automcdonough

I've pinpointed it, the new wheels don't slide (drift) at all. this is the source of all my troubles. if you can drive perfectly straight and not cause any lateral forces they work excellent. As soon as you go to turn, the friction in that direction is too high, not compensated for in gravity or something. much like the brakes. I'm going to stick with them for now, the increased traction for stop/start seems worth it. the stiffer suspension is prob not helping here but the tougher wheel makes up for it. edit: also I will add some rollover crash protection. The small legs do a great job of this and don't weigh much.

edit: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/31607-the-new-wheels-not-working-propery I'm taking the new wheel discussion here, not intending to derail this thread. At the moment I believe the trouble is disproportionate grip in the lateral direction, drift=instant rollover.

from an electrical perspective you always want at least one battery to smooth out the power in a system. all of the pods have them so usually not something we must be concerned with.

just drag it off the first part, works great. that's what i do to slap my pre-build rover onto a lander. or slap a pre-built launch stage under it all.

there's a fix for subassembly, i've already tried it. works!

took rover with new wheels to minmus, they are acting really flakey :/

pic from minmus testing. The new wheels seem bugged. Suggest using the old ones for now. :/

yeah, old wheels are working normally. no bouncing around, no brake stoppies, etc. they do seem to have less traction, ion about doubles it. Wish I had a vid of this, they both have the brakes set on and the one with new wheels is just bouncing around and jittering. How so? I made it to be lightweight, fast, and be maneuverable off world. In this regard I've done well. Sure there are lighter examples but they are not as capable at speed. This thing hauls and is easy to keep shiny side up.

most wheels use more power than the RTG provides, adding at least a little batt to smooth things out is a good idea. That's why I haven't run into this yet. Well that and I like having an unmanned option so probe is usually on there anyway

so, i'm testing the isplore on minmus and the new wheels are acting very strange. the brakes are hugely overpowered despite the gravity, can easily flip itself over. using RCS to keep it shiny side up and i've converted all speed to vertical! not too cool. also if i leave the parking brake on the thing has a bad case of the jitters, turning on the space spoiler makes it even worse! very odd. I'm going to switch back to the other wheels and see if this is just the wheels or a .20 thing. :/

seems neat, not overbuilt. the smaller ship mounting looks difficult to re-dock for refuel though.

New version, the isplore2.5e:

5/24/13 UPDATE New version, the isplore2.5e: Features: -The seat! This provided substantially reduced weight -New wheels! They are tougher, weigh less, more traction, and seem more stable at speed. WIN. -Even more reduced weight! -Extended the wheelbase even wider by a little bit. It's also much shorter, easier to tuck under a lander. -More solar power for the ion downforce maker. In broad daylight on Kerbin at can go full power. -Kept the RCS and Avionics as they have proven invaluable during offroad adventures on remote lower-gravity planets and moons. Specs: 1.94 t RCS ~450m/s ion ~1450m/s (1hr 36m) Notes: 1- turns on science bits 2- ladder 3- high speed mode (no rear steering for stability, no front motors for lower power draw) 4- toggle solar panels and ion space spoiler. *Surface speed for solars in atmosphere is ~10m/s max. Very easy to bust these off. But any planet with atmosphere has enough gravity for ion to be useless! So this should be a non-issue. *While it is very difficult to flip this thing, I should mention that during testing I've noticed that failure to keep it shiny side up is bad. Previously the extra lander legs provided good rollover protection, I am opting for reduced weight instead. Craft file (STOCK): https://www.dropbox.com/s/ze9q83ezq0y8ewz/isplore2_5e%20stock.craft The isplore3 is discontinued, the seat works well enough to not need a command pod for this type of vehicle. The non-e version is also discontinued. Because it's lightweight enough I am happy to leave the ion on there so no matter where i go the feature is there if I need it. I'm working on a manned lander to accompany this. Also from new on I will only be sharing stock versions of the files, so you will have to slap the MJ and GPS on yourself. This last update sent a lot of our favorite mods into a tizzy. (in the screenshots I put MJ on the bottom of the rover)

Fair 'nuff. Actually in Tiberium Alliances they went full-on blue with the GDI color theme anyway so no harm no foul.

I love the new wheels. If you're moving such large heavy parts then neither of the medium sized wheels are what I would consider suitable. Check out the rover megathread, there's plenty of examples of excellent rovers using the new wheels. I tried them on my own rover, they are awesome. In a few hours I'll have screenshots and craft files for ya

I have a related question. If I want to plant more than 1 flag, how does the kerbal get another one?

I love the GDI flag, awesome! Shouldn't it be goldish yellow though?

you might want to just do a vtol plane thing or small jet rocket to pick them up and hop back to KSC. rovers are quick but nothing compared to flying.

read the challenge rules please.

Guess what, IT IS. Version 2.5e coming shortly. It's got an extended wheelbase, shorter total height (easier lander/skycrane setups), lower COG, and weighs in at just under 2t. This just about doubled the RCS d/v. It also is packing an ion (space spoiler) and enough solar to run it at full throttle in ideal light conditions. I just have to finish tweaking ladder placement to the kerbal to climb in and out. Ran out of time last night running field tests. I'm happy with the new wheels. lighter and tougher, and look cooler. People saw that they work better in low-grav too. This with the ion should be great. also this new version with the solar deployed looks awesome. just wait for tonight

I have an example of this a few pages back. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/24599-Post-your-Rover-MEGATHREAD?p=355467&viewfull=1#post355467 In short, downward pressure helps. Ions are good for long period of time but only add just enough to make the craft functional. Using a higher output thruster will perform great but only last a few minutes, but likely is the better option if you land near your destination and are only just driving a short distance there. RCS system is a great way to do any fast starts/stops/turns or just get out of a panic situation. I'm looking forward to this update, having a proper seat will let me simplify and lighten up the isplore rover.

If you want to put limited uptime on parts it should be a separate mod, and not one that I'll be installing. Unless it's like you can have the kerbal EVA to do maintenance on it to reset the counter or something. But still, keep this simple. Just electric please.

yeah that is really good

in addition they seem like a better idea anyway because it's more fuel per part count..

My personal take on this: That they work from electromagnetic fields, drawing nothing except obscene amounts of electricity. This also provides a lot of control, gimbal range of at least 180º. 360º? I would only turn it down just enough to avoid breaking the game engine. But for all intents and purposes you shouldn't even need rcs anymore. The antimatter or whatever exotic fuel is decided upon comes into play in generating that electricity, the warp core is a separate part!