[1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

[Doctor Axel]

Didn't realize how badly I needed this mod until I tried my hand at some dropship designs.  Quite excited to see this updated - patiently awaiting the non-debug version ^^

Which does bring me to a question... how nicely does this play with tilt-rotor designs (the kind someone might build with Infernal Robotics)?

[allista]

3 minutes ago, Doctor Axel said:

Didn't realize how badly I needed this mod until I tried my hand at some dropship designs.  Quite excited to see this updated - patiently awaiting the non-debug version ^^

Which does bring me to a question... how nicely does this play with tilt-rotor designs (the kind someone might build with Infernal Robotics)?

I'll try to update for 1.4.1 on Sunday

Tilting engines are OK as far as you have enough of them for differential thrusting and set up the profile correctly for your craft.

[Doctor Axel]

Just now, allista said:

I'll try to update for 1.4.1 on Sunday

Tilting engines are OK as far as you have enough of them for differential thrusting and set up the profile correctly for your craft.

Awesome, and also awesome.  Looking forward to it!

[allista]

So far -- bad luck: i don't have any electricity (and no hot water for that matter) since 9am, for two hours already. I still hope this will end soon and I'll have the opportunity to do the mods; but knowing how our utility services work on weekends, well... 

[Xenophic]

8 hours ago, allista said:

So far -- bad luck: i don't have any electricity (and no hot water for that matter) since 9am, for two hours already. I still hope this will end soon and I'll have the opportunity to do the mods; but knowing how our utility services work on weekends, well... 

How come it's so bad? Where i am, we usually don't get issues with utilities unless the weather has caused damage, and even then, when we do, the utilities company has emergency equipment on standby, so there's usually an emergency generator at the substation within an hour.

[allista]

1 hour ago, Xenophic said:

How come it's so bad? Where i am, we usually don't get issues with utilities unless the weather has caused damage, and even then, when we do, the utilities company has emergency equipment on standby, so there's usually an emergency generator at the substation within an hour.

Here it's municipal services business, and municipal workers don't like to work on weekends. So while there is a duty crew, they won't start moving their butts too fast after a call 

EDIT: still, after 3.5h I'v got the lights again, and am now in the process of fixing API incompatibilities 

Edited March 25, 2018 by allista

[allista]

On 2/22/2018 at 9:25 AM, mikemcdonald83 said:

Hi. This is one of my favorite mods, but I'm having some trouble. Everything works fine, except trying to rendezvous from KSC launch pad. Rendezvous works if I'm already in orbit, but when I try it from the ground, it immediately stages while saying "Waiting for Launch Window." Then it just goes straight up at full throttle, never staging boosters or changing from "Waiting for Launch Window." Any idea what the problem could be? tia

BTW, could you provide a .craft file (preferably using stock parts only) that reproduces the staging problem?

[kenwud]

On 3/25/2018 at 2:11 PM, allista said:

Here it's municipal services business, and municipal workers don't like to work on weekends. So while there is a duty crew, they won't start moving their butts too fast after a call 

EDIT: still, after 3.5h I'v got the lights again, and am now in the process of fixing API incompatibilities 

may the force be with u

[allista]

Version 3.5.1 for Kerbal Space Program 1.4.1

Released on 2018-03-27

• Fixed collapsed window rendering.
• Restoring RCS limiters when disabling TCA.

 Download 

[fortytwo]

You are a legend!

[Doctor Axel]

Aww yiss =D I know what I'll be doing during lunch today.

Thank you @allista for the new version, even in the face of unreliable municipal services. o7

[Apaseall]

Yay. Thank you for updating this mod. This is one of my absolutely must have mods. This and an autopilot for planes. This mod is essential I believe.

[Xenophic]

Why is it i never think of checking for updates on mods until after I've loaded ksp? Darn it. XD

Thanks Allista!

[Zah]

I finally decided to give autopilots a go and this is pretty much what I wanted. I've had lots of fun with hand-flying, including an instrument/night-landing on the Mun next to my base, but with more complex missions it gets boring quickly.

What bores me even more is driving rovers on low gravity planets, and I always toyed with shuttle concepts, but they weren't very viable, until now, sort of. This mod can do the flying.
However, I have a hard time figuring out the required fuel and most efficient means of getting from A to B. I wonder if that's a thing that could be implemented. During building, define the body, get info on how much distance could be hovered/flown, and/or how many ballistic hops and landings can be done. Later in flight give a guestimate based on current conditions/maneuvers/landings etc. on how much distance is left, and if given a surface target, decide if a ballistic hop or slower approach is more efficient?

 

[allista]

3 minutes ago, Zah said:

I finally decided to give autopilots a go and this is pretty much what I wanted. I've had lots of fun with hand-flying, including an instrument/night-landing on the Mun next to my base, but with more complex missions it gets boring quickly.

What bores me even more is driving rovers on low gravity planets, and I always toyed with shuttle concepts, but they weren't very viable, until now, sort of. This mod can do the flying.
However, I have a hard time figuring out the required fuel and most efficient means of getting from A to B. I wonder if that's a thing that could be implemented. During building, define the body, get info on how much distance could be hovered/flown, and/or how many ballistic hops and landings can be done. Later in flight give a guestimate based on current conditions/maneuvers/landings etc. on how much distance is left, and if given a surface target, decide if a ballistic hop or slower approach is more efficient?

Note that's a request to comprehend! 

I certainly understand the desire, but you know, bad estimate is worse than no estimate at all.

Anyway, I'll see what I can do: internally I already calculate some top boundaries...

[Zah]

8 minutes ago, allista said:

Note that's a request to comprehend! 

I certainly understand the desire, but you know, bad estimate is worse than no estimate at all.

Anyway, I'll see what I can do: internally I already calculate some top boundaries...

If it comes with a margin of error, a bad estimate is something you can work with, though, right.

To quote from Star Trek IV:

Quote

Kirk: Mr. Spock, have you accounted for the variable mass of whales and water in your time re-entry program?

Spock: Mr. Scott cannot give me exact figures, Admiral, so... I will make a guess.

Kirk: A guess? You, Spock? That's extraordinary.

Spock: [to Dr. McCoy] I don't think he understands.

McCoy: No, Spock. He means that he feels safer about your guesses than most other people's facts.

Spock: Then you're saying...

[pause]

Spock: It is a compliment?

McCoy: It is.

Spock: Ah. Then, I will try to make the best guess I can.

McCoy: Please do.

I assume a lot of the calculations are done in flight and not beforehand so I can see the limitations, but maybe a simplified model for e.g. ballistic flights including landing, assuming an even plane is something to work with. Practically lots of unknowns involved, but probably less than having no idea at all (or doing the math based on ascent/orbit/landing for every hop?). Ballpark figures would do. It's better to design a shuttle that can do the mission and still has half of its fuel left in the end, than having one with 90% left, or one that runs out half-way through. But from the "safety aspect" I'm not sure I'd do ballistic hops or longer excursions without knowing if I can return. