CaptainKipard

Engineer's Handbook for Modders Here you will find reference information, diagrams and other snippets pertaining to mechanical/electrical devices/systems/concepts/principles to help you develop mod parts based on real-world engineering principles. If you come across any information that you think should be added to this thread, or need help looking for a specific concept, please post a reply here. If you'd like to contribute to this thread on an on-going basis by answering technical questions, please let me or sumghai know in this thread. All other general discussions regarding the thread itself should go there as well. Contents 1.0 Common Aircraft / Spacecraft Components 1.1 Aircraft Engines 1.2 Cargo / Payload Bays 1.3 Cockpits and Interiors 1.4 Ground Vehicles, Wheeled 1.5 Landing Gear, Wheeled 1.6 Reaction Control Systems 1.7 Rocket Engines 2.0 Technical Manuals, White Papers and Standards 2.1 NASA 2.2 Other 3.0 Miscellaneous Mechanical Devices and Principles 1.0 Common Aircraft / Spacecraft Components 1.1 Aircraft Engines Radial Engine Internal combustion engine where each piston cylinder "radiates" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. Commonly used for early propeller-driven aircraft prior to the advent of turbine engines. 1.2 Cargo / Payload Bays Nose door on 747-8F Freighter Aircraft Uses leadscrews to actuate door mechanism. Payload Bay Doors and Radiator Panels Familiarization Handbook A detailed document describing various components of the Shuttle's payload bay doors. Space Shuttle Program Payload Bay Payload User's Guide A document describing the Shuttle's payload bay and payload operations. 1.3 Cockpits and Interiors Evolution of the Fighter Jet Cockpit Galley of cockpit photos, from first through to fifth generation fighter jets. 1.4 Ground Vehicles, Wheeled Ackermann Steering Mechanical linkage geometry that ensures center of rotation of forward steering wheels coincide at a point shared with the rear wheel axis, enhancing controllability. Real life automobiles do not use pure Ackermann steering, but for low speed applications in some planetary manned rovers, this configuration is adequate. spacer text 1.5 Landing Gear, Wheeled Retractable landing gear, rearwards Uses four-bar linkage for compact stowage of landing gear on aircraft. Retractable landing gear, sidewards folds sideways to stow the wheel at the wing root of the aircraft. 1.6 Reaction Control Systems Coming soon 1.7 Rocket Engines Coming soon 2.0 Technical Manuals, White Papers and Standards 2.1 NASA International Docking Standard Document describing an androgynous, low-impact common docking system to support future manned spaceflight to the International Space Station. NASA Docking System NASA's implementation of the International Docking Standard. Nasa Space Vehicle Design Criteria: Entry Vehicle Control The figures in this monograph show the locations of RCS jets for control during re-entry for Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and X-15 vehicles. Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines Long document. To search for specific figures use your browser's search function. Some items of interest include: Figs 3-2, 3-4, 3-7, 3-10, 10-10 to 12: biprop liquid engine layouts (both pump and pressure-fed) Figs 4-20 to 23: thrust chamber layouts Figs 8-1 to 3: tank and engine configurations Figures 9-1 to 5: engine mounting and interconnecting components Figure 9-19: possible propellant duct routing for a gimballing engine Figures 9-23 to 25: gimbals; Figures 10-26 and 27: photos of engine clusters. 2.2 Other Skylon Technical Documents Reference material for the single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) spaceplane currently being developed by British company Reaction Engines Limited (REL), as well as associated hardware, payloads and applications. SKYLON Users' Manual The SKYLON Spaceplane - Progress to Realisation SKYLON - A Realistic Single Stage Spaceplane Application of Carbon Fibre Truss Technology to the Fuselage Structure of the SKYLON Spaceplane SKYLON Trajectory Data A Comparison of Propulsion Concepts for SSTO Reusable Launchers Heat exchanger design in combined cycle engines Heat exchanger development at REL The Sensitivity of Pre-cooled Air-breathing Engine Performance to Heat Exchanger Design Parameters An Experimental Pre-cooler for Air-breathing Rocket Engines Considerations for Passenger Transport by Advanced Spaceplanes Project TROY - A Strategy for a Mission to Mars Solar Power Satellites and Spaceplanes: The SKYLON Initiative Design of an orbital base facility for complex missions 3.0 Miscellaneous Mechanical Devices and Principles Constant-velocity (CV) Joint Coupling between two driveshafts that permit the transmission of mechanical rotary power at variable angles and constant velocity without any significant increases in friction or play. Typically used on front-wheel drive vehicles, as well as rear-wheel drive vehicles with indepedent suspension systems. Leadscrew Mechanical linkage that converts rotational motion to linear motion; when driven using electric motors, they have the advantage of being precise, lightweight and self-locking compared to hydraulic/pneumatic pistons, at the cost of some friction between the screw surfaces (A variant, dubbed ball screws uses ball bearings inside the driven nut to reduce this friction). Can be used for gantry robots or lightweight cargo bay door / ramp mechanisms. Rigid Chain Actuator Mechanical linkage that converts rotational motion to linear motion; the actuating member is a chain that can be stowed compactly in a slackened state, but becomes stiffened when extended without the need for external supporting rails. Can be used for motorised open/close mechanisms for doors/hatches, extend/retract telescopic panels/structures and actuate heavy lift platforms. Stewart Platform Type of parallel robot where six hydraulic/pneumatic pistons or linear actuators allow a top plate to move with six degrees of freedom (three translation and three rotational axes) with great force and shock attenuation capabilities, at the cost of a limited motion envelope. This has been used on the NASA Docking System for precise position, orientation and force control of docking rings. Universal Joint Coupling between two driveshafts that permit the transmission of mechanical rotary power at variable angles, but with a non-uniform velocity.

