[1.1] RemoteTech v1.6.10 [2016-04-12]

[TothAval]

It would help to read the manual :-)

Anyway, the basics:

LGG

thx, most of them i figured out myself once i finished the network around kerbin. i only had problems getting into orbit with the probe, now that i know it's possible i will find a way to do it, new game here we come! thx for your help

[stevehead]

my main problem was that i couldn't achieve orbit with a probe before losing contact to mission control.

With my Remote Tech installations, I prefer using a Deep Space Network style setup on Kerbin (i.e. have ground stations setup ~120° apart that have enough range to reach the most distant planets, similar to what NASA has). This alleviates many of the issues of the initial network setup. Your first comsat will most likely be in LOS of one or two of the stations during its launch. Here's what I have in my settings file for the stations:

GroundStations
{
    STATION
    {
        Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc488
        Name = Mission Control
        Latitude = -0.131331503391266
        Longitude = -74.594841003418
        Height = 75
        Body = 1
        MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
        Antennas
        {
            ANTENNA
            {
                Omni = 1E+12
            }
        }
    }
    STATION
    {
        Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc489
        Name = Badlands Station
        Latitude = -1.582
        Longitude = 45.4843
        Height = 900
        Body = 1
        MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
        Antennas
        {
            ANTENNA
            {
                Omni = 1E+12
            }
        }
    }
    STATION
    {
        Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc48a
        Name = Crater Lake Peninsula
        Latitude = -9.9536
        Longitude = 163.9819
        Height = 75
        Body = 1
        MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
        Antennas
        {
            ANTENNA
            {
                Omni = 1E+12
            }
        }
    }
}

The ranges are a little overkill for most people, but I play with Outer Planets mod. I realize this removes much of the earlier difficulty of Remote Tech, but I personally find it a little tedious to have to setup an entire deep space network in Kerbin orbit; it's more fun for me to set these things up around other planets/moons, or setup something in solar orbit.

Edited May 26, 2015 by stevehead

[TothAval]

The ranges are a little overkill for most people, but I play with Outer Planets mod. I realize this removes much of the earlier difficulty of Remote Tech, but I personally find it a little tedious to have to setup an entire deep space network in Kerbin orbit; it's more fun for me to set these things up around other planets/moons, or setup something in solar orbit.

Cool, thx. This is really helpful! I play with outer planets mod too, so this should be fine, if not i can try different values. with this setup my modded game should be as perfect as possible, finally

i have to add this code in the savegame file right?

[stevehead]

It's the "RemoteTech_Settings.cfg" file under GameData/RemoteTech. The file is not included initially with Remote Tech, it's generated the first time you start KSP with it installed. That is where you add what I have above, just look for the GroundStations node. If you screw up, just delete the file and Remote Tech will generate a new one.

Edited May 26, 2015 by stevehead

[TothAval]

thx a lot! +1rep

[stevehead]

Thanks! Glad I could help

[Dunbaratu]

In theory you can have 100% coverage with 4 satellites in a tethraedron constellation, but they're hard as hell to launch and synch. If I'd go that way I'd probably write some kos code to help me.

Uhhh... It literally cannot remain as a tetrahedron all the time. You can put a triangle in orbit around Kerbin, with Kerbin at its center, sure, but the 4th point has to be in a polar or at least inclined orbit that is not in line with the other 3, and that means it's going to move relative to the plane of the other three, going above and below them, and in that process occasionally collapse into a 2-D shape as it passes through the plane of the other 3.

I usually go with 5 sats - 3 in an equatorial triangle that only have local range to Kerbin/Mun/Minmus, and then 2 polar ones opposite of each other that have the longer range antenna for interplanetary work. The 3 in a triangle form the local connection to KSC, and then they relay through the 2 polar ones to the rest of the solar system. I use 2 to ensure that one is always exposed. With only 1 going polar, it can pass behind kerbin and be blocked.

The thing I find hard about remotetech is that I like to play Career mode, and remotetech won't give you antennae that reach Duna until after you've upgraded your science center, and if you're playing hard mode, there just isn't enough money to do that until after you've fully exhausted all the lucrative contracts in the local moons around Kerbin. It get really grindy and dull trying to get to the point where you can make an antenna that reaches another planet.

[Pyromaniacal]

Actually, no, still having the same problem. I have checked on the tutorial, and have seen the recommended dish amounts, and I still have a probe that is more battery than anything else. Planning for 25 minutes without sunlight to my panels, I still need around 5k charge. Is this normal, and are there workarounds?

Edited May 26, 2015 by Pyromaniacal
I am horrible at reading back pages.

