Pigzippa47

@SpannerMonkey(smce) You said you had a working RKE Kanadarm in 1.3. I'm wondering if there is anything you have working in 1.6 or anything anyone else has working in 1.6?

@Shadowmage I recently got back into KSP and updated a few of my old mods to play in 1.3 (I'd been limping in 1.3 in the Spring and got fed up with mods being all out of date). In particular, I installed the current workaround of Infernal Robotics 2.0.12, removing Active Struts and Struts folders and adding a new IRSurfaceSampler.dll. KSP x32 crashes upon loading my savegame, so I haven't been using it. In KSP x64: I noticed that when I added a MFT-A to my craft, it threw a "NullReferenceException: Object Reference Not set to an instance of an object" error, and the right click GUI menus on ALL parts stopped working. I read that this can by caused by corruption of KSP files, so I reinstalled the game fresh, and reinstalled the mods. Same issue. I have noted that I can use the right click GUIs on other parts (including other SSTU parts, such as the MFT-S) before the MFT-A is added, and can reset this issue by leaving the VAB and returning. It occurs in both the VAB and SPH. The MFT-S, MFT-D, and MFT-L have no issues and function normally. I have not experienced this bug with any other circumstance than adding and right-clicking the SSTU MFT-A. Thanks! Mods Folder KSP Log Output Log

@SpannerMonkey(smce) Any chance you can release that to us so we can use the new arm? I've been on pause from Kerbal since Spring due to this bug. hehehe

Btw, this is the key value which seems to be in question (the IR thread suggests changing it to allow KJR to work): <bool name="multiPartAttachNodeReinforcement">1</bool> When I set it to 1, the LEEs are both locked in place and the arm is frozen, when i set it so 0, the arm works, but the LEE can fall off the end.

Ah. I didn't know that KJR was incompatible. Perhaps an uninstall of KJR would help. Definitely have been using hack gravity after I found that testing in normal surface gravity was highly problematic. Thanks for all the help, I will probably cease and desist with the whole project (and game) until I have a firmer understanding of what is going wrong, or some updates fix the specific breakage issues.

@V8jester OK, a few issues further after a full day of testing. -After using the magnet on the terminal LEE to grab the hull of a ship, decoupling the primary LEE goes fine. However, almost any movement of the arm while the terminal LEE is grappled breaks the arm at the junction of the terminal LEE and the rest of the arm. -The structural break never occurred in any other part of the arm, including at the primary LEE. It also did not depend on what part the terminal LEE was attached to (i tried an RKE spacer, a procedural core, and I tried reinforcing the joint with a strut). It also did not depend on whether the terminal LEE was using a magnetic connection or or a docking connection. -In the few instances I was able to get the arm to operate long enough to reconnect to a port, docking an LEE to to a PDGF was problematic and often did not lead to any "dock". In several other circumstances, the LEE PDGF dock was acheived, but no "undock" command appeared on either the LEE or PDGF in question, making it impossible to decouple the new newly made connection. -I did get the chance to update KRJ, SSTU, and Infernal Robotics (from 2.0.6 to 2.0.7), and there is now a little bit of kraken behavior. Occasionally on a scene refresh, the arm loses its connections and floats away.

oooo. thank you. I will try it out!

@v8jester, Three questions: 1. Where do I paste that patch for it to be effective (sorry, I'm not much of a coder)? 2. Could I edit the power draw to make the magnet unpowered? 3. Could I theoretically make one of the LEE's also a probe core via the same logic as the magnet addition, and then make that 0 power draw as well? I'd like to make this thing work practically like the ISS arm without needing a separate power source.

V8Jester, or anyone else still active, Curious if there are reports of this working in a port 1.2 environment. I have looked far and wide without success. I was using with limited success and ran into compatibility issues with KJR (fixed by making a suggested edit in the KJR config files. That was an issue where the LEE on the end of the arm opposite the root-end was fixed in place and the IR motors would just twist the joints while both LEEs remained fixed in space. Now, the problem is latching/docking (for inchworm and other purposes). I have hit a similar issue to those above who cannot get the LEE and PDGF to mate. I spent hours on it yesterday and deduced the following: -Rarely, I can get the LEE to "stick" to a PDGF, whether the PDGF is part of the same craft or not. -Sometimes the LEE "magnetizes" toward the PDGF and "sticks" but does not "dock" so that there is no undock command on the mated PDGF or LEE. -Very rarely, I can get the LEE to dock with the PDGF, but 99% of the time, the command "undock" appears on the PDGF. When that happens, decoupling the root LEE OR PDGF (regardless of what part the craft is controlled from), causes the whole arm to fall off the craft (undocked from everywhere). -1% of the time, the "undock" command appears on the terminal LEE instead of the PDGF. In that single case, decoupling the root LEE caused the terminal LEE/PDGF connection to take over and become a hard dock (which also allowed inchworming). TL;DR - not completely borked, virtually no Kraken behavior, but practically useless. I tried updating all the various mods to current versions, so I'm assuming it is incompatibility amongst mods or with latest 1.2 release. Also updated the acquireTorque and acquireForce values per page one of this topic, with limited effect. I'm baffled that there appears to be no working canadarm2 mod given the preponderance of people building the ISS.

Thanks Zodius and V8 for the tip! I watched the compete video. Since I was testing it landed (with Kerbin gravity), i didn't consider dedocking it before trying the magnet. With gravity hacked, the arm seems to operate as DasValdez demonstrated. Kerbin gravity interfered with the magnet's ability to grab for some reason and pulls the arm down and off the station regardless of magnetic power. So what I'd like to know is why gravity affects the magnet, and apparently the docking ports so profoundly. Example: the docking port node to the station cannot support the extended arm's weight under kerbin gravity. Very odd.

I just installed the Model Rework Mod last week after using IR for several months with few/no issues. I am playing with the ISS Kanadarm [https://kerbalx.com/KSpaceAcademy/KSA-K-ISS-Kanadarm-Edition] and I found some serious issues which I assume other's have solved or not encountered due to the craft's popularity. Namely: The Utilitron - Grabber part cannot magnetically grab the craft it is attached to, and the mounting point for the arm (which is a Docking Port Jr attached to a Gantry Rail) is failing at the juncture of the docking port and the gantry rail whenever the arm is extended or stress is put on it. I wonder if anyone else has used this craft, and perhaps this issue is an artifact of the craft, not of the IR Rework parts. I would like to ultimately build a comparable Kanadarm onto my own ISS, but I'd like to be sure that the parts connections, both at the mount and the magnet/grabber are stiff enough to work as intended. Ideally, I would be able to "inch-worm" around my station by remounting the arm while it is grabbed onto another part of the same station. Thoughts?