K2-D2

[Schneider21]

I love that K2-D2 saves settings between loads and reverts, and even that it does so between launches. I'm guessing this is because the settings are being serialized to disk or something. It does confuse things when I accidentally set the max throttle lower during flight, and then the next time I launch I don't see that the throttle is still limited (because max throttle isn't available pre-launch). Maybe max-throttle could be exposed prior to launching? Even better, maybe we could have a default settings we can set and then that settings profile would be loaded with the ship on the landing pad?

[cfloutier]

@computerpro do you have the icon in app bar ?

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@Schneider21

yes settings is saved totally independently on savegame. I find it confortable from my side....

the max throttle  shoudl be available before launch you're right

I'm currently remaking the whole UI and I will take that in account.

 

thanks

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[wesselg2]

First of all, I love your mod! I was wondering about the following:

• Does it only work in sandbox mode? In exploration I couldn't find it to work.
• Is it true that it automatically opens the VBA upon starting the game? I can't seem to chose where to go to in the beginning myself.
• I found that the staging in the lift engine doesn't keep cycling until there is an engine activated. I like to state my craft with a little time in between the activation and the seperation to ensure that parts don't collide. Yet staging seems to fail now when I do this.
• When looking at the lift curve in lift and I try to have the shape fit with the correct altitude, it doesn't seem to really work. It seems to initially stay lower than the 100 km. And when I changed it it also didn't seem to work. What am I doing wrong? 
• Also, the lift program doesn't seem to want to make my orbit circular. Is this me misunderstanding the program? Because the program does indicate a certain circulation process. 

Keep up the amazing work and sorry for the stupid questions. 

[Fizzlebop Smith]

I have never played Sandox and use this With some frequency.



K2D2 is integrated with flight plan mod. In the app tray you will find a option to open one of these GUI

Flight Plan
Manuever Node Controller
K2D2

These are related to the icons you see in the bottom section of the window above.
The cute little icon of a Ketsro Mech that i have Highlighted Yellow is the one that opens up the K2D2 GUI.

[wesselg2]

Also, when using Landing, you can't have multiple stages I found out... 

[magnemoe]

32 minutes ago, wesselg2 said:

Also, when using Landing, you can't have multiple stages I found out... 

In this case I say just stop and start it I guess. But landing autopilot work best for touchdown scenarios. not braking from orbit, set up an node for that, do manual correction burn then landing autopilot. 
This works even on Tylo, 

[imWACC0]

Any plains for Max-Q?

 

I know MechJeb had problems with neg-Max-Q, made for fun landing in atmosphere, but I still think it would be a worthwhile add.

[schlosrat]

I think that @cfloutier has a bunch of plans for future K2D2 improvements, but right now he's pretty busy with an overhaul of the UI. One of the things that he and I have talked about a little is improvement in the landing autopilot. My thought is to have FP offer a deorbit burn node that would put you on a collision course to a waypoint or lat/lon surface coordinates, and then for K2D2 to do something with the waypoint or lat/lon to try to bring the landing down more precisely to those coordinates.

I don't know if cfloutier might have any thoughts on how to handle staging on the way down. My approach has personally been along these lines. If I've got a transfer stage with some fuel in it and would like to spare the fuel cost on my descent and landing stage then I may do the deorbit burn with that stage to get my craft headed toward the surface, then stage and turn things over to K2D2 for the remainder. One problem I would see is that the K2D2 landing autopilot is probably making calculations for when to turn the engine on and how long to burn based on the TWR of the current engine. If you start down with one engine, then jettison that once it's done, you would at best need K2D2 to recalculate for the performance of the new engine - and you could very easily get into a situation where you've not got enough time left to land safely with the second engine. So, it's not that easy of a problem, and the much easier thing is to make sure you're on your descent and landing engine well before you're close to the surface so that K2D2 can do its thing based on that engine.

Similarly, for ascent (lift), staging can be tricky if what you want is to insert a delay between stages. Here, I think the problem is that there is both a time component (how long a delay you want), as well as the many variables of design. It would be a very tall order to ask K2D2 to assess your particular rocket design and make some choices based on that.

