[1.12.x] Freight Transport Technologies [v0.6.0]

[Helmut]

7 hours ago, Aladine said:

WOW how did you get the fans to move like that?!  (Rotate)

Infernal Robotics mod.

[ChainiaC]

Hi. I must say I really love the ducted fan engines in this mod. However I am experiencing several issues:

1) A relatively minor and previously mentioned issue about the ducted fan VTOL engine only having 15 KN of thrust. But that is easily fixed by editing the config file.

2) A minor annoyance, but not too bad: It appears the ducted fans' thrust is reversed. I have to put them upside down (the 'danger' warning triangle texture upside down) for them to produce lift instead of downforce.

3) This is an absolute show stopper for me: The engines hardly draw any electric power at all. I can fly without a reactor or any form of power generation at full throttle, and in a minute I may have used up 1 or 2 EC. So using the engines this way feels way too much like cheating. Now I have played with the config file, but it turns out that I have to set the draw ratio to something obscene like 1500 for the power draw to become noticable. This does not feel right and I also am unsure what value to set, nor am I an expert on editing config files and what each value actually does. I suspect there is some underlying issue at work here.

Now I have tried several versions of FTT over the course of the last updates, from KSP 1.05 till 1.1.2 and have removed and re-installed FTT each time, and these issues unfortunately persist. I have even tried to install FTT without any other mods to rule out conflicts. I also do not have similar issues with the electric propeller from KAX for example. That one does use power as expected. 

If there is some other place where I should file an official bug report, please let me know. Of course if this is low on the priority list I understand and that is no problem. I just wanted to mention especially the power draw issue since it was not mentioned before as far as I am aware. T' is the reason I made an account here

 

 

[goldenpsp]

2 hours ago, ChainiaC said:

If there is some other place where I should file an official bug report,

https://github.com/BobPalmer/FTT/issues

[ChainiaC]

Thanks!

 

[Mystique]

On 5/1/2016 at 2:36 PM, ChainiaC said:

1) A relatively minor and previously mentioned issue about the ducted fan VTOL engine only having 15 KN of thrust. But that is easily fixed by editing the config file.

Was this issue addressed? I just tried this fan (first attempt to built fan-powered VTOL) and found out that it's generally only pumping monoprop in tanks at huge speed, but not moving ship anywhere.

P.S. What does "RCS port" tweakable in this engine means? Does it mean that it'll change its trust depending on control input similar to "throttle controlled avionics" mod or something else?

[Deathninja]

Tried the mod out as shipping kontainers out to my base via rocket is becoming a real ballache.

Am I right in thinking that it's pretty much useless as of 1.1.2 as the VTOLs can't cope? Also the lander legs I see in the OP only have a 15 or so crash tolerance so tend to explode under the weight of a Honey Badger?

[Torkoal101]

Hey RoverDude, are planning to add custom wheels for the mod parts? I think that that would be amazing! (Love the mod btw! :))

[ChainiaC]

I think the engines double as 'infinite' RCS thrusters and so use the standard RCS system combined with SAS to keep the craft in balance. That is what the 'magic' monoprop producing alternator is for. So no throttle control avionics inbuilt.

[Klaus]

Hi if I start with the FTT Folder Kerbal Space is hanging up. And the Kontainers are not changeable. I cannot switch between the resssources. Does anyone can help?

Ok forget it. I forgot the ressource Pack to install.

Edited May 6, 2016 by Klaus

[Coreador]

Anyone else having problems with RCS? I've noticed the following issue: I made a craft with several VTOL engines, and I when I try to activate RCS (via R key) I get the message "RCS deactivated; not enough thrust available".  The navball RCS light will not come on. Now I understand this is supposed to happen unless the VTOLs are under thrust, but this happens for me:

1. Even when all engines are under thrust, and

2. Even when there are other RCS devices on the craft that could provide RCS (needed for orbit), including both honey badger RCS and stock RCS.

I've tried this with all the parts' RCS enabled and disabled (via right click menu). Even with all VTOLs RCS disabled, I can't use non-VTOL RCS.

So, basically I can't use RCS on the craft at all. I believe at some points during my messing around with the design of this craft I had some RCS working from the VTOLs, but not anymore.  I just recently updated Karbonite to the latest; any possible conflict there (even though it's also USI)? FTT has been at 0.5.2.1 all along. KSP 1.1.2, Win64.

I just tried out an older design that uses the VTOLs and ducted fans... it works okay and can go into RCS mode, and uses the RCS thrusters from the ducted fans and the honey badger module (and maybe the VTOLs; not sure). So it doesn't seem to be a mod conflict. Maybe my craft is in some kind of weird state?

[toric5]

just a minor annoyance, would someone mind writing NFT/kerbalatomics patches for the nuke engines? (as in, they behave like an NFE reactor)

[panarchist]

@RoverDude - Love this mod, especially some of the Starlifter parts - they feature in the Interstellar ship I am building for my main game.

The Starlifter cargo rack is CLS passable, but the Kontainer03 "Kontainer Pod" part has no CLS definition.  Just sent you a Pull Request hoping you'll please add it on the next release.  Thanks for the awesome mod!

