parts [1.10.x] SDHI Service Module System (V4.0.4 / 11 October 2020)

[sumghai]

thats why I suggested my node resizer to sumghai awhile back. In the VAB it would have itty bitty nodes that are easier to snap accurately. Then in the world the node resizes so the joint is sturdier.

I'm a little leary about adding an additional dependency, since I still get hassled by people about this. But seeing as this is a persistent issue, I may have to re-consider my stance.

If someone would like to set the node resizer configs up and file a pull request on GitHub, I would be extremely grateful.

[Starwaster]

I'm a little leary about adding an additional dependency, since I still get hassled by people about this. But seeing as this is a persistent issue, I may have to re-consider my stance.

If someone would like to set the node resizer configs up and file a pull request on GitHub, I would be extremely grateful.

I think the best, least invasive way of doing it is to leave the stock SDHI files alone and add some Module Manager files that only kick in (:NEEDS) if NodeResizer is installed. That way if someone doesn't install Node Resizer then they don't get a weak connection that makes their capsule flop around?

I moved NodeResizer to my Github respositories and I'll send you the link once I have the configs set up.

[sumghai]

I think the best, least invasive way of doing it is to leave the stock SDHI files alone and add some Module Manager files that only kick in (:NEEDS) if NodeResizer is installed. That way if someone doesn't install Node Resizer then they don't get a weak connection that makes their capsule flop around?

I moved NodeResizer to my Github respositories and I'll send you the link once I have the configs set up.

A soft dependency would be perfect - thanks a bunch!

[NathanKell]

Starwaster: do you have a current version floating around? I have your source from way back, and was going to edit it so we could use it for RO so it could work automatically: read the specified node size onload, store it, and set size 0 if in editor, regular elsewhere.

[sumghai]

V2.2 released - see first post for download link

2.2          29 August 2014
---------------------------

Changes / Fixes:
 - Added Node Resizer support
    - This dynamically changes the stack nodes of the Avionics Ring and Heat Shield to size 0 while in the VAB/SPH editor scenes, allowing for easier attachment (and thus fixing the "bouncing" attachment node bug)
    - When entering the flight scene, this automatically switches the node size back to 2 to ensure a strong structural connection as usual
 - New meshes, graphics and better details for the FusTek Karmony hatch on the IACBM parachute-equipped docking port
    - This is for compatibility / visual consistency with future versions of FusTek Station Parts

Another round of thanks to Starwaster - here, have some bacon

[Starwaster]

V2.2 released - see first post for download link

2.2          29 August 2014
---------------------------

Changes / Fixes:
 - Added Node Resizer support
    - This dynamically changes the stack nodes of the Avionics Ring and Heat Shield to size 0 while in the VAB/SPH editor scenes, allowing for easier attachment (and thus fixing the "bouncing" attachment node bug)
    - When entering the flight scene, this automatically switches the node size back to 2 to ensure a strong structural connection as usual
 - New meshes, graphics and better details for the FusTek Karmony hatch on the IACBM parachute-equipped docking port
    - This is for compatibility / visual consistency with future versions of FusTek Station Parts

Another round of thanks to Starwaster - here, have some bacon

Is that a slab of bacon I see there before me? Its end pointed towards my mouth??

[CFIRickM]

Is that a slab of bacon I see there before me? Its end pointed towards my mouth??

Is this a slab of bacon which I see before me,

The end pointed toward my mouth? Come, let me eat thee.

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible

To feeling as to eat? or art thou but

A bacon of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?

I see thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw.

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;

And such a bacon I was to eat.

Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,

Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,

And on thy folds and dudgeon gouts of fat,

Which was not so before. There's no such thing...

sometimes Jeb gets these ideas....

[sumghai]

V2.2.1 released - see first post for download link

2.2.1        30 August 2014
---------------------------

Changes / Fixes:
 - Updated TAC Life Support patch for compatibility with new v0.10 version

[tg626]

Question:

Which Klockheed Martian "Special Parts" are needed for this SM system? KM's Special parts add some additional parts which I am not interested in per se, and I'd like to start pruning the various "parts I'll never use (for now at least)" which have been slowly accumulating from various mods I've installed from my game.

[komodo]

I had been meaning to ask: Has anyone run into trouble with TAC Life Support + Real Fuels where SDHI is concerned? Everything is up to date, to the best of my knowledge, and the SDHI patch (SDHI_SMS_MMPatch_TACLifeSupport) seems to work, as it is correctly replacing the resources in the Mk1-2 pod. While the resources never appear in the service module, the converters do. I am using the stockalike engine configurations, but a look through their configs show only the engine part being adjusted.

