Crzyrndm

Updated to 0.8.1 Changes Improved Pilot Assistant/SAS interaction: more obvious GUI notifications, pause/unpause synchronisation A fix for ground activation of modules with an active integral term building up large error over time Retrofitting the scalar tuning value seen in the SAS module to the PA tuning GUI Smoothing of the derivative term (now a rolling average with a factor of 0.5. ie: change = change / 2 + new_change / 2) The presets that you can see for the SAS module don't work atm (loading the wrong data for some reason I have yet to work out), so I would advise not playing with them.

Good to know you got it sorted Sliders won't be happening, but the inclusion of the "scalar" term into Pilot Assistant will make it much easier for anyone to get it working reasonably well. You won't get perfect response without tuning the PID gains, but it will let you tune out ossilations with just a few clicks

You can pre-enable all modules prior to deactivating SAS. However, I do need to make it more obvious that it isn't doing anything while SAS is active RE: Nose dive 1) Which module are you activating (vertical/altitude or wing leveller/heading) 1a) Are you activating it on the ground before takeoff or in flight 1b) Which mode is the activated module in 2) If not the wing leveller, how are you activating it (clicking activate or going straight to entering values) 3) Is it a steady nose down, excessive vibration, ...? Please describe how the vessel acts after engagement (eg. vibrations on the pitch axis that steadily grow in magnitude) RE: Ongoing Development Tomorrow will most likely see the next update for this plugin. I've been a little busy this week so I haven't had a chance to do much yet, but the planned list for this weekend is: Improved Pilot Assistant/SAS interaction, more obvious GUI notifications in particular A fix for ground activation of modules with an active integral term causing unwanted jerks on takeoff Retrofitting the scalar tuning value seen in the SAS module to the PA tuning GUI Smoothing of the derivative term, possible new GUI entry Presets for the SAS module, along the same vein as what PA already has Improved interaction of the SAS module with stock SAS, in particular making sure the stock SAS is enabled when atmo-SAS deactivates because of leaving the atmosphere, and allowing it to be forced on in vacuum as re-entry prep (I hope no-one tries to use it for orbital operations...) General polishing of the SAS GUI, including making the active alert box a button and making it a little less intrusive Configuration to allow roll SAS to be seperately activated if so desired I also have plans for a third module which sits somewhere between the SAS module (which only acts when no control input is present) and the original Pilot Assistant module (abstract control). In essence it will be moderating input according to a number of rules that have been preset. While the vehicle is acting inside the limits of those rules the players input will be unaffected, but exceed a limit and it will take action to try and stay within the stated limit. Should be very useful for when you want to fly hands-on but the craft is a bit touchy (for the truly unstable craft, well tuned Pilot assistant is still going to be the best option...)

Dangit, I thought I fixed the 0/360 heading problem. It's a simple fix (already dealt with it in once) but it may be a few days until I can upload a new version (internet issues >.<). Physics warp sounds like it's not updating the time scalar properly which may be a little more difficult to resolve. It may just come down to making the defaults much less abrupt (you can do this yourself by increasing the scalar on the vibrating axis, just increase the warp speed slowly and make sure it's stable before increasing it again ) I keep meaning to make the paused indicator show up whenever either SAS module is active (speaking of, need to make that a bit more obvious too...) so that should make it more obvious that SAS over-rides all it's aids totally.

Looks like the survey type is indicated by icon (green => temperature, red balloon => Atmospheric(?), yellow => Seismic(?))

Pilot Assistant also includes an SAS tuner that you can use to remove the vibration/wobble. Open up the SAS window, toggle on the stock SAS mode, increase the fourth value (Scalar? I think thats what I labelled it as...) on the axis thats over-reacting until it stabilises

Version 0.8 * Added SAS module that holds a surface relative heading (no more steady pitch climb : * Added SAS tuning for both stock and the new SAS module * Added Left alt hotkey to WASD control as a speed modifier. Holding alt down will change the target 10x faster than normal, or 10x slower if fine control is active * Pilot Assistant presets are saved more often to Had to keep pitch/yaw SAS activation synchronised for now, roll atleast is seperated Now, to go see if I can't track down what is causing the presets to be repeatedly eaten...

