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[0.21.x] KerbCom Avionics 0.3.0.6 Alpha (29 August) - now with video!


ZRM

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Um, so I decided to use this mod to get a VTOL on top of every building in the KSC (with the help of hacked gravity and an RCS Skycrane for maximum precision). After dropping off the VTOL on the building, I would detach the skycrane and destroy it with whack-a-kerbal. On my landing on the astronaut complex, my whack-a-kerbal shot hit the VTOL (*grumble*) , but I had made a quicksave after landing, just in case. However, upon loading, this happened:

http://imgur.com/34kucG4

My KSP.log showed an issue with initializing the upgraded engine gimbals, followed by a spam of NullReferenceException's.

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I'm having a bit of a problem I don't understand. One of my rockets is built out of a base of my heavy lifter, which I loaded in and built the lander part on top of the lifter. On the launch pad, I'm able to activate the avionics in whatever mode I want to, however when I get to my 3rd stage(Decoupling of lifter from lander) all the options to activate an avionics mode become disabled and are greyed out. I thought it was because the root of this ship is a fuel tank, but I tested with other similar setups and can sometimes only activate 2 modes, or 1, or none. What I'm afraid of is that if I make a lifter, an orbiter, and a lander and i have to make the root part the lander then I can only have this mod active on the lander when it is seperated(Can't activate avionics on orbiter while lander is detached from it) Any thoughts?

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I'm having a bit of a problem I don't understand. One of my rockets is built out of a base of my heavy lifter, which I loaded in and built the lander part on top of the lifter. On the launch pad, I'm able to activate the avionics in whatever mode I want to, however when I get to my 3rd stage(Decoupling of lifter from lander) all the options to activate an avionics mode become disabled and are greyed out. I thought it was because the root of this ship is a fuel tank, but I tested with other similar setups and can sometimes only activate 2 modes, or 1, or none. What I'm afraid of is that if I make a lifter, an orbiter, and a lander and i have to make the root part the lander then I can only have this mod active on the lander when it is seperated(Can't activate avionics on orbiter while lander is detached from it) Any thoughts?

Some pics would us understand what might be going on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just.. can't seem to get this to work as well as demonstrated. I've tried on 3 different craft and all of them pitch and roll out of control. I've fiddled with the sliders and there are points when things improve on one axis, but then as I watch it leveling out and damping oscillations it'll just flip itself over, or rolls over on one side. One time I even watched it firing RCS in direct opposition to what it was trying to do with the jets and reaction wheels. I've also downloaded the latest modulemanager.dll

Here's shots of the 3 craft I've tried: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/edsy0yd12zy79xp/AsuO53g6XB

Any tips?

Edit:

This seems to work, more or less: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t117uvqzctamf51/screenshot10.png

What's the difference?

Edited by SmiteZero
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It seems the first three are using jet engines, while the last is using rockets. KCA doesn't deal well with jets, probably because of their spin up/spin down times.

Only the second one has jet VTOL thrusters. Even the one I posted that I said did work only works sort-of...

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Only the second one has jet VTOL thrusters. Even the one I posted that I said did work only works sort-of...

My experience with VTOL craft (that have wings) in stock KSP is that they behave BADLY due to the way aerodynamic forces work. For instance, going "backwards" is a huge problem with stock KSP aerodynamics. I've had much, much better luck with VTOLs using the FAR mod.

I'm about to try out a design, inspired by one of yours, with FAR and this mod. I haven't used this mod too much, but I really like the idea and I have a feeling that some combination of the B9 atmospheric RCS and some limited engine control will probably make for a very flyable VTOL.

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FAR is one thing I've never ever tried. I might.

The first design posted I made well enough that I can hover it VTOL with a keyboard without too much slip, but this plugin just freaks out and sends it flipping and rolling. I find it seems to be very lax about the roll hold on every craft I've tried.

This one seems to work the best of all I've made so far, but it still has a small, slow roll to one side which is never corrected by the autopilot. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8hx6v1ogm013yox/ZRPvj6TPlQ

Edit:

After a bit of use with the design here I'm getting the hang of it. The mod is helping and helpful! :) I'm just a bit miffed as to why mine seem to perform more poorly than the video.

Edited by SmiteZero
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I just got the Enhanced Navball mod working with a VTOL mode so you can insert a copy of the retrograde marker at 90 degrees to the real one.

Useful in trying to come into land with a forward-facing VTOL craft.

Currently not in the main download, but I submitted the changes to GitHub, so you can build it if you want, or I am sure we will have a DLL for you to play with soon.

Also, am potentially looking into taking KCA and improving the UI. I need a way to save settings cause re-configuring KCA each time I launch is annoying.

If you are not doing any development at the moment, maybe now would be a good time to fork?

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  • 4 weeks later...

I too need to find a way to make it compatible with mechjeb autodocking. I don't care if this has to be temporarily disabled for docking to work, but currently just having it installed and inactive breaks auto docking.

I need both mods... anything we can do?

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Hope this will be updated for 0.23 and make use of the new engine power control function

ZRM is relatively active in the community, and is currently trying to complete another space shuttle mod. Look for it to be updated soon (hopefully).

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ZRM is relatively active in the community, and is currently trying to complete another space shuttle mod. Look for it to be updated soon (hopefully).

I hope so. I tried to build it based on the source he links to, but there are files missing.

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I hope so. I tried to build it based on the source he links to, but there are files missing.

Actually, ZRM's last post is from november.

I feel that by simply removing all the parts of this mod that deal with RCS would make it into a very good asymetric craft balancer, without breaking Mechjeb and RCS aid.

However i have no skills to recompile the mod removing that entire part, even if i feel it wouldnt be too hard.

Also, one other things that i dont like, is that the mod tries to give you higher authority by throttling engines while turning, and i dont want that.

On asymmetric crafts, you end up having WAY higher authority in some directions and just touching that direction's key will send the craft spinning, but if you go the opposite direction you may have "normal" authority (so you can't just reduce total authority, or you end up only being able to turn in one direction)

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This has a game breaking bug for 0.23: It kills reaction wheels.

Just went through all my mods trying to figure out which mod was not allowing any EC to go to reaction wheels, and it was this mod. This is not only inline reaction wheels, but also pod reaction controls as well. Whenever the game is trying to use them, with this mod installed (and only this mod for final test), right clicking on a pod or reaction wheel I get the message "Not Enough El...", and they are nonoperational. I am assuming the truncated language is 'electric charge'.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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