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Stock hinges are not strong or rigid enough for stowable rotor blades?


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If this has already been addressed on another thread, please direct me over there.  Thanks.

I have built several working helicopter and helicopter-like craft in KSP since getting the Breaking Ground expansion.   After building a rotor propelled, tall design for a craft that works well on Kerbin, I wanted to take it to other planets with atmospheres, like Duna, Laythe, and Eve, to see how it would work in those environments.  I added hinges to the rotor blades, so they could be folded down against the vertical body of the craft, so the whole could easily be stowed in a cargo bay or rocket faring.  After setting the rotor blade hinges in operational position, and bringing the motors to full RPM, and  increasing the angle of the blades to generate lift,  the forces bend the hinges upward and the craft becomes unstable, does not fly, and tears itself apart.  I have tried various combinations of autostruts, rigid attachment, locking the hinges, disabling the hinge motors, and other things, but I can't seem to make the hinges truly lock in the zero degree position, so that the rotor blades remain perpendicular to the motor at full RPM and reasonable AOA.  It would seem that the stock hinges are useless for folding rotor blades down for transport and then deploying them when the craft is operated.   Is there a way to make the hinges truly locked and rigid, even under aerodynamic force?

Questions? Comments? Observations? Criticisms? Solutions?  Thanks!

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1 hour ago, AHHans said:

Have you tried locking the hinges and setting autostruts to whatever is attached to the hinges? As far as I can tell locked robotic parts behave essentially like non-robotic parts.


I have tried many things, including locking them and setting upper or lower limits (which makes it better, but only in one direction: lift or anti-lift.)
I will try both locking and grandparent autostrut together, as you suggest.  I am eager to try foldable, stowable rotor blades on the other planets.  Thanks!

Edited by Scorptrio
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Combining locking the hinge, rigid attachment, setting a horizontal deploy limit, full dampening, and grandparent autostruts for all parts involved, seems to do the trick, and the blades no longer flop around.  Thanks.  (Maybe some of the settings can be changed and it will still work, but it didn't work without the Grandparent Autostruts, so leave them on for sure.)

 

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9 hours ago, Scorptrio said:

I'll report on triple grandparent part autostruts shortly. (Blade, Hinge, Rotor all set to Grandparent.)

I recommend against setting autostruts on robotic parts that are still expected to move! (In your case at least the rotor, but possibly also the hinge itself.) Sometimes this works, and sometimes this causes the part to freeze up.

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