[WIP] Parts from my garden shed - SCANsat Antennae

[Milkshakefiend]

WOO, it looks so good I think I'm going to skip doing other things I should be doing to play around with this and SCANsat!!! If I get in trouble I'm gonna blame you! lol

Ha, thanks! Always glad to aid and abet the shirking of duties!

I'm not really getting anywhere on integrating the animation with SCANsat activation/deactivation. I've read through a lot of things about PartModule and its gone about a mile over my head. I was hoping to achieve integration using .cfgs only but it appears some plugin magic might be needed. I'll update that part if I figure it out somehow, but I wanted to release just parts for the time being rather than a plugin as well. An interim solution is to use action groups to activate the animation and scanning at the same time.

Here's a sneak peek at the next part I'm working on for use with SCANsat.

I'm UV unwrapping as I go and the texturing on this one is going to be much simpler than the SAR anyway so I expect to have this finished by tomorrow night.

Update: Animation went smoother than I though so all that's left now is texturing.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Milkshakefiend
Update

[Secret Squirrel]

Yep love it, have you gotten in touch with Danmy? I think he was looking for someone to make models for him as he works on the plugin. If you teamed up I'm sure he could integrating the animation. I did notice it was scanning a blank line, but that might have been because I didn't have the MapTraq on the probe. I added it into the config (It was the one that said "sensorType = 0) and works fine now. I just wish I had better solar panels unlocked in my career game, guess I will have to play more

oh and I wanted to ask, I didn't see a download for the core you made. Is there one and I missed it or is it still being worked on? I would love to get my hands on that too

[Milkshakefiend]

Yep love it, have you gotten in touch with Danmy? I think he was looking for someone to make models for him as he works on the plugin. If you teamed up I'm sure he could integrating the animation. I did notice it was scanning a blank line, but that might have been because I didn't have the MapTraq on the probe. I added it into the config (It was the one that said "sensorType = 0) and works fine now. I just wish I had better solar panels unlocked in my career game, guess I will have to play more

oh and I wanted to ask, I didn't see a download for the core you made. Is there one and I missed it or is it still being worked on? I would love to get my hands on that too

I've mentioned that I'm making a few parts and asked a quick question regarding the anim, but his response confused me further lol. I'll probably message him once I've got parts for all scanners - the poor bugger is probably inundated trying to iterate SCANsat and keep up with that thread.

By 'scanning a blank line' do you mean it was not working? If so, I may need to tweak it - it works fine my end.

The HexProbe stuff sort of isn't finished but the core is functional as a probe core - albeit a large one. If you want it I'll update the .cfgs for 0.22 tomorrow and put them on DropBox.

Miniupdate - The animation for the altitude radar went smoothly, but I didn't realise Unity wouldn't like the mirror modifiers I was using to streamline the animation. That coupled with intense Z-fighting from the extending tracks and the stacked elements meant I had to re-design and re-do the animation. I've embedded the final animation that I'm happy with below. I think it looks much more 'complete' than the last.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Milkshakefiend
Mini update

[Secret Squirrel]

That would be nice, I find myself getting board with the other probe cores and something like that would be fun to play with.

By 'scanning a blank line' do you mean it was not working? If so, I may need to tweak it - it works fine my end.

It was scanning and the animation worked, although the gui did say retract when it was AND wasn't retracted. The track on my SCANsat map was just grayed out with no data there. Like I said your part was the only one I had on the probe. Rather than rebuild I added the maptracker module to it in your cfg. file and reloaded then it was working fine. I didn't think to try using the SCANsat part with out the maptracker part to see if it would do the same thing until just now and its getting late here, I will try that tomorrow. After I added the module from the maptracker part it worked like a charm.

[sumghai]

Interesting parts, Milkshapefiend.

