Quad Atomic engine problems

[dudester28]

So I have a mission to duna well planned out at this point. I have a mother ship that uses a quad adapter to have 4 Atomic engines attached to a large fuel tank. In order to get it into orbit, I attached fuel tanks beneath the engines with 4 decouplers and an inverted quad adapter below it. When I had to jettison the fairings for the atomic engines, all four engines detached from the ship. I suspect that the fairings are to blame. Is there a way I can fix this?

[TheDarkStar]

Put docking ports underneath instead of decouplers, or put the engines to the side.

[jaredkzr]

I've tried to do this as well. The inverted quad adapter is what's causing your problem. It will only attach to one of the nuclear engines even though it seems like its attaching to all four. My problem was that the decouplers were firing up and hitting the engines causing them to blow up.

It's best to use radial attachment points to place the nuclear engines out to the side of the spacecraft.

[Johnno]

This is asked so often that I've made a small 'tutorial' image sequence for it.

For a quad mount you want the fairing seam pointing diagonally outward, that is rotate your engines 45°. On a tricoupler you want the seam outward as well, so rotate your engines 90°. Check the pictures for clarification.

I've heard that the decouplers can sometimes knock out your engines so if that happens to you try the blue separators like in my images.

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[Tex_NL]

I've tried to do this as well. The inverted quad adapter is what's causing your problem. It will only attach to one of the nuclear engines even though it seems like its attaching to all four. My problem was that the decouplers were firing up and hitting the engines causing them to blow up.

It's best to use radial attachment points to place the nuclear engines out to the side of the spacecraft.

No it's not. It's the fairings that cause this problem.

Most stock engines have a beaker shaped fairing but the atomic has two shells. When you detach the decoupler the shells are ejected to the side with enough force to knock off adjacent engines. To avoid this you should rotate the engines 45 degrees in order for the fairings to clear the other engines.

Edi6t: Ninja'd. Johnno is 100% correct.

[Starwaster]

I've tried to do this as well. The inverted quad adapter is what's causing your problem. It will only attach to one of the nuclear engines even though it seems like its attaching to all four. My problem was that the decouplers were firing up and hitting the engines causing them to blow up.

It's best to use radial attachment points to place the nuclear engines out to the side of the spacecraft.

Jared is right, you can't rejoin multiple children back into a single node. If you try, it is highly unlikely that you will go to space today.

An alternative to attaching the rockets radially is http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/39049-Mobius-RocketWorks-Engine-Mounts-and-Parts

You will find multi-point adapters like the quad but most of them also have a center attachment point as well. Take a girder and attach it to that central point in between your engines. That will give you a single attachment node below your four engines. (or three or six or eight, Mobius has you covered)

[Starwaster]

No it's not. It's the fairings that cause this problem.

Most stock engines have a beaker shaped fairing but the atomic has two shells. When you detach the decoupler the shells are ejected to the side with enough force to knock off adjacent engines. To avoid this you should rotate the engines 45 degrees in order for the fairings to clear the other engines.

Edi6t: Ninja'd. Johnno is 100% correct.

You and Johnno missed the part where he is sticking another upside down quad under the four engines.

Yeah, you're right, he SHOULD also rotate his engines 45 degrees but trying to put an inverted quad to connect all four engines to the part below is a bad move.

Though if he does what I suggested then he won't have to worry about rotating them because they won't have or need fairings.

[Tex_NL]

You and Johnno missed the part where he is sticking another upside down quad under the four engines.

Yeah, you're right, he SHOULD also rotate his engines 45 degrees but trying to put an inverted quad to connect all four engines to the part below is a bad move.

You're correct about the quad but that's completely irrelevant in this case. With or without the quadcoupler he will knock off his engines no matter what, unless he rotates them.

[Johnno]

You and Johnno missed the part where he is sticking another upside down quad under the four engines.

I didn't miss it, I didn't comment on it since it's doable just fine. You can either strut the adapters to eachother to secure all the engines etc inbetween or you can build around it with docking ports. Since OP mentioned not having any issues until the fairings are jettisoned I replied to that issue, nothing else.

[Skorpychan]

I think the problem is the quad adaptors. I prefer to mount the engines on the sides; girder segment to a fuel tank with the engine underneath that, and strut/fuel line to the main tank from there.

DO NOT FORGET THE FUEL LINES.

[Johnno]

I made a new quickie tutorial to show the adapter docking port routine.

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