Springy Decouplers?

[artwhaley]

I'm trying to build a couple of taller inter-stage decouplers...

But when I get them in-game they're ridiculously "springy-" as in they compress up and down like they're made of jello. It's particularly noticeable when the engine thrust kicks in or cuts off - the parts compress by half a meter sometimes - making the rocket look absurd in flight, and making it hard to control, as the flexing also happens side to side, starting crazy oscillations.

Is there a trick to making a decoupler joint as rigid as other joints?

I suppose I could split the part up into a small decoupler and a larger interstage, but if there's a way around it, I'd prefer to keep the part count lower.

At the moment I'm using transform-defined nodes, if that might matter?

Anyone have any thoughts?

Art

[artwhaley]

Update- I switched to defining nodes numerically in the cfg file, and it didn't seem to change anything.

[NathanKell]

How large are your attach nodes? Make sure they're the same size as the diameter, i.e. 2.5m diameter part means size 2 node (0.625 = size 0).

Also, make sure the interstage masses enough. A light part in between two heavy parts will lead to a *lot* of flex. For a 1.25m part, I wouldn't suggest a mass of less than 0.05.

[artwhaley]

NathanKell,

Thank you so much for the help. Between those two suggestions, I'm much closer to acceptable. I DID switch to defining nodes in the .cfg file so I could correctly set larger nodes, (I REALLY wish they'd fix that part of the transform-based-node system!) and I added more mass to the parts, and I think it will work now. Thank you again!

Art

[NathanKell]

Awesome! Glad it's working.

[CaptainKipard]

I DID switch to defining nodes in the .cfg file so I could correctly set larger nodes, (I REALLY wish they'd fix that part of the transform-based-node system!)

They already did though.

[artwhaley]

They already did though.

I've been basing my NODE code on an old example. Somewhere there's an example that shows using a float for the size, like 'size = 1.0' . But I just tried changing it, and it's actually an integer - 'size = 1'.

'

I'll look around to try to figure out where I saw it wrong so I can try to get it corrected.