Roger, roger. Do you want a placeholder now, or should I wait until we have collected something substantial here? I can't remember exactly, but did we already talk about this idea over PM a while ago? I know I brought it up once in passing somewhere and someone PM'd me about it. Are you knowledgeable in the engineering field?

How are you using the parts that you need a stronger connection? I have no plans for one this time around but I might make one at a later time. I've brought up the idea of "scalable" parts that deal with pre-made meshes for putting together variants, but no one to my knowledge has made a plugin for that. It's out of my hands. I've made them thinner. The bits that stick out of the flat back are just decorative. They'll clip into the part that's attached. I think that'll happen if you don't use anti-aliasing. The latches are all mesh this time, instead of normal mapped like before, just so the small ones look better up close. Yes that's just the render method. I switch between mipmaps and unfiltered in Blender when texturing. Also I've had to lower the textures from 2048^2 to 1024^2 to be in line with common texel densities and lower RAM usage. That'd be nice, but I don't know anything about materials or real masses. I've just been guessing based on similar stock parts until now. No idea. It's a Squad decision and seem really stupid to me. I don't understand what this has to do with anything.

Well, guys choose. Either it's thin and therefore lightweight or thick and heavy. I'm not making magic here.

You don't need to ask for permission. I already put one in mine.

Yeah they update the manual too, which is nice. Although I've only seen two versions of it so far.

tl;dr Here's my hypothesis. It's difficult to be enthusiastic about lofty ideas like space and things related to it when you're living from month to month. The answer to this problem breaks the rules of the forum.

Well... there's a point there. On reviewing the links I posted earlier I can see most of those are completely useless here, but I'm sure modders don't do more mechanical animations sometimes precisely because they don't even know what knowledge is out there to be found. It's very difficult to find technical information on details like joints if you don't know what search terms to give to google. I spent a lot more time than a sane person should trying to figure out the proper technical name of that cargo bay mechanism, just so I could find information on how to design it for my purpose. It was completely fruitless because I didn't know what words to use. In the end I had to guess the dimensions of all the components, and gave up completely because it didn't do what I want, and I wasn't about to do complex mathematics for such a detail. So yes, add things people already know they need, but also what they don't know they need. You're in a good position as an engineer and a modder to judge that. Anyway I'm only asking for a list so that I have something to do. I'd like a subforum too. It could be made into a general reference material forum with pictures and sounds as well, of which I already have a few examples in the dev sticky. Sure, why not. I guess they'd have to be public domain only. So no Skylon Manual?

