Transmitting Science

[maddog59]

I'm afraid I'm confused about the use of the Transmit feature when reviewing science experiments. I've read the wiki and several threads and I just don't quite get what happens to the science points. For instance, if I have an experiment worth 100 sci-points, and it's worth nothing to be processed in the lab, but I'll get 25% by transmitting, I expect that when I transmit I'd see my science balance go up by 25 points. But that doesn't seem to happen, so I'm clearly misunderstanding how to use it properly. 

[bewing]

I suspect that you are looking at the wrong number, to see how many science points that an experiment is worth?

The "worth" of an experiment is "how much science would you get if you brought the experiment back to kerbin and landed/recovered it".

However, if an experiment is worth zero to process in a lab, that means you've already seen that experiment before, in that lab. Which probably means that you've transmitted at least one copy already to KSC. Depending on the experiment, there is a limit to how big a total percentage you can get by just doing transmissions.

If you post a screenshot of an experiment before you transmit it, we can give you a more detailed explanation of why it isn't transmitting for as many points as you expect.

 

 

[paul_c]

An experiment must be "sent to the lab" while in the same biome/situation to earn science - for example, if you are orbiting over "highlands" biome near space, then run an experiment and keep it; then review its data but you've moved to over "midlands" biome, it won't allow you to send it to the lab (or earn any science points from its processing in the lab). (If the dialog box is opened while you were in the biome/situation then remains open, you can still send it for full points).

Also, it will clearly show how much science is earned according to the 3 things you can do with it (transmit, recover, send to lab). Transmit and recover are separate from processing in the lab. But transmit and recover are linked; in that if you transmit, then later also recover it, you will only get the balance of the points, not the full "recover" points + "transmit" points.

And there's a different % scale for each instrument's transmit points; and it goes down with non-perfect (defined as <80%) comms; and goes down with partial transmission (if you don't have enough electrical power to transmit it in one, you'd need to do partial). Also don't forget some experiments can be run a 2nd, 3rd and 4th time to earn complete science too.

[maddog59]

2 hours ago, bewing said:

If you post a screenshot of an experiment before you transmit it, we can give you a more detailed explanation of why it isn't transmitting for as many points as you expect.

@bewingthank you very much; here's a typical review:

[bewing]

You're wondering why that one transmits at 100%, while others only give you a 40% transmission rate, or whatever? It depends on the experiment. EVA reports and crew reports always transmit at 100%.

[maddog59]

9 hours ago, bewing said:

You're wondering why that one transmits at 100%, while others only give you a 40% transmission rate, or whatever? It depends on the experiment. EVA reports and crew reports always transmit at 100%.

Not quite - I was trying to figure out why some experiments, when you Transmit, immediately update the number of science points available, and others do not. Maybe this was a bad example, but I had some experiments where the Process in Lab value was blank (as pictured), the Recovery value was X, and the Transmit value was Y (some percentage of X). I get that if I recover the experiment on Kerbin I'll get X points, but sometimes when I clicked the Transmit button I'd see my current 'bank' of science points go up by Y, and other times it would not. 

[Superfluous J]

7 minutes ago, maddog59 said:

Not quite - I was trying to figure out why some experiments, when you Transmit, immediately update the number of science points available, and others do not

If they don't immediately update your total then they were worth nothing transmitted. This only happens when transmitting something a second time and it shows (though it may not be clear) in the UI. That blue bar in your screenshot would be totally empty in that case.

[maddog59]

56 minutes ago, Superfluous J said:

If they don't immediately update your total then they were worth nothing transmitted. This only happens when transmitting something a second time and it shows (though it may not be clear) in the UI. That blue bar in your screenshot would be totally empty in that case.

That makes sense ... If the blue bar was empty and there were no points indicated, that's what I'd expect. But I've seen instances where there's several points available in the Transmit section, the blue bar goes not as far as the green Recovery bar, but then I see no change to the value of the 'banked' science points when I use the Transmit button.

[paul_c]

The transmissions need to be successfully received, to earn the points........

[Superfluous J]

54 minutes ago, paul_c said:

The transmissions need to be successfully received, to earn the points........

Ah yes if you run out of power the transmission aborts and you receive no points.

[maddog59]