Difference between revisions of "Convert-O-Tron 250"

Revision as of 16:20, 19 August 2018

Convert-O-Tron 250
Converter by Kerbodyne
Radial size		Large, Radial mounted
Cost	(total)	8 000.00
Mass	(total)	4.250 t
Drag		0.2
Max. Temp.		2000 K
Impact Tolerance		7 m/s
Research		Advanced Science Tech
Unlock cost		24 000
Since version		1.0
Part configuration		ISRU.cfg
Conversion		Liquid fuel + Oxidizer
Inputs
Ore		0.5 /s
Electric charge		30 ⚡/s
Outputs
Liquid fuel		0.45 /s
Oxidizer		0.55 /s
Conversion		Monopropellant
Inputs
Ore		0.5 /s
Electric charge		30 ⚡/s
Output
Monopropellant		1 /s
Conversion		Liquid fuel
Inputs
Ore		0.45 /s
Electric charge		30 ⚡/s
Output
Liquid fuel		0.9 /s
Conversion		Oxidizer
Inputs
Ore		0.55 /s
Electric charge		30 ⚡/s
Output
Oxidizer		1.1 /s
Optimum Temp		1000 K
Shutdown Temp		4000 K
Max Cooling		200 kW

The Convert-O-Tron 250 is a converter introduced in version 1.0, and far more efficient than its little cousin, the Convert-O-Tron 125.

Usage

The Convert-O-Tron 250 is a part that consumes ore and electricity to produce various fuels and heat. Any of the four conversion recipes may run at the same time: liquid fuel(LF) and oxidizer(LO) in the same 9:11 ratio used by most rocket engines, LF alone, LO alone, or monopropellant. Each running recipe consumes additional ore and electricity and produces fuel and additional heat. Having an experienced engineer onboard will speed up the process considerably, but does not improve efficiency in any way. Heat will always be produced at a fixed rate of 200kW per running recipe, regardless of engineer staffing, requiring one large radiator per recipe, or one medium TCS for 3 recipes, or one large TCS for 12 recipes (x4 trons running 3 fuel recipes each). Note that the unit is limited by max cooling of 500kW which means is it unable to utilize more than 500kW of cooling and as such will overheat somewhat when running 3 or more recipes, lowering the output per recipe.

Operating the Convert-O-Tron 250 on the surface of a planet or moon requires much less careful planning and allows for more flexible vehicle design. A craft used to shuttle fuel to orbit can potentially burn part of its payload to complete rendezvous or transfer unused fuel reserves as part of the payload, and need only bring the fuel necessary for landing down to the surface. By contrast, an ore carrier must carry fuel for both landing and takeoff to the surface, cannot use its payload as emergency reserves, and needs to have its fuel to payload ratios adjusted to operate in different gravity wells or make rendezvous in different orbits efficiently. On the other hand an ore carrier which also has a Convert-O-Tron 250 is very flexible, as it can both refuel itself and optimally refuel other ships whether they use liquid fuel only or oxidizer as well.

Surface installations can use rovers with docking ports to ferry the fuel between the converter and the landed fuel transport craft. Alternatively, either the transport craft or fuel station can move around on wheels to dock and transfer fuel without an intermediate rover. In place of docking ports, the Advanced Grabbing Unit should be used when available because it is significantly easier to connect. Ore carriers only need to bring drills down to the surface, and can take off directly after their tanks are full.

Alternatively, an asteroid with a docked Convert-O-Tron 250 can also be used as a refueling station, and can be more efficient due to its lack of a gravity well and the ability to maneuver the asteroid into a convenient orbit.

Resource Feed and Priority

Convert-O-Tron units are not subject to crossfeed restrictions in any way whatsoever. A Convert-O-Tron unit can refill tanks on the far side of crossfeed disabled parts even when the difficulty option Resource Transfer Obeys Crossfeed Rules is set. Tanks are filled using the same priority as emptying tanks, tanks with higher priority numbers will be filled first.

Efficiency

The conversion of ore to liquid fuel and/or oxidizer conserves mass: raw ore has twice the mass of these products but generates 2 product for each 1 ore consumed. It is possible to power the converter by channeling some of the liquid fuel and oxidizer generated into fuel cells, removing the need for solar panels or expensive PB-NUK Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators, although doing so effectively lowers the mass conversion ratio from 1:1 to 1:0.925 (or lower, if the fuel cell is also being used to power a 'Drill-O-Matic' Mining Excavator), making it more suitable for surface installations, where the conversion ratio is somewhat irrelevant.

The conversion to monopropellant is significantly less efficient than rocket fuel, with a 1:0.8 ratio. The poor ISP performance of most monopropellant engines compounds this problem. However, refueling station capability may allow smaller monopropellant storage which can slightly improve the thrust to weight efficiency of the other engines.

With no crew the nominal 'load' rate of each recipe is only 5% (.05) of the listed rate. The final effective rate is further multiplied by thermal efficiency and effects energy, ore consumption, and fuel production. When the connected vessel has an engineer onboard, rate improves based on the highest level(Lv) of engineer by 20(Lv0), 40(Lv1), 60(Lv2), 80(Lv3), 100(Lv4), 120(Lv5) percent; for final rates of 25, 45, 65, 85, 105, 125 percent of listed rate. Additional engineers beyond the first provide no benefit, only the highest level applies, for an unlimited number of convert-o-trons with a single engineer.

The maximum conversion rate per Convert-O-Tron 250 with all 3 rocket fuel recipes and level 5 engineer totals the following (Energy, Liquid Fuel, Oxidizer): (112.5, 1.6875, 2.0625)/second, (6750, 101.25, 123.75)/minute, (405k, 6075, 7425)/hour, or (2.43M, 36.45k, 44.55k)/Kerbol day(6hrs).

Product description

Changes

1.0.5

• Auto shutdown, new description added, new name

1.0

• Initial release