[1.8-1.11.x] Beamed Power Standalone (and Propulsion), v1.1.0

[jimmymcgoochie]

Quick question- does this mod allow electric charge to be sent across long distances, e.g. park a solar array near the sun to then fire all that power out to something further from the Sun that needs it? Or am I misunderstanding the purpose of this mod?

[Aniruddh]

2 minutes ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

Quick question- does this mod allow electric charge to be sent across long distances, e.g. park a solar array near the sun to then fire all that power out to something further from the Sun that needs it? Or am I misunderstanding the purpose of this mod?

Yes it allows that. There are no parts for it currently, but the plugin has part modules you can apply to parts to give them that function. Try this mod with NFeX, some of the parts in that will have that function.

[juanml82]

So "short" means it's useful for long distances while "long" for shorter distances, right? Also, this isn't supposed to be scaled for larger solar systems, right? I'm playing RSS+Smurff and thought "Oh, I could make a solar farm on Mercury's orbit and power stuff on Earth and beyond" and well, you can't because the losses are huge, it only seems to work within a planetary system. OTOH, maybe that's intended? I'm not sure how realistic (even if incredibly advanced) solar farms in Mercury would be

[Aniruddh]

33 minutes ago, juanml82 said:

So "short" means it's useful for long distances while "long" for shorter distances, right? Also, this isn't supposed to be scaled for larger solar systems, right? I'm playing RSS+Smurff and thought "Oh, I could make a solar farm on Mercury's orbit and power stuff on Earth and beyond" and well, you can't because the losses are huge, it only seems to work within a planetary system. OTOH, maybe that's intended? I'm not sure how realistic (even if incredibly advanced) solar farms in Mercury would be

The mod does use the real equation for calculating power received:

power received = power beamed  x  receiver diameter  x  transmitter dish diameter /  (1.44  x  wavelength  x  distance)

The wavelength for 'long' is 10^-3, which means it is microwave, while the wavelength for 'short' is 5 x 10^-8, which means it is ultraviolet. So this does mean the received power is the same whether used on stock scale or RSS, it isn't scaled based on solar system size. For RSS, I'd highly recommend the realistic wavelengths version of the mod, under 'Extra' folder. This gives you more options, like gamma-rays which are shorter wavelength and have even greater range.

Edited November 7, 2020 by Aniruddh

[juanml82]

Alright.

I've created this cfg to add the module to J2X antenna

@PART[jx2LDA]:NEEDS[JX2Antenna]
{
    MODULE
    {
        name = WirelessSource
        DishDiameter = 20
        Wavelength = GammaRays
        Efficiency = 0.8
    }
    @cost *= 40
}

And replaced the dlls for the RW ones, renaming the RW ones in the extras folder with the original names (ie BeamedPowerPropulsionRW.dll to BeamedPowerPropulsion.dll and the same to BeamedPowerStandaloneRW), but when I try to toggle to transmit, it immediately disables the transmiter (ie, I can't beam power)

[Aniruddh]

3 minutes ago, juanml82 said:

when I try to toggle to transmit, it immediately disables the transmiter (ie, I can't beam power)

That is likely because you aren't generating enough power. It is a failsafe mechanism, when the electric-charge amount on your ship goes below ~10% of the total, the transmitter shuts-down so that your ship doesn't become uncontrollable.

Don't use the slider unless you are generating more than 10,000 EC/s, you want to click # on the top right of the right-click menu and type in the exact amount you want to beam.

[juanml82]

1 hour ago, Aniruddh said:

That is likely because you aren't generating enough power. It is a failsafe mechanism, when the electric-charge amount on your ship goes below ~10% of the total, the transmitter shuts-down so that your ship doesn't become uncontrollable.

Don't use the slider unless you are generating more than 10,000 EC/s, you want to click # on the top right of the right-click menu and type in the exact amount you want to beam.

