How do I drive a rover detached from a plane?

[doktorstick]

Howdy. I created a rover and drove it around the runway. I then made a plane and merged in the rover. I attached the rover underneath the plane with a radial decoupler. As a test--without even flying--I staged the decoupler and the rover fell to the ground underneath the plane as expected. I used the right bracket to switch to the rover but I was unable to move it. If I turned the wheels, they turned. If I accelerated, the "motor" under the right-click wheel info screen went to the max. It just wouldn't budge.

I thought the plane might have been in the way--some weird clipping--so I swapped back to the plane, drove it a fair bit forward and switched back to the rover. No luck.

Help? Note that I drove the rover in the first test with a probe core, and that's what I am trying to do after the decouple.

Edited January 11, 2017 by doktorstick

[FullMetalMachinist]

19 minutes ago, doktorstick said:

Help? Note that I drove the rover in the first test with a probe core, and that's what I am trying to do after the decouple.

Maybe try right clicking on the probe core on the rover and select 'control from here'? 

[bewing]

As FullMetalMachinist implied, this is almost certainly a control point problem. When you are trying to control the rover, often the navball will show you if something is going wrong, by pointing in some funny direction. Your probe core for your rover should be pointing in the direction that you want "forward" to be. So as he said, if your core is pointed in the correct direction, click on it and "control from here".

 

[Tex_NL]

Make sure you have power AND the brakes are off. Braked rover wheels will NOT accelerate your vehicle.

[Magzimum]

• The "control from here" trick as FullMetalMachinist said would be my #1 test. Easy and quick.
• Are the wheels put in straight? They have a top, bottom and two sides. The bottom must point down... and the default orientation in the VAB or SPH is almost always wrong. You will have to turn them before you put them onto the rover! Learn about this by building a much simplified rover and take it for a test-drive. Also, posting a screenshot helps.
• Press B to toggle the brakes. Normally they are off by default, so it's unlikely, but easy to check. (Also there is the brake icon at the top of the screen in the middle which will light up if the brakes are applied).
• I assume you have batteries and something to generate electricity? I have forgotten batteries in the past, but I believe you cannot use steering either in that case. Without batteries it certainly won't move, even if you have solar panels and plenty sunshine.
• If you are unlucky something was clipped while it was still attached to the plane. In that case the wheels may have experienced a sort of Kraken attack. Can we see a screenshot? Sometimes it is a telling sign if the wheels have sunk partially into the surface after you dropped the rover onto the surface. Haven't experienced that in v1.2 though...

If nothing worked (or if the last point is your problem), the solutionto now involves some de-bottlenecking: First test the rover separately. Then keep the plane, but make a tiny and much simplified rover which is certainly not clipped anywhere. If both tests show no problems, then both the rover and plane have no problems individually. Basically, just start ruling out one thing after the other. 

But screenshots always help to get a good answer!!

[mystik]

4 hours ago, Tex_NL said:

Make sure you have power AND the brakes are off. Braked rover wheels will NOT accelerate your vehicle.

It's the brakes. 

[doktorstick]

Well, that was a bit of a facepalm moment.

It was the brakes--the rover is inheriting the brake's status from the plane at the point of decoupling. I tried it both with the plane's brakes on and off and the rover followed it. I thought I had checked the brakes on the rover, but obviously I didn't.

FWIW, I cannot right-click "Control from Here" on the rover's probe core once decoupled; I had to use vehicle cycling via the square brackets.

Edited January 11, 2017 by doktorstick

[HalcyonSon]

52 minutes ago, doktorstick said:

Well, that was a bit of a facepalm moment.

It was the brakes--the rover is inheriting the brake's status from the plane at the point of decoupling. I tried it both with the plane's brakes on and off and the rover followed it. I thought I had checked the brakes on the rover, but obviously I didn't.

FWIW, I cannot right-click "Control from Here" on the rover's probe core once decoupled; I had to use vehicle cycling via the square brackets.

"Control from Here" only works when you're in command of the vehicle.

I've found that re-mapping the rover controls makes a HUGE difference in stability.  My rovers are so small that a Small Reaction Wheel can stand them on one wheel and are gyro-stabilized when they jump off crater rims (great for aligning fixed solar panels - or driving after losing multiple wheels).  By default, Wheel Control is set to the normal rocket / plane control keys (WASD), so trying to drive a rover also engages the RCS and Reaction Wheels.  You'll have to go into Settings from the main menu to change it, but I suggest setting Wheel Control to the Number Pad (8426).

[AeroGav]

the wheels didn't get broken by any chance? if an engineer walks up to them, is there a repair option?

[bewing]

5 hours ago, doktorstick said:

It was the brakes--the rover is inheriting the brake's status from the plane at the point of decoupling. I tried it both with the plane's brakes on and off and the rover followed it. I thought I had checked the brakes on the rover, but obviously I didn't.

One thing you may want to know: there is a bug currently, where when you undock a rover from another ship, the brakes are invisibly activated. If you look at the brakes icon, it's black. If you click it once it turns white, but nothing else happens. Click it again, and it turns black again -- but suddenly you can move. This happens to me a lot when I'm using a klaw to dock and undock a rover. I'm not sure if it also happens during decoupling.