Throttle Controlled Avionics 1.4.1 [0.90] (5 January '15)

[LMA]

Thanks maybe I can now pull off my Nostromo based ship.

[Scottiths]

I did notice something though, maybe its my install. The help file in game does not word wrap and I can't read it all. Should be an easy fix.

[SlimJim89]

Is it possible for me to group a bunch of engines in separate groups, and give a certain group a percentage of 30% of total max thrust while the other group can be kept at 100%?

For instance, I have a large ship that I want to keep hovering at a certain altitude, which requires 30% throttle on the Mun(for instance), while my nuclear engines push the ship at 100% throttle.

Is this feature here, or is there another mod for this somewhere?

[spartan5487]

I'm having a little problem with the mod. It is adjusting my engines thrust, but its not controlling them separately. It throttles the entire ship down instead of individual engines. My space shuttle is spinning around without the mod doing anything to stop it. just keeps burning 100% on the engines that are causing the spinning.

[KillerRaccoon]

Hello,

I downloaded this with the hopes of creating a huge quadrotor skycrane to move stuff around in my planned Laythe base. Unfortunately, Firespitter's heli rotors do not have the "thrust limiter" value that this mod seems to work off of, and as such does not work (I did test to make sure a similar setup with rocket engines did work). Is there any easy way to make the two work together despite the lack of a thrust limiter value?

[qfeys]

Hey there , just passing by to report something I've noticed

This mod is flooding my log with exceptions, this probably caused a bit of lag with, and this wasn't even while activated.

Yes. I thought I had fixed that. Aparently not. As I told, I'm not gonna continue with this mod, but if you (or anybody else) can write a fix, send it to me and I will post it here with your name as credit.

I did notice something though, maybe its my install. The help file in game does not word wrap and I can't read it all. Should be an easy fix.

That's probably bad testing from my side. It's probably an easy fix, but I don't want to go through the hassel of going through my code and reposting everything. If somebody (not me) ever makes a new version for this mod, I'm gonna make sure that this is fixed. Until then, I'm sorry.

Is it possible for me to group a bunch of engines in separate groups, and give a certain group a percentage of 30% of total max thrust while the other group can be kept at 100%?

For instance, I have a large ship that I want to keep hovering at a certain altitude, which requires 30% throttle on the Mun(for instance), while my nuclear engines push the ship at 100% throttle.

Is this feature here, or is there another mod for this somewhere?

Sorry, this feature does not exist. What you can have are reaction control engines which will be standard zero, whatever your thrust, and get activated when you need their thrust for steering. You need to have 'detect RCS engines' option ticked on and these engines have to be at a different angle than your chosen direction.

I'm having a little problem with the mod. It is adjusting my engines thrust, but its not controlling them separately. It throttles the entire ship down instead of individual engines. My space shuttle is spinning around without the mod doing anything to stop it. just keeps burning 100% on the engines that are causing the spinning.

That's weird. I'm not sure why that happened. Are you sure that 1) these engines are really causing the spin and 2) that you have enough engines at both sides of the center of mass. This mod can fly really wonky designs, but there need to be enough engines at every side of the craft.

Hello,

I downloaded this with the hopes of creating a huge quadrotor skycrane to move stuff around in my planned Laythe base. Unfortunately, Firespitter's heli rotors do not have the "thrust limiter" value that this mod seems to work off of, and as such does not work (I did test to make sure a similar setup with rocket engines did work). Is there any easy way to make the two work together despite the lack of a thrust limiter value?

I'm sorry. The 'thrust limiter' is the basis of this mod. It is available on every stock part and intended to balance the thrust of your spacecraft manually. If you really want this to work, I suggest that you ask the person who makes Firespitter to add this to his parts.

[Kolago]

Where can I find the source code for 1.4?

[qfeys]

Where can I find the source code for 1.4?

It's on github. There is a link in the main post, just after the version history. I know it's a little bit obscure, so I'm going to make it a bit more obvious. If you want to edit the source code, send me a pm with your github name.

[Yaivenov]

Is there any definitive word on whether this mod functions correctly when trying to control Interstellar's variable thrust engines?

