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POSSIBLE THEORY:

This may not have been tested by anyone yet.

The solar reactor may produce power for engines when the Main is online, but out of fuel. Theoretically, it shuts down at that point, however, I cannot test it at this point. (Gotta go to WORK here soon, or I'd be having some... EXPERIMENTS! *Lightling crashes and thunder booms.*)

Anyone got time for a test experiment?

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quote:

but i think i noticed, that with the power allottment and maximum, the panels seemed to gather light more effeciently .

And therefore since the Manual says that Distance is a factor you would use a higher setting if you were farther away from a source.

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king_cam, congratulations on finding out something that was already stated in the first post of this thread.

Tigerclaw, read 10th post on page 3.

Mike113 and capt. Ethan,

quote:

quote:

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but i think i noticed, that with the power allottment and maximum, the panels seemed to gather light more effeciently .

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And therefore since the Manual says that Distance is a factor you would use a higher setting if you were farther away from a source.


This would mean that when you orientate your ship so it gets 50 units of solar power, then go to Logistics and fiddle with the SR setting, you would have to see the solar power output change in accordance with the changing SR-setting and this does not occur (as stated about 20 times by now). How do you even know the distance to the solar source?

quote:

Originally posted by SC:

...no, I'm NOT going to say who is closer to the truth.

You're not?

Then why did you write:

quote:

But I must say that the last batch of four posts are a LOT closer to the truth than previously imagined.

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That narrows it down to me, you and Stone. However that still leaves us with a broad set of theories that remain to be tested.

Among things we know... We know that the SR works with non-military components onboard.

This leaves I would guess, life support, power, and engines as the most LOGICAL allocation systems.

Next, we know the SR doesn't do anything OBVIOUS to the naked eye besides take up power.

Third, we know it USES power to do whatever it does.

Fourth, Mother allocates it as a priority item in Low and critical power status situations.

Fifth, from observation, we know it doesn't take the place of the NR core as far as powering engines directly. And it can run without the engines, or the NR for that matter.

So what are we left with?

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Well, the SR "eats" power and it doesn't care whether it was original Nuclear or Solar.

You want the SR to give something (usefull) back for that power.

While reviewing some findings on plutonium-consumption I noticed again a change in the way the "pwr: 100% plvl: 2003" bar is showed.

Sometimes no characters are highlighted, sometimes only the last two, sometimes the complete bar is highlighted.

It changes its highlighted portion in respect to where the sun is.

When sun is above: last two digits are highlighted.

Between 88 and 92 (using pitch) Solar power, the bar is completely highlighted. Below 88 only the last two digits again.

Between 10 and -10 (sun is in the F1-screen, -10 reads as 0 power and I only use it to give an approx of the angle) its highlighted completely.

Then nothing is highlighted until the power output gets above zero.

If you do the same using "roll" iso "pitch" you will find a different behaviour.

Don't know what it does but it bears some relation with the angle of starlight (or grid).

Whether something is highlighted are not is not under the influence of the SR-setting sadly.

First I need some sleep, later today I will try to put a head and a tail on it.

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quote:


Originally posted by dreadx:

quote:

Originally posted by SC:

...no, I'm NOT going to say who is closer to the truth.


You're not?

Then why did you write:

quote:


But I must say that the last batch of four posts are a LOT closer to the truth than previously imagined.


And exactly which part of the plain English text in the above, did you not understand? Why not read BOTH excerpts again, SLOWLY this time?

If you can't understand that, good luck trying to figure out the solar reactor. No wonder that, even though its in the manual, most of you guys are still playing silly guessing games.

quote:


Originally posted by Kenworthy:

I think thats more of a graphical anommoylie than some weird indicator.


heh, yep. Clutching at straws, isn't he?

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I've read again the part of the manual that explain how the LOGISTIX/POWER section works but I found no clue to address the problem....

The manual say that if you change the power setting of a system and you allocate more power to it, the result should be that the system perform more efficiently; on the other hand no apparent change in the performance of the solar panels and solar reactor are noticeable...

Can you please SC point us to the manual page or section you're referring at?

I'd like to figure out the thing myself but I have to admit that I'm beginning to think about surrender to my incompetence....

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Quite frankly, I've lost track of - and interest - as to what the issue is. Thats what happens when eight pages later, the thread devolves to rubbish.

OK, let's see here...

Q: What happens if the NR runs out of Radine or is intentionally shutdown?

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quote:


Originally posted by DennyMala:

The point is not what the solar reactor is or what it do..... is what is the difference between the power settings that you can allocate to it; what changes if I set it to 5 or to 10?


