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

[The_Duck]

I made some tweaks that should fix some problems with transfer maneuvers when RealSolarSystem.dll is present. Try dev build #248 if you have had problems with transfer maneuver nodes being scheduled at odd times.

Edited May 11, 2014 by The_Duck

[RuBisCO]

Still no orientation to face the sun in Smart A.S.S

[SirAtomBrysicle]

Hey I really love your mod but after I got the 23.5 ARM update it won't work alongside Blizzy's toolbar. Tollbar is updated to the most recent 23.5 patch (1.7.1) I can place the AR-202 part but the MJ UI will not show up. I removed all mods and tried each one after the other with MJ and the toolbar was the only one that caused the issue. I'm not all that great at math so the MJ is almost essential for me to get past the learning curve, but it has become a big deal to me that I can't use the toolbar as well. I must sort this out! I posted there as well, I'm just reaching out seeing if someone more familiar with modding has dealt with this.

[Kaa253]

I hate to ask but;

is there any possibility that there could be a switch to just simply turn off the docking safe distance requirement?

Screenshot from dev build #245

I prefer to manually fly up close to the target docking port before engaging MechJeb docking. Actually, it was the old MechJeb docking logic that taught me the good habit of flying to a position on the target docking port axis before commencing the final close-to-docking manoeuvres. However, since around when KSP 0.23 came out I can rarely make use of MechJeb docking autopilot and have been doing it all manually.

[Mokmo]

Still no orientation to face the sun in Smart A.S.S

SUN+ and SUN- FTW

[phoenix_ca]

I don't see the point. Between +/-RAD, +/-NRM, +/-GRAD, you can usually get close to facing the sun. Close enough that it shouldn't really matter much if you're a little off.

[sarbian]

There you go #250 has the override for safe distance.

BUT I still don't know why some craft do that with their bonding box, so I can't fix it. If you get that please send me the .craft file, or the sve .sfs + the ship name.

And for the Sun tracker. I see the use, but the current ASAS UI layout is neat and I don't want to disturb it much. We'll see.

Edited May 11, 2014 by sarbian

[Kaa253]

Wow, instant fix

I will give #250 a try ASAP.

[Starwaster]

There you go #250 has the override for safe distance.

BUT I still don't know why some craft do that with their bonding box, so I can't fix it. If you get that please send me the .craft file, or the sve .sfs + the ship name.

I can give you one situation that should be reproducible.

Put a Real Chute on a craft. something simple that you can launch from the pad

Target something so that you can expose the bounding box setting on your test craft once its on the pad

toggle bounding box on

launch

deploy chute. you should see the bounding box expand to include the chute.

when the craft lands or chute is cut the box is still at full size.

I would say that the chute's transform is still at the last spot the chute existed. invisibly.

other mods might have similar behavior

I havent tested this with stock chutes nor found other parts that behave that way..

[Damaske]

I've seen that on parts that have the ability to expand outward, like solar panels. The bounding box does not shrink back to the older smaller shape that was before the solar panels or the expanding object where expanded.

[akherber]

And for the Sun tracker. I see the use, but the current ASAS UI layout is neat and I don't want to disturb it much. We'll see.

Hey Sarbian, put it in the ADV tab and just make it a reference point like Target or Relative Velocity. Then using Kerbol as a ref you can do Kerbol F, B, U, D, L, or R. All this without changing the UI.

All of this under the assumption that the game provides the position of the Sun in the sky with some type of a variable or set of variables and you don't have to get all fancy with the code-fu.

Edited May 11, 2014 by akherber

[sarbian]

No, that would not solve all use case.

If you do a burn with an ion engine you don't want to point at the sun (or any of the variation in adv), but you want your ship to roll it self so the "up" is on the sun side while the ship still is aligned with your burn. And most of the time you don't need the ship to do a 180° roll if the sun go from begin on "up" side to "down", the panel will just orient themselves.

I'll have a quick look. That will provide a nice break from SmokeScreen code

[Ratzap]

No, that would not solve all use case.

If you do a burn with an ion engine you don't want to point at the sun (or any of the variation in adv), but you want your ship to roll it self so the "up" is on the sun side while the ship still is aligned with your burn. And most of the time you don't need the ship to do a 180° roll if the sun go from begin on "up" side to "down", the panel will just orient themselves.

