Baffled by docking

[Jiawen]

Docking two craft in orbit is completely confusing me. I've figured out how to get two craft next to each other; I even have two where their docking adapters touch. But the adapters just bounce pointlessly off each other. The magnets don't seem to engage. (Actually, they seemed to engage the first time, but the next time I loaded, the craft were no longer docked. Since then, I've been unable to get them to dock.) Things I've tried: Making sure the docking shroud is open (it is); turning off ASAS in both craft; trying docking mode instead of staging mode; making sure the right craft and object is targeted. Regardless of what I do, the craft won't dock. What else am I missing?

[Taki117]

ok, this sounds like the docking bug, I say this because you are using the shielded docking ports and it is nigh impossible to screw placement of those up. I know there's a thread around here for it but I can't for the life of me find it. What you need to do is go into your persistant or quicksave file and look for your craft. After finding your craft you will need to find your docking port. you are looking specifically for this bit of code

MODULE

{

name = ModuleDockingNode

isEnabled = True

state = Docked (dockee)

dockUId = 3776001069

dockNodeIdx = 0

[\CODE]

If your craft is supposed to be undocked change "state =" to Ready and set "dockUId =" and "dockNodeIdx =" both to 0. If that doesn't work then do the same on the other vessel.

[thiosk]

This sounds like my first docking attempt.

Question: Did you put ports on correctly?

I ask, becuase my first foray with docking I had that 6 way station adapter, and my ship with a docking port, and I was up there rubbing the docking port against the adapter all day.

Turned out, you have to put docking ports on the station adapter. That was a shock for me.

Another time I had them put on edit: whoops incomplete thought

I put them on, redid the launches, and boom dock.

Edited February 5, 2014 by thiosk

[Jimmy Jazz]

I don't know about the docking bug, and you might wanna try what Taki117 said, but in other case:

1. Make sure your SAS is off.

2. Move in slowly - 0.2 m/s.

3. Double check your latitude, your docking ports need not only be facing each other, but they also need to be aligned. It can take some players patience and practice to do this. Similarily, check from all camera angles are the ports facing each other directly.

Edited February 4, 2014 by Jimmy Jazz

[Jimmy Jazz]

...............

[ShadowDragon8685]

In my experience, MechJeb's kill rotation (KILL ROT) button is much, much more useful than SAS. SAS tries to keep you pointing in one direction come hell or high water, MJ stabilizes your vehicle so it doesn't go out of control, but it doesn't fight you when you're trying to input commands. Frankly, the stock SAS is bollocks compared to it. I don't think docking would be possible for me without MJ's KILL ROT function.

To actually do the dock, you need to touch the parts together slowly. They have a lot of docking part magnitism compared to real-life docking clamps, I understand, but even then it's very, very small compared to actually doing it. Expect to get it wrong and wind up nudging your docking partner where you weren't expecting, first time or two. Does this remind you of anything?

As with that something I won't mention by name, the trick is to take it slow and easy. Line up the docking ports, get them drifting together from as near as head-on as you can, and if it's slow enough and close enough, let the magnitism take care of the rest.

Also, technically, only the lighter participant in the docking actually needs RCS thrusters. The heavier one you're probably not going to want to be maneuvering around the lighter one, so just use its reaction wheels to get it pointing the way you want it to go. My first thought was to point it above the plane of the solar system and point the other one down, but that proved much less practical than pointing it prograde.

[Jiawen]

ok, this sounds like the docking bug, I say this because you are using the shielded docking ports and it is nigh impossible to screw placement of those up. I know there's a thread around here for it but I can't for the life of me find it. What you need to do is go into your persistant or quicksave file and look for your craft. After finding your craft you will need to find your docking port. you are looking specifically for this bit of code

MODULE

{

name = ModuleDockingNode

isEnabled = True

state = Docked (dockee)

dockUId = 3776001069

dockNodeIdx = 0

[\CODE]

If your craft is supposed to be undocked change "state =" to Ready and set "dockUId =" and "dockNodeIdx =" both to 0. If that doesn't work then do the same on the other vessel.

That seems to have done it. I had several different docking modules set to PreAttached or Acquire. Setting them all to Ready and reloading a couple times allowed me to get the craft docked.

Thank you!