TAC Fuel Balancer-DISCONTINUED

[TaranisElsu]

You can find a newer version here: 

Now maintained by Z-Key Aerospace.

 

Everything below this point is left for historical purposes:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Presenting Thunder Aerospace Corporation's Fuel Balancer!

It transfers, it balances, it mixes, it stirs!

The latest release is version 2.5.1 which works with KSP 1.0.2. Download below or read the release announcement.

Having problems with this mod (or any others)?

Read the [Official] How To Get Support. I cannot do much to help without log files.

Our product allows you to transfer fuel, or other resources, between parts on the same vessel.

Features

 

• Transfer a resource into a part, drawing an equal amount from each other part.
• Transfer a resource out of a part, transferring an equal amount into each other part.
• Enable balance mode to transfer a resource such that all parts are the same percentage full.
• Dump a resource out of a part. Note that the resource is lost, never to be found.
• Lock a part, so that none of the resource will be transferred into or out of the part.
• When still Prelaunch (or Landed): edit the amount of a resource loaded in a part. Works on all resources, even solid rocket fuel.

 

Useful when you are flying along and need to quickly, and easily, transfer fuel from one tank to another. Or re-balance your fuel distribution to keep your center of mass from getting too far out of whack.

Pictures New pictures coming soon.

 

 

 

 

Download the latest version

Available on Kerbal Space Program's Curse site. (Alternate download)

Source code available on GitHub.

Works with the Toolbar mod from blizzy78. Not required, but if you have it, the icon will be added to the toolbar instead of being by itself.

Changes

 

Release v2.5.1

- Updated for KSP 1.0.2.

Release v2.4.1

- See the release announcement.

Release v2.4

- See the release announcement.

Release v2.3

- See http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/25823?p=863104&viewfull=1#post863104

Release v2.2

- See http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25823?p=858321&viewfull=1#post858321

Release v2.1

- See http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/25823-0-21-1-TAC-Fuel-Balancer-25Jul?p=789484&viewfull=1#post789484

Release v2.0

- All windows are now resizable and feature scroll bars.

- Can now edit the fuel amount before launch -- for launching empty tanks or reducing the amount of solid fuel in boosters. Can also fill a Kethane tank with Kethane on the launch pad for testing purposes.

- Can dump fuel -- this can be disabled through settings if you do not want it or are afraid of accidentally clicking it.

- The Lock feature is now linked with the flow state on the part (in the part's right click menu).

- Disabled if out of power or the vessel is not "controllable". (Sorry, no integration with RemoteTech. I will have to look at that later.)

- No parts are needed! There is now an icon at the screen edge (default to top right) that is used for showing and hiding the main window. The icon can be re-positioned to anywhere along the screen edge.

Release V1.1.1

- the previous upload was missing the Readme and License files. That is the only difference.

Release V1.1

- created a new 3D model

Release V1.0

- fully functional, and tested with 0.19

- uses the same model as the Double-C Accelerometer -- new model coming soon!

 

License:

CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

Notice

This mod includes version checking using MiniAVC. If you opt-in, it will use the internet to check whether there is a new version available. Data is only read from the internet and no personal information is sent. For a more comprehensive version checking experience, please download the KSP-AVC Plugin.

Edited September 9, 2019 by TaranisElsu
Deleted the pictures.

[shadowsutekh]

Your parts/plugins seem really cool, but wouldn't it be better to condense your three releases into 1 thread?

Also this essentially is auto alt+right clicking and resource transfer when the balance button is pressed. Will it constantly balance once clicked, or does it deactivate after one balance? I could see that causing a problem with it disengaging after its initial balance.

[TaranisElsu]

Your parts/plugins seem really cool, but wouldn't it be better to condense your three releases into 1 thread?

Also this essentially is auto alt+right clicking and resource transfer when the balance button is pressed. Will it constantly balance once clicked, or does it deactivate after one balance? I could see that causing a problem with it disengaging after its initial balance.

This will continually keep the resources balanced, or keep transferring resources in/out. It is not a single do-it-and-quit. It also allows transferring between multiple tanks at once, which is something you cannot do with the alt+right clicking.

(It was three threads because the mods are not interrelated. I thought it would be better in the long run to keep the discussions separated. And releases won't coincide quite so much in the future.)

[killerkevinn]

It would would be nice to have groups and sub-groups so that i can know which fuel tanks belong to which ship when i dock.

[Weatherman159]

It would would be nice to have groups and sub-groups so that i can know which fuel tanks belong to which ship when i dock.

That's about my only issue with this mod so far, it's kinda hard figuring out which fueltank is which.

[TaranisElsu]

That's about my only issue with this mod so far, it's kinda hard figuring out which fueltank is which.

If you click the part name, it will highlight the part in blue. That was added to make it easier to find the part that you want.

It would would be nice to have groups and sub-groups so that i can know which fuel tanks belong to which ship when i dock.

Good idea. I'll look into it.

[Weatherman159]

If you click the part name, it will highlight the part in blue. That was added to make it easier to find the part that you want.

Oh? Well in that case, nevermind I said anything and thanks for significantly easier fuel transfer management.

