[1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

[gobolinno]

17 minutes ago, ISE said:

I tried doing that, but I gave up because I'm so reliant in TCA, without TCA I 'don't play. lol

I'm in the same boat. This, mechjeb, scansat, RPM, Remotetech and Chatterer are my "Don't play without this" mods. =P

Though the list goes on (Betterburntime, and several others, but those are my cores).  

[allista]

On 12/5/2016 at 4:44 PM, jrodriguez said:

@allista Also I've question about the Thrust Limiter field. Not sure if it is an issue because it seems to be very obvious and maybe it has been done on purpose.

Every time when I move an engine the Thrust Limiter value is reset to 0.  This is not a big problem, but it is a bit annoying...

Sorry for the long absence. The end of a year at my work is an unavoidable armageddon 

Noted, thanks. I'll make it so that engines will be balanced in-editor (which causes the limiter value changes) only when the "Enable TCA" switch is toggled in the TCA UI.

On 12/6/2016 at 2:35 PM, danielboro said:

hello

i found this line in my ksp.log

[LOG 13:25:47.147] [ThrottleControlledAvionics: 13:25:47.145] TCAScenario: SaveConfigs: vessel a5fd0a9f-9e3a-492a-8c49-b8a4af24e40f is not present in the game. Removing orphan configuration.

as i go down my 345M log the list gets bigger

vessel a5fd... has the biggest number of times in the log  whit 47 times

[LOG 02:15:32.746] [ThrottleControlledAvionics: 02:15:32.746] TCAScenario: SaveConfigs: vessel 827cee36-23d3-4c39-b8f7-109b5fb041ba is not present in the game. Removing orphan configuration.
[LOG 02:15:32.747] [ThrottleControlledAvionics: 02:15:32.747] TCAScenario: SaveConfigs: vessel 8973be25-09a4-48d8-8ecd-ae25e802e4f8 is not present in the game. Removing orphan configuration.
[LOG 02:15:32.766] [ThrottleControlledAvionics: 02:15:32.766] TCAScenario: SaveConfigs: vessel a5fd0a9f-9e3a-492a-8c49-b8a4af24e40f is not present in the game. Removing orphan configuration.
[LOG 02:15:32.779] [ThrottleControlledAvionics: 02:15:32.779] TCAScenario: SaveConfigs: vessel b9ccdc16-f46d-4b94-9a8c-22de6d5388be is not present in the game. Removing orphan configuration.
[LOG 02:15:32.800] [ThrottleControlledAvionics: 02:15:32.800] TCAScenario: SaveConfigs: vessel 1ddeeb8c-60ce-4af8-8429-4b68162cde9f is not present in the game. Removing orphan configuration.
[LOG 02:15:32.805] [ThrottleControlledAvionics: 02:15:32.805] TCAScenario: SaveConfigs: vessel 27c7792b-06c8-4e60-9a2e-489d63b90704 is not present in the game. Removing orphan configuration.
[LOG 02:15:32.811] [ThrottleControlledAvionics: 02:15:32.811] TCAScenario: SaveConfigs: vessel 3d0a7794-6a56-48de-8ffe-89d24613f089 is not present in the game. Removing orphan configuration.
[LOG 02:15:32.822] [ThrottleControlledAvionics: 02:15:32.822] TCAScenario: SaveConfigs: vessel 6fd0ca0c-ae2b-4869-b116-4e2bc5b7315b is not present in the game. Removing orphan configuration.

 

wat das this mean?

 

Nothing to worry about, it's an INFO message from TCA telling that some vessel configurations that were saved inside TCA Scenario Module are no longer needed as corresponding vessels are not found in the game. This occurs most often when a quicksave or another game is loaded. I probably should disable this message altogether, though.

[allista]

On 12/10/2016 at 10:49 AM, gilflo said:

Yes I understand that, but it also uses SAS and RCS that are not Throttled and that allow to control attitude. So why not use Gimball when it exists to handle trajectory instead of spoiling RCS and handling worse that Mechjeb do using simply kimball and SAS?

That's what happened on my well balanced asparagus rocket....With Gimball, and SAS mechjeb handle trajectory, with SAS, Throttle and RCS TCA hardly do it and failed....

Is it a big deal to take Gimball in account?

There's no problem in taking Gimbal into account; in fact, if gimball was not disabled by TCA, it would have been taken into account automatically.

But there are two problems with using the gimbal.

The first is that the stock ModuleGimbal is uncontrollable. It acts on its own and the only thing you can do is to limit its angle.

The second is how it acts: when you need to "turn", it points thrust vectors away from the direction you need to turn to (the desired direction). This creates the torque that rotates the whole ship so that the line between the gimballing engine and the CoM became collinear with the desired direction. That's alright if you only care about general attitude of the whole ship: you just rotate it as you see fit. But, if by "turning" you mean aligning the total thrust vector with the desired direction, you're in trouble, because now gimbal works exactly opposite to your wish.

