Search the Community

Hi all, I am very excited to be able to share with you a KSP stock first, tank tracks! Or at least that is what I am trying to make! The idea came to me when playing with my little 'therm-o' hinges (trade mark) lol not really. I began to realise that it may be possible. So I tried to imagine how something like that would look like. It would be a collection of 'links' looped back with the first and last connecting to each other. I knew if in future it would be used to drive a rover it would need parts that don't disappear when decoupled and reloaded, so that means probe cores. So I took the smallest probe core and made a therm-o hinge on one end and two 'spider' motors on the other. I then placed one on to a stack decoupler and offset (download the no offset limit mod folks) it away. Then take another link and attach it to the decoupler and offset it in line with the first. This can be seen in the second video below. So each link is attached to the same decoupler. So when it releases all the individual links detach but remain together as therm-o hinges. This can also be clearly seen in the videos below. I made a very simple rig to power the track using the rotating antennas. There was a lot of torque from the track and they could not be made 100% reliable in this configuration. I am currently testing a new rig that is completely stable and can run unaided using reaction wheels. The issue I have now is designing a reliable drive wheel.. It can become quite laggy as each link is 21 parts. And every single one of them is needed! This will most likely be a 1.1 rover drive. Anyway talk, or text rather is cheap! I made a kind of Progress report video from recordings I made during the experimentation stage. Failures included! I took a few pictures as well. Of the new WIP test rig and the links themselves. I have also made a video of me putting together a basic chain of the links. There is also a Sub-assembly download for the links. Here is the development video And the track construction video What you see is just the test rig to develop all the parts that need to work. The track itself worked first time. The drive and the wheels not so much.. The end result will look very different from what you have seen here. Thank you all for looking and have a go with the link sub-assembly. Maybe someone will have another idea for possible applications. MJ Track link Sub-assembly: KerbalX DL