Modular Fuel System Continued v3.3 (OBSOLETE)

[NathanKell]

Thanks!

1. HoneyFox did just that. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/51880-0-21-Engine-Ignitor

2. Don't use KER anymore, but I'll take a look. Shouldn't be hard.

[asmi]

1. HoneyFox did just that. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/51880-0-21-Engine-Ignitor

Yea, I know about that. What I meant is more of GUI for that mod - so that we'd have another setting that would affect engines performance. For example, first-stage engines with no restart ability and ground-start system would be lighter than these with these functions.

It would also be great to limit throttle range - if my memory serves me, stock ModuleEngine actually supports this (via minThrust/maxThrust or something like that - don't remember details off top of my head).

12. Don't use KER anymore, but I'll take a look. Shouldn't be hard.

I was using MJ until I recently realized that the only things I use in it are dV info and orbit/target info, so I've switched to KER since it have all I need without excessive overloading with features that I don't or can't use.

[NathanKell]

Yeah, that's actually already partially taken into account. All O-class engines are assumed to have many-restart capability, and pay the TWR price for that. But a MFSC GUI frontend would be neat, you're right.

Throttle range limiting is planned--check some of the posts on the EI thread--but it would need some interesting coding to keep it compatible with MJ. Or some recoding of MJ.

Because whenever you wanted 0 thrust you'd have to disable the engine, and then re-enable it to turn it on, which is a different case then EI currently handles.

Ah, yeah. The exact opposite for me: since I still use the autopilot functions, I found KER to be needless duplication. Also, the MJ ascent stats window is super helpful, trying to optimize one's ascent and compare rocket aerodynamics.

[Tiron]

Tiron, as I said above, I installed B9 and am taking a look. In v2 I tweaked the SABRE Isps slightly, and that might help a bit, but stay tuned.

Yeah. As I said, it reduced the per-engine fuel consumption by about 0.15 per second. Which is...not much. The plan was to see how bad the delta-v loss was after adjusting the fuel allotments but that's on hold, at the moment.

[rhoark]

Anything MechJeb isn't up to the task of launching, kOS can

[dlrk]

^As long as you don't use .8

[dlrk]

Not sure why, but it looks like between v1 and 2 the modular configs for the Rockomax Mark 55 (radialliquidengine1-2) was lost.

[dlrk]

Actually, no it looks like it was lost in the switch from the original modular fuels to the continued one. I hadn't noticed because the old config file for the squad engines had remained,.

[NathanKell]

Yup. Chestburster and I haven't gotten there yet. Well, he had, but my spreadsheet ate the result.

We'll get to it soonish, promise.

[dlrk]

Okay, sounds good. Tentatively, I'm copying the old config for it and changing the LFO config to MMH/N2O4 with an ISP roughly around the KW SPS. The ISP for LFO config was unreasonably efficient.

How are you calculating the ISP? Do you have a more realistic number I could use? Thanks.

[NathanKell]

I calculate the Isp by guessing engine type (from the list some posts up, like lower, orbital, upper, aerospike, solid), deciding on a tech level, and doing a lookup to my techlevel-type Isp table (MFT/TechLevels.cfg).

Given its values in game compared to other engines, I assumed it would be a L at best...

[dlrk]

Gotcha. I like to use it as a what I believed you'd consider a U+ or an O.

[NathanKell]

Given it's bloody useless as an L, I look favorably upon that change. Nice as an OMU for spaceplanes, too, if it's that type.

[dlrk]

Yup. I use it as an OMU for my reusable CSM(posted in the rocket exchange forum recently).

[dlrk]

How exactly do the tech levels work? Do they correspond to the KSP tree?

[NathanKell]

Work started on them before I even knew R&D would be in .22, and they are half for their own sake, and half just so I can easily categorize engines.

At the moment, the don't correspond to nodes at all; the MFSC tech levels are a linear progression from least advanced to most advanced. When my desktop is running again I'll try to link them to propulsion-related nodes, so MFSC TLs only become available when you've researched the right nodes.

