KSP Interstellar Extended Support Thread

[RaketNaarDeMün]

3 hours ago, AntaresMC said:

IFS is quite heavy, but it shouldnt be so much...

What PC do you have?

Intel core i5-4690K 3.5GH
AMD Radeon R9 200
12gb ram ddr3
Installed on an SSD
Win 10, 64 bit

The weird thing is that I played this about half a year ago on the same PC with a much larger mod load (many part-heavy mods) and it ran fine. Also, this is on a clean install. Newest KSP version from GOG and newest version of InterstellarExt. Reinstalled KSP/redownloaded the mod several times to no avail.

btw. are all mods that Interstellar requires already bundled into the download, or do you need to separately download and install things like Tweakscale? Because they seem to be present in the IntEx archive, but are those the correct versions?

Edited June 9, 2020 by RaketNaarDeMün

[muse]

When I used a Phased Array Transceiver to receive microwaves, I found that it received at most half of the network power. I tried other types of receivers, but the results still same. In VAB, I can see that the microwave conversion efficiency of the Phased Array Transceiver is at least 90%, but in fact, it only receives half of the network power, and the network efficiency is 99.9%. I don't know if this is normal.

About Network Efficiency, I found that it seems to be a threshold for available power. When it is lower than the conversion efficiency of the receiver or lower than 50%, the Available Power starts to decrease. But I think the Available Power should be equal to the Network Power * Network Efficiency * Receiver Efficiency.

I used Google Translate, hope you understand what I said

[OldSedan]

I'm trying to set up fusion reactors for propulsion and find myself quite confused. From what I can piece together, a fusion reactor requires electric power either from an attached generator or a separate reactor on the vessel to sustain the fusion reaction. How do I know how much power this requires?

For propulsion, each reactor has a set of either thermal, plasma, or magnetic nozzle that it is compatible with. Thrust and ISP vary with the fusion fuel set in the reactor interface as well as the fuel specified by the nozzle. Fusion reactor and engine nozzle should be the same size for efficiency.

This all seems to work in the VAB, although kerbal engineer can't seem to handle the magnetic nozzle; it gives 0 ISP. When I attempt to launch however the fusion reactor appears inactive and I don't see an option to start it. Is there a button to press to initiate the fusion reaction or does it just happen passively when enough power is available on the vessel to sustain the reaction?

[FreeThinker]

20 minutes ago, OldSedan said:

I'm trying to set up fusion reactors for propulsion and find myself quite confused. From what I can piece together, a fusion reactor requires electric power either from an attached generator or a separate reactor on the vessel to sustain the fusion reaction. How do I know how much power this requires?

For propulsion, each reactor has a set of either thermal, plasma, or magnetic nozzle that it is compatible with. Thrust and ISP vary with the fusion fuel set in the reactor interface as well as the fuel specified by the nozzle. Fusion reactor and engine nozzle should be the same size for efficiency.

This all seems to work in the VAB, although kerbal engineer can't seem to handle the magnetic nozzle; it gives 0 ISP. When I attempt to launch however the fusion reactor appears inactive and I don't see an option to start it. Is there a button to press to initiate the fusion reaction or does it just happen passively when enough power is available on the vessel to sustain the reaction?

Please make sure you add sufficient amount of radiators and your reactor is connected to a compatible power generator or has an integrated power genrator. If it doesn't work,  please post a screendump so I can advice you what to do.

[OldSedan]

13 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

Please make sure you add sufficient amount of radiators and your reactor is connected to a compatible power generator or has an integrated power genrator. If it doesn't work,  please post a screendump so I can advice you what to do.

I think I did not have enough power on board to support both the fusion reactor powering the magnetic nozzle and the nozzle itself. I switched to a plasma nozzle and it's working very well. I'm not able to timewarp, however - I get an in game error message that the propellant is depleted despite full tanks. I think it's a bug, I'll keep testing.

Where can I find information on the power usage and supply from different reactors and consumers? I'm not sure how to know how much power the magnetic nozzle needs.

