Docking of ground vehicles

[Kaiz0r]

Hello everybody,

For some time now I have been trying to set up a Kethane chain. All individual parts work (the miner, the transporter, the shuttle, the refueling station), for one small thing: I cannot dock them together... First I tried the KAS (Kerbal Atachment System) mod to do it with the winch cables, this worked fine until with the third run the game decided that when the winch cable is connected with the shuttle, the base with the winch on it will start doing cartwheels. I have been looking for three days for solutions, can't find any.

Next I thought of a robotic arm with a docking port. But the Robotics pack hasn't been updated after version 0.19. I did find the MagicSmokeIndustries adjustable sliding plate. But whenever I line thatone up with a docking port the sliding plates become some sort of exploding spring, demolishing everything attached to it.

When I use only stock parts everything is rigid, so the heights have to be exact, on Kerbin this is not that hard to do: I'm not changing any weights in the vehicles and the ground is level. But on the moon it is a lot harder because of the different gravity, the transporter truck being empty/full (36t weight difference), and I don't like spending another week moving a dockingport a couple of millimeters, send the entire truck to the moon, find out it doesn't fit, start over again.

So my question is: Is it possible to make a docking system for land based vehicles that is adjustable? and: How do the people who use the Kethane mod normally connect their different part to transfer fuel?

Installed mods:

Kethane mining

MagicSmokeIndustries (rotating plate and sliding rail)

Mechjeb2

Romfarer Lazors

TacFuelBalancer

[MrKicker]

What I would do is use kas cables, put a winch on your ship, then on the other end put your docking port. When you get close enuf for there to be magnetic pull. Extend the winch and the docking port will move into place, then just retract the winch untill the craft locks together.

[Geschosskopf]

So my question is: Is it possible to make a docking system for land based vehicles that is adjustable? and: How do the people who use the Kethane mod normally connect their different part to transfer fuel?

Until KAS gets updated, there's a workaround to the "cartwheeling" problem. When you 1st connect the cable, do it in undocked mode. Then create some slack in the cable through some combination of extending, releasing, or moving the vehicles closer together. Then reconnect in docked mode. Also, F5 beforehand in case anything goes haywire.

As to docking vehicles, the KAS trick MrKIcker described is great, provided you remember to use UNDOCKED mode to avoid the cartwheel issue and the angle of pull isn't such that your vehicles will break.

Another trick is to use the Damned Robotics hydraulic cylinders or similar parts. That lets you raise and lower a vehicle however much you want, instead of all or nothing like landing gear legs.

Yet another trick I've seen used (but have never done myself) is use top-mounted docking ports. The docking port on 1 vehicle is on top of the body facing up while the port of the other is on a long wobbly boom facing down. The idea here is that if the height difference isn't too much, the magnetic attraction will pull the port on the boom down to meet that on the other vehicle. You could also have the boom attached via a Damned Robotics hinge to make sure it's at the right height relative to the other vehicle.

My own personal preference, however, is to NOT dock anything on the surface. Instead, my Kethane refinery is in orbit. Ships land, drill, and fill up their Kethane tanks, then fly up to the refinery where the docking takes place. Refining to LFO is more efficient in orbit, although having to lift the drills each time detracts from that. But that's part of the reason why I only exploit Kethane on low-gravity moons. So, Gilly, Minmus, Ike, and Bop are the places to drill.

[tabu_niw]

I use the Robotic Arms pack. The arms can be magnetized and used to "dock" with other ships.

As a added bonus this add-on also includes docking cameras for all docking parts.

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

You could also use the aircraft gears to set up a standard height for vehicle docks, since they don't have any suspension.

[Kaiz0r]

Thank you all for the reply's. I'll try the "KAS undocked first" trick. If that doesn't work I think I will go for the vertical docking or use the moveable (mod) parts to lower and raise the entire vehicle instead of just moving the dockingport in position (which with the romfarer parts also fails).

The first solution with KAS will still make the craft with the winch on it cartwheel. For the landing gear trick I'll would have to redesign the entire mining base, so that will be a last resort.

Again, thank you all for the reply's!

[CheftonUTD]

I had the same problem with KAS and found two solutions to it.

1. Get your Kerbal to grab the connector on the winch, walk it over to where you want to plug it in, connect it in 'undocked' mode. Right-click the winch and select 'release', change connection mode to 'docked'.

2. Connect your cable in 'undocked' mode, save with F5 as soon as you change it over to docked mode, reload with F9 and the physics (the cartwheels etc) won't have been modeled.