Docking - I just don't get it

[lugge]

4 minutes ago, Snark said:

Did you choose "control from here" on your spaceship's own docking port?

I did.

it is like they are pushing each other away, like magnets with same polarity.

8 minutes ago, Snark said:

Did you choose "control from here" on your spaceship's own docking port?

I did.

it is like they are pushing each other away, like magnets with same polarity.

 

Update: OK, nevermind. They docked.
I switched to the mothership right before "impact", and they docked just fine.

Previously, I had 5 tries, all controlled from the small craft, they didn't work. Glad I quicksaved 3 seconds before impact ;-)

I'm so glad now, this was one of these days when I think about uninstalling KSP ;-)

Thank you all guys

[Snark]

5 minutes ago, lugge said:

I did.

it is like they are pushing each other away, like magnets with same polarity.

That's... very, very strange.  I've never seen that happen, not once in four years of playing a lot of KSP.  Nor have I heard of it happening to anyone else, ever (and I've been around the forums a lot).

Did you do anything... odd... when constructing your ship?  Any unusual clipping, or moving parts around after attaching (with the editor's translate widget), or whatever?  Or is your docking port just simply attached on top of the lander can the usual way?  Are you running any unusual mods?  You're not using Hyperedit or anything, are you?

[lugge]

11 minutes ago, Snark said:

That's... very, very strange.  I've never seen that happen, not once in four years of playing a lot of KSP.  Nor have I heard of it happening to anyone else, ever (and I've been around the forums a lot).

Did you do anything... odd... when constructing your ship?  Any unusual clipping, or moving parts around after attaching (with the editor's translate widget), or whatever?  Or is your docking port just simply attached on top of the lander can the usual way?  Are you running any unusual mods?  You're not using Hyperedit or anything, are you?

In all approuches my speed relativ to target (mothership) was 0.2 or 0.3 m/s.
However, maybe I hit with a bad angle which caused my ship to rotate and flip away. This was very strange because it happened all the time and very quick.
The first time I switched vessel and observed the docking from my mothership, everything went fine.

I clipped the diagonal tubes on my mothership, but they are miles away from the docking port.
They serve no purpose but are there for rule of cool.
I have hyperedit installed but I didn't use it this time. I use it for testing purpose ("simulate" a new ship design).

No I can proceed, I'm still lacking the service module :-)

[HebaruSan]

9 minutes ago, lugge said:

I did.

it is like they are pushing each other away, like magnets with same polarity.

There have been reports of a possible bug along these lines in the 1.4 series of releases.

I regret to say I've seen it myself, but confirming that it's definitely a problem specifically with docking and not some other weird complicating factor is exceedingly difficult. I felt I had some luck with turning off SAS at the last second, but again, it could be that some other factor just happened to coincide with the retries where I did that.

9 minutes ago, lugge said:

Thank you all guys

Congratulations!

[Greenfire32]

1 hour ago, lugge said:

it is like they are pushing each other away, like magnets with same polarity.

That sounds like a bug to me. Docking ports shouldn't be behaving like that.

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by Greenfire32

[Lego_Prodigy]

I prefer the Klaw for anything that involves more than one object other than planets and my ship. but thats just me, who hasn't tried to dock once yet.

[Serenity]

Very helpful posts.

I used to fear docking until i realized it was a simple mini game played by the navball.

Just make sure as others said, to control from your port and target the port you want to dock.

Then align these two docking ports very roughly, no need to be an exact straight line or close to each other.

After that switch to Docking Mode with RCS on and only, ONLY watch your navball.(With docking mode you can use wasd,shift,ctrl keys to move, makes it easier trust me).

The mini game is to make the target icon overlap your prograde icon and keep it centered there at all time.

Watch your speed and boom, docked.It may sound a bit complicated but if you trying to figure out docking without using ONLY the navball then you will never make it a routine part of your game.

Edited May 1, 2018 by Boyster

[GrouchyDevotee]

If you are having trouble getting left and right or up and down translation to move in the proper direction

You should switch the camera view to either 'chase' or 'locked' view, doing this orientates your perspective and controls to the 'top' of the ship you are controlling.

Using the Nav-ball is perfectly fine for docking manoeuvres, but keep in mind that the artificial horizon ( blue and brown ball colours ) may not be totally useful in determining which way is up.

The 7.6m remaining is there because the measurement is from your space-crafts centre of mass (COM) to the selected docking collar. I don't know the fix for this I'm on a PS4.

I haven't had the same issues with docking ports "repelling each other", but a trick I do use in the final seconds before contact is to turn SAS off. This frequently allows minor misalignments to self correct.

Cheers.

[lugge]

So, I did tons of docking maneuvers within the last three days.
I think, I finally got it :-)

@Snarks approach was the key.
I now don't even need j,k,i,l. In most cases, h and n are sufficient.

The old method I used involved translating in 3d-space in all directions.
Could have saved lots of hours if I read the proper tutorial years ago ;-)

[Capt. Hunt]

They might have fixed this but, there used to be an issue with the SAS preventing docking engagement. Sometimes it helps to just switch off the SAS at the point of contact if it doesn't engage.

Also I noticed that in all of your screenshots, you are in staging mode. There is a docking mode that adds an alignment indicator and switches your main controls from rotate to translate mode. I found that makes talking a little bit easier, although the real steely-eyed missile men around here might disagree.

 

[StrandedonEarth]

7 hours ago, Capt. Hunt said:

There is a docking mode that adds an alignment indicator

Wait what, alignment indicator? In stock? That's news to me! I only know of one alignment indicator, from a mod, that only shows up when you select a docking port as target...

But yeah, in my one docking since 1.4.x, I did find it harder to get the ships to actually connect, but they were both big ships on a regular clamp-o-tron. Had to get that mod to actually complete the docking, and even then, it just didn't seem to want to click unless I got it perfect. Wasn't sure if it was my imagination or large ships or what...

 

Edited May 2, 2018 by StrandedonEarth

[Capt. Hunt]

5 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Wait what, alignment indicator? In stock? That's news to me! I only know of one alignment indicator, from a mod, that only shows up when you select a docking port as target...

But yeah, in my one docking since 1.4.x, I did find it harder to get the ships to actually connect, but they were both big ships on a regular clamp-o-tron. Had to get that mod to actually complete the docking, and even then, it just didn't seem to want to click unless I got it perfect. Wasn't sure if it was my imagination or large ships or what...

 

Yes.  It's not in the nave ball, next to the roll/pitch/yaw indicators in docking mode, there is a little box with some cross-hairs in it.  the small orange crosshair indicates the target's position relative to your control point the (big white cross-hair).

Edited May 3, 2018 by Capt. Hunt

[Scarecrow]

Personally I think you'd benefit from using Navyfish's Docking Port Alignment Indicator mod.  It doesn't add anything like an auto docking ability, just another visual representation of how things are lined up when you are trying to dock.  It gives you information with regard to how the ships are lined up in respect to each other, and the translation control effects are always the same regardless of which way you or the camera are facing (assuming you have selected the right port to 'control' from).  Once you get used to it, docking can be done in complete darkness just by using the indicator.