Docking nightmare.

[spumco1]

Hi, Im new to the forum so hello fellow Kerbanaults.

I am having major problems with docking and using the AGU. I have two scenarios on the go, one docking around Kerbal and the other trying to grab a ship in Duna orbit.

1. I have two rather large ships that i want to use as a space station. I want them to make a T shape so Ive made one with multiple docking ports running along the cylinder and another with just one port on the nose. I can make them touch but they wont connect? Ive tried switching the sas off but still they wont join. Any Ideas?

2. I have a craft with two AGU's on the front that are armed and another craft full of science from Duna's surface. I can nestle the craft in the jaws of the AGU's but they wont grab?

I have a standard copy of KSP with no mods or adjustments. PLEASE can anyone help as its driving me to despair?

[xrayfishx]

Pictures would always help. Without them it's hard to diagnose it.

[mhoram]

1. I have two rather large ships that i want to use as a space station. I want them to make a T shape so Ive made one with multiple docking ports running along the cylinder and another with just one port on the nose. I can make them touch but they wont connect? Ive tried switching the sas off but still they wont join. Any Ideas?

I have a few ideas:

• How fast is the velocity difference between the two ships? It should be less than lets say 1m/s
  
• Do you use the same docking ports on both ships? (there are three different ones: junior, normal and senior)
  
• The docking ports should be aligned to each other (angle should not be larger than lets say 5-10°)
  
• Each docking port has two sides and only one of them is capable of docking, but not the other. So be careful with the orientation.
  

(pictures would be helpful for finding the problem)

[Claw]

This thread will hopefully help with the docking problem. For what you are describing, you probably need to change the docking port state to "state = ready". But I would recommend checking this thread to make sure you are picking the correct fix. (Assuming you have matching docking ports, andy they are oriented correctly with nothing in the way.)

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/78863-FIX-Dock-Undocking-Bug-in-0-23-5

As for the claw, I'm not sure off hand. A picture would probably help. But make sure you are in control of the ship with the claw as they make contact. Also, if what you are grabbing is very round or is an oddly shaped part, try changing the approach angle or grab another part.

[spumco1]

ok Im on it, getting pics and info. cheers

[spumco1]

[spumco1]

Yes about 1m/s, the ports are the first ones to open up on the tech tree, jr i think. they are aligned when i touch nearly 90 degrees and they face each other.

I have docked many times in the past but these 2 ships,( see photos below), will not have it. Ive only been successful with a head to head docking as appose to trying to make a T shape.

Thanks for replying btw.

[Jean Deaux]

You might by attempting to dock in a way that the AGU wasn't designed for. It sounds like you are describing that your science vessel lacks docking collars and so you're attempting to dock to it using the AGP that is on your other vessel. Some ship parts don't attach to the outside skin/radial positions (at least not in the VAB) so if you're trying to grab one of these locations, it might be coming up empty for a grab.

[Claw]

Yes about 1m/s, the ports are the first ones to open up on the tech tree, jr i think. they are aligned when i touch nearly 90 degrees and they face each other.

I have docked many times in the past but these 2 ships,( see photos below), will not have it. Ive only been successful with a head to head docking as appose to trying to make a T shape.

Thanks for replying btw.

You may need to upload your pictures to a site like imgur.com or photobucket. Then you can share the link here with the img tags. Place your image link between the tags.

(Your other picture isn't showing up because you pasted your image file directly into the post.)

If you have docked successfully in the past, then you may just have some docking ports that need to be manually reset. That information is all in the link I posted earlier, but those pictures you're trying to upload will help a lot for us to pin down the problem.