[SacaSoh]

Hey guys, first time using this mod and I have an issue (searched for solution for half an hour, found an old - solved - bug on issue tracker): when I build a ship with a remote controlled core I can't launch the vessel (purple light on launch).

I got the connection to VAB (tested with antennas, and the stability enhancer also connects it to VAB) - I can move the control surfaces, open bays, etc., but can't unlock stage (MOD + L). Do any of you now what can it be? I'm only using the mods that everyone here used... FAR, MechJeb, StockBugFix (disable the fix related to Antennas description)...

Thank you!

[Qigon]

I can't speak with experience for kOS. It's possible programs will run on their own, but you'll be unable to enter terminal commands without a connection, just a guess though.

Unless you hit a bug, you can type a command while in contact with ksc and it keeps running indefinitely, until you lose electricity or switch vessels. I think in both cases kos reboots, if that's true you can still put something interesting in boot.ks

Uhhh... It literally cannot remain as a tetrahedron all the time. You can put a triangle in orbit around Kerbin, with Kerbin at its center, sure, but the 4th point has to be in a polar or at least inclined orbit that is not in line with the other 3, and that means it's going to move relative to the plane of the other three, going above and below them, and in that process occasionally collapse into a 2-D shape as it passes through the plane of the other 3.

You must put them all in different inclinations and crossing the equator at different places. The original patent uses elliptical orbits but you can have them circular for making your job simpler.

https://youtu.be/mMv3MrlB6SQ

[Qigon]

Actually, no, still having the same problem. I have checked on the tutorial, and have seen the recommended dish amounts, and I still have a probe that is more battery than anything else. Planning for 25 minutes without sunlight to my panels, I still need around 5k charge. Is this normal, and are there workarounds?

That's a lot of time to be blocked, and that's a lot of charge for that amount of time. What's your setup and what would you like to accomplish? The post before yours by Steven is very sound and not hard to put up.Start with the smallest dish and a not so large equatorial orbit, the smaller the less shadow you get.

I like to have my 2 interplanetary dishes in polar Molnar/tundra orbits. They get a lot of sun and rely on the equatorial constellation, so they're loaded with big dishes . Basically I use very elliptic 3-9 days orbits, ,so they spend 90% of the time high, then zip to the other hemisphere and go back very high again.

Never got to another planet though... I think they're over planned because I'm an engineer...

[Pyromaniacal]

I'm looking to set up a Keosync network, so I can be sure I always have something able to pipe signal wherever it needs to go. I don't have interplanetary missions planned yet, and I still haven't done a Munar flyby. It's in the works, but I want to have a satellite network up first.

The build is three DTS-M1s and a Reflectron KR-7. I planned for power for constant use of the dishes as well as the power draw from the probe body. The time in shadow is a rough, highball estimate. I prefer to have a little bit of elbow room for that sort of thing.

[Farix]

Actually, no, still having the same problem. I have checked on the tutorial, and have seen the recommended dish amounts, and I still have a probe that is more battery than anything else. Planning for 25 minutes without sunlight to my panels, I still need around 5k charge. Is this normal, and are there workarounds?

1) Determine what the specific mission of that satellite is. Is it just for local communications or Deep Space?

2) Actually consider what altitude will give you the best results. You don't need to put your satellites in geostationary orbit. It fact, I think that a geostationary orbit for a high powered deep space satellite is a terrible idea because of the long period of time the satellite will not get any sunlight to stay powered. Lower orbits means shorter "dark" periods.

For example, a simple commutations systems that covers Kerbin's SoI, all you need are three equatorial satellites with two DTS-M1s dishes (one pointed at each moon) and one Communotron 16 antenna (general communications) each. Just set the satellites in orbit between 700k to 750k and you are good to go.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Farix

[blu3wolf]

Id start with a smaller, 3 or 4 sat 'bootstrap' network to get initial coverage. Then you can pull yourself up with your bootstraps and build the bigger sats once you have more science from say mun landings.

[Dunbaratu]

Unless you hit a bug, you can type a command while in contact with ksc and it keeps running indefinitely, until you lose electricity or switch vessels. I think in both cases kos reboots, if that's true you can still put something interesting in boot.ks

One thing I'd like to see fixed in kOS, but it's in an area I have never touched yet so I'm leaving it for others, is that it currently is bugged in that if you have RT installed it utterly ignores the presence of live crew in the vessel. They don't matter. (You need a connection back to headquarters to make the kOS computer execute any command. It presumes the pilot sitting a few meters away in the command pod has absolutely zero connection to the computer whatsoever.)

