(jr.) docking ports stick, but vessels won't merge...

[xendelaar]

I've been having trouble with docking ever since the update came out. When I try to dock two jr. docking ports, the ports will get attracted and snap on to each other, but both ships won't merge. The ship will stay on the connected (more or less), but I can't transfer resources. If I turn the ship fast, the other ship will lose it's connection with ease.

I've disabled SAS, restarted the game several times, but nothing seems to help.

Do you guys have any idea what's going on here? I hope you can help. Bob is in dire need of supplies and I can't seem to give him any although I'm so close... yet.. so far away

Edited May 26, 2015 by xendelaar
changed to Answered!

[Starwhip]

Are your docking ports facing the right way? They do not have a male or female end. The end with the small circle needs to point outwards on both craft.

Pictures would help.

[xendelaar]

I will ad a picture asap. The ports are facing the right way, else I don't think the "magic" attraction force would pull the ports together when I'm close enough.

2015-05-24_00017 by Alex Roling, on Flickr

Edited May 24, 2015 by xendelaar
Included a picture of both ports

[KSK]

You've probably tried this already but I find that rocking the craft under your control with SAS on can help. Sometimes it takes a while for the two craft to stick even if the docking ports are in contact.

[Starwhip]

Try going to space center and then going back to your craft. If that doesn't work, I'm going to hunt down a thread on docking bugs.

[Starwhip]

Did it work?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/78863-FIX-Dock-Undocking-Bug-in-0-23-5?p=1145499&viewfull=1#post1145499

[xendelaar]

KSK, I tried rocking the boat, but nothing happened

Starwhip, I tried going back to the space centre, but sadly without any success. I studied the link you posted about the workaround. In my savefile, I see that my ship is supposedly docked, so I think we've found the problem. I've deleted the "DOCKEDVESSEL" info but when I reloaded the game, the ports won't stick together any more. I'm going to experiment some more with the save file . If I find a solution I will report back.

Thanks for the quick replies!

Edited May 24, 2015 by xendelaar

[RexKramer]

In your screenshot, you have SAS and RCS on, which may be enough to overpower the force of the docking ports. I suggest turning off SAS and RCS.

I normally turn off SAS and RCS as soon as the docking ports begin to attract each other. The ports will attempt to pull the ships together, but also will attempt to align the two ships so their ports are aligned. SAS will interfere with that action. Normally, the docking port will eventually overpower SAS, especially on ships with a minimum amount of torque wheels, unless you have a lot of torque wheels.

[KSK]

KSK, I tried rocking the boat, but nothing happened

Starwhip, I tried going back to the space centre, but sadly without any success. I studied the link you posted about the workaround. In my savefile, I see that my ship is supposedly docked, so I think we've found the problem. I've deleted the "DOCKEDVESSEL" info but when I reloaded the game, the ports won't stick together any more. I'm going to experiment some more with the save file . If I find a solution I will report back.

Thanks for the quick replies!

No problem - hope you find a fix!

[FancyMouse]

You need to change the State of the docking port to Ready (instead of Acquire etc.) - and that's the more important part.

[xendelaar]

Hello everybody. I've been fiddling around in the save file and I've done the following things:

- Set State to Ready

- Set DockUId to 0

- Delete DOCKEDVESSEL info

- attN was already set to Bottom or None

By doing this, the ship is able to activate the magic tractor beam when I'm near the other port. They will hatch on to each other, but still won't merge. I've added the code of both docking ports from the save file below.

