[0.25]KSP Interstellar (Magnetic Nozzles, ISRU Revamp) Version 0.13

[Daze]

AMAZING mod, but one question, why my 2.5 fusion generator give only 1.3 GW of energy and not the 2.5 GW in the description (playing sandbox)

[ABZB]

@PART[KSPIMagneticNozzle1]:Final
{
    @node_stack_top = 0.0, 0.401, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 1
    @node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -0.21, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 1
}
@PART[KSPIMagneticNozzle2]:Final
{
    @node_stack_top = 0.0, 0.80, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 2
    @node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -0.50, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 2
}
@PART[KSPIMagneticNozzle3]:Final
{
    @node_stack_top = 0.0, 1.205, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 2
    @node_stack_bottom = 0.0, -0.75, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 2
}

[ABZB]

AMAZING mod, but one question, why my 2.5 fusion generator give only 1.3 GW of energy and not the 2.5 GW in the description (playing sandbox)

the fusion reaction power output is split between thermal power (getting electricity from heat going from hot to cold) and chargedparticle (getting electricity from the various electrically charged fusion products flying away at high speeds, transferring their kinetic energy).

The former's efficiency (% of heat energy that actually ends up as useful electricity) increases as the radiators get colder and colder relative to the reactor. this can be made better by using more and bigger radiators. to get all the power from the reactor, attach a generator on either end, and make sure that one is set to "Direct conversion Generator" (this is the charged particle thing) and the other to "Solid state converter" (the heat thing).

EDIT: Hey, cool - when did I become a Sr. Spacecraft Engineer?

[Daze]

the fusion reaction power output is split between thermal power (getting electricity from heat going from hot to cold) and chargedparticle (getting electricity from the various electrically charged fusion products flying away at high speeds, transferring their kinetic energy).

The former's efficiency (% of heat energy that actually ends up as useful electricity) increases as the radiators get colder and colder relative to the reactor. this can be made better by using more and bigger radiators. to get all the power from the reactor, attach a generator on either end, and make sure that one is set to "Direct conversion Generator" (this is the charged particle thing) and the other to "Solid state converter" (the heat thing).

EDIT: Hey, cool - when did I become a Sr. Spacecraft Engineer?

You are my savior! Thanks for the clear explanation

[78stonewobble]

Hiya, uhm I'm somewhat of a noob, when it comes to interstellar and thus looking for a little help.

I'm trying to put a combined science lab and refinery to Minmus and I've gotten a little lost in how to... route the different refinery products around or perhaps that is only possible with LFO?

Basically what I want to do is extract water in one refinery, fill up water tanks and then electrolyze in a 2nd refinery and then store the final product in fuel tanks. Or use an refinery to mine UF4 and fill up tanks.

Is it at all possible to route the products from "mining" -> temporary storage -> "refining" -> final storage through pipes and thus automatically or do I have to manually move it from tank to tank?

Thank you in advance

[undercoveryankee]

EDIT: Hey, cool - when did I become a Sr. Spacecraft Engineer?

At 250 posts if I remember right.

[Einarr]

So, I've been away from KSP for a bit (recently returned). Last time I played KSPi was with KSP 0.23.5 and KSPi 0.11. I've seen some issues with TreeLoader in 0.25 and was unaware of them when I started my new Career game. Mostly, anytime I unlock a new science node, I have to exit the R&D screen and reload it to see the unlocked node (and anything it reveals). At this point, I'm not even certain the Interstellar tree is actually being used. However, I'm getting close to where it used to diverge (usually Fusion for me) and I want to ensure I gain access to the parts and upgrades.

I found an MM patch back in this post that moves the parts back to stock tech nodes. Is this still the most up to date method for dealing with the removal of TreeLoader, and has Fractal_UK altered any relevant plugins or configs needed to ensure that part upgrades are no longer dependent upon the custom nodes? Is there now a better way of dealing with the issue?

Edit: Of course, an answer was found 2 pages back...somehow I missed it before posting this. I'll probably be using the TechManager route at least until Fractal_UK releases the next version/patch. Still open to other suggestions if anything else works better.

Edited November 20, 2014 by Einarr

[Yaivenov]

A stray thought, but would it be theoretically feasible to operate a direct conversion generator off of charged particles from the sun, assuming a low enough orbit and a suitable collector array/funnel?

[Agost]

So... I'm testing some mods on sandbox mode and I forgot to put radiators on my first scansat probe, so I managed to get my first ever rendezvous (without docking ) on a high polar orbit around the Mun to attach some rads via KAS.

The total waste heat capability has increased, but solar panels still have lots of it... do parts get irreparably damaged once they hit waste heat limits?

[ABZB]

So... I'm testing some mods on sandbox mode and I forgot to put radiators on my first scansat probe, so I managed to get my first ever rendezvous (without docking ) on a high polar orbit around the Mun to attach some rads via KAS.