I don't get it. "As-needed" by whom?

As a potential user of this I would prefer to do as little clicking as possible. I think we should have gifs/videos embedded in the posts, and only link to other file types. I could make 3d visualisations of anything that doesn't have one or that can't be easily embedded, but I might need to have some maths of the motions explained to me. I don't have AutoCAD so I would have to fake the interactions between components by animating them directly. I doubt this will be a problem though. The internet is really, really great if you know what to look for. You and other potential contributors will know all the jargon, so may I suggest you and other engineers create a simple text list of as many useful engineering terms (and whatever else) as you can think of so that I and others can do the menial work of looking for examples.

I don't see the point.

Alrighty. Sumghai, just in case this isn't frowned upon it'd be a good idea to make an announcement in The Science Labs. You might find qualified professionals or even enthusiastic amateurs in there more easily. I'll also add a link in my signature. Here are some mechanisms to consider and organise: http://imgur.com/gallery/ayaC4 http://imgur.com/gallery/4V4Aw4z http://imgur.com/gallery/s1908 http://www.reddit.com/r/Gears/ I think if we cold have a visual example for each item along with a short description of usage examples and maybe the principle behind it, that would be good. I would like to also make a specific request of anyone reading for some blueprints or specs or a technical description of the mechanism that opens the space shuttle cargo bay doors. It's something I tried to implement in my Skylon, but what I ended up with had disproportionate components and as a result would not open the bay doors as far as I wanted without clipping geometry.

I was going for "painted". I'll see what I can do. I know. Others have complained about the thickness of the little parts (it may have been you even). All the parts are the same thickness actually, but I'll make the small ones thinner. As for stock-alike textures, that's something I'm fundamentally dead set against. I'm aiming to make all of my textures as realistic as I can. I'll do my part in dragging this game into the next generation, and I'll make you and everyone else like it.

Yeah maybe. I'm just irked about being able to transfer crew while hard docking is in progress. It's a minor point if hard docking is automatic, and quick, though I wouldn't like it too quick. Maybe 5 seconds or so.

Talk, talk, talk, joke, joke, talk, joke, hug, hug, dance, dance, dance, kiss, kiss, kiss. Or something like that. It should probably be PG. Kerbals are not officially plants, so they can't grow out of the ground.

You need to check in with the maintainers of IR about the feasibility of attaching a docking port to a robotic part. Last time I read it caused problems. Also other questions arise with this approach, like compatibility with ConnectedLivingSpace where connections would need to be dynamic based on the animation. I don't know enough about that mod to comment on that. Crew transfer ability would also be an issue.

Another colouring experiment. Still looking for feedback.

Are you talking about the rocket that's inside the HQ? Or the mockup outside?

Actually the actuator animations are trivial to implement no matter how you go about it. Toadicus is/was/will be coding something (for my non-androgynous docking ports) that can restrict docking ports to engage only within user-defined angle and distance ranges, so this could potentially be another problem solved. The biggest problem is still the robotic aspect, if indeed you'd like a part with six degrees of freedom, as sumghai said, which I would prefer to do.

See, if someone were to do all the technical legwork, I would totally make a next gen human model for the mod. I'm absolutely in favour of more realistic graphics in mods. People claim the game would lose it's charm. I disagree; it would make the experience more immersive.

Airtight logic right here. Anyway I've been pining for a Human Space Program since I first bought this game. No one seems to know how to go about doing it, but stupid_chris and sumghai discovered the Kerbal model hierarchy, so we have that going for us, which is nice. - - - Updated - - - Ah, sumghai ninja'd me

Your post, which you will make when you ask them about it.

I would check with the IR guys to see if you can have a docking port on a robotic part. Post a link to your post so I can read it.

I'm redoing the Universal docking ports right now. I need some criticism and ideas for the textures and geometry. Do your worst.

Oh I think you're right. I thought the active part on the Nasa Docking System translated in all three dimensions, but I can't find any conformation of that. I can think of a few other problems that you need to figure out. How realistic do you want this to be?