[1.12.x] Anatid Robotics / MuMech - MechJeb - Autopilot - [2.14.3] [4th March 2023]

[El Sancho]

30 minutes ago, LameLefty said:

That’s very odd. What build of MJ are you using? I encountered the problem in an otherwise nearly-stock new save (only MJ, Module Manager and Docking Port Alignment Indicator) using Builds 788 and 789. I have not yet tried with Build 791. Of course I haven’t yet tried with KSP 1.4.1 either. I’ll do that tonight after work.

 

 

MechJeb 789

KSP 1.4.1.2089 (WindowsPlayer x64) en-us

Windows 10 Pro 64

Only using three mods - MechJeb, Toolbar Control, and Antenna Helper

I have a freshly started Sandbox mode campaign going

[Gouvernathor]

39 minutes ago, dlrk said:

Land at target doesn't seem to be working for me. It says "performing course correction", but doesn't fire the engine until right before impact. Land somewhere works fine.

https://streamable.com/wky7f

EDIT: 1.3.1 Dev: 786

Were you in a stable orbit around the celestial body upon activating the "Land at target" ? If not, well you need to.

[dlrk]

Land at target doesn't work when in-flight, only from orbit?

[Loren Pechtel]

18 minutes ago, dlrk said:

Land at target doesn't work when in-flight, only from orbit?

That's always how it's been.  The first thing  it will do is adjust your orbit so you overfly the landing site--and it only knows how to do that from orbit.

It is a bit annoying--it would be more efficient to do a single plane change burn at the SOI than to go into orbit then do the plane change burn.

[LameLefty]

4 hours ago, El Sancho said:

MechJeb 789

KSP 1.4.1.2089 (WindowsPlayer x64) en-us

Windows 10 Pro 64

Only using three mods - MechJeb, Toolbar Control, and Antenna Helper

I have a freshly started Sandbox mode campaign going

Okay, using MJ 1.4.1 64-bit, Win 10 Home, a totally clean install except for MechJeb and a brand new Sandbox save, the MJ Autoland functionality worked great when started fairly directly due west of the runway and at a reasonable low altitude; in other words, already basically on the glideslope or very near to it.  Approach, landing, rollout and full-stop went fine. 

So I tried an edge case:

Apologies for the long-ish video but you get the idea. Basically if you start from significantly above the glideslope, the autopilot doesn't want to dive in order to intercept. It lines up on the 2D vector just fine, but it won't descend fast enough (see especially right at 2:25 or so when the navball marker shifts to the final approach positon but the plane can't dive due to autopilot settings (3 degrees is pretty standard - you risk making passengers sick and breaking off parts of your plane if you routinely land faster than that ). 

So after this failed approach, I aborted, went out further west and started again. This time, from a lower starting altitude and a steeper allowable glideslope, the autopilot was able to land.

Conclusion: the Autopilot works great if you're low enough that it can dive to that final approach point within the limits of the glideslope angle setting. (COUNTERPOINT: there's still something wonky going with the logic. The autopilot absolutely wants you to land starting from the initial intercept point. The first test I did tonight, I was lined up on the glideslope within a couple kilometers of the runway; Autoland activated, the plane flew a One-Eighty, went west about 12km or so to the initial intercept point, then flew in from there rather than realizing the plane was on the glideslope already. Similarly, the way that glideslope markers shift on the navball when you hit the final approach indicator is decidedly odd, especially if you don't expect it.)

Anyway, none of this is meant as a criticism! I'm merely exploring the limits of the code so I can understand the functionality better and try to ensure I'll be able to fly spaceplanes back from orbit and land manually using the navball guidance indicator like I used to.  

Edited March 14, 2018 by LameLefty

[El Sancho]

Landing Guidance (the rocket kind, not the airplane kind I was posting about earlier) is working very well for me.

If you look carefully at the top right corner of the Landing Guidance window itself, there is a flag. The coords entered in the LG window are that flag. Both spacecraft shown started from the same stable 300K orbit of Mun, and both use the same booster assembly, though they have different payloads - one carries a Kerbanaut and the other carries an extensive instrument package. Given the coords of the flag, both not only landed successfully, but landed this close to one another, on the first try - no reload from save.