Edited May 23, 2014 by Claw

[spumco1]

ok, lets see if this works.

http://s191.photobucket.com/user/spumco1/media/Wholeship.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

[spumco1]

http://s191.photobucket.com/user/spumco1/media/Portview.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

http://s191.photobucket.com/user/spumco1/media/doubleclaw.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

[spumco1]

OK, so there are a couple of shots of the craft I'm trying to dock and one of the grabber. Hopefully you'll be able to see what ports and ships I'm trying here. I have included the craft i am trying to rescue from Duna.

http://s191.photobucket.com/user/spumco1/media/Targetship.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

[spumco1]

[Taki117]

The Klaw needs a significant amount of force when docking with another ship (2.5m/s should do it) but docking ports don't require much at all (anything more than about 2 is too much) however, since both your ships are very large it might just be that the magnetism of the docking ports isn't enough to move the ship into position. Might I suggest This Mod which does nothing but add a very helpful UI whenever you select a docking port as your target. Also, when you are really close to your target port it is helpful to simply turn off SAS and let it drift, making SMALL corrections as necessary.

[spumco1]

Yes thanks for the link earlier but to be honest I have only just really got into the PC for gaming as I used to play xbox . A lot of the coding or HTML jargon is a bit beyond me at the moment,as are forums, but I a willing student and am trying to work stuff out. I'm loving KSP, but getting a bit stuck after hours of effort in places. I'm still to make it back from Duna, hence why I wanted to use a AGU to either take the ship home or refuel enough for Kerbal orbit, then repeat as necessary.

Any advice would be great, many thanks.

[spumco1]

Yes I do switch the SAS off when docking,( i learned the hard way). I think you may be right with the magnetism but I have docked 2 very large ships ,nose to nose before with these jr docking ports.

I have never modded before so Ill have to brush up on what to do, but thanks for the link, I'll get on it soon. I really want some texture mods soon as well, just to pretty it up.

Edited May 23, 2014 by spumco1

[Jean Deaux]

Looks like you have the right parts on the larger ships, though I personally have yet to try using a grabber to dock to another ship as yet. At the closest approach it looks like you might be docking a medium collar to a small collar, if so I don't believe that works. In that photo you look very mis-aligned to me. The ship you are trying to save might just be too small to grab, the small mass might be having the ship bounce off the grabber before it can latch on. I didn't notice any docking ports on that tiny ship so you may be SOL.

If you positively absolutely have gotta save that ship, I'm thinking you've got two options. There's a way to turn on unlimited fuel, I've not used it myself but I'm sure if you search the forums you'll find a way to activate it. The other option is the Lazers Mod, it allows ship to ship fuel transfers within a short range, which means you'll need to outfit yet another ship and get it out there with the required lazer mods aboard.

Modding in KSP is amazingly easy to do, you simply unzip your mod, most have folder organizations and everything after the "Gamedata" folder gets moved into the KSP "Gamedata" sub-folder. Once you launch KSP, any mod that's in the Gamedata folder gets automatically added, very very cool. Don't like the mod anymore? Delete the sub-folder you added and it's gone (along with every ship that had a modded part or was docked to it).

Good luck, saving stuff is half the fun!

[Claw]

For that small of a ship, you won't need two claws. It will be difficult to latch onto because it's so small and mostly round. You'll have to approach it almost exactly from the side to get the claw to grab. By the way, you DON'T need docking ports on the small ship in order to grab on with the claw...

Also know that if you do manage to claw it with both at the same time, one of the claws will experience a bug which will cause the claw end graphics to flip over. I think that bug is fairly harmless, but it will look bad.

Your docking ports look okay. It is a bit unclear to me in your pictures, but are you trying to connect them face to face? Or face to edge? I know you said you wanted a "T". The ports still have to touch each other flat. If you haven't docked two vessels that large together before, it can sometimes take a long time for the ports to slide together all the way because the tanks are so big. (It takes a while for the ports to move the ships around.) And sometimes they aren't strong enough to do it.

I will also echo my first post. You should check out the docking port's state in your save file. My thread is pretty detailed about where to look for the port's state. If it doesn't make sense, let me know.

Try this post specifically: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/78863-FIX-Dock-Undocking-Bug-in-0-23-5?p=1145499&viewfull=1#post1145499