RCS:- Is there a way to use Actions to ensure an RCS thruster is disabled?

[softweir]

RCS thrusters can be toggled between Enabled and Disabled using Action Groups. Cool. A lot can be done with that! I am also aware that one can use "R" to turn RCS control On and Off.

However, there are times when this is not quite adequate. For instance: I am creating an ISS analogue. I will have several Soyuz equivalents docking at various times. When the first Soyuz docks it is easy as pie to disable its RCS thrusters using an action group disabling the ISS's thrusters. However, when the second Soyuz docks it must use a different action group to disable its RCS thrusters, or else the action group will enable the corresponding thrusters on the first Soyuz at the same time! And, of course, one may not want to disable the ISS's RCS by hitting "R".  When one has numerous Soyuz and other craft visiting, managing separate action groups before launch (or editing action groups to remove the toggle RCS from already docked Soyuz craft) becomes onerous.

So: is there any way to force RCS thrusters to go Disabled without using Toggle RCS?

(Stock mechanisms and mods are equally valid solutions so far as I am concerned.)

[jimmymcgoochie]

I just did a test with some RCS thrusters and discovered something interesting: the RCS action group (R key) doesn't toggle any RCS thrusters on or off- those are controlled completely separately. You can enable/disable RCS thrusters using action groups or the part action windows; R just acts as a global on/off switch for the entire RCS system but if an RCS thruster is disabled it still won't fire whether or not RCS is switched on or off on the craft.

Unfortunately there's no option to enable or disable RCS thrusters individually, it's just a toggle that's available. You could try disabling crossfeed on all your docking ports and disabling fuel flow out of your RCS tanks on each Soyuz after it's docked to prevent the RCS thrusters from firing that way, though it's not particularly elegant and could be problematic if you have many tanks to turn on/off each time.

The Action Groups Extended mod might do what you're looking for, it seems to offer the ability to create action groups to turn all RCS thrusters under its control on or off in unison; not sure if it actually does so, I've never used that mod before and the demo screenshots are a few years old by the looks of it, but worth a try?

[softweir]

On 10/1/2021 at 3:51 PM, jimmymcgoochie said:

The Action Groups Extended mod ...

Ah! That looks like something that might fit the bill! Thanks!

P.S. Just in case anybody else needs to know, the mod to look for is "Action Groups ReExtended" by LinuxGuruGamer.

 

Edited October 3, 2021 by softweir
Additional information.

[king of nowhere]

On 10/1/2021 at 1:44 AM, softweir said:

However, there are times when this is not quite adequate. For instance: I am creating an ISS analogue. I will have several Soyuz equivalents docking at various times. When the first Soyuz docks it is easy as pie to disable its RCS thrusters using an action group disabling the ISS's thrusters. However, when the second Soyuz docks it must use a different action group to disable its RCS thrusters, or else the action group will enable the corresponding thrusters on the first Soyuz at the same time! And, of course, one may not want to disable the ISS's RCS by hitting "R".  When one has numerous Soyuz and other craft visiting, managing separate action groups before launch (or editing action groups to remove the toggle RCS from already docked Soyuz craft) becomes onerous.

So: is there any way to force RCS thrusters to go Disabled without using Toggle RCS?

(Stock mechanisms and mods are equally valid solutions so far as I am concerned.)

I have experience with complex ship, and while I'm not sure I can give you what you want (and the mod in question could be a better way) I can give you an advice for dealing with multi-engine ships:

instead of using a hotkey to toggle on/off the rcs of every single ship, you could have a single key to turn off rcs on all those ships, and a different key to turn on individual groups.

I'll try to explain better with an example. My current mothership has a lot of shuttles attached to it, pointing in all directions. I'm not using rcs for simplicity and part count, but i do have to turn on and off engines all the time, and the situation is similar. So I have the main ship engines, those don't have an action group. they are supposed to be always on. For every other engine, I set up 9 to shut them down. It's super convenient. I did multiple dockings, now I have to perform a manuever with the mothership, and i worry about having forgotten a shuttle engine on, with efficiency losses? I press 9, and I know only the mothershipìs engines are working.

And for turning the engines on, I use 5 (no special reason to pick 9 and 5). I'll never press 5 when I am using the mothership - though if I do by accident, i can just revert it with 9. but when i release a shuttle, i control it and press 5, and its own engines are turned on.

Only exception is a long-range towing module that's supposed to be stuck to other ships. that one has 6, this way I can press 9-6 and have only the tow engines active

 

If I get this right, it would totally help your situation. You want a quick way to enable rcs on your soyuz, but when they are docked you want them disabled. you never want to activate the rcs of a docked soyuz, at most you'll want to activate its rcs just after undocking it. And you want your station to always have rcs active, with its own main rcs. So, my setup would work perfectly for you. set one key to deactivate all soyuz rcs, and another one to activate them all. leave the iss rcs without hotkeys - you can deactivate them with R, I can't think of any situation where you'll want to deactivate the main station rcs while leaving the ones on a docked soyuz active.

This way, you can make sure all rcs of the docked soyuz are disabled, while easily enabling them for every one that you undock. and it only costs 2 action groups.

[softweir]

@king of nowhere: Ah, yes... That may well do the job. I hadn't thought of that! Now to remake my Action-groups and action-group crib sheet - because like F can I remember everything!

Thanks!