Docking on Large stations

[davidpsummers]

I have a station that I've added on to the end. It has gotten kinda long and I'm finding docking real disorientating. Of course you come in at the wrong end, so you have to maneuver around and line up. The problems seems to be that I rotate the view so I can see what I'm doing and then I don't know which way the ship will go when I hit the controls.

Target mode doesn't help because I have move the ship with respect to the station, but I can see how I go visually and relating that to ball doesn't work, esp. given I've moved the camara.

Edited May 31, 2014 by davidpsummers

[Tex_NL]

Use [V] to toggle between views. (Auto, Orbital, Chase, Free) Go to chase view.

Now the camera will stay locked on the orientation of your craft. No matter how you rotate your craft, left will stay left and down will stay down.

[karolus10]

Few tips for You:

• Choose "chase" camera mode (V key to change camera mode) - in this mode camera is always relative to ship so you will not be confused about controls.
  
• Turn targeted ship so it's docking port is facing north or south, this way it will always stay horizontal to the ground, making approach with nav-ball much easier.
  
• Be patient, take entire maneuver slow, so you will had plenty of time to plan your approach and make necessary corrections before something bad happen. this rule also apply to rendezvous - don't try to make transfer burn with direct encounter but aim at slightly lower orbit and locate yourself behind perfect encounter so you can make second transfer with very short burn or just RCS, and gently close to your target.
  

After you managed to dock with stock game (you should try it first for couple times, it can be frustrating but it's pretty rewarding after you mange to do this) you may try to use NavyFish docking alignment indicator as this tool makes a difference like between day and night, it's not auto-pilot of any kind but it gave you all necessary information for docking.

EDIT_1: Also if you are using docking mode for controlling ship during docking you may consider to use throttle keys for translation forward/back and W and S keys for translation up/down, this change in keyboard settings helped me quite a lot.

Edited May 31, 2014 by karolus10

[Rickenbacker]

Either go to Chase view, or line up the ship so that it's "right side up" in relation to the horizon. That way you'll know which way it goes when you thrust.

[cantab]

With coarse controls, watch the RCS. That's my approach usually. Still get them mixed up sometimes.

[Tortoise]

The default button to pitch up is D, so do a barrel roll until the ship actually pulls up with D on your view. And then you'll know which way the ship is going.

[davidpsummers]

Thanks that helped lot.

What is docking mode useful for? As far as I can tell, it just changes your controls?

Also, I would like to select the dock port as the target much earlier. The station is long enough (one of these days I need to spend some tech to be albe to build sideways) that I really need to aim for the other end before the ship is big enough in the field of view to be able to select the small port at the end.

[davidpsummers]

Few tips for You:

• Choose "chase" camera mode (V key to change camera mode) - in this mode camera is always relative to ship so you will not be confused about controls.
  
• Turn targeted ship so it's docking port is facing north or south, this way it will always stay horizontal to the ground, making approach with nav-ball much easier.
  
• Be patient, take entire maneuver slow, so you will had plenty of time to plan your approach and make necessary corrections before something bad happen. this rule also apply to rendezvous - don't try to make transfer burn with direct encounter but aim at slightly lower orbit and locate yourself behind perfect encounter so you can make second transfer with very short burn or just RCS, and gently close to your target.
  

After you managed to dock with stock game (you should try it first for couple times, it can be frustrating but it's pretty rewarding after you mange to do this) you may try to use NavyFish docking alignment indicator as this tool makes a difference like between day and night, it's not auto-pilot of any kind but it gave you all necessary information for docking.

EDIT_1: Also if you are using docking mode for controlling ship during docking you may consider to use throttle keys for translation forward/back and W and S keys for translation up/down, this change in keyboard settings helped me quite a lot.

Look like sort of the thing I original thought docking mode might do!

[Sirrobert]

Thanks that helped lot.

What is docking mode useful for? As far as I can tell, it just changes your controls?

Also, I would like to select the dock port as the target much earlier. The station is long enough (one of these days I need to spend some tech to be albe to build sideways) that I really need to aim for the other end before the ship is big enough in the field of view to be able to select the small port at the end.

Docking mode basicly sets both translation and up/down/sideways to the same keys, and lets you switch between them with the spacebar.

A little confusing for most people.

In normal mode, you do translation with ijkl and up/down/sideways with wasd

[Pecan]

The default button to pitch up is D, so do a barrel roll until the ship actually pulls up with D on your view. And then you'll know which way the ship is going.

Er, no - S is pitch-up, W is down. A/D are yaw- and Q/E roll- left/right.

'Up' on the navball is always S, left is A, etc. One of the really good things about the NavballDockingAlignment Indicator (based on NavyFish's) is that all the information you need is tight there in one place.

@ OP: if you are having trouble selecting the docking-port rotate the camera view so it is between your ship and the target. Zoom out until the target comes into view - since the docking-port is on the 'wrong' side and you're looking 'backwards' ... it's now facing you.

[davidpsummers]

Chase mode helped. I have more control.

However, I still come into the wrong end. The station is like 50m long with docking at one end and an engine at the other. (I hadn't intended it to be the station, but I got it up there and then added to it). When I target it, it always centers the target all the way at the wrong end (by the engine). So I always come into wrong end and have to work my way all the way around.

I don't seem to be able to select the docking port until I get close, and by that time the I'm already at the wrong end.

[TJ_Tas]

I use lights a lot to help me get accurate docking maneuvers. I set up 2 lights 1 each side of a docking port which are conformal to the hull. I have 2 more lights on outriggers 90 degrees to the first 2. On a station i put these facing forwards and backwards. I do the same on the ship I am going to dock with it. Once I have my ship within 1000m of the station I turn on its lights and face the center of the station. I will usually aim for about 3-5m/s closure which will give me around 200-300 seconds to adjust things. Then I switch to the station , go into chase view and rotate the station to face the incoming ship using its lights and the stations lights to get the cardinal line up. Then I switch back to the ship (in chase mode) and use the station lights to orient its rotation to match the station. From here on in its just a case of adjusting the vector of your velocity and your velocity to the center of the station. I can usually achieve single touch docking like this.

[technion]

Chase mode helped. I have more control.

However, I still come into the wrong end. The station is like 50m long with docking at one end and an engine at the other. (I hadn't intended it to be the station, but I got it up there and then added to it). When I target it, it always centers the target all the way at the wrong end (by the engine). So I always come into wrong end and have to work my way all the way around.

.

This is where I get within 100m, and then switch to the station, and turn it around until the ports are lined up. Then switch back, and bring it in for a dock.

[phoenix_ca]

Sooooo, no one's mentioned this yet. Weird. I can't read.

Docking Port Alignment Indicator, don't leave Kerbin without it!

Edited June 5, 2014 by phoenix_ca

[Red Iron Crown]

You mean aside from the mention stupid_chris gave it, with a how-to video on how to use it?

One of my favorite mods, makes docking far, far easier. I also use MechJeb to disable RCS attitude control and just use reaction wheels for that, RCS for translation only. Save a bit on monopropellant, I can usually dock smaller craft with just the supply in the pod.