[FreeThinker]

2 minutes ago, OldSedan said:

I think I did not have enough power on board to support both the fusion reactor powering the magnetic nozzle and the nozzle itself. I switched to a plasma nozzle and it's working very well. I'm not able to timewarp, however - I get an in game error message that the propellant is depleted despite full tanks. I think it's a bug, I'll keep testing.

Where can I find information on the power usage and supply from different reactors and consumers? I'm not sure how to know how much power the magnetic nozzle needs.

No, it should automaticly prioritize power production over consumption, so this should not happen. I recommend you read

 

[OldSedan]

1 hour ago, FreeThinker said:

No, it should automaticly prioritize power production over consumption, so this should not happen. I recommend you read

 

Am I supposed to have both the magnetic nozzle and the electrical converter on the same reactor? Wouldn’t that pull power away from the nozzle?

 

edit: the tutorial is very useful but the images are not loading

Edited June 10, 2020 by OldSedan

[FreeThinker]

15 hours ago, OldSedan said:

Am I supposed to have both the magnetic nozzle and the electrical converter on the same reactor? Wouldn’t that pull power away from the nozzle?

It is optional and yes it might take power away but most of it can usaly be retreived form Thermal power produced durring the reaction.

 

[AntaresMC]

16 hours ago, OldSedan said:

Am I supposed to have both the magnetic nozzle and the electrical converter on the same reactor? Wouldn’t that pull power away from the nozzle?

 

edit: the tutorial is very useful but the images are not loading

Use the plasma/mag nozzle with thermal generator so all CP (good stuff) goes to thrust. Some reactors have different outputs. Rule of thumb, the more T more heat, the more He3 more CP.

 

On 6/9/2020 at 7:36 PM, muse said:

When I used a Phased Array Transceiver to receive microwaves, I found that it received at most half of the network power. I tried other types of receivers, but the results still same. In VAB, I can see that the microwave conversion efficiency of the Phased Array Transceiver is at least 90%, but in fact, it only receives half of the network power, and the network efficiency is 99.9%. I don't know if this is normal.

About Network Efficiency, I found that it seems to be a threshold for available power. When it is lower than the conversion efficiency of the receiver or lower than 50%, the Available Power starts to decrease. But I think the Available Power should be equal to the Network Power * Network Efficiency * Receiver Efficiency.

I used Google Translate, hope you understand what I said

The beam disperses over distance. Try long/far IR, they are much more tight. Also the athmo absorbs a good chunk. Anx the transmitter cross section may be smaller than the beam, have it always perpendicular. Se OOM's tutorial (link above) or Jhook777's on YT

 

On 6/9/2020 at 5:17 PM, RaketNaarDeMün said:

Intel core i5-4690K 3.5GH
AMD Radeon R9 200
12gb ram ddr3
Installed on an SSD
Win 10, 64 bit

The weird thing is that I played this about half a year ago on the same PC with a much larger mod load (many part-heavy mods) and it ran fine. Also, this is on a clean install. Newest KSP version from GOG and newest version of InterstellarExt. Reinstalled KSP/redownloaded the mod several times to no avail.

btw. are all mods that Interstellar requires already bundled into the download, or do you need to separately download and install things like Tweakscale? Because they seem to be present in the IntEx archive, but are those the correct versions?

Weird, mabe you have incompatibilities with other mods. All KSPIE is a single part. Mabe its not well installed or updated or there is some weird part causing problems

[muse]

Hi @FreeThinker, I found some bugs. I placed two vehicles for testing, one beam transceiver on the runway and one receiver on the launch pad. Every time I launch the receiver, the power received from the transceiver is different:

This is the transceiver:

(The receiver launches for the first time)

(Second launch)

(The third launch)

 

This phenomenon is not only shown when launch receiver, but also when activate/deactivate the transceiver(At the beginning, the transceiver was activated, I switched to the transceiver to deactivate the transceiver, then activated the transceiver after a few seconds, and finally switched to the receiver).

(After the first activate/deactivate)

(The second time)

(The third time)

I have also tested the Phased Array Transceiver, and it has the same problem. No matter what kind of transceiver and what type of beam is emitted, and whether or not the received power is used, still same problem.