PART

{

name = dockingPort3

cid = 4294258066

uid = 1323625304

mid = 3164532248

launchID = 84

parent = 2

position = 0,1.31772994995117,0

rotation = 0,0,0,1

mirror = 1,1,1

symMethod = Radial

istg = 0

dstg = 0

sqor = -1

sepI = 1

sidx = -1

attm = 0

srfN = None, -1

attN = None, -1

attN = bottom, 2

mass = 0.02

temp = 285.946386924321

expt = 0.5

state = 0

connected = True

attached = True

flag = Squad/Flags/default

rTrf = dockingPort3

modCost = 0

EVENTS

{

}

ACTIONS

{

}

PARTDATA

{

}

MODULE

{

name = ModuleDockingNode

isEnabled = True

state = Ready

dockUId = 0

dockNodeIdx = 0

EVENTS

{

Undock

{

active = False

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Undock

guiName = Undock

category = Undock

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

UndockSameVessel

{

active = False

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Undock

guiName = Undock

category = Undock

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

Decouple

{

active = False

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Decouple Node

guiName = Decouple Node

category = Decouple Node

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

SetAsTarget

{

active = False

guiActive = False

guiIcon = Set as Target

guiName = Set as Target

category = Set as Target

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 200

externalToEVAOnly = False

}

UnsetTarget

{

active = True

guiActive = False

guiIcon = Unset Target

guiName = Unset Target

category = Unset Target

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 200

externalToEVAOnly = False

}

EnableXFeed

{

active = False

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Enable Crossfeed

guiName = Enable Crossfeed

category = Enable Crossfeed

guiActiveUnfocused = False

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

DisableXFeed

{

active = False

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Disable Crossfeed

guiName = Disable Crossfeed

category = Disable Crossfeed

guiActiveUnfocused = False

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

MakeReferenceTransform

{

active = True

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Control from Here

guiName = Control from Here

category = Control from Here

guiActiveUnfocused = False

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

}

ACTIONS

{

UndockAction

{

actionGroup = None

}

DecoupleAction

{

actionGroup = None

}

}

}

MODULE

{

name = ModuleDockingNodeNamed

isEnabled = True

portName = Brennie A

initialized = True

controlTransformName =

EVENTS

{

renameDockingPort

{

active = True

guiActive = True

guiActiveEditor = True

guiIcon = Rename Port

guiName = Rename Port

category = Rename Port

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 2000

externalToEVAOnly = False

}

}

ACTIONS

{

}

}

}

PART

{

name = dockingPort3

cid = 4294142932

uid = 2231999802

mid = 3164532248

launchID = 84

parent = 0

position = 0,0,0

rotation = 0,0,0,1

mirror = 1,1,1

symMethod = Radial

istg = 0

dstg = 0

sqor = -1

sepI = 1

sidx = -1

attm = 0

srfN = srfAttach, 1

attN = None, -1

attN = None, -1

mass = 0.02

temp = 274.504112320905

expt = 0.5

state = 1

connected = False

attached = True

flag = Squad/Flags/default

rTrf = dockingPort3 (MinMun DrilRef 2 Probe)

modCost = 0

EVENTS

{

}

ACTIONS

{

}

PARTDATA

{

}

MODULE

{

name = ModuleDockingNode

isEnabled = True

state = Ready

dockUId = 0

dockNodeIdx = 0

EVENTS

{

Undock

{

active = False

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Undock

guiName = Undock

category = Undock

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

UndockSameVessel

{

active = False

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Undock

guiName = Undock

category = Undock

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

Decouple

{

active = False

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Decouple Node

guiName = Decouple Node

category = Decouple Node

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

SetAsTarget

{

active = True

guiActive = False

guiIcon = Set as Target

guiName = Set as Target

category = Set as Target

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 200

externalToEVAOnly = False

}

UnsetTarget

{

active = False

guiActive = False

guiIcon = Unset Target

guiName = Unset Target

category = Unset Target

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 200

externalToEVAOnly = False

}

EnableXFeed

{

active = False

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Enable Crossfeed

guiName = Enable Crossfeed

category = Enable Crossfeed

guiActiveUnfocused = False

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

DisableXFeed

{

active = False

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Disable Crossfeed

guiName = Disable Crossfeed

category = Disable Crossfeed

guiActiveUnfocused = False

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

MakeReferenceTransform

{

active = True

guiActive = True

guiIcon = Control from Here

guiName = Control from Here

category = Control from Here

guiActiveUnfocused = False

unfocusedRange = 2

externalToEVAOnly = True

}

}

ACTIONS

{

UndockAction

{

actionGroup = None

}

DecoupleAction

{

actionGroup = None

}

}

}

MODULE

{

name = ModuleDockingNodeNamed

isEnabled = True

portName = Brennie B

initialized = True

controlTransformName =

EVENTS

{

renameDockingPort

{

active = True

guiActive = True

guiActiveEditor = True

guiIcon = Rename Port

guiName = Rename Port

category = Rename Port

guiActiveUnfocused = True

unfocusedRange = 2000

externalToEVAOnly = False

}

}

ACTIONS

{

}

}

}

After the ports were hatched on, I saved the game again and opened the savefile. I saw that one port state was set to "Docked (dockee)", while the other port state was set to "Acquire". I changed the Acquire state to "Docked (docker)" and "Docked (dockee)", but in both cases the port would fly of and after several seconds the whole ship just blew up. It was kind of funny and sad at the same time hehe. Changing the state to "Ready" didn't do anything.

I changed both port states to Ready, but that didn't help either. After that I tried resetting the values several times in order so I could redo the "docking experiment", but that didn't work either.

Also, I always turn off SAS right before the tractor beam activates.

The mission I was performing was a small experimental scanning/drilling/converting mission on minmus, so the losses aren't that big. But it's really frustrating to stumble upon a bug like that at the final stages of a mission. Perhaps I should "dock" with Claws in the future....

Edited May 25, 2015 by xendelaar
Added some other things I've tried

[xendelaar]

Darn... I tried to figure if this bug was a 3 in a lifetime kind of thing, but it seems that my docking ports never merge.

In order to test this "hypothesis", I created two small rovers with two normal docking ports.They start connected when I launch. First, I decoupled the ports and drove off with my rover (20 to 30 meters). After that I backed up again towards the other port. When I get near the other port, the magic tractor beam comes into play and pulls both rovers together. They snap on to each other, but don't merge as one vessel. SAS is turned off.

Docking ports are kind of a big deal in this game. Without them, it's kind of a deal breaker for me. Do you guys have any idea what I'm (or the game is) doing wrong?

[ftunk70]

I think it looks like the docking port on the small ship is mounted backwards. Rovers are difficult to dock when the ground is uneven. Try it on the grass at the side of the runway.

Or perhaps you have a mod installed that breaks the docking ports? I never had problems with them (except mounting the large docking port backwards), but I havn't gotten around trying them in 1.0.2.

Edited May 26, 2015 by ftunk70

[xendelaar]

I've found the answer. There's something wrong with one of the mods I've got installed. I removed them all (20 or so) and after that, the docking mechanism worked! Thanks for the tip ftunk70. N

It was the Achievement mod... Thanks again for all your help guys!

Edited May 26, 2015 by xendelaar