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

[sarbian]

@Jason Cox Thanks for the file. I flew it with my full mod install and had no trouble getting in orbit and running a few node. My install has an other mod that could help (Kerbal Joint Reinforcement) but I think it's more likely yours has one that perturb MJ. What else do you use ?

@CrazyCanadian I'll fix the Smart ASS interference bug. I know why it does that but I don't have a clean solution yet. What bugs me is that I don't see how it could have worked before.

And kill rot works fine here

[Jason Cox]

@sarbian:

Thanks for testing her! And oddly enough that's my entire mod list. I don't run anything else except a single custom flag that I made; but there's no way that could be messing with MechJeb!

So she didn't start chasing the gimbal at the end of any of the maneuver nodes? Hrm. Maybe I'll try a reinstall of KSP and redownload of all my mods. I wish the debug console had something interesting to pass along but sadly it's blank.

Edit: Maybe I need to try to repro this on Windows... Could be a bug with how something is interfacing with Unity on OSX.

[mrluckypants96]

Just got the .22 update and put MechJeb in my mods list, as always its very useful for information and the occasional precision manuever. I see that the eye pod is back (so creepy).

[eliteprodigy]

Every single time I launch with Ascent Guidance, the top part of my space station pops off, and I have it mega-strutted down since it happened the first time. Manually launching does not cause this. It's coincidentally the spot where the MechJeb part is placed as well.

[B787_300]

I seem to not be able to adjust where the gravity turn starts and ends in the ascent guidance...

[Revencher]

Do i need to research a cretin line to keep unlocking things in MechJeb?

[Deltac]

I seem to not be able to adjust where the gravity turn starts and ends in the ascent guidance...

By default it's set to Auto. Just click the option off, and the begin and end points will reappear for your controlling.

Every single time I launch with Ascent Guidance, the top part of my space station pops off, and I have it mega-strutted down since it happened the first time. Manually launching does not cause this. It's coincidentally the spot where the MechJeb part is placed as well.

Show us a pic of the vessel. Also, relaunch, and press alt + F2 (and then F2 again to bring back the gui) to see if any errors are going off.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Deltac

[MDBenson]

I've had multiple instances of the auto-staging screwing up. Sometimes it'll go beserk and stage multiple stages and the rocket basically falls apart because it sets off multiple decouplers and engines.

[Jean Deaux]

I'm too am having repeated ascent issues and feel part of the contributing issues is the circling or wobbling of the re-done ASAS features that are part of the core. I know when I run a stock install of KSP, particilarly with larger builds, that engaging ASAS gives me a bit of a wobble or circular motion while it beads in on the bearing I just locked in. the Ascent feature is all but useless now is frequently through the launch it performs several spins for no apparent reason. Launching manually works just fine, but MJ needs some serious attention in this feature.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Jean Deaux

[Deltac]

I'm too am having repeated ascent issues and feel part of the contributing issues is the circling or wobbling of the re-done ASAS features that are part of the core. I know when I run a stock install of KSP, particilarly with larger builds, that engaging ASAS gives me a bit of a wobble or circular motion while it beads in on the bearing I just locked in. the Ascent feature is all but useless now is frequently through the launch it performs several spins for no apparent reason. Launching manually works just fine, but MJ needs some serious attention in this feature.

Give us a pic of your ship. It might be that your ship is breaking Unity physics. Have you tried the Rigid Rockets mod from ferram?

[eliteprodigy]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cdbtc4l1davf3z2/screenshot0.png

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pgsd2widsgagay9/screenshot0-modified.png

The first image is just the rocket. I drew on the second to point out where it's breaking in space.

This happens every time the first stage is over with or without auto staging when I have auto pilot enabled. Without Auto Pilot, the rocket is fine. I actually have this half of the space station orbiting already, I was just trying to put it up there with the MJ addon to make the orbit "better" because I'm pretty sure the orbit I setup is garbage. Which is why I got this addon. I like building the rockets, but I don't really care to fly them. Without this add-on, or some similar feature, I've just wasted $23. I wish they would just move this functionality into Core.

[eliteprodigy]

I just tried launching the other half of my space station, and similar problem, everything is falling apart, my one engine runs out of fuel before all the others even though they've all been running for same amount of time, and then it just falls off, even though there is no separator ring there.

