Data size (MITS) for deployed science reports

[AstroG]

Hi there.

I have the following scenario in a career save on Minmus -

       2 deployed science stations with Goo, Ion, and Seismic experiments with a controller and enough solar units to power it all

       A relay network around Minmus with RA-2 antennas comprising of 3 in a geostationary triangle orbit and 1 in a polar orbit

The problem is that I have been getting the "unable to report science due to no connection" messages. Given the relay setup that I have established, I though that I would have continuous coverage back to Kerbin.

A possible reason for this may be due to the amount of EC that I have put on my relay satellites (some only have 200 units of EC). Given that the RA-2 antenna uses 68.6 EC per second which would only give about 3 seconds of transmission, perhaps my relays are running out of EC to complete the transmissions. However to prove this, I need to know what is the data size of each deployed science report is and I am unable to find this. Is this known anywhere?

Cheers,

Glenn.

 

[RoninFrog]

How's the antenna on the probe itself?

I don't think the problem is with the relays.  Everything looks good with them.

Edit: Do you have "Enable other ground stations" option in the difficulty settings checked?  If you don't have ground stations it could be Kerbin is just facing the wrong way.

Edited April 4, 2020 by RoninFrog

[AstroG]

@RoninFrog I have the Difficulty stetting on Medium and have Enable other ground stations checked.

 

The Relays have a RA-2 and a Communotron 16. All signal strengths are near 100%.

Edited April 4, 2020 by AstroG
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[AHHans]

Hi @AstroG, welcome to the Forums.

In KSP relaying radio signals does not consume ECs.

In KSP craft only need - or generate - electricity when they are "loaded" i.e. the craft is within the physics distance of the currently active vessel and the physics simulation for the craft is performed. A relay satellite is typically far away from your current vessel and thus isn't loaded. So as long as it had some ECs left when the relay was loaded the last time then it will be able to relay data. And even if the relay is within physics distance while being used as a relay then it still won't consume electricity.

From the description of your relay network you indeed should have continuous connection from the experiment station to the relay network and from there to Kerbin. A cause for your problem could indeed be that no ground-station was in reach of the relay network, as @RoninFrog suggested. When you take control of the experiment station, the PAW (the "right-click window") of the control station will tell you if it has connection to the KSC. What does this say? And when you select the experiment station in the tracking station of the KSC, enable the display of the commnet link from the experiment station to the KSC, and accelerate time: does the link go away at some times?

[AstroG]

Hi @AHHans, thanks for your welcome and reply.

The times that this occurred was usually when I was time warping focused on another craft to a manoeuvre node so I couldn't switch back fast enough to check. I've done what you have suggested and couldn't see any times when the comms link was broken but I have modified my network slightly since this was occuring.

16 hours ago, AHHans said:

In KSP relaying radio signals does not consume ECs.

In KSP craft only need - or generate - electricity when they are "loaded" i.e. the craft is within the physics distance of the currently active vessel and the physics simulation for the craft is performed. A relay satellite is typically far away from your current vessel and thus isn't loaded. So as long as it had some ECs left when the relay was loaded the last time then it will be able to relay data. And even if the relay is within physics distance while being used as a relay then it still won't consume electricity.

I am a little confused about this. In the parts information box, it states that the RA-2 consumes 68.6 EC per second when transmitting. Under what conditions will it be doing this? Thanks.

 

Edited April 5, 2020 by AstroG
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[RoninFrog]

3 hours ago, AstroG said:

Under what conditions will it be doing this?

Within physics range (2.5 or 2.2 km, I can't remember exactly) of the ship you are currently flying.

I don't have Breaking Ground, but it says "Power Units Produced: 0" and "Power Units Required: 1".  It seems to be wanting a "Power Unit".  Try giving the Control Station Thingy a "Power Unit" (whatever that is) and see if it is happy.

Edited April 5, 2020 by RoninFrog

[AHHans]

5 hours ago, AstroG said:

I am a little confused about this. In the parts information box, it states that the RA-2 consumes 68.6 EC per second when transmitting. Under what conditions will it be doing this? Thanks.

It needs the ECs when you use it as the transmitting antenna on the craft where you are transmitting from, in contrast to relaying data that is being transmitted from another craft.

From your screenshot I can also see that the Go-ob has shut down after finishing the experiment but without transmitting all the science. Have a look at my explanation here:  Go-ob ED lost connection

And, yes, with a relay network like that you should have round the clock connectivity to the KSC. I don't know why you got the "no connection" messages. I've seen that you have two experiment stations on Minmus. That's not needed the experiments are only planetoid specific not biome specific. And maybe (maybe!) this message is what KSP generates when you try to transmit deployed science that has already been transmitted from another station. You can check in the archives in the science lab if you got all the science from the experiments.

 

[AstroG]

2 hours ago, AHHans said:

And maybe (maybe!) this message is what KSP generates when you try to transmit deployed science that has already been transmitted from another station. You can check in the archives in the science lab if you got all the science from the experiments.

 

Ok, yes! I think you are correct. For each type of experiment, both add up to 100% (or just over). I've got the same situation on the Mun and the results are the same for those experiments as well.

2 hours ago, AHHans said:

It needs the ECs when you use it as the transmitting antenna on the craft where you are transmitting from, in contrast to relaying data that is being transmitted from another craft.

 

Ok, thank you for explaining that. I was under the assumption that a relay antenna was for just relay traffic and a direct antenna was needed for science/crew reports. I learn something new with this game every day!

4 hours ago, RoninFrog said:

I don't have Breaking Ground, but it says "Power Units Produced: 0" and "Power Units Required: 1".  It seems to be wanting a "Power Unit".  Try giving the Control Station Thingy a "Power Unit" (whatever that is) and see if it is happy.

The "Power Units Produced" and "Power Units Required" on the PAW is there on all the deployed science units (controller, experiments, solar and RTG units). I just didn't include the solar panels in the screen shot. The "Power Units Produced" for the controller and experiment modules is a bit of unnecessary information as these don't produce power and will always be 0. The same goes for the Solar and RTG units for "Power Units Required" 

[AHHans]

1 hour ago, AstroG said:

Ok, thank you for explaining that.

You're welcome.

1 hour ago, AstroG said:

The "Power Units Produced" for the controller and experiment modules is a bit of unnecessary information as these don't produce power and will always be 0. The same goes for the Solar and RTG units for "Power Units Required" 

Well, copy&paste is a thing. Also when writing code.