Inline Clamp for docking?

[N3Coalition]

So I've finally got my first spaceplane into orbit and decided Jebediah needed to see the newly constructed spacestation thats parked in a roughly 120km orbit. Unfortunately I decided to use an inline clamp as the docking module. I tried marrying it with either the normal or sr docking clamps with no success. Also the targeting reticule appears way off when looking at through the chase camera mode, and when the station tries to target it it seems to place the reticule in odd locations that are nonsensical.

Now I've blown through all of my monopropellant and I'm literally a breath away from the station. Does the inline clamp simply not dock with these other modules and this was a huge lack of foresight, or am I experiencing a weird bug?

Thanks for any insightful knowledge or assistance!

The only plugin I'm currently using is Subassembly, no other mods.

Edited July 27, 2013 by N3Coalition

[Snooze]

The inline will dock with the regular Clamp-o-tron ports. I do it all the time with my planes.

Can you post a screenshot of your navball problems?

[stupid_chris]

Did you select "control from here" with the dockingport before trying to dock?

[rryy]

It seems that this problem keeps popping up.

[UbioZur]

Different docking port size cannot dock together. it's like trying to plug a usb cable to a hdmi output.

here are the compatible size

docking port Jr only with themselves

doking port - shielded dockig port - inline docking port

docking port Sr only with themselves.

You could try to send a adaptor that would consist of a bit to rcs, a prob, a Sr and a regular port, and electricity

for the nav ball. using a control from here on the inline docking port will be helpfull.

use a mix between the target reticule and what you see with the camera, I have found that select target dosen't always change the target to a precise place where port is, as well as the distance is completlyt wrong (it's a distance to the center of mass not the targeted port).

It can help to point the station port to south (180° heading) and the inline docking port to the north (0°) so you only have to translate and not rotate (that work if the station is on equatorial orbit, else you need to find I believe it's the tangent of the orbit)

[N3Coalition]

It looks like I only took 1 screenshot last night. I also attempted to dock with the normal sized ones. I guess a revision in my design will be more mono-propellant, lol. I guess I'll hop on and see if maybe my problems were deriving from lack of sleep. >_< Thanks for the help though.

PS: I've had such an easier time with the normal and sr docking ports I might just switch it to that too. Though I think my station has too big of a part count. XD Next time we'll go with smaller.

Edited July 27, 2013 by N3Coalition

[UbioZur]

Definitely wont work with that port.

the one we can see at the top would work but the tail fin will collide with the solar panel so I wouldn't try.

It's hard to tell where is north/south so I would thing your nav ball is set to your command pod, not the inline clapotron and that's why it's not align. but even so the target is not where it should be.

Looks like bringing up an adapter is the best way for you.

Also, don't discard that ship, just send a small tug that have RCS and refuel the plane so you can keep trying to dock.

As you keep practicing, you will see that 100 unit of RCS is actually a lot. it just take several hours docking harder and more complicated stuff to refine the docking process.

Edit: Better than an adapter, bring up a multi port docking module to your station.

For example,

Docking port sr on each side of 2 Big RCS tank (so you can refuel your RCS)

and radially mounted some arm with the docking port at the end.

it would bring you several docking port to dock several ships. The arms (made of truss like your solar panel support) will allow for more clearance of the ship.

Edited July 27, 2013 by UbioZur

[zarakon]

You need to make sure to:

1. Dock with a port of the same size (medium)

2. Right click your plane's docking port and choose "control from here"

3. Right click the station's docking port and choose "set as target"

That should get your navball markers set up right

[N3Coalition]

I'm starting to think my tail fins are uh... Messing this up. >_>. I tried docking to the clamp o trons near my solar panels, too, thinking it might be a incompatibility issue. Once I get back from the store I'll also check my dock's statuses like rryy suggested.

[stupid_chris]

I'm starting to think my tail fins are uh... Messing this up. >_>. I tried docking to the clamp o trons near my solar panels, too, thinking it might be a incompatibility issue. Once I get back from the store I'll also check my dock's statuses like rryy suggested.

No, your problem is that you're trying to dock a large dockingport with a medium dockingport. You can only dock those of the same size, so this won't work there for sure.

[dlmarti]

What ^he^ said.

I just wanted to say that your station, and plane look pretty bad ass.

[N3Coalition]

What ^he^ said.

I just wanted to say that your station, and plane look pretty bad ass.

Thanks

So I reloaded and attempted this again with sleep under my belt.

I noticed the reticule was kind of weird but I ignored it and went with my chase camera intuition.

I also oriented myself so my fins wouldn't hit things.

Success!

Jebediah looks pleased.

Thanks to everyone's help and assistance, I'll mark this as answered. Lessons learned: inline clamps are evil! and sleep solves everything.

[UbioZur]

Nice good job, and glad you have successfuly done it.

Lesson is not that inline clamp-o-tron are evil (they are a bit), but that it is safe to extend the docking port a bit out of the station to allow clearance.

You have just enough space to fit it!

[N3Coalition]

I think the final model will use the more classic use of the docking port on its nose that I've seen. It now makes way more sense to me why people would do that. >_<

Probably way easier to control lol. Plus this inline clamp is heavy! D: Why did I use it, lol. And yes, I was totally scared that I'd destroy some solar panels. :x

[LessrOf2Weevils]

I'm glad to see others have had issues with targeting using the inline docking port. When I use "control from here" with it, the target on the navball seems to by on the top of the cockpit.

The funny thing is that my reusable Mun ship has radial docking ports for two landers, with the landers also having radial docking ports, except here I used regular docking port with the radial attachment point.

Image => https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwb9QbYRGEvqMTNtcmxiSzVPZm8/edit?usp=sharing

Unlike with the inline docking port, the targeting works perfectly. So if it really bugs you that the targeting is off with the inline docking port, try just making your own with radial a attachment point and a regular docking port. Of course, then you don't get the cool doors. :-(