UTEM 271 Propellers and Spinny Things!

[XLjedi]

On a recent visit to the HQ of Untied Technolgies, I noticed this guide wedged under a table leg in the cafeteria...

It seemed interesting:  UTEM 271 Propellers and Spinny Things!

 

KSP 1.8 Update

I noticed the 1.8 update introduced a few changes to propellers and rotors but nothing too drastic:

• The 1.8 upgrade introduced new mapping for rotor blade pitch
• The function of Authority Limiter was changed and Deploy Angle was added for pitch control
• In 1.7.3 the range of motion was -150 to +150 and the new range is -22.5 to +22.5 or exactly 15% of the prior values
• The ECM (KAL-1000) just needs to be reprogrammed to use Deploy Angle instead of Authority Limiter and changing the values to be 15% of the previous values

KSP 1.9 Update

The rotors now have cyclic control.  In the process they also inverted the thrust pitch vectors for clockwise rotation blades and props.  So in the section of the manual where I talk about inverting the KAL-1000 mapping for CW and CCW rotation; that is no longer required.  The blade pitch mapping works the same now for both.

Edited February 16, 2020 by XLjedi
KSP 1.8 Changes to Propellers and Rotors

[Vanamonde]

That was a lot of work to do on behalf of other players. 

[djr5899]

You Sir @XLjedi are my hero.  I briefly skimmed through the document and can tell that this is the EXACT type of information I need......KSP Propellors and Rotors for Dummies.  Can't wait to get home and give this a more thorough read through and build some prop stuff.

Thank you very much for your time and effort on this document!

[XLjedi]

15 minutes ago, djr5899 said:

You Sir @XLjedi are my hero.  I briefly skimmed through the document and can tell that this is the EXACT type of information I need......KSP Propellors and Rotors for Dummies.  Can't wait to get home and give this a more thorough read through and build some prop stuff.

Thank you very much for your time and effort on this document!

Cool, thanks for the kind words, and glad you like it! 

Although, I wouldn't necessarily say it's written in a "for dummies" format.  I think there's quite a bit in there that assumes the reader is tilted more toward the "Advanced Builder" label.

[Cavscout74]

Amazing work, @XLjedi !!!  Thanks for sharing this

[moogoob]

Brilliant work! The bits about using the robotics controller with throttle are exactly what I needed!'

 

Thanks!

[Geonovast]

Congratulations, @XLjedi, on Thead Of The Month for your wonderful, in-depth guide to props and spinny things!

[jojo5144]

I would love to have all this explanation on the propeller in French. google trad can not translate the page . good job realy

[XLjedi]

On 10/1/2019 at 9:10 AM, Geonovast said:

Congratulations, @XLjedi, on Thead Of The Month for your wonderful, in-depth guide to props and spinny things!

oh thank you!  my PC died and havent been able to check in daily...  so just now seeing this, thanks so much!  I hope folks find the guide useful.

 

[XLjedi]

On 10/1/2019 at 4:55 PM, jojo5144 said:

I would love to have all this explanation on the propeller in French. google trad can not translate the page . good job realy

yes, it's a PDF doc...  but if anyone would like to translate it to another language feel free to reach out.  I can provide an editable format for translation.

[έķ νίĻĻάίή]

Wow... great for a robotics noob like me!

[XLjedi]

On 1/22/2020 at 5:36 AM, έķ νίĻĻάίή said:

Wow... great for a robotics noob like me!

Thanks, I might have to work on an update and possibly an advanced guide once 1.9 goes live with the new cyclic blade controls.  ...but most of what I talked about is still valid.

I have run into a nasty little design issue when dealing with complex arrays of engines and the KAL-1000.  The KAL absolutely hates copying and pasting of engines!  I've seen people have issues where starboard and port engines have unequal thrust... they think it's a bug with the rotors/blades, but it's not.  KAL is the issue, but the good news is those pesky issues can be avoided if you know what to look for!

[Kermicki]

Hi guys,

 

I wanted to assign elevon 4 to translate u/d axis and use it to have separate smal controll surfaces for trim like on the real plane. I saw this implemented in the tutorial for Propellers by untied technologies but I can't replicate it. There is nothing I can assign when I select translate u/d and my elevon in the action group editor.

 

I suspect it may be related to the mod FAR changing the flaps spoilers deployment menu from Stock.

 

I play on KSP 1.12.2 and tutorial was written back in the 1.8

Can someone point me in the right direction?

[OHara]

3 hours ago, Kermicki said:

I suspect it may be related to the mod FAR changing the flaps spoilers deployment menu from Stock.

[...]

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Your suspicion is in the right direction.   FAR replaced the continuous 'Deploy' function with its flaps/spoilers settings, so when FAR is active there is no Deploy to connect to the axis group.

FAR was developed mostly around the time of KSP version 1.0, and KSPs ability to connect 'Deploy' to an axis came around version 1.6.1.   Users have maintained FAR through recent versions, but I don't think they remodelled anything as fundamental as the deploy function.  You probably want to look in the FAR thread to see if there are already solutions that you like, and maybe ask there.

In FAR, I trim with alt-S, alt-W, etc. (on PC) which doesn't work very smoothly with SAS, but if you are designing aircraft with FAR you might not use SAS anyway.

FAR does not change the propeller blades that come with Squad's the Breaking Ground DLC mod, so if you have those you might want to use them for trim surfaces.

Edited November 16, 2021 by OHara

[Kermicki]

4 hours ago, OHara said:

FAR does not change the propeller blades that come with Squad's the Breaking Ground DLC mod, so if you have those you might want to use them for trim surfaces.

That is brilliant Idea. I will try it. Thanks!!!

I do use SAS but similar to the way the author of the tutorial does - to smooth things out for otherwise stable aircraft