Possible to dock multiple ports at once?

[championofcyrodiil]

[Moderators Note:   This thread was split from a very old thread under the same title]

 

No.

KSP 1.8.1.2694 Windows x64

+ 1.8.1 Making History
+ 1.8.1 Breaking Ground

First Docking Port Successful and has option to undock.  Other docking port is misaligned and context menus show them as decoupled/ready to dock.  The craft wobbles at the undocked ports and you can see them sliding back and forth.

Both craft are duplicate from VAB, so distance apart/alignment is same on both.

 

Edited November 25, 2019 by Gargamel
Split and added Note

[Starhawk]

1 hour ago, championofcyrodiil said:

No.

KSP 1.8.1.2694 Windows x64

+ 1.8.1 Making History
+ 1.8.1 Breaking Ground

Hello @championofcyrodiil.

A couple of things here.

First, all the other posts in this thread are from over six years ago, and the current version of KSP at that time was 0.20.2 as opposed to the current version now which is 1.8.1.
There have been an absolutely enormous number of changes to the software in that time, so any information presented in this thread is extremely likely to be inaccurate or completely wrong when applied to the current version of the game.

Second, multi-port docking has been working for quite a long time and I have used it often.

Here's a shot of a test I just did on the pad using 1.8.1.  In the VAB, only one port can connect due to the tree structure of craft.  But, in flight mode, the second (or additional) ports can connect.  The second pair of ports in this image is the lower set and they automatically connect to each other when physics kicks in.

 

It can be a little tricky to achieve this in flight, but if the docking ports approach each other at the right orientation and speed, I have found that it is certainly possible.

Caveat:  I have not yet done multi-port docking while in flight in the current version.

Happy landings!

[championofcyrodiil]

4 hours ago, Starhawk said:

Hello @championofcyrodiil.

A couple of things here.

First, all the other posts in this thread are from over six years ago, and the current version of KSP at that time was 0.20.2 as opposed to the current version now which is 1.8.1.
There have been an absolutely enormous number of changes to the software in that time, so any information presented in this thread is extremely likely to be inaccurate or completely wrong when applied to the current version of the game.

Second, multi-port docking has been working for quite a long time and I have used it often.

Here's a shot of a test I just did on the pad using 1.8.1.  In the VAB, only one port can connect due to the tree structure of craft.  But, in flight mode, the second (or additional) ports can connect.  The second pair of ports in this image is the lower set and they automatically connect to each other when physics kicks in.

 

It can be a little tricky to achieve this in flight, but if the docking ports approach each other at the right orientation and speed, I have found that it is certainly possible.

Caveat:  I have not yet done multi-port docking while in flight in the current version.

Happy landings!

Hi, @Starhawk! Thanks for the reply.

In my post above, the two craft were launched separately with large re-usable stage 1 engines like the falcon 9 v 1.0 lower stage.  After I rendezvous the vessels on the 2nd launch, both sets of docks could not be docked "simultaneously" while in Kerbin orbit >70km.  I aligned them almost perfect w/ RCS.

In the example you give, it appears you have configured the docks in the VAB.  Are you able to separate and then "re-dock" those vessels once in orbit?  Here are mine in orbit, the port on the right docked successfully, and the one on the left (from camera perspective) is "loose" as if the magnetic field is disabled.   The images above are this vessel, only zoomed-in to get a better camera perspective.

A friend gave me some 0.x beta ~2016, and so I am aware of the various changes.  I included the version I am using in my OP because I wanted to show that I am using the latest version and cannot multi-port dock in orbit.  Just updating the thread because I ran in to this issue and it was the first result I found when searching on the web, and I was hoping someone else had tried this.

Edited November 24, 2019 by championofcyrodiil
more verbose response

[OHara]

It has been possible, but difficult, to dock multiple ports simultaneously since around version 1.3.

The biggest problem, shown in @championofcyrodiil 's image three posts above, is that the first port to dock locks everything into place, preventing rotation to swing the other ports into alignment.   Some people can orient the ports so well before first contact that both dock. 

KSP has internal options to require the ports to be aligned in the in-face rotation (clocking) before the ports join.  We can use a ModuleManager patch in the link below to enable those options.  Then no ports lock until the orientation is correct, within your chosen tolerance, so you might need to experiment to check if that is close enough that the second port to always join.

A mod that should work even better for this (but I can't remember for sure if I've used it for multi-port docking) lets the docked joint rotate after docking, as if under motor power :

 

[Gargamel]

8 hours ago, Starhawk said:

First, all the other posts in this thread are from over six years ago, and the current version of KSP at that time was 0.20.2 as opposed to the current version now which is 1.8.1.

 

3 hours ago, OHara said:

It has been possible, but difficult, to dock multiple ports simultaneously since around version 1.3.

For these reasons, this thread has been split from the original, of the same name, to avoid confusion to others coming upon the thread for the first time.  

[Starhawk]

On 11/24/2019 at 3:48 PM, championofcyrodiil said:

In the example you give, it appears you have configured the docks in the VAB.  Are you able to separate and then "re-dock" those vessels once in orbit?

I had time to do another test today.

Launched, put into orbit, undocked, and redocked.

The real problem with dockings such as this is that they have to be done by eye, rather than by navball.  I docked the smaller vessel to the larger one.

The only real difficulty I had was undocking.  It works differently now, since the option exists to make a secondary set of docked ports the primary set.  When I undocked the first set, the second set had to be made primary before I had the option to undock them.

Anyway, it took a minute, but it wasn't too tricky at all.
 

Happy landings!

[psychogre]

In building an interplanetary ship in orbit, I rely on the multiple docking capability.  In prior versions I had to use struts.

I launched two identical 'wide' rockets with pre-positioned attachment points and docking ports on the sides.  Strapped to the sides were additional crew cabins and other docking ports, etc.  Once in orbit, the KAS mode allowed me to reposition those crew cabins to extend laterally, with a docking port on the end, on both rockets.  Then carefully docked these 4 pairs of ports simultaneously.

Multiple 'supply' launches brought up additional components (ie, comm sats, landers, fuel ferries, and mining rigs), which were docked to the various ports.
Only the small sats were docked to the front, all others were on the backside (this avoids the inevitable 'wobble' when thrusting a long stack of docked components).

When building out something like this that will be using its engines a lot, it is extremely important to maintain symmetry and weight balance.  Otherwise, it won't be able to keep flying straight under thrust.