Connecting close crafts on the ground

[PayadorPerseguido]

Howdy

Is there a way to connect separated but close enough crafts on the ground? I have seen videos of people using kerbals on EVA attaching them by means of a 'pipe' connector. What is this?

And will it allow the transfer of resources between the craft?

[Hodari]

12 minutes ago, PayadorPerseguido said:

 I have seen videos of people using kerbals on EVA attaching them by means of a 'pipe' connector. What is this?

That's only possible with a mod(KAS, I believe).  There's no way to do it in the stock game.

[PayadorPerseguido]

5 minutes ago, Hodari said:

That's only possible with a mod(KAS, I believe).  There's no way to do it in the stock game.

What is the name of the pipe? I do have KAS

[Spricigo]

If your only concern its to transfer resources between vessels I suggest you to use DMagic's EVA Resource Transfer instead. You can found it there:

 

[dangerhamster]

18 minutes ago, PayadorPerseguido said:

What is the name of the pipe? I do have KAS

Easiest way is to have a connector port on each craft, approach and R click one of the ports, select "link" and move to the other port and repeat. There is a distance limit but can't remember it off the top of my head. If you have KIS as well you can position the ports in the field (as long as you remember to bring them with you).

[KNOEBBER]

Howdy

Is there a way to connect separated but close enough crafts on the ground? I have seen videos of people using kerbals on EVA attaching them by means of a 'pipe' connector. What is this?

And will it allow the transfer of resources between the craft?

yes they will, you  need the KIS AND KAS MOD. Pipes can be a challenge for long runs. the way that has been a success for me is attaching a winch on one vehicle (preferably in the VAB )  on the other ship attach a pipe connector. stand close to  the winch right click on the winch and grab the cable. when done correctly you can see the cable attached to the back of your Kerbal who needs to be an engineer for attaching anything. get close to ship with the pipe connector right click on the pipe connector and choose the docked icon....your ships are now connected you will now be able to transfer resources  and crew members

[Reusables]

There is another way if both has the docking port: matching the ports and dock, really carefully.

[Snark]

On 1/26/2017 at 10:42 AM, PayadorPerseguido said:

What is the name of the pipe? I do have KAS

Just to expand on @dangerhamster's explanation above:  The pipe itself doesn't have a name, it's not a part.

The relevant part is the connector port (little round thing on the Utility tab in the VAB, has an orange border around it, masses 0.08 tons).  Have one of those on each of the two ships you want to connect, at least approximately facing towards each other.  Send out a kerbal on EVA and link them as our rodent friend describes, above.  When you're done, you can unlink them the same way, with an EVA kerbal.

Once they're linked by a pipe, the game considers the two craft now to be one craft, the same as when you dock craft together with docking ports.  So you can transfer resources, do a crew transfer between them, etc.

One "gotcha" to watch out for is that if you have a large base on the surface, with multiple craft all hooked together by pipes, and the craft are just sitting on the surface... you can get these surface-collision problems when you switch to the base.  When that happens, every time you switch to the base, various components of it may get thrown upwards (as if they got kicked in the pants by a giant mallet), which can be problematic.  The easy solution to this is make it so that the only things touching the ground are landing legs.  In my experience, that generally avoids the jumping-base problem.

There's a length limit to the pipes, on the order of a couple of dozen yards.  One way to extend your "reach" (and also to provide more attachment options for ships that may come and land next to your base) is to use another part, a "ground pylon" (I forget whether this belongs to KAS or KIS).  If you have KIS as well as KAS, you can have that pylon, along with some spare connector ports, in a kerbal's inventory.  Then you can go out, drop the pylon on the ground, attach it there with a tool, then mount some connector ports on the sloping sides of the pylon; then attach one of them to your base.  Now you've got a handy connector point that can hook up to any ships that come and land nearby, and it's reasonably clear of your main base "buildings" so that you don't have to worry as much about accidentally coming down on top of them when you're landing something.

[dangerhamster]

Wise old @Snark, much better at explanations than me.

It's mildly addictive once you lay the first pipe.......

[Sharpy]

Let me just add that Pathfinder and Planetary Bases have their own parts ( "Mineshaft corridor extender"  and "flexible corridor port" ) that act similarly to KAS ports, but instead of a thin pipe, you're building a kerbal-sized corridor.

Also, a comfortable method is KAS winches, where you connect a cable from a winch to a KAS port.

Edited January 28, 2017 by Sharpy

[ForScience6686]

On 1/27/2017 at 7:55 PM, Abastro said:

There is another way if both has the docking port: matching the ports and dock, really carefully.

Good luck with this.  In practice and testing you'll struggle enough, then fall to get it to work in the field, except maybe minmus.