Master Thread: Cannot Activate While Stowed!

[Claw]

Kerbonauts!

I am creating this singular thread to collect all of the issues with parts that "Cannot activate while stowed!" despite the fact that they are not stowed. Parts that are stowed are intentionally disabled. That's another topic all together (feedback, and not a bug). There are a lot of these threads, and I want to collect the issues into one place.

Purpose of this thread: To consolidate all of the issues with parts that are not able to activate while stowed, despite the fact that they are not stowed.

What parts: Stock cargo bays, stock service bays, and stock procedural fairings.

Details: Are important. Provide pictures or a craft file of what's happening. If you don't know how to do that, see this thread.

What this thread is not: Do not use this thread for complaining or general bug reporting. Any such posts will be removed, since this thread is specifically designed to get to the root issues of the "stowing" process that disables various parts. This thread is also not about the functionality of procedural fairings beyond stowing.

Cheers,

~Claw

Edited May 2, 2015 by Claw

[Bill Phil]

Oh...Wow. Didn't see this...

I posted a thread about the radial RCS tanks. They apparently can't flow monoprop to the thrusters while stowed... Which is strange, since they should already be activated.

I don't think I have any pictures.... yet.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Bill Phil

[Superluminaut]

KSP version: 1.0.2, windows, 32bit

Detailed explanation: Here I am showing a model of bugs that occur during gameplay. After reverting to vab, fairings break, resulting in dysfunctional engines and interstage fairings, and possibly more.

Video: http://youtu.be/xdq1fk3HxDM

ouput_log: https://www.dropbox.com/s/o2o8u7zx156b7dx/output_log.txt?dl=0

Edited May 3, 2015 by Superluminaut

[Claw]

Video: http://youtu.be/xdq1fk3HxDM

Your video is set to private.

[Superluminaut]

Your video is set to private.

just finished uploading.

[Claw]

After reverting to vab, fairings break, resulting in dysfunctional engines and interstage fairings, and possibly more.

Ah okay. So it looks like pretty much no matter how you revert, inter stage fairing shielding is broken.

Thanks for the video.

[GusTurbo]

Should I repost my interstage fairing "stowed" issue here?

[Claw]

Should I repost my interstage fairing "stowed" issue here?

If it's still doing it, then yes. It will help me consolidate what's happening.

Cheers,

~Claw

[rudi1291]

This happens quite often with the little Spark engine. All other engines seem to be fine

Edit: Here´s a sample craft (https://www.dropbox.com/s/s6k0s9me48dhrq8/Kol%20NG%201%20with%20launcher.craft?dl=1), there this happens. The Spark is inside that fairing and should be activated after/during fairing is seperated (its on the same stage, but manuallly seperating the fairing before staging wont help)

With another engine (tried the LV 909) its working like it should

Edited May 3, 2015 by rudi1291

[GusTurbo]

While using the new fairings as interstages, I've discovered that engines cannot seem to fire from within the interstage on staging. They give an error that says "[Engine] cannot activate while stowed."

Here's a screenshot:

In this picture, there is a Skipper located within that conical fairing section.

Re-creation steps:

Build an upper stage, place a decoupler under the engine, then place a fairing base under the decoupler. Close the fairing on the upper stage, creating an interstage fairing. Try to decouple the upper stage and fire the engine. The engine will not activate, and it displays the error above.

This is obviously a problem, because it makes interstage fairings useless. An example of such an interstage is the one between the S-II and S-IVB stages on the Saturn V.

Here's a link to my bug report thread on this issue:http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/117109-Engine-cannot-activate-while-stowed

[sal_vager]

What happens if you allow the engine to clear the interstage?

[GusTurbo]

It still remains in "stowed" state, last I checked.

[HafCoJoe]

Alrighty I've encountered a stowed error with my most recent shuttle launch system. Images coming soon.

EDIT:

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited May 4, 2015 by Avera9eJoe

[ShadowZone]

Repost from the other thread:

I tried this on smaller sized engines and it seems to be working now. Do you guys have a downloadable .craft that still does it?

