[1.12.x] Integrated Stack Decouplers & Radial Crossfeed Control

[linuxgurugamer]

It's always bothered me that you needed to add a separate part to do your staging.  It kind of makes sense if you are doing radial staging, but not for stacked.

So, I've written this mod to fix this shortcoming.

Essentially, it adds the ability to turn on an  integrated decoupler on all tanks which have a "top" node, with some exceptions which follow:

The mod will NOT modify a tank if:

    * A tank already has a built-in decoupler
    * A tank has a built-in fairing
    * A tank has a built-in engine

A special case is when a tank is attached to an engine.  In this case, the following rules apply:

    * If the TOP of the tank is attached to the BOTTOM of the engine, the integrated decoupler will initially be active
    * If the TOP of the tank is attached to the TOP of the engine (ie:  flip the tank upside down and attach it to the top of the engine), the integrated decoupler will NOT be available.

Tanks in symmetry are now supported. 

The integrated decouplers are installed in the TOP of a tank.

To use, build your vessel as normal, but leave off the stack decouplers.  Then, right-click on the tank where you want a decoupler, and click the button which says "No decoupler".  The button will change to say "Integrated Decoupler", along with the other options for a decoupler (Force Percent and Disable Staging).  The following images show a simple two stage rocket with the integrated decoupler being configured for each stage.

Important Note

If you are using surface attached engines on a tank with the integrated decoupler enabled, you will need to have crossfeed enabled, otherwise the surface-mounted engines will not get any fuel

 

The Radial Crossfeed Control is designed to make the crossfeed in the radial decouplers more controllable.  There is one setting with three possible values:
    Crossfeed disabled    Need no explanation
    Bi-directional        Same as the stock Crossfeed enabled
    Uni-directional        Disables the crossfeed when any engines in the attached parts run out of fuel in the attached parts.

The way this works is by first getting a list of all resources used by engines (parts which have ModuleEngine or ModuleEngineFX) from the attached set of parts attached to the decoupler.  Then, during flight, those resources are monitored, if/when the any of the resources falls to zero, the crossfeed is disabled.
 

 

This mod requires Module Manager

Availability

• Download: https://spacedock.info/mod/1538/Integrated Stack Decouplers
• Source: https://github.com/linuxgurugamer/IntegratedStackDecouplers
• License: GPLv3

The following pictures show the Integrated Stack Decoupler.  There is a video following which shows the Radial Crossfeed Controller

Don't forget to check the staging after enabling a decoupler.

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Edited December 11, 2018 by linuxgurugamer

[linuxgurugamer]

New release, 0.1.2:

• Compiled for KSP 1.3.1

[linuxgurugamer]

New release, 0.1.3.1

• Fixed .version file

[JAFO]

On 08/10/2017 at 1:54 AM, linuxgurugamer said:

The mod will NOT modify a tank if:

    * A tank has a built-in engine

So this means it won't work with the LFB KR-1x2 "Twin-Boar"?

[linuxgurugamer]

3 hours ago, JAFO said:

So this means it won't work with the LFB KR-1x2 "Twin-Boar"?

For now, that is correct.

[riocrokite]

that is an awesome little mod, have +1 mate \o/

[Beale]

Now the PMs about nodes make sense nice work dude!

[linuxgurugamer]

There is still a problem with loading a vessel with tanks in summetry.  Easily fixed by redoing the summetry part.

Im wirking pn it, but right now an busy with mod updates.

On 10/9/2017 at 5:10 AM, JAFO said:

So this means it won't work with the LFB KR-1x2 "Twin-Boar"?

I think you could add it via a MM script which targets that part directly.

10 minutes ago, Beale said:

Now the PMs about nodes make sense nice work dude!

Thanks

[JAFO]

9 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

I think you could add it via a MM script which targets that part directly

Hmmm.. thanks for the idea!

[RobertJPowell]

@linuxgurugamer nice work - Very useful mod

[linuxgurugamer]

New release, 0.1.2.2:

• Fixed symmetry code

[ssss222]

working 1.2.2? or 1.3?

[linuxgurugamer]

2 hours ago, ssss222 said:

working 1.2.2? or 1.3?

It should work in 1.3, but definitely not 1.2.2

[JAFO]

3 hours ago, ssss222 said:

working 1.2.2? or 1.3?

53 minutes ago, linuxgurugamer said:

It should work in 1.3, but definitely not 1.2.2

I see the reason for the confusion.. the new release version of Integrated Stack Decouplers coincidentally looks a lot like 1.2.2!

