SAS will not track target?

[strider3]

This is a first for me. I am approaching one of my Dres orbital refueling stations, carrying fuel/LoX from my mining operation on Dres. My ship will not track the docking port I've selected as the "target". You can see, in the screenshot, that SAS will not align me with the target, my yaw, roll and pitch indicators will not move to align me with the target. I have checked all reaction wheels are "on" and, as you can see, I have plenty of electrical power and "Target" is selected in the SAS. Anybody seen this issue before? When I first saw the issue, I did a computer reboot and restarted KSP...but nothing changed.

Edited April 14, 2019 by strider3

[bewing]

Yeah, I've seen it before. For radial docking ports, there's a bug where SAS will track the CoM of the target, instead of the docking port.

It's been reported on the bug tracker.

 

Edited April 14, 2019 by bewing

[strider3]

Thanks bewing. It's apparently very inconsistent because I've never had the issue with these before. If I was to "cheat" a new set of these 2 craft into Dres orbit, do you think it would perhaps solve the issue? Or does the bug originate in the construction phase?

[OHara]

The player who entered bug report figured out it depended which part was 'root' in the craft under SAS control.  The navball is correct but for some reason SAS holds orientation not so that the docking port points to the target, as you would expect, but so that a line from the root part to the target is parallel to the docking-port axis.

So you could probably re-build the ship with the root part along the axis of the docking port, and have SAS target for you.

Or, you could take this opportunity to try the other approach to docking: Orient the ship so the docking port is parallel to the target port, ask SAS to hold orientation, and translate to dock.  You might like that method better.

[strider3]

16 hours ago, OHara said:

The player who entered bug report figured out it depended which part was 'root' in the craft under SAS control.  The navball is correct but for some reason SAS holds orientation not so that the docking port points to the target, as you would expect, but so that a line from the root part to the target is parallel to the docking-port axis.

So you could probably re-build the ship with the root part along the axis of the docking port, and have SAS target for you.

Or, you could take this opportunity to try the other approach to docking: Orient the ship so the docking port is parallel to the target port, ask SAS to hold orientation, and translate to dock.  You might like that method better.

HMmmm, the docking port in question is on the axis of the root part ( the RC-L01 RGU) AFAICT?

I use the other approach to docking whenever I dock with a port that is Normal/Anti-normal aligned.

[strider3]

I went back to the VAB, removed all the booster stages from the fuel hauler and checked the root part. At least I think I did, not very familiar with the "re-root" function. I cheated the thing into Dres orbit and it aligned perfectly with the fuel station's radial ports. Not sure how the root part got messed up...if it truly was...I have no idea how you verify the "root" part before messing with the re-root function...but it seems to have solved the issue. One thing I didn't touch as I approached the docking was any "control from here"...not sure if that had some bearing on it working correctly.

[bewing]

1 hour ago, Victor3 said:

.I have no idea how you verify the "root" part before messing with the re-root function

When you hover your cursor over a part and the entire rocket turns green -- that's the root.

[strider3]

16 hours ago, bewing said:

When you hover your cursor over a part and the entire rocket turns green -- that's the root.

Dang it, I knew that...it's the part you grab to move the entire ship in the VAB...sheesh!

Thanks as always, bewing.