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

[LawnDartLeo]

Would it be just as easy to make a new custom window for MJ2 that simply has this as its ONLY function... Force roll angle (maybe throw in pitch and yaw for good measure).

I wish I were a coding wiz and could offer up more than just a request.

[Neutrinovore]

I can't remember, is 'Force Roll' an available option in the custom window editor? If so, I'll feel like a doofus for not thinking of it earlier. If not... well, it should be!

[LawnDartLeo]

Nowhere that I can find it and I looked and looked and looked.... Kerbals are not know for being thorough in their investigations, but I'm fairly sure its not. Really, a "force everything" option would be quite nice.

[Galane]

Would it be just as easy to make a new custom window for MJ2 that simply has this as its ONLY function... Force roll angle (maybe throw in pitch and yaw for good measure).

I wish I were a coding wiz and could offer up more than just a request.

Force roll in SASS and in docking autopilot align to different things. For docking it aligns the axes of the control and target ports.

[LawnDartLeo]

That portion of flight control is not what I am addressing....

Shuttle craft in particular tend to roll around a lot during the coast phase. It would be nice to be able to lock the roll to a desired orientation. Right now, I just roll it manually but it'd be nice to have that force setting to keep things orderly. I make use of it in Smart A.S.S. and wish it were in other windows as well.

[OrbitalDebris]

That portion of flight control is not what I am addressing....

Shuttle craft in particular tend to roll around a lot during the coast phase. It would be nice to be able to lock the roll to a desired orientation. Right now, I just roll it manually but it'd be nice to have that force setting to keep things orderly. I make use of it in Smart A.S.S. and wish it were in other windows as well.

That's what I do as well... after the ascent autopilot is done my ships are always in a pretty good circular orbit, but lazily tumbling around. I then turn on the smart ass to point prograde and manually roll the craft to whatever is appropriate for the mission.

[tmikesecrist3]

I wonder, I do use this mod but is there a way I can add it to my pods/ prob with out adding the part?

[Virtualgenius]

Sarbian I looked into the small amount of fuel left in the Soyuz lateral boosters that you advised me of and adjusted the values and the auto staging works perfectly now the numbers need to be 999.9 LF and 1222.2 Oxidiser instead of 1000 LF and 1223 OX it looks like bobcat may have rounded the numbers up and that's what was throwing MJ out if someone else could confirm that would be awesome. I will post this over in the soviet historical thread as well

Edited February 14, 2014 by Virtualgenius

[sarbian]

Thanks for testing it. Don't pester bobcat with that, it's a working fix but MJ should deal with it anyway.

[Virtualgenius]

I tend not to pester the other modders only you for some reason

[sarbian]

I'm an oppressed dev

[Virtualgenius]

But we love you and MJ mostly MJ

[sarbian]

/drama on

You say that only to get a patch !

[Virtualgenius]

Damn saw right through me

[drtedastro]

Virtual, remember virtual.... Not genuine....

[nlancaster]

Sarbian, love mechjeb and will always use it.

One thing I miss from the earlier mechjeb. During docking would move to into alignment with the docking port then move the final few meters to dock. The current docking system moves directly into dock at an angle. causing many docks to bounce around and lose align ment. Any hope of changing this? or am I missing a setting somewhere?

[Leader2011]

Sarbian, love mechjeb and will always use it.

One thing I miss from the earlier mechjeb. During docking would move to into alignment with the docking port then move the final few meters to dock. The current docking system moves directly into dock at an angle. causing many docks to bounce around and lose align ment. Any hope of changing this? or am I missing a setting somewhere?

It's an issue I've seen many times, would be great if it could be fixed.

[ThomsenX]

Sarbian, love mechjeb and will always use it.

One thing I miss from the earlier mechjeb. During docking would move to into alignment with the docking port then move the final few meters to dock. The current docking system moves directly into dock at an angle. causing many docks to bounce around and lose align ment. Any hope of changing this? or am I missing a setting somewhere?

I logged on to ask this, but you got there first

I have another question though: I've noticed that when auto-docking small vessels, the automatic docking system tends to 'overshoot' its needed translation thrust, thus bouncing the vessel side-to-side or up-down trying to align itself to the docking axis. Is there a setting to limit RCS thrust for the docking autopilot?

[Starwaster]

Sarbian, love mechjeb and will always use it.

One thing I miss from the earlier mechjeb. During docking would move to into alignment with the docking port then move the final few meters to dock. The current docking system moves directly into dock at an angle. causing many docks to bounce around and lose align ment. Any hope of changing this? or am I missing a setting somewhere?

I have a local hacked copy where instead of

                    else
                    {
                        //we're not extremely close in z, so keep moving in z but slow enough that we are on docking axis before contact
                        zVelocityNeeded = Math.Min(zVelocityNeeded, (Math.Max(zSep, 2) * lateralVelocityNeeded.magnitude) / lateralSep.magnitude);
                        status = "Moving toward the docking axis and dock at " + lateralVelocityNeeded.magnitude.ToString("F2") + " m/s.";
                    }

I do this

                    else
                    {
                        //we're not extremely close in z, so keep moving in z but slow enough that we are on docking axis before contact
                        zVelocityNeeded = Math.Min(zVelocityNeeded, (Math.Max(zSep, 2) * lateralVelocityNeeded.magnitude) / (lateralSep.magnitude * lateralSep.magnitude));
                        status = "Moving toward the docking axis and dock at " + lateralVelocityNeeded.magnitude.ToString("F2") + " m/s. Dist: " + zSep.ToString("F2");
                    }

Trivial alteration to a single line with non-trivial results. Pretty much guarantees that it will align before arriving at the dock. I'm happy with it.

[Mystique]

Found very strange thingy during docking, can someone else try to reproduce it?

Mothership and lander both have MJ. Mothership was left in KILL ROT mode after undocking lander. When lander returned (and I think it started when I targeted docking port), mothership started to respond on lander's controls, like pitch/yaw/roll (thanks Kthulhu not throttle). It was definitely responding on lander's key input and it stopped when I switched to mothership and turned it on stock SAS. Any ideas?

More to this problem: seems like problem occurs even if ship I'm trying to dock to isn't equipped with MJ. But it all starts when I control my ship from docking port, target target's vessel docking port, use PAR- mode of SmartASS AND click "force 0 roll". Without this option everything seems to be working as intended.

[Galane]

More to this problem: seems like problem occurs even if ship I'm trying to dock to isn't equipped with MJ. But it all starts when I control my ship from docking port, target target's vessel docking port, use PAR- mode of SmartASS AND click "force 0 roll". Without this option everything seems to be working as intended.

Why are you using that function for docking? Easiest way is to use Kill Rot on the ship you're docking to, set control on the ship doing the docking to its port then target the other ship's port. Engage the autopilot and watch.

I don't even know what the PAR- button is for, except it's not something one needs to activate during docking.

[dronkit]

Hi! i've been doing some search but i'm not sure I found something useful so i ask.

I have this big hybrid rocket (VAB) with wings and jets. The command pod is a cupola and it has a mechjeb wall mounted facing up. It is built so that the wing planes are on the east-west line on launch, so if I want to launch to 0º inclination orbit I have to roll 90º at some point before doing gravity turn, level, fly straight till I gain air speed like a spaceplane, etc. The problem is when using the ascent guidance. Mechjeb doesn't let me roll 90º anymore. It used to let me roll free but now if I do, it inmediately returns to 0º heading (as in launch). When it wants to do the gravity turn, it simply changes yaw so the rocket points east, but the wing planes are vertical instead of horizontal. Won't let me roll to level at that point either.

What can I do? What's the problem? The same installation used to let me roll freely with other craft. The version is 2.1.1.0.147. Thanks!

[CatastrophicFailure]

I don't even know what the PAR- button is for, except it's not something one needs to activate during docking.

Er, yes it is actually. It means PARALLEL, it aligns you with the target axis (like a docking port). Most useful for semi-manual docking where one uses MJ only for attitude control, because the docking AP is too wonkie for a given ship or hasn't been invented yet...

[sonicsst]

What I do is select control from here on the docking port, then hit TGT+ on both ships to get them aligned. Then I switch to KILLROT to avoid any SMART Ass wonkiness that sometimes happens when they get close. I use docking AP to get them aligned, then do the rest manually. Works well.

EDIT: Actually, I think I dont need the AP at all since they'd already be aligned. It's been awhile since I've done any docking.

Edited February 16, 2014 by sonicsst

[Mystique]

Using or not MJ's docking AP wasn't the question. Question was - why the Jeb control keys affect ship that is not controlled?