MechJeb 789 / KSP 1.4.1.2089 (WindowsPlayer x64) en-us / Windows 10 Pro 64 / Only using three mods - MechJeb, Toolbar Control, and Antenna Helper

[Dountoun]

Hello people, I'm using MechJeb 791 with the latest KSP version 64bit on Windows 10 Pro 64.

Windows Defender just notified me of a Trojan inside the MechJeb. I made a screenshot of it which you can see below (link).
Since I'm not sure if it really is a Trojan or a false positive I'm posting it here just in case.

Edited March 15, 2018 by Dountoun

[sarbian]

7 minutes ago, Dountoun said:

Hello people, I'm using MechJeb 791 with the latest KSP version 64bit on Windows 10 Pro 64.

Windows Defender just notified me of a Trojan inside the MechJeb. I made a screenshot of it which you can see below (link).
Since I'm not sure if it really is a Trojan or a false positive I'm posting it here just in case.

Defender marked a bunch of KSP file as a virus : 

Update your definition manually and it should be gone: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/definitions

 

 

 

 

[Dountoun]

Thanks for the fast and clear answer Sarbian! Love your MODS!!!! 

 

Edited March 15, 2018 by Dountoun

[Problemless Mods Wanter]

Hello,

I'm having troubles with rover autopilot, I searched in this post and it seems it's broken?

Can anybody confirm that?

I'm setting waypoints but there's no "follow" button appearing only "drive" when I use drive, it drives to an unrelated area, no matter which controller I'm running from.

[tSpecR]

A lot of Mods like this will cause windows defender to think there is a trojan, because the program alters or creates .dll files. If you got it from a link here then you can safely ignore that, I have used mechjeb for years and never had any virus or malware. Most antivirus will flag anything that tries to mess with .dll files. 

Great mod, it not only taught me how to do things manually, but once I learnt from it, it also saves me the tedium of doing a lot of things manually. 

On 15/03/2018 at 8:35 AM, LameLefty said:

Okay, using MJ 1.4.1 64-bit, Win 10 Home, a totally clean install except for MechJeb and a brand new Sandbox save, the MJ Autoland functionality worked great when started fairly directly due west of the runway and at a reasonable low altitude; in other words, already basically on the glideslope or very near to it.  Approach, landing, rollout and full-stop went fine. 

So I tried an edge case:

Apologies for the long-ish video but you get the idea. Basically if you start from significantly above the glideslope, the autopilot doesn't want to dive in order to intercept. It lines up on the 2D vector just fine, but it won't descend fast enough (see especially right at 2:25 or so when the navball marker shifts to the final approach positon but the plane can't dive due to autopilot settings (3 degrees is pretty standard - you risk making passengers sick and breaking off parts of your plane if you routinely land faster than that ). 

So after this failed approach, I aborted, went out further west and started again. This time, from a lower starting altitude and a steeper allowable glideslope, the autopilot was able to land.

Conclusion: the Autopilot works great if you're low enough that it can dive to that final approach point within the limits of the glideslope angle setting. (COUNTERPOINT: there's still something wonky going with the logic. The autopilot absolutely wants you to land starting from the initial intercept point. The first test I did tonight, I was lined up on the glideslope within a couple kilometers of the runway; Autoland activated, the plane flew a One-Eighty, went west about 12km or so to the initial intercept point, then flew in from there rather than realizing the plane was on the glideslope already. Similarly, the way that glideslope markers shift on the navball when you hit the final approach indicator is decidedly odd, especially if you don't expect it.)

Anyway, none of this is meant as a criticism! I'm merely exploring the limits of the code so I can understand the functionality better and try to ensure I'll be able to fly spaceplanes back from orbit and land manually using the navball guidance indicator like I used to.  

 

Cool to see you pushing the limits of what it can achieve. I'll have a look myself too. but TBH spaceplanes hurt my brain. I normally only use them to lift to high atmosphere and then jettison them and I only do that to give myself new goals. Haven't made a space-plane that can do anything use-full yet. But testing and pushing the limits is kinda what Kerbal does best.

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by tSpecR

[Schmelge]

Guuuuuwd Moooorning everyone! 
I hope you all have a fantastic Saturday so far!

I have a question regarding MechJeb 2 and the Aircraft Autopilot. Since the wiki is so outdated it doesn't even contain a single line of text regarding the specific part of the MJ2 mod, I thought I would try my luck over here!

