[0.20] RemoteTech: Relay Network – V 0.5.0.1

[TaranisElsu]

The problem I see now is, that during my communication slot, I can tell MechJeb to plan a manoeuvre to happen while out of signal range. Great so far. But, as soon as signal is lost, MechJeb just turns off?

My recommendation would be to use MechJeb* to plan the maneuver node, then program it into RemoteTech's Flight Computer to have RemoteTech execute it rather than MJ.

* I assume you are using MJ2.

[tek_604]

My recommendation would be to use MechJeb* to plan the maneuver node, then program it into RemoteTech's Flight Computer to have RemoteTech execute it rather than MJ.

* I assume you are using MJ2.

I am indeed using MJ 2.0.8. If I read you right, I would need to open MJ's "Manoeuvre Node Editor", and dial the numbers into RT? I must admit, I didn't check the Flight Computer as well as I should have, as I am already using MJ.

[noebl1]

Great update; loving the new dishes! Thank you for fixing the targeting too!

-Mike

[Athlonic]

Nice update thanks !

So I can confirm, gamepad throttle working like a charm and no more "1fps lag" issue on re entry when antennas blows away. Excellent.

Now a little story if you don't mind :

I had a unmanned probe already on orbit with stock long antenna (deployed).

When installing RemoteTech stock compatibility mod, these antennas were retracted when loading the flight, so the 2km range made the probe lifeless.

Luckily I had also a ship orbiting in the vicinity, so I went on EVA and thanks to the EVA override antenna command I saved the probe.

Done, time to head back to the ship.

Later when the probe passed over the KSP control center ... We had a contact !

Edit : WTH ? is it just me or Kerbin is looking horrible (textures) ???

Edited May 25, 2013 by Athlonic

[sHORTY]

Edit : WTH ? is it just me or Kerbin is looking horrible (textures) ???

One of the developers posted that they reduced the size of the planet textures with this update as part of the memory optimizations. I agree, it makes the planets look significantly worse... hopefully we will get a detail slider in future releases.

[ialdabaoth]

Update: For people who want to install the compatibility version, but don't want to modify Squad's /Parts files,

here is a version using my ModuleManager.

[Frostiken]

Holy ****, this is fantastic. Can't wait to see what else you have in mind for updated dishes and the like

Gotta go update my antennas though, I don't like the white one, and I <3 big long whiplike antennas.

Can I ask if a UI tweak on the menu? Smaller / more compact / easier to hide, and using the 'new' UI format?

Edited May 25, 2013 by Frostiken

[Joshman_1306]

Can anyone tell me how to add new parts to KSP with the RemoteTech functionality? I have the probe compatibility pack and I thought all you had to do was put them into the mod folder under a different part name if you wanted the stock probes plus RemoteTech probes.

EDIT: The above post doesn't seem to load for me ^

[TaranisElsu]

I am indeed using MJ 2.0.8. If I read you right, I would need to open MJ's "Manoeuvre Node Editor", and dial the numbers into RT? I must admit, I didn't check the Flight Computer as well as I should have, as I am already using MJ.

You do not need to dial the numbers into RT. Just setup the maneuver node in MJ: then tell RT to point in the direction of the node, enter the dV of the burn, enter the delay until the burn, and click Send.

[Castun]

Can anyone tell me how to add new parts to KSP with the RemoteTech functionality? I have the probe compatibility pack and I thought all you had to do was put them into the mod folder under a different part name if you wanted the stock probes plus RemoteTech probes.

EDIT: The above post doesn't seem to load for me ^

You have to overwrite the stock Squad parts. Dropping the compatibility parts into the RemoteTech folder won't work, because they share the same name and ID as the stock parts. All I ended up doing was manually adding in the RemoteTech module section to each part.cfg file before the newest compatibility pack was released.

[JDP]

I've just updated the probe compatibility pack to use ialdabaoths ModuleManager. Now it won't be necessary to mess with editing configs in the Squad folder. Just copy the folder (available on spaceport) into GameData and ModuleManager will take care of the rest.

Note that if you've used the old pack, you'll need to revert the config files of every probe core and the two antennae.

[Frederf]

For fun and a bit more Earth solar system feel I changed my speed of light to be scaled to the Kerbol system. I divided the speed of light by the ratio of the earth-sun distance to the kerbol-kerbin distance. For those curious the number came out to 27253856 m/s (~9.1% of default). So far Kerbin-Mun communications are approx 2 sec delayed and I'm enjoying it.

[BrainMeats]

Is there a way to get the latest RemoteTech to recognize MechJeb 1.9.8? I've got them both installed but the local control button on my comms status is greyed out.

