totm june 2019 Breaking ground - Test Zone

[Lisias]

Well… The Robotic parts are OK, but as a Infernal Robotics user, it's not out of this World.

Except by the KAL-1000. Dude, this worth the DLC by itself for a mile.

This is my first experiment on it. Can't wait to have IR supporting KAL-1000!

 

-- --

I will eat my words on that. There's another thing that makes the robotics parts VERY interesting. Suspensions. 

I completely overlooked that. This adds yet another dimension to the possibilities.

Edited June 4, 2019 by Lisias
Word eater

[Klapaucius]

I was inspired by @klond's pogo stick and it got me to thinking.

 

Yes, we have achieved escape velocity on Gilly with pistons:

 

[Mignear]

Wanted to see if the rotors would make for an effective way to get something rolling on the ground with a decent speed.

Currently tops out at about 30m/s. Perhaps the small cubic struts would work better as the "tires", and maybe additional rotor-wheels. The bouncing of the vehicle from the rotor-wheel interaction with the ground affects the performance as well, I had to hold down the W key to keep the nose down.

[sturmhauke]

This is a VTOL SSTO concept I'm working on. Needs some tweaks, but it's promising.

 

[Guest]

Ho fellow engineers. I've been exploring suspensions a bit and learned something that might or might not be obvious to everyone here, but nevertheless: servos work quite well as springs. The servo should be left motorised, maximum traversal, motor on, target angle at wherever you want the neutral position of your suspension to be. For the smallest servo, torque between 10 and 20% works well most of the time, but note that you can make it tuneable through axes. You can even make a top-heavy rocker-bogie suspension this way, and quite well-behaved solid axle suspensions and stuff.

Here's a testbed -- when you launch, it has suspension at maximum stiffness, i.e. it doesn't rock much at all. Use Up/Down to tune it down, then back up again. Left/Right tunes damping which makes a quite a bit of difference as well.

It's not quite as good as real springs would be and it draws current, but it works.

https://kerbalx.com/Brikoleur/Rocker-Bogie-Proof-of-Concept

[Guest]

Question to you all mega-engineers who have been working magic with stock stuff for years: what's the canonical, best, or only way of making circular/closed/looping structures? Strutting up the point where the loop closes, or is there some better way?

I was playing with a chain drive a while back and couldn't get it to close properly, the strut I used just magically stretched to amazing lengths when I decoupled it from the rest of the device.

[Orky Kultur]

Working on making replaceable missile pods for a BD Armoury tank, with the second set of missiles stored inside the fuselage. Current problems are making everything fit without excessive clipping, and joint strength. (no pics, sorry )

Does anyone know a way (without additional mods) to make the strongest possible joints? Currently I've been using the smallest servos and second-smallest pistons for space efficiency; is this part of the problem?

[4x4cheesecake]

Apparently, you can build a "gear box" but unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of friction so the powered rotor doesn't reach max RPM:

Spoiler

Also, it's a bit wobbly^^

 

Oh and if anyone is curious: this is one vessel on launch but the axis are separated by decouplers so the gears are actually able to act like gears

Edited June 4, 2019 by 4x4cheesecake

[Azimech]

1 hour ago, 4x4cheesecake said:

Apparently, you can build a "gear box" but unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of friction so the powered rotor doesn't reach max RPM:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Oh and if anyone is curious: this is one vessel on launch but the axis are separated by decouplers so the gears are actually able to act like gears

Unity's way of collider interactions means they become impressively imprecise at higher rotational speeds. The exception seems to be rover wheels and landing gear.

But true, collider friction is pretty high.

For this kind of krakentech, we should have the ability to choose the material and if it's "lubricated" or not.

Collider friction is a set value in Unity when you export the model, but through coding there is a way to modify it. The library "ModuleWheelBase" (which governs all wheels in the game) has the option to adjust the friction setting on the fly.

As an extra: the colliders with the least friction are box and sphere colliders, with spheres really winning. Complex colliders like tanks and wings and especially a Vernor are terrible.

That's why the most gears you see are made from RCS balls.

https://gfycat.com/anchoredfearlesscapybara-kerbal-space-program-ksp

Edited June 4, 2019 by Azimech

[sturmhauke]

2 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

Question to you all mega-engineers who have been working magic with stock stuff for years: what's the canonical, best, or only way of making circular/closed/looping structures? Strutting up the point where the loop closes, or is there some better way?

I was playing with a chain drive a while back and couldn't get it to close properly, the strut I used just magically stretched to amazing lengths when I decoupled it from the rest of the device.

