Change Rover's default orientation

[FreddyB]

Still quite new to this whole thing, I sent a rover to a distant body. It died. So I sent another. It half lived but needs a good engineer. So I sent a third. This one lived... How happy I was until I tried to steer it towards a navigation marker. Then I found the problem.

The Navball is all blue, I can't see the horizon on it (save when I send it flying and tumbling over a hill), and the Nav markers are not visible. Is there any way to change orientation on the rover whilst it is in situ, rather than still sat in the VAB/SPH ?  Or is there another more ingenious way to navigate to the markers? Some way to make them into targets?

 

[ForScience6686]

Either set a docking port at the front, and control from there.  Or set your probe core facing the proper direction.

[Rocket In My Pocket]

This will provide you with visual waypoints. Although as stated above, I'd recommend designing any future rovers with NavBall orientation in mind by making sure your probe core is facing the right way. (The "right way" is towards the open doors in the VAB.)

[pincushionman]

It depends on what pod or probe core you're using which way you point it.

- For "standard" command pods, orientation is pretty obvious.

- For lander cans, "vessel forward" is along the "up/down" axis of the can, and "vessel down" is the direction of the windshield. This makes landing easier because you can see your pro/retrograde markers easier.

- For docking ports, "vessel forward" is the direction of the axis, and "vessel down" is the direction crossing the rectangle on front.

- Probe cores cause me problems. You'll need to locate a feature you can remember that shows you the orientation. All I know (limited work with probes) is if you pull a fresh core in from the list and don't rotate it, it should be pointed the right way.

I mentioned "vessel up/down" because it's not enough (especially on rovers) to get the forward axis pointing the right way - if the core is twisted about that axis, the navball can be sideways or updide down as well (your artificial horizon may be orange on top, or worse, orange to the side). This may affect the behavior of your wheels.

[Red Iron Crown]

3 hours ago, FreddyB said:

Is there any way to change orientation on the rover whilst it is in situ, rather than still sat in the VAB/SPH ?

Not going to be able to do it in situ unless you're lucky enough to have a probe core or docking port facing the "right" way.

I guess you could send a control point attached to a claw to modify the rover, but at that point it's about as easy to send a complete, fixed rover.

[Plusck]

4 hours ago, pincushionman said:

It depends on what pod or probe core you're using which way you point it.

- For "standard" command pods, orientation is pretty obvious.

- For lander cans, "vessel forward" is along the "up/down" axis of the can, and "vessel down" is the direction of the windshield. This makes landing easier because you can see your pro/retrograde markers easier.

- For docking ports, "vessel forward" is the direction of the axis, and "vessel down" is the direction crossing the rectangle on front.

- Probe cores cause me problems. You'll need to locate a feature you can remember that shows you the orientation. All I know (limited work with probes) is if you pull a fresh core in from the list and don't rotate it, it should be pointed the right way.

I mentioned "vessel up/down" because it's not enough (especially on rovers) to get the forward axis pointing the right way - if the core is twisted about that axis, the navball can be sideways or updide down as well (your artificial horizon may be orange on top, or worse, orange to the side). This may affect the behavior of your wheels.

The only two things on that list that I'd ever memorised was the docking port (on standard ports, the black rectangle is "up" and the gold handle is "down") and the QBE (the text is on the "up" side, with the "Q" being "forwards").

So I went back to check, and it's actually systematic. On all the probe cores, "forwards/backwards" is on the apparent up/down axis, and the text is always on the "up" side. So if you lay a probe core on its side on the ground, it is the right way around if you can still read the text.

[maceemiller]

Quick tip. If I build a rover it always has a test run around tbe space centre.  Saves any unexpected problems

[FreddyB]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, it's definitely a lesson learned for next probe, and I did take it for a test run around KSC but navball orientation wasn't on my checklist. D'oh.

Anyway the waypoint manager mod is exactly what I needed, so thanks again.

[Reactordrone]

4 hours ago, maceemiller said:

Quick tip. If I build a rover it always has a test run around tbe space centre.  Saves any unexpected problems

Isn't always a guarantee though. I recently sent a rover to the Mun, gave it an unmanned  test run around the base and it was fine, got to the Mun and it would only spin around on the spot unless there was a Kerbal in the driving seat.