KSP Interstellar Extended Support Thread

[BlackMoons]

Saurenath: They work for me. Beamed microwave power spreads pretty fast though, IR and UV are better and the mod author is adding x-ray. \

Did you enable the receivers? how about some screenshots? Many receivers are also directional. Some are thermal and need a thermal generator + tons of rads (Seem to be better suited for thermal nozzles)

Edited July 23, 2017 by BlackMoons

[Saurenath]

 

 

Microwave power is non-functional - 112 GW of power being projected from 400000M orbit, 650000M orbit and 1200000M ORBIT from Kerbin. 4x 32 M Microwave power receivers, each gets NOTHING from my 112 GW power generation station (or the three supplemental orbital stations).

 

First station -  Multi Bandwidth DIsh Tranciever attached to gyrotron, attached to IXS Magnetic Confinement fusion reactor, attached to a direct energy conversion reactor and a thermal reactor, one on each end. 2 2.5 m nuclear fission reactors attached, 10 'large folding radiators' attached to that section. All are directly attached to one another, there are 16 helium three round tanks (IFS Universal pressurized tanks) attached for fuel.

Second stage area has two MFC Spherical Tokomak with a direct energy conversion and a charged particle generator, 8 'large folding radiators' attached to that section, thermal is in the green as per mechjeb/ksp engineer redux. They are offset adjacently on the IFS reactors wing things.

My booster stations are close to that, replacing the two MFC tokomak with a Tri Alpha Colliding Beam reactor. Each has 2 2.5 m nuclear fission reactors to prime fusion.

My reciever is as follows:

Clamp o tron

Illumintator mk 1

KW Rocketry LFTA 2-1 Short

crew cabin 2-3

IFS Cargo, tweakscaled to 3.75 with lithium hydrate

2x b-10k battery

computer core

Tri alpha colliding beam

4x radial gold thermal dish reciever

8x large folding radiators

4xblanket photovoltaic beamed power receiver

UNIVERSAL pressurized gas tank with he3

kerbstein fusion engine

 

This receiver doesnt recieve any power.

 

Any way to share screenshots without imigur or a website or anything? I didnt notice an attach function.

 

Also, there is no option to connect to a specific transmitter, tranceiver etc. Is this normal or could that be loveing me?

Edited July 23, 2017 by Saurenath
Unnecessary rudeness.

[BlackMoons]

.. why not use imgur?

Also, '4x radial gold thermal dish reciever'

Is your issue, those need to be connected to an inline thermal receiver and only produce thermal power.

Try the rectenna's, they directly convert microwaves to electricity. The ball ones work well.

It automatically connects to any and all available sats/relays when its the correct frequency/direction/etc for the receiver, AFTER the receiver has been enabled.

Also, transmitters must be manually enabled before they will transmit too. You'll see 'WALL to beam: <some number>' on your transmitters when they are working (even without any receivers)

Edited July 23, 2017 by BlackMoons

[Saurenath]

Paranoid, very, very paranoid.

Shouldnt the Blanket Photovoltaic Beamed Power Receivers still receive power or do they need a converter as well?

im gonna give it a shot with the rectenna, you havent steered me wrong yet moon!

[BlackMoons]

29 minutes ago, Saurenath said:

Paranoid, very, very paranoid.

Shouldnt the Blanket Photovoltaic Beamed Power Receivers still receive power or do they need a converter as well?

im gonna give it a shot with the rectenna, you havent steered me wrong yet moon!

They do, but only if its 'near IR', not the 'long wave IR' that most beam emitters start with or microwave that the gyrotron emits. try the shielded laser emitter for those (has built in diode, must be configured to near IR in vab). Note I think they have like 1% or 15% conversion efficiency depending on what one your using. Rectennas are like 70% or something really good.

 

PS: Line of sight matters, so you'll only get power while your orbital powerplants are overhead. Thats why I made reactor boats and parked them just outside physics range around KSC (So they don't lag up my launches!)

Warning: A couple GW of power into a thermal nozzle can make a (light) ship that accelerates so fast outta the atmosphere it burns up on exit unless you throttle back

PS: Thermal receivers generally work on ALL freqencies, but only are good for making heat, so basically only good for powering thermal launch nozzle or the two thermal jet engines.

