The aim of this short tutorial is to provide a way to build a large, self-aligning array of solar panels, and thus demonstrating a community workaround to compensate for the FUBAR rotors in SE, which tend to oscillate out of control when heavy masses and inertia are involved.

The solution is to add a support structure that will properly keep the "far end" of the panel array in place and thus prevent the oscillations.

The support structure must be wide enough and long enough to allow the rotors and panels to operate unobstructed.


On the far end of the array, add an auxiliary rotor, on the same axis as the main rotor. Attach the auxiliary rotor to the support structure with a landing gear.

For yet another obscure reason, even a perfectly aligned rotor grid cannot be attached to the support structure directly. I suppose a merge block might do the trick, but as of the current game build [1.168.006], those are broken too. Hence the workaround with the landing gear.

For the auxiliary rotor, set both torque and braking torque to ZERO;
The actual alignment of the array is done through the main rotors. The auxiliary rotor only serves as a freely rotating bearing, to keep the panel array in place.

http://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=367344570

I'm using Sigurd Hansens "Stop Rotor on High Solar Power Output" to automatically align the panels and control the main rotors.

Set it up as described in the workshop page for the script.
Remember, have the script control the main rotors only - do not attempt to have it control the auxiliary rotors; that would likely cause even worse oscillations, particularly in laggy conditions.

With the assembly suggested here, it should work fine even on dedicated servers.
Torque values and timers may need adjustment, depending on your design and the inertia that needs to be overcome by the rotors.

This is a workaround.

The only alternatives seem to be
1) build smaller arrays that the rotors handle properly, or
2) wait for the game devs to finally fix the rotors in the game.
After all, rotors have only been bugged for over 3 years now.

If you choose #2, look for "Snowball Fights in Hell" on the news, because I'm sure they'll fix the rotors after hell has frozen over. :\

Meanwhile, stay frosty!
Take care, fellow engineers! o/