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[PART, 1.0.2] Anatid Robotics / MuMech - MechJeb - Autopilot - Historical thread

r4m0n

By r4m0n
in KSP1 Mod Releases

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almagnus1

almagnus1

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First off, really love how well MechJeb removes the tedium from KSP, allowing me to focus more on design and building stuff, rather than being continually frustrated with things I suck at (like

I was watching the docking with Docking Port Indicator installed, and it was a pretty eye-opening experience (and not in a good way) to watch the docking autopilot not really dock with this mod installed.

Long story short, while it will align with the docking surface perfectly, it's not correctly compensating for course deviation - this is especially true if you have an unbalanced craft (like a tug moving a piece of a starship).

What I would expect to see (as far as the autopiloting goes) is how the mod is demonstrated:

Hopefully that helps fine tune this rather rough spot in an otherwise awesome mod.

For reference, the Dockign Port Alignment:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/43901-0-21-Docking-Port-Alignment-Indicator-(Version-2-1-Updated-8-17-13))

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Starwaster

Starwaster

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First off, really love how well MechJeb removes the tedium from KSP, allowing me to focus more on design and building stuff, rather than being continually frustrated with things I suck at (like

I was watching the docking with Docking Port Indicator installed, and it was a pretty eye-opening experience (and not in a good way) to watch the docking autopilot not really dock with this mod installed.

Long story short, while it will align with the docking surface perfectly, it's not correctly compensating for course deviation - this is especially true if you have an unbalanced craft (like a tug moving a piece of a starship).

What I would expect to see (as far as the autopiloting goes) is how the mod is demonstrated:

Hopefully that helps fine tune this rather rough spot in an otherwise awesome mod.

For reference, the Dockign Port Alignment:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/43901-0-21-Docking-Port-Alignment-Indicator-(Version-2-1-Updated-8-17-13))

which version of MJ are you using? docking works a lot better than it used to in this branch.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/47317-MechJeb-2-Patch-test-bed-release-%28October-10%29

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Virtualgenius

Virtualgenius

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I hate to be *that* guy, but I'm having problems installing this. I run Steam, and it's on the latest version that's on Steam, which I assume is .21.

I've put Mechjeb into the Gamedata folder, tried copy/pasting the contents of the individual folders into the parts/plugin folders......still nothing works. On the Steam forums they said there was another .dll needed for Steam, but the link I found was out of date.

Help?

I use the steam version and all you do is open the extracted zip file and copy and past the "MechJeb2" folder into the gamedata folder and it just works you need to do nothing except "extract open copy paste"

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Starwaster

Starwaster

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I added the MechJebCore module statement to the part.cfg of all my pods. I now find that this seems to cause all control to be lost the instant that ship loses the focus. For example if there are 2 craft 50 meters apart (well within the physics unload distance) and I switch between ships the ship that lost focus loses direction, thrust and nearly any other type of control. By this I mean all vanilla KSP control (except SAS hold it seems), not just MechJeb control. I am still investigating but it looks like I am going back to using the AR202 part because of this. If I remove the MechJebCore statement and use the AR202 then I can do things like, for example, instruct both ships to SmartASS orient towards each other as target while I observe at a distance on EVA or have the ship without the focus to move in and dock to the ship with the focus. I can only report this bug, I have no clue as to why adding MechJeb to the part.cfg should be behaving differently to slapping an AR202 part on the outside of the command pod. I have tried different dev versions and forks of MechJeb2 and they all behave exactly the same way. Linux 64 bit but I don't think that makes any difference.

Ok, so this is interesting, after the experience I described with docking, I decided to experiment a bit to make sure that wasn't a fluke. I had two capsules flying in as close formation as I could manage and set the autopilot on both to try to land at KSC. They both attempted re-entry even though I stayed focused on one. Sadly however the experiment was a failure in the sense that I could not keep them both within 2km so MJ stopped executing on the other one and KSC reported all three Kerbals as MIA. (I don't have the option turned on that perma-kills them). But it did try!

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Galane

Galane

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The MJ version I'm using does docking quite well. TGT+ both on each other's docking ports that have been set to control from here. When the range drops to a few meters, turn off smart ass on the docking ship and enable the autopilot. Switch to the other ship and set smart ass to kill rotation, otherwise it'll try to follow every wiggle of the docking ship.

Offset docking port? Not a problem. Dock to the side, dock to the end, in the middle, cfg modded 3-in-1 omni docking port, not a problem.

It does have some oddities. On some ships it will fire some engines from a higher stage, seems to only happen if they don't have a decoupler in the same stage, but sometimes it doesn't. For example, my Smart Kinetic Energy Transfer Module V4 (OK, it's a missile). I put separatrons on it for a terminal boost phase to see how much accurate range* I could get. Well, with the missile's liquid fuel engine as its first stage and the separatrons in stage 0, MJ will fire the sepratrons at the same time as the orbital insertion/maneuver stage. Rocket explodes. Swap the positions of the missile's engines in the staging and it doesn't fire the liquid engine. Deactivate the engine on the OIMS, throttle up then pop the space bar. The sepratrons light and burn out then MJ fails to automatically light the last stage. Pop the spacebar again and it lights. This also happens with some landers even though the stage 0 engine is paired with a decoupler. Going down on stage 1, it burns out and MJ won't cut it loose, but will put the gear down and let the ship crash.

