Rocket Clocks

[kylebrolafski]

Previously, I've always built a modular water clock tied directly to my rocket's launch signal to start and finish exactly when the rocket launches and is ready to land.  Sensors are great, but if my bunker doors are currently protecting from a storm, the sensors don't work.  This new update has a bunch of new timed sensors in it.  I figured there has to be a way to leverage one of these instead of a water clock for that same level of precision.  Make my rocket footprint much smaller.

Unfortunately, by playing around with these new sensors, I've determined that I can't get that level of precision.  The timer sensor doesn't start/stop at any specific time, it just counts.  So unless I launch my rockets at the same time of day every launch, this isn't really helpful.  And plenty of times there will be an on-going storm at that time of day.

 

I like the idea of this seven segment display, but had some issues with it while playing around.  I had one linked up to 3, 200 second buffers/filters to simulate one cycle and then put it on a notification to alert me 6 days later.  It kept going off early and not even at the same time of day it started.

Anyone have some advice or a blueprint for a rocket clock using these new automation sensors?

[OxCD]

Ok I'll try to give you one. Maybe you can get some interesting ideas into.

This one is live on my actual save. Could not be the simpliest design, but at least it exists and it works.

And by the way, if you find improvement, I would be grateful.

Here it is. Ultimately, I'm turning off scanner all the time, only turning it on when rocket is about to land.

 

1. Red part. This is a negative edge detector. It sends an Enabled pulse each time the input signal goes from Enabled to Disabled. Here, when the scanner stops (after the rocket lands).

Settings: none

2. Orange part : segment that control the power shutoff. The pulse from Red turns it On/Off. So after rocket has landed, shutoff is opened, and scanner doesn't get power anymore.

Settings: 1, standard mode

3. Magenta part : this counter receive the Enabled signal from the rocket that it's taking off. I'm using the output port from the command capsule.

Settings: 1, standard mode

4. Blue part : this is what I dare to call a "cycle counter". The AND Gate at the bottom left sends a Enabled pulse each cyle. This counter only starts when it receives Enabled from Magenta. The Yellow part is included into.

Settings: 1, advanced mode

5. Yellow part : chained filter gate, that defines the 600 seconds counter.

Settings: 200 sec (max) per filter gate

6. Brown part : this counter rolls units. This pragmatic purpose is only to increment tens (White).

Settings: 10, standard mode

7. White part : this is the tens. You set it from the tens of your travel length.

Settings: tens from travel time, standard mode

8. Green part : this is the units. You set it from the units of your travel length. This counter only starts when tens have reached the set number. Until tens have reached it, only incremental units from Brown are used.

Settings: units from travel time, advanced mode

9. Cyan part, this is the reset that operates few seconds after the scanner has been turned back On.

Settings: 1, standard mode. Buffer: few seconds (let say default 5, doesn't matter).

 

Just not few things.

- Circled in red, you have a signal switch. This one is needed here if rocket travel time is below 11 cycles. Then you shunt the tens validation for units (Green) to begin the roll, and do its job. To be honest this is something I don't like that much into this design, because I've to set something more than units and tens. But so far, as a signal counter cannot send Enabled when counter is set to 0 (without counting anything so), this is the only way I've found.

- For the specific system described just above, I know there's simplier design for this, but my goal here was to try to set a unique design that could fit any rocket distance. This way, undepending which rocket it's controlling, you've only 3 parameters to check for this setup to control every timer.

- Here I'm controlling the scanner that will open the doors for rocket landing. I prefer, as a matter of principle, even it costs me some watts. Nothing prevent you from controlling directly the doors with the output signal coming out from Orange, instead of a power shutoff.

- Using the tens and the rolling units side-by-side, can allow you to quickly view the actual travel time. That can be used for esthetic purposes, especially combined with Cairath's Wallpapers mod.

 

Hope it helps..

