[1.3] Pilot Assistant: Atmospheric piloting aids - 1.13.2 (May 28)

[Crzyrndm]

Version 1.9.1

• (probably) Fixed bad initialisation.
  
• Fixed Pilot Assistant preset window flickering
  

Trying to load the default before creating the default is a really bad idea

Edited May 16, 2015 by Crzyrndm

[Crzyrndm]

Version 1.9.2

• Toolbar mod support
  
• Improvements to Radar Altitude control mode
  
• Fixed size of drag sections not being saved correctly
  

NOTE: Toolbar has to be manually enabled in the settings file at PilotAssistant/PluginData/PilotAssistant/config.xml

NOTE: Toolbar has the option to have a button for each control system and one for the menu (4 total). They all default to using the same icon but the paths are configurable in the settings file.

Edited May 17, 2015 by Crzyrndm

[dewin]

PilotAssistant 1.9.2 seems to have broken my current KSP installation: If I try to revert or do any other scene change after my first launch, I get a black screen -- which I can eventually get to become either a starfield or a sunless Kerbin, and this problem persists until KSP is restarted. Simply loading a craft and choosing Revert To Launch is enough to trigger this. Reverting to version 1.9.1 fixes this.

I've already lost the relevant log file in the process of trying to figure out which of the ~10 mods I updated over the weekend broke this, but there was a mention of something like trying to access toolbar button 0 when there were only 0 buttons -- so I suspect it's related to the toolba mod support.

[Crzyrndm]

Version 1.9.3

• Fixed missing nullcheck
  

Edited May 18, 2015 by Crzyrndm

[blu3wolf]

How much luck would I be likely to have in trying to use this mod to control a statically unstable craft?

[Crzyrndm]

Might take a bit of tweaking depending on just how unstable it is but it's certainly possible. The main issue will be that it won't leverage the advantages of a craft built like that particularly well (ie. no stunts).

[Drake1500]

So whenever I enable Vertical Control for altitude, and there is a big enough discrepancy between my current altitude and my wanted altitude, PA tries to send my plane straight up. For instance, if I am at 1km and tell it to put me at 2.5km altitude, this happens:

(yes, I'm running quite a few mods. This was just a quick pic, because I don't understand a lot of the PIDs, so I probably missed a setting on one of those that I need to change.)

Max AoA is supposed to be 15 degrees, but it completely ignores that. Or am I misreading something? Is there another setting I need to adjust? What all controls the Angle of Attack?

[Crzyrndm]

Max AoA is supposed to be 15 degrees, but it completely ignores that. Or am I misreading something? Is there another setting I need to adjust? What all controls the Angle of Attack?

It's the maximum output in the altitude controller you want. It defaults to a climb rate of 50m/s, but your craft appears to be travelling somewhat slower than that.

Angle of Attack is the pitch angle between the nose of your vessel and the velocity vector. If it gets too high you get a lot of drag and (in FAR, stock is a bit too forgiving in this respect) can stall the plane. Since your velocity vector moves with you, it won't prevent this sort of occurence

[Drake1500]

Angle of Attack is the pitch angle between the nose of your vessel and the velocity vector.

Oh, OK. So I was right, it was my misunderstanding. I thought AoA was the pitch angle between the nose and the ground. Thank you very much.

[Crzyrndm]

Thank you very much.

No problem. I've also added some protection against slower vessels trying to go vertical for future versions.

[Volt]

Hey, I'm having a little trouble finding working pilot assistant settings in my new FAR install. I'm flying a light aircraft which basically resembles a Short Tucano, but no matter what adjustments I make - scalar, ki, kp - I can't find a setting that even slightly dampens a constant, rapid, violent pitch oscillation. The control hits limits for pitch up and down at roughly 0.25-second intervals. Any suggestions?

