[1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

[allista]

4 hours ago, novahike999 said:

Hey, I'm having some trouble with the toolbar. The toolbar only shows the manual no matter what combination of engines/capsules I have. I've tried normal and 64 bit and made sure I have the 1.1.2 version. I'm wondering if any of the mods I have are screwing something around.

Mods:

MJ2, All near future, DmagicOrbitalScience, Kerbal joint re-inforcement, Pilot assistant, KAS

Edit - None of the capsules or control units are showing that they have TCA. Even after re-installing and having no other mods.

It seems you miss ModuleManager.

4 hours ago, Pokletu said:

Hi,

The 1.12 patch still makes the mk 1 cockpit slide through the rocket, downwards, on the launchpad.

The logs will tell definitely, but it looks like you installed the wrong version (for KSP 1.0.5). Try redownload from spacedock the 3.1.0-KSP-1.1.2 and install it manually.

[Daveroski]

I have only been able to play with it for a short time.

My first vehicle was a lander pod with 4 small jets and one larger central jet engine.

I think I have figured out most of your UI.

I managed to land on the helipad on the roof and return to the launchpad.

I admit I did go V E R Y slowly.

Still.. after my little play. I hope to do more tomorrow.

I think that after over 4000 hours of KSP I can now think of new things to design and do.

You nailed it.

I am a happy bunny.

Your work is appreciated. I envy your obvious talent.

Now don't go thinking that I write this kind of thing a lot. I don't. I don't compliment people. I don't even like people.

You however have improved my life and given me what I am sure will become many hours of frustration and entertainment. You have given me new challenges in my favourite game.

I know that you didn't make it for me and that it is a source of entertainment for you to design a mod like this.

That being the case, I hope that you continue working on KSP as I think you will continue to make my playtime more entertaining.

Regards,

Daveroski.

[novahike999]

17 hours ago, allista said:

It seems you miss ModuleManager.

Thanks, I always miss something. I'll get to it right away

[Black Spy]

Hi! I have a bug with tutorial "orbiting 101". After loading mission ship gone totally disappear. Without your mod this tutorial work fine. Strange =\

[allista]

@Geschosskopf, remember this? @CatastrophicFailure, @TAImatem, you may also be interested!

On 4/7/2016 at 5:59 PM, allista said:

I'll try to use the same technique for user input: to interpret it not as a torque request, but as a final pitch-roll angle request. This means that the absence of user input will be equivalent to the Level program. And this has to be an explicitly togglable mode of operation dedicated for VTOLs...

Here it is!

VTOL mode of manual control

 

19 minutes ago, Black Spy said:

Hi! I have a bug with tutorial "orbiting 101". After loading mission ship gone totally disappear. Without your mod this tutorial work fine. Strange =\

Thanks for the report. I'll check it. Meanwhile, please, check that your TCA version is compatible with your KSP version and you have the ModuleManager properly installed.

Edited May 3, 2016 by allista

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, allista said:

@Geschosskopf, remember this? @CatastrophicFailure, @TAImatem, you may also be interested!

Very nice!

BTW, did you ever look at those 90^ pivot engines such as those in the Mk2 Expansion mod?  I use them a lot with TCA but it's a bit clunky because such engines don't fit neatly into a TCA category.

NOTE:  To be clear, these engines don't gimbal constantly within a wide range of motion.  In fact, they don't gimbal at all.  Instead, they have 2 fixed positions, horizontal and vertical, that you switch between with an action group.  The idea is, you have a fairly normal airplane with enough wings to fly conventionally in horizontal flight, but you can use the normal flight engine for lift in VTOL, without having to carry separate lift engines.

Edited May 3, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[Steel Dragon]

Ok this mod is absolutely wonderful. I truly love the squadron mode.

My only question is how do you achieve level flight? I can build vtols and fly them around, but I find as I set waypoints the craft lose altitude as they travel. Most recently did it with craft that would glide and fly normally fine, but it seams when you have wings and try to fly forward (I do have a tail engine) the planes pitch forward (helicopter style) to fly. This works due to the vtol engines, but due to the wings it also causes them to fly downward. How do I correct for this and make my craft transition from lift off to stable flight?

Also when is 3.2 going to be out lol I love the new vtol maneuvering mode!!!!

Edited May 4, 2016 by Steel Dragon

[Black Spy]

8 hours ago, allista said:

Thanks for the report. I'll check it. Meanwhile, please, check that your TCA version is compatible with your KSP version and you have the ModuleManager properly installed.

I use CKAN and KSP 1.1.2 64bit (Windows) with latest updates: ModuleManager 2.6.24 and TCA 3.1.0 for KSP 1.1.2. But maybe it's incompatible with another mod.

[allista]

6 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Very nice!

BTW, did you ever look at those 90^ pivot engines such as those in the Mk2 Expansion mod?  I use them a lot with TCA but it's a bit clunky because such engines don't fit neatly into a TCA category.

