Wheels, which way is forward?

[kfsone]

I realize someone is going to say "try tilting the vehicle" but that doesn't tell me which way is *forward*

I tested this beast on Kerbal and empty, as it is, it was able to move around slowly but sufficient for ground-based docking.

On Minmus, no such joy. The only thing it can or will do is slide sideways or in the opposite direction to which I actually want to go. At first I thought it was on a slope, so I let it roll for a while until the way I wanted to go was downhill. Then it would only go uphill, and only sideways.

I figure I have configured the wheels wrong, but then I realized - I don't know which way is forward. Or, even if forward is a direction this vehicle understands. It has a probe-style (up/down oriented) controller.

But I'm also not sure which way is "forward" for a given wheel. I thought I had set the motors/steering up correctly on them, but now not so sure. I installed MechJeb and tried to use the rover-autopilot but it either accelerated away from the target or it simply sat there making angel-wings with the wheels.

In particular, is a wheels sense of "forward" independent of it being rotated/mirrored to be placed? Is it affected by being removed from symmetry?

[ColdJ]

5 hours ago, kfsone said:

I realize someone is going to say "try tilting the vehicle" but that doesn't tell me which way is *forward*

I tested this beast on Kerbal and empty, as it is, it was able to move around slowly but sufficient for ground-based docking.

On Minmus, no such joy. The only thing it can or will do is slide sideways or in the opposite direction to which I actually want to go. At first I thought it was on a slope, so I let it roll for a while until the way I wanted to go was downhill. Then it would only go uphill, and only sideways.

I figure I have configured the wheels wrong, but then I realized - I don't know which way is forward. Or, even if forward is a direction this vehicle understands. It has a probe-style (up/down oriented) controller.

But I'm also not sure which way is "forward" for a given wheel. I thought I had set the motors/steering up correctly on them, but now not so sure. I installed MechJeb and tried to use the rover-autopilot but it either accelerated away from the target or it simply sat there making angel-wings with the wheels.

In particular, is a wheels sense of "forward" independent of it being rotated/mirrored to be placed? Is it affected by being removed from symmetry?

Wheels need to believe that the control source is orientated so that the navball is oriented with the blue on the top half and the brown on the bottom, to show that you are moving along ground. If your navball is showing all blue in the pic above then you need to change the control point in your probe in it's User interface so that it set up for driving.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Control points matter. The rocket part of that craft needs to have a control point facing vertically up, in line with the engine thrust; however the rover part needs to have a control point facing horizontally, in line with the direction that the wheels will turn. If you have the control point facing up but try to drive it horizontally, the wheels get confused because "forwards" for the craft is perpendicular to "forwards" for the wheels.

You need a forwards-facing control point to drive it on the surface and a vertical one for flying the rocket, so either add a second probe core rotated so it points forwards or use a RoveMate, which has both vertical and horizontal control points specifically for use on rovers, though that one has no reaction wheels (no biggie, you already have one) and only basic SAS (which MechJeb doesn't care about).