How to Submarine

[Spacetraindriver]

Since I have the newest version now I can finally come back to KSP and play! Now I've seen all those submarines after launch and I want to make one too. But how do you exactly male a submarine? I know it has something to do with transferring fuel, but I don't see how that works. I want to into submarines.

[Evanitis]

In stock I know two solutions. Filled ore tanks act as ballast, so it's good for one dive only. Or you can push the craft under with engines - like a VTOL upside down. Hint: air intakes work underwater.

[Castille7]

I just built my second Submarine and it is one of those easier said than done craft. I would say it's like building your first craft to go to Duna, Laythe or Eve, It won't work on your first few attempts. My Submarines look simple but a lot of hours and testing went into them. See them here "Squirt" & "Scuba Do" to get some ideas.

[Evanitis]

2 hours ago, castille7 said:

I just built my second Submarine and it is one of those easier said than done craft. I would say it's like building your first craft to go to Duna, Laythe or Eve, It won't work on your first few attempts.

Great looks and precise functionality on both crafts. I'm especially astonised by the Squirt - I can't figure out how the heck it keeps underwater. Lovely.

Though my experience about the subs in 1.0.5 is that it's easy to make one, just hard to do it right. I think the main difficulty comes from that the craft needs to be amphibious in stock - if you can roll into water, you most likely can climb out. Anyways, building one with the VesselMover mod was too easy, so I didn't use it anymore. Dang, now there's even a shipyard mod, how cool is that?

Anyways, if you are looking for even more challenge, try one that can also fly, or even go to orbit. I had a terrific time designing such craft.

Though I'd love to find even more similarly challenging tasks involving submarines. I wonder if there is an underwater map of Kerbin..

Edited January 26, 2016 by Evanitis

[Castille7]

Just had a look at your Leapfish, too cool!

[Castille7]

1 hour ago, Evanitis said:

Great looks and precise functionality on both crafts. I'm especially astonised by the Squirt - I can't figure out how the heck it keeps underwater. Lovely.

Though my experience about the subs in 1.0.5 is that it's easy to make one, just hard to do it right. I think the main difficulty comes from that the craft needs to be amphibious in stock - if you can roll into water, you most likely can climb out. Anyways, building one with the VesselMover mod was too easy, so I didn't use it anymore. Dang, now there's even a shipyard mod, how cool is that?

Anyways, if you are looking for even more challenge, try one that can also fly, or even go to orbit. I had a terrific time designing such craft.

Though I'd love to find even more similarly challenging tasks involving submarines. I wonder if there is an underwater map of Kerbin..

The Squirt has plenty of hidden weight inside the hull, and I haven't downloaded the Shipyard Mod yet but plan to do so in the future.

[RedeyePete]

Hello Castille7

I don't know if this thread is still on your radar, but if it is I would love to download the craft file for your  Scuba Do sub

The original link is not longer vaild

Cheers

[PrvDancer85]

29 minutes ago, RedeyePete said:

Hello Castille7

I don't know if this thread is still on your radar, but if it is I would love to download the craft file for your  Scuba Do sub

The original link is not longer vaild

Cheers

@Castille7

[RedeyePete]

Yes, and then I noticed the "My craft on Kerbal X" link at the bottom of his post.

So: Downloaded

Thanks

[Castille7]

I don’t upgrade my craft for the latest versions of KSP but if requested I will for nearly anyone that I have on KSP or Kerbalx. Glad to see others enjoying the craft I build. If the Sub isn’t working I’ll update it soon.

[RedeyePete]

Hi,

Thank you for the reply. I haven't tested it in the water as yet. - Didn't get that far.

Have you flown this sub into space?

My plan is to put it on Lathe

So far I have stuck it on a booster, got into orbit around Kerbal (almost), re-entry was nice with heat shields, failed on detaching heat shields and lost rear tanks, rear aerospikes, and most of the rear of the sub. Then hit the ground for rapid disassembly Kerbal style.

So far I have added decouplers, tanks, areospikes, parachutes and heat shields.

