Spinning Craft Disease

[tychodin]

i only noticed this after 1.0.2, but i can't say for sure if something in that update caused it. what i'm running into is that almost any craft i make will at some point start to spin when in zero grav, and do so uncontrollably. i can fly something all the way to minmus no problem, but then i make a small roll adjustment or something and poof, it starts spinning faster and faster until it breaks apart.

i can usually counteract it with manual RCS, but SAS seems to make things worse. and even more strangely, if i change the control node to something facing the opposite direction (say if i have a computer core on one end and a docking port on the opposite end), then the spin will begin in the reverse direction. it's as though SAS is on when it isn't, and is applying a constant roll.

what's even worse, is that it appears to be contagious. if i somehow wrest control of something suffering this problem and dock it to something else (like my space station) that works fine, the space station will begin to spin around its long axis, and even if i undock the offending craft, the spin continues to accelerate on the station until it, too, rips itself apart. what is happening here???

i'm using a number of mods, but they're all updated for 1.0.2, and it's difficult to tell if and how a particular mod might be responsible.

[xrayfishx]

Press alt-x. This resets any trim you might unintentionally have. This seems to me like the most likely cause here.

Trim is an useful thing occasionally, but if you set it by accident and don't notice, it can be annoying.

If this doesn't help, then it must be some sort of clipping issue. In that case you should post a picture or two of a craft that has this problem.

Edited June 9, 2015 by xrayfishx

[tychodin]

woah you may be right. i didn't even know trim was in the game. i don't know how i've been inadvertently applying trim.

[Warzouz]

Well, on my Mun polar station, I had a real ghost roll/pitch/yaw. The station starts turning in any direction very slowly. This was a pain to dock. SAS help a little to reduce this. Even with every torque disables I had this drift. Orbit changed also from 15x15km to 13x23km. Finally I exeperienced explosive wobbling few times...

After exploring Mun with this station, I decided to crash it to the ground after my crew transfered to the new station...

[Borsek]

It's a bug as well, some little part contracts aids and wants to leave the ship. Your debug log will have a null reference exception. The bug is mostly experienced if you are using claws. A certain part will keep their speed vector, resulting in deorbiting or tearing the craft apart in physics timewarp. It usually won't let you non-phys timewarp saying that the craft is under acceleration, or if it does let you timewarp, the craft will fall apart explosively after slowing down again, due to that one part keeping the old speed vector, while the rest of the craft transitions to a new one.

The bug can sometimes be counteracted by undock, save, reload, redock, but it can take a few tries. Sonetimes a simple quicksave quickload also fixes the problem, but not always.

Edit: After 1.0.2 this bug can also happen if you pack a utility bay with too many parts, especially physicsless parts. If they overlap, there is a chance they cause a small weight-proportionate spinning effect due to bumping into each other. It is not really noticable in the atmisphere, where all other forces are much larger.

Note - I am aware there are no more massless/physicsless parts, as they transfer their weight and applicable forces to the parent part, but therein lies the problem.

Edited June 9, 2015 by Borsek

[Holyvision]

If you are using a mod such a mechjeb's autopilot or smart A.S.S., it will fight any pilot-driven SAS commands they are using (eg, telling Jeb to hold ship prograde and telling mechjeb to hold you retro). Behavior like this can also trigger from certain part clipping -- be wary of the storage bays and clipping wherever possible. These may not be your issue, but it's stuff that I've found to cause similar symptoms.

Good luck,

--Holy

[Old Foxboy]

I had some serious yaw issues with Spaceplanes. They suddenly started to yaw to the right for no obvious reason. Torque?

[Levelord]

I had some serious yaw issues with Spaceplanes. They suddenly started to yaw to the right for no obvious reason. Torque?

For that specific problem I've figured out the reason why. It's due to the intakes being placed using symmetry mode. For some odd reason it causes the mirrored part to take in less air than the root part, which in turn also causes unequal drag and engine thrust. I've solved it by changing how I design planed by first for example, placing an intake on the left side, followed by a jet engine. Then later on place an intake on the right side, followed by a jet engine.

[T-Bouw]

This problem happened to me as well, but the reason, it turned out, was something else:

My xbox controller's sticks aren't as precise as they should be. Coupled with the standard low deadzone-setting of KSP, this resulted in a number of my craft to be "spinny".

A simple enlargement of the dead zone solved this. Just a little though. Too much deadzone will make handling feel very disconnected.

[tychodin]

Press alt-x. This resets any trim you might unintentionally have. This seems to me like the most likely cause here.

Trim is an useful thing occasionally, but if you set it by accident and don't notice, it can be annoying.

If this doesn't help, then it must be some sort of clipping issue. In that case you should post a picture or two of a craft that has this problem.

it looks like it was just the trim issue. several of my robotic craft that i'd long ago resigned to fodder for the deep-space kraken after they became unusable were recoverable when i switched to them and used alt-x. for reference, the latest thing that contracted this disease, and the one that made me so absolutely livid that i finally posted about it was this:

Edited June 9, 2015 by tychodin

[tychodin]

ok, so it turns out it wasn't just the trim issue. and now whatever it is has infected every single craft i have flying. switching to anything in space causes it to suddenly start rolling to the left, and i can either counteract it with E, or trim it with alt-E to try to stabilize, but that's just a bandaid. something is seriously wrong with this game now, and it's basically unplayable.

[ajburges]

This problem happened to me as well, but the reason, it turned out, was something else:

My xbox controller's sticks aren't as precise as they should be. Coupled with the standard low deadzone-setting of KSP, this resulted in a number of my craft to be "spinny".

A simple enlargement of the dead zone solved this. Just a little though. Too much deadzone will make handling feel very disconnected.

This.

Check if you have any alternate inputs KSP can recognize. Troubled controllers may not center and throttles may be bound to an attitude axis.

KSP is how I learned my Xbox controller is dying.

[Vanamonde]

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