[0.21.1] KAS v0.4.3 - Struts, pipes, part storage, containers, merged winches & more

[Mekan1k]

... My eyes! This is like opening the ark of the covanent! Wow!

[whatisthisidonteven]

Nice, been waiting for the 0.19 release so I can get my skycrane working

EDIT: I don't understand how I'm supposed to make my skycrane now, it's all changed and the documentation doesn't make much sense to me.

I put the winch and then the electromagnet, but then I can't attach the rover to it. I have no idea where the connector goes. If I put the connector on and then the magnet, I can't attach the rover. If I put the magnet on first then I can't attach the connector. I know about the part connector but it's not really just a skycrane, I want it to be able to retrieve the rover and carry it around too.

Edited April 23, 2013 by whatisthisidonteven

[Athlonic]

I vote for Mod of the year !

Incredible work here ! And congrats for the presentation as well.

Thanks a lot !

[KospY]

Nice, been waiting for the 0.19 release so I can get my skycrane working

EDIT: I don't understand how I'm supposed to make my skycrane now, it's all changed and the documentation doesn't make much sense to me.

I put the winch and then the electromagnet, but then I can't attach the rover to it. I have no idea where the connector goes. If I put the connector on and then the magnet, I can't attach the rover. If I put the magnet on first then I can't attach the connector. I know about the part connector but it's not really just a skycrane, I want it to be able to retrieve the rover and carry it around too.

Just use a connector port under the connector, like this : winch > connector > connector port > rovers parts

Here is an example from the documentation :

PS : Did you see the correct documentation ? Space port one are wrong, It's the old one, and I can't find a way to update it (bug ? Refresh time ?)

Please look at the third post on this thread.

[Psyckosama]

Holy... my god. You've turned it into magic.

They need to hire you onto the team and make this part of .20

[flightmaster]

Aaaaahhhhhh im so happy about this!!! Aaahhhhh!!!!

EDIT: Ok, imagine all that in caps... It appears that all-caps posts will automatically go to lower case.

[leopardenthusiast]

This is EXCELLENT. I just tried to make a train with it. Failed miserably, of course, but that's just my incompetence, not a problem with the mod.

[mostlydave]

Could you post the .craft file for the lander with the 2 rovers from your first post?

[KospY]

As an afterthought would it be possible to be able to map or edit the keyboard shortcuts for winch control? I found them very useful but unfortunately the default ones on numpad collide with my desktop program shortcuts.

You can change the keyboard shortcut by editing the winch part.cfg if needed. It's also possible to use action group.

[andysim212]

looks great but I have an issue. The connectors vanish after reloading the game. Is this a known issue? i tried connecting to a connector port and the cable and attachment (the small part that goes inside the winch when u retract the cable goes away.

This is unusable to me at the moment =( however its seems like it would be awsome for what im trying to do.

[Largg]

Ok, thanks. Do you know if it's possible to map more "complex" keys to the .cfg file? Simple letters and numbers seem to work fine but I can't get for example "¨","´" or page down/up working. Problem is nearly all letters are already mapped somewhere and numbers tend to collide with other vessels actions. Mapping with action groups is nice but doesn't do as well in fine tuning, plus you miss the nice sound

[TheSuperintendnt]

WOW, you just gave the Kerbals something to do! I hope this is whats coming in more updates! (For the game, this mod is so far ahead in that department!)

[KospY]

looks great but I have an issue. The connectors vanish after reloading the game. Is this a known issue? i tried connecting to a connector port and the cable and attachment (the small part that goes inside the winch when u retract the cable goes away.

This is unusable to me at the moment =( however its seems like it would be awsome for what im trying to do.

Did you used docked or undocked mode for the connection ? Did it happen just after a save/load ? Are you on the ground or in space ?

Thanks for your help.

[andysim212]

Did you used docked or undocked mode for the connection ? Did it happen just after a save/load ? Are you on the ground or in space ?

Thanks for your help.

Im testing on the ground at KSP, I selected docked mode. The connector is gone the second I reload the mission. Gonna test Further in space. There is no more interface with the winch after reload.

[Payload]

Yea man. This thing just plain doesn't work. I can see the draw of a thing like this but... If you can even get it connected to anything without destroying something. It never works again. It turns the connector part of the winch into debris and it stops working for docking and if you reload with debris set to 0. It just disappears all together. I really need this for kethane transportation. Getting tired of using robotic arm docking which is almost as buggy. The last time I did that, It blew all my tires.

[Nicky89107]

Woohoo! been waiting so long! but i know its worth it!

[Katamari]

Finals are coming up next week, but new KAS and B9 parts are out this week.

Well, this will be interesting indeed...

All I know is that if the Supercarrier is also released this week, then I am in deep trouble.

[winn75]

Oh, well...Anyways - are you planning some kind of grapple cannon? It could be useful for cleaning orbital junk. Mount it on orbital tug with lots of fuel, rendez-vous with pesky piece of junk, fire grapple to connect two crafts, then use tug engines to slow junk enough to deorbit it. Then disconnect, stabilise tug's orbit and go for another piece of trash. Sure, kerbonaut can do it in EVA, but probe controlled tug would have more fuel, better TWR, and catching orbiting junk from dozens of meters without flailing about in EVA would save lots of time. Just a though, of course - this mod is awesome as it is.

