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

[codepoet]

Perhaps a better idea would be to dissociate the entry field and the underlying variable, and perform the range-checking invisibly in the background - ie, allow users to enter whatever value they like, just don't copy buggy values to places where they will cause issues.

Though maybe that is exactly what would take the extra code you don't want to produce.

I was wondering if you could change it to a slidy bar control instead

[Starwaster]

I was wondering if you could change it to a slidy bar control instead

sliders dont provide enough fine control. Unless you were to clamp the result or make it snap or both.

I tried sliders for something else where I needed decimal figures. didnt like it.

Actually.... and I might be wrong, cant check right now but I think you can choose string input. change it to strings then parse to float

[K3-Chris]

Suggestion for a feature: option to group MJ windows with each other (drag one onto another?) to make a window with each sub-window a tab inside it (would look and work the same as a normal window, except an additional row above with a tab for each window inside), would be nice for say the rendezvous ap and docking ap, use rv one first, switch tab to docking, use that, would take less space on-screen.

[codepoet]

Suggestion for a feature: option to group MJ windows with each other (drag one onto another?) to make a window with each sub-window a tab inside it (would look and work the same as a normal window, except an additional row above with a tab for each window inside), would be nice for say the rendezvous ap and docking ap, use rv one first, switch tab to docking, use that, would take less space on-screen.

I like this suggestion. I have often wanted to be able to switch between standard window selections depending on the task I am performing - ie launch, landing, plotting transfers, rendevous etc. For each of these I have a set of MJ windows I like to open, and I would love to be able to switch between them with one mouse click.

[K3-Chris]

The translatron is acting weird, can't turn it off, hit off and it's still on.

[akherber]

Did you ever find a solution to adding the AutoStage control to a custom window?

[Pontiac]

Would it be possible to add the Smart A.S.S. "Roll" feature to the custom window editor functionality so I can put my ship in a particular orientation and "lock it in" when needed on particular windows? I'm not worried about the heading or angle of attack, just that my ship flies at an expected orientation. :]

As an afterthought before I send this in, I also noticed last night that the AutoDock and Smart A.S.S. consider roll to be (i think) 180' from each other. I only did the autodock once (It was the last one of the day) when I swapped between the two modes prematurely. The rotation seems to put the nose of the aircraft into a bit of a spin and causes the nose of the ship to come out, and ALMOST hit another part.

[Aghanim]

I have a suggestion:

Instead of updating the Smart.A.S.S on the fly when you update the Tf value, why not you input the desired value and then you press a button to update Smart A.S.S value?

And is it still possible to hand-tune the PID terms?

[landeTLS]

The newest dev version of mechjeb is awesome. The twr view for different celestials meant that i could remove a redundant mod (ker). So nice when everything is one place. What are the plans for features in mechjeb you wanna impliment? My most wanted are(in decending order): internal support for far(same as the optional component but perhaps extended), internal toolbar support(without external component). Sorry if these two are already implimented in some form as there have been sooooo many new awesome features lately and i havent read them all. Checking the jenkins page almost everyday. Other features. Hmm. Perhaps better planning/executing of multiple nodes i think would be nice(mostly gui stuff. But maybe some optimizations so there are less instances of unplanned aerocaptures:P)

[Galane]

Would it be possible to add the Smart A.S.S. "Roll" feature to the custom window editor functionality so I can put my ship in a particular orientation and "lock it in" when needed on particular windows? I'm not worried about the heading or angle of attack, just that my ship flies at an expected orientation. :]

As an afterthought before I send this in, I also noticed last night that the AutoDock and Smart A.S.S. consider roll to be (i think) 180' from each other. I only did the autodock once (It was the last one of the day) when I swapped between the two modes prematurely. The rotation seems to put the nose of the aircraft into a bit of a spin and causes the nose of the ship to come out, and ALMOST hit another part.

Docking aligns roll between the two docking ports. Smart A.S.S. aligns roll to the SOI the ship is in. Would be nice if SASS had a second roll option to align to target so manual docking with TGT+ could also benefit from automatic roll control.

[Pontiac]

THAT would explain why I saw what I saw. Perfect sense, thanks.

[Gaius]

Docking aligns roll between the two docking ports. Smart A.S.S. aligns roll to the SOI the ship is in. Would be nice if SASS had a second roll option to align to target so manual docking with TGT+ could also benefit from automatic roll control.

