What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Hotel26]

First of all, I advise that I have downloaded KSP 1.7.1 and purchased Breaking Ground.  Long live Squad!

As kind of an apology for interrupting the excitement about BG with a mundane 1.6.1 stock item. 

                                                                                              

A successor to my Skunk recon UAV is in the works: code-named iSpy:

Skunk had an operational duration of just 6m at 31km and 2,187 m/s before the oxidizer ran out.  iSpy by contrast is piloted and can maintain 2,187 cruise at 31km for nearly 2 hours, which is nearly 4 circuits of Kerbin.

iSpy operates just under its thermal limit, so it seems that the procedure to land is to first go to orbit and spend a while "cooling off".    I'm actually still conducting the test flight, so I can't confirm yet that it re-enters safely...

On a note of interest, I originally discovered the magic numbers: 2,187 m/s at 31km with Pe:31km and Ap:36.6km by accident.  You can see that the NERVs are running on a trickle feed (0.17 kal/sec) to overcome drag.  It's a real balancing act to get in that groove and a shot of adrenalin when it's accomplished.

Edited June 1, 2019 by Hotel26

[Geschosskopf]

I experimented with walkers:

The worm-like thing on the left was built for speed on the theory of taking the longest strides as rapidly as possible.  Except is more of a limp.  It can reach about 5.4m/s on the forward lunges when both legs/shovels/whatever are on the ground simultaneously pushing and pulling, but then pauses sitting on its belly while the legs return to the power stroke, so it averages about 2.7m/s.  However, it can  climb moderate hills and can also turn mid-stride with torque, so is reasonably functional, although it's a ROUGH ride, with about 3Gs alternating quickly in various directions throughout.  More like a mechanical bull than a worm, I guess. 

The crab-like thing walks along pretty smoothly using the opposing tripod gait at a steady 2.2m/s.  But that's all it can do.  It can't get back up on the runway after getting down on the level ground, it has no reverse, and it has a turn radius about the size of Gilly.  But it looks kinda neat in motion.  And I learned a fair amount building it.

Edited June 1, 2019 by Geschosskopf

[Azimech]

18 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

The upshot is, moving parts like paddles and screws don't push any "water" backwards, so there's no 3rd Law force resulting to push the craft forward.  This really shouldn't come as a surprise given that we've known for years that submerged control surfaces are pretty much useless.  I should have known better than to waste any time with this, but the desire to have a paddlewheel boat was too strong :).

 

https://kerbalx.com/Azimech/77I--Turbo-Electric-Hybrid-Propulsion

 ;-)

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by Azimech

[KerikBalm]

^That plane is a tilt engine VTOL, because of course it is^

Test modded the surface features... duplicated and renamed laythe geysers... these spawn in kerbin's badlands:

 

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by KerikBalm
Posted same pic twice instead of a new 2nd one

[Frank_G]

6 hours ago, NorthernDevo said:

That...

is awesome!

Way too cool, dude!

 

Hallo - I'm just catching up after a few weeks away, but I just love that aerospacecraft. 

I must be dense though - I've been trying to figure this out for forever, and haven't managed it. I'm therefore just asking: how on earth (or rather Kerbin) do you manage to make fully-reversible nacelles with stock parts?! I'm trying to deduce it from your pic, but I'm still scratching my head here.

Thanks - and great pics!

Thank you :).

The trick was, using 2 of the new K-1000 controllers. One swiches the servo between prograde and normal position and the other between prograde and retrogeade. Both use the target angle function in the track editor to change position. Then you bind each K-1000 to its own action group, using play and switch direction function for both controllers and you are good to go. Just keep in mind, that you need to return the nacelles to prograde position with the same action group, before using the other action group. I will post a craftfile today, so you can take a look.

[Guest]

Still researching choppers. Made a new one which is in my view the best-handling one I've made so far. It's also slightly less dog-ugly than its predecessor.

https://kerbalx.com/Brikoleur/BAK-12

I learned that with rotors weight is everything. I replaced the I-beams with a row of cubic octagonal struts which immediately improved handling; I also found that this permitted me to make the rotors six-bladers for extra smoothness. 

Cyclic control is still wonky though, it's really hard to make something that allows decent pitch, roll, and yaw control all at the same time. This one occasionally experiences reversal of pitch controls so under certain conditions it pitches down when pulling on the yoke and vice versa, so watch out for it.

 

[Frank_G]

Today i continued working on my Duna rocket SSTO VTOL spaceplane. It is much more stable now and keeps its balance throughout the flight in all engine configurations.

And here, as promised, the craftfile for my Duna Rocket SSTO. It is still a work in progress. The downloadable version is already a few steps ahead of the one, seen in the screenshots. Action-group configuration is in the craft file description. Have fun.

Edited June 1, 2019 by Frank_G

[Jett_Quasar]

Posted my newest video today...

 - Jett

[Guest]

Working on a different kind of rotorcraft because of course.

[Martian Emigrant]

1 hour ago, Frank_G said:

Today i continued working on my Duna rocket SSTO VTOL spaceplane. It is much more stable now and keeps its balance throughout the flight in all engine configurations.

 

Yes, but can it do a Crazy-Yvan?

[Frank_G]

Just now, Martian Emigrant said:

Yes, but can it do a Crazy-Yvan?

Nope... its not a Firefly class vessel and can currently not move the nacelles independently X.x.

But it could be programmed to do so, when you remove the symmetry from the engine servos...

[Geschosskopf]

6 hours ago, Azimech said:

 ;-)

While that is definitely a beautiful and impressive example of Kerbal technology, it still supports my position.  KSP "water" doesn't pay enough attention to Newton's 3rd Law to allow paddles, screws, and rudders to work on any scale less than a monstrosity like this :).