[JDP]

Is there a way to get the latest RemoteTech to recognize MechJeb 1.9.8? I've got them both installed but the local control button on my comms status is greyed out.

Sadly, no. RemoteTech is only compatible with MechJeb 2.X

[FishyFishy13]

I'm in love with the Aeroprobe, it is now a part of every mission to an atmospheric planet or moon. I have it on a ship with a control module, and 8 comsats(i only need to deploy 3 or 4) and then i can fly it anywhere, accept for the polls because it goes out of range but who wants to go the polls anyway.

[Yuka]

I searched a bit for this but is there any math to launching geostationary probes that are in specific intervals of each other? I'd like 4 comsats that are roughly equal distance from each other orbiting on a geosynchronous orbit over the equator of a body. Is there is any math behind this or is it just easy enough to eyeball?

[Kethevin]

I searched a bit for this but is there any math to launching geostationary probes that are in specific intervals of each other? I'd like 4 comsats that are roughly equal distance from each other orbiting on a geosynchronous orbit over the equator of a body. Is there is any math behind this or is it just easy enough to eyeball?

It wasn't long ago I was asking this very question. There are some awesome people here who helped, so hopefully I wont steer you wrong.

What I do is take all four probes with me. I move to the geosynchronous orbit and circulize it. I then look at how long it takes to make a complete orbit (I use Engineer Redux but there are other ways).

I divide that value by 4 (or however many probes you are launching) and then burn pro-grade until my new orbit is exactly that amount above the orbit time. Sorry, I think I'm getting confusing. As an example, if the orbit time is 4 hours, I would burn a new orbit that takes 5 hours; if the original is 6 hours, I would burn a new orbit that takes 7.5 hours, and so on. (Don't circulize this orbit, it will end up sort of egg shaped with the periapsis lying along the orbit you want)

Then, I release a probe just before what ends up being the periapsis and have the probe circulize it's orbit which brings it's orbit time back down to the original amount (4 or 5 hours in this example). Then as my main ship moves through its longer orbit, I release another probe when it returns to the periapsis and follow the same steps. When done, I end up with four probes each spaced 1/4 of the whole orbit from one another.

EDIT: This will work for any circular orbit. In case you don't already know, the Kerbal Wiki will give you the distance needed to orbit in a geosynchronous manner for each of the planets.

Edited May 27, 2013 by Kethevin
Typo's

[TaranisElsu]

Possible bug report: I am having problems using the Flight Computer to change inclination on a small probe with the Ant engine. This isn't the first time that it has happened to me: a 5.1 m/s burn lasted over 3.5 minutes until it burned through all of my fuel. And it is still trying to burn.

It happened again with an LV-909, so I do not think it is the engine. A 5.0 m/s burn lasted over 4.5 minutes and exceeded it by 300.2 m/s.

My steps to recreate:

1) Launch a probe with RemoteTech and MechJeb 2.0.8

2) Get into a 100x100 circular orbit. My inclination ends up between 0.2-1.0 degrees.

3) Using MJ's Maneuver Planner, set up a maneuver node to zero out the inclination at either the equatorial ascending node (AN) or descending node (DN). This gives me a node dV of around 5.0 m/s.

4) Enter the node parameters (dV and time to node) into the throttle window. My throttle setting depends on the engine, but I was shooting for a 5-10 second burn time. Set the attitude to normal/anti-normal or the maneuver node direction.

5) Time warp to the node, careful that you do not overshoot it.

6) Watch it burn for way too long .

My hunch is that RT is watching the orbital velocity and waiting for it to change by the 5.0 m/s. Since I am burning normal or anti-normal, it doesn't change my orbital velocity.

It works if I enter the burn time in seconds, but then I have to do math to figure out the burn time at my desired throttle level and neither the game nor MJ shows the node burn time in fractional seconds .

I also have a suggestion: since you have access to the maneuver node information, make it so that we can just click a button to copy the node parameters into the Throttle window.

Thanks!

[JDP]

..I am having problems using the Flight Computer to change inclination on a small probe with the Ant engine. This isn't the first time that it has happened to me: a 5.1 m/s burn lasted over 3.5 minutes until it burned through all of my fuel. And it is still trying to burn.

..

My hunch is that RT is watching the orbital velocity and waiting for it to change by the 5.0 m/s. Since I am burning normal or anti-normal, it doesn't change my orbital velocity.

It works if I enter the burn time in seconds, but then I have to do math to figure out the burn time at my desired throttle level and neither the game nor MJ shows the node burn time in fractional seconds .

