[PART, 1.0.2] Anatid Robotics / MuMech - MechJeb - Autopilot - Historical thread

[Green Skull]

I'm not sure if this is a known issue but I had a problem where MechJeb latest dev build 223 could fly the first and third stages of a rocket (namely Horizon's excellent Zenit) but the middle stage had a serious wobbling motion to it. The nose would rise then fall repeatedly in atmosphere and out. What was happening was an oscillation was building up and MJ could not correct it or was over correcting it. I have flown this particular rocket LOTS of times and in 0.23 it was not an issue.

After some messing about I found that the middle engine had a 5 for gimbal where the first and third stages had 1 or 2. Changing the gimbal on the middle engine fixed the problem and now the rocket flys as it should.

So my question - Is there a setting I'm missing to config MJ correctly or better? Or is this something that could be tweaked in MJ to tone down control on high gimbal engines ?

[BARCLONE]

Conducting a test right now with my crew ship and a 1-seat lander, carried Apollo-style. Inside 10m now. Was a bit startled at first, as the ship turned 180 to point to the target, but continued backing away to a distance of 75m before heading back. Once the AP starts coming closer to the target, things look OK until docking occurs. At that point, the RCS fires all thrusters continually until I manually shut down the AP.

But the docking worked. It just needs some clean-up in the post-event code to properly shut down the RCS.

[BARCLONE]

Now testing my 1-seat lander with 223...

RendAP is working OK on the lander, it's dancing the four-step...

Something just caught my attention: I'm not seeing the "navball dance" in the last few 10ths of a m/s in the burns. The navball has been rock-steady.

Crew ship is now attempting to re-dock with the lander in LKO. As it did the first time, it moved out to almost 100m from the lander before starting in. It's a slow process (I'm throttling the speed limit at 0.15 m/s) but so far it's been smooth. Time warping to 10x helps with the monotony.

Also didn't change the lander's name this time. Using the default name appears to be safe now. It didn't get blowed-up, anyway...

Docked while I was typing. This time, the AP shut down without using any RCS after docking. The RCS issue must be a random bug sort of thing, maybe needs to have some pre-flushing of variables before starting up each time.

Jeb says he'd be willing to fly to Mun in this ship, so I might just let him. For science!

[Oinker]

Protractor is dead and longs to be in a mechjeb window.

[phoenix_ca]

Protractor? Bah. KAC transfer alarms. Done.

[Meridius]

Docking AP: The problems have something to do with the safe distance and target size, which appears to be functions of one another. Objects with lots of part and protruding parts, e.g. solar panels and trusses, seem to relate to the function. For example with two Mk 1-2 pods docking with each other, safe distance and target size were 898 and 419, respectively with the solar panels (4) deployed. Without the panels deployed, it was 10 and 5, respectively. Not sure the quirk (read bug) is in MJ, rather KSP 23.5. That may be why Sarbian is a little frustrated with it.

Unfortunately, I am a geologist, not a programmer/coder.

[Guest]

I've got a problem with MechJeb. Whenever I try to launch a vessel equipped with it, it spams the log with an exception:

MechJeb module MechJebModuleMenu threw an exception in OnDestroy: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object


  at MuMech.MechJebModuleMenu.OnDestroy () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 


  at MuMech.MechJebCore.OnDestroy () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0 

(Filename: C:/BuildAgent/work/d3d49558e4d408f4/artifacts/StandalonePlayerGenerated/UnityEngineDebug.cpp Line: 53)

The only thing it does is to lag up the game. I'm using the latest RPM and KSI MFDs, VesselView and EngineIgniter mods, as well as toolbar, ATM, Romfarer's Lazor system and visual enhancements.

[BudgetHedgehog]

Protractor? Bah. KAC transfer alarms. Done.

That's great until KAC tells you you're 44 days away from a window, so you set up the node with MJ and it tells you the next window is over 2 years from now. But if I did it be hand, I got an intercept with the node being about 5 days away with an increase in dV needed of only about 50. So yeah.. what I'd love is for MJ and KAC to talk to each other to come up with some agreement though.

Normally, I'd miss the windows, because KAC is telling me to go, but MJ's automatic node is years away so I just make the node myself and go anyway, it usually turns out fine.

