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How to autodeploy parachutes?


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I've seen a few threads where people talk about setting up their parachutes to deploy automatically during reentry but I can't figure out how to do this myself. The right click menu lets me change the altitude where the chute fully opens, but I haven't been able to get the parachute to deploy without first activating the stage. Is there something I'm missing, or am I just misunderstanding what people are describing?

Edited by SabreRedleg
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Stock parachutes have a tweakable for minimum pressure. If you stage them and the atmospheric pressure is less than the amount set, they will "arm" and wait for the minimum pressure before they semi-deploy.

So the trick is to set the minimum pressure for where you actually want to deploy, then arm at some convenient time before that. They still don't go off if you never arm them, but you can save yourself having to have control and push the button at the exact moment.

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I just set my chutes deployment to an action group and make sure all chutes are on stage 0 of whatever craft I'm building. Saves all the staging hassle and accidental deployment of chutes.

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I usually deploy my parachutes when passing 50km, going *up*.

They will enter state"deployed", but sit safely in their holder until enough air pressure released them.

This way, even if you forget you chutes, or your probe has run out of batteries, the chute will still deloy when it gets to a suitable altitude. The "air pressure" tweak allows you to set this. I usually run mine at "50m", and "0.5 atm". 50m is *plenty* time to stop, and reduces the waiting-to-land delay.

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You can deploy them by right-clicking during flight. I don't know if that "arms" them when there currently isn't the minimum pressure for semi-deployment. Staging certainly will do that.

The parachute icon in the stage changes colour depending on state.

White: Inactive, will do nothing until you make it.

Blue: Armed. Will semi-deploy on reaching high enough pressure, set by the tweakable.

Yellow: Semi-deployed. Will fully deploy on reaching low enough altitude, set by the tweakable.

Green: Fully-deployed. Will cut on hitting the ground.

Red: Cut. Will not redeploy unless repacked by a Kerbal.

Note that parachutes will not work if the craft is not active or within 2.5 km of the active craft.

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  • 2 years later...
On 27/4/2014 at 8:50 AM, stupid_chris said:

As said above here, there's a bunch of limitations to the stock parachutes. That's why I recommend you try RealChute (link in my signature). You'll have much more control onto what you're trying to do :)

I didnt understand how to autodeploy chutes with ur mod. can u explain it or make a video plz?

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This is an ancient thread that hasn't been posted in for well over two years.  The content of the thread is now hopelessly obsolete-- for example, KSP stock parachutes have gotten a major makeover, and now you can do things they used not to be able to do, like disarm an accidentally-staged parachute.  And now they autodeploy by default, as long as you stage them before hitting atmosphere-- they have the "open when safe" feature.

Locking the thread to prevent further confusion.  If you have questions about parachutes in current KSP, feel free to open a new thread!

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