[questions answered] Controlling probes from nearby manned craft I.E. hinges and RC cars when out of signal range

[HafCoJoe]

It appears currently in 1.2 as though you cannot control any unmanned craft you have decoupled from a lander if you are outside of signal path to kerbin - meaning that if I wanted to do an expeditionary trip to say Duna or Laythe before I had a com relay set up then I wouldn't be able to take any unmanned craft for the trip. This might not sound bad yet (though it still does to me) but imagine hinges - if you are outside of signal range and you decouple a man-made hinge, you lose all control of what you decoupled regardless if it has a probe core or not.

Quick 1 min video of my frustration

My proposition would be to make unmanned vehicles still controllable if they are within [X] distance from a manned vessel with proper com antennas. Maybe bound by visual range and a high kilometer count so you can explore with your decoupled craft. It's a big frustration to decouple an RC drone and lose control of it when I have a manned vessel with antennas literally a meter away . Same frustration for decoupling a wing hinge and losing control of it. I have antennas on everything.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Avera9eJoe

[HvP]

Actually, you can, if you brought along the proper infrastructure on your mothership.

The ship that you want to use to control your unmanned craft will need at least: a pilot, a relay antenna, and an advanced probe core (or command pod that acts as a probe control point, with an additional second pilot.)

See This Thread for a discussion about what is required to control an unmanned probe from an orbiting ship.

[HafCoJoe]

7 minutes ago, HvP said:

Actually, you can, if you brought along the proper infrastructure on your mothership.

The ship that you want to use to control your unmanned craft will need at least: a pilot, a relay antenna, and an advanced probe core (or command pod that acts as a probe control point, with an additional second pilot.)

See This Thread for a discussion about what is required to control an unmanned probe from an orbiting ship.

so I need an advanced probe core on my main ship?

[HvP]

37 minutes ago, Avera9eJoe said:

so I need an advanced probe core on my main ship?

Yes. You need to add one of the slim profile round probe cores to your main ship that you will control from. You also need to have a pilot and a relay antenna. This will allow the pilot in your mother ship to act as the controller. Keep in mind that the deploy-able relay antenna you currently have on the controlling ship should work but it's range when transmitting to a communotron could be a bit limited. It should be fine for controlling from the surface though.

Also consider that the regular communotron antennae have to be deployed to function and are subject to damage when flying in an atmosphere above a certain speed. The surface mounted Communotron 16-S will not break in atmosphere and might be a better choice for your drone. I'm assuming that there is already a probe core on your drone.

I would suggest using the F12 cheat menu and the "Set Orbit" hack to test that your configuration will work while out of comms of Kerbin before you launch a full mission.

Edited September 27, 2016 by HvP