bent 3P Telescoping Hydraulic Cylinder

[jbdenney]

Built my first Tug for grabbing asteroids. On the back of the tug is a 3P Telescoping Hydraulic Cylinder with a grabber on the end. I extended the Cylinder, armed the  Grabber and backed into the asteroid with no issues. I got the rock into the Kerbin SOI and into orbit. All is OK - except the Cylinder looks like it is bent. I can retract it and re-extend it but it sill looks bent and the grabber is off center. If have punched every properties button I see and no change.

Is this a bug - or did I break something that can be fixed by an engineer? It was only a class A and I am planning to be able to pull bigger rocks with this ship.

Any ideas/inputs????????

Thanks

 Bruce

[AHHans]

2 hours ago, jbdenney said:

All is OK - except the Cylinder looks like it is bent.

I believe that not the cylinder as such is bent, but that the point at which it is attached has moved somewhat and that it is now attached at some angle, same for the claw at the other end.

In general that happens to all parts when you put a strong force on them, but the robotic parts move a lot more than the non-robotic parts. (I mean a lot!) AFAIK you cannot undo it once it has happened, and you cannot completely eliminate it. You can mitigate it somewhat by reducing the force on the parts. So designing your ship that there is less force transferred trough the robotic part. (Yes, great. I know that is usually not possible. ) The parts also seem to be able to deal better with straight compression forces than with shear forces or tension forces. (But, again: how to get straight compression forces without any shear forces?). The most practical mitigation strategy that I found is the strategic use of autostruts: when a robotic part is locked then autostruts can traverse it. So if you have a part on one side of the robotic part that is autostrutted to a part on the other side, then a part of the force is transferred via the autostrut and not via the robotic part. (Even better if you have multiple autostruts that can transfer the force around the robotic part.) The usual disclaimer about the use of autostruts apply.

[Klapaucius]

Do you have a screenshot?  I had a few weird moments a few years ago in which my vehicles got completely out of whack. Literally, the lights went sideways on a plane and the wheels bent on a rover. If I recall, a quicksave and reload seemed to sort it out.

[Fletcher]

 

On 5/22/2020 at 1:43 AM, jbdenney said:

Is this a bug - or did I break something that can be fixed by an engineer?

If this is what you were discussing, an engineer was not able to fix it.

MF

 

Edited March 22, 2023 by Fletcher
bad image URL

[AHHans]

Hi @Fletcher, welcome to the Forums.

Yes, I think this is the bug that @jbdenney was describing. What I believe has happened is in a way a variation of what I tried to explain in my other post here. I think that the robotic parts are in some way two parts that can move against each other. And now through the use of excessive force the two parts have moved against each other permanently. So from the game perspective they are not broken^(TM) but "just" in another position, thus an engineer cannot fix it (because it ain't broken). As outlined in my other post: I don't think you can undo it once it happened, you cannot completely eliminate it, but you can mitigate it.

Another aspect is: if you look at it from a RL perspective: such a telescopic cylinder is made to take up forces along the axis in which it expands. And even in RL it will be relatively weak against bending forces.

[Fletcher]

On 6/19/2020 at 3:29 AM, AHHans said:

Hi @Fletcher, welcome to the Forums.

Thanks, @AHHans!

I was mostly curious if this was on purpose or a glitch. I mean: yeah, in real life, the lateral forces I was putting on this extended piston when landing on it would have definitely "moved" something. The piston still functioning while punched through the cylinder wall made the think bug, but there are a number of AXISGROUPS override properties for my bent piston in the save file that aren't there for the other pistons. So this is something the game is accounting for, however cosmetically awkward. Interesting!

And now I'm wondering what other parts that can be "inadvertantly modified" but still function. This is the first time I can recall seeing that.

MF