Out of Electricity

[LordRick]

I spent almost an hour getting to Duna with all the nodes, burns and waiting. Then I finally get into orbit and I go to start my decent and discover that I forgot to open my solar panels and I did not have any electricity left. Without electricity I can't retract the solar panels, start the engine, or nothing. dead in the water (or space). Is there any way around this without reverting flight and starting over?

[andylaugel]

I suppose you could edit a save file. They are human-readable text, and easily altered through a basic text editor. I think the easiest route would simply be to add power to a battery or command module on the craft, rather than to try to directly extend the panel. For instance, take a look at this part from a save file:

	name = ElectricCharge
	amount = 100
	maxAmount = 100

Wanna bet that the 2nd line refers to how much power that module has stored?

[andylaugel]

You can also do the less cheaty rescue mission route. If your ship has docking ports, you just need to dock another craft to that port that has power and a control pod. If it doesn't use the Advanced Grabbing Unit (a.k.a. the Klaw) to dock.

[LordRick]

Ok. I was trying not to cheat or use a cheating mod. And I also did not want to fly another 1 hour mission just to rescue this one. Revert it is

Lesson learned (I hope)

[andylaugel]

Yeah. To avoid this I do two things:

• Save often. I tend to use a naming convention for save files like "2016-08-18 1256" so alphabetical sort is also sorts by date. I'll also hit F5 for a quicksave from time to time.
  
• Add RTGs or static solar panels to your ships. Two or four OX-STAT Photovoltaic Panels attached on opposite sides of a craft is usually enough to prevent a power outage.

[SievertChaser]

EVA and manual panel deployment, maybe?

[LordRick]

Originally posted by dennis.danilov:

EVA and manual panel deployment, maybe?

Can you do that with EVA?

[LordRick]

Forgot, this is a Probe only, no Crew.

[LordRick]

But I would be interested to know if I could EVA and manually extend a solar panel.

[Toenails10]

burning your engines produces electricity

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Toenails10:

burning your engines produces electricity

Yeah, but not if you have a probe core that's out of power.

[Toenails10]

oh ya,...bummer then, been there, done that :(

[ZeratulR]

Originally posted by LordRick:

But I would be interested to know if I could EVA and manually extend a solar panel.

Well, "I" in like you and me probably can't, but the great and powerful Jebediah and Valentina Kerman sure as hell can do that!

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by ZeratulR:

Originally posted by LordRick:

But I would be interested to know if I could EVA and manually extend a solar panel.

Well, "I" in like you and me probably can't, but the great and powerful Jebediah and Valentina Kerman sure as hell can do that!

Everyone can EVA, once.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS6m6NM_Md0

[ZeratulR]

Originally posted by dennis.danilov:

Originally posted by ZeratulR:

Well, "I" in like you and me probably can't, but the great and powerful Jebediah and Valentina Kerman sure as hell can do that!

Everyone can EVA, once.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS6m6NM_Md0

To be honest, I'm not enrtirely convinced that he was able to extend the solar panels... And Jebediah could! I guarantee it.

[LordRick]

So you can EVA a pilot over to the solar Panel and there will be an option to extend them?