Campotron Snr Docking port

[carranty]

Has anyone had any success using the new large docking ports? I have been trying to dock two parts of my station with them for the better part of an hour with no joy. I wouldn't say I ever find docking easy, but it doesn't usually cause me too much trouble with the smaller two types. Its just that any time they my craft just bump off of each other, I can see no evidence that the maglock is activating like it does on the smaller ports. And yes my SAS is turned off.

Edited May 25, 2013 by carranty

[Wayfare]

Make sure you put them on your craft correctly, it's a bit hard to see in the VAB whether you've put the docking side pointing out.

[carranty]

Make sure you put them on your craft correctly, it's a bit hard to see in the VAB whether you've put the docking side pointing out.

Yeah, I thought they were the correct way round to start with, but had no joy so built another ship with one on both end just to be sure (one the correct way around and one the incorrect way around). Neither could be docked, despite each making good contact on several occasions

[Ells]

Had no problems docking at all, multiple ships, multiple times.

[rodion_herrera]

Yeah, I thought they were the correct way round to start with, but had no joy so built another ship with one on both end just to be sure (one the correct way around and one the incorrect way around). Neither could be docked, despite each making good contact on several occasions

Go to spaceplane hangar. Build a large wheeled vehicle (essentially a duplicate of your spacecraft, but horizontally oriented) and see if the dock/undock works while it's sitting on the runway horizontally...wheels will act as a means to "force" alignment.

[carranty]

Thanks, just tried that and it works fine. I guess maybe my spacecraft are too heavy for the maglock to work?? Either that or I'm just out of practice. Thanks.

[Motokid600]

Question.. when you dock does the maglock rotate your ship before it snaps in to achieve symmetry? Or does it just snap in with whatever orientation you hit it with? If so then how do people build stuff in orbit so that everything is lined up good with the whole ship?

[TheDarkStar]

Question.. when you dock does the maglock rotate your ship before it snaps in to achieve symmetry? Or does it just snap in with whatever orientation you hit it with? If so then how do people build stuff in orbit so that everything is lined up good with the whole ship?

It doesn't autoalign your ship, so people either build so that the docked parts are put in a symmetric pattern anyway (when assembled), or they use guide rails. If you do not need to be as precise, you can also turn the craft by hand until you are relatively close in orientation before you docking.

[NeoMorph]

Easy way to check... Build both your ships payloads together together. Go to the launch pad. Click Alt-F12 and then hit the HACK GRAVITY button.

Now launch your payloads. You should now be in microgravity. Try your undocking and docking. If the other part you are docking to starts to rotate, click the time accellerate button on and off (this cancels all rotation).

You should now be able to see if there is any problems.

[Akalaël]

Don't forget to switch off the ASAS before docking.

Apparently it prevents the docking.

Talking about those, does anyone else had the prolem : impossible to undock one of those ports. I had it once, I was just unable to undock, very annoying.

[dr_jt]

Kerbals fall out of chairs.

Edited June 6, 2013 by dr_jt

[carranty]

I've succesfully docked three large staion parts this afternoon, so these clamps definitely do work. You have to almost perfectly aligned though, they don't have anywhere near as much margin for error as the smaller ports. This might be due to the fact they're attached to very massive ships though, perhaps the maglock only works up to a certain mass limit. Seems reasonable

Don't forget to switch off the ASAS before docking.

Apparently it prevents the docking.

Talking about those, does anyone else had the prolem : impossible to undock one of those ports. I had it once, I was just unable to undock, very annoying.

I've had that, if the port is attached to a piece your controlling you can't undock, you have to click the other dock that its attached to. If neither docking ports have an undock option then you have a problem, I've never experienced that.

[Akalaël]

That just happened again :

I thing I got the point : there is no probe core on the orange tank segment. When all this stuff is linked, I can't separate the small vessel of the tank. I can separate the station of the tank, but not the vessel, whatever the controll is switched to.

The option "Undock" is set on the clamp Sr of the tank, not on the one of the vessel.

I don't know if I explain well (french here, hard to explain sometimes in English )

Made a bug report too.

[SkyRender]

It doesn't matter which side you pick Undock from, actually. Right now that orange tank configuration is considered to be a part of the station it's attached to, unless I missed my guess.

[Uberick]

I've successfully docked the new large clamps, but they do seem to be much more difficult to get to "latch". With a normal docking port, I can usually come in at 5m/s at an angle and the mag-lock will sort things out, with the big ones, I have to come in perfectly aligned, at less than 1 m/s to get them to lock.

[-RanZ-]

I've successfully docked the new large clamps, but they do seem to be much more difficult to get to "latch". With a normal docking port, I can usually come in at 5m/s at an angle and the mag-lock will sort things out, with the big ones, I have to come in perfectly aligned, at less than 1 m/s to get them to lock.

So it is much more realistic than the other docking ports is what you are saying...

[ComradeGoat]

I've successfully docked the new large clamps, but they do seem to be much more difficult to get to "latch". With a normal docking port, I can usually come in at 5m/s at an angle and the mag-lock will sort things out, with the big ones, I have to come in perfectly aligned, at less than 1 m/s to get them to lock.

5 m/s is incredibly fast. I tend to dock at 0.1-0.2 m/s. Not had a chance to play with the big ones yet.

[Uberick]

So it is much more realistic than the other docking ports is what you are saying...

I guess so, I would think that ramming fraglie spaceships into eachother at 10 mph wouldn't work in the real world:)

Also, since they have to be lined up much more precisely, it's made me much better at adjusting my ships with RCS. I used to be able to come in at an angle(45~ degrees off center), but now I have to actually use the translation controls to come in straight.

Much more fun I think:)

[aceassasin]

Yes i just used them to dock an extra fuel tank to my dres lander for the transfer burn.