 

 

[Nedix]

Jeez, I'll probably have to play the game at least another thousand of hours to get into something like this. Nice complexity though

[kylebrolafski]

So when I was playing with the counter and 3x buffer/filters, it didn't seem to actually count a full 600s day.  And it seems like my fire n forget switches are also failing.  For instance, I have a buffer configured to pump 33 seconds worth of fuel to my rocket, for 330kgs of fuel.  So I'll trigger the switch then come back and see that only something like 250 kgs of fuel pumped.  Might be due to extended cycle count though as I am up in the 1200s.  But if buffers/filters are unreliable, that doesn't bode well for what I'm trying to do anyways.

Now I had not previously considered to take a scanner and a counter and combine them for some validation.  This will be interesting.  I'm also slightly lost in the "why" of your logic to count units, days, and 10s of days.  Why units at all?  What does the brown portion contribute that the others don't/can't?

[OxCD]

5 hours ago, kylebrolafski said:

So when I was playing with the counter and 3x buffer/filters, it didn't seem to actually count a full 600s day.  And it seems like my fire n forget switches are also failing.  For instance, I have a buffer configured to pump 33 seconds worth of fuel to my rocket, for 330kgs of fuel.  So I'll trigger the switch then come back and see that only something like 250 kgs of fuel pumped.  Might be due to extended cycle count though as I am up in the 1200s.  But if buffers/filters are unreliable, that doesn't bode well for what I'm trying to do anyways.

Now I had not previously considered to take a scanner and a counter and combine them for some validation.  This will be interesting.  I'm also slightly lost in the "why" of your logic to count units, days, and 10s of days.  Why units at all?  What does the brown portion contribute that the others don't/can't?

Looking deep inside into my setup, while it was working for tens of cycle, and indeed it seems scanners are turning On a lot prematurely. At least, it doesn't burn the doors, in this way...

Bug report has been opened. The result of the test is very impressive. And worrying.

 

Units (brown) are used to increment tens. How would you be able for your tens to go up if you don't use a cyclic 10 counter ?

[kylebrolafski]

Sorry, I misspoke, the Green part.

On 5/17/2020 at 7:20 AM, OxCD said:

8. Green part : this is the units. You set it from the units of your travel length. This counter only starts when tens have reached the set number. Until tens have reached it, only incremental units from Brown are used.

Settings: units from travel time, advanced mode

Just not few things.

- Circled in red, you have a signal switch. This one is needed here if rocket travel time is below 11 cycles. Then you shunt the tens validation for units (Green) to begin the roll, and do its job. To be honest this is something I don't like that much into this design, because I've to set something more than units and tens. But so far, as a signal counter cannot send Enabled when counter is set to 0 (without counting anything so), this is the only way I've found.

Or, a thought just occurred to me, would it be at all beneficial to count 3 days, x number of times, where x is how far away the rocket is flying?  How do we modify this for when the dupe has that rocket nav skill reducing flight time by 10%?

[OxCD]

9 hours ago, kylebrolafski said:

Sorry, I misspoke, the Green part.

Or, a thought just occurred to me, would it be at all beneficial to count 3 days, x number of times, where x is how far away the rocket is flying?  How do we modify this for when the dupe has that rocket nav skill reducing flight time by 10%?

The green part is the final unit timer. You cannot extract any signal from the incremental unit counter (brown) because it's only sending Enable when reaching 10, and rolling over. If you need 24 for example, you need something to trigger a status change at 4. That's it.

Yes your thought can work also, but you'll need to review the design. For 1800 seconds (or 1620 if 10% nav skills), you'll need 9 filter gates in both case (instead of 3) or 3 filters but another Signal Counter to count 3 cycles. Which is not a good idea because thereafter you'll need the same amount of Signal Counter anyway... (there's more than 9 travel steps, so cannot fit in 1 Signal Counter).

In my setup, if the dup has nav skills, you calculate yourself, and set yourself the good timer. Indeed there's nothing into the automation design to manage the -10%. Which by the way would be a waste of time & ressource, I think.