help docking these things

[putnamto]

bah, frustrated beyond beleif with this, any tips would be appreciated.

this is actually three vessels, the fuel tank>skycrane>thumpers, i need to undock the skycrane(the one with the arms) move it around, and dock the bigger end of it to the SR on the side of the thumpers, this seemed routine for as much docking as ive been doing lately, but for the life of me i cannot get this to work, docking seems to be busted on the ports attached to the thumpers(both the regular ports ont he top and bottom, and the sr on the side.)

they just want to bounce off after aquiring eachother, is it because once the thumper is undocked theirs no control on it? no rcs no probe core, nothing?
 

ive attempted this i dont even know how many times now.

Edited January 12, 2019 by putnamto

[Rauko]

Have you recently moved from 1.3 to 1.4 of newer? Something similar was reported when 1.4 came. Acording to posts from that time, you should try to perfectly align, approach VERY slowly (less than 0.5m/s) and turn off SAS when close (in the video, you have sas off and everything goes crazy just when it is activated).

You can align easily if you target each ship with the other, control from port, and use sas to point to target (turn sas off after align)

[putnamto]

1 minute ago, Rauko said:

Have you recently moved from 1.3 to 1.4 of newer? Something similar was reported when 1.4 came. Acording to posts from that time, you should try to perfectly align, approach VERY slowly (less than 0.5m/s) and turn off SAS when close (in the video, you have sas off and everything goes crazy just when it is activated).

You can align easily if you target each ship with the other, control from port, and use sas to point to target (turn sas off after align)

1.5.1 here, havent changed or updated anything in awhile.

i think it might be the SAS thing, i usually turn it off at that moment, i guess i was just so frustrated that i didnt realize it was already off and turned it on.

[Rauko]

I hope it is that! (At least in the video it certaintly is the issue)

Let me know if you success.

[Aeroboi]

You aproach the SR docking port at a angle relative to the other SR docking port. Have you tried aproaching it from a mirror symmetrical angle? The docking ports behave (not act) like magnets and IIRC when docking at a angle the magnetic effect may repel the opposite docking port. Always take in mind rotation, don't stare blindly at translation as it is often required to emulate proper rotation against the relative target i.e. the other SR docking port or any other docking port for that matter.
 

This may solve the problem as I had repelling effect of 2 docked ports together myself in versions prior to 1.6 and 1.5 which I can't remember tbh. IIRC I believe my aproaching angle was to great, by any chance this effect still persists and proper rotational alignment might solve your culprit.

[putnamto]

bah, i accomplished hte feet, made a video of it, but then when i was cleaning up drive space i deleted all of my gameplay videos...

their was something weird with the part, i tried what both of you suggested numerous times and could never get them to dock.

i think it had to do with the receiving port not having power or something, or a bug.

what i ended up doing was detaching the skycrane from the fuel tank, with the thumpers still attached to the bottom of it, rotate both vessels 180, so that instead of it being fuel>crane>thumper
it went fuel(backwards)>thumper(backwards)>crane(backwards) then i detached the crane from the bottom and reattached it to the side withought a problem.

now landing that thing on a hill, that was a headache.