Throttle Controlled Avionics 1.4.1 [0.90] (5 January '15)

[likke_A_boss]

Hey! You made Modding Monday! This will now receive some very well-earned attention.

[Rokker]

Okay -- I tried this out. It does indeed work as advertised. Caution for using it on launch, though: because it is throttling engines differentially, in an asparagus configuration this throttling leads to slightly different rates of fuel consumption. Hence one side of your asparagus runs out of fuel before the other, causing the vessel to begin vibrating, potentially violently if you're lucky, and to spin out of control if you're unlucky. This can be fixed by judicious use of TAC Fuel Balancer, but you need to be actively managing it after every staging event to set the next 2 tanks to balance with each other.

Another somewhat of an issue is that in fact this mod gives you SUCH effective control that it can confuse MechJeb into overcorrecting -- has anyone else run into that issue?

Well that is an issue that you should have expected using simple logic, don't blame the mod or the modder.

[BPI_Bel]

I am not sure how the plugin accomplishes what it does, but I think the logic may need some adjustment. The application that immediately came to mind when I saw this on modding monday was shuttles, since they work on asymmetric thrust. Instead, the thrust balance adjusted at times when gimbal would be sufficient - robbing my craft of power at inopportune times. Mostly, this occurred during the transition from SRB thrust to LFO engines as sole power source.

Admittedly, this is with FAR installed - so I don't know if that makes changes that would adversely affect your work. I appreciate the plugin, and will follow developments.

[Mystique]

That's interesting. A few weeks earlier this mod could've saved several hours of my life that I spent balancing my 4-engine heavy science hove-multi-lander-rcraft so that it won't flip when making burns

[Captain_Party]

Does this make it easier to build shuttles? I assume it does, because of unbalanced craft...

[Mystique]

BTW, there is typo error in main window "toggel TCA". And is it possible to hide engine info by default?

Didn't actually understand slider meaning, except that upper one kinda controls rate of mod's influence on vessel control.

I managed to get random VTOL-like bunch of parts in air and even land it (and with FAR!), such easy control feels awesome.

[qfeys]

Hi,

I've been a couple of days offline because of exams and stuff, and to see on my return that I've made it to modding Mondays is totally amazing. I noticed that there are two questions that keep returning:

1. How does this mod work?

It first calculates the torque each engine is capable of and when a steering command is given, by yourself, by SAS or by anything else, it adjusts the throttle based on this torque. An engine is incorporated in the calculations when: it possesses the module "ModuleEngines" and when it's field "throttle enabled" is TRUE. This includes all the stock liquid engines, and excludes the SRB's. Also the thrust is assumed on the y-axis of the engine, which might not be true for modded engines. If anyone knows a more elegant solution, let me know. It is also worth nothing that my mod doesn't balances your craft, SAS balances your craft, and my mod picks up SAS.

2. What do the sliders do.

Thrust factor: This sets the aggressiveness of the mod. With this to max, complete engines will completely shut down, even on minor corrections. The minimum does almost nothing to balance things out. I don't know what the ideal amount is, so let me know what your experiences are.

Mean Thrust: This is what the thrust is of all the engines when no control input is given.

• 100 means that all engines burn max, and when an input is given, some burn less.
  
• Less, eg 80, means that thy will standard burn at 80%, and when an input is given, some will thrust less, others will thrust more.This will give you more control.
  
• More than 100, eg 120, means that all the engines will thrust at max, and when a small input is given, nothing will change. Only when a throttle change of more than 20% is asked, the engines will react. This might be handy when you think your standard control mechanisms (gimbals, reaction control, control surfaces) are most of the time sufficient.

I hope this clarifies some things and that you may have a lot more fun with it.

qfeys

[swoosh]

First, thank you for this mod. It's all we need to get our shuttles work!

I tried this mod yesterday with a lander (its a 4 vertical engine lander, with a central core, but it is not simetrical) i built last week. I was unable to fly it, but with this mod the first try was first success!

However, i get a failure. The commander pod is in horizontal position at the front (shuttle kind of) but when i change the "control from here" to a docking port (in vertical position at the top of the ship) the mod begin to rotate the ship in the vertical line (x axis i mean) trying to put the ship at 90º (crashing it, of course). I am doing something wrong, some ideas? Thanks

And again, thanks for this mod, its awesome!

[AngelLestat]

Hi qfey, good work with this mod. I like it very much.

I usually use this setting the Thrust factor to almost minimun and leading Mean thrust in 100. (using b9 sabre engines in air breath mode)

Now After your explanation I understand a lot more how to use the configs.

In a future release, it will be nice that your last setting keep save, becouse when I forget to set again between each launch I crash

[qfeys]

However, i get a failure. The commander pod is in horizontal position at the front (shuttle kind of) but when i change the "control from here" to a docking port (in vertical position at the top of the ship) the mod begin to rotate the ship in the vertical line (x axis i mean) trying to put the ship at 90º (crashing it, of course). I am doing something wrong, some ideas? Thanks

And again, thanks for this mod, its awesome!