Edited July 23, 2017 by BlackMoons

[Saurenath]

Cool, so if I want some cheap thrust (in terms of weight) i dont need to get overly complicated with fusion, I can go direct thermal projection to a receiver attached to a thermal nozzle and Ill get boatloads of thrust?

 

My current plan is a loop of all the Jool moons and eloo, with landings on each moon and eeloo. I was planning to attach 2 landers to the receiver module described above and just muscle through with fusion reactors. That was 125ish hours ago and you've seen my current frustration. Im going to try the rectennas configured to infrared with the multi bandwidth transceiver configured the same on the above receiver and go from there. Im thinking the best way is a generator ship and a colony ship, LOS of each other in near infrared...all assuming I can get the receivers to receive.

To confirm: if i want long range power transmission near infrared is inefficient and may not work? Is there an optimal wavelength to transmit for conservation of power?

And based on what ive described, what is the best transmitter to use?

Edited July 23, 2017 by Saurenath

[BlackMoons]

Basically you connect that black tube to a thermal launch nozzle, set it for oxidiser/fuel (or just liquid fuel if you have enough power), connect some fuel tanks and HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE. if you got a few GW and only a few 100 tons. It will accept any beamed power type. Note that once you stop using full thrust it overheats quickly and you have to turn off the receiver or turn down the reception. once it overheats past 90% waste heat it automatically turns down its reception and it takes forever it cool it off.

There is also mirror thingys for making IR and UV relays.

PS: don't expect beamed power to work at range. 2000MW at KSC becomes 0.2MW at duna with a 20,000M spot size, even with near IR. (Admitly with a 20M receiver but)

On the other side of kerbin from KSC, its 1000MW after bouncing off a few relays.

Edited July 23, 2017 by BlackMoons

[Saurenath]

Will keep an eye out for mirror thingys. 25 more hours and i should figure this out.

And for the record everything else KSPI adds is awesome, havent had a problem. Just the fusion stuff and microwave generation. That's a female dog.

Edited July 23, 2017 by Saurenath

[BlackMoons]

IMO start by putting a reactor on the runway and try a thermal launcher off the pad. Progress from there.

Btw it does not matter what directions transmitters face or relays, but it DOES matter what direction receivers face.

Edited July 23, 2017 by BlackMoons

[Saurenath]

Got it working Blackmoon, I now have 45 GW transmitting from LKO, and a Kerbstein Fusion engine on my interplanetary exploration receiver. Your advice was spot on my friend, thanks for not writing my frustrated posts off.

 

I'm about to set off on my Kerbol exploration to hit Jool, Gilly, Eve and others. Wish me luck?

 

Meaning i replaced thermal recievers with 8x radial rectenna and 4x pivoted rectenna. Thanks blackmoon, you the boss.

Edited July 23, 2017 by Saurenath

[BlackMoons]

Yea I don't think multiple antennas works very well yet, it seems it only the 'best' antenna is used for a given transmission, so more helps if they cover more angles, but else they don't really.

[Saurenath]

That seems accurate, they are placed 90 degrees to each other so really just covering the angles. Seems like I get full power transmission now, I'll report back with any issues.

[Saurenath]

MISSION SUCCESSFUL: if anyone is having trouble with fusion and microwave power, search my posts and BlackMoons answers.

[FreeThinker]

10 hours ago, BlackMoons said:

"IRSU Converter" Haber Process function does not use/recongize liquid nitrogen or liquid hydrogen from intersteller fuel tanks and won't fill liquid ammonia tanks either. They will from cryotanks but only when the liquid/gas slider is not set to '0'

Using the refrigeration IRSU can convert, But you still need a hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia gas tank somewhere or the Haber process won't be usable with just liquid tanks.

Also this:

It used all my ammonia (spelling error on menu?) and UF4 in the blink of an eye and produced 10,000 units (max of my storage) of UN from 400 units of UF4, since it didn't stop making UN even when I ran outta everything else.

Seems a little broken.

 Do you think Chemical processes create resources in Cryo Genic form? For any ISRU process for both input or output , the resources wil be in Gas Form. After that you need to cool them down to store than an Cryo genic liquids.

[DrScarlett]

Hi @FreeThinker and other KSPI experts

I think it is nice to post a success story every now and again. With your help, it looks like I have got antimatter collection down pat. I got stations around Kerbin and Jool with 10 meter sized antimatter collector parts. That's right, if you wanna avond the Kraken, go big  Launched in 5 sections each and connected with construction ports. Fairly easy to make and with a manageable part count.