This mod does not work. Major, major issues here.

EDIT:

I also looked at the Log screen, no errors but it shows things just randomly separating. My nose cone fell off one of my fuel stacks this time before I even lifted off. This stuff keeps happening, and I've checked, double checked, and checked again that everything is connected properly. There is no logical reason for this ship to work perfectly when I'm flying it, and randomly start to fall to pieces with the MOD in use.

Also, flying without the MOD part on, the ship is fine. Flying manually without the mode enabled with the part on causes my ship to turn into a giant ball of flame at around 50Km or so.

Is there a place to export these logs? I seem to be only able to highlight one message at a time. There is no way in hell I'm spending 2 hours copying these log messages for submission like this. I would gladly supply the logs to get this fixed. Without this add-on, I really don't care to play the game and would likely end up doing what I can to get my money back.

Edited November 3, 2013 by eliteprodigy

[sojourner]

^Most of the radial decouplers in stage 3 don't attach to anything. Remember, in KSP rocket construction is tree based. You can't make "loops" of parts. so while it may look like those outer stacks are attached at both the top and bottom decouplers, they are really only held by one.

There may be more build problems with your rocket than noted, but it's hard to tell from the image.

The problem is your rocket, not Mechjeb.

Edit to add: For example the decouplers up top that just have eas struts attached from the nose cones, they do nothing for you. struts will detach automatically during staging. As for where the payload is breaking in half, the big RCS tanks are fragile. Moar struts between it and the part above. Not sure the ones we can see are actually doing much. Start the strut about half way up the rcs tank and take it about a third of the way up the hitchhiker.

Edited November 3, 2013 by sojourner

[11Bravo49417]

Is there a place to export these logs?

Look in KSP.log in the main program directory.

[Estel]

woul it be possible to have the option to choose in the "fine tune close approach to target" tab if the periapsis will be in a prograde or retrograde orbit?

[sarbian]

@eliteprodigy the kind of problem you have most likely come from the fact that MJ go from 0 to full throttle instantly, while a human pilot does it progressively.

In the "Utility" windows you ll find a "Smooth throttle" settings that may help you. Try it and come back to us.

@Jean Deaux: let me guess, you use FAR ? If you do then I am afraid you'll have to wait for MJ to integrate better with FAR, because right now MJ don't understand control surface when FAR is not enabled. => wobble.

If you don't then do as the other said and post picture + more info. Saying It does not work and assuming that it never did is quite insulting to those working on addon. I do test my change and I don't release patch that do worse in my test, but I can't test all design (and some of you do wild design) and all use cases.

@Estel post a bug on the MJ github. One of us will look after it at one point.

[bitbucket]

OK, I'm having an odd issue with even using MJ at all in career mode (works fine in sandbox)â€â€after I've researched and unlocked it, it won't stay unlocked. Pictures to explain:

Unlocked Flight Control, went into the VAB...

Nope.

Went back into the R&D...

Now there's two. And it still wasn't unlocked?

I click on it, unlocked it again, went back into the VAB...

Cannot has? Back to R&D and...

Now there's THREE of them and I can't use any of them. So...

And in the VA again...

DENIED. Every time I go into the VAB/SPH the AR202 case is un-researched and locked out again with yet another duplicate entry in R&D.

What gives? Config file error, or is my install b0rken?

Edited November 3, 2013 by bitbucket

[eliteprodigy]

^Most of the radial decouplers in stage 3 don't attach to anything. Remember, in KSP rocket construction is tree based. You can't make "loops" of parts. so while it may look like those outer stacks are attached at both the top and bottom decouplers, they are really only held by one.

There may be more build problems with your rocket than noted, but it's hard to tell from the image.

The problem is your rocket, not Mechjeb.

Edit to add: For example the decouplers up top that just have eas struts attached from the nose cones, they do nothing for you. struts will detach automatically during staging. As for where the payload is breaking in half, the big RCS tanks are fragile. Moar struts between it and the part above. Not sure the ones we can see are actually doing much. Start the strut about half way up the rcs tank and take it about a third of the way up the hitchhiker.

