Yet another (optimal?) space scanner setup

[Leto5]

Dear oxygen starved dupes,

After considerable tinkering and analysis here is my take on an "optimal space setup".
It is built upon the 6x Pulse scanning concept from  @TunderLock and inspired by the design and insights from @ruhrohraggy.

Thanks a lot, your posts were a delight to read ! 

The relevant posts are there: (for background and well deserved credits)

Spoiler

 

Overview:

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Video

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One of the timer is not well configured on this video, can you spot it ?

 

What it does in short:

• during breaks: pulse all 6 scanners at 100% scan quality for 1s duration every X seconds
• close the bunker doors as late as safely possible
• during storms: scan with a single scanner ("the monitor" on the left) continuously to detect the end of the storm as soon as possible
• after storm: cleanup the accumulated regolith

What I mean by 'optimal':

1. No wasted energy, in particular do not scan at all when there is no chance to detect any meaningful state change. (only meaningful change are: "meteor detected" and "break detected")
   • during breaks we only start to pulse after the safe period of the early breaks in order to preserve energy.
   • after meteor storm detection we stop scanning completely until there is a chance for the storm to end.
2. safe at any time and resilient to save/reload (buffer and filter reset on reload, so result should be deterministic)
3. minimalist design, try to keep the design as simple and understandable as possible.
4. Must be easy to build, (e.g. no space material, I also didn't want to mix the system with analog counter; for complexity and I must admit aesthetic)
   Single memory gate, limited entangled wires.

Timing analysis:

Spoiler

I use a pulse time of 27s so the important timers are:
- 26s safe time to wait before starting to pulse after a break starts
- 264s safe time to wait after a meteor was detected (in advance)
- 126s safe time to wait before closing the bunker door after a meteor was detected
These 4 timers (including the pulse) are our energy savers and what make this build relevant. 

Edit: See further posts below. Optimal pulse time seems to be ~8s
So it round down to:
- 45s 
- 264s
- 145s

Compromises and safety

Simplicity and safety are hard to balance.
Here are some compromises I made to keep the design simple but safe:

• during a reload the behavior is to value safety first, and energy second. Since I don't use analog counters (Water clock) I need to have a deterministic safe behavior in case of reload. 
• if you reload during the waiting time after a meteor was detected the bunker door will immediately close and the single monitor scanner start scanning immediately (instead of waiting up to 264s)
• if you reload during the waiting time after a break was detected the pulse will start immediately (instead of waiting up to 45s)
• I use 9s buffer time (broken in 3s period) for catching up the start of the monitor scanner instead of an optimal 4-5s. These 4s lost of a single scanner energy  consumption is the price for safety ;p
• I don't power mechanical airlocks, too much power consumption and put a lot of Watt strain on the wiring.
• You could consider powering them and lowering a bit the door crunching time and the 9s buffer above.
• I considered pulsing the monitor scanner as well, and rolled it out due to the extra complexity and the limited energy benefits. Pulsing it is simple, differentiating between valid inactive signal and unpowered signal is painful. So No.

The Details



0: The memory gate:
     On: means meteor detected
     Off: means breaks detected
     The two sensors are there so you can simulate these 2 events manually

1:  The bunker door control: delay the opening of the door for 145s after a shower was detected (since we detect 200s in advance -BT - PT - ST)
     The sensor is a panic button to immediately close the bunker doors. May be useful during construction to start the system at the right time or refactoring something or if you have an unexpected power drop.

2:  Delay the start of pulsing for 45 s since there is a safe period at the start of a break (300s - 200s of pre detection - BT-PT-ST)

3:  Delay the start of single scanner monitoring after a meteor detection for 264s (200s + 100s -BT -ST)
     since filters are limited to 200s we need to put 2 in serial.

4: An simple oscillator, control the pulsing scanners. This one will always start with the 1s of active time.

