Multi-Port Docking Help

[ryanair_evo]

Hey Guys,

I haven't been playing too long and am still learning the in's and out's but..I have run into my first roadblock.

How can I dock two ports at the same time?

From the picture below, I believe you can see what I'm trying to do. I am a baddie and use Mechjeb (and am not ashamed at all of it:p)

Any ideas?

Edited February 9, 2014 by ryanair_evo

[Taki117]

In order to get it to work you have to dock them both at the same time, it's extremely difficult but doable.

[DeMatt]

The Docking Port Alignment Indicator mod is a great help in precision manual docking. No advice on how to convince MechJeb to use it, however.

[Roxette]

You will have to dock that manually, mechjeb will not cope with the double connections that far apart. Obviously it's going to be important to have the RCS thrusters well balanced so you can translate without rotating.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Roxette

[Kasuha]

You need to make sure they get magnetized at the same time. This means you need to do it manually, line them up perfectly, and dock at very small relative speed which will allow them to connect at the same time.

Notice that when you dock two ports at once, these connections are not the same. One of them is always "primary" and all other are "secondary". Engines cannot draw fuel through secondary connections, for instance. And when you undeck the primary one, all connections get undocked - but they also immediately magnetize and stick together unless some force pulls the two parts apart.

[ryanair_evo]

I'll give it a try then manually. My last go almost killed the station (wasn't manual) and it burnt all of my fuel. I just topped off the station so..round 14..lets see how it goes! Thank you guys.

[Claw]

I haven't tried to dock more than one port with MechJeb, but perhaps you can try to let Jeb get you most of the way there. Then turn it off and realign your parts so they are set up the right way. Then turn Jeb back on and let it get really close. Take over manually once it's nearly there and try to finish the job.

(Quicksave is your friend...)

[Respawn]

Try docking 12 ports at the same time..

I made a huge fuel tanker to send to the jool system, just because.. reasons..

Docked it together in kerbin orbit, the last 4 corner pieces/crafts had 12 docking ports each in multiple directions.

Its totally doable, just requires a lot of patience.

I'll suggest reorienting your "puzzle pieces" normal/anti-normal of your orbit,

so you don't have to keep re-aligning your second craft too often as you might prefer a slower approach then usual.

Point your crafts north/south when in equatorial orbit, makes it way easier.

Good luck.

[SSSPutnik]

Hint, use MechJeb force rotation option.

Ensure the piece being docked TO, is aligned perfectly on one angle, 0, 90 or whatever.

[Phafor]

You can use the Smart A.S.S. from mechjeb to get it in the good place and use docking mods for the alignment too, you can search for some tutorials on the internets

[700NitroXpress]

Dock the two center pieces to one long orange tank first, then align the ship to North on the nav ball to make things easier. Then align the second orange tank to North on the nav ball and then it's just a matter of aligning the ports before docking them at the same time. Do it manually with the translation controls.

[ryanair_evo]

The translation controls are what I mostly have issues with. I know they are something like H,N and other buttons but I keep messing up right before docking..ugh..

[Citherly]

The best thing that helped me out with docking so much was learning the different cameras. Cycle pressing the "v" key and find the CHASE camera. Doing this will make your translation keys always align with your view. It made manual docking a breeze for me...although I have not tried docking more than a single port at a time yet...

[ryanair_evo]

Success!!!

Thank you guys. I ended up using Mechjeb to get it lined up and close and just manually pushed it..one locked then with some wiggling, the second locked.