I'll have a quick look. That will provide a nice break from SmokeScreen code

I use rotating bases from IR to mount the solar arrays on my ion drive ships. If you position them correctly a single 90 degree turn will let the array trackers cope with Sun ahead or Sun to the side situations. Yes it adds some weight but a) it's cool as all get out *bbzzzzzzz* panels change orientation and I always have power during any non-eclipsing burn.

[sarbian]

No Ratzap, I won't make a plugin to turn them automagicaly !

[softweir]

And for the Sun tracker. I see the use, but the current ASAS UI layout is neat and I don't want to disturb it much. We'll see.

How about an extra entry below the "Force Roll" line for controlling Solar Roll? I don't think that would mess with the layout too much. You could even give it a text box so players can enter an angular offset in case they haven't placed the solar panels where you might assume they have.

[sarbian]

I added SUN for the ADV panel of the ASAS in #253

And I tought about the Sun roll control (cf. my earlier post). I'll use the opportunity to redo all the forceRoll code so I can roll for ascention and the sun chaser in one go. But it will come later since I need a break

Also I made a mistake while committing the override SafeDistance earlier and it was not in the dev version. It's fixed now.

[Starwaster]

I've seen that on parts that have the ability to expand outward, like solar panels. The bounding box does not shrink back to the older smaller shape that was before the solar panels or the expanding object where expanded.

That's strange, I checked solar panels and I didn't see that happen with them. In my test cases the bounding box snapped back.... maybe the overall ship design has some influence. My test ship was pretty simplistic.

[BudgetHedgehog]

Little request: When I use Smart ASS to point to a node, manually execute the node, then remove the node, MJ points to where the node was. Is it possible to just stay where it's already pointing?

Also, any update on turning on stock SAS after a burn has been automatically executed or SMASS is turned off?

Those questions aside, loving the updates. I've been holding back on dev builds because I wanted RPM integration and I eventually got so messed up with MJ, RPM and SCANsat, I just went back to basics for a while. But after installing the RSS.dll, I got 253 to stop any incompatibility and yeah, loving the updates to it

Edited May 11, 2014 by ObsessedWithKSP
spelling

[RuBisCO]

Hey Sarbian, put it in the ADV tab and just make it a reference point like Target or Relative Velocity. Then using Kerbol as a ref you can do Kerbol F, B, U, D, L, or R. All this without changing the UI.

All of this under the assumption that the game provides the position of the Sun in the sky with some type of a variable or set of variables and you don't have to get all fancy with the code-fu.

Yes please that!

[AndreyATGB]

I wholeheartedly second ObsessedWithKSP's ideas. It would be very nice to have MJ turn off Smart ASS when a node is deleted and just activate stock SAS.

[RuBisCO]

The sun pointing works ******ically! Been waiting for that for a very long time.

But the SASS shutting off when a node is deleted would be nice as well, also could SASS not turn back on when a vehicle completes a landing, it gets kind of weird fast when a landed ships tries to face the sun when landed on Minmus.

[NathanKell]

I'll use the opportunity to redo all the forceRoll code so I can roll for ascention and the sun chaser in one go. But it will come later since I need a break

Hurrah! Hello, Roll Program!

[GantradiesDracos]

running version 2.2.1.0, having problems with R.A.P.I.E.R engines, though i think this is a known problem? bit rusty, haven't played since before the R.A.P.I.E.R's were added, picked up a glitch that kept making MJ spin my lifters outta control on launch X_X, then suddenly minecraft. anyway, is this on the to do list, or is it fixed in a newer/ dev build? the issue with MJ not switching modes/ not using Air-breathing mode properly, i mean.

[BigD145]

Something changed in MechJeb between 250 and 253. After completely replacing the mechjeb folder, which I usually do, attempting to load any craft with mechjeb on it will cause the game to flat out crash to desktop. Rolling back to 250 fixes the problem.

Edited May 12, 2014 by BigD145

[Hamster]

running version 2.2.1.0, having problems with R.A.P.I.E.R engines, though i think this is a known problem? bit rusty, haven't played since before the R.A.P.I.E.R's were added, picked up a glitch that kept making MJ spin my lifters outta control on launch X_X, then suddenly minecraft. anyway, is this on the to do list, or is it fixed in a newer/ dev build? the issue with MJ not switching modes/ not using Air-breathing mode properly, i mean.

Had the same issue. The solution what I found is, that I updated to the dev build 252, then Mechjeb came back.