Chute deploy delay?

[CreepyBumbleBee]

I'm looking for a way to delay chute deployment after stage activation, here are a couple of examples of problems I've been having.

Example 1: Booster Separation

When separating boosters I fire the decoupler/sepratrons and everything works fine, but if I add a parachute to the stage the chute will deploy too early causing the booster to spin and occasionally slam into the main rocket.

Example 2: Abort sequence

Adding a parachute deploy to the abort sequence causes the chute to burn up if boosters are still active or slamming the pod into the main rocket.

In both examples having the chute deploy when sepratrons have expended their fuel would fix the problem, is there a way to do this already that I have missed?

[TerrificToby]

yeah, if you put the parachute in a seperate action group, you can manually deploy as and when you want to.

[ThatBum]

But once you decouple something, you have no control of it. I think that's what he's asking for, so ejected stages don't immediately deploy their parachutes and the increased drag makes it hit the rocket.

I don't know any way of doing this in vanilla, sorry. Perhaps there's a mod for it, but I wouldn't know.

[CreepyBumbleBee]

yeah, if you put the parachute in a seperate action group, you can manually deploy as and when you want to.

Thanks, that helps with the abort sequence but I can't do this with parts already decoupled.

I don't know any way of doing this in vanilla, sorry. Perhaps there's a mod for it, but I wouldn't know.

Thanks for the reply, I was hoping there was a way, I guess I'll have to leave the chutes off the boosters for now. I wish there was a way to have sub-stages withing each stage, i.e. when separatron fuel is gone the chutes deploy, or a timer within the stage so that after X seconds X activates.

[ThatBum]

I suppose you could kind of fudge it by putting a probe body on the boosters and control them briefly to activate the parachutes. But then again, the actual rocket would be out of control during that time...

[Eric S]

I suppose you could kind of fudge it by putting a probe body on the boosters and control them briefly to activate the parachutes. But then again, the actual rocket would be out of control during that time...

Sadly, you can't switch craft while in the atmosphere. And even if you could, the parachutes go poof as soon as they're outside the physics limit (2.5 km unmodded). I spent a good bit of time figuring that one out.

[dethsturm]

If I remember correctly, one of the part descriptions says you can activate the chutes after decoupling them from your craft if they are in staging.

[leax256]

you could add sepetrons to move the parts away also.

[omegamatrixhh]

Why do you need parachutes for your spent stages? Are the boosters not yet out of fuel? I've never experienced a launch situation where I needed my boosters to slow down so quickly.

[Kromey]

One thing I've seen work effectively is to put your parachutes near the bottom of the boosters, which seems to nicely "peel" them away from your rocket as it keeps going up (no sepetrons in this scenario, or a pair thrusting the booster out away from your rocket, not "down"/retrograde). I've never done this myself as, with reusable/recoverable boosters not yet being implemented anyway, I've not seen the point. But it does look pretty neat in the videos I've seen doing it.

As for a launch escape/abort sequence, just have your chutes in the next stage -- you hit abort, the capsule bails (with whatever escape mechanism you've designed for it), and once you're clear/your escape boosters have exhausted themselves you hit space to release your chutes. I mean, you've got control, why not use it?

[CreepyBumbleBee]

Why do you need parachutes for your spent stages? Are the boosters not yet out of fuel? I've never experienced a launch situation where I needed my boosters to slow down so quickly.

Trying to be realistic, also good practice for when career mode is released.

One thing I've seen work effectively is to put your parachutes near the bottom of the boosters, which seems to nicely "peel" them away from your rocket as it keeps going up (no sepetrons in this scenario, or a pair thrusting the booster out away from your rocket, not "down"/retrograde). I've never done this myself as, with reusable/recoverable boosters not yet being implemented anyway, I've not seen the point. But it does look pretty neat in the videos I've seen doing it.

As for a launch escape/abort sequence, just have your chutes in the next stage -- you hit abort, the capsule bails (with whatever escape mechanism you've designed for it), and once you're clear/your escape boosters have exhausted themselves you hit space to release your chutes. I mean, you've got control, why not use it?

Parachutes on the bottom works well, thanks for the tip. For the abort that's what I've been doing.

[Aragosnat]

There is a way to get them to open. Custom Commands. Just put the decupler and chutes all on the same number. They open immidately when decupling. And ah. So I need to stay within 2.5 km for my refuel pod for my Stock Jet boat. Or if you want just put the chutes on their own and remember to hit it before seperation if there is one.

[Jbb13]

With the latest version you can adjust the altitude of when the parachutes deploy. So you can test what altitude you seperate and put the bar lower than that altitude.

[RW-1]

How about setting the pressure to deploy the chute to maximum?

Separate, chutes arm, but won't immediately go off ...

[Claw]

This post is a bit ole (i.e. greater than two years), and the info is a bit dated. I'm going to go ahead and close this, but if there are other questions about the new mechanics, please feel free to post a new thread.

Cheers,

-Claw