I'll make some changes and test, but this does not explain why this only happens when the MJ addon is flying my ship, and not me. As I've mentioned, aside from adding more struts (the ones strapping it all down up on the upper section) and the MJ part for MJ to work, I have this exact piece already in orbit. So something is not working like it's supposed to. Be it the addon or the engine running the addons interfacing with the underlying Core. The thing should work either way, if it's not going to work. I mean I get that "**** happens in space" but this is happening consistently. I can consistently stage the entire thing to orbit manually, just not very well. I enjoy making the rockets more, which I why I was so happy to see this addon (it's also why I purchased the game, otherwise I would have just stuck with the demo and eventually abandoned it when I got tired of building things).

Also, my nose cones are popping off before I even hit the ignition switch.

The struts should have a note saying they de-couple on their own. This is an issue with the underlying game I'll eventually be bringing to the devels. The parts aren't always described with enough detail. They've spent more time trying to make the parts "fun" and "quirky" in the name and description and no where near enough time making them comprehensible enough for someone to be able to sit down with the game and have fun building on day 1 (unless they only planned on people playing the game who are also NASA engineers). The Wiki is not helpful often in this respect either. OSS games can sometimes be plagued with this issue, but more often than not they're documented even better than this one is it seems (though my experience with OSS games is fairly limited, my experience with OSS software is rather vast, so this may be an issue of quantitative vs. qualitative data, but still, I bought the game, I expect thorough documentation). This is a digression though, and has very little to do with this MOD.

[eliteprodigy]

@eliteprodigy the kind of problem you have most likely come from the fact that MJ go from 0 to full throttle instantly, while a human pilot does it progressively.

In the "Utility" windows you ll find a "Smooth throttle" settings that may help you. Try it and come back to us.

This is not the case at all. During launch, I perform 3 things: 1: Toggle SAS ON, 2: Hold SHIFT until Throttle is MAXed, 3: SPACEBAR and liftoff.

The only thing MJ is doing differently than myself is that I typically reduce throttle to 2/3 (I'm going off of YT videos here, and this is what has been working, no idea if I'm flying the things right) once I get to ~6-7Km. MJ goes Full Throttle all the way through Stage 1 (I can't get past that because it separates the top part of the module every single time MJ flies, so I'm not sure what it will do in stage 2). HOWEVER: I've managed to successfully pull off all 3 stages of the rocket (a couple times) without MJ turned on using full throttle all the way through the first stage (I had to take the MJ part off though, because I catch on fire when it is on, again this doesn't make sense).

[sarbian]

Edit : you posted at the same time as me

Since MJ wait a bit after an engine stop and before staging it can increase the stress on part. The ship slow down a bit before going back at full speed.

Edited November 3, 2013 by sarbian

[eliteprodigy]

Edit : you posted at the same time as me

Nope. I saw your post. See Above please.

EDIT: The forum seems to updating threads weirdly. I did miss your edit, but the quote didn't it seems.

[kong]

mechjeb is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sojourner]

Nope. I saw your post. See Above please.

EDIT: The forum seems to updating threads weirdly. I did miss your edit, but the quote didn't it seems.

Have you tried the "limit to terminal velocity" option in ascent guidance?

Re: game documentation, remember KSP is in ALPHA. The developers are more worried about getting the game to function properly right now, not about how well described every part is.

[Velsuvis]

Have you tried the "limit to terminal velocity" option in ascent guidance?

Re: game documentation, remember KSP is in ALPHA. The developers are more worried about getting the game to function properly right now, not about how well described every part is.

Speaking of proper functionality... 2.0.9 is the only working version of MechJeb that has all the options... as 2.1.0.101 does not have any functions except for data... the "http://jenkins.mumech.com/job/MechJeb2/" site does not provide a fix for the missing interface, for whatever reasons :/.. unless I am missing something, again, all features are active in 2.0.9, but not any of the latest, especially in the SpacePort 2.1.00 version

[Balorn]

With the reaction wheel parts in recent versions being pretty darn powerful in comparison to the mass of the average rover, I've been using them to help keep my rovers from flipping, or at least flip them back over if they do.

I've been trying to find a MechJeb option to help with this, and almost found one in the Smart A.S.S. "SURF(ace)" option; keeping Pitch and Roll at 0 will indeed keep my smaller rovers from flipping in most cases, but the Heading keeps trying to turn them.

Is there some way to have MechJeb use the reaction wheels to keep my rover flat without it trying to change direction?