Otherwise from this minor issue, the pack has been rock solid, and quite the sight to use. Thanks Sumghai for the production!

[wasmic]

Question:

Which Klockheed Martian "Special Parts" are needed for this SM system? KM's Special parts add some additional parts which I am not interested in per se, and I'd like to start pruning the various "parts I'll never use (for now at least)" which have been slowly accumulating from various mods I've installed from my game.

I believe that you will need only the plugins, and none of the parts.

[Starwaster]

I had been meaning to ask: Has anyone run into trouble with TAC Life Support + Real Fuels where SDHI is concerned? Everything is up to date, to the best of my knowledge, and the SDHI patch (SDHI_SMS_MMPatch_TACLifeSupport) seems to work, as it is correctly replacing the resources in the Mk1-2 pod. While the resources never appear in the service module, the converters do. I am using the stockalike engine configurations, but a look through their configs show only the engine part being adjusted.

Otherwise from this minor issue, the pack has been rock solid, and quite the sight to use. Thanks Sumghai for the production!

Real Fuels might have stripped the resources from the part. If so then you need to add them back in the VAB like any other resource that RF handles.

[sumghai]

Question:

Which Klockheed Martian "Special Parts" are needed for this SM system? KM's Special parts add some additional parts which I am not interested in per se, and I'd like to start pruning the various "parts I'll never use (for now at least)" which have been slowly accumulating from various mods I've installed from my game.

I believe that you will need only the plugins, and none of the parts.

Correct - you only need the plugins. None of the KM parts are needed, as the floatation collar is built into my SDHI heat shield.

I had been meaning to ask: Has anyone run into trouble with TAC Life Support + Real Fuels where SDHI is concerned? Everything is up to date, to the best of my knowledge, and the SDHI patch (SDHI_SMS_MMPatch_TACLifeSupport) seems to work, as it is correctly replacing the resources in the Mk1-2 pod. While the resources never appear in the service module, the converters do. I am using the stockalike engine configurations, but a look through their configs show only the engine part being adjusted.

Otherwise from this minor issue, the pack has been rock solid, and quite the sight to use. Thanks Sumghai for the production!

Real Fuels might have stripped the resources from the part. If so then you need to add them back in the VAB like any other resource that RF handles.

Yeah, this is certainly peculiar.

I don't use Real Fuels, but I didn't see anything in the Real Fuels / Modular Fuel Tanks CFGs that suggests it would affect any life support resources.

[komodo]

Yeah, this is certainly peculiar.

I don't use Real Fuels, but I didn't see anything in the Real Fuels / Modular Fuel Tanks CFGs that suggests it would affect any life support resources.

That's what I thought as well. I'll ask over on the Real Fuels thread and see what the gurus there might have to say. Thanks!

EDIT to add the opinion about real fuels (an excellent mod) + TAC LS (an excellent mod), that adding life support tanks manually is a awful/tedious process. If anyone knows a quick way to add a set of resources in a fixed ratio, i'll buy them a cookie.

[vardicd]

Did the part: Service module adapter get removed from the pack intentionally? the last download I pulled didn't have it in there, and I missed that. It was a sad day for the Kerbal Alliance. So many ships in flight lost to the kraken.

Guess not, just re-downloaded the newest version and its back in there, so I must have gotten a bad copy or the dl went bad.

Edited September 9, 2014 by vardicd

[skbernard]

Correct - you only need the plugins. None of the KM parts are needed, as the floatation collar is built into my SDHI heat shield.

question about plugins and placement, do mods look for dependent plugins via their folder location, or simply that they are actively loaded when the game begins...

ultimate question: can i box all my random plugins in one folder under GameData

[sumghai]

question about plugins and placement, do mods look for dependent plugins via their folder location, or simply that they are actively loaded when the game begins...

ultimate question: can i box all my random plugins in one folder under GameData

Some plugins can be placed anywhere within GameData, while others may be dependent on a specific path.

Best thing to do is to leave them in their default locations (i.e. the ones specified in the original download)

[tg626]

I doubt anyone else will run into this, but...

I had a problem with no effects (light, smoke, flame) from the fairingless LV-909. Turned out that at some point in the past I had downloaded a Mk3 nosecone from MP_Nazari, and it was in a folder called MP_Nazari. This caused one of the included configs (SDHI_SMS_MMPatch_HotRockets.cfg) to attempt to load some non existent "Hot Rockets" particle effects as it's conditional statement was met by the existence of the "MP_Nazari" folder.