[dlrk]

Sounds good, cool.

[dlrk]

Sorry to keep bugging you here, but it looks the KW Vespa only takes H2/LOX. Is a there a reason, or would a liquid fuel/LOX config be possible?

[dlrk]

I don't mean to criticize, just sort of suggest and question (:

EDIT: Also, looks like some of the other KW engines are H2-only. If possible could a LF/Ox config be added?

Edited October 18, 2013 by dlrk

[cardajowol]

Is this actually working in 0.22?

[rhoark]

Nathan, you've mentioned you work off a spreadsheet. Do you have a script to generate the cfgs from the spreadsheet?

Is this actually working in 0.22?

Yes

[Titan Space Agency]

Hey I have a few ideas for fuels.

1. Methane and Oxygen, has an Isp which is higher than all of them exept Lh2 and Lox. It is also much denser than most of the fuels.

2. Configurable SRBs would be awesome.

3. The tripropelant that uses lh2, lithium, and Lox.

That is all i have. Also if you would make modular rcs i would definetly download this mod!

[NathanKell]

dlrk, no worries.

The KW engines being hydrolox are a relic of my originally deciding that engines shouldn't be easily convertible to other fuel modes (like RL). But that's kinda against the point of this mod. I'll get it fixed.

rhoark, I planned to make the spreadsheet public, and will do so soon. Then everyone can roll their own configs. It was excel, but I managed to get it working in google docs; it uses excel functions to generate the MM scripts. I'm really quite proud of it; all you do is enter part name and title, engine type, tech level, thrust, and vectoring (and tank amount/type, if it's a combined engine/tank like SRBs or FASA service modules or...), fuel mode(s), and any extra lines you want in the MM patch, and it generates the patch by looking up Isp, thrust in those modes, etc.

Titan Space Agency: Hmm, yeah, and as it happens Kethane pretty much is Methane. I know Starwaster had a bunch of configs for that; shouldn't be hard to extend the spreadsheet to also generate metholox configs.

Configurable SRBs are Coming Soon ; you can already configure them by changing their SolidFuel amount (they're modular tanks now)!

3. Hmm, interesting. Also, modular RCS...I need to see if ialdabaoth finally got that working in the dev branch, haven't tried yet. Looks like he may have found how.

[Starwaster]

dlrk, no worries.

The KW engines being hydrolox are a relic of my originally deciding that engines shouldn't be easily convertible to other fuel modes (like RL). But that's kinda against the point of this mod. I'll get it fixed.

I would instead think of it as an engine redesign

rhoark, I planned to make the spreadsheet public, and will do so soon. Then everyone can roll their own configs. It was excel, but I managed to get it working in google docs; it uses excel functions to generate the MM scripts. I'm really quite proud of it; all you do is enter part name and title, engine type, tech level, thrust, and vectoring (and tank amount/type, if it's a combined engine/tank like SRBs or FASA service modules or...), fuel mode(s), and any extra lines you want in the MM patch, and it generates the patch by looking up Isp, thrust in those modes, etc.

Titan Space Agency: Hmm, yeah, and as it happens Kethane pretty much is Methane. I know Starwaster had a bunch of configs for that; shouldn't be hard to extend the spreadsheet to also generate metholox configs.

Configurable SRBs are Coming Soon ; you can already configure them by changing their SolidFuel amount (they're modular tanks now)!

3. Hmm, interesting. Also, modular RCS...I need to see if ialdabaoth finally got that working in the dev branch, haven't tried yet. Looks like he may have found how.

My patch file still works fairly well with the new plugin though I have had some GUI issues with the plugin. I haven't reported them yet because I'm still trying to isolate the cause and eliminate PEBSAK issues. (Problem Exists Between Starwaster And Keyboard)

I'm reworking the file to work properly with the new KW values and will include the other mods too. The current file supports Kethane as a nuclear fuel and in standard engines with LOX. If you've got your spreadsheet working for Google Docs that might help

[dlrk]

Thanks, looking forward to the new config.