 

By the way, for most transceivers, the value of efficiency in Power Receiver Interface is different from the value of efficiency in right-click menu. There are 4 levels of inline thermal receiver. The efficiency value of each level is the same in the parts selector, but it is different in the Power Receiver Interface.

Game version:1.9.1,  mod version:1.25.22, KSPIE is the only mod in my game.

Edited June 15, 2020 by muse
Add some bugs

[WTR437]

I have been struggling with ksp interstellar as the heat on say an antimatter reactor at 1.25m diamater produces 20,000 gw of heat and the only way to keep it cool is to have a graphene umbrella radiator at 40 meter tweak scale- i have tried everything in regards to proper installation and in game. i am sure that this is incorrect as i watch beucoupzero on YouTube (ksp interstellar craft builder) and watched him put two smallish graphene radiator wings with a 1.875 meter antimatter reactor and he has no problems. i have the same problem with the quantum singularity reactor and i honestly don't know if the temperature is meant to be this way or not. believe it or not i have been toiling with this same issue ever since i bought the game in 2017 . again i have tried everything from manual install with no other mods , i have tried ckan, and i eventually came to the conclusion that it was a glitch i could not fix and ended up giving up on the mod. (though i have still been trying every now and then) the forum is my only hope at this point. ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED. (+ i would attach an image but this is my first time using forum so i don't know how)

[Gargamel]

@WTR437, Your question has been merged into the KPSIE thread at the behest of @FreeThinker.

[nonono]

I've got a really odd problem. One of my ships keeps blowing up when it gets moving over about 200m/s. I'm running a stellerator with an MHD generator on it, with 2GW of cooling using the toolbar popup in the VAB. I swapped out the reactor for a spherical tokamak, still blew up. I then removed the reactor entirely and replaced the propulsion setup with a chemical rocket placeholder that I know 100% won't kraken, and I've discovered that the MHD generator, with no reactor attached, has been the culprit summoning the kraken apparently. Even if I hyper edit the craft into orbit without firing the engines the MHD will explode.

KSP log file at the link

https://ufile.io/1pk9caeo

Edited June 16, 2020 by nonono

[FreeThinker]

On 6/12/2020 at 5:48 PM, WTR437 said:

I have been struggling with ksp interstellar as the heat on say an antimatter reactor at 1.25m diamater produces 20,000 gw of heat and the only way to keep it cool is to have a graphene umbrella radiator at 40 meter tweak scale- i have tried everything in regards to proper installation and in game. i am sure that this is incorrect as i watch beucoupzero on YouTube (ksp interstellar craft builder) and watched him put two smallish graphene radiator wings with a 1.875 meter antimatter reactor and he has no problems. i have the same problem with the quantum singularity reactor and i honestly don't know if the temperature is meant to be this way or not. believe it or not i have been toiling with this same issue ever since i bought the game in 2017 . again i have tried everything from manual install with no other mods , i have tried ckan, and i eventually came to the conclusion that it was a glitch i could not fix and ended up giving up on the mod. (though i have still been trying every now and then) the forum is my only hope at this point. ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED. (+ i would attach an image but this is my first time using forum so i don't know how)

I suggest you create something like this:

[PlotVitalNPC]

Are the Mach Effect drive and the EM drive specialized for different tasks? Is one an upgrade over the other? Or are they just kind of redundant with each-other?

Also, I saw an image of muon catalyzed fusion in this thread, running proton-proton-proton fusion and making 50mw fully upgraded. That seemed weird to me, because from what I gather it's a fairly advanced fusion type, and I've seen other reactors making far more power at that size, but is it just because of the fuel mode?
I've seen from the table at the start of the thread that proton-proton is a pretty wimpy fuel mode in terms of power output rate. Is PPP similar?

Edited June 16, 2020 by PlotVitalNPC
Clarification of intent

[FreeThinker]

1 hour ago, PlotVitalNPC said:

Are the Mach Effect drive and the EM drive specialized for different tasks? Is one an upgrade over the other? Or are they just kind of redundant with each-other?

