How does the Kethane Converter work?

[THobson]

On the Mun I have a heavy kethane drill connected by pipe to a large kethane storage tank, which is connected by pipe to the large kethane converter which is connected by a pipe to a large (orange) empty fuel tank. The drill is working and the storage tank is filling up with kethane, but when I turn on the kethane converter nothing happens. It gives me the option to deactivate the fuel and oxidiser conversion implying that they are in fact active but nothing is taken out of the kethane storage tank and no fuel or oxidiser is created. There is no shortage of electrical charge. I do have batteries on top of the converter and I also have four hard points on the side but I was careful to avoid the four drawer shaped protrusions. It says the cooling is 100% efficient.

Any ideas?

Edited February 18, 2014 by THobson

[Javster]

Fuel line has to feed backwards: from tank to converter

[DMagic]

Go here for more info: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/35664-Kethane-Usage-and-Proper-Fuel-Routing

In short, you need a direct line for fuel flow from the fuel tank to the converter. You can use fuel transfer pipes for this, or you can setup your vessel with a fuel tank connected to the converter in the right way. The safest way is to attach a fuel tank directly to the converter, then transfer fuel manually if you have to.

And if by pipe, you mean KAS pipe, then you should know that fuel doesn't flow through them, at least not in the way you might expect. You have to manually transfer fuel across KAS pipes when using a Kethane converter.

[THobson]

Thanks I will have a look at this. Yes I do mean the KAS pipes. They seem to transfer kethane from the drill to the tank with no problem. Also they seem to dock whatever they are connected to, so the drill, the storage tank the converter and the empty fuel tank are now all one vessel.

[DMagic]

Thanks I will have a look at this. Yes I do mean the KAS pipes. They seem to transfer kethane from the drill to the tank with no problem. Also they seem to dock whatever they are connected to, so the drill, the storage tank the converter and the empty fuel tank are now all one vessel.

Yeah, Kethane flows like monopropellant, it doesn't matter how it's connected as long as is it's on the same vessel. KAS pipes sort of work like docking, but apparently not entirely. This screws up fuel flow and causes this issue, there is a really in-depth tutorial on fuel flow that explains exactly how it works. The easiest way to set it up is to attach a little fuel tank to the converter then use TAC fuel balancer to shift around, this is much better than manually filling up a bunch of tanks.

[Hodo]

If you are running Kethane, I also suggest TAC Fuel Balancer. It will make life so much easier when dealing with those tanks and any fuel tanks for that matter.

[THobson]

Many thanks to you all. I have not got it working.