[caneb]

I assume this doesn't work with NEAR/FAR? I tried to make a rocket with deliberately unbalanced thrust to test it out, and the mod wouldn't balance it.. Or well, it tried to adjust the thrust limiter, but didn't do it fast enough to save the craft before it flipped over.

[VDNKh]

Yes. I thought I had fixed that. Aparently not. As I told, I'm not gonna continue with this mod, but if you (or anybody else) can write a fix, send it to me and I will post it here with your name as credit.

I'm not getting a huge exception dump. In 32 bit 0.90 it seems to work perfectly.

That's weird. I'm not sure why that happened. Are you sure that 1) these engines are really causing the spin and 2) that you have enough engines at both sides of the center of mass. This mod can fly really wonky designs, but there need to be enough engines at every side of the craft.

On that, I wish mean thrust could be set lower, or just be variable based on the attitude change needs. On my shuttle the CoM eventually shifts to far for the mod to handle without breaking mean thrust, it would have to almost completely shut off one engine.

Edit: or it seems sensitivity does not work they way I wish it would. Putting it to max and it does not throttle a 2 engine system very much, never more than a 10% difference.

This is an amazing mod none the less, I wish you would take the reigns back or someone would pick it up.

Edited December 18, 2014 by VDNKh

[Vladthemad]

Hey qfeys, are you planning to update this? It's a very useful mod. The title is obscure for non aeronautic types like myself...and every time I try to find your thread it takes me an hour or two. Maybe adding something about asymmetric engine or vtol control? At least thats what I always end up trying to search for when I'm trying to get back to your mod!

[Eskandare]

Hey qfeys, are you planning to update this? It's a very useful mod. The title is obscure for non aeronautic types like myself...and every time I try to find your thread it takes me an hour or two. Maybe adding something about asymmetric engine or vtol control? At least thats what I always end up trying to search for when I'm trying to get back to your mod!

qfays states earlier in this thread that there isn't going to be any continuation of this mod, but he has stated anyone is welcome to make fixes and compatibility fixes.

[Zenka]

Hey all,

I've worked on this mod in the past. And recently retaken interest in KSP again. Meaning I'm once again fiddling with TCA.

In the end, I want it to help control VTOL's a lot more than it does now. But that's future dreams.

While I'm at it, I can make sure it runs on the latest versions and incorporate small changes if people so desire.

As is proper, I'll push my changes to the github. Contact Qfeys if you want to help out.

[allista]

Hey all,

I've worked on this mod in the past. And recently retaken interest in KSP again. Meaning I'm once again fiddling with TCA.

In the end, I want it to help control VTOL's a lot more than it does now. But that's future dreams.

While I'm at it, I can make sure it runs on the latest versions and incorporate small changes if people so desire.

As is proper, I'll push my changes to the github. Contact Qfeys if you want to help out.

And I was just thinking to take over development (or at least maintenance) myself, as I desperately need the TCA for Spaceplane Hangars I'm developing.

In either way I may help with both programming and modeling (if the need in the latter arises).

[allista]

While Zenka works on the full-fledged new release I took the liberty to port the 1.4.0 to KSP-0.90 and made some improvements on the way.

You can download the new version from GitHub:

TCA-1.4.1 (KSP 0.90)

UPD: I've fixed the link in the KSP-AVC .version file. If you're using it, please, replace the GameData/ThrottleControlledAvionics/ThrottleControlledAvionics.version with the new version.

Edited January 8, 2015 by allista
Added link to a fix.

[allista]

TCA-1.5.0-BETA.0

may be downloaded from the qfeys repository

This is a BETA release which is intended to be used for testing.

Read the ChangeLog and BACKUP YOUR SAVES.

[ss8913]

OK.. I must be doing something wrong.. I've tried this with a number of different engine types.. I can't see it doing *anything*. Using 1.4.1 plus KSP 0.90 Win32, plus FAR, DRE, B9, KSP-I, few others. Here's what I've got:

Spaceplane #1: KSP-Interstellar thermal turbojets facing aft (x2) and down (x4) . I didn't put a lot of work into balancing the vtol engines. So I throttle them up, it flips onto its back. OK. revert to launch, turn on TCA at default settings. tell it detect RCS engines, ok. push action group 6 to engage VTOL engines. throttle up. nothing. no thrust. Uncheck "detect RCS engines" and the engines come to life. still flips over exactly as before except TCA is supposed to be on(?)