So far I managed to make the autopilot obey my orders of altitude and direction, however, I struggle with getting it to listen to my command when it comes to speed

Down here I have provided a screenshot,  you will see the Aircraft Autopilot window. Notice that I have set the speed to 200 m/s and also notice that my aircrafts actual speed is 358.2 m/s.

Screenshot

Why doesn't it regulate the thrust for me? What am I doing wrong? 

Please MechJeb gurus, guide me on the right path!

 

Kind Regards - Schmelge

[UnanimousCoward]

On 3/14/2018 at 12:00 AM, Capt. Hunt said:

Did they change where they put the output log, I can't seem to find it anymore.  I'll post that when I do.

I was perplexed too. Finally tracked it down. On Windows, it's in "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\LocalLow\Squad\Kerbal Space Program\".

(FYI if needed: If you have Windows installed on a drive other than C:\, then obviously check that drive instead. "AppData" is a hidden folder, so you may need to set Windows to show hidden folders.)

[Apollo13]

Sarbian,  I've been using vers 791 since you released it.  However, today, when I added MJ to my vehicle, I no longer see the MJ menu tab nor in the stock tool bar.  When I attempted to download 791 again, I got the virus warning (which did not occur previously).  Both Chrome and IE showed that.  Thanks to your post on Thursday,, I'll clean that up meanwhile, I downloaded with Firefox with no problem, which I installed.

I started a new sandbox game with only Squad and MJ2 vers 791.  The MJ menu/tab still does not appear in the VAB when I put MJ on the single probe core.

I reverted to vers 789, and the tab appeared in the VAB and in flight again. However, mys staging does not appear at the right side of the VAB window.

Edited March 17, 2018 by Apollo13

[sarbian]

4 hours ago, tSpecR said:

A lot of Mods like this will cause windows defender to think there is a trojan, because the program alters or creates .dll files.

Err. Where does MJ or any of current KSP mods alters or creates dll files ? It does not and saying that it does is not helping when we have users around that are concerned about their computer safety.

[El Sancho]

48 minutes ago, sarbian said:

Err. Where does MJ or any of current KSP mods alters or creates dll files ? It does not and saying that it does is not helping when we have users around that are concerned about their computer safety.

Hey, Sarbian. Just a heads up - the links to where to find the log file, both of them on the first page of this thread and the one in your signature, are broken. They give an error -

The page you requested does not exist

Error code: 1S160/2

I saw the post by UnanimousCoward three posts above and went to check it against the old log location, to see if it had changed, and thus I discovered the broken links. Thanks again for all your hard work and help

Edited March 17, 2018 by El Sancho

[LameLefty]

5 hours ago, tSpecR said:

Cool to see you pushing the limits of what it can achieve. I'll have a look myself too. but TBH spaceplanes hurt my brain. I normally only use them to lift to high atmosphere and then jettison them and I only do that to give myself new goals. Haven't made a space-plane that can do anything use-full yet. But testing and pushing the limits is kinda what Kerbal does best.

One thing I enjoy doing is role-playing stuff like my space station crew rotation, engineering test flights of new spacecraft and spaceplanes to Kerbin orbit, etc. So a spaceplane is kind of a fun way to do those things for me. But having said that, a spaceplane is a beast to fly back - you have to kill a lot of velocity without overheating parts that don't actually have  heatshields, and you need to makes sure you get into the lower atmosphere at a point over the globe (and with enough residual velocity and/or fuel for the turbojets) where you can actually make it back to a runway. So where you target your periapsis has to vary depending on exactly how high your starting orbit is. For instance, a 70km orbit has less energy than a 125km orbit, so your periapsis for the lower orbit should be closer to KSC than for the higher orbit. Add in the fact that the planet is rotating while you're executing your deorbit burn, and you can see it's quite a challenge to eyeball this stuff. That's why I rely on the landing guidance pip on the navball to show me the end of the KSC runway. 

tl;dr: I like to fly spaceplanes for reasons. And if I have enough fuel after entry to approach low-and-slow from a few dozen kilometers, the Autoloand function does indeed put an Aeris 4A spaceplane down on KSC runway 09.

