Solar Converter info?

[Mr.GrumpyButt]

Does anyone know the size of the "Small Internal battery" of the solar converter? And is there a hidden field name to access it's state?

Thank you.

[leftharted]

i think the tooltip saying 'battery' is ambiguous; as i dont think it actually stores any power? im pretty sure you still need an actual battery for the power to pool into (like generators) in order to actually save any unused power. Otherwise (like generators) if it has nowhere to go, its wasted. (*rather, wasted for generators, but solar is free; so just 'unsaved'.)

If you are still having issues after adding (or already have) batteries; i've also seen that the solar panels are a little buggy right now; and sometimes aren't producing what they should be, especially on a moving ship, similar to enhancers.

That, and solar is extremely weak; i think it takes something like 20 panels to match a SINGLE generator unit; and that's assuming they have full light level.

[OutlawNix]

The Solar Converter it self does not store any battery. All it does is converts what the Solar Panels makes into power which your ship uses.

To be honest Solar Panels are quite weak in making power. Could be useful to keep basic systems going like ISAN in case your main power system goes down. Least that way you can give your friends your ISAN pos so they can come help.

[Mr.GrumpyButt]

I have been building a small solar ship, and have noticed that there is definitely a battery in the converter. I am watching the ConverterOutput and the ActivePanelArea. When the main battery runs dry, there is about a 500 to 1000 energy (guessing based on time and input) that is sucked up before it starts recharging the main battery. I finally overcame this by setting my main battery priority to 1, and now the power goes directly into it and not into the converters battery. Would be nice if they gave us fields for the battery stored power.

I agree they are buggy. I have 4 panels in full sun, zero shading, and am averaging about 80 to 120, and have seen brief spikes up to 150 when spec says it should be 200 in perfect conditions. So we are talking 25 per panel average, probably 40 panels to equal one t1 gen and dont forget about the huge weight/mass at a stupid 2500kg per panel, so double that of a generator.