You must put them all in different inclinations and crossing the equator at different places. The original patent uses elliptical orbits but you can have them circular for making your job simpler.

https://youtu.be/mMv3MrlB6SQ

Ugh that's just not worth the effort. One more satellite for the 5-sat config (3 equatorial, 2 polar) seems fine by me.

[jordanjay29]

One thing I'd like to see fixed in kOS, but it's in an area I have never touched yet so I'm leaving it for others, is that it currently is bugged in that if you have RT installed it utterly ignores the presence of live crew in the vessel. They don't matter. (You need a connection back to headquarters to make the kOS computer execute any command. It presumes the pilot sitting a few meters away in the command pod has absolutely zero connection to the computer whatsoever.)

That's funny how close to the real world that was, at least for Apollo. The onboard computer was originally designed to calculate the final Lunar insertion burn on its own, but NASA later decided to calculate it with Earthbound computers. It was too late in the design process to change the computer, so it was bigger and heavier than it needed to be for the mission.

[linuxgurugamer]

You state that the range is a bit excessive, so what would be a more reasonable range for a normal Kerbin system?

With my Remote Tech installations, I prefer using a Deep Space Network style setup on Kerbin (i.e. have ground stations setup ~120° apart that have enough range to reach the most distant planets, similar to what NASA has). This alleviates many of the issues of the initial network setup. Your first comsat will most likely be in LOS of one or two of the stations during its launch. Here's what I have in my settings file for the stations:

GroundStations
{
    STATION
    {
        Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc488
        Name = Mission Control
        Latitude = -0.131331503391266
        Longitude = -74.594841003418
        Height = 75
        Body = 1
        MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
        Antennas
        {
            ANTENNA
            {
                Omni = 1E+12
            }
        }
    }
    STATION
    {
        Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc489
        Name = Badlands Station
        Latitude = -1.582
        Longitude = 45.4843
        Height = 900
        Body = 1
        MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
        Antennas
        {
            ANTENNA
            {
                Omni = 1E+12
            }
        }
    }
    STATION
    {
        Guid = 5105f5a9-d628-41c6-ad4b-21154e8fc48a
        Name = Crater Lake Peninsula
        Latitude = -9.9536
        Longitude = 163.9819
        Height = 75
        Body = 1
        MarkColor = 0.996078,0,0,1
        Antennas
        {
            ANTENNA
            {
                Omni = 1E+12
            }
        }
    }
}

The ranges are a little overkill for most people, but I play with Outer Planets mod. I realize this removes much of the earlier difficulty of Remote Tech, but I personally find it a little tedious to have to setup an entire deep space network in Kerbin orbit; it's more fun for me to set these things up around other planets/moons, or setup something in solar orbit.

[stevehead]

You state that the range is a bit excessive, so what would be a more reasonable range for a normal Kerbin system?

Something like the following would work:

Omni = 4E+11

That is also the max range of the Reflectron GX-128 dish antenna in the stock version (goes beyond Eeloo), so that would cover the max transmission range you would have directly to Kerbin. The value I had originally posted is just slightly more than the maximum GX-128's range for Outer Planets mod, which doubles its range; why I increased it from 800 gigameters to 1 terameter, I don't recall... might had been a MM config I was using that increased the ranges of the antennas or something. It really depends on the restrictions you want.

Useful ranges (some from the RT wiki):

# Original RT ground station range, covers Minmus
Omni = 7.5E+07


# Reflectron KR-7 range, covers Kerbin SOI
Omni = 9E+07


# Comm. 88-88 range, covers Duna
Omni = 4E+10


# Reflectron KR-14 range, covers Dres
Omni = 6E+10


# Covers Jool
Omni = 9E+10


# Covers Eeloo
Omni = 1.5E+11


# CommTech-1 / Reflectron GX-128 ranges, covers beyond Eeloo <--- Max. coverage in stock solar system
Omni = 4E+11


# (Outer Planets Mod) Covers Sarnus
Omni = 2E+11


# (Outer Planets Mod) CommTech-1 range, covers Urlum
Omni = 3.5E+11


# (Outer Planets Mod) Covers Neidon
Omni = 5E+11


# (Outer Planets Mod) Covers Plock
Omni = 7E+11


# (Outer Planets Mod) Reflectron GX-128 range, covers beyond Plock <--- Max. coverage in Outer Planets Mod
Omni = 8E+11

Edited May 27, 2015 by stevehead
more ranges

[linuxgurugamer]

Thank you

LGG

Something like the following would work:

Omni = 4E+11

That is also the max range of the Reflectron GX-128 dish antenna in the stock version (goes beyond Eeloo), so that would cover the max transmission range you would have directly to Kerbin. The value I had originally posted is just slightly more than the maximum GX-128's range for Outer Planets mod, which doubles its range; why I increased it from 800 gigameters to 1 terameter, I don't recall... might had been a MM config I was using that increased the ranges of the antennas or something. It really depends on the restrictions you want.