The Solution for me was to rename "MP_Nazari" to "MP_Nazari-Partial" since it appears to be an incomplete folder.

I'm guessing (and only guessing since I don't have HotRockets installed) that MP_Nazari has released multiple things using that folder name and sumgai was unaware of it. (As I recall, the nosecone came from [Moderator removed defunct website link] or somesuch third party site and isn't found at curse.com)

Edited August 28, 2022 by James Kerman
link removed

[skbernard]

good find, i ran into something exactly like this and couldn't seem to figure it out, wound up shuffling my mod list around and by chance dumping hotrockets and it was fixed - i never put two and two together at the time, but sounds like i had the same situation

[tg626]

I'm having another trouble which you (sumgai) may or may not want to think about making a change for. When I decouple the SM from the CM, they tend to want to stay thisclose during reentry. I can solve that by tucking sepratrons into the SM and firing them with an action key that also fire the decoupler, but if the avionics ring and SM had sepratrons built in like the boost protective cover has and they fired automatically when the decoupler fired that might be a nice feature?

I think the apollo SM fired it's RCS thrusters "backward" after separation either until a flight condition was met or the RCS fuel was depleted, if I'm not mistaken...

[Starwaster]

I'm having another trouble which you (sumgai) may or may not want to think about making a change for. When I decouple the SM from the CM, they tend to want to stay thisclose during reentry. I can solve that by tucking sepratrons into the SM and firing them with an action key that also fire the decoupler, but if the avionics ring and SM had sepratrons built in like the boost protective cover has and they fired automatically when the decoupler fired that might be a nice feature?

I think the apollo SM fired it's RCS thrusters "backward" after separation either until a flight condition was met or the RCS fuel was depleted, if I'm not mistaken...

Correct about RCS. It would be nice if they could trigger to fire on separation. I suppose if you had a command core on the SM you could do something.

Anyway at what I do is decouple while facing +/- NRM

[sumghai]

I'm having another trouble which you (sumgai) may or may not want to think about making a change for. When I decouple the SM from the CM, they tend to want to stay thisclose during reentry. I can solve that by tucking sepratrons into the SM and firing them with an action key that also fire the decoupler, but if the avionics ring and SM had sepratrons built in like the boost protective cover has and they fired automatically when the decoupler fired that might be a nice feature?

I think the apollo SM fired it's RCS thrusters "backward" after separation either until a flight condition was met or the RCS fuel was depleted, if I'm not mistaken...

Sounds like you're decoupling the Service Module only just before you hit the atmosphere (i.e. too late), and air drag causes it to remain close by the pod.

What I tend to do is to finish my retro-burn, time warp to an altitude of 90~100 km and decouple much earlier. This gives plenty of time for the Service Module to drift away via inertia before the pod hits the 69 km start of the atmosphere.

[tg626]

I might give the + Normal approach a try.

I haven't tried every possible permutation, but it seems that if I eject the SM with a periapsis of ANYTHING positive (not just yours, any SM) while outside the atmosphere, then it just continues to orbit. Even if it's orbit is 100m x 80km, it just keeps going unless I "fly" it - then and only then does the atmo drag apply and drop it into Kerbin...

However, if I have a positive Appo and jettison the SM below 70km, then it does disappear on it's own as if it crashed/burned up.

As a result if I'm trying to do a skip entry or just a shallow one to limit G forces, I end up with the SM in perpetual orbit unless I jettison it within the atmosphere.

Limitation of the game I suppose....

Annnnd just now it looks like the sepratron idea didn't work... SM is in an eccentric orbit...

Back to the drawing board...

[sumghai]

I've never had any problems deorbiting the Service Module after jettisoning, with or without Deadly Reentry and/or FAR - as soon as my pod hits 30~40 km and the reentry shockwaves begin, I immediately hear explosions far away and my flight log confirms that my Service Module has been destroyed.

All without any jury-rigging of additional Sepratrons or whatnot.

[tg626]

Wait... what?? I've never heard my SM explode!

I don't use DR or FAR, do you normally use them? I ask because the only possible fates for a jettisoned part AFAIK is either to magically disappear because it's too far away (In atmos), to orbit forever (it got out of atmo before getting to far away), or to slam into the ground.

I fully and wholly admit and accept that I may be 100% wrong about that tho.

(FWIW this is borne out of an obsession I have to have NO debris post mission.)