Galane

Got the latest KSP all set up on Win 7 last night. Tried docking a couple of landers in a 100KM Kerbin orbit. I left the booster upper stages attached as if I was going to do a Mun trip. Had plenty of RCS thrusters and mono available. Docking autopilot just could not bring them together, not even when I manually aligned them nose to nose less than 20 meters apart, set one to kill rot and tried docking with the other. It'd close in then "correct" off to one side and miss. Once it pulled up along side (actually scraping the ships together) as if it was going to fly all the way around, so I stopped it, nudged them apart, aimed them at one another with TGT+ and tried again. I finally had to dock manually by aiming them at each other and ramming it home with the main engine thrust when the ships were straight enough with each other. After docking they started to wobble, getting progressively worse. The problem seems to be that at close range the targeting drifts a bit and the ships start chasing each othe's docking ports, even when one is set on kill rot. The closer they get, the more they wobble around - like a pilot induced oscillation. Used to be easy to manually dock by setting both to TGT+ then careful use of H and N and the throttle would bring them together while the ships stayed aligned.

If you post without the color and font tags it's much easier for people to read it.

IIRC you edit the kethane cfg file and add ShowInMenu=False

Good job!

Block and tackle? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_and_tackle

Oh, and shrink the size of the servo control window to fit the contents when ships undock.

Something for the Future Feature List. Either don't merge the servo command windows when ships dock, or somehow keep them sorted by ship in the merged window. What about when the same keys are set to do different things on different ships? How does it (if it does) handle such conflicts? A checkbox by each group to disable it might be useful, especially if those checkboxes get automatically unchecked when a ship un-docks. The easiest way to handle that is by enabling all servo groups when any undocking happens. Might be able to tell when one self-contained craft undocks from an assembly of two or more still docked ones - and only enable the disabled servos on the one that left. But undocking something like a lander that has two or more parts that were docked to land would toss that method out the airlock.

In KSP 0.23 I was able to create truss structures with cubic octagonal "struts" and stock struts to reinforce an arm built with DROMOMAN parts.

Some of the axis numbers need changed from 0 to 1 or 1 to 0, but nobody has simply just posted the exact changes. Someone needs to build some test ships with each movable DROMOMAN part and fiddle with the cfg until it works, and make notes of the changes... then post them all in this thread.

Infernal Robotics has been mostly fixed up for 0.23.5 but the cfg files for DROMOMAN need edited.

So, what changes have to be made to the dromoman part cfg files?

How about offset cone tanks or nosecones where one side is vertical? That would be for making nicer looking side boosters or for doing crazy things like adapting four Rockomax diameter tanks to a stock quad coupler.

Is the DROMOMAN fix included in the latest IR download? If not, could you post it in the first post of this thread? Finally getting my kit together for 0.23.5 now that IR is mostly working with it. :-)

Targetron, if it's compatible with .23.5, don't recall if it can target specific docking ports but it does help in selecting a target ship that KSP's map view won't allow you to select because it's too close. Once you get aimed the right way with MJ's TGT+ it's easier to select the port. What would be extremely helpful is if the game or a mod could add a "Set as target of..." option to docking ports so that once you have the ships close enough you could set control to their ports, then command them to accept targeting *from* the other ship instead of having to try and right click a teeny leetle patch of pixels *way over there* to set the port as a target.

Editor Extensions doesn't modify the 2 VS 3+ symmetry modes and their effect on how IR parts move. Attach a pair of VTOL rotatrons to a tank. See how they both tip to the same side of the tank. They're rotating in opposite directions WRT their bases. Repeat it with 3 or more, they all turn the same direction. Being able to invert the rotation of individual IR parts when placed using symmetry would be very useful. The vertical snap needs more than one step. It's perfect for when you want to attach something to the center of another part but useless if you need to align several sets of different parts 2/3 of the way down a fuel tank.

It works the same with the VTOL rotatrons. Put on two and they turn opposite directions so they'll both point to the same side of the ship. Put on 3+ and they all turn the same way. Try those hinges vertical and see if they bend opposing (both to the same side of the ship) or both the same way, which would be one towards each side of the rocket. That symmetry function makes it harder to build a ship with two side mounted engines which can flip for retro thrust. 3+ is easy because they'll all flip together with one servo command. To do only two the hinges or other IR parts have to be individually placed, with separate servo commands grouped together. A symmetry mode switch for 2x placement would be quite handy.

Would it be possible to copy crafts out of the save file so they could be edited, then insert them back into the save file? I'd think ones in orbit would be easier than landed ones since rotation wouldn't be much of an issue in orbit VS landed ones needing to be set back down at the location/rotation they were to avoid being krakened. One very useful use for such a thing would be fixing goofs like wrong way fuel lines or forgetting to have any power source on a stage that's intended to be kept in use. (Done there, been that, fortunately had some spare ports to dock hastily assembled power modules!)

At times it's also been rather inaccurate, missing targets by up to a couple of kilometers. When it's deciding to land on a dime from high orbit, simply do a manual edit of one number in the coordinates to slightly miss the target. Would be nice to have a "landing doughnut" option where MJ is commanded to land no closer than X but no farther than Y from the target, or at least a minimum keep away distance. Another option is to first land a beacon rover with some OKTO2 pods on docking ports. Don't need anything but the pods, they can be targeted even when out of power. Roll over to where you want to land the next ship, drop a pod then roll off to a safe distance. I mounted a couple of them under one of the rovers for my Eve mission. It will land first then drop the pods for the other rover and manned lander to set down on.

I've had situations with some previous builds where MechJeb could control the orientation, but nothing else, on a craft with no command/control.

Should always clear out the GameData\PluginData\MechJeb2 folder when updating the MechJeb DLL or updating KSP.

...and works with existing saves. Fortunately I only have one craft out with IR parts. Will have to undock and dispose of it (so the tanker it's docked to won't also get deleted) prior to going to .23.5 if it won't be compatible with the updated IR.

I put .23 stock on my MPC TransPort T2500 laptop (nVidia 8600M GS with 256 meg dedicated RAM, 4 gigs RAM, 2.5 Ghz Core 2 Duo and Win 7 ultimate x64) just to see if it'd run KSP. Then I loaded the Kerbal X. Thought it was going to fall apart on the pad, it wobbled around so much. Launched OK without any lag - so next the acid test. I'll copy over my save with my Eve ship that's still in Kerbin orbit 'cause my desktop is too slow... Of course it'll need KJR and a few other mods to support that ship.

The altitude is in meters, so for a 71KM orbit around Kerbin you enter 71000. The ship lander is a lot more dodgy. I've yet to figure out the secret to using it on Eve. It always pops the ship in with quite a bit of horizontal velocity. On the Mun the default lander settings pop it in with apparently zero motion relative to the surface and one can just poke Land Somewhere in MechJeb and land right there. What would be nice is if it could store a list of several user entered locations, altitudes, horizontal velocities relative to the surface etc.

Try putting a stack of pistons into the side of a fuel tank or the 4 Kerbal module. Collapsed it sits there. Extend and it starts bouncing. Put on a stack of all the sizes, extend all the way and it'll hop its way off the launchpad. Not rotational forces with the linear extending pistons.

A couple of places in this thread there's a stack of all the telescoping pistons. Put it in your subassembly folder. Then you can stick it on your rocket and peel off the ones you don't need.