Orbital Space Station swinging out of control

[Rocksummit]

Hi

After returning from the Mun's surface to dock at my Munar space station the whole station starts swinging back and forth. It gets so bad that it started to break up and cause explosions.
What I find odd is that it was fine when I left. The first time it happened I noticed I had all my 'lights on' and on the dark side I lost battery power and thus couldn't power my SAS. However the second time this wasnt an issue and I have no idea what is causing it.

The station is built with a module in the middle with 6 docking ports facing all different directions. I've then docked from all sides with fuel tanks and science labs etc. I tried turning my RCS on to counter it but it doesn't seem to be helping at all.

Anyone have any ideas on what could be the issue?

[bewing]

Are you using a lot of autostrutting? I've seen that cause your issue. Maybe cut back the number of autostruts and/or their length.

Also, excessively flexible ships + SAS can cause it. But you say that SAS was off one time.

Flexing is similar to rotation in that a quick burst of timewarp can cure it most times.

 

[crackerbal]

hi there

i was experiencing the same issue on my minmus ground station

and as it's a common part of our ships i suspect the "HubMax" causing this i tried to made an X connexion for several parts ( labs, ore tanks crew cabins.... ) once 4 parts connected on each side the final connexion of the fuel tanker produce the incontrollable shake of all the assembly.

did u try to disable the autostruts as @bewing suggest ? did it solve your issue ?

[ForScience6686]

Sas  over compensating, I turn it off,  as I'm never moving the station.   the incoming craft orient to the station not the other way around.  

[Rocksummit]

Here's a video of what happens:

http://sendvid.com/lwddl3xu

I'm not using any struts. I'm wondering if it's something to do with my construction regarding the hub with the docking ports that's its unstable. I believe I used the smallest metal-frame in the middle of it.

I tried this time without SAS but it doesn't seem to be affecting at all.

[Rocksummit]

I tried moving my other lander to a different port along the long fuel line and then docked, that seemed to do the trick. I'm still curious to what is going on though!

[cephalo]

When you have excessive flexing and oscillations, sometimes you can stop the feedback loop by speeding up time for a few seconds. That will often stop things from shaking apart.

[Tex_NL]

On 13-11-2016 at 5:04 AM, bewing said:

Are you using a lot of autostrutting? I've seen that cause your issue. Maybe cut back the number of autostruts and/or their length.

Also, excessively flexible ships + SAS can cause it. But you say that SAS was off one time.

Flexing is similar to rotation in that a quick burst of timewarp can cure it most times.

 

I can most definitely confirm this can be caused by autostruts. I once tried to shore up my wobbly station with autostruts but as a result it only got worse. Only by removing all autostruts I managed to subdue the Kraken.

@Rocksummit
Even if you have not set autostruts yourself that doesn't mean they are not there. Autostruts are set to the heaviest part for legs and wheels by default. Before you docked the station was quiet but after docking the autostruts were reconnected to the new heaviest part (most likely the orange tank all the way on the end), and your station started doing the Kraken dance.
To see all autostruts go into the cheat menu [Alt]+[F12]. Under 'physics'  you'll find an option to 'visualize autostruts'. Remove them and see what happens.

Autostruts are evil! They are the spawn of the devil. Use them with extreme prejudice and caution.

Edit:
And yet again I ran into the evil Autostrut Kraken. As you might expect I tried to follow my own advice and failed miserably. It turns out autostruts on landing legs are 'locked'. They can not be removed.
Can a developer, or anybody else involved in QA for that matter, please explain why once again a bug that should have been picked up slipped through the cracks?

Edited November 14, 2016 by Tex_NL

[Rocksummit]

Tex,

I followed your instructions and you are very much correct about the struts. They are there.

What are these 'autostruts'? Are they on all landing legs?

[Tex_NL]

3 minutes ago, Rocksummit said:

Tex,

I followed your instructions and you are very much correct about the struts. They are there.

What are these 'autostruts'? Are they on all landing legs?

Yes, autostruts are on all legs and wheels. They link the legs/wheels to the heaviest part of your craft and prevent movement between them. At least that's what they are supposed to do.
But once the struts get too long they fail in their job and instead induce the exact opposite.

And as I already edited in my original post; Autostruts on legs/wheels can (as far as I know) not be removed.
 

[crackerbal]

5 hours ago, Tex_NL said:

IAnd yet again I ran into the evil Autostrut Kraken. As you might expect I tried to follow my own advice and failed miserably. It turns out autostruts on landing legs are 'locked'. They can not be removed.
Can a developer, or anybody else involved in QA for that matter, please explain why once again a bug that should have been picked up slipped through the cracks?

i just realise having the same issue on my duna station .. on minmus i completly redisgn my outpost cos of this..; but here on duna, i can't.. so i tried different things here are the conclusions :

lowering the legs = no shake

having wheels on structural segments = almost no shake...

the mega xxl revomax rover gears are the real problem they was breaking apart everytime i end the refuel.... so i basicly remove the part with this gears and put as close as possible to the "refuel tanker"

... still this is the ground station i dont realy understand why is it happen on space for u @Rocksummit