I've tryed to refocus the topic some times...and this is one of those...

The question is how the power setting of the solar reactor affect it's performance. Since we have tryed to observe different power settings without noticing any difference we came up with this debate.

I hope this will refresh the meaning of the topic and your interest....so that we could finally got an answer and close this mess....

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P.S.: (edit time elapsed ) Another thing that lead us to investigate is the fact that even if you cut completely the power to the SR putting the power setting at 0, it will continue to work normally and supply the ship with power regardless of the power allocation; this suggest that it cannot be shut down.

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quote:

but i think i noticed, that with the power allottment and maximum, the panels seemed to gather light more effeciently .

This is a theory mentioned, and possible observation, dictating a direct affect of the settings

quote:

First, SR with 10 units and sun directly above ship (solar power output 99).

Radine usage:

34, 33, 32, 34, 35, 36, 36, 35, 36, 29, 33

Plutonium usage:

13, 12, 13, 13, 13, 14, 13, 13, 14, 11, 12

Second, SR with 0 units and sun directly above (power output 99).

Radine usage:

33, 35, 24, 38, 34, 31, 34, 36

Plutonium usage:

12, 13, 9, 12, 13, 8, 8, 8

and this appears to be the confirmatin of the previous observation.

Soooooo, SC, does this close the matter, for those of us who are a little slow, in understanding the entire process.....as described within the manual??? or is there more, we apparantly "blind mice", have missed?

Please???

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Confirmation of what?

Seems like to me that the fuel consumption does not change....the numbers in the two cases are so close that the difference is almost not visible...

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Thats right it doesnt make much difference in the fuel consumption, im thinking that the reactor setting, increases the power you gain when the solar panels are facing a star, when the NR is switched off. Yes it uses power, but it pumps out more in compensation.

The other alternate idea is that it increases the amount of time you can run when the NR is off and the solar panels are not recieving much light.

These are the only two things I can think of at the moment, if either is right please please chime in SC, I will test this when I get a chance.

I think we are starting to get close here guys

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*sigh*

The SR has an internal battery where it stores converted solar energy as power units. This system has a decay system. What that does is, if the NR is offline or the SR does not have power allocated, it [sR] can still function, long enough for you to sort out whatever mishap caused the NR to shutdown in the first place.

If the SR went immediately offline when the NR itself goes offline (thereby not allocating power to the SR) or stops allocating power to the SR, the ship would be dead and the need for an SR (for emergency backup power), would be pointless; thereby negating the need for an SR to begin with.

So, if the SR has stored some power, its internal system will keep that in memory for a certain period of time (this is ship specific), all the while still functioning as normal (irrespective of the fact that it is getting no power from the NR).

Its called a Fault Tolerant System

If you don't allocate power to the SR in Logistix, it will impact its decay system, its fault tolerant system and the speed and regularity at which it converts solar energy. During this time (of no NR power), its decay system is in operation but left unchecked, will eventually deplete and completely shutdown the SR. You don't NEED to have power units allocated to the SR in Logistix - but if you don't, the time you need the SR to kick-start, it most likely won't.

This is similar to how people don't just die right away when life support goes offline. They breathe off the existing oxygen....until it runs out completely or someone accelerates this oxygen depletion by starting a fire somewhere or Resnig lights a cigar, starts a barbeque etc thereby using up the oxygen supply that much quicker.

I hope this closes the matter.

ps: There was a reason I pointed to a thread in this post, but nobody paid any attention.

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SC thats fantastic *sigh of relief* thank you very much

I think i'll print that description off and put it in the UC case, so I dont forget.

everyone involved in this thread owes SC a thank you and a beer. Nice one sir!!

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Thanks BOSS, now I see what I was doing wrong in my tests..... ....when I shutted down the NR the power allocation to the SR went automatically to 0 and so the battery could not supply me with power.....(assuming that it was charged since I always keep the SR power setting to 5)...

The SR will supply you with emergency power from the battery when the NR is offline only if the system has power allocated.....this makes sense....

OK, I'm off to test this....

THANKS AGAIN.

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So when the NR go offline, if the SR has got power allocated for some time and get light surces to charge its battery, it will supply emergency power even if the power setting is 0?

Am I right this time?

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Now, that it is explained that way; I see why we could not see it, in the experiment stage....takes a long time to deplete the existing charge,(which is there when starting the game)...and THEN, end up, in a scenerio where it would show up....

street: "Ahhh, I seeeeee....." (really, I'm not blind, I just could'nt see it)

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