Power Blackouts

[ruairiau]

Hey Guys,

I'm playing through career with a mix of mods including Mech Engineer. I'm only using the Smart A.S.S and the readout panels for orbit info, surface and Delta V. Whilst getting my satellite to the Mun, I accidentally left it on Retrograde and while warping it drained my batteries. I felt kinda cheated.

So I've been having a look at what mods or solutions I could use to prevent this happening. Ultimately the problem is that the battery charge amount is hidden under the resources and without that visible it's easy to drain power completely in a short period of time.

One solution that I thought was very clever was to always add one additional battery somewhere and disable it. So if you do run out of power, you can enable it as a backup reserve.

I suppose I'd like something that could drop me out of warp if my battery goes below a certain percentage. Does anyone know of mod that could do this or have any better suggestions? 

[Cubfan]

Not sure about mods, but I think an RTG would solve your problem. Not on the current vessel obviously, but for future probes. RTG's are a bit pricey, and they don't give a whole lot of power, but it's power that's constantly available. So you'll at least be able to control your vessel.

[DerekL1963]

Use solar panels that pivot to face the sun.

[ForScience6686]

I usually just turn off the probe or pod battery, and run off the external batteries.  That's enough to get you oriented, and easy to find.

[ruairiau]

Sorry I should have clarified that I'm early in the career mode and haven't unlocked the RTG or solar panels that rotate. 

[DD_bwest]

19 minutes ago, ruairiau said:

Sorry I should have clarified that I'm early in the career mode and haven't unlocked the RTG or solar panels that rotate. 

panels that can rotate are the next science node along the electronics section.  im not sure of any mod that will solve that issue, For manned flight bringing on extra battery with it in the off position for emergencies is the way to go,  but for unmanned its best to make sure you leave your vessel facing a direction thatll give it power, or even keep the mechjeb part window open and disable it before you go to warp.   I always play with the resource tab popped open by clicking on it.

and at some point that sat will get power again if it has panels on it, unless they are facing exactly 90 degrees away from the sun, its just a matter of waiting until youve gone around orbit enough to bring them back into alignment lol

if your hell bent on getting it working again asap, and know how to rendezvous and dock, you can always nudge it into a spin.. but thats alot of work for a simple sat lol

[FullMetalMachinist]

2 hours ago, ruairiau said:

Sorry I should have clarified that I'm early in the career mode and haven't unlocked the RTG or solar panels that rotate. 

A fairly new feature is a tweakable on probe cores for hibernation. Right click on the probe core and click on the hibernation mode button to cycle through the options. Put it on the one that auto hibernates it during time warp. You still won't be able to recharge your batteries, but at least it'll use next to no power during time warp. 

[bewing]

For a krewed mission, it never matters because you can always EVA and give your ship a nudge to get it turning towards the light. And it is possible to go into the cheat menu to temporarily give your ship power to reorient it.

[DerekL1963]

11 hours ago, DD_bwest said:

for unmanned its best to make sure you leave your vessel facing a direction thatll give it power

^^  This.  KSP is a game of details, and we've all forgotten one at least five times.

Also F5 (quicksave) / F9 (quickload) is your friend.

[ajburges]

4 static panels in a tetrahedron arrangement (just need the relative angles, normal vertices are not required) are the minimum  to guarantee solar exposure.

I you are willing to keep an axis near solar normal, you can get by with just 3.

2 keeps one near exposure and is mass optimal, but can't guarantee coverage.

Time warping on-rails avoids battery drain (so I rarely encounter the issue since I always run 5+ flights at once)

Unless all your panels are facing sun normal or you are suborbital, the panels will eventually face the sun. This happens because you have no angular velocity in the Kerbol reference frame.

If you can't revert, putting a little EC into a battery is an easy save edit.

BTW: any panel can be docked (only one at a time) by clicking on it.

[Snark]

20 hours ago, ruairiau said:

Sorry I should have clarified that I'm early in the career mode and haven't unlocked the RTG or solar panels that rotate.

Yup, but even if all you have is the lowly OX-STAT, you can put a few of 'em around your ship and there will always be at least one facing the sun.

For example, if you have 3 placed around a cylindrical ship, you'll always have some solar power, at just about any angle-- unless you get super unlucky and orient your ship precisely with its axis aligned on the Sun.  My experience is that that's rare enough that I'm pretty much always fine just not worrying about it.

If that possibility does bother you, though, it's easily addressed.  Instead of putting 4 panels in one symmetry group, put them in two pairs.  Tip one pair up a little, tip the other one down a little, like this:

...there.  Quick, easy to set up, and you'll always get at least some sun, in any orientation.