help, can't undock/decouple

[kurja]

On top of my upper stage I have a small rockomax decoupler and a docking port on top of that, facing down towards the decoupler so I can use it after ditching the lower stage, but I can't separate the two for some reason. While in one piece, right clicking on either gives the usual options of decouple and control from here/fuel crossfeed on the docking port, but when I decouple using either the decoupler or the docking port, craft separates in the sense that struts disappear and the lower stage becomes marked as debris, but it sticks on to the ship! If I used the docking port for separation, decoupler becomes part of the debris so it won't respond to right clicks, if I separated using the decoupler, docking port only gives the option "control from here" when right clicked.

Is there a workaround for this, maybe something in the persistence..?

Edited March 4, 2014 by kurja

[Taki117]

A pic of the craft in question would help, as well as which type of docking port you are using. If its the senior docking port it is entirely possibly you installed it upside down. ( common mistake when adding them to the bottom of rockets.)

[Kasuha]

If struts disappear, they are two separate ships. Assuming your ships are in orbit, you can try the following: turn the ship so the part to be separated points away from ground, and enter time warp. If they are really detached, they will behave as if they are on different orbits. Let the two ships pass through each other and only exit time warp when they are safely separated. Note that it may take a while. And it may be a good idea to quicksave before you start trying.

[kurja]

It's the "normal" docking port, first one that appears in tech tree, not the larger senior port. I didn't think to post a pic since the problem is with just these two parts... and frankly doesn't matter which way the docking port is pointing, ship should separate anyway!?

I did try to rotate around and fire the engines to break free, but to no avail. Didn't try time warping though. I'll try that and post a pic when I get home in the evening.

[Kasuha]

It's the "normal" docking port, first one that appears in tech tree, not the larger senior port. I didn't think to post a pic since the problem is with just these two parts... and frankly doesn't matter which way the docking port is pointing, ship should separate anyway!?

It's not about which way it is pointing, it's about whether or not did you install it "inside out". Because with such relatively thin parts, you may accidentally have attached them by the wrong attach point (the one on the other side) and that sometimes causes problems.

[jaredkzr]

It's not about which way it is pointing, it's about whether or not did you install it "inside out". Because with such relatively thin parts, you may accidentally have attached them by the wrong attach point (the one on the other side) and that sometimes causes problems.

Wouldn't the editor have realized that it was clipping through the other parts? Maybe if the noclip cheat was enabled but that can just cause all kinds of problems.

It's the "normal" docking port, first one that appears in tech tree, not the larger senior port. I didn't think to post a pic since the problem is with just these two parts... and frankly doesn't matter which way the docking port is pointing, ship should separate anyway!?

I did try to rotate around and fire the engines to break free, but to no avail. Didn't try time warping though. I'll try that and post a pic when I get home in the evening.

I would definitely try the warp suggestions. If that doesn't work then maybe a carefully aimed projectile could knock the offending ship away.

[kurja]

Wouldn't the editor have realized that it was clipping through the other parts? Maybe if the noclip cheat was enabled but that can just cause all kinds of problems.

I would definitely try the warp suggestions. If that doesn't work then maybe a carefully aimed projectile could knock the offending ship away.

It's definitely possible to put parts inside others without enabling the no clip cheat, happens unintentionally sometimes. I'll take another look but I don't think that would be the case here.

[WhiteKnuckle]

Try putting the ship in a flat spin before you decouple.

[Arran]

you can cli[p without the cheat, doing this "trick" myself a while..

This also means that especially with decouplers, you sometimes dispite the rotation of a decoupler is still correct, you connect the engine to the lower connection node of the decouple and the next stage to the upper connection node.

Then when you stage, it staging itself works, but the parts stick together as a whole, but with no control anymore over the staged part.

This happend allready a few times to me, and only way to solve this, is to cancel the flight, and correct the faulty decoupler in VAB, by reattaching the decouple in the right order.

[kurja]

Well whaddya know, time accelerating did the trick. It was very, very weird though! First, I again tried to normally decouple and rcs away from the debris, but it was certainly still attached. So I time accelerated, and the pieces begun to drift away - so I went back to 1x time, and the pieces just jumped back together, with such force that docking port joins in the craft bent at 45 degree angles =^O So I tried again, this time accelerated long enough that the pieces were a good 50 meters apart, now it seems to be working normally...

Very strange behavior, even for a kerbal rocket.

[Kasuha]

If they were not overlapping by any part when you switched back to 1x time and they still snapped together then it is very strange indeed. I wonder what was causing it. Are you sure there was no "strange detached flying part" nearby either of the two ships which the game might have considered part of one of the two ships inside of the other one? Sometimes it happens e.g. with strut nubs.

The fact that different ships can pass through each other in (non-physics) time warp is normal in KSP though.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Kasuha

[kurja]

No, they were several meters apart, further from each other than what you'd need for docking magnets to kick in. As far as I can tell there were no other stray parts around that could have clipped into either craft.

Having resolved this, I realize I.. erm... neglected some things in my design. Deorbit and redesign, oh well, that's ksp!