 

[RoverDude]

Will be happy to add it

[RoverDude]

0.5.4 - (KSP 1.1.3)
------------------
Dependency Updates

[PhantomC3PO]

Hi RoverDude, just wondering if you have an ISRU solution for LH2 in your mods? I have most of your's installed but can't figure out a way to generate the massive quantities of LH2 that would be required to run a huge freighter.

If this has been answered elsewhere, please forgive me.

[Fengist]

Hi Rover,

Have you considered the possibility of making your shipping containers dockable?  I attempted to mod something much like this once upon a time using a rack and docking ports on the containers in an 'attempt' to load them using parts from KAS and IR.  I found that docking ports don't work well on the ground.  Being able to lock and unlock containers from each other, much like the real ones, would add in a lot of possibilities. My attempt was prior to ModuleGrappleNode.  Perhaps something like that would work now?

[RoverDude]

Interesting idea   And there's even a node there already.

[DStaal]

The one problem I see with that idea is that to do it correctly you really want to be able to stack more than two high on occasion - and multiple docking ports on a single part don't work well.

Having another node on the other side might be nice in relation to that.  I could even see making one side a 'Kontainer Dock' port and have a stand-alone addon dock that can be fitted to the other side.  (Just a low profile frame, that fits the outside of the Kontainer.)

[Fengist]

On 7/11/2016 at 4:14 PM, DStaal said:

The one problem I see with that idea is that to do it correctly you really want to be able to stack more than two high on occasion - and multiple docking ports on a single part don't work well.

Having another node on the other side might be nice in relation to that.  I could even see making one side a 'Kontainer Dock' port and have a stand-alone addon dock that can be fitted to the other side.  (Just a low profile frame, that fits the outside of the Kontainer.)

Which is exactly why I pitched this idea over to Rover.  It will likely take some coding and Rover is more qualified in that department than I am.  That, and he already has the containers built and out the door.

In my attempt, I had a shipping container with a docking port on top and bottom  In order to keep things lined up, I created a rack that could hold 3 stacked containers and the container could be lowered into (via KAS and IR).  The rack also had a docking port on the bottom facing up.  The theory was, you attach the rack to the part where you wanted the containers stored, like a ship hull.  You then used a 'crane' to lower shipping containers into the rack and the first one in would dock with the rack.  The next one, docked on top of the first container and so on.

It did work, but it was iffy at best.  At times I could spend 10 minutes and not get a dock.  Other times, it would work perfect.  And you're right, undocking with 2 ports on one part... well... that's another story.

The way it's done in reality, there are 4 rotating pins on container chassis at the corners.  The container is lowered onto the chassis and then the 4 pins match 4 holes in the container. The pins are then rotated 90 degrees to lock the container onto the chassis.  You can see them clearly in this pic.

To stack them, they place 4 'portable' pins in the holes on the top corners.

The second container is lowered onto them and the handle is turned to lock both of them together.  Not the most elegant system, but it's simple and it works.

Not exactly practical for a KSP application but it may give Rover some ideas.... I hope...

Edited July 19, 2016 by Fengist

[adsii1970]

This is really a neat idea - but can the containers be loaded? Can they actually haul cargo?

[DStaal]

3 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

This is really a neat idea - but can the containers be loaded? Can they actually haul cargo?

Yep.  With the note that they don't have any built-in docking like we're talking about, so you'll have to come up with something there.  But it's not hard.

[kiwi1960]

I wish to report a bug...

Last night, I built a clipper ship and put the FTT ducted fans on it including a nuclear reactor (from the Near Future Electrical mod)

the ship flew very well... achieving 2000 meters height.

However, I then turned the reactor off and the fans were not drawing ANY power... I disabled the nuke totally, and the batteries... and they still worked.

Just a heads up on this... I think its been reported before but just adding my 2 cents worth.

Love this mod... but as it stands.... perpetual motion is impossible (at the moment) so this mod is very unrealistic.

 

[ruiluth]

Not sure where to report on the kontainers since they seem to be packed with several mods, but here seems to be a good place.

I was just noticing that LH2 densitites in the kontainer tanks is far higher than Nertea's cryo tanks. I'm not komplaining, as this is the only thing that enables many of my nuclear ships to pack enough hydrogen to complete their missions, but it is very unbalanced with his mod. Also, the tank klusters don't require any EC to cool, which makes them the best LH2 tanks in the game by light years. That said, thank you so much for tanks that store so much hydrogen!

[ChainiaC]

On 24 July 2016 at 11:47 PM, kiwi1960 said:

I wish to report a bug...

Last night, I built a clipper ship and put the FTT ducted fans on it including a nuclear reactor (from the Near Future Electrical mod)

the ship flew very well... achieving 2000 meters height.

However, I then turned the reactor off and the fans were not drawing ANY power... I disabled the nuke totally, and the batteries... and they still worked.

Just a heads up on this... I think its been reported before but just adding my 2 cents worth.

Love this mod... but as it stands.... perpetual motion is impossible (at the moment) so this mod is very unrealistic.

 

Yup, I reported the same issue before. The fans simply do not draw power. Or maybe a minuscule amount. If I turn the draw way up to obscene levels in the config file, like thousands of EC worth, then the draw becomes a little noticeable. I logged a github issue about that. 

Edited July 28, 2016 by ChainiaC
weird sentence

[Deewad]

Hello, I cant find a docking port for the 5m parts, does one exist? I'm not sure how I could build a big starlifter ship without assembling it in orbit