[LameLefty]

That's great until KAC tells you you're 44 days away from a window, so you set up the node with MJ and it tells you the next window is over 2 years from now. But if I did it be hand, I got an intercept with the node being about 5 days away with an increase in dV needed of only about 50. So yeah.. what I'd love is for MJ and KAC to talk to each other to come up with some agreement though.

Yeah, clearly there's a difference in how they're calculating the transfer window - maybe KAC is just going off a preset planetary alignment table, and maybe MJ is trying to calculate an optimal, minimum-dV time, et cetera. Usually I just use KAC to set an alarm, and THEN ask MJ to calculate a transfer after the KAC alarm has gone off. If MJ balks, I create the maneuver node and do it manually.

****

At any rate, I see there have been no less than FOUR new dev builds just today! Thanks sarbian!

[GoatRider]

Yeah, clearly there's a difference in how they're calculating the transfer window - maybe KAC is just going off a preset planetary alignment table, and maybe MJ is trying to calculate an optimal, minimum-dV time, et cetera. Usually I just use KAC to set an alarm, and THEN ask MJ to calculate a transfer after the KAC alarm has gone off. If MJ balks, I create the maneuver node and do it manually.

MJ seems to not even agree with itself on launch windows. I've had windows that were a long ways in the future turn out badly, so I tried stopping and recalculating about 20 days in advance- and the new one is yet another orbit away.

[Eltin]

Is there ANY way to disable the safe distance docking feature? I use mechjeb to dock large ships because it's impossible to do manually because of the lag. Only mechjeb keeps backing up out of docking range upon which the target docking port is deselected. Help is much appreciated

Edited April 19, 2014 by Eltin

[sarbian]

#228 adds an improved calculation of the safe distance and a checkbox to display the bounding box used to comute it (so if the value sound stupid you can take a screenshot)

Eltin : I add that tomorrow. Need a break now

[Meridius]

Thanks Sarbian.

My biggest trouble is docking small ships with large objects such as space stations and interplanetary ships.

[BARCLONE]

Sarbian,

I can tell you've been working hard on the docking issues. My ships have been gliding into the targets more gracefully than they've ever done before. Once I saw what the ships were doing, and just allowed some time for them to do it, I've had virtually flawless docking each time.

Will try out 228 as soon as my Moho scan is completed. I'm very interested in seeing that bounding box.

[Taki117]

When downloading the latest dev version do I need both the folder and the .dll, or just the .dll, or just the folder?

[BigD145]

When downloading the latest dev version do I need both the folder and the .dll, or just the .dll, or just the folder?

The folder has the part files. General rule of thumb is erase the whole mod folder and copy over the new content. Unless you're on dialup I wouldn't worry too much about bandwidth.

[smunisto]

So, as user Taki117 pointed to me - there is a syntax option to disable Mechjeb modules I don't want.

For example I don't want the Rendezvous modules. How should I go about disabling them? Do I need to use a CFG file for MM and what should I write in it?

Taki117 mentions "Blacklist =".

Also, and more importantly - I don't want the plugin to load these modules at all, just hiding them from plain sight still keeps them loaded in the memory. Maybe I haven't used MJ for too long, but I don't wish to load anything that could just sit in the memory and perform background calculations (like the altitude adjustment module).

Will the modules stop loading if I use Blacklist in a MM cfg or will this just hide the corresponding buttons from Toolbar and MJ's window?

[Virtualgenius]

Why use MJ at all if you want to disable half of it

[daawgees]

So, as user Taki117 pointed to me - there is a syntax option to disable Mechjeb modules I don't want.

For example I don't want the Rendezvous modules. How should I go about disabling them? Do I need to use a CFG file for MM and what should I write in it?

Taki117 mentions "Blacklist =".

Also, and more importantly - I don't want the plugin to load these modules at all, just hiding them from plain sight still keeps them loaded in the memory. Maybe I haven't used MJ for too long, but I don't wish to load anything that could just sit in the memory and perform background calculations (like the altitude adjustment module).

Will the modules stop loading if I use Blacklist in a MM cfg or will this just hide the corresponding buttons from Toolbar and MJ's window?

Unless you have very little RAM, I would not worry at all about what memory is or is not being used by idle Mech Jeb utilities. As stated above, if you don't want to use x or y feature in MJ, leave it off.

[sarbian]

So, as user Taki117 pointed to me - there is a syntax option to disable Mechjeb modules I don't want.

