Docking Help?

[Mr.Rocket]

i am about 10 meters from my first dock ever with my space station. When ever i am targeting the matching docking port, the ship always goes either up or down of left or right. I try spinning the ship to get the up and down right, but the i start moving left! Help? Also, any helpful docking tips would be helpful?

Edited September 14, 2013 by Mr.Rocket

[blizzy78]

It sounds like your RCS thrusters are not balanced around the center of mass. This would cause you to get unwanted torque when trying to translate (and vice versa.)

Also, perhaps you might want to try my in-game docking tutorial. (see signature)

[KvickFlygarn87]

Wait, what? Maybe some images could help.

Or go into docking mode (click the button between the map and the little rocket)

Edit: Ninja'd. But like Blizzy said, try his docking guide, it's great!

Edited September 14, 2013 by KvickFlygarn87

[Mr.Rocket]

i got the docking mode part, but my problem is staying on target. i am always too high or low, then when i fix that, i am a little to the left or right, if that helps.

[Kasuha]

If you are in Kerbin orbit, orbital mechanics kick in, making unconnected ships appear to be rotating. The best way to avoid problems with it is to rotate your target ship so that the docking port you are aiming at faces perpendicular to your orbit plane, usually either south or north.

Then orient your ship's port to face the opposite direction. Lock both ships with SAS and from now on use only translations with RCS, no more rotations.

On your ship right-click the docking port and select Control from here.

On the other ship right-click the docking port and select Set target.

Pull back your ship to sufficient distance (N key for RCS). I guess 100-200 m might give you sufficient room for practice. When you are far enough, kill that speed (H) and let the ships slowly approach (below 1 m/s).

Check your navball.

There is a pink marker (dot in circle) marking the position of your target port. You need to translate using RCS (IJKL) until it is exactly in the center of your navball. At that moment the port is right ahead of you. Don't forget that if you get some speed using one direction, you need to kill that speed again using the other direction when you reach desired position.

Then there is a yellow marker of your prograde heading. You need to put it over the pink mark. You can move it by combination of directional acceleration (IJKL) and forward/back acceleration (HN). When you put them over each other, you are coming exactly its direction (even if they are not in the center of your navball).

Practice with RCS controls until you get and keep them all aligned. Then just watch to not move too fast and wait till they connect.

If you feel you are getting close too fast, just use N to pull back. Due to your orientation, orbital mechanics will pull you together.

[Garek]

The fundamental problem is, there's always one axis (the one perpendicular to your screen) where you practically can't see if you're a little bit off. And while you fix one axis, you are likely to drift on the other, because just from view it's very difficult to completly cancel your velocity. What fixed that problem for me was NavyFish's Docking Port Alignment Indicator (go look in the AddOn Forum), it gives you a schematic display of your alignment so you can "see" all three axis at the same time.

[Mr.Rocket]

still reading this

[Mr.Rocket]

ive never heard about the n, h or ijkl keys in this game, so ill try this, also i got the mod and ill see if it works

[HeadHunter67]

Two things:

1) Make sure your camera is set to Chase Mode (use the V key to switch modes). This way, "up" when you translate on-screen is the same as "up" on your keyboard (default K).

2) Make sure your RCS thrusters are balanced according to your ship's Center of Mass. I recommend the RCS Build Aid plugin for this.

But it sounds like the biggest issue is you were trying to translate without using lateral thrusters. It's hard as hell even for experienced pilots to dock just using forward thrust and yaw/pitch/roll.

[Apollo13]

I use the Docking Mode, so that I can use the WASDQE,SHIFT,CTRL keys. Add Navy's DPAI mod and you're set. Ensure that the docking port on your vessel is set to "Control from here", not the vehicle itself(which will throw you out of alignment).

[Anachronda]

I use the Docking Mode, so that I can use the WASDQE,SHIFT,CTRL keys.

I use both hands so I can use the WASDQE,SHIFT,CTRL *and* the IJKL keys.

[NeoMorph]

I use both hands so I can use the WASDQE,SHIFT,CTRL *and* the IJKL keys.

I use the same (but you missed out HN for thrust forward and back).

Docking mode is... redundant imho. Having to shift in and out of docking mode just to kill rotation when your RCS isn't quite balanced right is crazy. Using normal mode plus the IJKLHN buttons means you have FULL control of your ship without having to switch modes.

When I first tried docking mode it made docking sooooooooo darned fiddly that I just wanted to give up... the Scott of the Manley persuasion pointed out that the translation controls are active all the time on the IJKLHN buttons and I was like "OMGYES"... You just have to be able to control a ship with both hands... That COULD be tricky for some people but if you have played any console game you have been training in two handed controlling for a while.

Yup... I so disdain docking mode that I assign some stupid key shift so that I don't accidentally enter docking mode (which I did on one launch... the results weren't pretty).

Docking Mode... or as I like to call it... Crashing Mode.

[capi3101]

I'll suggest steering with Staging Mode. Even with NavyFish's mod (which I've used all of once so far), all Docking Mode does is move the IJKL key commands over to WASD. I find it useful to have both rotational and translational controls available simultaneously.

Okay, it does sound like your RCS thrusters are not balanced with the center of mass. That's really not all that big of an issue; when it comes to docking, you want to be using your command module torque for changing direction - it's for the reason you describe; RCS thrust will screw up your alignment if you use it for rotational control. Shut it off when you want you rotate; turn it on when you want to translate. Go into Chase View and use IJKL to translate as you need to - but remember that you will need to counter-thrust to brake your momentum when you're in position (if you've been pushing J, you'll need to push L for a bit later on, and vice versa, same goes for I and K). Thrust forward and backward with H and N and keep it slow (this close, I'd say less than 0.5 m/s relative).

Push comes to shove, back off the target - 20 meters oughta be good enough to give you some room to maneuver - and try again.

I'll assume you know the basics of docking, so I'll leave it at that, but ask more questions if you have them.