FNSolarPanelWasteHeatModule: Added Megajoules handling with support for ...

[toadicus]

...upgradable efficiency.

Adds logic to FNSolarPanelWasteHeatModule to produce megajoules from solar panels in lieu of electrical charge. This is primarily useful for solar-powered IR scopes, which require megajoules for the helium cryostat. Also has uses for low-altitude solar power sats.

As written this behaves identically to the current KSPI solar panels, except it produces kilowatt values of Megajoules instead of units of ElectricCharge.

I don't know for certain, but I think the resource system still requires some storage space. Below is a ModuleManager config that adds Megajoules storage to solar panels.

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleDeployableSolarPanel]]:NEEDS[WarpPlugin]:AFTER[WarpPlugin]
{
    RESOURCE
    {
        name = Megajoules
        amount = 0
        maxAmount = 0.1
        isTweakable = False
    }
}

[austinjames314]

What if you changed batteries to store kilowatt values of megajoules, instead of ElectricCharge? Then you wouldn't need to basically include batteries in the solar panels. Might cause other problems though, I'm not sure.

[toadicus]

I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that FractalUK has left most of the electrical subsystems alone, because a wholesale conversion would either break other mods or require him to support them, which are both really time consuming. So, batteries have to keep holding electric charge. I don't know all the rationale behind not adding megajoules to batteries; I'll have to defer to FractalUK on that.

[austinjames314]

Well that's fair enough, but won't adding 10 MJ of storage to each solar panel be the equivalent of adding a 10000 ElectricCharge battery?

[toadicus]

Again, I'm not an expert, but if I'm not wrong the ORS resource manager doesn't convert stored Megajoules into ElectricCharge; it only converts active supply. So, it's not quite the same as adding batteries. But you're right that 10 megajoules is much too big for the solar panels. 0.1 is probably better; I'll change it above if I still can.

[austinjames314]

Ah OK. I've yet to unlock any of the Interstellar parts, so I wasn't aware that stored Megajoules aren't converted.

[austinjames314]

I've unlocked some of the Interstellar parts, and I can confirm that stored Megajoules are converted to ElectricCharge when there is a demand for it. It also appears that this conversion is taking place regardless of how much ElectricCharge is being supplied by my solar panels, so I like this change. Do I need to wait for the next release, or can I get this change now somehow?

[toadicus]

The only way to get this right now would be to checkout my solardev git branch and compile it yourself. I can't distribute binaries. :)