As for using the lift curve, I'd need a bit more info to offer any advice. I've found it easy to use, but then I've been using it for a long time. If it's not doing what you're expecting then it may be that you're not fully understanding how to use it - which is something that I think can be helped.

[imWACC0]

On 3/15/2024 at 2:19 PM, schlosrat said:

If it's not doing what you're expecting then it may be that you're not fully understanding how to use it

Well, do you have tutorials?

Even "Limit acceleration to [m/s²]" (like in early MechJeb) is added, that would help.

[cfloutier]

sorry I didn't came back tehre for a while.  

As @schlosrat said I'm really busy for a huge refactorisation and new UI using UI Toolkit. It's really a big work and I hope it will come to end during this month but I'm not sure of that.

when it's done I've planned to go backt first to the Lift Pilot.

The Curve does not take in account the current TWR and it can change a lot how the orbit is created. 
When I use it I limit the thrust (using the K2D2 slider) to have a TWR that would be a bit greater than 1. But I do it quite randomly. 

I'll replace the thrust slider with a Limit TWR Slider. And I'll take this in acount for the UI curve. 

There is no tutorial for the moment and I would really need help for that. I work alone on the mod and i've got no time for documentation and tutorial. But It would be very useful. I've started a bunch of videos to see it in action. but i've not added much for a while. 

https://www.youtube.com/@K2D2-xi9jd

I'll try to add more and a real documentation once the UI has been updated.

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About the landing I've planned to share the work with @schlosrat like he said. The deorbit burn can be computed in FlightPlan and the final adjustments should  be made by K2D2. We need to define the target location and we have not compeltly started that. It could be defined using SpaceWarp mod. taht will introduce soon waypoints. 

 

 

 

 

[magnemoe]

3 hours ago, cfloutier said:

sorry I didn't came back tehre for a while.  

As @schlosrat said I'm really busy for a huge refactorisation and new UI using UI Toolkit. It's really a big work and I hope it will come to end during this month but I'm not sure of that.

when it's done I've planned to go backt first to the Lift Pilot.

The Curve does not take in account the current TWR and it can change a lot how the orbit is created. 
When I use it I limit the thrust (using the K2D2 slider) to have a TWR that would be a bit greater than 1. But I do it quite randomly. 

I'll replace the thrust slider with a Limit TWR Slider. And I'll take this in acount for the UI curve. 

There is no tutorial for the moment and I would really need help for that. I work alone on the mod and i've got no time for documentation and tutorial. But It would be very useful. I've started a bunch of videos to see it in action. but i've not added much for a while. 

https://www.youtube.com/@K2D2-xi9jd

I'll try to add more and a real documentation once the UI has been updated.

-------------------------------

About the landing I've planned to share the work with @schlosrat like he said. The deorbit burn can be computed in FlightPlan and the final adjustments should  be made by K2D2. We need to define the target location and we have not compeltly started that. It could be defined using SpaceWarp mod. taht will introduce soon waypoints. 

Yes, having that issue if TWR get high, typically side booster runs low on fuel and AP climbs fast. Limiting TWR especially then climbing is bad however as you increase gravity losses, solution it to turn over faster. 
Not sure how mechjeb did this but I think it tried to follow an set launch curve who compensated for high TWR better.  

Now for landings having estimated landing spot on body would be great taking rotation in account. 

[Mango 233]

Still the same issue occurred after Mun took off in v0.2.1.0.30833,no track is displayed, and it is prompted that ground samples can be collected outside the cabin.

[munix]

9 hours ago, Mango 233 said:

Still the same issue occurred after Mun took off in v0.2.1.0.30833,no track is displayed, and it is prompted that ground samples can be collected outside the cabin.

That is a stock game bug, almost certainly not caused by this mod. If you want a workaround, the Community Fixes mod should get rid of that bug.

[imWACC0]

lift (launch) default settings?

I changed settings to get off Minimums, now I can't get a good launch from KSC.