I might look at adding monoprop and thrusters or a large reaction wheel to help me with flipping the sub to better detach the heat shields.

 

More testing tonight.

 

 

 

 

[Castille7]

3 hours ago, RedeyePete said:

Hi,

Thank you for the reply. I haven't tested it in the water as yet. - Didn't get that far.

Have you flown this sub into space?

My plan is to put it on Lathe

So far I have stuck it on a booster, got into orbit around Kerbal (almost), re-entry was nice with heat shields, failed on detaching heat shields and lost rear tanks, rear aerospikes, and most of the rear of the sub. Then hit the ground for rapid disassembly Kerbal style.

So far I have added decouplers, tanks, areospikes, parachutes and heat shields.

I might look at adding monoprop and thrusters or a large reaction wheel to help me with flipping the sub to better detach the heat shields.

 

More testing tonight.

 

 

Never thought about leaving Kerbin, this would be cool!

 

 

[RedeyePete]

Added some thrusters to the front 2 tanks and limited front aerospikes to 60%.

I always find those inflatable heatshields a pain to detach. So I tried reentry without them and nothing blew up, so bye bye heatshields.

I tried landing in the water but the nosecone and connards kept braking off. But I did manage to land on Kerbafirma ok.

Next stop Lathe!

 

[Castille7]

5 hours ago, RedeyePete said:

Added some thrusters to the front 2 tanks and limited front aerospikes to 60%.

All sounds A-Okay!.....I am staying tuned for updates!

[RedeyePete]

Were on our way! As you can see I'm not a very efficient flyer. So overkill with the boosters!

Topping up at Minmus.

At this point I thought to myself that I haven't even tested it in the water. So I might sidetrack and do that next.

I only play in short bursts (too much real world stuff to do) so this may take a few days.

More happy snaps to come.

[Scarecrow]

I've just updated this one for KSP 1.4.3  UB-40

[RedeyePete]

Just as well I did some testing.

Wheels: Because the wheels are close together I was tipping over a lot. Even on the runway before I did anything. Retracting and extending the wheels a number of times usually gets it upright. I may splay the wheels a bit.

ISRU: I don't think there is one. I'll stick one in.

Cooling: I had to add 2 thermal panels so that the drills didn't overheat. I know that sometime back they added thermal requirements for drills and ISRU's. This made a lot of my old mining/refining craft obsolete - thats life.

Weight: I ored up, went in the water and went straight down to the usual disassembly. Pressing S did not help. So I will need to reduce the ore. I guess that I will need to try and keep some sort of balance whilst I do this. Me adding extra bits doesn't help either.

 

That's a nice looking sub there Scarecrow. It might end up on Lathe some time in the future. Who knows.

[Castille7]

Not sure if you watched the video of Scuba Do, it shows some functions. Also it’s sitting sideways in the hangar so when you’re on the runway the sub will roll off the side with out tipping over. I noticed It’s a little shaky getting to the water but decided to leave it that way because it’s only momentarily. The video shows which Ore Tank to Jettison for proper operation. I am not too good at giving good directions for my craft I do apologize for that. Let me know if the tweaks work.

[Scarecrow]

The beauty of mine is that you use a quirky property of cargo bays to ascend or descend. With the cargo bays tied to Action Group keys, you only need to press those keys to start sinking. Pressing them again reintroduces positive buoyancy and the sub starts coming up. You can speed up the sinking/rising process by using the dive planes as usual. 

[RedeyePete]

Castille7: Yes I did watch your video. I just didn't pay enough attention. Doh.

Just putting the sub on the runway and it would tip over. I kid you not. Splaying the rear wheels fixed that problem. I also did the same for the front wheels because I would tip over coming out of the water as the rear wheels had not yet touched the ground. It did not seem to alter the crafts handling in any noticeable way. Looking at your parts list I noticed that you had already fitted 2 ISRUs, so I assigned some action keys for them. I also pulled your sub apart to see what else I missed. So I launched a new sub and will shortly send it to Minmus. Lets just pretend that the pics I already posted are for this one.  ;o)

 

Scarecrow: I have a floating base at Lathe (Matt Lowne's creation) which has a small sub that just goes up and down. you control it the same way by opening and shutting a cargo bay. Although I haven't tried it as yet.

