How to switch control from one craft to another (1st with Kerbal Pilot, 2nd drone with no pilot)?

[Celthon]

Have only had the game 6-days, loving it so far...started playing "Career Mode", on desktop PC, with no mods or add-ons of any kind...limited in parts until I unlock more sections of the tech tree, and after unlocking some of the miniaturized stuff I thought of a question:  if I fly a craft with a Kerbal Pilot carrying along a small drone/probe (will have no on-board pilot/crew), when I arrive at a destination and want to launch the drone how would I switch control from the craft piloted by the Kerbal Pilot to being able to control/fly the drone?  I haven't tried building anything like this yet, so perhaps (hopefully) it will become self-evident once I start, but wanted to ask beforehand.  Is it as simple as just r-clicking the command unit on the drone/probe and choosing something like a "Take Control/command" option from the menu?  (Will be using the Probodobodyne OKTO until more tech is unlocked).

If I were to launch a craft from Kerbin without a Kerbal Pilot then antenna range would be a factor, but if I have a Kerbal Pilot in the craft that carries the drone and, for example, put it in orbit around Mun and launch the drone to go down closer to the surface would control be coming directly from the craft in orbit and its antenna, or would I still be controlling the drone through the Tracking Station back on Kerbal and thus have to take antenna range into consideration?

Thank you for your time and assistance.

[Blaarkies]

Press " [ " or " ] " to switch active vessel. The vessel has to be close by (2.3km)
Antenna and relay connection follows the same rules as the initial craft, unless you want to use the "remote pilot" control (not necessary if you are in range of normal comms)

Edited March 26, 2019 by Blaarkies

[Draalo]

To controll a drone you need:

A) an antenna with enough range to reach the tracking station and have line of sight to it

B) an antenna with enough range to reach a nearby relay sat which has a connection to the tracking station

C) an antenna with enough range to reach a vessel with two pilots on board

(One pilot controlls the actual vessel, the other one remote controls the drone)

[ARS]

42 minutes ago, Draalo said:

C) an antenna with enough range to reach a vessel with two pilots on board

(One pilot controlls the actual vessel, the other one remote controls the drone)

Uuuuh... No. You don't need a vessel with 2 pilots. A drone is controllable as long as there's a connection to KSC, whether it's through direct connection or relayed through groundstations, probes or satellites. Basically:

A drone without pilot is controllable as long as there's a link to KSC. If a drone is outside range, but there's a nearby craft with a connection to KSC and can relay signal, the drone is still controllable, no matter if the nearby craft has crew or not or whatever the crew's occupation is.

A drone with no connection to KSC is uncontrollable (or at least partially controllable if the setting is checked out in difficulty option), but if it contains a crew inside a command module (this means only crewable parts in "command" parts), then the drone is fully controllable (by the crew itself, depending on crew's occupation. Only pilots have access to advanced maneuvering nodes unless flyby wire part is attached or the drone core is advanced enough)

you can switch between vessels by pressing [ or ]. The vessel must be in close proximity, around 2 km

[Celthon]

Thank you all for the replies and information.

[Draalo]

On 3/26/2019 at 10:45 AM, ARS said:

Uuuuh... No. You don't need a vessel with 2 pilots. A drone is controllable as long as there's a connection to KSC, whether it's through direct connection or relayed through groundstations, probes or satellites. Basically:

 

see A or B, thx for explaining them again.

On 3/26/2019 at 10:45 AM, ARS said:

you can switch between vessels by pressing [ or ]. The vessel must be in close proximity, around 2 km

If you are using an american keyboard setting. For german players its "ß" and "´" instead.

Look at your settings if you are playing in a non-american language.