*Best so far, around 3,000 meters against a booster stage with 4 orange tanks in parallel. Can also hit non-bundled large diameter targets from 2,500 meters. Small diameter, got to be closer. Tiny diameter? Forget it. The 'secret sauce' is the KSPX tiny size reaction wheel. Replace the I-beam with a small Kethane scanner, add another battery and it's a 'swords to plowshares' kind of thing...

What would be a nice addition is a warning in ascent guidance for when turn end altitude is set higher than orbit altitude. Common sense to always check and make sure it's not set that way. Crazy things happen when it is. I always check it when I change rockets, don't know when it's going to pull out some different ascent path settings since I started fiddling with that instead of trying to make every flight work with the default. If MJ could save the ascent path as a small file with the same name as the craft file, that would be very useful. No more having to check and adjust it once it's dialed in because it'd automatically apply the settings to match whatever's on the pad.

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Galane

Galane

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Ok, so this is interesting, after the experience I described with docking, I decided to experiment a bit to make sure that wasn't a fluke. I had two capsules flying in as close formation as I could manage and set the autopilot on both to try to land at KSC. They both attempted re-entry even though I stayed focused on one. Sadly however the experiment was a failure in the sense that I could not keep them both within 2km so MJ stopped executing on the other one and KSC reported all three Kerbals as MIA. (I don't have the option turned on that perma-kills them). But it did try!

Yeahhhh. It doesn't work so well when you try to have two or more ships at once under MJ control. I tried a few times to aim a few boosters and a manned ship at KSP so I could watch a landing amidst a rain of crashing stuff. Didn't work. Would spin the manned ship around but wouldn't fire the engine. Pretty much dead in the water until the first one I sent down had impacted.

You can have multiple *unguided* things going down to crash at the same time. Either aim retrograde and burn until the orbit intersects the ground or use landing guidance to start, then abort. Switch to a different ship before the first one drops to far below 70KM. With practice and starting from different altitudes it's likely possible to drop several things onto close to the same place, but only if just none are being actively guided.

Last night I was sending my 2nd Kethane mining rover to the Mun. I tapped a tanker almost dry to refuel and dumped it. Just used smart ass to aim retrograde and did the burn manually, then turned off smart ass. I figured it'd do burn and forget. Nuh-uhh! Until that tanker had hit the surface KSP wasn't letting me go anywhere else with anything else, not any way but manually. Could not target anything. Click on Mun, click set as target, it'd flash the orbit green then back to grey.

What I haven't tried is a 'no look' MJ guided landing. In other words, using a ship that MJ has no issues with on staging, start from a high enough orbit so you can switch to another ship before entering the atmosphere, then start the automatic landing and switch to another ship and *don't try to do anything else*. Will MJ set it down OK or will it go on a rail to impact?

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Kaa253

Kaa253

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Thanks to all for your interest and replies to my post.

I want to say that that capability was removed but I'm not sure it has... and as far as I know, AR202 is only different in that it has code to animate the red/green lights. Can someone else confirm or deny that part?

on the other hand though, I had two ships docking last night and the approach was botched and the target was bumped and sent into a gentle spin so I hurriedly switched and killed rotation. Then I noticed that the other ship still firing RCS so I continued to watch, still focused on the target ship. The first ship finished docking clearly under MJ control. MJ functionality added via modulemanger, no AR202. I havent seen it do that in a while. It's Conti's branch I think with no changes from myself save cosmetic. (changed smartASS name for another user on thr forum)

so you might want to try his branch.

I have re-examined my observations and I now have to disagree with some of what I said yesterday. I now believe that the AR202 is indeed only different in that it has code to animate the red/green lights. Adding MJ functionality to the pod part.cfg no longer appears to be responsible for unfocussed ships having or not having MJ control. I have kind of given up trying. Sometimes I get MJ control on the unfocussed ship and sometimes I don't get it. I failed to plan my tests in a way that would produce reproducable and unambiguous results; I got too tired probably. I am currently suspicious about another mod interacting with it but I don't have enough information at this time to be sure. I tried Conti's branch for a while and I may have seen working unfocussed MJ docking control during the time I had that version installed.

I may well get inspired and give Conti's branch another shot with a new improved round of tests soon.

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Hitokiri

Hitokiri

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Hello,

Thanks for great works with MechJeb, I have one question concerning Launch to Planes of Ascent Guidance module (in latest 2.0.9), for some reason when I lunch with my vehicle from Mun to the planes of Station at the Muns Orbit I always get to opposite result then expected - once on orbit I'm 52.5° out of planes of target. So What I done wrong?

Thanks

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mcbain_101

mcbain_101

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ive got problems getting this mod to work correctly. some tabs/windows are not working. i wouldnt mind so much but 1 of them is the rendezvous tab which is the reason i installed this mod cause i suck at docking -.-

pressing the asas, rendezvous and orb it info bring up a small box in the middle of the screen but nothing more....7jqk.png

any help with this would be appreciated :)

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Simplicity

Simplicity

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Just wanted to say a BIG thank you to both r4m0n and Sarbian (and anyone else concerned)..

I am using MechJeb2-2.0.9.0-80 dev build, and I have no problem at all with getting my ships to my space station and docking them, getting to the mun then returning to Kerbin and landing..

GREAT job Guys :)

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Tassyr

Tassyr

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Now I know this is probably majorly premature, but has anyone tested this with 0.22 yet? Want to know how excited I should be for the new update- I'm not the type who can fly unassisted.

(this is not griping for an update. I just want to know if it works; I'm in class.)

[edit] well, I CAN Fly unassisted. I just can't land, orbit, or do anything other than lithobrake.

Edited by Tassyr
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