I tracked the bug. The torque is calculated based on the root part, and not on the controlling pod. I will make a fix in the next update, which will be in ~2 weeks. In the mean time, only use it while controlling from the root part or something with the same orientation as the root part.

In a future release, it will be nice that your last setting keep save, becouse when I forget to set again between each launch I crash

I'll do it

[swoosh]

I tracked the bug. The torque is calculated based on the root part, and not on the controlling pod. I will make a fix in the next update, which will be in ~2 weeks. In the mean time, only use it while controlling from the root part or something with the same orientation as the root part.

I'll do it

Thanks a lot!

[JeffreyCor]

This is a great idea! Instead of having it on for every ship automatically though it might be interesting to have it as a part to put onto a ship you wish to have the thrust balanced on, making it truly an avionics item. This will make it more game immersive as well as remove the issue others have stated wishing it to default to off. This way it is only on if you add the part to the ship.

[qfeys]

This is a great idea! Instead of having it on for every ship automatically though it might be interesting to have it as a part to put onto a ship you wish to have the thrust balanced on, making it truly an avionics item. This will make it more game immersive as well as remove the issue others have stated wishing it to default to off. This way it is only on if you add the part to the ship.

Actually, I liked the idea that you don't have to put an additional part on each ship, that's how I made it. So, unless lots of people ask for this, I'm not going to do that. I don't think most people would change the values dramatically anyway.

[JeffreyCor]

Actually, I liked the idea that you don't have to put an additional part on each ship, that's how I made it. So, unless lots of people ask for this, I'm not going to do that. I don't think most people would change the values dramatically anyway.

Change values no, but having to turn it off on every ship that it isn't wanted on is a pain in the rear and having it instantly available on every ship doesn't seem very realistic. Basic idea is great, implementation however...

[tetryds]

Why not just add it as a command pod tweakable?

Solve both issues in a row.

[xtremeqg]

Why not just add it as a command pod tweakable?

Solve both issues in a row.

THIS

I hate it when I need to increase my part count just to enable something.

[K3-Chris]

Really like this mod, works really nicely, only real issue I have is that after a lot of playing around with it making a shuttle with external fuel tank etc, it stopped working, doesn't thrust limit the engines, turning it off and on doesn't fix it. Hmm and restarting KSP doesn't fix it either, but removing all the seperatrons from the tank fixed it, weird, why does solid rockets in higher up stages make the mod stop working? Also not that I look closer, it's throttle controlling my jet engines that aren't on either, I've put jet engines on this shuttle to make it easier to land it on the runway, but I don't use them during the ascent because their trust compared to the rockets is tiny and I don't want to deal with flameouts etc.

I'd also prefer if it was off by default, it's not a feature you need on everything, and for some reason it throttles back single engine craft etc which is weird.

Edited January 31, 2014 by K3|Chris

[kiwiak]

Im wondering... does Davon Throttle Control systems mod offers same functionality?

Whitch one is better?

[xtremeqg]

Really like this mod, works really nicely, only real issue I have is that after a lot of playing around with it making a shuttle with external fuel tank etc, it stopped working, doesn't thrust limit the engines, turning it off and on doesn't fix it. Hmm and restarting KSP doesn't fix it either, but removing all the seperatrons from the tank fixed it, weird, why does solid rockets in higher up stages make the mod stop working? Also not that I look closer, it's throttle controlling my jet engines that aren't on either, I've put jet engines on this shuttle to make it easier to land it on the runway, but I don't use them during the ascent because their trust compared to the rockets is tiny and I don't want to deal with flameouts etc.

I'd also prefer if it was off by default, it's not a feature you need on everything, and for some reason it throttles back single engine craft etc which is weird.

It has probably been mentioned before in this thread but besides ignoring disabled engines it doesn't take gimbals into account either. I had a single stack rocket with 4 engines on a quad coupler for testing and noticed that during steering it was completely shutting down engines on a certain side (treating engines like RCS I suppose). Problem however is that gimbal could have done the same thing and would not cause the vessel to lose thrust.

Other than that though this mod is a must-have for anyone wanting to build a shuttle-like rocket without spending 3 days balancing fuel and thrust to make it fly straight.

[Jasonden]

Im wondering... does Davon Throttle Control systems mod offers same functionality?

No. Davon Throttle Control allows you to assign throttle groups and to throttle those groups independently -- i.e., you could have a bunch of aerospikes with one throttle, and nukes with another, for instance. It does not do attitude control like this mod.

[tecknobabble]

A better indication as to whether it is enabled or not would be useful so you know what state it's really in.

[K3-Chris]

A better indication as to whether it is enabled or not would be useful so you know what state it's really in.

Could color the toolbar button perhaps.

[Azimech]

I see another possible evolution: a master module and 6 slaves to control very large and very heavy ships by replacing the RCS system with rockets!

[K3-Chris]

Also: would be nice if the window obeyed F2 = hide UI

[xZise]

Hi, I noticed this plugin ignores the thrust limiter I set in the VAB. This is kind of problematic as I have basically not an engine which a low enough thrust and I'm using RF which applies a lower cap to most of the engines.

Fabian