Reaction wheels flashing "Not enough electricity"

[Motokid600]

So im building a telescope with Hullcam VDS that can track targets. I need very high precision so I can track ascending rockets and objects in orbit. ( BHDArmory provides a 500km load distance when edited ) and I've almost got it. And what I've learned in trying to achieve precision is that balance is the key. When disabling SAS the telescope should remain fixed. And I nearly have that. Another thing I learned. The more reaction wheels the more precise the telescope. For the longest time I thought the opposite, but when you have a good balance SAS works wonders.

Now I have three sets of reaction wheels on this telescope. a very small set for slewing the telescope around ( all sets activated is to much torque and disturbs the base. ) a medium set and a large set upon which I activate once I fix the scope on the target. At first you can see the target ( Duna in this instance ) is off center in the view. So I activate my "medium" SAS and it centers the view so I can zoom in even more. So I figure the more SAS the better I can get this tracking. But the problem im having is when ALL SAS is activated the view starts to bob up and down. Couldn't figure out why until I saw the last set of reaction wheels activated flashing "Not enough electricity" Just for an instant. On and off. And you can see what its doing when zoomed in. Kill a set of reaction wheels and the view stabilizes again. So im hoping that if I can fix this issue I can get my targets centered in my view. Adding more batteries doesn't seem to do the trick... its almost as if the SAS is drawing more EC then the batteries can output. Despite my electric charge being pegged I can see the EC input next to it acting funny. So whats going on here?

Edited February 2, 2015 by Motokid600

[monophonic]

I just last night saw the same happen with a ship that had three Mk1 crew pods. The RWs of at least one pod (I didn't think to check the others) flashed that message even though there was 120 units of electric charge in the pods' batteries. The situation kept going for as long as I was in the shadow of Kerbin, but once in sunlight the batteries started filling and the message stopped.

I have no idea what the actual cause is, but I would like to know as well.

[Drew Kerman]

I see this as well when I right-click on probe cores with reaction wheels. Batteries are full, EC charge from solar panels is in excess of my drain rate, and yet it'll flash rapidly between "operational" and "not enough electric charge". No idea why

[Sampa]

sounds like the power draw and drain are actually in flux...try adding an extra set of batteries! As I like to say, when in doubt...MORE BATTERIES! just a suggestion. Also, I'd check to see what power consumption your telescope is supposed to have, then add more batteries and other electrical generation equipment as necessary!

[Slam_Jones]

I've had (frequent) situations when a reaction wheel will show "Not enough electricity," but will function perfectly normally.

[tsotha]

I suspect that message is a red herring. I get it on capsules with no other external reaction wheels when the SAS is actually directing it to do something.

IMO t's most likely what's going on here is you're bobbing because your reaction wheels are fighting each other. This happens a lot when you have a ship that has any "bend" in it - it's pretty common to have to disable SAS when you dock to a station to prevent the thing from shaking itself apart. Ideally you want all your reaction wheels in the same spot oriented the same way. Failing that you should think about disabling any that you don't need.

[Motokid600]

ive tried different placement of my reaction wheel setup. No matter what I try in terms of RW placement the scope still bobs up and down slightly with the last set of SAS turned on. Im pretty convinced its from the RW toggling on and off with that error. At first I though that maybe it is the RW's fighting eachothger. But if that were the case it'd happen a lot sooner. There are 26 reaction wheels on this telescope. I tend on posting pictures soon as I can. 2 of which are slow, slew control and the rest are strong, precision control for focusing in on a target. And it works. Every set of wheels I turn on gets the view more and more centered. But once I turn the last set on I get that message and the view starts to bob up and down.

Its strange because this is not a spacecraft. There isn't any week connections per say that may cause trouble with the RW's. So.. something is going on. The next thing ill try is activating all of them and one by one turn them off until that error disappears. Lol MORE BATTERIES? I have 24 of the largest KW batteries on the base, a dozen RTG's and as many solar panels I can fit.