So, in order to use gimballing properly with TCA, I need to write some sort of AntiGimbal module that will be controllable and would not turn the thrust away from the needed thrusting direction.

I hope this is at least a little comprehensible... 

[allista]

Good news everyone! It seems I've found the bug that caused the black kraken.

As is always with such things, it was subtle and tiny. Literally, one single statement was missing from the code, that, in some circumstances, produced a numerical error that accumulated with time and finally fired with nasty Inf-s and NaN-s in all sorts of places. Agrh...

I'll soon roll out the new version with the fix; and much more... 

[gilflo]

52 minutes ago, allista said:

There's no problem in taking Gimbal into account; in fact, if gimball was not disabled by TCA, it would have been taken into account automatically.

But there are two problems with using the gimbal.

The first is that the stock ModuleGimbal is uncontrollable. It acts on its own and the only thing you can do is to limit its angle.

The second is how it acts: when you need to "turn", it points thrust vectors away from the direction you need to turn to (the desired direction). This creates the torque that rotates the whole ship so that the line between the gimballing engine and the CoM became collinear with the desired direction. That's alright if you only care about general attitude of the whole ship: you just rotate it as you see fit. But, if by "turning" you mean aligning the total thrust vector with the desired direction, you're in trouble, because now gimbal works exactly opposite to your wish.

So, in order to use gimballing properly with TCA, I need to write some sort of AntiGimbal module that will be controllable and would not turn the thrust away from the needed thrusting direction.

I hope this is at least a little comprehensible... 

Thank you for your explanations.

By turning I only mean turn like the gimball turn your rocket, the gimball turning the rocket on the desired axis like a pitch control, not like a yaw control. I "see" my rocket much like a plane, which means that you have to set a pitch axe, a roll axe and a yaw axe on your rocket and climb at 0° roll on your pitch axe, gimball acting like a pitch.....

So, as gimball gets actuation toggles in yaw, pitch and roll, is there any means to use it only in pitch or to do anything to be able to use it on 1, 2 or 3 axes mixed with TCA?

Edited December 19, 2016 by gilflo

[gobolinno]

Am I the only one pressing F5 every 30 minutes?.  xD

[allista]

4 minutes ago, gobolinno said:

Am I the only one pressing F5 every 30 minutes?.  xD

Oh boy 

The forum page is updated in the background automatically. No need for F5 

As for the TCA update... it's coming. Along with AT_Utils, Hangar and ConfigurableContainers. And yet another new mod from me... 

[jrodriguez]

31 minutes ago, allista said:

Oh boy 

The forum page is updated in the background automatically. No need for F5 

As for the TCA update... it's coming. Along with AT_Utils, Hangar and ConfigurableContainers. And yet another new mod from me... 

Wonderful news! Thanks for your effort

[gobolinno]

37 minutes ago, allista said:

Oh boy 

The forum page is updated in the background automatically. No need for F5 

As for the TCA update... it's coming. Along with AT_Utils, Hangar and ConfigurableContainers. And yet another new mod from me... 

I'm just kidding. xD

[allista]

Just now, gobolinno said:

I'm just kidding. xD

I know 

[gobolinno]

On 10/26/2016 at 0:38 PM, kcs123 said:

Yes.

All you need is to write proper MM patch, save it in *.cfg file and put somewhere in gamedata folder. Not way too hard, but I can't tell you from top of my head how to do it, I need to inspect few cfg files by myself, to get grip how it is handled. It's being a while when I last time messed with those config thread.

However, I can point you out toward SETI rebalance mod and MM thread for example. SETI does just that - move certain parts from one tech node to other.
It does not touch TCA parts as it heavy unbalance whole gameplay. If that is what you want, you have starting point to look at.

All these months I've been trying to get the .cfg thing done but it's impossible. Any tip?. 
My goal is to make the changes in the tech tree that doesn't imply creating the whole tree because it makes me problems when I use/update other mods that add parts to the tech tree. 

[allista]

20 minutes ago, gobolinno said:

All these months I've been trying to get the .cfg thing done but it's impossible. Any tip?. 
My goal is to make the changes in the tech tree that doesn't imply creating the whole tree because it makes me problems when I use/update other mods that add parts to the tech tree. 

I'm very sorry, but there's one thing that I completely forgot. From the beginning, there is an option in TCA itself to disable TechTree integration completely and have it to work in career game like it would in a sandbox.

The option is: 

IntegrateIntoCareer = true/false

To use it, create (if it don't exist) the text file GameData/ThrottleControlledAvionics/ThrottleControlledAvionics.user  and add it there at the top, setting to false.

[gobolinno]

O.O THANKS!!!!

 

PS: That instruction works only in TCA or it's KSP based and it works on everything? O.O

Edited December 19, 2016 by gobolinno

[allista]

5 minutes ago, gobolinno said:

O.O THANKS!!!!

 

PS: That instruction works only in TCA or it's KSP based and it works on everything? O.O

No, it's TCA feature.

