[1.8.x] Konstruction! Weldable ports, servos, cranes, and magnets! [0.1.3]

[larkvi 20]

Do people have good Konstruction crafts that are working well for them that they might share, perhaps with images of them at work?

[SpaceastronautX 22]

Great! Now I can play KSP 1.2 and with this great Mod. All is coincidence.

[RadGH 14]

The docking ports seem VERY glitchy for me. After struggling with quickloads and trying to get this to connect for an hour, I found waiting until the ports settle down, then disable roll, then spin 180 degrees seems to do the trick.

Is this a bug in version 1.6.0 or am I doing something wrong?

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/elasticbeanstalk-us-west-2-868470985522/ShareX/2016/11/2016-11-09_19-57-28.mp4

Edited November 10, 2016 by RadGH

[TheRagingIrishman 1,146]

1 hour ago, RadGH said:

The docking ports seem VERY glitchy for me. After struggling with quickloads and trying to get this to connect for an hour, I found waiting until the ports settle down, then disable roll, then spin 180 degrees seems to do the trick.

Is this a bug in version 1.6.0 or am I doing something wrong?

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/elasticbeanstalk-us-west-2-868470985522/ShareX/2016/11/2016-11-09_19-57-28.mp4

 

RD is still trying to get them working perfectly. Still kinda finikey.

[Enceos 1,746]

@RoverDude Is there any vid of you testing the Multi-Welding feature? I still can't figure out how it works.

[nascarlaser1 325]

Does this mod override the stock docking ports with the construction ports, or are they separate items?

[Enceos 1,746]

@nascarlaser1 they're separate items, brighter texture and fall in the custom "Construction" category. You can't dock construction ports to the normal ones.

[nascarlaser1 325]

1 minute ago, Enceos said:

@nascarlaser1 they're separate items, brighter texture and fall in the custom "Construction" category. You can't dock construction ports to the normal ones.

ok thank you! I just wanted to make sure that they were separate. I like the stock docking ports, but for bases the construction ports are perfect for me!

[oniontrain 48]

Is there a way to change the root of a vessel in flight? I've accidentally set the root to the construction port and already launched and docked with a station. Now I can't weld them together.

 

Edit: I've fixed it, I think? I had to rename the station to a regular ship, dock a probe named as a station to the main part of it with the claw, and this restructured it somehow and let me weld the ports.

Edited November 16, 2016 by oniontrain

[DStaal 1,974]

Getting a chance to actually use these in the field: Anyone else wishing the Akita seat weighed just a bit more?  A simple four-wheel rover fits a KIS container perfectly, but if you put a MK-V module in it, the rover will do a backflip (on Mun, and the very least) - even if it's only using front-wheel drive.

(Yes, I back-ported.  I don't believe it's relevant to this issue...)

[DrScarlett 33]

Hiyas @RoverDude and all,

If i want to do an L-shaped multi-port dock with these AWESOME USI ports, are there any pro tips? Any way to fidget with the settings if one doesn't catch so that it does afterward (is resetting acquire in anyway helpful in this case)? Or tips on the settings that give you the best chance of the L-multi-dock succeeding? It is not so much about getting the right rotation (since it is an L-shape) but more about giving both ports the chance to do their thing, I guess. But I have little idea how to do that. A more detailed understanding on what the settings (force, torque, roll, range, snap) actually do would also be very, very welcome.

Any help would be greatly appreciated <3

[funkcanna 31]

Hi, the construction ports really dont seem to like docking together.  Do they have to be rotated a certain way?  

Edited November 18, 2016 by funkcanna

[dboi88 1,662]

8 minutes ago, funkcanna said:

Hi, the construction ports really dont seem to like docking together.  Do they have to be rotated a certain way?  

That's not really much to go on so I can't really visualize what your issue is but see these previous comments. I think they provide the answer you are probably looking for. If not would you care to elaborate exactly what issue you are having?

On 10/31/2016 at 2:00 AM, Tarheel1999 said:

As the Cardinal said you need to roll the vessel until the ports are lined up. The angle slider should select which orientation is the correct one. You can try to use the roll feature of the ports but that seems like more hassle than it's worth. If you do use it, start with a very small value on one port. 

On 10/30/2016 at 9:26 PM, TheCardinal said:

I had the same. The problem was located between my seat and my keyboard (i just didn't understand the mod sufficiently). Latching on only occurs when both conctruction docking ports are aligned properly. With stock docking port the rotation of the ports doesn't matter. If they are alligned in the horizontal, vertical and sideways plein, they will latch to each other. The construction docking ports require that the rotation of both ports is the same. The simplest way to achieve this after "bumping" is to rotate one of both crafts with the Q or E key. At some point, the rotation is the same and both ports will latch on to each other.

 

Cheers

[DrScarlett 33]

1 minute ago, dboi88 said:

The angle slider should select which orientation is the correct one.

WOAW!!! I wish I had known that... I thought it meant snap incremental angles.... so it is the ACTUAL angle, and you can lock on at only one angle....

