Mod Idea: Realistic Power Management

[SpaceCarmelo]

Hi guys!

I know that posting a Mod Idea may sound silly since i should do it on my own, but i'm not that good in programming so i would like to just share my idea, if a modder is interested in this project i would be pleased to collaborate on many aspects that can fit my skills.

What is KSP missing at the moment? You know the answer! Yet another mod that makes the game stupidly harder and makes you spend your entire life planning your next launch. 

I like IRL electronics but i don't really love the power management in KSP: something nerd is missing there, i would love to see more scientific values in my VAB planners like volts, busses, transformer, and a lot of electronic stuff!  I like the mod AmpYear Manager but is not what i'm looking for.

The aim of this mod is to add new values to the electronics components in the VAB and force the player to study how to power the spaceship, you can't anymore just place some batteries and everything would be instantly powered up. You need power management. 

Let's make some examples: 

You have a basic satellite probe, with a Probe Core, 2 panels, 1 battery, a Mystery Goo and a 2HOT! Thermometer. 

Firstly, you have to check the values for your devices and then you need to program the current flow. 

Let's say that the Probe Core needs a stable 30v to stay alive, the Mystery Goo 12v and the 2HOT! just 3v. 

If you connect your elements directly to the battery from a dedicated mod GUI, your components will get fried instantly (boom! included) since the battery output is 220V. You need some power management there! 

Let's say we add a new part called "PSU" (power supply units) with different settings that can take current from the battery and run different voltages, at this point you could simply take a multi-channel PSU with 3 outputs and route the current on your specific parts with the correct voltage to avoid booming. 

Bigger PSU means more space but more channels, but you can also link different PSU together via busses, on large spaceship with a lot of things to power, you would have a master big PSU powering smaller dedicated PSUs for every system (a PSU for science, a PSU for attitude control, a PSU for vital support and so on..). At this point, you would have a number of power busses that you can toggle on and off to maintain the stability. 

What do you think about this idea? 

I could plan the mod with realistic values and collaborate to make this possible.
Let me know! 

 

 

 

[Neil Kermstrong]

3 hours ago, SpaceCarmelo said:

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[Neil Kermstrong]

I like your idea, but something else I would also like would be cables.

I'd love if there was a mod that made all parts that need, stores or generatea energy needing to be connected to the desired part.

Ex: connecting a Gigantic XL Solar Array to a Z-1K Rechargeable Battery bank, and connecting the Z-1K to a Probododyne OKTO2.

Of course this wouldn't needed if the parts were directly placed one on the other, like placing batteries and a solar panel in a Probododyne probe.

[SpaceCarmelo]

2 hours ago, Neil Kermstrong said:

I like your idea, but something else I would also like would be cables.

I'd love if there was a mod that made all parts that need, stores or generatea energy needing to be connected to the desired part.

Ex: connecting a Gigantic XL Solar Array to a Z-1K Rechargeable Battery bank, and connecting the Z-1K to a Probododyne OKTO2.

Of course this wouldn't needed if the parts were directly placed one on the other, like placing batteries and a solar panel in a Probododyne probe.

Thanks! Happy to share this

Cables would be awesome, they could act like a 2d object to get things easy and bug-friendly, think something like redstone in minecraft, so you can give the circuit the shape you desire.