[1.12.x] Landertrons (Automatic Landing Retro-Rockets) v1.3.0 (02021 Sep 06)

[Bit Fiddler]

lol seriously?  shouldn't every person who comes here to ask if it works be directed to figure it out themselves?  why should Don share his hard earned knowledge with every scrub who come here looking to be spoon-fed an answer?

[JAFO]

Congratulations on assuming/inferring contradictions where none exist.. 

[Bit Fiddler]

no misunderstanding at all.  Don came here and asked a simple question.  "Does anybody know if this works in 1.4.1?" and you told him to go look for himself.   no two ways about it.

 

you then asked him for the very same information.  again no way to misconstrue this.

 

but this Is way off topic now. so I am done with you.

[John Nowak]

On 3/21/2018 at 6:36 PM, Don0303 said:

ok i tested it myself

I hope you won't misconstrue this, but I'm curious to know what happened and would appreciate it. 

Thanks either way!

[SqrlGrlDawn]

41 minutes ago, John Nowak said:

I hope you won't misconstrue this, but I'm curious to know what happened and would appreciate it. 

Thanks either way!

the mod seems to work perfectly, happy to help

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

Landertrons version 1.1.1 "From en-us With Love" is here!

• Confirmed to function in KSP 1.5.1.
• Added some strings to the localization file. Now the display strings from the code (e.g. mode names) can be localized as well.

[Murdabenne]

Any chance of getting these added to CKAN?  I can dust off my old CKAN skills if needed.

[Loren Pechtel]

I remembered this mod and decided to see if it would allow me to reliably land a pesky beast--lands safely on land, but bounces back up and blows up when it lands in water.  From your description of the math it's probably going to do it wrong--but in this sort of case I think the math is being done wrong.  You're assuming the rocket is falling and it's a purely propulsive landing--but a good use for this is like on the Soyuz, reducing the landing speed of something that's already under chutes.

1)  Figure the rocket is already at terminal velocity (there's no reason for suicide deployment of chutes), without the booster it will not accelerate.

2)  In computing the burn effects apply planetary gravity at velocity zero, zero gravity at the rocket's current velocity, the curve is a y=x^2 over this range.

3)  Provide an offset number, initiate retrofire this many meters above/below the computed point--let us tweak it for a particular rocket if the math isn't spot on.

4)  How about some stack-mounted versions?

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

I've attempted to add some math to handle terminal velocity, but in testing it performed worse than doing without (I've left it commented in the code).  It's on my list to improve...eventually.

I've said this before (on previous pages), but I don't want to add altitude or velocity offset targets until the code is better at targeting zero/zero, especially in the case of terminal velocity -- until then, adding additional controls feels dishonest (like presenting a measurement to the micron when it was made with a meter stick).

As for new parts, I do want to start making parts eventually, but I haven't yet.  If you find some nice models, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

[lokee81]

Hi. 

 

Does this mod still work? 

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

On 8/28/2019 at 2:37 AM, lokee81 said:

Hi. 

 

Does this mod still work? 

Yes it does!  Landertrons v1.1.2 "4.5 Roentgens" is here.

• Recompiled with .NET Framework 4.5 for KSP 1.8.x.
• Not great, not terrible.

[HLSA30]

thank you very much for updating, I love this mod

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

Version 1.2.0 "Baby L-KRAB" is here!

• Shrunk the XT-L-KRAB model to fit on probes a little better. (Thanks, @Yemo.)
• Fixed the electric charge consumption.

[Probus]

On 12/16/2019 at 5:17 PM, Kerbas_ad_astra said:

Version 1.2.0 "Baby L-KRAB" is here!

• Shrunk the XT-L-KRAB model to fit on probes a little better. (Thanks, @Yemo.)
• Fixed the electric charge consumption.

The version of Landertron I have loaded has problems with the landertrons not recieving charge properly sometimes.  Do I have an old version or is this the fix for that?  Thanks!

