Kethane question - station/base conversion setup

[Somtaaw]

Not totally sure if this is the proper place to put a question about designing a Kethane station hub, but I'll leave this here.

I've been really getting into designing, and updating, and updating my station and while I've had Kethane for a while, I've used it primarily for scanning. Now I think I'm ready to orbit the beginnings of long-term converters. I've tried reading a bit on the Kethane wiki, and while it's been loosely helpful it doesn't compare to getting direct answers from people with experience with the mod. I've gone with, what I feel might be oversized battery storage, and power generation, because I might do conversion's mid-flight on longer missions to setup a station in orbit of say Eeloo. And I generally do not put more than a handful of solar arrays on my ships, because they have low power requirements, so my primary orbital Kethane conversion needs to be as close to self-contained as possible.

http://i.imgur.com/aCTerLU.png <- is the core of what I've been considering as part of my ultra-modular station components.

http://i.imgur.com/Ho2KJx0.png <- is my primary fuel hub design at this time, which is where the new Kethane converters will link upto.

http://i.imgur.com/8UPp2Dg.png <- an action shot of my station, ever being updated as I learn and update & refine my designs. 1 of the fuelhubs is about 2 iterations in the past, and the other needs to be replaced with the newer model.

Now my question really is, for my Kethane Converter, will it operate with how I'm designing it? Wiki states sometimes you don't need fuel lines, and sometimes you do. I do not have any of the mods that allows me to add parts, struts, lines on after the fact. Since I'm trying to build this without those mods, I need to know prior to liftoff if I need fuel tanks mounted. Thus getting opinions from people with experience.

and for a nice simple TL:DR

-I haven't built any Kethane, I want a self-contained orbital converter that doesn't need mods to actually work.

Kiith Somtaaw clear,

[DMagic]

Kethane conversion can be tricky when using docking or radial connections. You need a path from the fuel tank to the converter for it to work. The simplest solution is to attach a small fuel tank directly to the converter, this will always work, even if it does require manual fuel transfer in some cases.

[nli2work]

as it is in your screencap the converter don't do anything except output monopropellant, it has no place to output the LF and OX. I tend to put a small Kethane tank on the bottom, a large converter above it, then a medium to large LF/OX tank on top. Monopropellant tank isn't as picky since it has all vessel flow, and can be placed anywhere. You generally will convert much faster than you can mine, unless you are using Kethane generators to power multiple large drills.

[Somtaaw]

Ideally the Docking port would be connected to one of the large LF/OX tanks, at one end or the other.

But if my current design will only produce mono, that's good feedback. I'll redesign to put in one of the small 2.5m tanks, and just constantly move the LF/OX manually after it's converted.

[nli2work]

LF/OX tank needs to be directly attached to the converter, or be connected with fuel lines. The converter will stop LF/OX conversion when LF/OX tank(s) directly connected to it is full, even if you have other empty tanks on the vessel. One way to simplify all this is use TAC fuel balancer and set it to Balance All... that way any outputs from the converter is automatically distributed over the entire vessel. stock fuel transfer in KSP is pretty tedious.

[Somtaaw]

Given how I've been building my modular station; I've been eying upgrading to using the TAC fuel balance. I've been trying really hard to run fairly mod-free, because I like the challenge.

http://i.imgur.com/8UPp2Dg.png - an action shot of my space station; the converter packs I'm thinking about will just connect directly onto any of the nice large 2.5m end points. And as you can see, the main "command center" with it's modular living quarters connecting to a Mobile Lab has no less than 12 small mono tanks, and each fuel hub has 2 of the large 2.5m monoprop tanks, not counting the tremendous fuel bunkerage of LF/OX I have.

I'll post an updated pic of the new Kethane converter I'm considering shortly. Thanks for the great feedback, it's helpful since as I said, I haven't yet done more than some light scanning, and tried a driller (that didn't work out too well, but is a WIP). I prefer looking at the macro scale and ensuring the factories and foundries are in place before looking to micro of drillers and transports.

[nli2work]

Looks very nice!

If you are planning to convert in orbit, best to make a simple Kethane transport, and leave the converter unit at the station in orbit. If you land a converter, it's more economical to convert planet side and transport the fuel to the station afterwards. The whole operation is best done on bodies with low gravity and no atmosphere. It's cheaper to just launch fuel from KSC to refill a station in Kerbin orbit.

Default Kethane fields are rather small, with the largest fields at about 450k units, and smallest just over 100k... you will mine it dry very quickly if you have a moderate to large operation. so might want to keep the mining side fairly mobile.

Edited June 18, 2014 by nli2work