Cheers,

~Claw

I built a test rig for that purpose:

http://www./download/4e30ks1b4e2u0mq/tmp.craft

as you can see in the album (you have to open the pics to read the error message in the top left corner) every decoupled element is "stowed", even after I deploy the fairing of the parent unit.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

[Superluminaut]

Any response from squad about this?

[Superluminaut]

This same bug also breaks parachutes.

[Clouds]

I found a cargo bay was occluding an air intake when an equally-sized fuel tank was not. It's not "activation" but it's probably related.

[darqen27]

Still getting this bug on my landers which are 180 attached via a docking node. they are activated(attempted) days after the fairing is gone

[StoryMusgrave]

So this is obviously a bug, and while a vessel change, or scene change causes the engine to recheck it's state, that isn't a 'fix'. Has there been any official word to get this fixed, as IMO, and likely many others, it's a BIG PROBLEM, especially for any sort of realistic play.

[Superluminaut]

So this is obviously a bug, and while a vessel change, or scene change causes the engine to recheck it's state, that isn't a 'fix'. Has there been any official word to get this fixed, as IMO, and likely many others, it's a BIG PROBLEM, especially for any sort of realistic play.

No word, squad is doing some kind of week long office retreat or something. I suspect there is also no real line of communication between the moderators and the development team. Someone suggested reddit may be more direct. IDK

[nonot8946]

I've had this problem with radial mount parachutes in v1.0. It seems to occur during re-entry and 75% of the time (it happened at least 4 times) I can finally activate the parachute at around 300 ft. Luckily it has never happened with all the parachutes at the same time. I considered this a game feature until I saw this thread and thought it was a bug - like the game was making systems randomly fail in hard career mode, to ensure you built redundancy into your craft designs.

As to what causes it - bugger all, I have no idea.

[Claw]

Any response from squad about this?

Noting official, other than to release 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 which reduced the problem a bit but does not solve it.

This same bug also breaks parachutes.

Yes. Yes it does.

I found a cargo bay was occluding an air intake when an equally-sized fuel tank was not. It's not "activation" but it's probably related.

Fuel tanks in cargo bays are still allowed to feed.

No word, squad is doing some kind of week long office retreat or something. I suspect there is also no real line of communication between the moderators and the development team. Someone suggested reddit may be more direct. IDK

Yes. Squad took the week off. We do have a line of communication with the devs, and I know they lurk the forums (which is part of why this is stuck). This is why I suggest posting about the problems and solutions for threads like this. But at the end of the day, the developers are the developers and they make their own decisions with the time they have.

I've had this problem with radial mount parachutes in v1.0.

It's bleed over from service module occlusion. If radial parts are too close, they sometimes end up occluded.

Cheers,

-Claw

[ScienceLion]

I had this problem with some Puff engines that were slightly covered by an RCS block. Oddly though, I was able to get them activated RELIABLY after doing some things. My lander had legs that were in the way of a service bay, so every time I opened the service bay, the legs would get jostled. Oops. However, whether it was the opening of the service bay or jostling of parts, the Puff engines were able to be manually activated. I've loaded a save prior to lander separation and the Puff engines had the "stowed" problem. Opening the service bay enabled activation of the Puff engines. I reloaded the save again to check, and once again, the service bay opening solved my problem. I've noticed too that my Communitron stowed in the service bay won't activate until I have opened the service bay at least once. Yes, the antenna pierces through the can, but it still works. Don't judge me.

Do you guys have service bays on your ships? Maybe opening and closing it will stop the "stowing" problem?

[John FX]

Just posting to say this bug is also present if using Procedural Fairings instead of stock ones.

I also noticed that antenna behind fairings work (transmit science) during on rails warp when they correctly do not activate due to stowing at normal speed for another data point. When on rails warp ends so does the transmission.

[cheech420now]

Im also getting the still stowed bug. Very annoying and game breaking for me.