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[1.10] Pilot Assistant: Atmospheric piloting aids - 1.13.4c (2020-08-18)

zolotiyeruki

By zolotiyeruki
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zolotiyeruki

zolotiyeruki

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Posted (edited)

Original Credit: Crzyrndm

This mod was originally developed by Crzyrndm, and has been one of the few mods I've kept around.  Crzyrndm has moved on to other things, and given me permission to maintain the mod.  Most of the content of this first post is a copy from his original post.

Pilot Assistant

3 basic aids for use in atmospheric flight (that is, forwards, not upwards). Works with any atmospheric model so long as the craft has enough control authority to be controlled.

  • Heading Hold - craft will bank to a controlled angle and attempt to match heading with the target given
  • Altitude hold - craft will pitch to a controlled angle and climb/descend to the target altitude
  • Climb speed - craft will pitch to an angle that gives the desired ascent or descent rate in m/s
  • Yaw Control - Smooth co-ordinated turns and damping of yaw oscillations
  • Airspeed Control - Set an airspeed target and Pilot Assistant will manage the throttle to maintain that target
  • Keyboard adjustment of targets with bindings corresponding to standard vessel controls
  • Ingame binding list and rebinding tool

Each function is controlled by cascaded PID controllers with fully configurable gains and limits. These may need retuning to suit different craft depending on their aerodynamic stability.

Download

Get it here!

Also available via CKAN

Surface SAS and SAS Tuning

  • Surface SAS holds orientation relative to surface
  • Fully tweakable PID gains for stock SAS and Surface SAS
  • Pitch/Roll/Heading angles in Surface SAS can be set by hand
  • SSAS axis controls deactivate seperately under user input, so there is no listing to one side when you are just pitching up/down.

PID Information

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Pilot Assistant 101 - How to fight the wobble

There are two general causes for Pilot Assistant making your vehicle oscillate (wobble), over-reaction and under-reaction.

Over-reaction results in fast sharp oscillations, and typically happens when your craft has a lot of control authority (high speed, low altitude, lots of control surfaces). Under-reaction results in more of a slow "cartoon drunk" sway and occurs for all the opposite reasons.

The simple fix is to increase or decrease the amount of "reaction" Pilot Assistant has

  • First, identify the controller related to the axis that is misbehaving.
  • If you are having problems that look like over-reaction, increase the scalar term slowly (smaller craft may also want to decrease Kd)
  • If you are having problems that look like under-reaction, decrease the scalar term slowly (larger craft may also want to increase Kd)
  • Remember your control situation changes a lot as you fly. A typical SSTO will have you fighting over-compensation at low altitude and under-compensation at high altitudes
  • If problems persist, feel free to ask for advice

Keybindings

Since Pilot Assistant overrides many functions that would normally be dealt with through keyboard input, many applicable keys have been repurposed to make Pilot Assistant easier to use

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Notes:

  • For now, this is just a recompile for 1.10.  I've done a fair bit of software development, but I'm new to C# and to modding.
  • That said, this mod is quite solid as-is, and doesn't really need anything new IMO.
  • *That* said, if you find a bug, please let me know and I'll see if I can rustle up the time to track it down.

Distributed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

Source Code

Can be found here: https://github.com/zolotiyeruki/Pilot-Assistant

Edited by zolotiyeruki
Updated for KSP 1.10
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  • 4 weeks later...
Daniel Prates

Daniel Prates

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Great! Lets check it out. I use atmospheric autopilot AND kramax autopilot, and I am still not happy. Lets see if this is the thing.

Wobble apparently is indeed a game thing and not a mod related thing, since it happens also with the other mods mentioned. Usually its worse when I forget to deactivate the command pod's reaction wheels.

Edited by Daniel Prates
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zolotiyeruki

zolotiyeruki

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Posted (edited)

My understanding is that Kramax and AA and this mod actually share much of the same codebase, so it doesn't surprise me that you're seeing the same issue on all three.

There's one feature I'd like to see added to this mod:  set a pitch, and use the throttle to maintain a specific altitude or vertical speed.  Dunno if it's worth my time to pursue it though, since it's very much a corner case.