5: Control the master scanner make sure it pulses during pulsation, stays active during monitoring time, and stays off otherwise

6: This whole block control is responsible to reset the memory gate at the end of a meteor shower and a break is detected.
It is also responsible to wait when a monitor session start until the scanner airlock is closed and the scanner start giving an active signal.
Instead of a single 5s filter. There are 3 of them in serial; 3s each. This is because of the behaviors of filters during a save/load. Any started filter will become active on a reload independently of its elapsed time, any unstarted however will stay unstarted. So if you reload during one of the 3 buffer time, the 2 others will have their time taken into account for a total of 6s, giving enough time for the scanner door to close and the scanner to give a signal.
... Unless you save/load sequentially multiple within a 3s timeframe, and exactly during these 9 critical seconds. Yeah well, I don't cover that. Use the panic sensor

7: Control the regolith crunching doors to clean up after a meteor shower.
The buffer control the time overall time (set to 65s), the oscillator (in sandwich between the NOT gates) control the open close sequence.
I "crunch" during the whole bunker opening sequence and 2 times after,  I initially made a more complex design that only crunched twice when the door where already opened but moved back to the current design crunching during opening doesn't matter and it makes the design simpler

Maybe a could call it the YASSS if it ever need a name ^^'

A save file:
YASSS.sav
 

[Leto5]

Also I haven't done the math to compute the optimal pulse time.
27s is from the original @ruhrohraggypost.

Now that I am looking at it seems it should be a lot lower. It doesn't change the build or the timing analysis.
Optimal time is impacted by the number of active panels and maybe their setup (flat or pyramidal).
I'll try an approximation.

[Leto5]

Rough approximation:
BrT = Break average time in s = (1200 - 300) / 2
PW = Panel average production in W (measured empirically) = 270
PT = Pulse time
PC = Panel count

Power Loss Avg during a break = PT/2 * PW * PC
Power consumed during a break = (BrT - 200 - 38 - 9)  / PT * 120 * 6
You want to minimize: Power Loss + Power consumed 

Optimal pulse time seems to be 8s with 16 panels
and 7s with 24.

That's crude math but should be a good proxy.

 

Spoiler

 

[AMBLCO]

Hey, I have done something similar to what you did (inspired by @ruhrohraggy) and it's much more simple and it's been working for 200 cycles. I can't get a picture right now but I will post one. Your desing is really good but when you relog the buffers and filter reset which means that it is not accurate when closing the doors. You can use some but only when it dosen't matter if it resets.

[tzionut]

I tried, build and enjoyed this build. It fits perfect whit my vision. Allow regolith in only when the rocket leave or came back from the silo.

Paired whit

You will have the perfect automatic rocket missions.  

 

[Leto5]

Hahaha, the trick from @bioponto exploit the random rolls of a single scanner is awesome !
Thanks for sharing this, I didn't think of that =)
That said my build purpose is to optimize solar panel output (maximizing exposition duration while minimize scanner consumption).
In the meantime I tied in the water based Calendar clock from @Saturnus to separate peace season from meteor season.
It further improve the overall output as no energy (besides the 4.8W of the Water clock) is spent on the scanner network during peace seasons while providing safe launch window for the rockets.
I however still launch my rockets manually ^^' 
 

[Cantouki]

Great design Leto5

A few stupid questions.

1) A have space scanners on window tiles so I use power shutoffs to archieve the same (modelue 5) for pulsing?

2) I use robo miners so nr 7 can be completely discarded?

Do you mind publishing the same design with the water clock?

 

[Leto5]

Hey @Cantouki
1) scanner on window tiles + shutoff looks like a great alternative to MA !
You'll have to invert the signal (since MA are open with an active signal and thus disable the scanner and it is the opposite with shutoff)  
not sure what you mean with the modulo 5  :/

2) Yes 7 is for handling falling regolith If you have miners then you don't need it.

Here is how I linked the water clock:
Disclaimer: I linked it recently so I cannot guarantee it is 100% safe yet. Peace seasons only come every 10 cycles and I don't stay on that screen for multiple seasons cycles ;p 
Also the wiring of the clock could be cleaner 

Spoiler

And here is the post-comment with the clock design from @Saturnus:

 

[Cantouki]

Thanks for the update! I go try to incorporate it.

yeah not 'modulo 5' but nr 5 on the picture

[Draxbear]

Thanks from me too for the update @Leto5.

I just posted a question on more details on the clock, but then found the meteor specific version later in the post you linked. Here's a direct one for others too Direct Link to Meteor Clock in Saturnus' Post.

As a result of rolling this in have you modified any of the original buffer/filter gates, 200s +64s for example?