[1.0.4] Smart Parts v1.6.6 | DDS Textures and Bug Fixes | July 5

[Exitalterego]

How about a part that watches for dock/undock events? For example to shut off engines when docked, so that shift key doesn't destroy your station.

Alternatively, a proximity range sensor. Put a part on your station and your ship, then when you get closer than 200 m, fire an action group. Then when you get farther than 200 m away, fire a different action group.

This way you could automatically close solar panels and retract antennas when docking (for safety!), and you won't forget to redeploy them when leaving.

+1 for this! In fact, I might end up trying to make this myself if no one else picks up this idea

[rynak]

An oldie but goodie, updated to be more universal: modulemanager config file, to add the fuel-breaker functionality to any decoupler and seperator, so that you can enable and disable crossfeed via rclick or actiongroups:

// add fuel breaker functionality to decouplers and seperators,

// which are the reason why that feature is needed in the 1st place.

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleAnchoredDecoupler]]:FINAL

{

%fuelCrossFeed = False

%MODULE[FuelController]

{

%flowEnabled = false

}

}

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleDecouple]]:FINAL

{

%fuelCrossFeed = False

%MODULE[FuelController]

{

%flowEnabled = false

}

}

Only thing now missing is, it checking if smartparts is actually installed. If someone knows how to do that properly (module manager syntax is killing me), go ahead and fix.

[Diazo]

I don't know the correct syntax, but that is what the NEEDS qualifier is for. I think B9 uses the NEEDS keyword extensively as a place to start for examples to change tank configs if real fuels is installed or not.

D.

[Firov]

How about a part that watches for dock/undock events? For example to shut off engines when docked, so that shift key doesn't destroy your station.

Alternatively, a proximity range sensor. Put a part on your station and your ship, then when you get closer than 200 m, fire an action group. Then when you get farther than 200 m away, fire a different action group.

This way you could automatically close solar panels and retract antennas when docking (for safety!), and you won't forget to redeploy them when leaving.

I actually really like this idea, and I've thought of several ways to implement it. I'll likely end up rolling both functions, docking and proximity detection, into a single part for increased versatility.

Expect to see this in the next release.

Only thing now missing is, it checking if smartparts is actually installed. If someone knows how to do that properly (module manager syntax is killing me), go ahead and fix.

Unfortunately, I'm not that familiar with the exact module manager syntax, but I think it will look something like this.

@PART

[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleAnchoredDecoupler]]:NEEDS[smartParts]:FINAL

{

%fuelCrossFeed = False

%MODULE[FuelController]

{

%flowEnabled = false

}

}

@PART

[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleDecouple]]:NEEDS[smartParts]:FINAL

{

%fuelCrossFeed = False

%MODULE[FuelController]

{

%flowEnabled = false

}

}

I've not actually tested it, but that should be right. Good idea though.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Firov

[orangewarning]

Ever since installing this mod

I am getting laggy when I right click to tweak procedural fairings stuff like base angle and height.

Am I the only one with this problem?

[Drew Kerman]

I had an altimeter trigger set for 2km on descent, and when making a low pass of Mun the radar altimeter fell below 2km but the trigger didn't fire until it rose back up to 2km.

It also wasn't meant to fire around Mun Oops. Maybe be able to set them to planetary bodies?

[sebi.zzr]

I had an altimeter trigger set for 2km on descent

Can you please tell me,how you managed to do that.

There is huge gap between 1000m and 25km on ALT-pro.I can't set nothing in between.When i use "meters" it goes 0m,25m,50m...1000m,when i use kilometers it goes 0km,25km,50km...500km.I want my heat shield to decouple at 10km because 25km is to high.Can you please fix the scale.I'm using V1.5.1 of this mod.Thank you.

[Diazo]

@sebi: That sounds like you are using just the arrows on the end. Those arrows move the number in "chunks". You are then supposed to click and drag on the slider between the arrows to precisely set your desired altitude.

Hope that helps,

D.

[sebi.zzr]

Yes,that was the trick. Thank you very much.What about "Drainex 1",there is no option for XenonGas and SolidFuel.

[Firov]

Yes,that was the trick. Thank you very much.What about "Drainex 1",there is no option for XenonGas and SolidFuel.

The fuel sensor will detect whatever resources are in the tank it is directly attached to. So if you attach it to a liquid fuel only tank, you won't have the option to monitor oxidizer, since the tank it's attached to lacks oxidizer, for example.

However, the sensor is capable of monitoring just about any resource, including real fuels and even TAC life support resources. Just attach it to the tank with those resources. If you wish to monitor Xenon gas, attach it directly to the Xenon gas tank.

If you run into an issue where it's not doing that, send me a craft file and I'll take a look at it.

[CorBlimey]

idea: an option on the timers and altimeters to set a certain attitude and and x second burn/throttle. The point would be to be able to drop several independent supply packages at low altitude. Currently I use Landertrons but even these need attitude control to keep retrograde.

In atmosphere this is less important because chutes will naturally point your ship at retrograde, but otherwise it is necessary to manually cycle through the ships quickly to set SAS / SmartAss / Remotetech Flight Computer. This is challenging at high speed!

