Can't steer with Klaw after capture.

[Biggen]

Got a rescue contract in Minimus Orbit.  It was for a stranded kerbal and his scrap.  So I built a craft using a Klaw (no RCS), motored over to Minimus and captured him.  Was thinking, "Damn, that was easy."  Plotted a return trip back, fired my engines, and then promptly went into an uncontrolled spin that ended up sending me on a crash course to Minimus.  I found out I can't steer at all and am not able to get out of Minimus orbit and head back to Kerbin.

Looking online at people using the claw when grabbing asteroids, they right click the asteroid and select "Center of Mass".  However, when I right-click the craft I captured (it is a lander can) I have no such option to select.

Am I doing something wrong?  How the hell are you supposed to steer this fat cow with a 3 ton lander can strapped to the front of your ship?

 

Edited January 20, 2017 by Biggen

[HalcyonSon]

Reaction Wheels or RCS on your Klaw.  Without that, the best you can do is try to eyeball it.  If you made the grab at all straight, you should be able to point your engine centerline at the middle of the lander can and be okay.  To align your thrust with the center of mass, first right-click on the Klaw and unlock the pivot, then maneuver using [W][A][S ][D] to where you think the mess will go straight, lock the pivot, and give it gas. Repeat as needed.

Edited January 20, 2017 by HalcyonSon

[Biggen]

I have a reaction wheel on the Klaw craft.  If I limit the thrust it seems to be able to hold steady better.  I'll have to play around with it.  I grabbed the lander can on its edge so it's hard to figure out where the COM is on it.

[Biggen]

Well, crap.  I think I'm going to have to give up on this mission.  I've been fiddiling with it for over an hour and I can only spin in an uncontrolled circle when attached to the can with the klaw when I attempt to thrust with the engine.  I've tried different pivots to no avail.  If I had RCS I could attach to a better spot on the can as I only have it attached on edge now with 2 of the 4 klaw "fingers" holding it.

 

[bewing]

No, that's not it. When you grab anything with your klaw, your "control from here" point gets reset -- often to that thing you just grabbed. Which is always pointing in some strange direction. If you look really closely, you will realize that your navball is pointed all wrong.

All you have to do to fix it is right-click on the klaw, or a probe core, or any other control point (that's pointing in the correct direction), and say "control from here". Sadly, sometimes when you flip into map mode or switch focus away from this ship and back again, it will reset your control point all wrong again. So you have to be careful of that, and keep making sure to reset it properly.

If you reset your control point, suddenly everything will work easy again.

 

Edited January 20, 2017 by bewing

[Biggen]

14 minutes ago, bewing said:

No, that's not it. When you grab anything with your klaw, your "control from here" point gets reset -- often to that thing you just grabbed. Which is always pointing in some strange direction. If you look really closely, you will realize that your navball is pointed all wrong.

All you have to do to fix it is right-click on the klaw, or a probe core, or any other control point (that's pointing in the correct direction), and say "control from here". Sadly, sometimes when you flip into map mode or switch focus away from this ship and back again, it will reset your control point all wrong again. So you have to be careful of that, and keep making sure to reset it properly.

If you reset your control point, suddenly everything will work easy again.

 

This was it!!!  Holy crap!  I've been working on this for nearly two hours now!  My back hurts from sitting in this damn chair!!

I clicked "control from here" on the Klaw device and that reset it.  Yeah, I was wondering why my orbit prograde didn't look like i was actually moving prograde to Minimus.  

[HalcyonSon]

16 minutes ago, bewing said:

No, that's not it. When you grab anything with your klaw, your "control from here" point gets reset -- often to that thing you just grabbed. Which is always pointing in some strange direction. If you look really closely, you will realize that your navball is pointed all wrong.

All you have to do to fix it is right-click on the klaw, or a probe core, or any other control point (that's pointing in the correct direction), and say "control from here". Sadly, sometimes when you flip into map mode or switch focus away from this ship and back again, it will reset your control point all wrong again. So you have to be careful of that, and keep making sure to reset it properly.

If you reset your control point, suddenly everything will work easy again.

D'oh!  Forgot about that.  

You can still have enough thrust offset to make a craft uncontrollable even with the correct control point and a Reaction Wheel though.  If changing the control point doesn't fix the issue, it is possible to rendezvous again with the main engine (no RCS), just takes some patience.  Helps to fine-tune the engine thrust way down.