OHM Space Network Plugin

[fred18]

I do!

The modifications that I have in mind at the moment are:

- choosable configuration set (in order to be able to have multiple configuration files existing at the same time)
- possibility of choosing manually the origin of signal
- auto tracking of HG antenna
- maybe better math on signal calculation (maybe...)

and I am always open to any suggestion

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

I do!

The modifications that I have in mind at the moment are:

- choosable configuration set (in order to be able to have multiple configuration files existing at the same time)
- possibility of choosing manually the origin of signal
- auto tracking of HG antenna
- maybe better math on signal calculation (maybe...)

and I am always open to any suggestion

Is it possible to configure it for use in an extrasolar system?

I seem to be asking that question a lot lately... :lol:

 

[boogabooga]

Perhaps some kind of interface with Orbiter Sound such that radio traffic stops, or just play static if no signal?

 

[fred18]

Just to inform you guys that I started working on the plugin again. First new feature (almost completely working) is high gain auto tracking: if auto track is activated (and time accel is below 1000x) the computer fires the thrusters and orient the ship pointing its high gain antenna to the best source of signal (station, dsn or tdrs). Once this is finished next steps i have in mind are:

- manual override of signal source choice ( so any ship can become a signal source )
- change of bases configuration possibility during simulation ( to avoid changing manually the filenames and to allow even more realistic historical simulations )

Let s see if i can make it

 

[boogabooga]

Sometimes the high gain antenna pivots to orient itself

 

[boogabooga]

Some inspiration for the author:

http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

 

[DaveS]

Sometimes the high gain antenna pivots to orient itself

Notable examples include the Apollo CSM S-band high gain antenna and the shuttle Ku-band antenna. Both use electro-mechanical gimbals to orient the dish to the target.

This saves valuable RCS propellant which would otherwise be spent on re-orienting the spacecraft just to maintain the antenna LoS.

 

[fred18]

Some inspiration for the author:

http://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

Thanks, that's really interesting!!

Notable examples include the Apollo CSM S-band high gain antenna and the shuttle Ku-band antenna. Both use electro-mechanical gimbals to orient the dish to the target.

I know but since this plugin shall be valid for all vessels in orbiter I can only do the auto-tracking by rotating the vessel :shrug:

 

[Interceptor]

Thanks, that's really interesting!!




I know but since this plugin shall be valid for all vessels in orbiter I can only do the auto-tracking by rotating the vessel :shrug:

Hey fred18,why don't you make the autotracking feature an option.:lol:

 

[fred18]

Hey fred18,why don't you make the autotracking feature an option.:lol:

It will be! there will be a switch on the panel saying "autotrack ON - OFF", just as simple as that :thumbup: So you can activate it and de activate it whenever you want, and it will anyway deactivate itself on high time acceleration

 

[Interceptor]

How about having the DGIV radar move instead of moving the whole ship,infact why don't you make it so,any ship with a movable radar dish would do the same if at all possible.

 

[boogabooga]

There are already several MFDs with attitude pointing ability, IMHO, you don't need to add this at all.

I think all you would have to do is put an indication in the vessel's config file to treat the high-gain antenna as omnidirectional like the low-gain antenna, instead of axis aligned. (But keep the axis-aligned as an option.) This is an abstraction, IMHO, you don't have to actually animate antenna or anything.

Another thing to consider might be to define a config-specified cone-angle or field of view. That is, in the X, Y, and Z plane, from what angle to what angle is the field of view of the high gain antenna?

 

[fred18]

Recent discussion gave me the willingness of updating this, but apart from making the configuration file easier I don't see much to update.

Any ideas on this?

 

[turtle91]

I just tried it from an orbit around Jupiter.
It was fun to see the signal latency....give me a more "how far I am from home" feeling :thumbup:

The only thing I am missing is:
-a MFD or a (toggle-able)HUD-ovelay to monitor the signals.
In my case, if running with a 2D-window openend, it drops my frame-rate.

I have this great addon in my Orbiter-install since ages, but started to use it more and more recently(caused by some...recent discussions... )

 

[fred18]

I just tried it from an orbit around Jupiter.
It was fun to see the signal latency....give me a more "how far I am from home" feeling :thumbup:

The only thing I am missing is:
-a MFD or a (toggle-able)HUD-ovelay to monitor the signals.
In my case, if running with a 2D-window openend, it drops my frame-rate.

