Kerbin probe delivery. Probes not being delivered.

[MrUberGr]

So, I've made the following aircraft to deliver probes across the surface of kerbin, and I am facing two problems. First of all, I've made action groups to deploy the probes properly. They decouple, open the parachute, and lower the landing gear at the same time, for some reason, the landing gear never actually deploys.

Also, when I land and check the Space Center they do not appear anywhere. Can someone think of why this might happen? The probes have the probodyne QBE core.

action group:

deployed probe:

aircraft with probes:

[Moonfrog]

If u decouple first, I think the other action's don't happen because it is no longer part of the craft in that moment of time. SO there are no landing legs or parachutes to deploy. It becomes a separate ship.

My suggestion is to lower landing legs and activate parachutes before decoupling them. Maybe even putting decouple on a separate action group.

[MrUberGr]

But the parachute does open. It's only the legs that do not open. And this is only half the problem. For some reason they get lost. They don't appear as probes, debris, aircrafts, anything.

Putting the gear on a different action group does work but I don't like it so much. Plus, it's limiting to the number of probes you can carry.

[ddenis]

If it's below 22 km and not in range of 2-2,5 km from your active vessel - it will be deleted by game.

Edited November 25, 2013 by ddenis

[MrUberGr]

2 or 22km?

[ddenis]

1) Altitude < 22 km.

2) As soon as it get farther than 2 km from your active vessel.

It's deleted...

P.S. 2,5 km - it's distance on which physic is turned on/off for not controlled vessels.

Edited November 25, 2013 by ddenis

[wasmic]

Your plane looks like it's very fast. If you go further away than 2 km, and you're below 22 km, which you are, your probes will be considered crashed into terrain by the game, and will be deleted. You could try throttling down and flying low whenever you drop a probe.

[MrUberGr]

It is pretty fast indeed. It was built to go around kerbin, and then I thought I'd add the probes to see what's going on around the surface

So I have to be in a 2.5km range untill it lands or even after that will it be deleted?

[ddenis]

Until it lands, after that it will got "landed" status and won't be deleted.

With parachute it will go down with ~5 m/s below 500m under surface. So you have to be really slow

Edited November 25, 2013 by ddenis

[J.Random]

Romfarer mod has an option of increasing "unload distance" to up to 99 km. I'm pretty sure it worked for Manley in his "reusable space program" series.

[ddenis]

Yes, but user of such mod have to be aware that things can explode if you switch between vessel in space and vessel in atmosphere. If I remember it right from Manley's "reusable space program" series.

[MrUberGr]

That sounds pretty cool. I'll check it out, thanks!

Yes, but user of such mod have to be aware that things can explode if you switch between vessel in space and vessel in atmosphere. If I remember it right from Manley's "reusable space program" series.

oO explode? Don't want that! But, anyway, it's gonna be all in the atmosphere.

[ddenis]

Manley's video

But it could be fixed already.

[photogineer]

Is this something that could be remedied with a Stayputnuik or probe core of some kind on these probes? Or does the unload not care if the vessel is valid and controllable and only works on distance and altitude?

Matt

[MrUberGr]

As I said it is not just a box, but a the square probodyne thingy. So it isa valid aircraft.

[Motokid600]

You could always follow the probe down with the aircraft. Decouple one, spiral downward until you see it land then go back up.

[Kasuha]

Or you can go really low and slow, like for landing, and decouple them right above the terrain. The chute will open instantly and should brake them and deliver them to the ground really fast. If you drop them 100 m above terrain they will land in 20 seconds.

[MrUberGr]

You could always follow the probe down with the aircraft. Decouple one, spiral downward until you see it land then go back up.

That's the way I managed to do it finally. The problem is that the aircraft is so big, it isn't very nimble and it is hard to make closed turns.

Or you can go really low and slow, like for landing, and decouple them right above the terrain. The chute will open instantly and should brake them and deliver them to the ground really fast. If you drop them 100 m above terrain they will land in 20 seconds.

The problem with this tactic is that if I want to place one on a mountain then, for the reason I said above, I'm probably going to crash into it. xD

[Sirrobert]

Is this something that could be remedied with a Stayputnuik or probe core of some kind on these probes? Or does the unload not care if the vessel is valid and controllable and only works on distance and altitude?

Matt

That's not how it works. If you are more than 2,5km away from something, physics stop calculating for it and it goes on rails. If something on rails is lower than 22km, it gets deleted. End of story

[PhanThom]

I tried exactly the same thing and it seems that the probes despawn if you fly too far away from them. So you would have to stick around for them to land or something but that is obviously not an option when you're flying a jet. I don't see this idea working unless you use mods or Squad finds a way to fix this. I was thinking I was all smart with this idea so then I was pretty bummed out it didn't work