Also, I saw an image of muon catalyzed fusion in this thread, running proton-proton-proton fusion and making 50mw fully upgraded. That seemed weird to me, because from what I gather it's a fairly advanced fusion type, and I've seen other reactors making far more power at that size, but is it just because of the fuel mode?
I've seen from the table at the start of the thread that proton-proton is a pretty wimpy fuel mode in terms of power output rate. Is PPP similar?

proton-proton-proton  is realy hard because it has a low reaction rate, resulting it a low amount of power.  But its main use is not power, but the production of helium3 which can be use for other fusion processes.  If you want more power output with the Muon Reactor, use the Catalised CNO fusion mode, which converts Hydrogen into Helium using CNO

[Shadoworgon]

So after many many attempts of doing a career save with interstellar Extended i've finally getting the hang out it and learning very quickly the versatility of ISRU bases/colonies. However one thing I cant seem to find in the refineries.. where is the silicates processing done at? and is there something  I need in order to see the option? 

[FreeThinker]

8 minutes ago, Shadoworgon said:

So after many many attempts of doing a career save with interstellar Extended i've finally getting the hang out it and learning very quickly the versatility of ISRU bases/colonies. However one thing I cant seem to find in the refineries.. where is the silicates processing done at? and is there something  I need in order to see the option? 

There is currently no processing of silicates in KSPIE. It isn't particular usefull  except for Oxygen perhaps

[Shadoworgon]

17 minutes ago, FreeThinker said:

There is currently no processing of silicates in KSPIE. It isn't particular usefull  except for Oxygen perhaps

ah ok my bad. I saw on the first page a graph showing silicates as a source of lithium, made my first colony/base on a spot without any other resource to get lithium but saw I had some silicates. Ah well, guess i'll have to ferry some over from somewhere else. Thanks for clearing that up, thought I was going crazy.

[JanHHH]

SO, I have this Tug that brought my Landers to the Jool system and houses the lab. Everything was fine and I refueled it a couple of times with my Bop Miner, but now the Timberwind Engines suddenly don't produce any thrust anymore. They still get hot when I throttle up, but somehow refuse to take any propellant (I only carry stock LF and Mono on this ship, both don't work). Does someone have an idea how to fix this? I tried deactivating in the control window as well as on EVA (though I only have scientists there atm), nothing works..

 

[FreeThinker]

Do you see any exception spamming in the log?

[JanHHH]

Doesn't look like it. However, I solved it for now, I redocked my lander and now the Timberwinds produce thrust again. Do they consume MW power in order to run? The tug doesn't have it's own reactor but the lander has a molten salt. I always thought all the fission engines don't need external power supply..?

[PlotVitalNPC]

5 hours ago, FreeThinker said:

proton-proton-proton  is realy hard because it has a low reaction rate, resulting it a low amount of power.  But its main use is not power, but the production of helium3 which can be use for other fusion processes.  If you want more power output with the Muon Reactor, use the Catalised CNO fusion mode, which converts Hydrogen into Helium using CNO

Looking into that reaction chain, it seems like an interesting one. I can definitely see how it would be more viable than bashing protium together as a direct energy producer.

What about the reactionless drives, though? I know I've seen them both mentioned in this thread, but I can't find anything that indicates what would make one preferable to another.

[nonono]

@FreeThinker

I understand that looking through a log file might take time to figure out what's going on, and you're volunteering your time to us for this, so please don't take this as me trying to push you to make time just for my issue. I just wanted to ask and see if you might have any thoughts on why my ship is exploding? I saw you liked my previous post in the thread, but didn't respond. So I thought you might still be looking through the log file, or maybe just haven't had time yet?

[AntaresMC]

6 hours ago, JanHHH said:

Doesn't look like it. However, I solved it for now, I redocked my lander and now the Timberwinds produce thrust again. Do they consume MW power in order to run? The tug doesn't have it's own reactor but the lander has a molten salt. I always thought all the fission engines don't need external power supply..?

They dont. In fact they produce electricity. There should be an "activate generator" somewherere.