Yet another "docking doesn't work" question

[Stunkfish]

Well, now I am officially going crazy...
(This post is "upside down"...as I edited things on top of things. I hope it doesn't confuse too much)

Sooo...I reloaded to before building my space station core, made sure all docking ports were now corrected to the way around so they can actually dock.

Launched it and did the same to the next part which was supposed to dock with it.
No "+" to be seen on any of the Sr. docking ports, viewed from the outside. According to the Wiki entry on the Sr. docking port these should now all be correctly placed.

Still they don't dock.

What seems to be obviously (according to the tutorials) wrong...is that I always get the retrograde target marker aligned, not the prograde target marker...see this picture:
The picture is taken on purpose while still some distance away from the supposed docking, because when I get really close that retrograde target marker "slips away" on the navball.

Please believe that I get those two docking ports on top of each other really close...many times already.
So what is the (obvious??) mistake I must be making all the time, as it should be the prograde target marker showing up?
Maybe it helps for the solution to note that upon contact, I get a distance measurement of 9.something meters. (where it says 11.5m in the pic). I guess it should go down to 0.0 meters?




((OMK, don't even bother reading, except you are having the same problem...
just looking at the wiki-entryfor the docking ports, before building my first space station, would have saved me hours and hours.

I simply attached the docking port the wrong way around to my vessel. (And two of those on the space station are wrong way around as well....)

There is no "male/female" orientation...no...but there is one orientation it docks and one in which does not dock at all!!

So easy to see in the Wiki, and so weird that in so many videos and so many "why is my docking not working"-threads in the forums...this is not mentioned.

LOL and *sigh*...back to reconstruction. Sorry to bother...)))


Hey there,

after watching about an hour or so of different docking tutorial videos, I am trying it myself.

Didn't work.

Then I read forum entries like this for another hour or two, and used all the information on my next trials...still don't get it to work.

- Space station is oriented and stabilised by SAS
- vessel is using SAS and RCS, the docking port on the space station is set as target. The docking port on the vessel is set to "control from here".
- I used up 460 (!) units of monopropellant "rubbing, pushing and rotating" the docking ports (The big Sr. ones...I thought bigger ones makes it easier...) against each other.

From all the tips and tricks a read and viewed, I tried:
- removing the only mod I am using (KER), didn't work with or without
- moved the vessel away about 50+ meters and back in (to "reset" the ports), didn't help
- all 4 different iterations of SAS on/off on the combination of both ships
- saving/reloading and trying again
- different port-orientations. The "space station" has 5 docking ports available, and due to the construction some of them have different sides of the docking ports facing outwards. There is some design on the middle of the docking ports, with a small "+" on the middle in one orientation, and no "+" if it was installed "flipped" over. Although I read that there is supposed to be no "male/female" sides of docking ports?
- etc etc

The thing I am wondering about most is: Even when very closely together, I cannot see any movement which looks like there is any magnet action going on. In videos I can clearly see how the magnetic forces pull stuff around...in my case the only movements are from RCS and from the two ships pushing each other on contact.

I am running out of ideas here.

This pic is not even one of the best alignements, but shouldn't this be close enough?:



Hmmm, just having a thought:

If my pilot (there is one on the space station) and my probe core (on the vessel) are not experienced enough to have the target nodes show up in SAS...can I even dock with them?
Or do I need more experienced pilot and a better probe?
Kaiptan is 2-star, probe is OKTO2.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Stunkfish
additional info/question

[Reactordrone]

Hard to tell from that angle but the docking ports might be on backwards (one or both of them). If you back them off you should be able to see the latching ring slightly protruding on both ports.

[Stunkfish]

3 hours ago, Reactordrone said:

Hard to tell from that angle but the docking ports might be on backwards (one or both of them). If you back them off you should be able to see the latching ring slightly protruding on both ports.

Hey, please check my updated post above. You were 100% right on your first answer, so I hope you might have the solution to the "updated problem" @Reactordrone

[Rocket In My Pocket]

No, you don't need a better pilot or a better probe core.

Just point yourself at the Target marker manually with your mk1 eyeball.

Couple of other thoughts, it's hard to see the pics on my phone; are you going sr. to sr. ? The different sizes aren't compatible. Also, is anything sticking out past the port, blocking it from making contact?

Edited August 4, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Stunkfish]

8 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

No, you don't need a better pilot or a better probe core.

Just point yourself at the Target marker manually with your mk1 eyeball.

Thx for your input. @Rocket In My Pocket
Please have a look at my updated question and note that I made it a bit difficult to read, as I edited the new information on top of the old, instead of below. Would be great though if you had an answer to the new/persisting problem.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

From what I see in your pic, everything looks right. At that range it should be a simple matter of closing the distance slowly and letting the magnets do the rest.

If you aren't getting any attractive force at all you may need to go out past physics range (2.5km) and come back to reset them.

Docking port alignment indicator is a great mod to help you dock, although you are 90% done in the pic so idk if it's gonna help you solve your issue.

[Stunkfish]

2 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

From what I see in your pic, everything looks right. At that range it should be a simple matter of closing the distance slowly and letting the magnets do the rest.

If you aren't getting any attractive force at all you may need to go out past physics range (2.5km) and come back to reset them.

Docking port alignment indicator is a great mod to help you dock, although you are 90% done in the pic so idk if it's gonna help you solve your issue.

No attractive force at all..
Wow, it is 2,5 km for the physics range...! New knowledge for me there. Thx. Going to give it a try...monopropellant I have enough
You tink it's no problem that it is the retrograde target marker there, instead of the prograde target marker?

[Rocket In My Pocket]

That just means you are slowly drifting away from it rather than towards it.

At this point in the docking procedure you are pretty much past using the navball and you're just eyeballing it.

To clarify you shouldn't have to back out all the way to physics range to reset the ports but you said you already tried backing off a bit so it's worth a shot.

[bewing]

As far as what's prograde, and what's retrograde -- that depends on which part of the rocket you are using as your "Control point". Clearly in your image and from your description, your command pod is your control point. This is fine and does not change the docking behavior. It just changes which part of your vessel is designated to be the "front".

If you really want it to work the other way around -- then you select the docking port on the part that you are attaching, open the context menu for the docking port, and click "Control from here". This will cause a lot of small behaviors on your vessel to change. Your navball will be pointed the other way. All your controls will be reversed from what they were a second before. It will now measure distances from your docking port rather than from your command pod. And prograde and retrograde are now swapped around.

But like I said, this will not change whether your docking ports work or not.

Oh, and as far as the "target skipping away" thing when you get really close -- it's supposed to do that. That just means that you missed hitting the center of the target by a fraction of an inch.

Edited August 4, 2018 by bewing

[Stunkfish]

Guys.... so sorry to have wasted your time... but still thankful for your help and input.

I actually managed to "double turn" my one docking port on the second vessel in construction. So it was with the "bad end" out again on my second try.

Took me one hour now to correct that, launch again, go to minmus again, rendevouz (again), and

actually DOCK FOR THE FIRST TIME since I play this game

So...sorry for my stupidity, but thx anyway...learned some new things from your answers none-the-less!

And soooo happy now to have all these hours of mistakes corrected and feeling like I know a bit better what I am doing again lol.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

"A man is great not because he hasn't failed; a man is great because failure hasn't stopped him."

-Confucius

Edited August 5, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[Mahnarch]

Confusius also said, "He who laughs last... probably not get joke."

[Kryxal]

Now that I think about it, "control from here" could be used to check if a part's flipped ... just note where it looks like it's pointing, switch control point, and see if things are right...