[allista]

TCA v3.3.1 for KSP 1.2.2 (2016.12.20)

ChangeLog:

Spoiler

• Compiled against KSP-1.2.2
• Fixed the "black kraken" bug.
• In-Editor engines' balancing:
  • Added "Wet CoM" and "Dry CoM" markers. Added switching between wet/dry mass for engines' balancing.
  • When TCA is disabled InEditor, balancing is also disabled and thrust limiters are reset to 100%.
• Deorbit Autopilot:
  • Now aware of reentry heating and tries to avoid it (tested on Eve).
  • Can automatically use brakes and/or parachutes during deceleration to conserve fuel.
  • Has configurable "Landing Settings": Use Brakes, Use Chutes, Correct Target, Land ASAP.
• Minor bugfixes.

[mechanicH]

@allista YOU ARE THE MAN..........errr....MAN      no but seriously, Thank you for your hard work.  

[Mandella]

I would just add this in and check for myself, but as my Kerbal machine is down until tomorrow waiting for a new part let me ask -- does TCA work alongside Mechjeb 2? Or do I need to only have one or the other installed?

Thanks again for updating this great suite of mods!

[kcs123]

39 minutes ago, Mandella said:

does TCA work alongside Mechjeb 2? Or do I need to only have one or the other installed?

Works fine, although, turn only one at time, no both autopilots at same time to fight with each other. Take care of that in flight and your craft will be safe.

On my localization Y key is next to X. Sometimes when play in low light condition, I press "Y" instead of "X" to turn down throttle or time acceleration quickly.
That way I turn on TCA without realizing it. That leads most of time in unwonted ka-boom. But that is a bit off topic from your question.

[gobolinno]

Somehow I can't autopilot land. 

Tried to mark a point near the runway at the base, the plane started to go up O.o?, and after losing all horizontal speed, it came down like a rock until it splashed in the sea. 

Don't know how to locate the logs and don't know if they would help. So, anyone can try the land function in the ksc runway so I can get to know if it's a problem just in my end. =)

[allista]

On 12/21/2016 at 5:12 AM, gobolinno said:

Somehow I can't autopilot land. 

Tried to mark a point near the runway at the base, the plane started to go up O.o?, and after losing all horizontal speed, it came down like a rock until it splashed in the sea. 

Don't know how to locate the logs and don't know if they would help. So, anyone can try the land function in the ksc runway so I can get to know if it's a problem just in my end. =)

Sorry for the delay.

TCA has two Land functions, one for landing from orbit and the other, for landing VTOLs after performing a search for flat-enough surface. Landing a plane on a runaway is just not something TCA can do. For that you need specialized for-plane autopilots. Few pages ago there was a discussion of such autopilots with some links.

[gobolinno]

Ahhhh!... I thought it did before the update O.O

But, now that you're saying it that way... That plane was kind of a VTOL without VTOL engines... (Or it was just a case of me creating false memories of wanted features, happens sometimes). =)

 

Thanks for the answer. =)

[I'll stick to TCA].

(Now I wonder if I should try to make a vtol with several engines pointing in different directions... O.O)

[Blue5]

Allista (and team)

Great mod, thanks for keeping this going!

I'm trying out another mod, [1.2.2] Heisenberg - Airships Part Pack v2.1.0 by Angel-125 (Wild Blue Industries) and have built an "airship" testbed that is currently on the ground.

I have tried to land a few different VTOLs using TCA but I think they all wanting to avoid the "airship".

Sorry for being daft - hope you (and the others here) have some suggestions or point to me what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks!

Blue5

[allista]

49 minutes ago, Blue5 said:

Allista (and team)

Great mod, thanks for keeping this going!

I'm trying out another mod, [1.2.2] Heisenberg - Airships Part Pack v2.1.0 by Angel-125 (Wild Blue Industries) and have built an "airship" testbed that is currently on the ground.

I have tried to land a few different VTOLs using TCA but I think they all wanting to avoid the "airship".

Sorry for being daft - hope you (and the others here) have some suggestions or point to me what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks!

Blue5

Nothing is wrong. But TCA has builtin Collision Prevention System (CPS) which does exactly this: avoid collisions with other vessels. To toggle it, go to "advanced" and use the "CPS" switch there (green -- enabled, yellow -- disabled).

*and there's no team. Just me  and my beloved wife as a moral support 

Edited December 27, 2016 by allista

[gilflo]

Hey Allista

Any chance to add the ability to add waypoints via ScanSat Map or via coordinates?

Map view is not accurate at all for jump travel near ground on a planet

[allista]

1 hour ago, gilflo said:

Hey Allista

Any chance to add the ability to add waypoints via ScanSat Map or via coordinates?

Map view is not accurate at all for jump travel near ground on a planet

Through ScanSat: can it add stock waypoints (like contacts, or waypoint manager)? If so, you can do that, and then add this waypoint to TCA through "Add from contacts" button. For direct interaction between ScanSat and TCA both mods should be aware of each other's API.

Numeric editing of waypoints in TCA is already available (since two versions ago) via waypoint list or by right-clicking on a waypoint itself.