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

18 minutes ago, Probus said:

The version of Landertron I have loaded has problems with the landertrons not recieving charge properly sometimes.  Do I have an old version or is this the fix for that?  Thanks!

You can check the ".version" file in the Landertron folder to be certain that you have the latest version.  Version 1.2.0 should fix that problem.

[Probus]

Thanks @Kerbas_ad_astra.  I downloaded the old version earlier in the day of the 1.2.0 release.  Thanks!  I will update.

[pfalbo1]

Hi.

I think i missed something because the parts fire up at the last millisecond with the maximum power sending my ship to like 20 - 30 meters up. I saw video where it does a perfect soft landing (Nice work btw !!) but it seems it doesnt work for me. (I downloaded the mod via CKAN).

[DStaal]

1 hour ago, pfalbo1 said:

Hi.

I think i missed something because the parts fire up at the last millisecond with the maximum power sending my ship to like 20 - 30 meters up. I saw video where it does a perfect soft landing (Nice work btw !!) but it seems it doesnt work for me. (I downloaded the mod via CKAN).

You've got solid rocket motors.  You'll either need to add mass to your craft, or reduce the amount of fuel in the motors if they have to much dV.  Exact usage depends on each craft. 

If you use the controller and something that can be started and stopped, it'll stop them when needed.  (Though I find that if the TWR is to high it'll tend to 'hover' the craft just above landing until the fuel runs out.)

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

2 hours ago, pfalbo1 said:

Hi.

I think i missed something because the parts fire up at the last millisecond with the maximum power sending my ship to like 20 - 30 meters up. I saw video where it does a perfect soft landing (Nice work btw !!) but it seems it doesnt work for me. (I downloaded the mod via CKAN).

That video was probably made with one of XanderTek's old releases, which throttled the landertrons.  Nice for a soft landing, but also cheating considering these are SRBs.  Since late 2015, the landertrons will fire at full-thrust; they will automatically cut out when they calculate that they're about to start rising again, but given the granularity of the timing and the simplicity of the calculations, unfortunately there's usually at least a little bit of a hiccup and a drop at the end.  I've found I get the best results (in testing at least) with a TWR of about 3.

[kari1393]

Hi!
Is it possible to add Landertron functionality to NearFutureSpacecraft's superdraco-esque engines?

Edited March 30, 2020 by kari1393
removed unnecessary capital letter

[DStaal]

3 minutes ago, kari1393 said:

Hi!
Is it possible to add Landertron functionality to NearFutureSpacecraft's superdraco-esque engines?

It's typically best to add the functionality to the command pod, not the engine I believe...

And you're in luck! As Near Future Spacecraft already has patches to integrate it into the command pods that are designed to go with those engines.

[JAFO]

11 hours ago, Kerbas_ad_astra said:

That video was probably made with one of XanderTek's old releases, which throttled the landertrons.  Nice for a soft landing, but also cheating considering these are SRBs.

Cheating? Not necessarily.

Throttleable SRBs exist, and have for some time. Only Squad never seems to have heard of them. This is, in fact, one of the deficiencies that KSP2 intends to fix.

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

12 minutes ago, JAFO said:

Cheating? Not necessarily.

Throttleable SRBs exist, and have for some time. Only Squad never seems to have heard of them. This is, in fact, one of the deficiencies that KSP2 intends to fix.

By throttleable, are you talking about a pre-baked thrust profile (SSSRBs, etc.) or on-demand mid-flight adjustment (what XT Landertrons used to have, but no longer do)?

[JAFO]

3 minutes ago, Kerbas_ad_astra said:

By throttleable, are you talking about a pre-baked thrust profile (SSSRBs, etc.) or on-demand mid-flight adjustment (what XT Landertrons used to have, but no longer do)?

On demand.

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

11 hours ago, JAFO said:

On demand.

...Well, don't keep me waiting, I wanna see it!  I'm not inclined to change the controller, but if it's technologically straightforward, I might add an 'advanced' controller to take advantage of it.