The total waste heat capability has increased, but solar panels still have lots of it... do parts get irreparably damaged once they hit waste heat limits?

they shut down (solar panel auto-retracts, for example) or explode.

[methodermis]

So I've made a very slight modification to the TreeLoader source and recompiled a DLL that works in .25. Problem is, I can't distribute the DLL, but I'm not sure if I can distribute instructions on how people can manually recompile their own version.

Thoughts?

Please share any code changes you made, if you're not going to distribute the DLL.

[anonish]

Please share any code changes you made, if you're not going to distribute the DLL.

we've been down this road. the general consensus was that you can not distribute the dll *or* source changes. that's why i wrote TechManager in the first place.

[Agost]

they shut down (solar panel auto-retracts, for example) or explode.

They're already shut down, they have someting like 535/549 waste heat and it's not going down, even if I've attached 3 small radiators ( now the total waste heat capability is almost completely empty )

Are they irreparably damaged? Maybe it's just a bug?

[ABZB]

They're already shut down, they have someting like 535/549 waste heat and it's not going down, even if I've attached 3 small radiators ( now the total waste heat capability is almost completely empty )

Are they irreparably damaged? Maybe it's just a bug?

Which solar panels are you using?

[Agost]

Which solar panels are you using?

Two OX-4W 2x3 ... But I think I've tweakscaled them to 140% size. Could this be an issue? This shouldn't change waste heat behaviour imho

[ABZB]

Two OX-4W 2x3 ... But I think I've tweakscaled them to 140% size. Could this be an issue? This shouldn't change waste heat behaviour imho

Yeah - I've tweakscaled lots of Solar panels - never had an issue...

I was asking b/c the flat static panels can't retract and stop generating heat...

[Agost]

Yeah - I've tweakscaled lots of Solar panels - never had an issue...

I was asking b/c the flat static panels can't retract and stop generating heat...

Still dead... I can't extend the panels and I'm out of electric charge.

Can we save this little craft which still has 10km/s dV left?

[ABZB]

Hrrrrm - try quicksaving and timewarping for several in-game days - see if the wasteheat decreases - maybe it's decreasing too slowly to see over any reasonable length of time...

Or - make a backup copy of the quicksave, then find this craft in the file, and change the wasteheat resource amount in the radiators back to 0. then load the edited quicksave - see if maybe the wasteheat shoots back up. Also - in the VAB - what did the thermalheat helper panel say?

[ArcFurnace]

Still dead... I can't extend the panels and I'm out of electric charge.

Can we save this little craft which still has 10km/s dV left?

If it's a probe and you're out of electric charge, you have no control, so you can't extend the panels because you can't make the ship do anything. There's a way to get around this- a Kerbal on EVA should be able to right-click the closed panels (so long as they're close enough to them) and manually pull the panels open. Then once you get a little power into the probe you'll have control again.

[Namolis]

the fusion reaction power output is split between thermal power (getting electricity from heat going from hot to cold) and chargedparticle (getting electricity from the various electrically charged fusion products flying away at high speeds, transferring their kinetic energy).

The former's efficiency (% of heat energy that actually ends up as useful electricity) increases as the radiators get colder and colder relative to the reactor. this can be made better by using more and bigger radiators. to get all the power from the reactor, attach a generator on either end, and make sure that one is set to "Direct conversion Generator" (this is the charged particle thing) and the other to "Solid state converter" (the heat thing).

EDIT: Hey, cool - when did I become a Sr. Spacecraft Engineer?

First time poster here - I finally gave up figuring this out on my own. I love this mod, but I'm having a lot of trouble with the fusion reactors too. The problem seems to be that I cannot control how many percent they operate on - when my ship has filled up with MJ, they default to 10% - fine - but when not, I have reactors who refuse to operate on 100%, even when I need them to. After several hours of trial and error on 3.75m Fusion Reactors, I found that

1. they seem to default to some low setting whenever a small electric generator is present anywhere on the ship (say, attached to a small nuclear reactor) and

2. once they are set to operate on a less-than 100% setting, they remember this, even if I revert and remove the little generator and

3. I cannot control what mode the generators I place at both ends will operate in - they sometimes understand to go for one each, but in general seem to prefer charged particles, with little method to give me a clue when that will happen. When both are in that mode, the thermal power is unused and fills up. I've included plenty of "Large Flat Radiators", and have little waste heat (not that a couple of thousand degrees should matter so much when the core is 15 000 K anyway).

Needless to say, I haven't found any way of manually forcing it to 100%. The "Control Window" only gives me the option to turn it off, so that's not any more useful than the standard right-click-on-part window. The generators won't even let me have a "control window".

What's going on? How is this supposed to work? Am I being incredibly stupid?