The surfaces not being able to get enough action is probably just a matter of the integral clamps being a little low. At some point I really need to go through and retune the defaults a bit to lessen occurence of that... If it keeps happening I'll have another dig through and see if I can't work out why

An early version of the Surface/Atmospheric SAS module is available on Github. It has some pretty obvious problems, most notably difficulties controlling a craft properly when the roll angle is not near zero. However, it has two major advantages over the stock system: (quite apart from being tuneable) 1) The pitch holding is surface relative. No more steady climb as you progress around a planet (particularly noticeable during reentry) 2) Each axis is activated and deactivated seperately. Alter pitch without having to worry about the craft rolling to one side or the other. To use Surface SAS, arm the system from the SAS GUI and then use the standard SAS toggle keybinding to activate/deactivate it. NOTES: Surface SAS will forcibly deactivate once it leaves that atmosphere. Later version will include an override toggle for this. Disarm the system and use the stock module for vacuum SAS If the controls are doing wierd things, tap the temporary SAS ("F" by default on windows) to reset everything. The preview release also includes 2 small changes to the existing Pilot Assistant (which is completely seperated from the SAS module) * Fix for presets not saving unless a scene load occured. Adding, updating, and removing presets now generates a save event * Added a scalar to WASD control system. Holding the modifier key (Windows: LAlt) changes the target 10x faster normally, or 10x slower again with fine control active

I think I know what the problem will be there, I'll add it to the fixes for the next version

Simplest example of a NaN is any value divided by zero (ie. +/- infinity, undefined, w/e). There are a few more cases that can cause them to appear, but generally it is caused by unforseen values being thrown into a calculation.

What was the output limits on the Vertical speed -> AoA block (the one under altitude)? What is probably happening is that either the main clamp or the integral clamp of the Speed/AoA block forced it to follow the prograde down. Actually, I'd bet on the integral clamp being the cause of this (having it clamped lower means it's more responsive, but it won't work as well for situations like this). Increase the value marked "Clamp Upper" on the second vertical block and it should do what you expect. E: You can also do the same thing with the elevator control surface. By default I have the control surfaces integrals clamped quite tightly to increase responsiveness but that does significantly limit the deflection they will allow themselves.

I think I undestand now. Short version of envelope control: You still fly the craft, but your input is moderated somewhat. How would something like that be different to say FAR's AoA limiter, or is it just a more expanded version (eg. limiters on: AoA, pitch, climb rate, pitch rate, ... in pitch axis) I don't see a wheel happening for trim. If there was anything visual it would be bars similar (but way less fancy ) to the stock input position indicators. Me and graphics/art just isn't a good combo

Version 0.7 * Added wing leveller mode * Fine control now works on stock fine control mode (caps lock toggle, indicated by blue coloured pips in the bottom left) * Tab pauses all control systems and returns full control to user * Alt-X activates wing leveller and sets target vertical speed to zero (level everything off) * Fix for control systems not deactivating between flights * All PID constants now always show atleast 1dp and up to 3sf (ie. 3 is displayed as 3.0, 3.333 would display as 3.33) * Window now resizes more dynamically to fit available content I think it's time to go to work on this SAS replacement I keep talking about Can I get clarification on what these two requests are about? Visible trim adjustment in particular sounds a little odd because it already shows on the stock GUI.

Just making sure, you do have numlock on right? With numlock off the keypad doesn't print numbers and instead does things like emulating the arrow keys (up/down/left/right : 8/2/4/6) Blizzy's toolbar *maybe* after I finish off all the little bits of functionality that are queueing up again. It really is a long way down my priority list.

Version 0.6 * Added WASD controls for heading and vertical set points. Hold KSP Modifier key (LAlt on windows) to engage fine control * Fixed rudder to follow heading setpoint correctly * Fix for preset states not persisting correctly (delete will work now...) * Complete code rebuild to increase modularity and allow for further expansion with less headaches RE: Pitch hold What I'm aiming to do with the SAS replacement is have pitch in particular be fixed relative to the surface (so that your pitch doesn't constantly climb as you progress around the orbit) and also allow for fine tuning of the PID block (ala PID tune), manually setting and tweaking the setpoints, etc. (EDIT: How did I forget, not having the setpoint drift slowly like it does in stock...) @GFurst Normal flight controls (WASD by default) can now be used to tweak heading and vertical control settings. Enjoy