Actually, SASS also aligns the roll of the docking ports in PAR- mode. Just not in other modes.

[HoneyFox]

Thanks for making more sense ^^

The same change was suggested on IRC. I nearly added it but I am afraid it will brake more things for plane, since they rely more on roll than yaw.

Haven't paid attention to attitude control of MJ for several days... it seems like you are still worrying about this?

I have several reasons:

1. To be honest, the old way that MechJeb controls the plane will also give its own roll commands during attitude adjustment, especially when the attitude change is big, and that spoils player's roll channel control as well.

2. With proper design, the roll damper can gradually decrease the strength when getting close to the target orientation, so that it won't bother you adjusting roll when the direction is almost correct.

3. Normally i don't think attitude change will be very big when you are in an atmosphere, a 45 degree of orientation change is really huge in atmosphere, especially when it's on yaw direction. Such sideslip angle will almost always induce the plane to roll due to aerodynamic forces given by wings, fuselage, vertical tail and rudder. A roll damper to slow down the roll at that moment should be beneficial instead IMHO. Besides, when the orientation change is not that big, e.g. 5 to 10 degrees, the roll damper won't give too much input to slow down the roll.

[Galane]

Most likely a KSP issue. When two crafts with the exact same name get within 2.5KM in orbit, most functions of command pods aren't available, docking ports' right click menus don't open and manual throttle control is locked out.

However, MechJeb can still control the throttle and do all other maneuvers so a landing or orbit change can be done, but automated or manual docking isn't possible because the player cannot set ports to control nor can they be set as target.

I was testing my Eve lander, finally made it back to orbit so I zapped another one over that I had parked in Kerbin orbit to see if it had enough fuel to rendezvous. Rendezvous, yes. Just enough fuel left. Then I couldn't dock. Sort of like a heterodyne situation when two people try to talk at the same time on analog radios on the same frequency.

[sarbian]

Haven't paid attention to attitude control of MJ for several days... it seems like you are still worrying about this?

I did not really think much about it since I mainly worked on the docking AP and an other mod I'll try to get out this week. And I was busy RL this weekend.

Galane : hum, strange I never noticed that.

[Ratzap]

Most likely a KSP issue. When two crafts with the exact same name get within 2.5KM in orbit, most functions of command pods aren't available, docking ports' right click menus don't open and manual throttle control is locked out.

However, MechJeb can still control the throttle and do all other maneuvers so a landing or orbit change can be done, but automated or manual docking isn't possible because the player cannot set ports to control nor can they be set as target.

I was testing my Eve lander, finally made it back to orbit so I zapped another one over that I had parked in Kerbin orbit to see if it had enough fuel to rendezvous. Rendezvous, yes. Just enough fuel left. Then I couldn't dock. Sort of like a heterodyne situation when two people try to talk at the same time on analog radios on the same frequency.

I had this too lately and it was every time I went to dock. Soon as the rendezvous AP shut off, nothing was clickable. Quicksave/load or tracking center and back fixes it.

[Damaske]

Most likely a KSP issue. When two crafts with the exact same name get within 2.5KM in orbit, most functions of command pods aren't available, docking ports' right click menus don't open and manual throttle control is locked out.

However, MechJeb can still control the throttle and do all other maneuvers so a landing or orbit change can be done, but automated or manual docking isn't possible because the player cannot set ports to control nor can they be set as target.

I was testing my Eve lander, finally made it back to orbit so I zapped another one over that I had parked in Kerbin orbit to see if it had enough fuel to rendezvous. Rendezvous, yes. Just enough fuel left. Then I couldn't dock. Sort of like a heterodyne situation when two people try to talk at the same time on analog radios on the same frequency.

I reported this bug a few pages back, I have to go into X5 warp and back out to get it back fixed. I think something is tripped the time warp and not letting it go once more. It always happens when I am using the rendezvous autopilot to bring two crap together.

[K3-Chris]

Yeah I got the same issue, craft isn't controllable until you time-warp, came upon the fix when I tried to "cheat" my craft through the other craft when they were about to collide (rz ap tends to overshoot burns lately for some reason, that last burn would have happened after I impacted), translatron got a similar issue, you can't turn it off sometimes, hit off and it's still going and you have no control.

[sarbian]

I won't be able to test this today, so can one of you test that without MJ and report. It would help to know if's a core game issue of one with MJ.

[Galane]

Should test with two different craft and two loaded from the same file, with and without same name in both cases.

[Ratzap]

I've been playing the [Milestone18] - Realistic Progression LITE mod pack/tech tree this weekend and I've noticed (well, not really hard to miss ) that MechJeb seems very un-aware of real solar system sizes. For example the ascent guidance is useless as MJ thinks the atmosphere ends at 69km - RSS it's 105km so the guidance happily dips into the upper atmosphere and it goes badly. Another realism thing it doesn't cope with well is the engines cannot always be throttled down - even the best tech ones start at 10% - this makes for rough landings and settings like the max accel are fairly pointless.

I'm not saying you should do anything about it but you might want to set a GameData with such things in it aside and just see how it is. The more flexible and versatile MJ becomes, the more people will use it.

[Starwaster]

Most likely a KSP issue. When two crafts with the exact same name get within 2.5KM in orbit, most functions of command pods aren't available, docking ports' right click menus don't open and manual throttle control is locked out.

However, MechJeb can still control the throttle and do all other maneuvers so a landing or orbit change can be done, but automated or manual docking isn't possible because the player cannot set ports to control nor can they be set as target.

I was testing my Eve lander, finally made it back to orbit so I zapped another one over that I had parked in Kerbin orbit to see if it had enough fuel to rendezvous. Rendezvous, yes. Just enough fuel left. Then I couldn't dock. Sort of like a heterodyne situation when two people try to talk at the same time on analog radios on the same frequency.

I did not really think much about it since I mainly worked on the docking AP and an other mod I'll try to get out this week. And I was busy RL this weekend.

Galane : hum, strange I never noticed that.

I've been playing the [Milestone18] - Realistic Progression LITE mod pack/tech tree this weekend and I've noticed (well, not really hard to miss ) that MechJeb seems very un-aware of real solar system sizes. For example the ascent guidance is useless as MJ thinks the atmosphere ends at 69km - RSS it's 105km so the guidance happily dips into the upper atmosphere and it goes badly. Another realism thing it doesn't cope with well is the engines cannot always be throttled down - even the best tech ones start at 10% - this makes for rough landings and settings like the max accel are fairly pointless.

I'm not saying you should do anything about it but you might want to set a GameData with such things in it aside and just see how it is. The more flexible and versatile MJ becomes, the more people will use it.

RSS definitely confuses MJ2 in some areas.

I don't recall having a problem with ascent with regards to atmospheric height however. I just edited the ascent path / ascent profile / whatever-it's-called-that-I-can't-quite-remember and either set it to auto or I manually set the desired flight path destination altitude and end turn altitude.

If it says 69 that's just because the default configuration is set that way. It's capable of dealing with different atmospheric heights or it couldn't handle Laythe, Eve or Duna properly.

[NathanKell]

You should never use autoconfigure with FAR anyway, and you should be flying FAR with RSS.

Regarding burns, a suggestion Sarbian was going to look into was cutting off a hair early and fine-tuning with RCS. It is bad news for landings, though, you're quite right.

[Damaske]

I am unable to really dock that well at all without MJ, but i can run a few tests. Does MJ have to be removed from the game completely or can it just not have a MJ unit? It may take me week to get it done but i will try as hard as i can.

[Galane]

This little ship is having issues with circularizing. It's what's left of my (finally!) successful Eve lander by the time it gets back to orbit. (There's an OKTO2 on top of the docking port for unmanned test flights.)http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/67575-Take-a-Chance-on-Eve-A-lander-that-gets-you-down-and-back-up!

I haven't tweaked tf or other things in MechJeb, just the ascent profile for the gas bag assisted ascent. What happens is it does the circularization burn, overshoots the node a little then points the engine at Eve with a low throttle setting and will not stop until I manually disengage.

Same thing with maneuver planner's circularization. Whether I have it do it right now or at apoapsis, same thing, does the burn then aims the engine down and idles. And it does it when I try raising the periapsis. Does the burn correctly, then aims down and idle instead of quitting.

In all those cases the periapsis raises to where it's supposed to be, then drops. Build 168 does this with just about everything I've flown with it. I've worked around it by monitoring in map view then manually disengaging autopilot.