Com Sat Network Question: Dish Orientation

[Happybone]

Com Sat Network Question: Dish Orientation

Greetings Kerbonauts,

I am having a really tough time in setting up a communications Network on Kerbin via RemoteTech. I am starting to understand the whole getting my satellites spaced out evenly around the equator. But I am having the most trouble in getting the signal (the blue line) to go around to all of my satellites. Do my dishes need to be pointing straight inward toward the center of Kerbin? Do they need to be pointing at each other? I have looked on YouTube and other places for tutorials but honestly I can't find one that goes over RemoteTech and satellite orientation once in orbit.

I think that RemoteTech adds a really cool sense of realism to the game, but I really want to utilize it but am having a really hard time with it. Thanks ahead of time for all of your help.

Cheers,

Happybone

Edited August 30, 2013 by Happybone

[Kimberly]

Which version of RemoteTech are you using? RemoteTech 2, compatible with 0.21, is currently still in development and may suffer from significant bugs.

In RemoteTech 1, satellite dish connections are two-way. The dish on ship A needs to point to the dish on ship B, and vice versa, for them to communicate. (This is not necessary for omnidirectional antennae.) Usually, this means each satellite needs at least two dishes to communicate with its two neighbors satellites, if they are not within range of an omnidirectional antenna. Use the RemoteTech window to target satellite dishes. Keep in mind that at least one of the satellites in your network will need to have a connection with Kerbal Space Center--KSC has an omnidirectional antenna with a range of 5000 km.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Kimberly

[Stone Blue]

I put up 4 relaysats in geosync, and I have several different antennas on them. I use two of the flipout 50Mm dish antennas, placed symetrically on opposite sides of the sat, and each points at the sat next to it in orbit. Thats all I had to do, besides making sure all the satellites had LOS of each other around Kerbin, and that at least one had direct LOS to KSC. The signals bounce around automatically. I also equip all my ships with the 5Mm dipole omnidirectional, and the RemoteTech antenna. The signals will bounce off the ships to other ships, also, since the system automatically goes for the shortest distance between end points.

I had originally put up two additional relaysats in polar orbit, but they disappeared....Turns out I dont even need them at this point.

[Blackstar]

The blue line only shows the path currently being used for communication -- it doesn't show the entire network. It will usually show the path back to KSC, unless you're using a closer RemoteCommand module that's controlling the craft in question.

For Kerbin I like to use 4 equally spaced relay satellites at a lower orbit (~1000Km). At that altitude, the dipole antenna has more than enough range to comfortably reach the two neighboring satellites as well as KSC, so you can put on a single dish and save that for long-range communication.

Geosync is cool, but isn't really necessary. With 4 relays, at least one will always have line of sight to KSC. At Geosync altitude, you can outrange the dipole if you don't get the spacing just perfect, so you need to use the deployable antenna (don't forget to deploy it!) or a dish. In general, I prefer antennas over dishes whenever possible since you don't have to worry about targeting them and they can talk to more than one endpoint at once.

The one advantage of Geosync is that if you get the orbits perfect you only need 3 relays for full coverage.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Blackstar

[Happybone]

The blue line only shows the path currently being used for communication -- it doesn't show the entire network. It will usually show the path back to KSC, unless you're using a closer RemoteCommand module that's controlling the craft in question.

What do you mean by "the blue line only shows the path currently being used for communication--it doesn't show the entire network."? Im kinda confused by what the blue line means now. How do you know what is in the entire network? Sorry if I seem ignorant. I just really want to use RemoteTech to its full potential. What are some of the cool things one can do with a full comms network. I want to send out interplanetary probes...will I need to have a local Kerbin comm network established first? Do I have to have one particular satellite that is pointing toward my interplanetary probe that isalso part of my Kerbin network? Thanks so much for your help in advance,man.

Cheers,

Happybone

[rpayne88]

If you're just talking about Kerbin, I would suggest against sat dishes. You can cover almost all of Kerbin from 1Mm with just four sats using omnidirectional antennas. I would launch four of the premade com sats by strapping them to the outside of a manned orbiter.

[Blackstar]

What do you mean by "the blue line only shows the path currently being used for communication--it doesn't show the entire network."? Im kinda confused by what the blue line means now. How do you know what is in the entire network?

The thing to understand with RemoteTech is that it's all about control. In a RT world, everything has to be controlled by a kerbal, whether it's one sitting in a command pod or at ground control at KSC.

The blue line only shows up when you're remote controlling a probe. It shouldn't show up at all for manned craft (though I think it might sometimes due to bugs, but it doesn't mean anything in that case). The blue line shows the path from the kerbal who is controlling the probe to the probe itself.

If you're in low Kerbin orbit and have clear line of sight, it'll probably be a straight line to KSC on the ground. If the signal has to be relayed through a satellite or two first, it will show the hops through the communications network that it's currently using. The control point isn't necessarily KSC -- if there's a RemoteCommend equipped ship closer, it will use that instead*. The reason for that is that the length of the path influences how much signal delay there is due to the speed of light.

What are some of the cool things one can do with a full comms network.

Well, the thing about RemoteTech is that it doesn't really add a bunch of cool stuff. It actually makes the game harder (and a bit more realistic) by having it installed. Stock probe cores are significantly better without RemoteTech installed than with it.

It does make the game more interesting, though, in my opinion, and gives you a real reason to send up manned missions rather than using probes for everything.

The biggest thing that you can do with RemoteTech that you can't do with stock is controlling other craft without having to switch to them. A small example: I have some lifter designs that, depending on the payload and how good my ascent is, may sometimes end up in a stable orbit with a little bit of fuel left. Rather than just leaving them drifting as debris, I put an RTG, probe core, and antenna on them (or sometimes just the tiny little short-range antenna with remote control built in).

After decoupling from the lifter, I stay in control of my main vessel, click the remote control button, select the lifter from the list, and then hit 'Retrograde' on the flight computer window. The lifter slowly turns away. Then I tell it to perform a 15 second burn at max throttle, hit 'Send', and the booster stage fires up and zips away from me, deorbiting itself.

I want to send out interplanetary probes...will I need to have a local Kerbin comm network established first?

It depends how far out your probes are going. It's a good idea to, both as practice for using RT, and to avoid the headache of not being able to control your probes for half of the time when KSC is on the wrong side of the planet.

Do I have to have one particular satellite that is pointing toward my interplanetary probe that is also part of my Kerbin network?

Yes, especially for long range links. Once your probe reaches orbit of the planet it's going to, you can set your Kerbin satellite to just target the planet instead of the probe, so that if you have more than one there, they can all talk to home.

Once you get far enough out, signal delay becomes a real thing. Performing something like a landing is extremely... challenging. If you're planning on landing things, it may be worthwhile to send a manned mission* with a RemoteCommand module (the 2.5m round probe body also has this and looks a lot spiffier than the regular RemoteCommand part) to orbit your target planet for the duration of the mission. The kerbals can chill out in orbit in relative safety while the probes descend (and maybe crash ).

* The default settings for RemoteCommand require 3 kerbals in a command pod to operate it. According to the README, the reasoning is that they're busy enough piloting their own ship and keeping it straight, so you need at least 3 to juggle that and also control other things remotely. I changed my settings to only require 1 because really, how hard is it to push a few buttons to deorbit a booster stage? Also, my space station with a command module and various satellite dishes uses a 2-man lander can as its bridge, but since they're not doing anything but remote piloting from there, I feel justified.

Hope this helps.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Blackstar