Edited by zolotiyeruki
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zolotiyeruki

zolotiyeruki

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  On 6/3/2019 at 5:15 PM, 4x4cheesecake said:

@zolotiyeruki I just noticed that the downloadable .zip does not contain the source code and I cannot find a separate link for it as well. Since it is required by the Add-on posting rules, I would kindly ask you to make the source code available, before a mod comes along and removes the download link ;)

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Will do.  In order to submit it to CKAN, I'll need to update all the files on GitHub.  This release is just a recompile for 1.7, and none of the source has changed.  You can find it all here:

https://github.com/zolotiyeruki/Pilot-Assistant

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Daniel Prates

Daniel Prates

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  On 6/3/2019 at 3:04 AM, zolotiyeruki said:

My understanding is that Kramax and AA and this mod actually share much of the same codebase, so it doesn't surprise me that you're seeing the same issue on all three.

There's one feature I'd like to see added to this mod:  set a pitch, and use the throttle to maintain a specific altitude or vertical speed.  Dunno if it's worth my time to pursue it though, since it's very much a corner case.

Expand  

Actually when I said I was not happy, its not because of the wobble, but rather the GUI of each mod and how they are operated. AA has one excellent feature, which is the 'fly by wire' (in my mind I call it "always-trimmed flight" hehe). Kramax on the other hand has a better auto-level flight afaik.

Haven't tried yours yet, will test it and share some insights.

EDIT: just did. It's excellent. I will adopt it is my autopilot from now on. I will keep AA however, for the 'flybywire' function. 

Edited by Daniel Prates
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  • 4 months later...
flart

flart

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Posted

Cool what someone take care of the (oldest?) pilot mod

  On 6/3/2019 at 5:38 PM, zolotiyeruki said:

In order to submit it to CKAN, I'll need to update all the files on GitHub.

https://github.com/zolotiyeruki/Pilot-Assistant

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CKAN uses not files in a github repo, but loaded on github repo "assets"
 

@HebaruSan  Could you add the continuation manually? Download link is

  On 5/6/2019 at 11:48 AM, zolotiyeruki said:

http://zolotiyeruki.com/PilotAssistant-1.13.4.zip

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HebaruSan

HebaruSan

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  On 10/27/2019 at 11:29 PM, flart said:

Could you add the continuation manually? Download link is

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I'd rather do it "the right way" if possible, so future updates could be picked up automatically.

@zolotiyeruki, it's pretty easy. You should see a "Draft a new release" button here:

https://github.com/zolotiyeruki/Pilot-Assistant/releases

If you click it, it will let you enter a version number, title, and description, and attach your ZIP file. Then we could update this mod's CKAN listing to point to your repo, and any updates you make will be added automatically. 

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HebaruSan

HebaruSan

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  On 10/28/2019 at 11:31 AM, zolotiyeruki said:

What should the root directory for the zip file be?  Should the zip file contain the GameData directory, or the PilotAssistant directory that goes in the GameData directory?

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Either way can work, but the current setup expects the files in GameData/Pilot Assistant. We can update it to use whatever you choose when we switch it to your repo.

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HebaruSan

HebaruSan

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  On 10/28/2019 at 1:03 PM, zolotiyeruki said:

Alright, I've uploaded a zip file and created a release.  You can see it here.  Is there anything else you need me to do for CKAN?

 

https://github.com/zolotiyeruki/Pilot-Assistant/releases/tag/v1.13.4

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Looks good, but you'll probably want to double check the .version file:

"KSP_VERSION":{"MAJOR":1,"MINOR":3,"PATCH":0}

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zolotiyeruki

zolotiyeruki

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  On 10/28/2019 at 5:31 PM, HebaruSan said:

Looks good, but you'll probably want to double check the .version file:

"KSP_VERSION":{"MAJOR":1,"MINOR":3,"PATCH":0}

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Good catch.  Can you tell I'm new to this? :P

I've updated the .version file and re-uploaded the zip file.  Is there a way to kick off a new build attempt?

Edited by zolotiyeruki
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  • 2 weeks later...
HebaruSan

HebaruSan

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  On 11/6/2019 at 5:46 PM, zolotiyeruki said:

I've merged the change and re-uploaded the zip file.

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The ZIP still contains the old .version file. I'm guessing it's the "re-uploaded" step that is having problems, since the GitHub API indicates the current file was uploaded a week ago:

https://api.github.com/repos/zolotiyeruki/Pilot-Assistant/releases 

        "created_at": "2019-10-29T01:03:26Z",
        "updated_at": "2019-10-29T01:03:27Z",

 

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