[Andy81le]

I am enjoying Pilot Assistant very much, congrats on this mod! I have a few questions:

1. Is it possible to integrate Pilot Assistant with Raster Prop Monitor?

2. Are there any plans to integrate functions to automatically follow waypoints?

[Crzyrndm]

Hey, I'm having a little trouble finding working pilot assistant settings in my new FAR install. I'm flying a light aircraft which basically resembles a Short Tucano, but no matter what adjustments I make - scalar, ki, kp - I can't find a setting that even slightly dampens a constant, rapid, violent pitch oscillation. The control hits limits for pitch up and down at roughly 0.25-second intervals. Any suggestions?

This is probably the elevator controller being a bit too aggressively tuned again. Hit the toggle marked as "C" (Show Control Surfaces) at the top of the window and a second/third pitch controller will appear. Increase the scalar on that up to 1.5-2.0 will probably sort this out. If it doesn't, a link to the .craft file would be helpful so I can take a look.

1. Is it possible to integrate Pilot Assistant with Raster Prop Monitor?

2. Are there any plans to integrate functions to automatically follow waypoints?

1) No idea, never really looked into it because I don't use RPM

2) Not at this stage. I don't see the point when I can already hit them from 1/3 the way around Kerbin without adjustments

[Drake1500]

I've also added some protection against slower vessels trying to go vertical for future versions.

I was just thinking, would it be possible to implement a setting where the vessel attempts to keep a certain amount of horizontal speed? After all, you can pitch up all you like, as long as you keep your airspeed high enough. It seems complicated to me, but then this whole mod is over my head.

2. Are there any plans to integrate functions to automatically follow waypoints?

My advice is to install Waypoint Manager, from CKAN or here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/104758-1-0-2-Waypoint-Manager-v2-3-2-2015-05-02

It will automatically populate your contract waypoints, and there's a setting to see the exact heading to the waypoint as well. I can hit any waypoint from anywhere on Kerbin, within a narrow margin, with this mod.

[Crzyrndm]

I was just thinking, would it be possible to implement a setting where the vessel attempts to keep a certain amount of horizontal speed? After all, you can pitch up all you like, as long as you keep your airspeed high enough.

That is exactly what has been done, just in a slightly different way. If vertical speed can't match or exceed a percentage of airspeed, there must always be a horizontal component to the craft velocity. The limit I have set allows a climb rate of up to 95% of airspeed, which requires horizontal speed to be above ~31% of airspeed (by a bit of basic trig).

[Volt]

This is probably the elevator controller being a bit too aggressively tuned again. Hit the toggle marked as "C" (Show Control Surfaces) at the top of the window and a second/third pitch controller will appear. Increase the scalar on that up to 1.5-2.0 will probably sort this out. If it doesn't, a link to the .craft file would be helpful so I can take a look.

Scalar of 2.0-2.5 on AoA basically fixed the problem at 1x warp. I had to move the value up to 4.0 to fly at 4x physical warp, but that's to be expected, considering my aircraft picks up a strange angling of each wing (in separate directions) at that level.

[Gfurst]

@Crzyrndm

Have you thought about an option to allow blizzy toolbar and hid the icon on main one, just to clear up some space?

[Crzyrndm]

@Crzyrndm

Have you thought about an option to allow blizzy toolbar and hid the icon on main one, just to clear up some space?

Already done, you can enable it in the settings file (nothing ingame just yet)

[Son_of_Al]

First I must say, I love the mod! Really, something I'll keep in my game for as long as I play.

I was having a technical problem that maybe someone could help me with.

The icon is on the screen several times over. This seems to change every now and again between different flights or whatnot. I am testing a bunch of new mods atm so when i go and clean things up I might resolve the issue but I was curious if anyone else observed this.

Thanks ahead of time for any help

[Shaggygoblin]

Hey, Crazy!

Great stuff you've done.

quick Q: Does PA incorporate your DD? If not, do they play well together? PA mentions PID use, but DD touts it's disuse.