Edited March 17, 2018 by LameLefty
typos

[LameLefty]

Okay, so now Windows 10 "Defender" has effed up MechJeb for me, too. I manually updated my Defender definitions as Sarbian suggested but when I copy over the deleted DLL back into the Plugins folder it just never appears. Further, deleted the MechJeb2 folder entirely and reinstalling from the zip file from scratch STILL results in the the DLL not being installed!

This is ridiculous. Thanks, Microsuck.

EDITED TO ADD: as a work-around, I manually excluded my KSP folder from Defender's scanning. Not a good long-term solution but works for now I guess.

Edited March 17, 2018 by LameLefty

[Acvila]

16 minutes ago, LameLefty said:

Okay, so now Windows 10 "Defender" has effed up MechJeb for me, too. I manually updated my Defender definitions as Sarbian suggested but when I copy over the deleted DLL back into the Plugins folder it just never appears. Further, deleted the MechJeb2 folder entirely and reinstalling from the zip file from scratch STILL results in the the DLL not being installed!

This is ridiculous. Thanks, Microsuck.

EDITED TO ADD: as a work-around, I manually excluded my KSP folder from Defender's scanning. Not a good long-term solution but works for now I guess.

remove from quarantine also works...

[Loren Pechtel]

1 hour ago, LameLefty said:

Okay, so now Windows 10 "Defender" has effed up MechJeb for me, too. I manually updated my Defender definitions as Sarbian suggested but when I copy over the deleted DLL back into the Plugins folder it just never appears. Further, deleted the MechJeb2 folder entirely and reinstalling from the zip file from scratch STILL results in the the DLL not being installed!

This is ridiculous. Thanks, Microsuck.

EDITED TO ADD: as a work-around, I manually excluded my KSP folder from Defender's scanning. Not a good long-term solution but works for now I guess.

I was thinking of adding an exception for the offending .DLL.

What generally happens is that some malware author does what they can to obscure the actual malware and the AV author gets careless and picks a signature that's actually part of the standard library code and thus it causes false positives with anything that uses that bit of code.

[MaxwellsDemon]

I am also having trouble with build 791... when I tried to re-download it just now, I got a message "Failed - Virus detected" and clicking on that gave me this verbiage:

 

"Virus scan failed" or "Virus detected"

These errors mean that your virus scanning software might have blocked you from downloading a file.

Check your virus-scanning software for details about why the file was blocked.

On Windows: Windows Attachment Manager could have removed the file you tried to download. To see what files you can download or why your file was blocked, check your Windows internet security settings.

 

As with above, I suspect something in a recent Windows update is actually to blame, rather than anything inherent to MechJeb.  Inconvenient and confusing. 

 

(I'm also getting a similar message from a .dll in Chatterer and something involved with the base game's Unity engine.)

Edited March 17, 2018 by MaxwellsDemon

[El Sancho]

 

Kaspersky hasn't given me any grief about MechJeb, but after reading the above I went and did a manual scan of the MechJeb folder, and it all checks out OK. This would seem to indicate that Windows Defender is indeed giving you a false positive.

 

tl;dr - Kaspersky says MechJeb contains no malware. Clean, all OK, good.

[LameLefty]

So the thread Sarbian linked the other day in the Tech Support forum shows the same thing happening with Module Manager's .DLL for some other people. Personally I haven't seen anything similar until today. I was playing last night and everything was fine but this morning I saw that MechJeb wasn't working anymore. I started deleting mods and then decided to look inside the MJ folders and found the .DLL missing from the Plugins folder. When I couldn't put it back manually I realized it was a Windows Defender issue. 

I've manually scanned the file with a few online scanning tools without any problem so just a stupid false-positive from Defender, for whatever reason.

EDITED TO ADD: Scratch that; the chatter.dll is missing too. Stoopid Windoze. Grrr!

Edited March 17, 2018 by LameLefty

[DerekL1963]

3 hours ago, El Sancho said:

tl;dr - Kaspersky says MechJeb contains no malware. Clean, all OK, good.

Ditto Norton.

[Capt. Hunt]

I've had that issue with norton in pretty much every game I mod.  Norton auto-quarantines any .dll that isn't used by a significant proportion of the Norton userbase.  For executables it automatically deletes them irreversibly.  I've asked on the Norton360 forums for them to loosen that restriction, but they were no help.  I've also seen it ignore exclusions and delete files anyway on occasion, but I've basically marked the whole steam folder as excluded.