Signal Transmission: Compendium of frequent suggestions

    Thalanor

    CEO Snataris Colonial Fleetyards
    Joined
    Sep 10, 2013
    Messages
    818
    Reaction score
    708
    • Master Builder Bronze
    • Thinking Positive
    • Legacy Citizen 3
    These are a mixture of new and old suggestions as was recently discussed in chat by several SMD users.

    1. Why wireless blocks are limited as-is
    - Unreliable: As they are the sole means of transmitting signals, but as they at the same time are prone somewhat prone to erroneous behavior, they are the weakest link in the chain, and this effect becomes stronger the deeper the docking chain is.
    - Lack of ease of use: A connection must be manually created or edited via C-V. This must be done either as astronaut, or hopping between the build modes of two separate entities.
    - Inflexible: Communication between two entities must be known and prepared for (in hardware) in advance. Connections must be made between instances of blueprints, not blueprints themselves (the latter allowing truly modular design).

    2. Recurring idea A: Logic beams
    - Most flexible solution to non-moving docked entity communication, allowing for modular dockable logic without bothering with the interface problem after defining an interface once spatially (via logic beam emitter and detectors, could even be the same block somehow or repurpose existing blocks like astrotech)

    3. Recurring idea B: Transmitter/Receiver blocks
    - Very easy to use, flexible even for independent entity communication by making receivers and transmitters have a "frequency", and the former would receive transmissions sent on the same frequency by the latter
    - Frequency could be set either like rail speed, by linking the blocks in question to a fraction of activation blocks (or instead of fraction, just use the number of ON activation blocks)
    - Another way to set frequency with a huge adress space (avoiding collision issues) is to use display blocks and a [FREQUENCY] tag that works like the password tag (does not display frequency).
    - Faction and public permission blocks could alter which signals are accepted by a receiver block.
     
    Joined
    Jul 30, 2013
    Messages
    398
    Reaction score
    282
    • Wired for Logic Gold
    • Legacy Citizen 8
    • Purchased!
    Totally agree, we need a better way of transmitting logical signals between entities, the wireles blocks have disconnection errors never solved :cry: and the logical beams can solve and implement many constructions
     

    TheGT

    Chief Janitorial, Second Legion, Fourth Squadron
    Joined
    Dec 10, 2015
    Messages
    60
    Reaction score
    25
    I would personally vouch for both, however, could you clarify what you mean by [FREQUENCY] tag on the display block. Would activating that display block send the frequency of that block to a wireless module, or would it send the contents of the display block to other display blocks with that frequency? I would personally like the ability to send strings along frequencies, as in have a display block with a [frequency=420] tag linked to a wireless block.
     

    Endal

    Ex Torpedo Researcher
    Joined
    Dec 3, 2013
    Messages
    103
    Reaction score
    61
    • Legacy Citizen
    The [FREQUENCY] tag defines the "frequency" that the transmitter broadcasts on.

    Transmitting UTF encoded strings out and then modifying the contents of display modules on all receivers would be quite strenuous on the server.
     

    TheGT

    Chief Janitorial, Second Legion, Fourth Squadron
    Joined
    Dec 10, 2015
    Messages
    60
    Reaction score
    25
    The [FREQUENCY] tag defines the "frequency" that the transmitter broadcasts on.

    Transmitting UTF encoded strings out and then modifying the contents of display modules on all receivers would be quite strenuous on the server.
    But it would be SOOO cool. I would use it for automated public docking, or cooler ship ship comms within my fleet. It can't be more taxing on the server than, say chat if you put limitations on it. maybe 1 message every 10 seconds max per vessel (not entity, that could be exploited). I doubt that that would make our data streams too much more clogged.
     

    nightrune

    Wizard/Developer/Project Manager
    Joined
    May 11, 2015
    Messages
    1,324
    Reaction score
    577
    • Schine
    • Top Forum Contributor
    • Thinking Positive
    But it would be SOOO cool. I would use it for automated public docking, or cooler ship ship comms within my fleet. It can't be more taxing on the server than, say chat if you put limitations on it. maybe 1 message every 10 seconds max per vessel (not entity, that could be exploited). I doubt that that would make our data streams too much more clogged.
    That's what I built into the Chat/Channel block. I don't think it would be too bad. The frequency or channel is set by a slaved display block.