Mining electricity control

[farmerben]

I noticed the stated electricity consumption rates for some parts do not match.  The numbers that appear in the VAB are slightly different than the KSPwiki.  I believe the wiki is more accurate, but it is still impossible to use for calculations, especially for drills.

 

Without an engineer.  One RTG can power the small drill and cooling system continuously with a small electricity surplus.

With an engineer.  Five RTG's have a small electricity deficit.

 

Every time I lay out a new mining rig I feel like Goldilocks in the house of the three bears.  Always trying something too big or too small...  

A solution which would really make mining easier is to have a control slider for each drill, to turn down its rate of power consumption.  

 

 

 

[KerbolExplorer]

+1

[Mikki]

Your mini mining rig is very cool, but i wonder how much juice the probecore drains. The most basic probe core runs surely cheaper...

I allways have the feeling that i don`t understand the miningmechanics completely, and i am sure i`m not alone with this.
All the dependencies on location, sunlight, heat dissipation, engineerlevel, amount of engineers, time acceleretion and whatnot make mining a science worth a own subforum, but barely nobody dares to talk about it...

Every miningoperation performs unique, i wonder if i missed important changes along the way...

And BTW, where is your converter? Fuel conversion with the small converter was earlier not even worth the hassle, or does it now?

Edited April 4, 2019 by Mikki
language :D

[farmerben]

45 minutes ago, Mikki said:

Your mini mining rig is very cool, but i wonder how much juice the probecore drains. The most basic probe core runs surely cheaper...

I allways have the feeling that i don`t understand the miningmechanics completely, and i am sure i`m not alone with this.
All the dependencies on location, sunlight, heat dissipation, engineerlevel, amount of engineers, time acceleretion and whatnot make mining a science worth a own subforum, but barely nobody dares to talk about it...

Every miningoperation performs unique, i wonder if i missed important changes along the way...

And BTW, where is your converter? Fuel conversion with the small converter was earlier not even worth the hassle, or does it now?

The images I posted are not a real vessel.  It's a simple test rig.  I tried setting the probe to hibernate, it makes a very tiny difference.  

Always use 2 small extendable radiators with small rigs and 2 medium extendable radiators with the large rigs.  I haven't tested on Moho, but everywhere else that is sufficient.  I never overheat the small converter, I've only read that was a problem years ago.    The fixed radiators seem to use much more electricity than the extendable ones.  Radiators use a variable amount of electricity based on load.  

I like the fact that solar radiation and ore concentrations vary by locations.  But that means it is almost impossible to optimize.

Mining by day and resting by night is fine, except for one problem.  That is job for Kerbals, not for humans,  Give humans a slider in order to achieve continuous operation.  

 

Edited April 4, 2019 by farmerben

[Snark]

Moving to Suggestions.

[JadeOfMaar]

On 4/4/2019 at 10:16 AM, farmerben said:

I noticed the stated electricity consumption rates for some parts do not match.  The numbers that appear in the VAB are slightly different than the KSPwiki.  I believe the wiki is more accurate, but it is still impossible to use for calculations, especially for drills.

 

Without an engineer.  One RTG can power the small drill and cooling system continuously with a small electricity surplus.

With an engineer.  Five RTG's have a small electricity deficit.

 

Every time I lay out a new mining rig I feel like Goldilocks in the house of the three bears.  Always trying something too big or too small...  

A solution which would really make mining easier is to have a control slider for each drill, to turn down its rate of power consumption.  

The KSP wiki should not be fully trusted then. Very few maintain it these days, its content is quite dated, and you can get a hang of power consumption by just anticipating the min and max EC requirements by one drill, with or without a level 5 engineer. Also, most usage of the RTG by players is abuse and beyond the scope of its original purpose-- to power a tiny craft that does no more than observe planets, produce science, and beam back that science. It should not be the primary power source for any sort of industrial build or otherwise manned craft.

That said I have a good idea it can be trouble to have a net gain on EC in a mining craft powered by fuel cells.

Edited April 6, 2019 by JadeOfMaar

[OHara]

Would it satisfy the intent of this suggestion, if Squad would make the drills slow down when low on EC (like the ISRU does) ?

It is much too complicated to compute the electrical power required for mining, during design of the craft.  That causes frustration, for me, mostly because the drills stop when EC goes to zero.  (Rather, this formerly caused me frustration --- now I simply make a mining rig that I thing should work, and safe-file-edit the fuel-tanks full.)