The Jansen Omnidock

[Hotel26]

I will start by acknowledging the Clamp-o-Tron Omni, which was published by jansenart on Sep 3.  I found it most intriguing!  And as as it happens with me and intriguing things, I just cannot let go.

The Omni is a 200Kg 4K battery used as the base for attachment of the three sizes of dock: small, medium and large.  I generally didn't want the battery, so, as I began refitting certain craft to use an Omnidock, I would reconstruct the setup every time.  This also involved some time-consuming testing each time to ensure correct orientation and alignment.

A couple of days ago, I hit on the idea of a 3-part Omnidock in which Mama and Baby docks were radially attached to Papa dock.  Very excited, I published this as the Jansen Kaizen Omnidock.  Regrettably, I had assembled enough of these by then, that I skipped the testing.  When I followed up with a test, I found that undocking Papa from some other large dock also released its own smaller docks that I thought had been radially attached.  "Disappointment!".

This evening, I verified in the VAB that it's not possible to radially attach anything to a large dock.  Nevertheless, I was able to overcome this obstacle (ex VAB!) and have produced v3 of the Jansen Omnidock.

It's been tested in 1.7.3 and I will be testing it in 1.10.1.

If anyone else finds this intriguing (e.g. application in space stations to enable docking with any kind of craft, large or small) and cares to give it a try, I'd be very keen to hear any feedback, especially about any problems that remain...

If it does appear to be working "cold fusion", I'll detail the technique I used in assembly...

Edited October 7, 2020 by Hotel26

[jjansen]

Hi again, got your message on kerbalX.

 

So, how'd you radially attach the ports to the SR?

[Hotel26]

5 hours ago, jjansen said:

So, how'd you radially attach the ports to the SR?

(You can't do it in the VAB.  But I was sufficiently desperate.)

I created a 4-part Omnidock like yours, with the medium and small docks radially-attached to the battery.  Then edited the .craft file.  The battery part has two 'link = ' directives that associate the radially-attached medium and small docks to it.  (The large dock is attached via an "attN,TOP" directive, I suppose.)

I moved the "link = " directives into the largeDock part which effectively radially attaches those docks to it.  Then I removed the battery PART from the file and moved the largeDock PART up into its position at the top of the .craft file (which makes it root).

Then went back into the VAB editor and fine-tuned alignment/orientation.

Try this yourself or just take a look at what is connected to what in my 3-part version.

When you're done, if you like, approve, etc, you are most welcome to post your own revised craft as a new version or update to your original Clamp-o-Tron Omni post, as I view this as a collaboration, and am most grateful to you for publishing your original and intriguing idea!

If anything about my description above is not clear, please do enquire here or PM me @Hotel26.

Edited October 8, 2020 by Hotel26

[jjansen]

This type of hubris is dangerous because it is an affront to the Kraken.

 

Tread lightly with this type of majik.

[Hotel26]

I spent a pleasant evening this evening, debugging the occasional hang-ups in release of two Jansen Omnidocks bound to each other.

I believe the problem was simply the magnetic acquisition force.  (It's true, I thought,  that this is supposed to be suspended after undock and until reaching 1m distant before re-activating, but the new version does seem to work better.

To test it, I built a ship:

     ( Omnidock  ( Mk3-capsule ( 4x RCS-thruster ) )  FL-R120-MP-tank  Mama-dock  Baby-Dock )

(In case you don't know it, you may have just read your first line of Lisp^[1] above.  Congratulations!)

Then Alt-F12'ed one into orbit and another into close rendez-vous to perform a test of 1. a Baby-dock (then jettison it), 2. a Mama-dock and 3. an Omnidock on one ship with the Omnidock on the other ship.

Pretty quick to do.  If you repeat this and find problems or get a hang-up in production, please let me know.  "I intend to follow this airplane down until I see it hit the ground."

[1] colleagues ask me about the constant notes I am writing in a pad during meetings at work, and I say "Lisp".  (I know I'd run into flak and a possible reprimand if I said "KSP".)

Edited June 15, 2022 by Hotel26