For example I don't want the Rendezvous modules. How should I go about disabling them? Do I need to use a CFG file for MM and what should I write in it?

Taki117 mentions "Blacklist =".

Also, and more importantly - I don't want the plugin to load these modules at all, just hiding them from plain sight still keeps them loaded in the memory. Maybe I haven't used MJ for too long, but I don't wish to load anything that could just sit in the memory and perform background calculations (like the altitude adjustment module).

Will the modules stop loading if I use Blacklist in a MM cfg or will this just hide the corresponding buttons from Toolbar and MJ's window?

http://wiki.mechjeb.com/index.php?title=Manual/Blacklisting_modules

a MM file like this should do it

@PART[*]:HAS[MODULE[MechJebCore]]
{   
    MODULE[MechJebCore]
    {
        blacklist = MechJebModuleTranslatron
    }
}

It stops the module from running. But if you disable too much you'll get errors since some modules rely on others. And as others said you won't save memory with that.

The main use is for people who just want the info items but not the autopilot modules.

[smunisto]

Thanks Sarbian and sorry for not searching the wiki thoroughly.

Why use MJ at all if you want to disable half of it

Because, I want to use it's correct surface coordinate indications(unlike KER's, which are sort of wrong).

Otherwise I am on the other side of the fence when it comes to one of the oldest KSP debates, which every KSP player, who has heard of MJ, knows of. Won't go into it, because half a bunch of teens will jump with explanations. So let's draw the line on a possible useless discussion here, before it even begins.

I prefer to perform all things manually and have something of a KSP principle that limits my use of MJ's functions - if it kills my fun too much, it is not for me.

After installing MJ today for the first time since 0.18, just for the sake of coordinates, I decided to leave the modules responsible for basic-level auto-pilot functions and the ones that assist with most mundane of tasks you can perform as an advanced KSP player - orbit circularizations via the Maneuver planner (which I usually do with RCS for fine tuning down to the third or fourth digit after the decimal), Smart A.S.S. for additional precision during maneuver burns(because it removes the impossible requirement to do precise orbital maneuvers due to the constant need to eyeball the node indicator) and of course the statistic information modules.

[AlphaAsh]

Is there a setting to get rid of the toolbar buttons? I don't need those cluttering up the screen as well as the right-hand pop-in menu. Thanks.

[Meridius]

Thanks Sarbian and sorry for not searching the wiki thoroughly.

Because, I want to use it's correct surface coordinate indications(unlike KER's, which are sort of wrong).

Otherwise I am on the other side of the fence when it comes to one of the oldest KSP debates, which every KSP player, who has heard of MJ, knows of. Won't go into it, because half a bunch of teens will jump with explanations. So let's draw the line on a possible useless discussion here, before it even begins.

I prefer to perform all things manually and have something of a KSP principle that limits my use of MJ's functions - if it kills my fun too much, it is not for me.

After installing MJ today for the first time since 0.18, just for the sake of coordinates, I decided to leave the modules responsible for basic-level auto-pilot functions and the ones that assist with most mundane of tasks you can perform as an advanced KSP player - orbit circularizations via the Maneuver planner (which I usually do with RCS for fine tuning down to the third or fourth digit after the decimal), Smart A.S.S. for additional precision during maneuver burns(because it removes the impossible requirement to do precise orbital maneuvers due to the constant need to eyeball the node indicator) and of course the statistic information modules.

I like to think of it in this way: I am the Mission Controller and Rocket Engineer. My job is to setup the missions and the equipment to accomplish the missions and see how it performs; make changes where necessary. Jeb and his cohorts are the pilots and flight engineers and they do the piloting, and crashing.

I can do most of the piloting functions required by the game, except for more complex docking (I can do the Apollo style docking with ease; flip 180 and move forward if lined up). MJ offers efficiency and pinpoint accuracy, especially when landing components next to one another.

Thank you for everyone who has worked on and working on MJ.

[sarbian]

Yeah, don't go there on this thread or I'll invoque the mods

AlphaAsh : disable them in the toolbar config ? They don't show up unless you enable them ...

[AlphaAsh]

Odd. The buttons just appeared when I installed the latest MechJeb. And toolbar doesn't seem to have the menu option for what to show and not anymore. Hence my confusion. Investigating. Cheers for the quick response anyway sarbian.