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volcanicshrimp

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Posts posted by volcanicshrimp

    Dogfighter Ultimate Free For All

    in KSP1 Challenges & Mission ideas

    Posted

    18 hours ago, Triop said:

    Better stick to making spaceplanes <_<

    Maybe it would help if I was actually good at those... I can normally get to LKO with a small satellite and that's about it (don't expect a very safe reentry either). Still something fun about hypersonic flights in my deathtraps perfectly safe and well designed aircraft though!

    Atmospheric drag and heating

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    3 minutes ago, Norcalplanner said:

    A slightly blunter nose will reduce heating at the cost of some drag, as the game's thermo model does include detached shock waves.

    That's why I was testing blunt-nosed and pointy-nosed planes in the first place - to see how much drag and heating are affected by whether the shock cone is attached or detached.

    Atmospheric drag and heating

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted · Edited by volcanicshrimp

    Thanks for the info!

    I agree, 10km up isn't particularly high. I can't actually remember why I wasn't at closer to 20km.

    I had heard about temperature varying differently to drag but certainly not in as much detail as this, so thanks for that!

    Back to plane building! I'll need to test my Mach 3 seaplane (the one in my forum pics) and other planes from 1.1 to see how they get on with the drag alterations.

    Atmospheric drag and heating

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted · Edited by volcanicshrimp
    grammar and more info

    I've been trying to build some fast planes in 1.2 (a lot of my ksp craft are high speed planes of some type, and very few of them ever go to space), and testing them at low and high altitude to see how much altitude affects their performance. My assumption was that, due to the thicker atmosphere, planes at lower altitude would experience more drag and atmospheric heating. However, I didn't notice as much difference between the performance at low and high altitude as I expected (high altitude heating was if anything higher than at low altitude and drag only seemed to be noticeably higher at low altitude with a fairly flat nose). The heating difference might be due to residual heat from lower altitude flight though and I might just not have gone fast enough to encounter higher drag with the pointy version at low altitude.

    Is this normal and I'm just an idiot, or is this a bug, or something else? My guess is that it's normal behaviour, just not as pronounced as I was expecting/have encountered in earlier versions of KSP (not that I've done much low-altitude high-speed flight before)

    (I don't now anything much about aerodynamics and atmospheric heating except what I've learned from far too many hours building aircraft in KSP (with and without FAR) and a little forum-browsing)

    P.S. The testing wasn't especially scientific as I have only tested 2 variants of 1 craft (with blunt and pointy noses - NCS with 0.625m nosecone or 0.625m ablator-free heatshield on the end)

    http://imgur.com/a/lkmQr - various pictures with varying degrees of helpfulness.

    EDIT: The pointed nose seems to be able to achieve about 1600 m/s at sea level, 10km and 20km, with the heating being slightly lower at 20km. The blunt nose can get to 1175 m/s at sea level and 1600 at 20km, without much heating showing up at all.

    Rotating Reaction Wheel Axle

    in KSP1 Gameplay Questions and Tutorials

    Posted

    There are a few ways. The easiest is probably to use the infernal robotics mod which adds various electric hinges and similar into the game. It can be done with stock parts only however that normally requires more exotic designs with part clipping and separate ships for the wings/rotating bits. I'm no expert on stock bearings but some people have made very impressive stuff with them.

    Infernal robotics forum thread

    [1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

    in KSP1 Mod Releases

    Posted

    On 9/27/2016 at 5:58 PM, allista said:

    just place those engines closer to the CoM

    Thanks for looking into it, and thanks for the tip. I never thought of torque affecting it like that.

    Now back to ill-advised craft designs!

    I did try some atmospheric ballistic guidance with a rocket, and it didn't go very well. Think the rocket design was to blame though.

    [1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

    in KSP1 Mod Releases

    Posted

    19 hours ago, allista said:

    this craft should be susceptible to overwhelming aerodynamic forces, especially with FAR

    That is a possible cause of the problem, however it still loses control in the same manner if it's hovering stationary 50m above the ground (in stop mode) and I tap w (this was in a TAC+dependencies-only install) with my control input only accelerating it to 1-2 m/s.

    [1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

    in KSP1 Mod Releases

    Posted · Edited by volcanicshrimp
    further testing

    http://imgur.com/a/qlOHI (how do you embed albums in the new forums?)

    The original had quiztech nosecones and interstellar fuel switch altered tanks. Replacing the nosecones and resetting the tanks to their original contents didn't fix the problem.

    I have various mods, including FAR, however none affect engines to my knowledge.

    EDIT: tested on a totally stock (apart from TCA, module manager and AT utils) install and the problem persists.

    [1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

    in KSP1 Mod Releases

    Posted · Edited by volcanicshrimp

    The same thing happens with the autopilot hovering at 100m above the ground and stop mode active and the go to mode is unable to take off properly at all (seemingly due to the same issue). VTOL mode also seems to have the same problem.

    My first prototype of that dropship I mentioned also has a similar issue but considering that's a mk 3 plane with 22 VTOL engines of 3 different types (and from 3 different mods) and barely lifts off in VTOL mode it's understandable that balancing it would be somewhat difficult.

    [1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

    in KSP1 Mod Releases

    Posted

    Yes, I do mean TCA's ballistic autopilot and yes, I was trying to use it for a jet powered VTOL, as bad an idea as that is. My point was that the autopilot doesn't seem to work very well with the long response time of jet engines like the Rapier and the Whiplash when using them for steering.

    Your comment about ballistic planes has given me an idea though... A ballistic dropship with quick response engines for landing and high-power hybrid engines for higher speed flight. I'd be surprised if I can make one capable of escaping the atmosphere, but it's something to try, and the idea of a dropship coming in vertically at high speed rather than cruising along slowly to its landing site seems pretty exciting.

    [1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

    in KSP1 Mod Releases

    Posted

    I'm trying to make a jet powered VTOL (mk2 fuselage with 4 vertically pointed jet engines (I've tried whiplashes and rapiers) surface attached) to try out the very cool looking ballistic trajectory autopilot. The main problem with it so far is autopilot induced instability making it crash whenever TCA takes control of it. It seems to be overcompensating for some little wobble, then overcompensating for the overcompensation, etc, etc and crashing.

    How to land rovers?

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    I once put a stock crater crawler in a fairing on top of an oversized rocket, facing away from the rocket. To land it, it tipped over with the wheels facing down.

    Ridiculously inefficient and awkward, but it was in sandbox mode, so it's OK.

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