Cannon is a great idea but wouldn't it be a too specific puposed part?

For now, we would like to keep KAS parts rather simple and "repurposeable" to alow players to make their own combinations and invent creative solutions.

With KAS v0.2 something like this should be doable :

winch > connector > connector port + fuel tank + small radial engines + magnet.

With a proper action group for engine activation and cable release you should have a nice autopropulsed magnet.

You can even add a probe core on it, to make a "wired controled intelligent grapple" to go recover part far from your tug with precision.

If you like the idea, I would love to see your self-made-cannon design

[Andellmere]

This is amazing! I used it to tow a nuclear reactor nearly 2km to my base after a malfunction set it down too far away and on it's head. Thank you so much for this!

[Scotius]

Cannon is a great idea but wouldn't it be a too specific puposed part?

For now, we would like to keep KAS parts rather simple and "repurposeable" to alow players to make their own combinations and invent creative solutions.

With KAS v0.2 something like this should be doable :

winch > connector > connector port + fuel tank + small radial engines + magnet.

With a proper action group for engine activation and cable release you should have a nice autopropulsed magnet.

You can even add a probe core on it, to make a "wired controled intelligent grapple" to go recover part far from your tug with precision.

If you like the idea, I would love to see your self-made-cannon design

I did something similiar yesterday, but with grapple hook. We really need some thing of aiming interface - trying to hit nearby ship was like aiming a siege catapult. All eyeballs and fiddling with RCS systems. And when i fired it, at 20 meters distance grapple just bounced off the target without catching. Wasn't this part supposed to catch to everything? Today i'll try it with electromagnet.

[Andellmere]

I did something similiar yesterday, but with grapple hook. We really need some thing of aiming interface - trying to hit nearby ship was like aiming a siege catapult. All eyeballs and fiddling with RCS systems. And when i fired it, at 20 meters distance grapple just bounced off the target without catching. Wasn't this part supposed to catch to everything? Today i'll try it with electromagnet.

You should try attaching the winch either to the top or bottom of your craft. Target your... target and turn the ship either towards or away from the target, as appropriate. Haven't actually put this into use yet, as I've been using the manual attach to drag reactors around, but it seems to be your best bet for hitting what you're aiming for.

[KospY]

Yea man. This thing just plain doesn't work. I can see the draw of a thing like this but... If you can even get it connected to anything without destroying something. It never works again. It turns the connector part of the winch into debris and it stops working for docking and if you reload with debris set to 0. It just disappears all together. I really need this for kethane transportation. Getting tired of using robotic arm docking which is almost as buggy. The last time I did that, It blew all my tires.

Im testing on the ground at KSP, I selected docked mode. The connector is gone the second I reload the mission. Gonna test Further in space. There is no more interface with the winch after reload.

I think I found the problem. Connector get an error and stop working correctly when we lock it again in the winch after a save/load while plugged in docking mode.

It seem to happen only if the winch is "reverted" related to the root part. That why I didn't see it before release.

I released v0.2.1 with the fix. Keep me informed if it work correctly now. (you may need to launch again the ship if the connector is broken or disappeared)

This is amazing! I used it to tow a nuclear reactor nearly 2km to my base after a malfunction set it down too far away and on it's head. Thank you so much for this!

Don't hesitate to post screenshots. I will be glad to see what people do with this mod

And when i fired it, at 20 meters distance grapple just bounced off the target without catching. Wasn't this part supposed to catch to everything? Today i'll try it with electromagnet.

Grapple attach to everything it collide as long as the inpact force is strong enough. The orientation are also important, as it will not attach from behind or from the side.

If needed, you can edit the force needed to attach. Edit the grappling hook part.cfg and set "grappleForceNeeded = 4" to something lower.

Value has been set pretty arbitrary, I'm waiting some feedback to know if I will lower it or not.

Edited April 24, 2013 by KospY

[RayvenQ]

Hmm for some reason, whenever I have the GUI open and I eject, or release or do anything with a winch with a grapple on it, the GUI just goes blank and then none of the buttons or controls for the winch work.

[MaHuJa]

My solution to aiming the grapple (that I haven't actually tried yet): Clampotron jr sitting next to the winch, using the lazor docking camera. Gets you a nice crosshair (but with a bit of offset). Maybe KAS can offer something like this built in in the future. Without the cam it'll still work like what winn75 suggested when you use 'control from here'.

Anyway...

1) EVA

2) Pick up connector

3) Put in detachable receiver (also called connector)

4) Pick up detachable receiver

5) Change the receiver's mode (probably changing it to docking?)

I suspect you want to disallow #5 when it's connected to an EVA kerbal.

When I saw the option I just had to try.

[whatisthisidonteven]

Hmm for some reason, whenever I have the GUI open and I eject, or release or do anything with a winch with a grapple on it, the GUI just goes blank and then none of the buttons or controls for the winch work.

Yeah, I'm having this issue too. It also slows the game down a lot by flooding the debug console with an error

Just use a connector port under the connector, like this : winch > connector > connector port > rovers parts

Here is an example from the documentation :

PS : Did you see the correct documentation ? Space port one are wrong, It's the old one, and I can't find a way to update it (bug ? Refresh time ?)

Please look at the third post on this thread.

That doesn't let me pick it back up, the rover and skycrane are unmanned so I can't swap out the part connector for an electromagnet. (Unless I'm missing something)