NOTE:  To be clear, these engines don't gimbal constantly within a wide range of motion.  In fact, they don't gimbal at all.  Instead, they have 2 fixed positions, horizontal and vertical, that you switch between with an action group.  The idea is, you have a fairly normal airplane with enough wings to fly conventionally in horizontal flight, but you can use the normal flight engine for lift in VTOL, without having to carry separate lift engines.

No, unfortunately, I didn't yet. I understand the idea and understand that the use-case is pretty common. So yet again, I'll try to figure something out 

[allista]

5 hours ago, Steel Dragon said:

Ok this mod is absolutely wonderful. I truly love the squadron mode.

My only question is how do you achieve level flight? I can build vtols and fly them around, but I find as I set waypoints the craft lose altitude as they travel. Most recently did it with craft that would glide and fly normally fine, but it seams when you have wings and try to fly forward (I do have a tail engine) the planes pitch forward (helicopter style) to fly. This works due to the vtol engines, but due to the wings it also causes them to fly downward. How do I correct for this and make my craft transition from lift off to stable flight?

Also when is 3.2 going to be out lol I love the new vtol maneuvering mode!!!!

To have level flight on autopilot using aft engines you need to, somewhat counterintuitively, set those to Manual mode; then the Horizontal Speed Control module starts to use them instead of tilting. Unfortunately, the problem with wings will remain (e.g. when the craft will tilt for deceleration), because TCA does not know about the lifting surfaces and does not take them into account. I have plans to include wings in calculations, but since aerodynamics is not my area of expertise, I can't tell when I'll have the time to learn it enough for that.

Alas, TCA-3.2 will only be out in about two-three weeks, because with it I plan to release the new set of orbital autopilots including landing from orbit, "ballistic jump" and rendezvou. Unlike VTOL mode, these are complex and still need much testing, tuning and debugging.

[AccidentalDisassembly]

I have to ask - why are you remaking (from scratch!?) half the functions of MechJeb, anyway?

[allista]

Just now, AccidentalDisassembly said:

I have to ask - why are you remaking (from scratch!?) half the functions of MechJeb, anyway?

It is an illusion 

The difference (and the main reason why I make the functions that are called the same) is that TCA variants are thrust-oriented, while MJ uses current command module as a reference. I believe one shouldn't have to add another probe core in the right place and orientation and switch to it just to be able to use different set of engines for a maneuver. Also, despite the names, TCA autopilots are full-fledged autopilots that use all functions of the mod to get the task done. My goal is not precise orbital calculations (in which MJ excels), but the robust automation of complex tasks.

So yet again: I myself use MJ all the time; and start to work on some new feature with the same name only when I feel that MJ can't do it at all, or I need "to dance with a tambourine" to perform the task with MJ. The simplest example is a landing of a VTOL-cargo from orbit.

[Steel Dragon]

2 hours ago, allista said:

To have level flight on autopilot using aft engines you need to, somewhat counterintuitively, set those to Manual mode; then the Horizontal Speed Control module starts to use them instead of tilting. Unfortunately, the problem with wings will remain (e.g. when the craft will tilt for deceleration), because TCA does not know about the lifting surfaces and does not take them into account. I have plans to include wings in calculations, but since aerodynamics is not my area of expertise, I can't tell when I'll have the time to learn it enough for that.

I figured out just that last night lol. I have my craft flying in formations now working properly. I am having a strange issue.Whale flying in a squadron if I issue a command to goto a waypoint and land or just giving a land command my craft and normally the 2nd and or 3rd will land but the others make hard bank turns while setting up and crash. Is there a way to setup flight distances from other squadron mates?

Possible a small video showing how you get a squadron to land without losing have the craft?

[DavidHunter]

17 hours ago, Black Spy said:

Hi! I have a bug with tutorial "orbiting 101". After loading mission ship gone totally disappear. Without your mod this tutorial work fine. Strange =\

I'm having the same issue, actually, as reported over here. I was reading this thread by chance and saw your post.

I'm running KSP v1.1.2, 64-bit on OS X.

After seeing your comment, Black Spy, I removed all mods except TCA and Module Manager. The issue persists when both these mods are installed. Player.log file for this attempt.

I also removed TCA (but kept ModuleManager installed). The issue didn't occur.

Ergo, I believe that the issue must be caused by TCA.

 

I'm going to close my original report and link to this comment (so that the discussion can continue here).

 

(Oh, while I'm here: thanks for an awesome mod, @allista!)

[mmeijer1988]

Hi, I really love this mod and have been using it for quite some time! My only question is if i can turn off the "update tca profile" action groups? It makes me lose the overview of my action groups.