[Azimech]

I've been using this for a few months now, I feel it's an excellent plugin, thank you very much!

I only have 2 requests, with those implemented the mod is a 10/10 for me.

1: I'd love to have an icon left of the altimeter, just like some other plugins like the "kerbal alarm clock". It's sometimes hard to find the part on a big, cluttered ship.

2: I currently have a screen limitation of 1366x786, which means some tanks can be out of the visible screen area. I'd love to have a scrollbar for those very big launchers.

And I use your other mods too!

[Corovaneer]

I may have found a glitch, sort of.

A test ship of this config: <{Pod][Fuel tank][Fuel tank][Fuel tank][Fuel tank][engine]<|

with lock enabled ONLY for headmost fuel tank on both fuel and oxidizer, OR for ALL OTHER fuel tanks - always draws fuel ONLY from headmost tank. Front tank can still be kept full with IN turned on - but doh, just for you to know.

[Payload]

I love this mod. There are plenty of mods for this game for sure. This is the only one that you actually can't go without if you are building VTOL space planes.

[warmadmax]

Deffinately needs a scrollbar, had a kethane miner and docked ships to it = loads of tanks and off screen

I may have found a glitch, sort of.

A test ship of this config: <{Pod][Fuel tank][Fuel tank][Fuel tank][Fuel tank][engine]<|

with lock enabled ONLY for headmost fuel tank on both fuel and oxidizer, OR for ALL OTHER fuel tanks - always draws fuel ONLY from headmost tank. Front tank can still be kept full with IN turned on - but doh, just for you to know.

remember reading that it doesn't affect where the game draws fuel for the engines, but nothing stopping you transfering to it.

all the lock does is stop the transfer from taking from the tank for the others when balancing or moving resources.

[Mihara]

I love this mod, it became standard equipment on all my ships. Thanks!

Could it possibly vent fuel as well, too? I do a lot of launching stuff with empty tanks, this would be the natural way to make it happen and reduce my overgrown parts library.

[Audiopulse]

This became one of the few all-time-mods I re-use every time I download a new Version of KSP. A really handy too.

The new model isnt really that astonishing, though. I liked it better when it used the Stock-model.

A mere #000000-box isnt that appealing on a craft.

[loppnessmonsta]

I edited all my pod cfgs to include the fuel balancing functionality. Makes it much handier.

[Van Disaster]

An essential, I add it to every plane & lander.

I'd really love it to be programmable, not just with grouping but so you could trigger fuel flow dependent on things like speed/altitude/which engines are active. That is a rather massive project though...

[nebuchadnezzar]

I edited all my pod cfgs to include the fuel balancing functionality. Makes it much handier.

Same here. Helps keep the part count down!

[little square dot]

This is an incredibly useful mod.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that it would balance the "spare parts" resource from the OC mod, and I'm delighted to finally be able to manage the distribution of supplies in my orbital shipyard without having to undertake the arduous task of re-docking supply vessels to multiple storage modules in order to offload all supplies while keeping the station balanced. (<- of course other mods have incorporated various resource transfer systems, however I absolutely refuse to use long-range teleportation as a means with which to transfer anything at all.)

Cheers!

Edited May 15, 2013 by little square dot

[EdgeCrusher420]

Does not seem to work with the new version .20 anybody working on an update?

[WedgeJAntilles]

It works for me in 0.20; the part placement is a bit messed up but once it's placed the actual fuel balancing works fine. Still would like to see it updated for 0.20 directory structure and have the part placement fixed.

[EdgeCrusher420]

I would like to hear how thios worked for you. Are you suggesting you used the .19 files structure to get this to work? I have put it into Gamedata with no results. And what kind of placing issue are you having? Something new in .20?

[Gaius]

I would like to hear how thios worked for you. Are you suggesting you used the .19 files structure to get this to work? I have put it into Gamedata with no results. And what kind of placing issue are you having? Something new in .20?

I got it working by simply placing the dll in KSP_win/Plugins. Don't put anything in GameData, this plugin hasn't been updated for 0.20 yet. Only put plugins designed for 0.20 inside GameData (unless you want to go through and edit all the cfg files and stuff yourself).

I can't comment on placement issues, since I don't use the supplied parts. Instead, I just add:

MODULE
{
	name = TacFuelBalancer
}

...to my command modules.

Edited May 24, 2013 by Gaius

[EdgeCrusher420]

I would really like to add command module balancer functions. I dont suppose you want to give a little more detail as to how thats done? Just adding the code you pasted does this? that seems odd.

[EdgeCrusher420]

you were right, worked fine, just add that code fragment into the module .cfg's and they will now have balancer functions, thanks

[Gaius]

KSP is wonderfully mod-friendly that way. It may seem "odd", but I prefer the term "glorious".

[Mihara]

The placing issue is that part.cfg is missing "scale = 1" so it is not scaled correctly anymore, as the default value of "scale" has changed. Fixing that fixes the placement issue.

The ideal way would be to wait until that nice option of bolting modules to stock parts without changing stock part configs that is currently broken works correctly though, as there's really no need to have a separate part for what should be a stock function.