Useful ranges (some from the RT wiki):

# Original RT ground station range, covers Minmus
Omni = 7.5E+07


# Reflectron KR-7 range, covers Kerbin SOI
Omni = 9E+07


# Comm. 88-88 range, covers Duna
Omni = 4E+10


# Reflectron KR-14 range, covers Dres
Omni = 6E+10


# Covers Jool
Omni = 9E+10


# Covers Eeloo
Omni = 1.5E+11


# CommTech-1 / Reflectron GX-128 ranges, covers beyond Eeloo <--- Max. coverage in stock solar system
Omni = 4E+11


# (Outer Planets Mod) Covers Sarnus
Omni = 2E+11


# (Outer Planets Mod) CommTech-1 range, covers Urlum
Omni = 3.5E+11


# (Outer Planets Mod) Covers Neidon
Omni = 5E+11


# (Outer Planets Mod) Covers Plock
Omni = 7E+11


# (Outer Planets Mod) Reflectron GX-128 range, covers beyond Plock <--- Max. coverage in Outer Planets Mod
Omni = 8E+11

[AlexTheNotSoGreat]

Anybody know where to find the settings file where I can turn off signal delay?

In the Mod file, there is a "settings.cfg" file and there is, in that, a "SignalDelayEnabled" setting you can disable.

[linuxgurugamer]

@Peppie23

A suggestion for a small improvement, or addition:

There is a way to set up more groundstations, but they are static. Would it be possible to have groundstations be treated as science, so that (if configured) as more science is unlocked more groundstations become available?

LGG

[panzerwaffe044]

Awesome mod!!! Thanks to the developers. I'm a new KSP player and I have two little questions: is planets' terrain modelled as smooth round sphere or objects like mountains and canyons affect signal? Is there any gameplay way to regain control of a satellite if you for example forgot to extend antenna, may be there are some mods that allow to send a mission and repeir the satellite on EVA (like Hubble telescope) and turn it on back?

[OminousPenguin]

I'd like to bump my suggestion of reducing the antenna masses to more realistic figures.

Ah yes good point. The fixed ones that can tolerate atmospheric stress should be heavier, but still no where near what they are.

The 0.9m antenna on the GPM satellite has a mass of 24kg including two gimballing motors. ^[ref]

This 10m antenna has a mass of 230 kg. ^[ref] Note that this antenna is for a radio telescope rather than data communications and so will have different physical requirements... and it's 10m.

http://www.wtec.org/loyola/satcom2/fhc_02.jpg

I'll revise my suggestions: KR-7: 35kg, KR-14: 50kg, CommTech-1:90kg and GX-128: 120kg. - I still think these are a bit high but I think they're balanced for gameplay.

cassini has a ~118 kg antenna with ~27 more kg of stuff needed for communications

- - - Updated - - -

lol, didn't see your post when I was writing mine.

I think it's safe to say everything should be put into the "Antenna", you can take out the processing stuff as those can be already covered by the core I guess

Anyway it's between 118 and 145 which is pretty much inside the leeway you would expect when going from IRL to KSP

[Gryphon]

Awesome mod!!! Thanks to the developers. I'm a new KSP player and I have two little questions: is planets' terrain modelled as smooth round sphere or objects like mountains and canyons affect signal? Is there any gameplay way to regain control of a satellite if you for example forgot to extend antenna, may be there are some mods that allow to send a mission and repeir the satellite on EVA (like Hubble telescope) and turn it on back?

I don't know for certain about terrain effects.

For the second one, I believe you can force an antenna open on EVA, even in stock KSP. If you wish to add components to a ship, you might take a look at KIS and KAS. If don't want that, you can certainly extend a satellite if you include a docking port. I've done that in past games, to upgrade my comm sats with improved power modules.

I'd like to bump my suggestion of reducing the antenna masses to more realistic figures.

I believe there have been several discussions in the FAR thread noting that stock parts both smaller and heavier than their real life counterparts. These discussions were about the difficulties of creating replica aircraft that have performance like the real thing.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Gryphon

[carlorizzante]

Great mod, one of my very favorite.

Thanks!

ps. Now gotta delve into the manual 'cos at day one in Career mode I'm already lost... :-D