Rocket running out of electricity... Even with battery?

[Sakai]

So I dont quiet understand it, my rocket to send a satellite into the kerbal orbit runs out of electricity from what I researched rather very fast still being in the kerbal atmosphere.

So now I have a battery installed on the rocket, two solid boosters and LV-T30 engine and when I launch off to the space, yet still in the atmosphere after few minutes everything cuts off because it has no electricity but when I check the resource page, Battery is full, satellite components are full on electricity? So why is the whole stuff shutting down than?

Edited November 19, 2013 by Sakai

[zekes]

Batteries store power not make it... you're still using power.

[Sakai]

So how can I get this sorted out? How can I get into orbit without running out of power while still being in kerbal atmosphere?

[zekes]

Add solar panels. or turn on the engine occasionally to re-charge the batteries. or add lots more batteries.

[numerobis]

Turn off SAS.

[RSwordsman]

SAS and rotating your ship use power a lot quicker than at idle operation. But yeah, make sure you have at least one measly solar panel on the thing; batteries don't last forever.

[numerobis]

But the OP does say that the resource tab lists electricity as full. Either OP is misreading it, or there's something else going on. Maybe post a picture?

[SRV Ron]

Stock SRBs don't produce any power. If they are not properly braced as in radical mounted, they will cause the SAS to suck down power as it attempts to stabilize the launch. You need an extra battery pack when using the Stayputnik or it will run out of power during SRB stage of launch regardless of how they are staged.

[Sakai]

So I've placed solar panels around, engine is full of electricity so is the full rocket YET I'm still unable to turn my main engine nor do staging?

EDIT: here is a picture http://i.imgur.com/eYfAAqI.png ((sorry for the weird fizzy quality, not sure what happened there))

Edited November 19, 2013 by Sakai

[zekes]

aah. you have mods, no? what is that "waste heat" resource? That will be messing something up i bet...

[DeMatt]

I notice you are using the RemoteTech mod, and in the upper-left corner it says "No Connection". So my guess is that you forgot to put any antennas on the rocket (or they're snapping off during launch), and therefore Mission Control can't send orders to it.

[Sakai]

aah. you have mods, no? what is that "waste heat" resource? That will be messing something up i bet...

I do have few mods but this is not a problem as I tried other stock ships and they work fine. The one you see in a screenshot is a stock one but modified as I added few science stuff into the satellite.

@DeMatt - There are two antennas, one as main and one as a backup. On top

[Sakai]

[Wops somehow I've seen a post below my post and I thought its new...] [Can be deleted]

[DeMatt]

@DeMatt - There are two antennas, one as main and one as a backup. On top

Which antennas are you using?

[Redjoker]

Since it says no connection, it is definently remotetech 2, what antenna's are you using? The larger omnidirectionals can break off when extended and under stress.

[Sakai]

Is there any antenna's I should use when taking off so the satellite is connected to mission control?

P.S. Sorry about this, didnt really know it is remotetech 2 problem, thought its something with the rocket I've edited or something...

[DeMatt]

Is there any antenna's I should use when taking off so the satellite is connected to mission control?

P.S. Sorry about this, didnt really know it is remotetech 2 problem, thought its something with the rocket I've edited or something...

The Reflectron DP-10 is a good choice for a launch antenna because:

1. it is omnidirectional (and thus does not need to be targeted),
   
2. it starts out active (no forgetting to turn your antennas on!),
   
3. it is sturdy enough to survive atmospheric passage at any velocity (though FAR or Deadly Reentry might do Bad Things to it; I don't use those mods, so I don't know for sure),
   
4. it has a 500km range (plenty for your basic launch to orbit).

Pretty much all the other antennas have the problem of either A) snapping off due to air resistance, or needing to be targeted and/or activated.

Bear in mind, KSC's ability to communicate is limited to "above the horizon". Once your rocket drops below the horizon from KSC, it'll need something to relay the signals between the two.

[keoki]

A strategy that I found that works best is to manage your power. During active flight, most engines generate charging current when running, so they will charge the batteries, but when they are off, the rest of your systems suck the power down. Even when you don't need those systems to do anything. Since there can be many different systems using power, and you aren't always sure what is using power, the easiest approach to conserving battery is to turn the battery off when you are not needing it for maneuvers or communication.

Early in career mode, before I unlocked solar panels, I would pack a lot of battery, and once I had it fully charged, I would turn it all off so that I could keep parasitic losses from idling equipment from eating my power up. My first 4 attemps to go to minimus, I ran out of power during my final maneuver to prepare for an orbital burn. It didn't matter how much battery I had, I would be fully charged once I completed my transfer burn, I would warp to my point for my orbital capture, start to turn into the burn, and run out of power. The first flight I had two batteries, the second time I had 4, the 3rd flight I had like 10, and each time I ran out of power at the exact same moment. My 4th flight I turned everything in the ship off before the warp, and I STILL ran out of power. But what worked was to have multiple sets of battery, and turn those off when holding a charge, and only turn them on one or two at a time. If I was doing something critical, I would turn on a couple. And always, when doing a burn, turn on your cells that are not full, to capture the generator power from the engine.

To turn a battery off, left click on it, and then click the green arrow in the lower right. It will turn into a circle with a slash.

Once you master conserving power, you will probably do enough science fairly quickly and get some solar panels, and some larger batteries. Eventually you can get some radio isotope cells to combine with battery. Think of the battery as the quick source of electric power, and your solar panels, engines, and isotope generators as battery chargers. If your battery charging rate exceeds your parasitic losses, then a battery that can handle the demands of maneuvers and other bursts of power requirements (like radio transmissions) should be all you need. But if your charging is not keeping up with parasitic losses, then you pretty much need to turn the batteries off like I suggest to have any power left when you come out of a warp.

If you forget to conserve power, then the first thing you need to do when coming out of warp is to fire up your engines, because it seems that a warp will tend to drain 99.9% of your power, leaving you .1% to make the right first move. Turning on a generator is the only good first move. If you maneuver first, you won't have enough battery to light the engines... you probably won't even finish the maneuver.

I'm an engineer, and this behavior isn't a perfect example of reality, but being forced to make hard choices and conserve resources is still a very realistic concept. I found it interesting that adding more and more battery didn't solve the problem, the solution came from finding a different approach.

This game is addictive.

[Scarecrow88]

The only time I have had an unresponsive rocket despite full electric charge is when a link somewhere between the control module and the rest of the rocket has broken. Have you tried pulling up the flight log to see if something has broken?

[Sakai]

Thanks everyone for helping me fix it! It all good now