I have this great addon in my Orbiter-install since ages, but started to use it more and more recently(caused by some...recent discussions... )

So an idea could be to turn it into an MFD :hmm:

 

[boogabooga]

I stand by my suggestions in this thread.

-Basically all of the enhanced config file options for customizing different networks and so on.

-Lunar missions should be handled by DSN, not LEO network. But allow user to select distance at which this changes. (Or perhaps there should be an intermediate altitude network by itself that works between the LEO and DSN.)

-Don't worry about attitude pointing or animating anything. I think this will be appreciated enough as a passive interface.

-Some options for high-gain antenna on the spacecraft:
-Fixed in one direction (as it is)
-Omnidirectional (like the LEO antenna is)
-Perhaps allow user to specify azimuth and elevation angles to define a limited reception fan to simulate steerable antenna

-Perhaps allow for moving ground stations or allow the ground station attribute to be assigned to a moving vessel to simulate ships and aircraft:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Kingsport_(T-AG-164)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmonavt_Yuri_Gagarin
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Vi...d/509/Article/197557/boeing-ec-135e-aria.aspx

-Obvious new feature to think about in Orbiter 2016 would be to have the signal be lost due to going behind terrain rather than going under horizon of sphere.

-You could start to mess around with different radio bands and simulate their strengths and weaknesses (over-the-horion communication, attenuation through atmosphere, etc.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_spectrum#IEEE

 

[fred18]

-Basically all of the enhanced config file options for customizing different networks and so on.

Yep I agree

-Lunar missions should be handled by DSN, not LEO network. But allow user to select distance at which this changes. (Or perhaps there should be an intermediate altitude network by itself that works between the LEO and DSN.)

All this should be quite easy (I've learned programming in this years, so now this seems easy, while it seemed impossible at the beginning :lol

-Don't worry about attitude pointing or animating anything. I think this will be appreciated enough as a passive interface.

I agree with this also

-Some options for high-gain antenna on the spacecraft:
-Fixed in one direction (as it is)
-Omnidirectional (like the LEO antenna is)
-Perhaps allow user to specify azimuth and elevation angles to define a limited reception fan to simulate steerable antenna

Yep, that should be easy as well.

-Perhaps allow for moving ground stations or allow the ground station attribute to be assigned to a moving vessel to simulate ships and aircraft:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Kingsport_(T-AG-164)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmonavt_Yuri_Gagarin
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Vi...d/509/Article/197557/boeing-ec-135e-aria.aspx

I think that somehow that is already possible by choosing a personalized module for the tracking stations, but I have to check, I cannot even remember how exactly all this works :rofl:

-Obvious new feature to think about in Orbiter 2016 would be to have the signal be lost due to going behind terrain rather than going under horizon of sphere.

That seems to me very hard at the moment I have to say

-You could start to mess around with different radio bands and simulate their strengths and weaknesses (over-the-horion communication, attenuation through atmosphere, etc.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_spectrum#IEEE

I like this a lot... that opens my mind to a new set of possibility: I could basically use this to build a sort of "network infrastructure" to be used by addon developers as well to broadcast signals from their probes or their satellites, like messages around the sim. Receiving stations can read those signals and use them etc.. That's not easy and it will mean to learn still quite a bit, but I like the potential.

Thanks for the suggestions! :tiphat:

 

[Longjap]

You want to update!

I had a go last week with both your ELIS - MT4 and Space Network Plugin in 2010 and it's very creative and refreshing! I can see this add-on as a first stop to start my missions.

In 2016 it doesn't work sadly, it crashes when generating a network. It would be very nice to have it compatible for 2016.

As I understand now, this is solely for monitoring connections right? There is no further interaction between the networks like you did in ELIS - MT4, where you can transmit data? Maybe that fun feature could be brought to this add-on as well.

 

[fred18]

So summing up and elaborating on the suggestions the development could be:

- mantain the concept
- create a sort of box for processing messages and signals around the sim
- let each ship transmit manually signals or messages through some interface (MFD or dialog)
- let the network receive the messages/signals (after the proper delay and with the proper signal strength)
- create an SDK so addons could be coded directly to send messages or data automatically
- relevant to frequencies I'd love to implement something about the topic, but I'm really an ignorant about this, so if anyone has some suggestions on how probes/ships comm frequencies and signal strength usually work it would be very much appreciated

Cheers
Fred

 

[Face]

- create a sort of box for processing messages and signals around the sim
- create an SDK so addons could be coded directly to send messages or data automatically

You could use the ModuleMessaging SDK as baseline for that.