Need Help With Some Electricity/Data Transmission Issues

[Elway358]

Mornin' everyone. I'm having some electricity issues I need some help with. I'm in 2 different situations where I'm not able to transmit things due to charge rate not keeping up with usage.

First, I have a Mobile Lab orbiting the Mun. It has 1x6 solar panels(x6) and a total elec capacity of 770. When I have all panels lined up getting full sun exposure, It has a recharge rate of roughly 10.5. The issue is when I try to transmit the 499 science that is now in the lab, The electric storage runs out far too soon and then cancels the transmission even if I keep those panels in direct exposure the entire time, turn off sas, etc.

I have a similar situation with a little rover I landed on Duna last night. It has 8 of the little single panels and a total of 520 elec capacity. At full charge and panels in direct light the entire time, it doesn't have enough charge to transmit data from one of the atmosphere analysis parts.

I built both of these crafts following a couple of Scott Manley tutorials and even added 2 more solar panels on the Mun station than he did just to be safe. What am I doing wrong? :/

EDIT: The pic of the rover was just after attempting to transmit the data and it cancelling after running out. That's why it's out of charge. Just didn't wanna give the impression that I'm trying to transmit at no charge.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Elway358

[FancyMouse]

Hacky solution - time warp. Your generation rate will warp while transmission delay is using real-time clock.

[obsidian_x]

It was a fix/change because science was getting lost when charge ran out I believe.  You can right click the antenna to there's an option for sending partial or something (I'm at work so can't fire it up and check the exact name).  If it runs out of charge it will halt (default), rather than potentially lose some of the data.  But it means you either need large batteries, or large solar panels that can charge it quicker than the antenna uses is during sending the data back.  

[Streetwind]

The atmosphere analysis tool on your rover is partly to blame too. For some unknown reason it generates an absolutely huge amount of data to transmit, which is in no relation to the science points gained from it. (This is shown in the VAB, by the way; you need to look closely at the parts you put on your ships, and size their power production and storage appropriately.)

I always tone it down to sane levels with a custom config... usually a clean 50% reduction.

The mobile lab, meanwhile - well, the more often you transmit smaller amounts of data, the smaller each individual transmission will be, and thus the less power it will take. Waiting until the 500 is full is not always the best idea. However, if the vessel with the lab has a docking port, you may be able to solve the problem by docking a small craft with some batteries to the lab.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Streetwind

[Elway358]

Thanks guys! I used a combo of time warp and the partial transmit option on the antenna(had no idea that was there) to get that massive 499 chunk of science out of there.

@Streetwind, I'll definitely be paying more attention to those values from now on. I built these things nearly mirroring the ones off of the Scott Manley vid so I ASSumed I was safe. I will also try not to let it get to max science like that so I get smaller data batches to send. I didn't even realize it had gotten that full while time warping to get Duna in a good spot for launch.

The lab vessel does have 2 full size docking ports along with the mini one I have the Mun lander docked to. I was already planning to send some more fuel up to it somehow so looks like I'll be sending a load of coppertops along as well  

Thanks again for the help!

[pasukaru76]

The partial transmit thing was added in 1.0.5, so it's relatively recent and I think the Scott Manley video with the rover (I think I know which one you mean) was on an older version of KSP where some details of how everything worked were a bit different.

[bewing]

Build a multi-use rescue vehicle, with a klaw, a girder, a couple of gigantors, and a decoupler on the nose (along with other stuff it can do after the first mission). Go klaw your lab. Detach the klaw and gigantors. Suddenly the lab has lots more power, forever.

 

[Xavven]

With mobile labs its a good idea to have something like 2000 or more electric battery capacity, partly for the reason of transmitting, but also so that it can continue to function when orbiting on the night side of your moon or planet. The latter isn't taken into account during timewarp, but it just seems "right" to play it that way.

[suicidejunkie]

Adding more battery is the main thing.  Observe the e meter and the stats of the antenna you choose; e drops by a fixed amount per packet, and you need some number of packets to trans- all the -mits for your experiment.  Multiply to find the battery requirement for your ship.

 

Avoid relying on the partial transmit thing:

I've found If you transmit chunks of 15+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2+2 = 45 mits they add up to much less science value than doing the full 45 in one stream.  You can always do another sample and retransmit for another attempt at the remaining transmit value, but the out-of-energy drip packets quickly become worth nothing at all.

A 4k battery solves the problem in one go and fits nicely on your lab at higher tech levels.

 

Bringing the experiments home also solves the issue quite well.

[Arsonide]

As stated above, if you want to send transmissions in smaller chunks as you generate power, that is an option if you right click the antenna and allow partial transmissions. However, these interruptions cause data to be lost, and the end result is you get a lot less science out of your transmission than you think you are getting. This is why the new default "Require Complete" option cuts the transmission and returns your science to you intact, to give you the option to send it at a loss, modify your vessel to allow a full transmission, or physically bring the science back and recover it at full value.

[Tfin]

11 hours ago, Xavven said:

With mobile labs its a good idea to have something like 2000 or more electric battery capacity, partly for the reason of transmitting, but also so that it can continue to function when orbiting on the night side of your moon or planet. The latter isn't taken into account during timewarp, but it just seems "right" to play it that way.

I put more capacity than that on some of my satellites with RemoteTech. I calculate the cost of running dishes pointing at Mun, Minmus, KSC, active vessel, and prograde and retrograde satellites, and wind up with a capacity of 3000 to survive the dark times. They're giant battery blocks studded with solars.

 

8 hours ago, suicidejunkie said:

Adding more battery is the main thing.  Observe the e meter and the stats of the antenna you choose; e drops by a fixed amount per packet, and you need some number of packets to trans- all the -mits for your experiment.  Multiply to find the battery requirement for your ship.

Yes, and watch out for per-minute and per-second value confusion.