The Kerbin one is at 900 KM and does 797 milligrams of antimatter per day.

The Jool one is at 9000 KM and does a whopping 114.5 grams of antimatter per day. But exactly the same rig as the one around Kerbin. The 5-launch convoy to Jool was a lot of fun to do.

So now I got that going I am ready for the next steps. I am looking for some advice there, but I will put that in the next post.

Cheers, Dr. Scarlett

[DrScarlett]

Hi @FreeThinker and interstellar crew,

This one is another one asking for advice or feedback. 

I have used that nice antimatter to start testing my FTL capability, the ultimate goal being to colonize another star system with MKS. Here is a pic of the rig I manage to fly to Jool in under half an hour easy. The braking engine on the back is a Kerbstein drive. They are awesome!

So basically I have two-and-a-half questions:

1a). I seem to need an antimatter reactor to get the power I need for FTL. I have tried fusion, but I could not manage to keep the craft light enough and get a small or medium Alcubierre drive to work with that, so I am guessing to get some payload in long distance FTL I will need antimatter power - is that correct?

1b). The antimatter reactor here is 2.5 meters and can go up to 685 GW. But it has no generator or convertor, so I put one on it. But I had to boost that thing up to 7.5 meters to convert enough power, pushing the mass already beyond the reach of a small Alcubierre drive. It looks really out of place and still only delivers less than 5% (30GW) of the power the antimatter reactor can give. Is there a more elegant solution to this (obviously without moving towards beamed power)?

2). My solution for heat dispersion also has been bugging me. Here I have this floating ring of radiators. Mweeeeh . Is there a method that supplies enough heat management that attaches more realistically, but that does not make your craft look like a bristling porcupine (a crazy number of unfolding radiators) or an oversized dart (oversized triangular fixed panels)? I am looking for realism, practicality, but also elegance for the looks of the craft. Anything out there that I missed?

EDIT: I think this one got answered by @FreeThinker's last post. Deployable fixed graphene radiator panels look better and work better. I'd like to have something more stylish, but hey, it's space travel, not a fashion show  

Anyone, any time you take to put me on a nice path regarding these questions, would be very much appreciated!

Thanks a lot again in advance,

Dr. Scarlett

Edited July 23, 2017 by DrScarlett

[BlackMoons]

5 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

 Do you think Chemical processes create resources in Cryo Genic form? For any ISRU process for both input or output , the resources wil be in Gas Form. After that you need to cool them down to store than an Cryo genic liquids.

Sure, its just a little annoying that for practically everything else doesn't care about liquid vs gas phase. It would be nice if it would at least use liquid inputs (And enable itself when you only have liquid inputs)

2 hours ago, DrScarlett said:

1b). The antimatter reactor here is 2.5 meters and can go up to 685 GW. But it has no generator or convertor, so I put one on it. But I had to boost that thing up to 7.5 meters to convert enough power, pushing the mass already beyond the reach of a small Alcubierre drive. It looks really out of place and still only delivers less than 5% (30GW) of the power the antimatter reactor can give. Is there a more elegant solution to this (obviously without moving towards beamed power)?

2). My solution for heat dispersion also has been bugging me. Here I have this floating ring of radiators. Mweeeeh . Is there a method that supplies enough heat management that attaches more realistically, but that does not make your craft look like a bristling porcupine (a crazy number of unfolding radiators) or an oversized dart (oversized triangular fixed panels)? I am looking for realism, practicality, but also elegance for the looks of the craft. Anything out there that I missed?

 

 

Increasing the size of generators AFAIK does not increase there max capacity and I think there mass is actually set by what size reactor you connect them to. AFAIK they don't even have a max capacity? At least never one I have reached. What you will find is an issue is max heat dissipation. 90% efficent at 30GW means 3GW of heat to dissipate and you likely hit that limit (if wasteheat gets near 90% your overheating and stuff will begin to throttle back/shut off)

Those surface rads hardly dissipate anything, the large deployable rads do WONDERS. like 100x as much dissipation as a 2.5m surface rad.

Also, Make sure your using a charged particle generator, because your only going to get 5% thermal power of your 600MW generator, or 50GW.. * 60% efficency = 30GW.. Funny that!

