Does the Claw work in a skyhook configuration?

[juanml82]

Here's the deal: I have a Minmus base at a 10° slope. I want to redecorate it with a class A asteroid I've put in Minmus orbit. However, since the base is in a slope, if I just toss the asteroid in its general direction, even with the horizontal speed killed, it will roll over and probably end up going down a cliff.

So I want to put it gently on the surface and, once is there probably use a rover to secure it in place. So I built a large skyhook sort of ship and attached the Claw to a Infernal Robotics hydraulic column (to gently put it down), but the asteroid kept bouncing off the Claw. So I ask in the IR thread, and they confirm it docking parts don't work well with IR. Ok. I use the KAS winch. Same issue. Maybe it's something with mods with movable parts. So I attach it directly to an RCS tank, pointing downwards. Here's a pic

Shouldn't this work? The asteroid keeps bouncing away anyway.

Edited August 27, 2014 by juanml82

[Jovus]

I can't speak to the root cause in this situation, but it's a known 'feature' that asteroids have collision meshes that don't always exactly line up with their visual representations, and that can be slightly buggy in other ways. You might be experiencing just such a problem.

[Taki117]

How fast are you trying to claw? If you are moving less than a few meters per second it might not be activating.

[juanml82]

I can't speak to the root cause in this situation, but it's a known 'feature' that asteroids have collision meshes that don't always exactly line up with their visual representations, and that can be slightly buggy in other ways. You might be experiencing just such a problem.

May be

How fast are you trying to claw? If you are moving less than a few meters per second it might not be activating.

Less than 3 m/s

[cantab]

You do need the claw to come "straight" onto the asteroid. If the asteroid's surface slopes away you can have problems.

[Claw]

It's sometimes a bit sensitive. You need to make sure you hit with enough speed that the center portion of the claw (the stem part where the claws meet) makes contact with the rock. Sometimes if you come in at a bit of an angle or (strangely enough) not fast enough, it won't latch. You can also try cycling the claw closed then open, though I don't suspect that will help much.

Grabbing onto smaller, round objects (like a fuel tank) make this problem a bit more obvious. So try coming at it from a little bit different angle. There's no reason why what you are trying to do shouldn't work (well, other than some hidden bug).

Good luck,

~Claw

[Taki117]

May be

Less than 3 m/s

That's far too slow. You should be coming in at at least 5.

[CorruptDB]

The claw doesn't have a minimum speed, I have one on the end of a robotic arm and I can grapple things at very low speed.

[juanml82]

It's definitely a matter of (my) piloting. The center of the claw isn't making contact. I'm trying with a very small probe and I'm still unable to catch that little ....... - worse, I had easily caught it when it entered Kerbin's SOI.

And it's so light that the moment it bounces off, it starts to spin badly which - I guess - makes it even harder for the Claw to attach.

It's personal now

[Claw]

The claw doesn't have a minimum speed, I have one on the end of a robotic arm and I can grapple things at very low speed.

You're right, it doesn't. But if you bump into things too slowly,they sometimes escape before the claw fully seats itself.

[Benaiah]

I read up on grappling issues before I attempted to get an asteroid for my orbital asterMunbaseroid and found much talk about speed and angle. In my experience, however, speed is irrelevant and angle is everything. I think speed can compensate for a bad angle on smaller crafts but then introduces some other problems. Just do your best to make sure the claw is lined up with the angle of the surface of the asteroid (all the "fingers" touch at the same time) rather than pointing directly at the target marker on your navball - this is what screwed me up at first. If that doesn't do it, you've most likely got a mod related bug.

[Claw]

In my experience, however, speed is irrelevant and angle is everything. I think speed can compensate for a bad angle ...

This precisely.

~Claw

[Kasuha]

It's definitely a matter of (my) piloting. The center of the claw isn't making contact. I'm trying with a very small probe and I'm still unable to catch that little ....... - worse, I had easily caught it when it entered Kerbin's SOI.

And it's so light that the moment it bounces off, it starts to spin badly which - I guess - makes it even harder for the Claw to attach.

It's personal now

Right-click on the Claw and select Control from here. Have the asteroid selected as target and then just keep the target marker in the middle of your navball.

I did not try catching asteroids in 0.24.2 but I did it multiple times in 0.23.5 and I had no major problems with grappling to an asteroid at speeds below 1 m/s.

[juanml82]

I read up on grappling issues before I attempted to get an asteroid for my orbital asterMunbaseroid and found much talk about speed and angle. In my experience, however, speed is irrelevant and angle is everything. I think speed can compensate for a bad angle on smaller crafts but then introduces some other problems. Just do your best to make sure the claw is lined up with the angle of the surface of the asteroid (all the "fingers" touch at the same time) rather than pointing directly at the target marker on your navball - this is what screwed me up at first. If that doesn't do it, you've most likely got a mod related bug.

Mod related bug.

Now I'm trying to figure out which mod

EDIT: It's Fineprint. Which I can't understand why and it's a shame, as it's a very nice mod.

Edited August 27, 2014 by juanml82