 

Re my "oversized" booster comment. No - actually it is just the right size. I just grabbed it from one of my other craft. It does start to wobble in the last part of its burn, but I am too lazy to fix it.

[Castille7]

4 hours ago, RedeyePete said:

Castille7: Yes I did watch your video. I just didn't pay enough attention. Doh.

Just putting the sub on the runway and it would tip over. I kid you not. Splaying the rear wheels fixed that problem. I also did the same for the front wheels because I would tip over coming out of the water as the rear wheels had not yet touched the ground. It did not seem to alter the crafts handling in any noticeable way. Looking at your parts list I noticed that you had already fitted 2 ISRUs, so I assigned some action keys for them. I also pulled your sub apart to see what else I missed. So I launched a new sub and will shortly send it to Minmus. Lets just pretend that the pics I already posted are for this one.  ;o)

(Just putting the sub on the runway and it would tip over. I kid you not. Splaying the rear wheels fixed that problem)
This is the Version switching that caused this. Each craft I build, it's built for that version and often not updated. Updating craft is something I don't do unless requested or if I like one enough to go back to I will do another release.

(I also did the same for the front wheels because I would tip over coming out of the water as the rear wheels had not yet touched the ground. It did not seem to alter the crafts handling in any noticeable way.)
This too is the Version switching that caused this.

(Looking at your parts list I noticed that you had already fitted 2 ISRUs, so I assigned some action keys for them.)
This is that not so good at giving direction on my craft, often I assume that others will try the action groups I have set. Not realizing that most may assume there not set.
Again sorry about that laziness I have on craft release. I put so much time and effort in the craft builds and video this often goes to the wayside.

(I also pulled your sub apart to see what else I missed.)
Part slicing it what I often do, some are ok with it and some not. I think if you build a craft that's fun to play with then.......Mission accomplished!

Hey thanks again for taking Scuba Do on an adventure and sharing it, that's too cool man  

Edited May 20, 2018 by Castille7

[RedeyePete]

......... You're welcome

So after refueling at Minmus I decided to quick save, and this happened:

Woah psychedelic man!

I changed ships then back again and it went back to normal

A fix for 1.4.4 perhaps? Its not the first time it happened.

I was going to go straight to Jool but then decided to go to a refueling station at Duna.

The burn to Duna was only a little less than Jool, but just as well I did, because I barely got there.

I had to transfer the fuel from the 4 landing tanks to complete the insertion burn.

Otherwise I would have been in orbit around Kerbol.

No picture here. Just look at the one above and pretend Minmus is actually Dres.

They kinda look similar. Kind of~

The ship's weight is a little off and it tends to use up a fair bit of monoprop when doing long burns.

But there is enough to do the job, so all good.

 

[RedeyePete]

I've been busy with other stuff but finally got to do some flying.

I got to Lathe, and..... Out of fuel again.

If I was better at it I would use gravity assists, but I'm not.

Anyway, so I sent up my space plane to top it up and for some reason the rapiers won't work now on closed cycle.

I have oxygen in the tank but it says that there is none. Weird.

I'm going to start another thread for that and hopefully someone will figure it out.

 

[RedeyePete]

OK after mucking about in the save file I realized that the little button to the Right of the fuel tank indicator shuts the oxidizer (or fuel) off. Didn't realize!

So now that I put some fuel in, it was time for a deorbit burn.

Oops forgot the marshmallows!

Were down - woohoo

Mission control - Were breathing again.

Its at this point I realized that I can't steer, and the sea is in the opposite direction

I kept the landing aerospikes attached and by firing the front ones and the side thruster I was eventually able to turn around. And now for the drive to the ocean. - Another day.

[RedeyePete]

Landed far from everything else. Traveled over land a bit and the rest by sea.

It can do 20m/s on the surface with no ore