I'm not 100% sold on your first SAR antennae model, though - the surface detail is really nice, but I feel the fold-out arm is a bit too flimsy. A typical SAR satellite like the ESA's Sentinel-1 has the antenna fixed relative to the main bus, and is typically manufactured as segments stowed compactly during launch and unfold once in orbit:

[Milkshakefiend]

Cheers!

To be perfectly honest - the more I look at that model, the less I like it. The only part I *do* like is the surface normal map. I had the idea for an extending arm and kind of mashed that together with a smaller version of the SAR NASA put on the shuttle, and came up with a mongrel that is neither one nor t'other. Looking at your example, I think an inline part could be cool. Here's one I mocked up earlier (or just now...) Excuse the not-to-scale-ness.

This would stop CoM issues with radially/surface attached large sensors as the mass is inline during launch/maneuvers.

[sumghai]

Cheers!

To be perfectly honest - the more I look at that model, the less I like it. The only part I *do* like is the surface normal map. I had the idea for an extending arm and kind of mashed that together with a smaller version of the SAR NASA put on the shuttle, and came up with a mongrel that is neither one nor t'other. Looking at your example, I think an inline part could be cool. Here's one I mocked up earlier (or just now...) Excuse the not-to-scale-ness.

-snip-

This would stop CoM issues with radially/surface attached large sensors as the mass is inline during launch/maneuvers.

Yeah, that's definitely a huge improvement

[pizzaoverhead]

This would stop CoM issues with radially/surface attached large sensors as the mass is inline during launch/maneuvers.

Does CoM change with animations? Either way, I look forward to seeing what you come up with. You've done great work so far.

[Nostromo]

I'm liking your smaller antennas Milkshakefiend and the animations, looks nice for smaller crafts.

[Milkshakefiend]

Does CoM change with animations? Either way, I look forward to seeing what you come up with. You've done great work so far.

Thanks! Making things is quite addictive. Hopefully others will enjoy using these parts as much as I have making them. I believe CoM does factor in animations - I recall reading that the in-game camera tracks CoM of the vessel, and the camera definitely shifts when I trigger the animation. Whether thats just because of the massive change in the dimensions of the vessel after the extension of the arm or KSP actually factors in a CoM shift I cannot tell you.

I'm liking your smaller antennas Milkshakefiend and the animations, looks nice for smaller crafts.

Thanks - I hope to have a variety of parts available eventually!

Which reminds me - roadmap. I'll draw this up tomorrow whilst its quiet at work.

[kaldak]

I'm not 100% sold on your first SAR antennae model, though - the surface detail is really nice, but I feel the fold-out arm is a bit too flimsy.

Flimsy? It's folded up for launch, and once it's in space I'm not sure why that would matter much.

[Milkshakefiend]

Low Res Collapsable Altimetry RADAR finished. Some shots of it below, as well as the beta download link of it and the SAR. Comments and suggestions very welcome. Enjoy, and happy scanning.

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Download me HERE

~M

Edited November 12, 2013 by Milkshakefiend

[123nick]

you can make it so one of the electrical bits is a SCANsat scanner

[15nelsoc]

Download me HERE

Just a heads up, that download link opens to a page requesting a username and password.

-EDIT-

Now it says: The file you're looking for has been deleted or moved.

-EDIT-

Just downloaded it. Thanks.

Edited November 12, 2013 by 15nelsoc
Thanks

[Milkshakefiend]

Just a heads up, that download link opens to a page requesting a username and password.

Well, that is incredibly unhelpful of me *facepalm*. I've fixed it now. Cheers!

EDIT: Reuploaded, URL fixed, temporary license added to readme, coffee ingested.

Edited November 12, 2013 by Milkshakefiend

[sumghai]

Flimsy? It's folded up for launch, and once it's in space I'm not sure why that would matter much.

Even in the vacuum of space, having a sizeable mass hanging off a series of thin linkages is a recipe for disaster (inertia, undamped spring-mass system).

Edited November 12, 2013 by sumghai

[drtedastro]

Kraken bait, perhaps???????

