[1.12.5] Bluedog Design Bureau - Stockalike Saturn, Apollo, and more! (v1.14.0 "металл" 30/Sep/2024)

[OrbitalManeuvers]

1 hour ago, Kassler Scott said:

The adapter panels separate just fine, and then nothing else...

huh, gettin weirder. hopefully others will chime in with ideas, too.

did you have a chance to try my craft file? my only guess has to do with which nodes are attached where. or here's a good test to try - if you remove the SIV-B tank so the IU is the bottom-est piece, are you able to remove the LM descent engine without affecting anything else? (assuming the CM is the root)

[DaveyJ576]

8 hours ago, OrbitalManeuvers said:

huh, gettin weirder. hopefully others will chime in with ideas, too.

did you have a chance to try my craft file? my only guess has to do with which nodes are attached where. or here's a good test to try - if you remove the SIV-B tank so the IU is the bottom-est piece, are you able to remove the LM descent engine without affecting anything else? (assuming the CM is the root)

@Kassler Scott, may I weigh in on this? I would suggest starting a fresh, new build of the LM/SLA from scratch. Start with the LM. When finished, move it out to a launch pad via the normal method and use the cheat menu or the Hyperedit mod to put it in an orbit, all by itself. Test ALL of the functions to ensure it is working properly. If it is, revert it back to the VAB. Add just the SLA without the panels. Once again cheat it to orbit and test the separation from the SLA. If it doesn’t work, then you know that the problem lies with how the SLA attaches to the node on the LM. If it does work, revert to VAB and add the IU to the bottom of the SLA. Test again. Keep repeating this procedure, adding one part at a time, until you find the culprit.

Make sure you are following @Friznit’s Wiki build guide to the letter. It is actually easy to miss a vital part.

When I am doing scratch builds of rockets or spacecraft I follow this step-by-step testing regimen to ensure that I didn’t goon something up. It makes it a lot easier to find the offending part this way. The cheat menu or Hyperedit is your best friend in this regard. It saves you A LOT of time and head scratching.

Unlike real life, KSP is not friendly to “all up” testing by building the whole rocket and flying it to find bugs.

One other suggestion… once you find and fix the problem and are fully operational, change how you do the transposition & docking maneuver with the CSM. Once you blow the SLA panels, fly the CSM forwards with the RCS and away from the LM/S-IVB stack about 25-30 meters. Only then do you engage MechJeb to turn the CSM around to dock. In your video you were very close to the LM when you turned around and very nearly collided with it. In real life that would have caused all sorts of bad problems. When using MechJeb for this maneuver, NEVER approach for docking faster than .5 meters per second. I always use .1 to .2 m/s for docking.

Addendum: after reading all of your posts, I am convinced that you have a part clipping problem; i.e. one part interfering with or sticking to another. The problem does not lay with any of the BDB parts. I have flown BDB Apollo missions to the moon numerous times and have never experienced this problem. Please don’t take that personally. There is a steep learning curve to all of these parts, and if you are relatively new to KSP it can be daunting. Stick with it. You will figure it out.

 

Edited 8 hours ago by DaveyJ576
Added a paragraph

[LoadingTimeExpert]

is the lunar rover really... bouncy for anyone else?

[Kassler Scott]

8 hours ago, DaveyJ576 said:

@Kassler Scott, may I weigh in on this? I would suggest starting a fresh, new build of the LM/SLA from scratch. Start with the LM. When finished, move it out to a launch pad via the normal method and use the cheat menu or the Hyperedit mod to put it in an orbit, all by itself. Test ALL of the functions to ensure it is working properly. If it is, revert it back to the VAB. Add just the SLA without the panels. Once again cheat it to orbit and test the separation from the SLA. If it doesn’t work, then you know that the problem lies with how the SLA attaches to the node on the LM. If it does work, revert to VAB and add the IU to the bottom of the SLA. Test again. Keep repeating this procedure, adding one part at a time, until you find the culprit.

Make sure you are following @Friznit’s Wiki build guide to the letter. It is actually easy to miss a vital part.

When I am doing scratch builds of rockets or spacecraft I follow this step-by-step testing regimen to ensure that I didn’t goon something up. It makes it a lot easier to find the offending part this way. The cheat menu or Hyperedit is your best friend in this regard. It saves you A LOT of time and head scratching.

Unlike real life, KSP is not friendly to “all up” testing by building the whole rocket and flying it to find bugs.

One other suggestion… once you find and fix the problem and are fully operational, change how you do the transposition & docking maneuver with the CSM. Once you blow the SLA panels, fly the CSM forwards with the RCS and away from the LM/S-IVB stack about 25-30 meters. Only then do you engage MechJeb to turn the CSM around to dock. In your video you were very close to the LM when you turned around and very nearly collided with it. In real life that would have caused all sorts of bad problems. When using MechJeb for this maneuver, NEVER approach for docking faster than .5 meters per second. I always use .1 to .2 m/s for docking.

Addendum: after reading all of your posts, I am convinced that you have a part clipping problem; i.e. one part interfering with or sticking to another. The problem does not lay with any of the BDB parts. I have flown BDB Apollo missions to the moon numerous times and have never experienced this problem. Please don’t take that personally. There is a steep learning curve to all of these parts, and if you are relatively new to KSP it can be daunting. Stick with it. You will figure it out.

 

I appreciate the little regimen and the insight altogether! I did try and recreate the Apollo craft as you outlined, and the SLA did work a total of one single time, but I count that as a fluke since it only worked once, and never again sadly.

The funny thing here is that I actually am moderately experienced with BDB, I've used these parts for a good while now, and I too have done countless Moon missions using the exact same craft files that are now screwing me up. These crafts I've been using are slight modifications of the included stock craft files just with the decals added.

And they have worked, the SLA did decouple the LM properly at one point. The problem is that only recently have they been screwing up, I haven't moved parts around at all, only changing some basic B9 configs here and there for better accuracy. At one point I did recreate a SLA assembly on my own, cheated it to orbit, and faced the same problems. I reinstalled MM, I reinstalled BDB and B9, and only sometimes, every once in a blue moon, can I get the SLA working the way it should, but it isn't consistent anymore, maybe working only 1 out of 20 times on certain crafts unfortunately.

And as for your advice on Transposition and Docking, thanks :p I usually do give around 15m of space, I was just rushing to make the video xD

Edit: If you want, I can include the craft files I use for Apollo 11, just in case you want to test yourself and see if it's a problem with my crafts or my save. You'll need BDB, MLP, and conformal decals as far as I remember.

Apollo 11.craft

16 hours ago, OrbitalManeuvers said:

huh, gettin weirder. hopefully others will chime in with ideas, too.

did you have a chance to try my craft file? my only guess has to do with which nodes are attached where. or here's a good test to try - if you remove the SIV-B tank so the IU is the bottom-est piece, are you able to remove the LM descent engine without affecting anything else? (assuming the CM is the root)

Sorry! Forgot about the craft file, I was too busy looking at the pretty videos xD

I did just try your craft file, and there were some unknown part modules, (Likely accounting for mods you have that I don't) but none of them should have interfered with the attach nodes. Unfortunately the payload still didn't decouple, either after staging it, or just trying at it manually. I am almost 100% convinced now that something went wrong when changing my visual mods, as those were the only mod changes I made between my craft files having a working SLA, and not having a working SLA :((

Edited 37 minutes ago by Kassler Scott