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Drone/Utility Ship Manager

2017-11-17 Update: No longer needs a timer block. If you had one before, I recommend you "disconnect" it from the prog block (remove all its actions) to reduce surprises.


This is the script I mainly use in my drones and other small/utility ships (i.e. ones that dock with a mothership). Whether the ship is remote-controlled or manned, this script should be of some use.

• A docking manager to enable/disable certain blocks upon docking or undocking.
  
  
• A "safe mode" module that tries its best to prevent your ship from flying away unattended. This includes getting disconnected while inertia dampeners are disabled or leaving the ship/drone uncontrolled after some time (i.e. a dead man's switch).
  
  
• A simple battery monitor that starts a timer block when the average charge level of all on-board batteries falls below a certain percent.
  
  
• A smart undock module for semi-automated docking and undocking from a carrier/mobile mothership. (It's really simple, don't get your hopes up. ;)
  
  
• A redundancy manager to ensure that a certain number of blocks in a block group are enabled at all times.

Required: Programmable block. To use additional features, up to 2 more timer blocks will be needed.

1. By default, the script will only touch blocks on the same grid as the programmable block. For most uses, this is all you need and you can skip to step 2.
   
   However, if you have things that need to remain off while undocking (such as overridden thrusters for mining), you should create an explicit group. Select everything except for blocks that shoudn't be touched and create a group.
   
   
2. Load script into programmable block. If you created a group, set the SHIP_NAME variable to the group's name.

See this post.


See this post.


Once the total remaining charge of all batteries on the drone drop below 20%, the script will "start" a timer block named "Low Battery".

The timer block is only started the first time the average battery charge falls below 20%. The battery monitor will reset itself if/once the average charge rises above 20%.


See this post.


See this post.


There's a bunch of constants near the top of the script, feel free to change them. You can change things like the names of the special timer blocks and/or other special values/flags.


For the bleeding edge, as well as a more readable and modular version of the script, go see GitHub[github.com]. I usually only update the workshop version when things break or major features are added.