 

9 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

New release, 0.1.2.2

 

[linuxgurugamer]

New release, 0.1.3

• Really fixed the decoupler code :-)
• Added RadialCrossFeedcontrol

OP has been updated with details on the Radial Crossfeed Control and a short video showing it's use

[Critter79606]

I love the mod, but I'm having one small issue.

On loading a saved ship, or adding a tank to the bottom of an engine, the tank defaults to no decoupler.  I have to go reset them all before launch.

I'd like to also make a suggestion that along with engines, it auto enables for heat shields.

Update: On my ship I'm testing, the decoupler attached to an engine doesn't remember it's setting from a save, but the stage above attached to a heat shield does remember it's setting.

Thanks!

Critter

 

Edited December 3, 2017 by Critter79606

[linuxgurugamer]

21 hours ago, Critter79606 said:

I love the mod, but I'm having one small issue.

On loading a saved ship, or adding a tank to the bottom of an engine, the tank defaults to no decoupler.  I have to go reset them all before launch.

I'd like to also make a suggestion that along with engines, it auto enables for heat shields.

Update: On my ship I'm testing, the decoupler attached to an engine doesn't remember it's setting from a save, but the stage above attached to a heat shield does remember it's setting.

Thanks!

Critter

 

I noticed that last night, thanks for reporting it.

I'll have to look at it over the next day or so

[Errol]

Is it possible to add this to solid rocket engines, or no? 

[JAFO]

4 hours ago, Errol said:

Is it possible to add this to solid rocket engines, or no? 

I'd guess yes.. it ought to be fairly straightforward.

Edited February 13, 2018 by JAFO

[Errol]

I've been using this with KRASH and KCT and have noticed that setting a tank to have a decoupler seems to not persist after running a simulation with a vessel. It is usually present during the simulation at least though, because the other far more annoying time that it doesn't persist is when you add a vessel to the build list. At some point, either when it is added to the build list, rolled out, or when you try to launch it, the tank decoupler gets reset, and in flight it does not let you switch it on, just manually decouple from the PAW, which yes, does allow you to fly the mission, but not in an ideal way, as staging is seriously compromised every time. 

[linuxgurugamer]

9 hours ago, Errol said:

I've been using this with KRASH and KCT and have noticed that setting a tank to have a decoupler seems to not persist after running a simulation with a vessel. It is usually present during the simulation at least though, because the other far more annoying time that it doesn't persist is when you add a vessel to the build list. At some point, either when it is added to the build list, rolled out, or when you try to launch it, the tank decoupler gets reset, and in flight it does not let you switch it on, just manually decouple from the PAW, which yes, does allow you to fly the mission, but not in an ideal way, as staging is seriously compromised every time. 

Could you open a github issue, please with details.

[Tonka Crash]

I've found a conflict between the Radial Crossfeed Controls and the seismic pods in DMagic's Orbital Science mod.  I was getting NullReferenceExceptions in the KSP.log whenever I had an active ship with the seismic pods attached. Yesterday, I built a lander with 6 attached.

I tracked it down to the RadialCrossFeedControl.cfg being too loose in the filter for adding the module to parts:

RadialCrossFeedControl.cfg:

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleAnchoredDecoupler]] 
{
        MODULE
        {
                name = RadialCrossFeedControl
        }
}
 

The seismic pods use ModuleAchoredDecoupler, but have nothing to do with fuel.  I think I've fixed it locally by adding the following to my personal patch file:

@PART[dmSeismicPod]:Final
{
        -MODULE[RadialCrossFeedControl] {}
}

I did a search in the GameData tree for other mods this might affect ( find . -name "*.cfg" -exec grep -i -l AnchoredDecoupler {} \;  ) and didn't find any other places that looked like a problem among the 47 mods I have installed.

I don't know if it was necessary, but I also deleted the existing references to the RadialCrossFeedControl module in the dmSeismicPod part definitions in the persistent.sfs file before launching the game.

[linuxgurugamer]

Would be nice to see a log file, so Imcan fix this and not worry about incompatibilities

[Tonka Crash]

Edited to move link

Log file and modlist at:

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/11a_ps4NPQKYvlwv3pPvYFV2tymvJkboL/view?usp=sharing

Edited June 30, 2018 by Tonka Crash

[LatiMacciato]

Hi! I just want to let you know that http://ksp.spacetux.net/avc/IntegratedStackDecouplers points to a 0.1.3.3 release while the latest is 0.1.3.2 AVC offers me a download button (pointing to github) on loading screen.

Regards!