Spaceplane #2: Rockomax 24-77 VTOL engines, 2x rapiers for main thrust - rockomaxes are pointing at the ground, rapiers pointing aft. Same as above really, wanted to see if the thermal turbojets were confusing it. still not getting any kind of attitude control from this mod - seems to detect the torque but.. doesn't do anything about it.

any advice?

[allista]

OK.. I must be doing something wrong.. I've tried this with a number of different engine types.. I can't see it doing *anything*. Using 1.4.1 plus KSP 0.90 Win32, plus FAR, DRE, B9, KSP-I, few others. Here's what I've got:

Spaceplane #1: KSP-Interstellar thermal turbojets facing aft (x2) and down (x4) . I didn't put a lot of work into balancing the vtol engines. So I throttle them up, it flips onto its back. OK. revert to launch, turn on TCA at default settings. tell it detect RCS engines, ok. push action group 6 to engage VTOL engines. throttle up. nothing. no thrust. Uncheck "detect RCS engines" and the engines come to life. still flips over exactly as before except TCA is supposed to be on(?)

Spaceplane #2: Rockomax 24-77 VTOL engines, 2x rapiers for main thrust - rockomaxes are pointing at the ground, rapiers pointing aft. Same as above really, wanted to see if the thermal turbojets were confusing it. still not getting any kind of attitude control from this mod - seems to detect the torque but.. doesn't do anything about it.

any advice?

Two advices:

1) TCA v1.4.1 and below is useless without SAS. It is the SAS that tries to balance the ship, TCA only actuates its commands.

2) We're currently working on the next release which is a complete rewrite and will address these problems. The first beta release is published above so you can compare, but the development moves on and current dev-TCA already uses a very different engine-controller mechanism than even 1.5.0-beta.0. So the advice, unfortunately, is to wait for the next release.

[ss8913]

so I need.. what, bigger reaction wheels? What parts specifically provide SAS if not for the large advanced stabilizer wheels? I thought this would work via differential thrust or something?

[allista]

so I need.. what, bigger reaction wheels? What parts specifically provide SAS if not for the large advanced stabilizer wheels? I thought this would work via differential thrust or something?

No-no-no! SAS is the Stability Augmentation System -- the software inside a probe-core or a qualified kerbal who pushes the levers. Reaction wheels and RCS-engines are too just actuators. And TCA tries to actuate SAS commands through thrust limits. So if you have SAS-capable ships and SAS itself enabled (with default 'T' key), each of devices (wheels, RCS, TCA+engines) that provide torque will react on its command.

[allista]

TCA-1.5.0-BETA.2

may be downloaded from the qfeys repository

This is a BETA release which is intended to be used for testing.

Read the ChangeLog and BACKUP YOUR SAVES.

[BelgarionNL]

masterful redesign of the code allista, these mods make it worth my time playing KSP!

thank you and please keep doing what you are doing! its working

[allista]

Thanks!

It's good to know that it does

I don't have the resources for proper testing -- too many parameters to check all possible combinations

[Skalou]

Amazing!!

i'm sure guys like u on forum could create a real rocket going to the moon!!

it work good for me now (with the V 1.4.1 no, same issue as ss8913: and i was able to controle manualy my shuttle (the same as image 3 above) just by limiting one rocket thrust in real time)

But now your mod do it well!! congratulation

i just saw the help info text is outside the windows for me(image 2),so i modified this: HelpPos = 756,86,620,430 and its ok (image 1)

i use a 1360x768 display

http://imgur.com/lhS21cW,tlbkyyK,jZdk31C,LuAFz7O,EmwHkdc,GiKMVds#0

i test this more and will tel u if i encounter bugs or if i see good sugest (maybe re-add mains engines ur mod don't control?)