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Fuel transfers through decoupler with crossfeed disabled


FuelX

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Hi I have trouble with fuel draining from my upper stage. Fuel crossfeed is off. Also at stage separation remaining methane and/or oxidizer is not calculed properly. Is there a way to make sure my fuel will not drain into the first stage?

Here first stage is almost empty :

 ZqyqWKS.png

Looking at delta v, we already see there's something wrong and the upper stage leaked.

Then stage separation, upper stage is only half full or half empty :
Ay7IufV.png

My setup in the VAB:

 6wjXzKo.png

 

If you have any tips or workaround for this bug, it would be appreciated :) 

Thanks!

 

Edit: To troubleshoot crossfeed, I made this testbed. Faster iterations and less kerbals stranded around the mun :

JCGHJbh.png

Edited by FuelX
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My finding s so far:

  • The upper stage usualy leak once the lower stage is empty so it's possible to work around this simply by disconnecting stage just before the lower stage run out of fuel.
    • This is tricky because there is no display of the remaining fuel in every tank. 
  • Both small and big rockets can leak.
  • Sometimes, the whole upper stage is drained, sometimes only half.
  • When the first stage is a single tank or almost empty, sometimes it does'nt leak.
  • Maneuver nodes can help predict when the current stage is empty, it will display a "no fuel" warning.
  • The stock kerbak-k1 prebuilt rocket did not leak at all.
  • Displaying the staging sequence details (with the small arrow next to Launch) can help understand the problem.

For example, staging sequence for my rocket vs stock k1:

Qwp7zdB.png

Edited by FuelX
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My rocket (based on the Kerbal X) show the correct deltaV for the stages, but still emptying the upper stages tanks :( The last stage of the aspargus emptying at the same rate than the main thrusters and once they are empty, the next stage tank is empty too :(

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I'm back from my second session. Restarting the game and building a fresh new rocket "fixed" the crossfeed bug. If as you guys said it's random, which seems so,  that could be a sensitive issue when building more complex designs. Hope they fix it soon ! :)

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Same here. I've been trying to investigate it, no luck so far. It seems random -- for example, I test-fired a rocket in launch clamps without SRBs firing, no drain. Built the fairing, changed the staging so launch clamps detach and the SRBs fire, drain. Another time I got in the air without drain, but when I staged my sustainer, drain.

I'll try rebuilding the rocket from scratch from the top down to see if that helps.

Edit: it didn't. Weird

Edited by Periple
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As someone entirely new to KSP, glad I'm not the only one experiencing this.

Tried a 3 stage to start, drained the 3rd stage at an equal rate to the 1st stage.

Then with a 2 stage, the 2nd stage drained equal to the 1st.

Will see if a restart on a completely new save fixes things.

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1 hour ago, Saphi said:

I had a similar issue with my mun lander.
I had to put the lander Legs on radial decouplers in order to prevent fuel from leaking.

I removed the LT-2 "Wombat" landing legs from my upper stage and this also worked for me.

Edited by TCAlex01
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43 minutes ago, TCAlex01 said:

I removed the LT-2 "Wombat" landing legs from my upper stage and this also worked for me.

Made a test now,  changed to the LT-1 "Wallaroo" landing legs and everything works fine, changed back to the LT-2 "Wombat" got the fuel issue again. Can anyone confirm?

1 hour ago, Saphi said:

I had a similar issue with my mun lander.
I had to put the lander Legs on radial decouplers in order to prevent fuel from leaking.

Confirmed!

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Thanks, I will test that too. My testbed didnt have landing legs and was leaking, but the rocket from my screenshots had wombats i'll change it's legs and give an update.

Another finding on my part, it's also related to the staging sequence. Bug start after moving in the staging sequence. By removing side boosters or a first stage for example.

Also just adding or removing a fuel tank from the main stage can change staging sequence enought to get rid of the bug.

And there's a link to a similar topic:

 

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42 minutes ago, TCAlex01 said:

Made a test now,  changed to the LT-1 "Wallaroo" landing legs and everything works fine, changed back to the LT-2 "Wombat" got the fuel issue again. Can anyone confirm?

Yes, it works! I removed the wombats from my rocket and it's not leaky anymore.

It may not be a fix, but it's a fine workaround. I want to try Saphi's trick too.

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I can also confirm. "Wombat" and "Bandicoot" cause the problem.

I was also able to work around the problem by placing a decoupler between my command module and its engine, with the legs on the command module. 

It appears that the bug triggers if the legs are on a stage that contains fuel. If they're on a fuel-less stage, no drain.

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2 hours ago, Periple said:

I can also confirm. "Wombat" and "Bandicoot" cause the problem.

I was also able to work around the problem by placing a decoupler between my command module and its engine, with the legs on the command module. 

It appears that the bug triggers if the legs are on a stage that contains fuel. If they're on a fuel-less stage, no drain.

This doesn't appear to be a consistent fix. I currently have no landing legs at all, and it's still draining the upper stage.

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44 minutes ago, jfjohnny5 said:

This doesn't appear to be a consistent fix. I currently have no landing legs at all, and it's still draining the upper stage.

Are there other radial parts on the upper stage at all?  Hazarding a guess it's related to those rather than just landing legs.

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I'm getting super frustrated by the game mechanics being so buggy it appears to be random what will screw up my mission next.

Right now I have my damn rocket feeding upper stage fuel to my lower stage engines through a decoupler that has crossfeed off. What is the point if you can't trust the BASIC staging features to work every time...

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