought battery storage to completely do a full transmission. no longer can you each out a transmission, byte at a time, while your solar panels pump out electricity[/QUOTE]
If you timewarp fast enough, the solar power gain can match the electricity losses, letting you complete your transmission. This is of course a bug.

[Harry Rhodan]

[quote name='Masiong']Yes, the only mod I'm using is ScienceAlert,(and it won't work properly, but that's expected since it's for 1.0.4) and I have electric charge.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/76793-1-0-4-ScienceAlert-1-8-9-Experiment-availability-feedback-%28July-13%29?p=2293463&viewfull=1#post2293463[/url]

[MaxwellsDemon]

Along those lines... is there a reliable way to calculate how much battery power you need to transmit X mits of data using one or another antenna? I've got a probe in Eve orbit that is chock full of data that's not going anywhere because I upgraded to 1.05 and it doesn't have enough battery reserves to call home... :(

[Geschosskopf]

[quote name='Venusgate']As far as I understand, you need enought battery storage to completely do a full transmission. no longer can you each out a transmission, byte at a time, while your solar panels pump out electricity[/QUOTE]

That said, I have also had a problem where the antennae just refused to work, even with adequate battery for the transmission. When I clicked to transmit the data, a message popped up saying "transmission starting" and then nothing else happened. The antenna didn't move, no more messages came up about the progress of the transmission, there was no electric charge consumption. However, the experiment itself was gone. I tried this on several other experiments with the same results. For some reason, I quicksaved at this point, ran into other problems later, and reverted back to this quicksave. When I did that, suddenly the antenna and transmission thing worked fine and all the experiments I'd tried to transmit earlier were queued up and all went off in sequence. So, while there are some intended mechanics that prevent you from transmitting if you don't have enough battery, there's also a bug that mimics that behavior. If you know you've got enough battery, change scenes or reload a recent save and see if that solves the problem.

On another note, a welcome change to antennae in 1.05 is that you CAN finally queue up transmissions. It used to be that you had to wait for the antenna's entire animation to come to an end with it retracted again before starting your next transmission. If you tried to transmit a 2nd experiment while the antenna animation was still going, that 2nd experiment would be lost and you've have to run it again. No longer. You can queue up as many transmissions as you want, provided you have sufficient battery.

[Masiong]

[quote name='Harry Rhodan'][URL]http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/76793-1-0-4-ScienceAlert-1-8-9-Experiment-availability-feedback-%28July-13%29?p=2293463&viewfull=1#post2293463[/URL][/QUOTE]
That patch worked, thanks!

[quote name='Geschosskopf']That said, I have also had a problem where the antennae just refused to work, even with adequate battery for the transmission. When I clicked to transmit the data, a message popped up saying "transmission starting" and then nothing else happened. The antenna didn't move, no more messages came up about the progress of the transmission, there was no electric charge consumption. However, the experiment itself was gone. I tried this on several other experiments with the same results. For some reason, I quicksaved at this point, ran into other problems later, and reverted back to this quicksave. When I did that, suddenly the antenna and transmission thing worked fine and all the experiments I'd tried to transmit earlier were queued up and all went off in sequence. So, while there are some intended mechanics that prevent you from transmitting if you don't have enough battery, there's also a bug that mimics that behavior. If you know you've got enough battery, change scenes or reload a recent save and see if that solves the problem.[/QUOTE]
This a more detailed story of how things went down for me. I made a new save altogether and at first seemed to fix it, until I came back to the older save and it was somehow fixed.

[quote name='Geschosskopf'][COLOR=#333333]On another note, a welcome change to antennae in 1.05 is that you CAN finally queue up transmissions.[/COLOR][/QUOTE]
You can do that now? Thanks! Good to know.

[Supernovy]

[quote name='MaxwellsDemon']Along those lines... is there a reliable way to calculate how much battery power you need to transmit X mits of data using one or another antenna? I've got a probe in Eve orbit that is chock full of data that's not going anywhere because I upgraded to 1.05 and it doesn't have enough battery reserves to call home... :([/QUOTE]

Yes.

It will tell you the electric charge per Mit of data in the VAB tooltip for the antenna. When you gather/review data, it will tell you how many Mits of data there is.

Multiply these two numbers.