[Tommygun]

These are great looking satellite parts.

If you are still looking for suggestion for parts, I might suggest looking at NASA's TDRSS Satellite system.

NASA used these to replace most of the ground tracking stations. The first generation one is even a bit similar to the shape of your hexagonal satellite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_and_Data_Relay_Satellite

[XanderTek]

It looks like the SCANsat dev switched around the names of a couple of the sensors in build 4. sensorType 24 is now a "Multispectral Sensor", and the SAR is used for altitude. I think you might need to update either the name or sensorType of your part. Also the config module has a few more variables now. In any case, they look great! I look forward to having more non-placeholder sensors in SCANsat.

Edited November 12, 2013 by XanderTek

[KerbMav]

Now what do we have here that I havent seen yet?!

*downloads*

Is the gold foil part supposed to be probe core for satellites or is it more than one part?

There is no download for it sadly!

Edited November 12, 2013 by KerbMav

[Milkshakefiend]

These are great looking satellite parts.

If you are still looking for suggestion for parts, I might suggest looking at NASA's TDRSS Satellite system.

NASA used these to replace most of the ground tracking stations. The first generation one is even a bit similar to the shape of your hexagonal satellite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_and_Data_Relay_Satellite

-snip-

]

Cheers! I quite like the look of that sat. I'm at a bit of an artistic standstill with what to do with the hexagonal stuff but that has got my interest!

It looks like the SCANsat dev switched around the names of a couple of the sensors in build 4. sensorType 24 is now a "Multispectral Sensor", and the SAR is used for altitude. I think you might need to update either the name or sensorType of your part. Also the config module has a few more variables now. In any case, they look great! I look forward to having more non-placeholder sensors in SCANsat.

Aye, I noticed this but forgot to put info up about it. I'll amend the post later. I'm waiting for the SCANsat author to get back to me whether he wants to use the models - if he does I'm going to assume he'll set the new parameters to what he wants - if it's a no-go I'll amend the .cfgs myself new models in the works tonight so new parts out soon hopefully!

Now what do we have here that I havent seen yet?!

*downloads*

Is the gold foil part supposed to be probe core for satellites or is it more than one part?

There is no download for it sadly!

The gold foil object is a (rather oversized) probe core. That aspect of development is at a bit of a standstill right now, hence no download link for it. Once it's a bit more fleshed out it'll be updated for 0.22 and released.

If anyone has any other cool satellite designs/radars I'd appreciate some links. My background is in transducer array design - for sonar rather than radar though so I'm really just following the rule of cool when I make these parts.

[KerbMav]

so I'm really just following the rule of cool when I make these parts.

Is there any other apart from "stay below reasonably overdone"?

[Morgan]

wow! just wow!

[MOARdV]

Low Res Collapsable Altimetry RADAR finished. Some shots of it below, as well as the beta download link of it and the SAR. Comments and suggestions very welcome. Enjoy, and happy scanning.

I run into a couple little things with the Low Res radar: one, the part is hard to click on / grab due to its offset placing the hotspot inside of other parts. Maybe make the mounting plate thicker so it's not disappearing inside the part it's attached to? I changed the offset to -0.035 (from -0.025, I think) to work around it here. I also had trouble getting the radar to deploy in an action group without having to press it twice. I removed the "animSwitch = False" line from the config file to fix that one. I think the weights are a bit high, too (0.25 seems way too high for a surface-attached antenna to me - I ramped it down to 0.05).

That said, I really like it, and I immediately placed it on my TKS mapping craft (more like shoehorned it - not much surface space left on that ship).

[XanderTek]

Oh, came across one more thing while tinkering around with the cfgs. You can now add "animationName = Antenna" to the SCANsat node to tie the animation to starting/stopping the scan. Works perfectly with the SAR sensor, and it mostly works with the low res radar except that one seems to default to the open position when the ship first loads.