I'll think about it. AoA control can already be done fairly well using VS and tweaking the output limits of that block (which are AoA angles). Direct pitch control may be coming in the form of an SAS override That's... a very interesting and useful idea. Will look into over-riding keyboard controls this way. Waypoints not going to happen. I have no intention of ever fully automating a flight. I made this because keyboard control is too extreme/slow in many cases and I needed a way around that (plus SAS doesn't do a good job for altitude holding...) , file extension isn't wrong, KSP just can't deal with a .cfg file that has no entries in it (and I didn't fulfill that condition during preset testing). Even worse, It would seem I stuffed up and lost a space in the file path at some point and the presets aren't saving correctly Both are quick fixes, fixed version will hopefully be incoming shortly EDIT New version is up. There was some real wierdness with filenames happening with my dev machine and I'm not sure if it was released with or without a space in the folder name. Please check that the install path is GameData/Pilot Assistant (not PilotAssistant with no space) EDIT2 Laptop I assume (no numpad). Don't think there's a whole lot I can do in this case other than including more increment/decrement buttons. Make a preset for it for now. I will probably be including a toggle in the presets to say "load as leveller/load as heading control" in the future.

Updating again Version 0.5 * Presets - Create, update, and delete (kind of. The delete function only works if you quit KSP without loading into flight again >.<. Easier just to remove from the presets.cfg atm) * Added increment buttons to the PID tuning parameters. Increments are +10% and -9.1...% (x*1.1 and x/1.1 respectively. This means it comes back to the same value after incrementing and decrementing) * Reset to default button in the preset's menu (defaults are not currently configurable, unsure if I want there to not be a backup so it's hardcoded) And as a demonstration of the levels of precision achieved by this mod, I was doing some low flying over the oceans yesterday and cleaned off all the aft port control surfaces on the Aeris-3A (totally by accident, was actually trying to improve the tuning...). It managed to finish the turn and return to the straight and level using only the remaining starboard surfaces and the port canard with an altitude clearance of <0.2m (Aeris-3A has a required altitude of just under 1m) much to my amazement I must add. I didn't think it would manage after the third one dissapeared. Final note: I have discovered a *slight* bug with the rudder control system when used in coordinated mode, that being it only works for turning in one direction for some reason. The default yaw damping is unaffected by this issue I don't quite understand what you mean here. It shouldn't need anything from FAR to work.

I knew it would be something simple like that. Per craft isn't likely unless I start adding modules, but maybe some configurable presets would do the trick.

Ok, the log spam should be gone () plus a few other little changes Version 0.4 * Integrated yaw damper into the heading control system. Can now be used to add rudder input with some retuning. Default is still only yaw damping. - For active rudder control: make Ki slightly > 0 and tweak the max yaw values to suit. Pure yaw damper is Kp/Ki/Kd all == 0 * More GUI cleanup and polishing * Fixed to handle switching craft in flight appropriately * Attempting to give non-numeric input to the PID parameters no longer generates a log error As far as functionality goes, I'm not too sure there's a whole lot more to be added here.

Oh, my bad. That was not meant to make it to release...

Hah, yes this is most definitely based on the autopilot functions in a light aircraft These two mods might be what you're looking for http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50736-0-25-(Oct-12-14)-Automate-Vertical-Velocity-and-Altitude-Control http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/85838-0-23-5-%28Jul13-14%29-RCS-Landing-Aid-Kill-your-horizontal-velocity-to-land

Bearing yes. Pitch and roll currently not, or atleast not directly. Vertical speed can be controlled directly instead of pitch, roll it's only possible currently to hold the wings level (set heading Kp/Ki/Kd = 0) as a constant roll value (changes in set heading control roll angle, but thats probably not what you're looking for)

Updated to 0.3 Massive GUI cleanup. A lot less screen space occupied, more sense to labelled values (I hope) PID values for control surfaces are hidden by default as they are minimally important to tuning Vertical control now defaults to vertical speed. Climb rate will be locked in automaticaly when activated (gives a smoother activation) .version file included for AVC users Lots of little fixes New GUI

Updated to 0.2 Pitch controller replaced by AoA (Angle of Attack) controller. The only difference you will see is that you can now limit target AoA's directly instead of pitch (very useful in FAR/NEAR) Yaw Damper added. Will be active while either heading or vertical velocity are in use. Zero out tuning parameters (Kp/Ki/Kd) if you don't want it running Fixed the altitude and AoA output limiters to display intuitive values (ie. max +ve climb rate uses a +ve value) I think I'll go see about making a user guide that explains all the values a little better EDIT: https://github.com/Crzyrndm/Pilot-Assistant/wiki Atleast lists what each controller does and which values are commonly important. I'm finding it difficult to write anything pertaining to actual usage hints though.