Give a nerd a NOR gate and you're going to get a computer.

[nhnifong]

I've been working on creating binary logic gates in KSP

This is a transistor. The medium dish can block solar panels, and it can only be extended by a probe core if the probe core has power. This way, the on state of one or more probes can be used to change the on state of another probe. In this image, the two sub-units have been disconnected from the thing they were sitting on.

And this is a NOR gate, (the only component technically needed to build a computer)

There are two input bits, both are set manually to zero by blocking their power supply. since neither input bit can extend it's dish to block the panel of the output bit, that bit is 1. I'm also demonstrating here that there is enough room to place the solar panels of two bits under the shade of one dish, thereby splitting the output signal into two bits, which could be further split again ad-infinitum.

The logic is run by cycling through all the bits and pressing action group 1 to attempt to extend their dish, and whenever it is the case that a bit is running out of power, it's dish must be retracted. :/ (which is the most glaring problem with the design.

Edited December 7, 2013 by nhnifong

[Superfluous J]

Sounds quite Kerbal making a computer that only works for about 15 minutes a day

Kudos. That's pretty awesome stuff there.

[nhnifong]

Sounds quite Kerbal making a computer that only works for about 15 minutes a day

Kudos. That's pretty awesome stuff there.

When I get something working I'll put it in a high solar orbit so the shadows won't move so fast.

[Demon_82]

Amazing job... so many years without touching operational logic that I had to make an effort to remember what a NOR gate was xD

[3mon]

Really interesting. I've fiddled around with Minecraft redstone logic quite a bit myself, but this is a whole different level in nerd-ism

Congrats!!

[lajoswinkler]

I suppose the farther it is from Kerbol, the longer it works.

Great job.

[Sirrobert]

When I get something working I'll put it in a high solar orbit so the shadows won't move so fast.

How are you going to disconnect the different bits than but still keep them tougether?

[Deathsoul097]

Landing legs and gear, I'd say.

[katateochi]

Very cool nhnifong. You are king among nerds!!

[Idobox]

I've never tried, but do the dishes close if you run out of power? If they don't you will be severely limited in the complexity of the circuits.

Also, the batteries are going to act as large parasitic capacitors and slow down everything. I suggest putting lamps or multiple probe cores to drain them faster.

Anyway, very cool.

[Cydonian Monk]

Rather a bit like volatile memory, in that you have to cycle the state every X number of seconds in order to keep the state. Though I'm not sure how to trigger such a refresh using the stock components in KSP in a way that preserves data.

My first question was something you answered later in the post: how do you use these components in a larger circuit? The answer to that is obvious: with dishes from the gate component blocking solar panels on other components. (If lamps caused a reaction on the photovoltaic cells, then things would be considerably easier.) Of course there's the small problem of probe-core death, and needing some external way to recover from a 0 bit (aside form kerbals, which I refuse to think of as little green electrons), but I think you're on to something.

[Kermunist]

A while ago someone had a go at building a computer (or at least a few gates) with mechanical motion and docking ports.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/26868-KSP-computer-dev-team

some exponential spatial growth with number of gates, so didn't get all that far. Cool though!

[FITorion]

I remember seeing an engine at one point... Someone had made a model of internal/external combustion engine... there was a video of it...

Rings of structural parts around the rotating parts and then decouplers to get it started... I'm searching for the video but I suck at finding stuff like that.