(Yes, possibly dumb question, but a question unasked is never answered, and/or possibilities unrealized)

[Crzyrndm]

Dynamic Deflection goes amazingly well with Pilot Assistant.

Without Dynamic Deflection, all static control systems (SAS, all systems provided by PA) have no automatic response to changing flight conditions and so will tend to have a rather narrow band of flight situations any given setup will suit. Dynamic Deflection provides an automated response to a changing situation meaning you don't need to be constantly making adjustments to PA/SAS setup

Pilot Assistant/SAS PID Tuning: Altering control response to better suit the vessel

Dynamic Deflection: Altering control response to better suit the current flight situation

NOTE: DD doesn't help with the transonic drag spike so you may get a few wobbles as you pass through that regime even if it's perfectly suited to everywhere else

Edited May 24, 2015 by Crzyrndm

[Shaggygoblin]

Right!

Thanks for the smart-quick reply!

Been futzing about with this UAV and having some great fun learning about CoM/CoL, Dihedral...

Gonna drop the .craft here for you to enjoy/frustrate over.

I like MJ for 'some aspects'.

I use VVC for my 'hold this altitude'.

I use Waypoint Manager to see where i should be heading when the destination is over the horizon.

MJ has a neat feature 'Spaceplane Guidance', which features a Heading/Altitude Hold, but it lacks when I tell it to take this linked .craft to heading 236 and altitude 15km. It will rollercoaster between 7km and 15.1km...lol. I can fly it manualy at 20km (+/-100m) without fine input (CapsLock).

Anyway, here's hoping your two lovely works will keep her up while I grab coffee while flying from KSC to the Pyramids.

My UAV.craft on KerbalX, and there you can find the mods required to load/fly it.

Not included is a ModuleManager.cfg that adds RemoteTech to the Moto DROID RAZR MAXX duck-taped to the front.

As I am intimidated by 'license or you bad man...' I am not willing to make that available publicly, also, I don't really think I can 'give it' as someone would surely say 'ohh, you stole my letters in a config file, you meanie!'

Kinda like books, theres no pattent on the words, just the arrangement... sometimes more than one person can come up with the same arrangement if it 'just makes sense'.. but invariably, someone has to take the credit, and someone has to be 'stealing'...

anyway, distracted...

UAV.craft, enjoy/frustrate over it... cheers!

edit: double check the deflection settings on the 3 ailerons, i think i borked them up good last run-through.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Shaggygoblin

[Hyomoto]

Is a bug that when I set a heading, it constantly counts down? I lock in 180, but that's not what I get. It just keeps counting down until I'm off by several degrees if I leave it unabated. I get the feeling it's trying to compensate for the rotation of the planet since the effect is most pronounced heading west/east or east/west near the poles.

Edited May 25, 2015 by Hyomoto

[Shaggygoblin]

Is a bug that when I set a heading, it constantly counts down? I lock in 180, but that's not what I get. It just keeps counting down until I'm off by several degrees if I leave it unabated. I get the feeling it's trying to compensate for the rotation of the planet since the effect is most pronounced heading west/east or east/west near the poles.

I have read about this in many other 'flying my plane straight but it drifts...' posts. It is, in fact, usually due to the planet rotation, which moves the 'air' which you fly through. As the air moves with the surface, it pushes you too. So, basically, the rotation does it. Even in real life, pilots must compensate for this, or get a Karmin GPS Unit...lol. (iirc, someone was working on a mod like that...)

[Crzyrndm]

Yes it changes when heading north/south to try take planetary rotation into account (or not as the case may be). Slower vessels (and fast ones that can't turn) may not be able to stay aligned with this and small errors will accumulate causing you to not go directly over the polar regions. Probably shouldn't be happening as everything else works on surface relative measurements, I'll have a poke around and see if it can be changed.

Rapidly changing when going East/West near poles is because it is following a direction and a constant East/West heading is only a constant direction when following the equator.