[ABZB]

First time poster here - I finally gave up figuring this out on my own. I love this mod, but I'm having a lot of trouble with the fusion reactors too. The problem seems to be that I cannot control how many percent they operate on - when my ship has filled up with MJ, they default to 10% - fine - but when not, I have reactors who refuse to operate on 100%, even when I need them to. After several hours of trial and error on 3.75m Fusion Reactors, I found that

1. they seem to default to some low setting whenever a small electric generator is present anywhere on the ship (say, attached to a small nuclear reactor) and

2. once they are set to operate on a less-than 100% setting, they remember this, even if I revert and remove the little generator and

3. I cannot control what mode the generators I place at both ends will operate in - they sometimes understand to go for one each, but in general seem to prefer charged particles, with little method to give me a clue when that will happen. When both are in that mode, the thermal power is unused and fills up. I've included plenty of "Large Flat Radiators", and have little waste heat (not that a couple of thousand degrees should matter so much when the core is 15 000 K anyway).

Needless to say, I haven't found any way of manually forcing it to 100%. The "Control Window" only gives me the option to turn it off, so that's not any more useful than the standard right-click-on-part window. The generators won't even let me have a "control window".

What's going on? How is this supposed to work? Am I being incredibly stupid?

After attaching a generator in the VAB/SPH - right click on it, there is a button in its right-click-menu to switch between the two modes. You can only switch the mode in the editor, once a generator is launched, it is unswitchable.

[memorablynamed]

Quick question - people who have been using Interstellar for a while, have you encountered any problems when installing over an older release of the mod? I ask because I want to finish modding up my 0.25 install, and KSP-I has been a centerpiece of my games since 0.23.5, but I'm not sure whether to wait for Fractal to release 0.14. If I can install 0.13 and Tech Manager 1.4 and then upgrade to Interstellar 0.14 when it's finished, then I am just going to do that, but I don't want to jeopardize a save that I want to keep running for a long time.

Thoughts?

[ABZB]

Quick question - people who have been using Interstellar for a while, have you encountered any problems when installing over an older release of the mod? I ask because I want to finish modding up my 0.25 install, and KSP-I has been a centerpiece of my games since 0.23.5, but I'm not sure whether to wait for Fractal to release 0.14. If I can install 0.13 and Tech Manager 1.4 and then upgrade to Interstellar 0.14 when it's finished, then I am just going to do that, but I don't want to jeopardize a save that I want to keep running for a long time.

Thoughts?

It depends on what exactly is changed in the code and in the part files - we won't know until it is finalized. What you could do is make a backup copy of your KSPI files, and when the new version is released, backup that game save file. If there is a compatibility issue, you can make a copy of the entire ksp folder, and use that with the old version for that save.

[Atrius129]

First time poster here - I finally gave up figuring this out on my own. I love this mod, but I'm having a lot of trouble with the fusion reactors too. The problem seems to be that I cannot control how many percent they operate on - when my ship has filled up with MJ, they default to 10% - fine - but when not, I have reactors who refuse to operate on 100%, even when I need them to. After several hours of trial and error on 3.75m Fusion Reactors, I found that

1. they seem to default to some low setting whenever a small electric generator is present anywhere on the ship (say, attached to a small nuclear reactor) and

2. once they are set to operate on a less-than 100% setting, they remember this, even if I revert and remove the little generator and

3. I cannot control what mode the generators I place at both ends will operate in - they sometimes understand to go for one each, but in general seem to prefer charged particles, with little method to give me a clue when that will happen. When both are in that mode, the thermal power is unused and fills up. I've included plenty of "Large Flat Radiators", and have little waste heat (not that a couple of thousand degrees should matter so much when the core is 15 000 K anyway).

Needless to say, I haven't found any way of manually forcing it to 100%. The "Control Window" only gives me the option to turn it off, so that's not any more useful than the standard right-click-on-part window. The generators won't even let me have a "control window".

What's going on? How is this supposed to work? Am I being incredibly stupid?

Reactors only use what is demanded of them. This minimizes fuel consumption and waste heat production. The only time they will operate at 100% is when the power demand requires it. You will see this happen when you have a transceiver set to transmit or when you have electric engines at maximum power (and haven't reached their caps). Otherwise it throttles them back to only use what is needed. (Ex. 2.5 Fusion with thermal gen powering a Vista usually runs at about 86% if I remember correctly)

The generators can be tricky, they seem to always default to the mode I don't want them running in. I don't usually mess with DC gens, so I just slap thermals on unless I am building a power satellite, then I use both.

You aren't getting generators mixed up with reactors are you? Gens almost never operate at 100% while reactors commonly do. If you are still having problems, post a screenie.

[CaptainKipard]

Do I need anything besides Interstellar.dll to use FNModulePreecooler in my mod?