Prevent KSP from using all my batteries/RCS fuel at once.

[Stofn]

Hi guys,

I can't seem to find anything around this subject in KSP or on the internet about it either.

Whenever I use RCS or anything involving electricity KSP uses all of my batteries/ RCS fuel canisters at once, with no added improvement.

For example a rover, it will have 4 batteries at 100 power, i run the wheels for a bit and they are ALL at 95 power. They all diminish at the same rate. The only way i can stop this is to cut off the supply from the the battery/RCS fuel until there is only one battery/RCS fuel left to supply.

I say this because lets say I have a limited amount of RCS for a mission and it uses all of it up in the launch...

Anyway, I want to know if there is a quick way to stop KSP using all the energy/fuel at the same time that does not involve right clicking and cutting the flow. Whether it be action groups or what?

Cheers in advance.

Edited November 22, 2014 by Stofn

[robopilot99]

I don't think so. Those resources have they're own flow rules. I heard somewhere that RCS and electricity is consumed on lower stages for.

[giddonah]

Try the TAC Fuel Balancer mod. You can set balancing schemes for each resource. I use it to make sure my off-axis fuel tanks are balanced when moving fuels around. I had one tank drain faster than the other once (I transferred fuel to another ship or something), and my ship would end up spinning because the RCS couldn't overcome the mass imbalance.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Hi guys,

I can't seem to find anything around this subject in KSP or on the internet about it either.

Whenever I use RCS or anything involving electricity KSP uses all of my batteries/ RCS fuel canisters at once, with no added improvement.

For example a rover, it will have 4 batteries at 100 power, i run the wheels for a bit and they are ALL at 95 power. They all diminish at the same rate. The only way i can stop this is to cut off the supply from the the battery/RCS fuel until there is only one battery/RCS fuel left to supply.

I say this because lets say I have a limited amount of RCS for a mission and it uses all of it up in the launch...

Anyway, I want to know if there is a quick way to stop KSP using all the energy/fuel at the same time that does not involve right clicking and cutting the flow. Whether it be action groups or what?

Cheers in advance.

I don't think existing action groups can switch flow on batteries and RCS tanks, no. However, in the spirit of being helpful, I'd like to note that you shouldn't really be using up your RCS on launch in the first place, and I don't think there is ever a drawback to massless ElectricCharge being drawn from all its sources at once, so it's rarely a problem.

If you need launch stability on takeoff, consider investing in some Vernor engines. They use regular fuel and oxidizer, have the same efficiency as RCS thrusters, and more thrust - so you can use action groups to toggle your regular RCS thrusters on and off, so that they don't fire and waste monopropellant while the stages with Vernors are still attached. If you just need it for the early stages of takeoff, winglets and other aerodynamic control surfaces can serve you much better than RCS as well.

[giddonah]

Well, If you're staging batteries, you want the first stages to drain first, so you don't eject charged batteries keeping half-charged batteries on your ship.

[Taki117]

While KSP uses RCS and Electricity evenly, it does not pull the equivalent amount from each tank.

Example for clarity:

(Numbers chosen to make math easy)

I have a ship with 100 units of Monopropellant distributed between 4 tanks such that each tank has 25 monopropellant.

I perform a docking maneuver (Or some other RCS operation) and use 25 monopropellant. Each tank drains by 6.25 units leaving me with a balanced ship and 18.75 units in each tank for 75 total units.

If I were to draw from tanks sequentially and used the same amount of monopropellant one tank would be completely empty which would shift my CoM towards the full tanks, and while this would not be an issue on larger ships, on a smaller ship RCS, which was perfectly balanced before, is no longer balanced which would make any further docking maneuvers more difficult because of the unwanted torque produced by the shifted CoM.

[Slam_Jones]

I typically put a few extra batteries, mono containers and disable their auto-feed. (Right click on it, click the green arrow so it's a red X)

Then just re-enable it when you need it.

[Red Iron Crown]

Both monoprop and battery charge use staging priority, which boils down to: Drain containers with the most decouplers between them and the root part first. If you can spare the mass, separate your batteries/mp tanks with decouplers and they'll drain sequentially.

Edited November 23, 2014 by Red Iron Crown
Fixed an error pointed out below.

[Stofn]

Alright, cheers for the help guys, especially Taki117 for the clarification about weight distribution. Ill just have to cut the flow to certain containers.

[ExplorerKlatt]

Both monoprop and battery charge use staging priority, which boils down to: Drain containers with the most decouplers between them and the root part first. If you can spare the mass, separate your batteries/mp tanks with decouplers and they'll drain sequentially.

This is partially wrong. ElectricCharge uses the ALL_VESSEL flow type. Therefore, EC will be used across the entire vessel.

[Red Iron Crown]

This is partially wrong. ElectricCharge uses the ALL_VESSEL flow type. Therefore, EC will be used across the entire vessel.

You're right, thanks for the correction. I think I was mixing up EC and xenon.