I've cheated this into Mercury's orbit, I still can't enable the transmitter, it immediately switch to disabled when I click on the button

 

EDIT: I had to deploy the antenna first

Edited November 7, 2020 by juanml82

[Aniruddh]

@juanml82, you need to extend the antenna to be able to beam power. If that doesn't work, then it's probably a bug.

[juanml82]

3 minutes ago, Aniruddh said:

@juanml82, you need to extend the antenna to be able to beam power. If that doesn't work, then it's probably a bug.

Yeah, I hadn't extended the antenna

[darthgently]

1 hour ago, juanml82 said:

Yeah, I hadn't extended the antenna

In the real (future) world the undeployed power tx antenna would have exploded from massive VSWR!  You came out of it ok, so be happy, lol

[here I am giving Aniruddh ideas of how to handle sending Gigawatts to an undeployed antenna]

Edited November 7, 2020 by darthgently

[juanml82]

I made these patches to turn the stock relay antennas into power relays

Spoiler

@PART[RelayAntenna50]:NEEDS[BeamedPowerStandalone]
{
    MODULE
    {
        name = WirelessReflector
        Reflectivity = 0.95
        ReflectorDiameter = 2
    
        CanAmplify = False
        Efficiency = 0.8
        wavelength = Ultraviolet
    }
    @cost *= 1.5
}
@PART[RelayAntenna100]:NEEDS[BeamedPowerStandalone]
{
    MODULE
    {
        name = WirelessReflector
        Reflectivity = 0.95
        ReflectorDiameter = 3
    
        CanAmplify = False
        Efficiency = 0.8
        wavelength = GammaRays
    }
    @cost *= 1.5
}
@PART[RelayAntenna5]:NEEDS[BeamedPowerStandalone]
{
    MODULE
    {
        name = WirelessReflector
        Reflectivity = 0.95
        ReflectorDiameter = 1.5
    
        CanAmplify = False
        Efficiency = 0.8
        wavelength = Microwaves
    }
    @cost *= 1.5
}

But whenever a probe with a relay is on focus (ie, I build a probe in the VAB and roll it out to the launchpad to launch) the game slows down to a slow slideshow (I'm not even sure if I'm getting 1 FPS). I've tried changing the amplify bit from true to false and shutting down the only power beam emmiter in the system, but it doesn't matter. Here's the log file if needed http://www.mediafire.com/file/335rkssjw72iazq/KSP.zip/file

[Aniruddh]

53 minutes ago, juanml82 said:

But whenever a probe with a relay is on focus (ie, I build a probe in the VAB and roll it out to the launchpad to launch) the game slows down to a slow slideshow (I'm not even sure if I'm getting 1 FPS). I've tried changing the amplify bit from true to false and shutting down the only power beam emmiter in the system, but it doesn't matter. Here's the log file if needed http://www.mediafire.com/file/335rkssjw72iazq/KSP.zip/file

Thanks for providing a log file! There are two things causing problems, one is that you have enabled background resource processing which is known to cause problems, turn it off in the difficulty settings. Secondly, there might be a bug with realistic wavelengths for the WirelessReflector, this I will look into.

[Aniruddh]

New release! This one mostly fixes bugs and optimises performance. There is one new part-  the transmitter dish I showed off on the previous page. Also this release has been tested with 1.11 and works well, although previous versions should too.

On 11/8/2020 at 3:27 PM, juanml82 said:

But whenever a probe with a relay is on focus (ie, I build a probe in the VAB and roll it out to the launchpad to launch) the game slows down to a slow slideshow (I'm not even sure if I'm getting 1 FPS)

I think I fixed this issue in the latest release (I managed to get from 40fps to 60fps). However, I couldn't replicate this exactly as I got 40fps (which is a dip of 20 from the usual) with the same craft, 1fps seems rather extreme. Please try the latest version when you can, to see if the performance is better.

[HebaruSan]

CKAN team spotting a new .version file on Christmas:

[Aniruddh]

I am stuck at home this Christmas, so I worked on this mod instead. And yeah, I really should've just edited the .version file instead of creating a new one. Anyways, happy Christmas to the CKAN team.  