I dunno about a chain drive, but it's possible to create a closed loop structure by using two pairs of precisely placed docking ports, and a mod like Docking Port Alignment Indicator to get the approach lined up so they both contact at the same time. I used it on my Jool-5 entry for instance.

[Azimech]

2 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

Question to you all mega-engineers who have been working magic with stock stuff for years: what's the canonical, best, or only way of making circular/closed/looping structures? Strutting up the point where the loop closes, or is there some better way?

I was playing with a chain drive a while back and couldn't get it to close properly, the strut I used just magically stretched to amazing lengths when I decoupled it from the rest of the device.

Interesting ... In 1.7.1 strutting to a loop does seem to work. Didn't I post my chain a few days ago?

[4x4cheesecake]

24 minutes ago, Azimech said:

That's why the most gears you see are made from RCS balls.

https://gfycat.com/anchoredfearlesscapybara-kerbal-space-program-ksp

Nice, I'll try that

Thanks for your explanation

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, Azimech said:

Interesting ... In 1.7.1 strutting to a loop does seem to work. Didn't I post my chain a few days ago?

You did and I am in 1.7.1, which is why the behaviour ... threw me for a loop. 

Thanks for the pointers, I'll keep exploring.

[Azimech]

7 hours ago, Mignear said:

Wanted to see if the rotors would make for an effective way to get something rolling on the ground with a decent speed.

Currently tops out at about 30m/s. Perhaps the small cubic struts would work better as the "tires", and maybe additional rotor-wheels. The bouncing of the vehicle from the rotor-wheel interaction with the ground affects the performance as well, I had to hold down the W key to keep the nose down.

Replace them with the smallest wheels you can set the brakes on, set springs & dampers to minimal.

[Triop]

All it needs now is a crane . . .

[Majorjim!]

50 minutes ago, Triop said:

All it needs now is a crane . . . 

One of those hinges on each side is redundant isn't it. Why use two as it looks like the weight is quite low.

[sturmhauke]

I'm working on a quad walker. For reference, I looked up a dog walking animation and made a grid out of structural pieces. So far it can lie down and stand reliably.

 

[Triop]

58 minutes ago, Majorjim! said:

One of those hinges on each side is redundant isn't it. Why use two as it looks like the weight is quite low.

If I use 1 it would be in the middle and wheels from cars might hit that while driving the ramp.

I couldn't get to work the hinges the other way, that's why it's sticking out.

Come to think of it, tunrning it 180 degrees horizontal might solve my problem.

I need to check that.

Here is a demo video I made earlier:

 

[Triop]

Almost finished, needs some tuning . . .

 

[MaianTrey]

I finished my ISS Solar Array mechanism. Screenshots below, GFYCAT video here. Not much wiggle. But there is a little bit, more-so when I retract.

[sgt_flyer]

6 hours ago, MaianTrey said:

I finished my ISS Solar Array mechanism. Screenshots below, GFYCAT video here. Not much wiggle. But there is a little bit, more-so when I retract.

You're lucky to get out of this with a bit of wiggle  i was attacked by the kraken when i tried this design for my solar arrays  (whole thing started to shake itself to death ^^)

mmh - can the array wings turn around their axis ? 

 

[MaianTrey]

2 hours ago, sgt_flyer said:

You're lucky to get out of this with a bit of wiggle  i was attacked by the kraken when i tried this design for my solar arrays  (whole thing started to shake itself to death ^^)

mmh - can the array wings turn around their axis ? 

I did have a couple of kraken strikes along the way to get to this point haha!

I do have a servo in there to rotate them, works pretty well, just didn't get it recorded. I have one set to be inverted, so I can tie the rotation to the 'roll' axis on a non-default action set and keep them pointed the same way. I also have the pistons for the extension, and the servos connected directly to the Solar Panels set so I can toggle the 'lock' on them, and when locked, the whole array still rotates and is rock-solid! I was stoked when I realized that worked haha.

This DLC is terrific - Action Sets, Robotics Parts, and the KAL-1000!

Edited June 7, 2019 by MaianTrey

[woeller]

Proof of concept: Verticate a Rocket

 

[Guest]

Expedition Eeloo mission 2 begins work.

Serious development is underway and rover testing and robotics will be tested in a few days from now 

Mission order:

1. Mun did

2. Minmus next

3. Duna

4. Ike

and so forth until we get to Planet Eve and Moho

[_Rade]

Using the new parts I've made a working drive shaft that uses universal (Cardan) joints. Best part is this thing works surprisingly well, and if you wanted you could have drive shaft that makes 90 degrees turn. Only downside is there is a power loss for every joint you add.

Craft file https://kerbalx.com/Rade/Kardan