[Loren Pechtel]

29 minutes ago, BlackMoons said:

Sure, its just a little annoying that for practically everything else doesn't care about liquid vs gas phase. It would be nice if it would at least use liquid inputs (And enable itself when you only have liquid inputs)

Seconded.  To gassify a liquid is trivial, anything that expects a gaseous input should accept liquids also.

[BlackMoons]

Description for Timberwind Particle Bed Upgrade is: "When researched improves power output Nuclear Jet Power Output and enables it to use propellants"

Seems like a copy/paste error since even after 2nd upgrade, timberwind can't use oxidizer (id fear its thrust if it could..) and is not a Nuclear Jet (And could already use propellants like liquid fuel)

Edited July 23, 2017 by BlackMoons

[Ciro1983811]

42 minutes ago, BlackMoons said:

Description for Timberwind Particle Bed Upgrade is: "When researched improves power output Nuclear Jet Power Output and enables it to use propellants"

Seems like a copy/paste error since even after 2nd upgrade, timberwind can't use oxidizer (id fear its thrust if it could..) and is not a Nuclear Jet (And could already use propellants like liquid fuel)

Like I stated before, once Kspi-e reach the next "stable" release, all the parts description and the ksp-wiki/github wiki should benefit a overall review. Perhaps all the experience players (we) should give our help and split the caseload between us, each one of us could take care of a number of parts, so @FreeThinker may ha e only to review each description instead of rewriting them all. And maybe he should also describe the mechanism behind all the main systems.... what do you all think about it?

Cheers..

[DrScarlett]

1 hour ago, BlackMoons said:

Increasing the size of generators AFAIK does not increase there max capacity and I think there mass is actually set by what size reactor you connect them to. AFAIK they don't even have a max capacity? At least never one I have reached. What you will find is an issue is max heat dissipation. 90% efficent at 30GW means 3GW of heat to dissipate and you likely hit that limit (if wasteheat gets near 90% your overheating and stuff will begin to throttle back/shut off)

Those surface rads hardly dissipate anything, the large deployable rads do WONDERS. like 100x as much dissipation as a 2.5m surface rad.

Also, Make sure your using a charged particle generator, because your only going to get 5% thermal power of your 600MW generator, or 50GW.. * 60% efficency = 30GW.. Funny that!

Yup, you were right. The generator size (and it was indeed a charged particle generator, lol) doesn't change jack. Not the mass, not the output. But it does list a max power output of 30.8 GW (not visible in the VAB but it shows when right clicked in space), and its power output is indeed limited to that. Maybe I attached it upside-down or something...

So.... how do I get more powerrrr? How do I put that beautiful antimatter generator to use (hopefully without increasing the reactors size - just to improve the generator)?

[BlackMoons]

Hmmm, For some reason to me it looks like its basing its 'max power' off the max thermal power of the generator instead of its charged particle output

Lemme try some stuff in sandbox.

<edit> Looks kinda confirmed:

Rector refused to throttle up past 5% exactly. aka its thermal output amount.

Scaling reactor up results in the same result, exactly 5% active status.

Edited July 23, 2017 by BlackMoons

[DrScarlett]

Here's what happens when I add a thermal generator on the other end as well. It gives me some 21 more GW which drops down to 13 GW in use when my heat management balances out. A bit better, but I am still wasting most of my charged particles in the same way as before.

Inactive:

Whilst charging Alcubierre:

Edited July 23, 2017 by DrScarlett

[BlackMoons]

Open your reactor control window next screenshot DrScarlett

DrScarlett: Very cheap fix for bug for now: Go into antimatter drives .cfg file and crank the power up 20 fold Then 5% = full stock power.

Tested many other reactors, None appear to have this issue (did not check the quantium singularity reactor)

Bug: Antimatter initiated Micro Fusion reactor however does say "Deuterium deprived" in status when it is infact out of anti-matter and has lots of deuterium.

Edited July 23, 2017 by BlackMoons

[ArmchairPhysicist]

I have a question regarding the space plane parts.

I just unlocked both the thermal ramjet/turbojet node, and the thermal launch nozzle, but neither have been much use to my aviation division. What purpose where these engines built for? I'm sure they have some niche job, but I'm having trouble justifying the ssto research if my rockets work way better.