[juanml82]

On 12/25/2020 at 4:11 PM, Aniruddh said:

New release! This one mostly fixes bugs and optimises performance. There is one new part-  the transmitter dish I showed off on the previous page. Also this release has been tested with 1.11 and works well, although previous versions should too.

I think I fixed this issue in the latest release (I managed to get from 40fps to 60fps). However, I couldn't replicate this exactly as I got 40fps (which is a dip of 20 from the usual) with the same craft, 1fps seems rather extreme. Please try the latest version when you can, to see if the performance is better.

Yes, it's fixed. I'm finding some stutter at the emitter and the receiver, but it may be caused by something else

[darthgently]

Is anyone working on a contract pack for this mod?  

[darthgently]

Is a solution for the background resource processing thing in the works?  Turning that off is a big change to my game

[Aniruddh]

2 hours ago, darthgently said:

Is a solution for the background resource processing thing in the works?  Turning that off is a big change to my game

I've started looking at it, but by default the game  doesn't support 'actual' background processing (I tried doing this and it led to issues). So I may have to look at other plugins that do background processing and make them dependencies.  Unfortunately this isn't a priority to finish this, I'm actually currently working on dyson-swarm satellite part/module, so most of the time I can spend on this mod goes into that.  

[darthgently]

Just now, Aniruddh said:

I've started looking at it, but by default the game  doesn't support 'actual' background processing (I tried doing this and it led to issues). So I may have to look at other plugins that do background processing and make them dependencies.  Unfortunately this isn't a priority to finish this, I'm actually currently working on dyson-swarm satellite part/module, so most of the time I can spend on this mod goes into that.  

SCANsat and any of the ISRU mods should be a good reference

[Aniruddh]

1 minute ago, darthgently said:

SCANsat and any of the ISRU mods should be a good reference

I was thinking TAC life support, but those will work as well.

[darthgently]

8 hours ago, Aniruddh said:

I was thinking TAC life support, but those will work as well.

TACLS, yes.  In fact, it is my mining operation at night on the Mun running out of juice and TACLS warning me that my kerbs are going to die that has me looking at this mod.  But if it won't beam power in the background then maybe it isn't for me at this time.  Strangely, I have fuel cells on the mining craft, and right after I switch to the mining craft, the electricity climbs right back up as the cells come on.  So that is an entirely different an unrelated issue; but then again, maybe the stock fuel cells have a similar issue with background processing.  Or TACLS doesn't consider them properly.  But for realism and efficiency, I'd rather be beaming sun power down to the dark side than burning the fuel I mined ore to produce to make electricity

[Starhelperdude]

this mod is just great

[TBenz]

On 4/5/2021 at 5:55 PM, darthgently said:

TACLS, yes.  In fact, it is my mining operation at night on the Mun running out of juice and TACLS warning me that my kerbs are going to die that has me looking at this mod.  But if it won't beam power in the background then maybe it isn't for me at this time.  Strangely, I have fuel cells on the mining craft, and right after I switch to the mining craft, the electricity climbs right back up as the cells come on.  So that is an entirely different an unrelated issue; but then again, maybe the stock fuel cells have a similar issue with background processing.  Or TACLS doesn't consider them properly.  But for realism and efficiency, I'd rather be beaming sun power down to the dark side than burning the fuel I mined ore to produce to make electricity

Stock fuel cells work like other stock converters, they use a "catch up" mechanic where the game attempts to calculate how much power they generated and how much fuel they used once you load them back in. I would assume TACLS handles that by assuming that an active fuel cell has enough fuel until you load the ship back in, which would mean you could generate more power than you have fuel for if you leave it unattended for long enough.

It may be possible to utilize the same system here, in lieu of background processing. It's not exactly great, but it's "good enough" for all the stock power generators. 

[kennyc222]

that will be very handy when you are very far away from the Sun..particularly outer planets. As Solar power is getting weaker due to huge disnace for beamed power...get a mothership to beam the EM wave to your probe, ship, rover and lander for unlimited power supply!