Re-rooting a vessel "mid flight" with KIS/KAS

[Sharpy]

So, you separated a rover, or built one from scratch, or undocked your craft with the inline docking port, or messed in some other way, that root part is out of whack and your craft defaults to a wonky orientation. You must remember to switch "control from" every time you go to it, or you'll perform a burn in a totally wrong direction, or your wheels turn all wrong.

 

tl;dr: KAS-attach the part you want to be root to a space station, go to KSC, go back, detach.

note, KAS-attach, not KIS-attach. Pipe/winch.

In detail though,

You want the probe core to be the new root.

Let us try with a rover, simulating a situation where you built it from scratch on a ground pylon, and after detaching the body is the root part.

It was built on the pylon seen, by attaching the structural plate to the pylon top. Note the navball orientation and how the wheels turn. The structural plate is the root part. Normally, you'd need to pick the QBE and "control from here" every time you wanted to drive the rover.

Let us reset the root part to the QBE.

Mods required:

KIS

KAS

Part list:

- A Kerbal engineer

- a KAS screwdriver or wrench

- two KAS ports (or one port and one winch).

- another craft, as minimal as you like - single a probe core, or a cockpit/cabin, or a command seat suffices (though remember small items dropped on the ground like to explode!).

- Enough electricity to keep the probe core running for a moment if you go with one, and something to attach it to, if it's a smaller model.

 

1. Create or bring close "the other craft". Put a KAS port on it.

Here I attached OKTO2, a battery and a port to the ground pylon the rover was detached from - that's perfectly sufficient. Have the port roughly facing the rover.

(TAB to access engineer's inventory. Rightclick screwdriver, pick "equip". Drag part from inventory to where it's to be placed, press H, holding H leftclick to attach the part)

2. Switch to that "new craft" using [.] (if it's a command seat or a cockpit, get the kerbal on board first, if there isn't one).

3. Rightclick "probe core" and select Rename Vessel.

4, Change the vessel type to Station.

5. Switch to the vessel you want to re-root.

6, Rightclick its control device. Pick Rename,

7. Change its type to Rover or Probe or Lander. (board it first if it has no kerbal or probe core)

 

8. Switch back to the engineer. Rightclick the KAS port on the "station". Pick "Link"

9. Move to the vessel you want to re-root. Attach the second KAS port to the part you want to be root. Here, I'm attaching it to the QBE.
 (it doesn't matter where it's attached to the new root part, just that it's attached to it).

10. Rightclick the port, and select Link.

11. Press ESC and pick "Space Center" - or go to map and switch to any distant vessel (more distant than 2.5km.)

 

12. Through Tracking Station or map, switch back to the engineer.

13. Rightclick the KAS port and select Unlink.

Right now the KAS port is the root part. I switched to the rover - note how the port is rotated 45 degrees, and how the navball is too. But you don't have to, yet.

14. Hover over the desired-as-root part. Press H, and holding it, click. That"s "Detach" which detaches the port - or more precisely, detaches the vessel from the port

15. Switch to the rover if it works.

Muuuch better!

16. Clean up the mess - pick that docking port, disassemble the "base" (or change its type to more appropriate) etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2016 by Sharpy

[monstah]

There should be an easier way out of this situation, but I'm glad someone found some way, albeit convoluted, to handle it.

Come to think of it, it's as if something is actually wrong in the ship and you're actually performing tasks with an engineer as a player, rather than just clicking science (except for the part where you unpack the ship by going to KSC). So, maybe it's the other way around, and more of the game should be like this...

Edited September 28, 2016 by monstah

[Guest]

I managed to dig up a mod for KSP 0.24 in my collection. , SelectRoot. Worked both in editor and in space. Not updated two years and cannot found anywhere  So, looks like  @Sharpy shared an exceptionally valuable piece of information.

[invultri]

Would this also work if there is a spare docking port already attached to reroot from ?

[Sharpy]

On 6/17/2018 at 11:33 PM, invultri said:

Would this also work if there is a spare docking port already attached to reroot from ?

It doesn't work on docking ports, just KAS ports. If you want a docking port to be root, attach a KAS port to it. If you have a KAS port on your craft and want that port to be root, then sure, it will work.