Are shielded docking ports glitched?

[TheGeoninja]

Recently I was flying a refuel mission for a craft I'm building to send to Duna. For fun I put on the shielded docking on my refueling craft. When I got the the ship in orbit I struggled to dock it as it seemed the two docking ports seemed to bounce off each other. That said I was able to eventually dock so they aren't entirely broken and I'm not the best at docking so really I'm asking the more seasoned dockers if there is an issue with shielded docking port. Anything helps

Edited February 24, 2014 by TheGeoninja
Got the answer I was looking for.

[TheDarkStar]

Did you right click it and open it?

[m4rt14n]

U need to right click both to open. Then dock. Its not so obvious i know.. At first i thought they were automatic, and refused to use em for a while

Edited February 20, 2014 by m4rt14n

[undercoveryankee]

It's also possible for two open docking ports to bounce and tease each other if both ships are using active stabilization (SAS or autopilot). If that's what you're seeing, turning off SAS on one of the ships just before contact will get you docked quicker.

[Claw]

I have also heard of cases where the shielded docking port thinks it's still locked. In that case, I think your fixes are to fiddle with the save file or relaunch the ship.

[palioxis1248]

Turn off SAS when the docking ports snag each other and allow them to bounce and move around. Timewarp as needed.

[TheGeoninja]

Just so you know the port was open.

[m4rt14n]

Well yes then it may be glitched. Nothing a restart wont fix though..,

[Kerba Fett]

I use sheilded docking ports on a few of my ships and don't find them to be any buggier than any other port.

I've had a couple of times when ports wouldn't stick despite being in contact with no motion. I'd just back away 20 to 30 meters, switch control back to the pod and untarget the station docking port. Then I'd reswitch control back to my docking port, retarget the one on the station, and reapproach. I could then dock normally. That seemed to fix it without tweaking the persistance file.

[Captain Sierra]

I can confirm there is some weirdness with them. When returning to KSP from a long break, I did a docking practice mission with an Agena-esque target dummy which used a shielded port. On first contact (a flawless dock might I add, it simply bounced of. Magnetics didn't even kick in. I know I opened it and I know the lineup was perfect.

There is a bug with them failing to engage properly at first. Back up, try again and it *usually* fixes itself.