 

Anyone know the default settings for Lift?

For that matter, anyone know good settings for each planet/moon?

[schlosrat]

On 3/27/2024 at 1:12 PM, imWACC0 said:

lift (launch) default settings?

I changed settings to get off Minimums, now I can't get a good launch from KSC.

 

Anyone know the default settings for Lift?

For that matter, anyone know good settings for each planet/moon?

You probably set the altitude you want to finish at to be lower. Go to the config settings for Lift (gear icon) and set the altitude to finish at to be something higher that's outside the atmo for Kerbin.

[kspkat]

I am not sure why, but when using "lift" I can't get any good launch. I usually end up coming down before I even hit the target 80km altitude.

One time I got to 80km altitude so I went to Node and said to circularize at AP but the thing waited until I was at the AP in order to start burning instead of burning before the AP. So I end up hitting the ground again before it can circularize because it waited WAY too long to start to circularize.

I miss MechJeb where all I had to do was turn on ascent guidance, select PVG, set my 80KM altitude, click engage, and then launch... It worked perfect from the first time I used it.

Edited April 1 by kspkat

[Schneider21]

@kspkat Might be useful to share your craft and K2 Lift settings. As a general rule, you'll want something with a good bit of TWR (nothing lower than 1.5 ATM and 2.0 or higher for vac) for launching and getting to orbit. You'll need ~3500 dV to get there.

[cfloutier]

The next version will come soon.
using UITK like the good mods

NodeEx, Lift and Land has been rebuilded and rewrited. I'm currently on the Dock pilot

this version will include a reset settings button for each pilots and for the whole mod.

  @imWACCO if you want to reset settings, just remove the settings.json file in the K2D2 folder

 

[Kayser]

If I may put a feature request I would very much like to have an autopilot that would keep my craft on a set altitude and/or heading. Would be great for flying.

A basic one with compass heading would suffice, but even cooler would be if it could also do great circle navigation towards given coordinates or named waypoint.

The most advanced version would feature control over what the autopilot could and could not do, for example use or don't use yaw/roll/pitch/SAS/RCS/throttle/trim. Altitude could be chosen above sea or land, and possibly with a minimum altitude above ground a set distance or time ahead.

Edited April 3 by Kayser

[cfloutier]

@Kayser Doesn't  the Attitude pilot fits your need ?  for the heading at least.  this feature should be more for planes than vessels ?
 

 

 

[Kayser]

10 hours ago, cfloutier said:

@Kayser Doesn't  the Attitude pilot fits your need ?  for the heading at least.  this feature should be more for planes than vessels ?
 

 

 

It works for heading but it's not possible to activate without the attitude part, which I honestly don't know what use case it's meant for.

[Devblaze]

This is probably a pipe dream, but I would love to see @cfloutier and @schlosrat team up to incorporate these two amazing mods into a single mod!

Overhaul the UI and utilize each other's strengths to bring us an extremely well-rounded mod with an amazing optional autopilot. 

Edited April 4 by Devblaze

[schlosrat]

5 hours ago, Devblaze said:

This is probably a pipe dream, but I would love to see @cfloutier and @schlosrat team up to incorporate these two amazing mods into a single mod!

Overhaul the UI and utilize each other's strengths to bring us an extremely well-rounded mod with an amazing optional autopilot. 

I think we're already collaborating pretty well. If you like the FP interface, you can have it call K2D2 behind the scenes to execute nodes for you, and if you prefer the K2D2 interface it can call FP for you, so you really only need one or the other on your screen at any time.

[stephensmat]

22 hours ago, schlosrat said:

I think we're already collaborating pretty well. If you like the FP interface, you can have it call K2D2 behind the scenes to execute nodes for you, and if you prefer the K2D2 interface it can call FP for you, so you really only need one or the other on your screen at any time.

I always have both up. Flight plan for nodes and rendezvous, but K2D2 for Launches and landings.

[cfloutier]

It's finally out !!! 

https://spacedock.info/mod/3325/K2-D2