Toggling UI Instruments on Probes

[ZooNamedGames]

I was looping around the moon yesterday with a small probe. It had two solar panels and two small radial batteries. It was an effective probe, but even in hibernation mode, it would still die during the night. So I started wishing I could turn a few things off to reduce power further when I came up with this new radical idea-

Being able to turn UI elements (like the altitude display, vertical speed indicator, staging UI, navball, G-force meter, throttle, heading, speed, etc) on and off. With them drawing a portion of the power probes already draw (manned capsules would not be impacted as they don't continuously burn battery to function like probes). Each instrument would be responsible for the total percentage of power used by the probe. Note, this shouldn't increase power drain, just consist of part of the existing power draw. So turning off the altimeter (or setting it to update only so often, like every 5, 10, 30, or 60 seconds) should reduce the power drawn, same for the vertical UI indicator or the navball or any other UI element.

It's reasonable to assume that even in hibernation that the probe is drawing a lot of power if it's constantly tracking it's altitude, vertical speed, navball position, speed, and so on. So it should be reasonable that the easiest way to reduce power usage is to turn off aspects of the instrumentation that you may or may not need. Such as altitude or vertical speed which really doesn't matter when you're orbiting behind the moon out of power from the sun and trying to run science experiments or any other multitude of situations a player could think of.

So what are your thoughts? Am I crazy and this is silly, or am I onto something? Let me know.

[GrouchyDevotee]

Just a thought,

A probe might be designed to save power by turning things off, but the things you mentioned are telemetry data for ground control.

So, if we assume that telemetry is a big power draw, then it will follow that Kerbal-com-net re-broadcasts would require far more power than it currently uses.

just a thought.

[akron]

@ZooNamedGames What is likely draining your batteries is your SAS or a science/telemetry instrument (Like a SCANsat radar). I do see where you're coming from though. As @GrouchyDevotee said, those UI displays are really ground control data and not equipment on the mission itself. I can give you a real life example, which is the Voyager probes. Their RTGs supply a steadily decreasing amount of power (not an exact analogy, but bear with me). In order to maintain the probes active with decreasing power, NASA/JPL devised a plan as you suggested to turn off things to save power. Here is Voyager 1's power save plan as the years go on:

VOYAGER 1
The following lists those loads that have been turned off in VIM and the year:

• 1990 — IRIS Flash-off Heater OFF (+31.8 W)
• 1990 — WA Camera OFF (+16.8 W)
• 1990 — NA Camera OFF (+18.0 W)
• 1995 — PPS Supplemental Heater OFF (+2.8 W)
• 1995 — NA Optics Heater OFF (+2.6 W)
• 1995 — IRIS Standby A Supply OFF (+7.2 W)
• 1998 — WA Vidicon Heater OFF (+5.5 W)
• 1998 — NA Vidicon Heater OFF (+5.5 W)
• 1998 — IRIS Science Instrument OFF (+6.6 W)
• 2002 — WA Electronics Replacement Heater OFF (+10.5 W)
• 2003 — Azimuth Actuator Supplemental Heater OFF (+3.5 W)
• 2003 — Azimuth Coil Heater OFF (+4.4 W)
• 2003 — Scan Platform Slewing Power OFF (+2.4 W)
• 2005 — NA Electronics Replacement Heater OFF (+10.5 W)
• 2007 — Pyro Instrumentation Power OFF (+2.4 W)
• 2007 — PLS Science Instrument OFF (+4.2 W)
• 2007 — PLS Replacement Heater OFF (+4.3 W)
• 2008 — PRA Science Instrument OFF (+6.6W)
• 2011 — IRIS Replacement Heater OFF (+7.8 W)
• 2014 — Scan Platform Supplemental Heater OFF (+6.0W)
• 2015 — UVS Replacement Heater OFF (+2.4W)
• 2016 — UVS Science Instrument OFF (+2.4 W)

[source]

Notice that  nothing related to "UI" telemetry is turned off. After all, we determine Voyager's altitude in relation to Earth and velocity by the doppler shift of signals received from and bounced from the probe; rather than any sort of altimeter on board. 

I don't want to down-play your suggestion, but it may be a better idea to incorporate any additional potential power savings into the existing hibernation mode, for simplicity. I do wander what might have drained your probe's power though