[Suey-Suey]

is there any way to get the timer/altimeter to work even when not in rendering distance?

[Firov]

is there any way to get the timer/altimeter to work even when not in rendering distance?

Unfortunately, no. This is pretty much impossible, because KSP "packs" vessels that are outside of rendering distance. They no longer exist as a physical entity at this point and are effectively on rails until you either switch to the craft or move within rendering distance again (~2km).

There are a few mods that increase rendering distance to up to 500km, or at least there used to be, but they're a bit buggy.

[linuxgurugamer]

Hi,

Not sure if this has been reported already, but here goes:

I had a rocket which had 6 attached boosters. Each booster consisted of two tanks stacked on top of each other. I was setting this rocket up to use Asparagus staging (first time).

Without realizing it mattered, I put the fuel sensor on the top tank. And was puzzled when the boosters would stage when only half empty.

I finally realized what was going on and moved the sensors to the lower tank, and everything started working properly.

It seems to me that in this case, the sensor should be smart enough to look at both tanks and only trigger when both are empty.

[Diazo]

(Not the smart parts dev.)

That is design limitation, the fuel sensor triggers when the tank it is attached to empties.

If you start trying to predict which tanks should be empty to trigger the fuel sensor, you get into a giant mess of trying to predict the player's purpose and you will guess wrong most of the time.

Especially once you start adding fuel lines. When calculating fuel flow, I do not believe there is any difference in the code between two stacked fuel tanks and two tanks connected by fuel lines.

Rather, to accomplish this I would look at implementing a "flameout sensor" you could attach to an engine that triggered when the engine flamed out. It would accomplish the goal you are trying to achieve (I think) and is much more practical to code.

(I don't have time to do this myself however, I am not the Smart Parts dev and my own mods are eating up all my time right now.)

D.

Edited February 26, 2015 by Diazo

[linuxgurugamer]

(Not the smart parts dev.)

That is design limitation, the fuel sensor triggers when the tank it is attached to empties.

If you start trying to predict which tanks should be empty to trigger the fuel sensor, you get into a giant mess of trying to predict the player's purpose and you will guess wrong most of the time.

Especially once you start adding fuel lines. When calculating fuel flow, I do not believe there is any difference in the code between two stacked fuel tanks and two tanks connected by fuel lines.

Rather, to accomplish this I would look at implementing a "flameout sensor" you could attach to an engine that triggered when the engine flamed out. It would accomplish the goal you are trying to achieve (I think) and is much more practical to code.

(I don't have time to do this myself however, I am not the Smart Parts dev and my own mods are eating up all my time right now.)

D.

That makes sense.

I guess then that this could be put into the category of documentation.

and Diazo, I love your mods as well.

Thank you

[Godit]

Suggestions:

1. Use textbox instead of slider (Like Mechjeb, RealChute, Hyperedit, etc). Slider is TOO restrictive...

Thanks for the great mod. Here's a feature request...

Now that StageRecovery can recover powered stages with a small amount of fuel remaining, the Drainex1 could be used to deactivate an engine and fire a decoupler with a precise amount of fuel remaining.

Currently the minimum amount the slider can achieve is 5%, and this is usually way more fuel than needed to fire a landing burn. I'd request a smaller increment on the slider, or a text box to input fuel / percent remaining.

[Azimech]

I've often looked at this beautiful plugin but never could find any use for it.

But if it could be expanded with this, it could become a real revolution!

[Enceos]

this plugin is awesome if you want to trigger actions on things without any command unit, or RT probes that go into the antennae blackout.

[illectro]

I came up with a few examples of fun things to do with smart parts - in particular if Remote Tech is installed there's some genuine uses for triggering parachutes and waiting to deploy antennae.

[Andersenman]

Congratulations, dtobi and Firov!

[MK3424]

Maybe a small request: i wanna build Atlas rockets and the boosters have to decouple when i reach 700m/s.

But there is no smart part that does that.... can you add it to the parts?

thanks in advance.

[Whirligig Girl]

Is it possible to have a part that keeps a vessel loaded? THis would be uber-useful for spacecraft recovery if they stayed loaded.

- - - Updated - - -

Maybe a small request: i wanna build Atlas rockets and the boosters have to decouple when i reach 700m/s.

But there is no smart part that does that.... can you add it to the parts?

thanks in advance.

What you'd want is for it to decouple when stage-2 twr would equal 1.2. (That is, the TWR when the boosters detach would become that)

[MK3424]

Is it possible to have a part that keeps a vessel loaded? THis would be uber-useful for spacecraft recovery if they stayed loaded.

- - - Updated - - -

What you'd want is for it to decouple when stage-2 twr would equal 1.2. (That is, the TWR when the boosters detach would become that)

I have been testing different twr launches and came to the same conclusion: everytime i stage when i reach 700m/s, it is the optimized way to get into orbit...

but i have found another way already: stage the booster when the tank reaches 40%.

[cttw]

Can we get a smart part that triggers on the presence/absense of atmosphere?