neilmct

These are some very nice tips. Thank you all very much

Hi. Newb here. I have been having a hell of a time with docking. Followed a few of the tutorials on youtube etc and rendevous/closing to the target is fine, but the docking.. gah! I've had less frustrating times on QWOP. Perhaps I am doing something wrong.. or perhaps I'm just trying to dock something that is too long and wobbly, maybe with poor RCS placement.. but generally what happens is: 1. move to the appropriate side of the station. 2. zero velocities (or as close as I can) 3. select the docking ports on both ships 4. choose chase cam and rotationally line up with the station - one east the other west. 5. use RCS to line up with the purple target indicator (up/down left/right translation) 6. then use RCS to close the distance Problem is by the time I get to the target I am inevitably approaching from some funny angle. I think my problem is that either: If I keep my ship heading east during 5 and 6 then by the time I finish my up/down-left-right orientation the station is no longer pointing west as it is orbiting the planet. (Yes I do have SRS turned on for the station.. that's right isn't it?) Alternatively if during 6 I ignore the easterly orientation and instead keep myself rotated toward the purple target indicator then again I'm still hitting it at a funny angle by the time I approach. I think in this case it is because my up/down-left/right velocities are not absolutely perfectly zeroed so as I close keeping the thing lined up with the purple marker makes me turn. So basically my question is: am I doing something obviously wrong? Also is there some add-on that will show the relative x-y-z components of my velocity to a target with some fine grained detail? The velocity+yellow gimbal indicator seems very hard to use at low velocities with translations. Also is there some add-on that shows the normal to the target docking port on the gimbal? This just seems like such a no-brainer that I feel I must have missed something with this whole docking thing. Basically so docking would be: 3. zero volcities 4. Line up with the (say red) normal to docking port indicator so you are aligned rotationally. 5. Keep yourself rotationally aligned with the red marker and move up/down-left/right until the purple target indicator overlaps the red one. Then you are lined up both in terms of rotation and x/y translation. 6. zero your x-y velocities 7. increase your z velocity - dock I would have thought it should be that simple. Please excuse me if my newbiness is ignoring something obvious.