Older version of RemoteTech just checked for delta V in orbital velocity. Now the flight computer checks for change in speed along the specific vector the vessel is pointing. This means that the vessel must stay pointed in pretty much exactly the same direction for it to properly track dV. Since normal/anti-normal mode will constantly update the target vector, this kind of issue is to be expected, you need to keep it at either killrot or maneuver node (The flight computer caches the burn vector once you send the "maneuver node" command, so it isn't updated).

A similar issue is possible in a low-thrust, long-duration capture burn. the difference of angle and magnitude between the velocity vector and the vessel.forward vector changing can in such instances be enough to mess with dV calculations. In such cases I'd recommend doing a timed burn in stead of a dV burn. By the time you reach your target planet, your interplanetary stage has probably had one burn, which gives the maneuver node interface enough data to provide a pretty close estimate of burn time.

5) Time warp to the node, careful that you do not overshoot it.

I completely forgot to list a new feature in the latest changelog:

Your ship will now automatically drop out of timewarp whenever a burn is initiated by the flight computer, so you don't have to be so careful any more. Just don't go at full timewarp near the burn window, since you might miss it a bit.

..I also have a suggestion: since you have access to the maneuver node information, make it so that we can just click a button to copy the node parameters into the Throttle window...

Good idea, I'll see where I can fit such a button. Maybe I'll just do a complete "execute burn" button that automatically queues the burn to start playing at the correct time.

[Frederf]

One thing I noticed some time back is the tracked dV would increase while you were full throttle no matter if the engine was deactivated.

I'm trying to use the module manager version to apply remotetech values to the default antennae but it's not working so far. Does anyone have a tip on how to check if I've done it correctly?

[hubbazoot]

Jeb thinks the drone is a little underpowered, he could only get into a 250km orbit with it >.>

Is there any plans on adding support for ground-based rovers in the future?

Edited May 28, 2013 by hubbazoot

[lyndonguitar]

I have this sitting on my Mods collections folder for days now, and whenever I think about installing it, I would think about how tedious it is to deploy satellites, managing their orbits/inclinations, the hardcore-ism it brings, and It makes me hesitate. Even if I like realism, I still can't convince myself to use this mod.

Is it worth it guys?

to the creator: Can you make a softcore version which only requires one satellite per body? basically making the probes "radio" through objects?

Edited May 28, 2013 by lyndonguitar

[JDP]

...I'm trying to use the module manager version to apply remotetech values to the default antennae but it's not working so far. Does anyone have a tip on how to check if I've done it correctly?

Make sure the stock parts have completely original config files and follow the installation guide on the spaceport page.

...Is there any plans on adding support for ground-based rovers in the future?...

There already is. If you put an SPU on a ship with wheels you can put the attitude computer into rover mode, giving you a simple rover autopilot.

Can you make a softcore version which only requires one satellite per body? basically making the probes "radio" through objects?

I'm very afraid that you'd find RemoteTech boring very quickly if I remove that challenge from you. That's one of the central ideas of RemoteTech: to add fun through challenge.

Either way, it's not that hard to establish a relay network, even on just one mission. If you place a number of satellites on a mothership placed in a highly elliptical orbit, you can establish a relay network simply by releasing one and circularizing each time the mothership reaches apoapsis.

[lyndonguitar]

Make sure the stock parts have completely original config files and follow the installation guide on the spaceport page.

There already is. If you put an SPU on a ship with wheels you can put the attitude computer into rover mode, giving you a simple rover autopilot.

I'm very afraid that you'd find RemoteTech boring very quickly if I remove that challenge from you. That's one of the central ideas of RemoteTech: to add fun through challenge.

Either way, it's not that hard to establish a relay network, even on just one mission. If you place a number of satellites on a mothership placed in a highly elliptical orbit, you can establish a relay network simply by releasing one and circularizing each time the mothership reaches apoapsis.

Thanks for responding mod creator, Your words finally convinced me to install it. Gonna play it now

one last question this tutorial still applies to the current version right?

[Frostiken]

I have this sitting on my Mods collections folder for days now, and whenever I think about installing it, I would think about how tedious it is to deploy satellites, managing their orbits/inclinations, the hardcore-ism it brings, and It makes me hesitate. Even if I like realism, I still can't convince myself to use this mod.

Is it worth it guys?

to the creator: Can you make a softcore version which only requires one satellite per body? basically making the probes "radio" through objects?

That's kind of the point though. Right now there isn't ****-all to do in the game except go to planets for the sake that they're there. RemoteTech at least gives you a goal of establishing a relay network. I personally expanded the kinds / types of dishes and greatly adjusted their weights and power drain to provide even more tradeoffs and requiring some balance or intentional design. For example, if you want to put the SatDish 9000, which has range to everywhere, you need a space station dedicated to generating outrageous amounts of power and you need to get all 15 tons of dish into orbit.