How to decouple LES in flight?

[HeadHunter67]

So I've used mod Launch Escape Towers before, and I know how to set them up to the Abort action group to get the pod away from the rocket in an emergency.

To be very clear, that's not what I'm asking about.

What I want to know is: When I'm in flight, once I've reached a safe altitude, how to I fire and decouple the LES at the same time? If I stage the motor or fire it, it pulls on the craft (not a good idea) until I can right-click to decouple it. If I decouple it first, the motor won't fire.

Do I really have to make a separate action group to do both at once... and will that even work?

Edited April 4, 2014 by HeadHunter67

[Taki117]

An action group will work only if the LES has a built in decoupler (Which the new stock one does not) so you can either add decoupler functionality, or place something like a docking port below it.

[zarakon]

Structure, from top to bottom:

- LES

- Clamp-o-tron docking port

- Capsule

- Decoupler

- Rest of craft

Abort action:

- LES Activate Engine

- Decouple the decoupler below the capsule

Custom01 action:

- LES activate Engine

- Docking port decouple node

[HeadHunter67]

That seems to have done the trick, as I had hoped. Thanks for the input!

Edited April 4, 2014 by HeadHunter67

[Specialist290]

Another trick I've used before is to mount an upside-down decoupler (i.e. arrow pointing down) to the base of the LES, then set up your staging so that the decoupler and the LES activate at the same time. You don't have to even set up a custom action group to get that working properly, and the decoupler gets dealt with along with the LES, since it decouples at the bottom.

[RocketPilot573]

I wish the LES had it's own decoupler, that would make much more sense, and decouplers below it look ugly.

[EtherDragon]

I know this is answered, but the way that I do it, and works really well is this:

Rocket Build:

LES

Decoupler (1)

Capsule

Decoupler (2)

Rest of rocket

Abort Action Group:

LES and Decoupler 2

In my standard staging setup, I just make sure that LES and Decouple 1 are triggered together, and it naturally flies off safely during staging at some point.

[mellojoe]

There's a lot of things I would have done differently had I been the one to design the IN-GAME launch-escape-system. For instance, mine would have included a built in parachute and decoupler. As this is the NASA pack, the LES mirrors the real life one, in which their parachute storage is completely different than in-game.

But, yes, you end up needing 2 different action groups to work your LES:

1-Abort sequence

2-Safely eject LES