Why do I lose SAS?

[mattkuae]

Can someone please explain to me why (on occasion) when I try to use SAS to align for a burn, nothing happens. I have a full electric charge. Is my lazy a** kerbal asleep? What is the deal? Someone please enlighten me... It always seems to happen at very in opportune times, like when I am trying to rendevous or enter orbit around another body.

Also, is there a place to report bugs? I have found more than a few.

[Master Tao]

Do you have any reaction wheels? If not, you'll only be able to turn using RCS or engine gimbaling.

The place to report possible bugs for stock KSP is the Support (unmodded installs) forum.

<moderation>Moved to the Gameplay Questions forum</moderation>

Also, welcome to the forums!

[NoMrBond]

Still in timewarp? I forget to cancel right out to 1x on occasion, it's usually that or I forget the correct RT antenna.

[mattkuae]

1. Sorry for posting in the wrong sub-forum. I am usually not so ignorant.

2. Reaction wheels? Yes. At least I usually have SAS via reaction wheels when using a manned pod/cockpit, no?

3. Thank you, I will get around to the bugs soon. They have probably been reported, but you never know...

4. No time warp, I don't think... See #5. As for antennae, equipped and functioning.

5. I did notice something during this last instance, a message saying SAS was unavailable or something, but it was there and gone so fast that by the time I saw it and started to read it was gone. If it happens again I will try to take a screenshot for posterity.

Also, to be fair, the font on some of those messages is pretty awful. It's like reading an old school Casio calculator watch with a nearly dead battery while being drunk and suffering from dyslexia.

Perhaps I just need glasses...? Or maybe just less dyskey whislexia.

Edited March 24, 2015 by mattkuae
Spelling...

[Crzyrndm]

The Stability Assistance System (SAS for short) is only available if you have a kerbal with the Pilot Profession onboard, or a level 1+ probe core (stayputnik and one other probe are level 0 and don't have any SAS functionality IIRC)

[Claw]

5. I did notice something during this last instance, a message saying SAS was unavailable or something, but it was there and gone so fast that by the time I saw it and started to read it was gone. If it happens again I will try to take a screenshot for posterity.

If you are getting this message, it might be that the kerbal on board isn't a pilot. If you are playing Career mode and you use an engineer or scientist (instead of a pilot), then you cannot activate SAS on a typical Pod only craft. You would need a SAS capable probe core to aid the mission (if you don't have a pilot available).

If the kerbal is actually a pilot and is onboard, but you are still getting this message, then you might be hitting another problem. In which case we would probably ask for more details (such as the screen shots you offered) as well as maybe a save file or details on exactly how you're running into the problem (so we can figure out if it's a bug or something else).

Cheers,

~Claw

[Kryxal]

It's for this exact reason that my typical craft isn't pod-only these days. It's handy having SAS still active when you EVA or have something other than a pilot.

[Leszek]

I have had issues where SAS suddenly fails. I have found in each and every case, it has been turned off in the capsule. Right click on it and click on toggle torque. See what happens. Good luck.

[mattkuae]

1. It could be the pilot issue, but I had enough control to ascend, orbit, rendezvous, reach transfer orbit, etc... If it were 100% of the time I could see that although I am just not sure given that it's there and then gone.

2.I'll work on reproducing it, if I can I will share the file and instructions. It seems very random so that may be a tall order.

3. I tried turning torque on and off at the time, no effect.

Edited March 24, 2015 by mattkuae

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Yeah... something similar has been happening to me as well. My SAS just stops working for some reason... I seem to remember that there was a bug where you would loose SAS when switching vessels with [ and ]... but I can't find it.

[mattkuae]

Update: I am at a loss. Almost certain this is a bug.

So I opened the same file mentioned above, go to the space center, and examine both craft in orbit. Indeed one of the kerbals is an engineer (we are a sorted bunch to say the least). So I think to myself, 'great, I am just an idiot...' I tested SAS just to make sure I wasn't crazy and sure enough, no motion. Then for some reason I decided to open and close my docking port and suddenly.... SAS!!!! What is going on? According to some comments above, that shouldn't happen. I had been flying this kerbal all over the place, even used him to land on Minimus.

I would move this to the support forum, but I am not able to reproduce the issue now. If it pops up again, I will snag that message and any other info that I think might help.

[Taki117]

When reporting a bug, be sure to grab your output_log.txt so that people familiar with them can look for any errors. Also, do you play with mods at all?

[mattkuae]

When reporting a bug, be sure to grab your output_log.txt so that people familiar with them can look for any errors. Also, do you play with mods at all?

No Mods. I am very new, not really a 'gamer'. More of an a rocket geek really. I assume I need to reproduce the bug before grabbing the log file, no?

- - - Updated - - -

I will say it's a very cool game. I think I need a better PC to play it on though because the videos I see posted all have much nicer graphics than what I see. (yes, I am familiar with how to adjust resolution, etc... etc..) Still buggy, but we haven't even made it to v1.0 yet. I have high hopes for this game as is grows.

[impyre]

mattkuae, I've had this same thing happen to me on a modded system and an un-modded system. It's usually after timewarping and/or changing from map to ship view. I can't say which exactly, but I feel like it's more closely related to time warp. It happens so sporadically that it's completely unpredictable and difficult to reproduce reliably... but I know it happens (with a pilot, power, and SAS). I have to load the space center and re-load the vessel to fix it... and it *only* happens to kerbals that have other abilities (like hold prograde/retrograde)... it seems like it sometimes gets stuck in stability assist mode.

[Greenfire32]

It's a bug as I experience this from time to time too. It usually happens after time warping, but it has showed up occasionally after returning to the craft from EVA.

Usually I'll get a message saying no Kerbals or pilots are on board.

[Bev7787]

Yeah... something similar has been happening to me as well. My SAS just stops working for some reason... I seem to remember that there was a bug where you would loose SAS when switching vessels with [ and ]... but I can't find it.

Same thing happens to me. But sometimes SAS still works when switching between vessels.