[AccidentalDisassembly]

16 hours ago, allista said:

It is an illusion 

The difference (and the main reason why I make the functions that are called the same) is that TCA variants are thrust-oriented, while MJ uses current command module as a reference. I believe one shouldn't have to add another probe core in the right place and orientation and switch to it just to be able to use different set of engines for a maneuver. Also, despite the names, TCA autopilots are full-fledged autopilots that use all functions of the mod to get the task done. My goal is not precise orbital calculations (in which MJ excels), but the robust automation of complex tasks.

So yet again: I myself use MJ all the time; and start to work on some new feature with the same name only when I feel that MJ can't do it at all, or I need "to dance with a tambourine" to perform the task with MJ. The simplest example is a landing of a VTOL-cargo from orbit.

Well that does indeed make sense!

[DavidHunter]

17 hours ago, allista said:

I have plans to include wings in calculations

Hooray!

[allista]

12 hours ago, mmeijer1988 said:

Hi, I really love this mod and have been using it for quite some time! My only question is if i can turn off the "update tca profile" action groups? It makes me lose the overview of my action groups.

I'm not quite sure what do you mean by "losing the overview", but in any case this is a problem: the "update tca profile" action is there to allow TCA engine profile to adopt engine state changes caused by toggling an active group. I've searched KSP code for a better way (GameEvent or smth.) to catch group activation, but it seems there's none. The only other option I see is to leave this action for a user to assign to a specific action group; but then TCA will only be able to react to that particular action group to update engine profile (I don't remember, can you assign the same action to several action groups from within KSP?).

[mmeijer1988]

1 hour ago, allista said:

I'm not quite sure what do you mean by "losing the overview", but in any case this is a problem: the "update tca profile" action is there to allow TCA engine profile to adopt engine state changes caused by toggling an active group. I've searched KSP code for a better way (GameEvent or smth.) to catch group activation, but it seems there's none. The only other option I see is to leave this action for a user to assign to a specific action group; but then TCA will only be able to react to that particular action group to update engine profile (I don't remember, can you assign the same action to several action groups from within KSP?).

Well i am using action group extended and it wil show all action groups that have something assigned in green and all others in grey, now with the lastest TCA all actions groups except 10 are always used to update tca profile, so they all look like i assigned something to them when its actually tca thats doing that. Its not a huge problem but i thought maybe there's a setting to turn this off that i have missed. You can assign the same action to several groups btw.

[allista]

2 hours ago, mmeijer1988 said:

Well i am using action group extended and it wil show all action groups that have something assigned in green and all others in grey, now with the lastest TCA all actions groups except 10 are always used to update tca profile, so they all look like i assigned something to them when its actually tca thats doing that. Its not a huge problem but i thought maybe there's a setting to turn this off that i have missed. You can assign the same action to several groups btw.

I see. I'll try to figure something out.

[allista]

21 hours ago, mmeijer1988 said:

Well i am using action group extended and it wil show all action groups that have something assigned in green and all others in grey, now with the lastest TCA all actions groups except 10 are always used to update tca profile, so they all look like i assigned something to them when its actually tca thats doing that. Its not a huge problem but i thought maybe there's a setting to turn this off that i have missed. You can assign the same action to several groups btw.

What I've managed so far is this: TCA constantly scans the engines for assigned action groups and adds/removes itself to/from the same groups. Thus you don't see the "Update TCA Profile" action in editor, and in flight it is only present in the groups where some engines are toggled/enabled/disabled.

[mmeijer1988]

6 hours ago, allista said:

What I've managed so far is this: TCA constantly scans the engines for assigned action groups and adds/removes itself to/from the same groups. Thus you don't see the "Update TCA Profile" action in editor, and in flight it is only present in the groups where some engines are toggled/enabled/disabled.

That sounds like a great solution. Thanks very much for looking in to this, also iam really looking forward to the new features you showed in the youtube videos!

[allista]

The future of TCA... 

 

[CaribouGone]

1 hour ago, allista said:

The future of TCA... 

I can't wait!

In the mean time, i was looking at my ksp log and found this: 

Spoiler

[WRN 00:46:52.487] File 'C:/Users/Clay/Desktop/Kerbal Space Program/GameData/ThrottleControlledAvionics/Plugins/PluginData/ThrottleControlledAvionics/TCA.conf' does not exist

i looked in that folder and found a file called TCA.glob

should i change the extension? i don't know if its actually causing problems, just thought it was odd.

[allista]

44 minutes ago, CaribouGone said:

I can't wait!

In the mean time, i was looking at my ksp log and found this: 

  Reveal hidden contents

[WRN 00:46:52.487] File 'C:/Users/Clay/Desktop/Kerbal Space Program/GameData/ThrottleControlledAvionics/Plugins/PluginData/ThrottleControlledAvionics/TCA.conf' does not exist

i looked in that folder and found a file called TCA.glob

should i change the extension? i don't know if its actually causing problems, just thought it was odd.

Nothing to be worried about. The TCA.conf was a part of TCA-2 and this message means that on start TCA-3 tries to import deprecated settings from this file. If it does not exist then you hadn't have the version that generated the file; no harm in it.