Edited February 3, 2015 by Motokid600

[Sampa]

ive tried different placement of my reaction wheel setup. No matter what I try in terms of RW placement the scope still bobs up and down slightly with the last set of SAS turned on. Im pretty convinced its from the RW toggling on and off with that error. At first I though that maybe it is the RW's fighting eachothger. But if that were the case it'd happen a lot sooner. There are 26 reaction wheels on this telescope. I tend on posting pictures soon as I can. 2 of which are slow, slew control and the rest are strong, precision control for focusing in on a target. And it works. Every set of wheels I turn on gets the view more and more centered. But once I turn the last set on I get that message and the view starts to bob up and down.

Its strange because this is not a spacecraft. There isn't any week connections per say that may cause trouble with the RW's. So.. something is going on. The next thing ill try is activating all of them and one by one turn them off until that error disappears. Lol MORE BATTERIES? I have 24 of the largest KW batteries on the base, a dozen RTG's and as many solar panels I can fit.

Could you send me a download link to the craft you are making...I think a few tweaks might be needed to make it work, but I need to see it to better understand what is going one...

[Motokid600]

Yea that'd be great. Once I get on my pc ill get on it. Your gonna need HullcamVDS, Infernal Robotics ( for the swivel washers ), KW for the batteries. Hope that's not too much. Theres a few others ill trim off before I give it to ya.

Edit: I can loose the KW batteries if need be. Infact I may do that anyway.

Edited February 3, 2015 by Motokid600

[Motokid600]

Okay here is the telescope. Made a few tweaks. You don't need KW anymore. Just Hullcam, InfernalRobotics and I forgot to mention MechJeb ( Use SmartAss targeting controls )

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cjlii2dyee7kvmq/Observatroy%20Stock.craft?dl=0

Action Groups -

1 - Radial SAS

2 - Inline SAS

5 - Activate Camera

6 - Deactivate Camera ( can just hit 5, but just in case )

9 - Zoom In

10 - Zoom Out ( can just use scroll wheel. )

Make sure you disable both the inline and radial reaction wheels when moving the telescope around. When SmartAss fixes on a target turn them on. You'll see them begin to flash "not enough electricity" and when zoomed in you will see that the view bobbing which is in sync with that EC error. Now.. having said that I found something out. The accuracy increases greatly when I disable the HUD. ( F2 ) Its bizzare. target goes from off center to center when the HUD is disabled. So this issue is VERY close to being fixed. But it still bobs up and down which makes it hard to track rockets after so long.

Pictures.

The inline reaction wheels you see there were placed with EditorExtensions. Im hoping you don't need that to load the craft. I originally had just 8 of them clipped inside of the larger RW's, but I feared clipping could be the issue. It wasn't. And the radial RW's work as expected despite being... radial.

Duna and Ike from the ground. Easy shot in space, but when you gotta compensate for Kerbin's rotation not so much.. don't even bother trying to fine tune the view the controls are no where near fine enough even with capslock.

My Mun mission waiting to set out in Orbit. I find it strange that this practice isn't more popular. Again BHDArmory can give you a 500km loading distance. It opens up so many possibilities. Id like to actually make a thread soon to all my ventures ive been having with it. For the past week ive been landing all my stages back at the KSC while the rest goes to orbit on its own. Works almost too good.

Edited February 3, 2015 by Motokid600

[Alshain]

I recently had a similar problem. I'd launch a vessel into orbit, set up an Eve maneuver, and even though I had full electricity I couldn't control the craft. In the end I suspected a potential bug with using Precise Node to modify the maneuver node. If I used it only for readings, it didn't have a problem. I don't know if that is the same issue, but if you use Precise Node you may want try it without using it.

[Motokid600]

Worth a shot Alshain ill try removing that mod, see what it does.

[Alshain]

Worth a shot Alshain ill try removing that mod, see what it does.

I didn't have to remove it, I just made sure not to type in any of the number boxes. But it was only one time, I might have just got lucky and the problem didn't occur and it had nothing to do with Precise Node at all.

[Bilfr3d]

I'm fairly sure this is a confirmed bug with the SAS system reading how much electric charge is available. It'll still function if it says not enough electricity, as long as you actually have electricity on your ship... otherwise its right in what it says

[SPA]

any solar panels? if you have some, you may want to put at least one one each part of it. I had problem once were 1/2 of the ship had electricity from the panels, and the other didn't. if it still does it, then it really is a bug.

Edited February 5, 2015 by Master Tao
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