[funkcanna 31]

6 minutes ago, dboi88 said:

That's not really much to go on so I can't really visualize what your issue is but see these previous comments. I think they provide the answer you are probably looking for. If not would you care to elaborate exactly what issue you are having?

Cheers

Thanks - much appreciated.

Basically I have a Kerbal Planetary Base Hub and I'm trying to attach the base parts on the surface of Duna.  When I bump up against them, nothing happens.  Maybe they aren't rotated correctly?  Its impossible to rotate the craft as they are landed. 

Also what do the port options mean (Port Roll, range etc)?

Edited November 18, 2016 by funkcanna

[DrScarlett 33]

7 minutes ago, dboi88 said:

Latching on only occurs when both conctruction docking ports are aligned properly.

Ow man, I would love to have a version of this that allows you to rotate the port with servos. When Infernal Robotics gets updated, I am defenitely going to try making my cube again, but this time with rotators before every construction port

Edited November 18, 2016 by DrScarlett

[dboi88 1,662]

3 minutes ago, DrScarlett said:

WOAW!!! I wish I had known that... I thought it meant snap incremental angles.... so it is the ACTUAL angle, and you can lock on at only one angle....

Yeah so you can ensure all your connections are lined up instead of being at daft angles, or having to keep docking and redocking trying to get everything square.

2 minutes ago, funkcanna said:

Thanks - much appreciated.

Basically I have a Kerbal Planetary Base Hub and I'm trying to attach the base parts on the surface of Duna.  When I bump up against them, nothing happens.  Maybe they aren't rotated correctly?  Its impossible to rotate the craft as they are landed. 

Also what do the port options mean (Port Rotation, range etc)?

I've not had a full play with them yet. I'll do so tonight and confirm but i'm pretty sure the first 3 options are in relation to the strength of the magnet.

If you have the two docking ports engaged (with the magnets) but aren't connecting try slowly sliding the Angle Snap. In theory it should connect once you've set the Angle Snap to match the actual angle they are currently sitting at. 

Of course i might be completely wrong, If i am let me know, either way i'll report back later.

[DrScarlett 33]

1 minute ago, dboi88 said:

either way i'll report back later.

Thanks a lot, looking forward to that!

[dboi88 1,662]

I'm pretty sure this is how the port settings work. These settings are the magnet strength settings the only setting that affects the orientation of the ports is the angle setting. let me know if i've got anything wrong.

So the torque setting is how strong the force will twist the whole ship that's being docked into alignment laterally. The roll setting is how strong the force will roll a ship into the correct docking orientation, i.e. make up match up on both ports. The range setting is how far away the magnet engages. The force setting is the overall magnet strength and the Angle Snap when turned on stops the port from actually engaging until the angle of the port you are docking to matches the setting given.

Edited November 19, 2016 by dboi88
added clarity

[funkcanna 31]

41 minutes ago, dboi88 said:

I'm pretty sure this is how the port settings work. let me know if i've got anything wrong.

Thanks thats awesome! However I still dont know what those settings actually do.  Do they rotate the port physically?  Does each port have to have the same settings set?

[dboi88 1,662]

3 minutes ago, funkcanna said:

Thanks thats awesome! However I still dont know what those settings actually do.  Do they rotate the port physically?  Does each port have to have the same settings set?

No these are the settings for how strong the magnet is. So the torque setting is how strong the force will twist the whole ship that's being docked into alignment laterally. The roll setting is how strong the force will roll a ship into the correct docking orientation, i.e. make up match up on both ports. The range setting is how far away the magnet engages. The force setting is the overall magnet strength and the Angle Snap when turned on stops the port from actually engaging until the angle of the port you are docking to matches the setting given.

So if you want the next module you are connecting to be rolled 90 degrees in relation to the docking port so that your solar trusses point out in the right direction you'd set it to 90, move in to dock and once in place you'd slowly roll the ship and it would automatically dock once you'd rolled 90 degrees.

[funkcanna 31]

Ah! Thanks, really appreciate your help/

[DrScarlett 33]

Thank you very much, @dboi88!!!

[TK421d 76]

i am absolutely in love with the construction ports...  station and base building is soooooooooooo much better because of them!

[Warezcrawler 194]

Hi @RoverDude.... I got an exception when trying out the welding ports in space, on KSP 1.2.1 and latest Konstruction. After this, the ports would not reacquire each other.

[EXC 12:01:22.180] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
	ModuleDockingNode.<SetupFSM>m__2C6 (.KFSMState st)
	KerbalFSM.updateFSM (KFSMUpdateMode mode)
	KerbalFSM.UpdateFSM ()
	ModuleDockingNode.Update ()



[EXC 12:01:30.985] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
	Konstruction.ModuleWeldablePort.Update ()

What is did:

1. I made a small two part vessel which I edited into space (debug menu).
2. I detached them from each other, went well
3. tried docking them again while trying out different setting on angel/rotation, went well I think..... It rotated and was magneto like (so it does not really attach I guess....)
4. Then on detaching again, and this is where I believe the exception hit me
5. and now I could not reattach

Log file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8MQtxvD6CVRNkVhY2ZKM25jSkk