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[1.1.2] Launch Clamp Fuel Pumping (v0.2)

WillThe84th

By WillThe84th
in KSP1 Mod Releases

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WillThe84th

WillThe84th

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Posted (edited)

 

I've always wanted to have cool cinematic launches where the main engines will start and the launch clamps will release a few seconds later, but this wastes fuel, and although it never affects my launches that much, it has always bugged me.

To solve this I decided to create this simple mod:

Launch Clamp Fuel Pumping!

This mod does a couple things:

  • Adds a button to the launch clamps to "Start/Stop Pumping Fuel."
  • Adds 100 units of electric charge to each launch clamp.
  • Increases the amount of electric charge generated by the clamps from 1 ec/s to 40 ec/s.
  • Increases the mass and cost of the launch clamps to help balance the whole thing. (Because you don't get charged for the fuel that is pumped)

Other info:

Launch clamps pump (magically generate) 180 lf/s, 220 ox/s and 20 mp/s, which is enough for two launch clamps to fuel one Mammoth engine with ease.

The launch clamps will take 1 ec/s to pump the fuel, so although the clamp is generating 40 ec/s, it will look like its only generating 39 ec/s.

Download on Spacedock 

License

Edited by WillThe84th
v0.2
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metl

metl

Posted
Posted

That's actually a cool idea. I've always been bothered about that small bit of waste or the opposite of releasing at engine start which always results in a slight dip before takeoff. Not sure why but it always bugged me. Maybe because it never looks like it does during the Apollo launches, I don't know. But I will certainly give this a try. Too bad the pumping can't be automatic.

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WillThe84th

WillThe84th

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7 minutes ago, metl said:

That's actually a cool idea. I've always been bothered about that small bit of waste or the opposite of releasing at engine start which always results in a slight dip before takeoff. Not sure why but it always bugged me. Maybe because it never looks like it does during the Apollo launches, I don't know. But I will certainly give this a try. Too bad the pumping can't be automatic.

One thing you can do is bind the fuel pumping to the stage action group, so when you press the stage button the first time, and activate your main engines, the pump turns on as well. 

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shoe7ess

shoe7ess

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Posted

Will this work for launch clamps from things like the FASA pack as well or just stock? If not would I be able to create an MM patch to make it so? Also, if it can't already, it'd be nice to be able to pump the fuels from the Real Fuels mod, or really any resource an engine can take, but I'm not that good at creating MM patches for resource stuff. I'll take a look regardless of the above answers but something like this would be great for an RO install, where you have to ignite the engines until they build enough thrust to launch.

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Drew Kerman

Drew Kerman

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2 minutes ago, shoe7ess said:

Will this work for launch clamps from things like the FASA pack as well

I thought FASA clamps (the umbilical and crew towers at least) already did this. They did when I used them back in v1.0.5. Pretty sure that was them and not another mod adding the options

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shoe7ess

shoe7ess

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Just now, Gaiiden said:

I thought FASA clamps (the umbilical and crew towers at least) already did this. They did when I used them back in v1.0.5. Pretty sure that was them and not another mod adding the options

Could be the umbilical does. Not sure about the Mercury or Redstone clamps (they may do this, wouldn't really make as much sense as the umbilical). I'll have to check next time I have the 30 minutes or so it takes to boot up my RO install (that's not an exaggeration either, and it's via SSD). It's the reason I spend more time making configuring mods and patches than playing lol.

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WillThe84th

WillThe84th

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38 minutes ago, hieywiey said:

I think that when and where the launch clamp disconnects, there should be particles like this. 

I was trying to add something like that, but I couldn't get it to work. I think it will have to be more than just a module manager configuration file. 

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Qwarkk

Qwarkk

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Posted

Love the idea, but I can see one potential issue. I'm guessing the clamps will fill tanks even if they were designed to be under fueled? I use this approach sometimes to control TWR or staging altitudes, so the mod may throw this balance.

One work around would be to make the fuel generation adjustable, so that we can set them to generates only as much as the engines are using and prevent excess fuel going into the tanks.

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WillThe84th

WillThe84th

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5 hours ago, Qwarkk said:

Love the idea, but I can see one potential issue. I'm guessing the clamps will fill tanks even if they were designed to be under fueled? I use this approach sometimes to control TWR or staging altitudes, so the mod may throw this balance.

One work around would be to make the fuel generation adjustable, so that we can set them to generates only as much as the engines are using and prevent excess fuel going into the tanks.

Couldn't you just use less fuel tanks?

If you want to keep the rocket's shape then you can have some fuel tanks that are empty and just lock the fuel values at zero.

5 hours ago, ultraviolet150 said:

Is there a way to make these pump fuel by default at launch? Kinda annoying having to right click each one before launch?

I'm trying to find a way to do that, but for now you can bind them to an action group if you want.

2 hours ago, BananaIsAFruit said:

When i click "Start Pumping Fuel" it just says MonoPropellant full. Any help?

Are you sure the tanks aren't full?

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shoe7ess

shoe7ess

Posted
Posted

Little suggestion:
It's very easy to change the first line of the config associated with this mod from:
  

@PART[launchClamp1]:FINAL

to: 

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[LaunchClamp]:FINAL

This will apply the mod to all launch clamps, even those from other mods (so long as they have the LaunchClamp module). I understand this is meant for the stock launch clamp, so you may not be interested in changing it in your own config, but I thought I'd leave this here for anyone that may be using extra launch clamps from mods.

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vardicd

vardicd

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On ‎6‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 11:06 AM, BananaIsAFruit said:

When i click "Start Pumping Fuel" it just says MonoPropellant full. Any help?

 

On ‎6‎/‎14‎/‎2016 at 1:44 PM, WillThe84th said:

Are you sure the tanks aren't full?

I also have seen this issue. I have never been able to get the mod to work, every rocket launch I've tried to do has failed to pump fuel into the rocket, I just get the message monopropellant full.

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HiddenKnowledge

HiddenKnowledge

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Posted
On 6/14/2016 at 6:06 PM, BananaIsAFruit said:

When i click "Start Pumping Fuel" it just says MonoPropellant full. Any help?

I also have this problem. The pump just says "MonoPropellant full" and then does not pump any liquid fuel + oxidizer. While it's true that the MonoPropellant is full, I obviously still need the liquid fuel + oxidizer even when the MonoPropellant is full.

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WillThe84th

WillThe84th

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On 6/14/2016 at 0:06 PM, BananaIsAFruit said:

When i click "Start Pumping Fuel" it just says MonoPropellant full. Any help?

 

5 hours ago, vardicd said:

 

I also have seen this issue. I have never been able to get the mod to work, every rocket launch I've tried to do has failed to pump fuel into the rocket, I just get the message monopropellant full.

 

5 hours ago, HiddenKnowledge said:

I also have this problem. The pump just says "MonoPropellant full" and then does not pump any liquid fuel + oxidizer. While it's true that the MonoPropellant is full, I obviously still need the liquid fuel + oxidizer even when the MonoPropellant is full.

This is now fixed.

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