3 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

I learned that with rotors weight is everything. I replaced the I-beams with a row of cubic octagonal struts which immediately improved handling; I also found that this permitted me to make the rotors six-bladers for extra smoothness. 

Cyclic control is still wonky though, it's really hard to make something that allows decent pitch, roll, and yaw control all at the same time. This one occasionally experiences reversal of pitch controls so under certain conditions it pitches down when pulling on the yoke and vice versa, so watch out for it.

Your work has been quite helpful in my own tinkering.  Thanks ;).

If you build a small enough helo, you don't need collective control at all.  Just attach the blades to the hub with like 30^ of fixed pitch, then adjust altitude and rate of climb by right-clicking on the rotor and adjusting its RPM.  This does, however, limit the size and mass of the whole helo, though, to something small enough to fly with less than full RPM.

I'm still trying to figure out if the spinning rotors actually create a gyroscope effect  when it comes to trying to control a helo.  At first I was sure of this, but then I realized the brick-shaped rover variant of the Mk2 Lander Can, which I was using as the cockpit, has a borked navball and control axis orientation when used in the SPH, so that was certainly accounting for some of my control problems.  But maybe not all of them ;).

1 hour ago, Frank_G said:

Today i continued working on my Duna rocket SSTO VTOL spaceplane. It is much more stable now and keeps its balance throughout the flight in all engine configurations.

That is friggin' awesome!  I especially like your "Wright Brothers" canard.  I'll have to steal that idea :).

[Azimech]

I don't think I'll be working on props and helo's anymore.

Instead I'll  be focusing on this old love of mine. Piston engines.

First iteration timing chain for a DOHC. The chain can't be much tighter because of the way it is closed: with a strut so one joint is rigid. This things runs pretty smooth at 100 rpm although the gif doesn't show it. In any case: the fastest chain I've seen yet.

 

[cantab]

1 hour ago, Geschosskopf said:

the brick-shaped rover variant of the Mk2 Lander Can, which I was using as the cockpit, has a borked navball and control axis orientation when used in the SPH

In the right-click menu there's an option to set the control orientation. For the lander/rover can you have up, forward, or down. (The option exists on most pods and probe cores but usually you just get normal or reverse.) EDIT PS: This can be switched in flight as well as set in the VAB/SPH.

Edited June 1, 2019 by cantab

[Geschosskopf]

6 minutes ago, cantab said:

In the right-click menu there's an option to set the control orientation. For the lander/rover can you have up, forward, or down. (The option exists on most pods and probe cores but usually you just get normal or reverse.) EDIT PS: This can be switched in flight as well as set in the VAB/SPH.

Damn, that's cool!  Thanks!  No more adding extra small probe cores at different angles for landing and then driving rovers :D.  When did this highly useful feature come along?

[Geonovast]

I broke reality.  All I wanted was a shroudless engine plate with the decoupler flush to the plate itself.

Apparently this causes the plate to be quantum locked or some crap.  Nothing will let it move from its point in space.

 

[Barzon]

the engine plates appear prone to that. 

[Geonovast]

Just now, Barzon Kerman said:

the engine plates appear prone to that. 

I've never seen it before, and I use engine plates on... pretty much everything I make.

This happened when I used MM to create another variant that moves the decoupler node up flush to the plate, and doesn't have any shrouds enabled.  It still does turn on the shroud if I have it turned on in the PAW.  Every other variant works fine.  So clearly I did something the game did not like.

[Frank_G]

So much ideas with those new robotic parts in store - and lots of time ... here i have re-activated an old SSTO design. It was meant to fit inside a cargo bay for a Jool-5 mission, but back than, i had to clip here and there to fit all the things into the bay. These days, i can simply fold it up. The new design almost made it to Kerbin orbit... still need to work on the ascent profile, because it might already be capable of making it to orbit. Otherwise i am not far from success...

Unfolded

Folded

Inside cargo bay

Launching

Almost in orbit

(Pictures show different iterations of the spaceplane)

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by Frank_G

[Guest]

Introducing the BAK-22 Kestrel. Reminds me of something...? https://kerbalx.com/Brikoleur/BAK-22-Kestrel

[Red Stapler]

2-wheeled hover bike prototype (notice the Oscar-B fuel tank)...

After a 'minor' crash, no more Oscar-B..but with the parachute deployed I could still power up and gain altitude. Wee!...I have discovered free energy.

Then again, Glitch Kerman was the pilot.

Just one more for beauty's sake.  RA-2 ship motoring around Jool.

Happy weekend!

Edited June 1, 2019 by Red Stapler

[Red Stapler]

9 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

^That plane is a tilt engine VTOL, because of course it is^

.....

Nice view!

You need to bring a couch out there for your next visit. 

Edited June 1, 2019 by Red Stapler

[Loskene]

3 hours ago, Azimech said:

I don't think I'll be working on props and helo's anymore.

Instead I'll  be focusing on this old love of mine. Piston engines.

First iteration timing chain for a DOHC. The chain can't be much tighter because of the way it is closed: with a strut so one joint is rigid. This things runs pretty smooth at 100 rpm although the gif doesn't show it. In any case: the fastest chain I've seen yet.

If you don't build an entire enormous car now and drive it over the KSC like a jeep over a sandcastle I'll be disappointed.

[Long Finger]

Having started a new career from scratch I was carrying out multiple contracts at once on a flyby of the Mun, however it all went wrong when my eyeballed free return trajectory got messed up by a gravity assist on the Mun again! Bob had to get out and push to save the day. Three Kerbin aerobrakes later Bob was back (with 400 science too) and for his next trick he levitated some grass!

[Azimech]

Useless contraption built as a proof of concept. Interesting head movement.

https://gfycat.com/SharpFavoriteAnnelida

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by Azimech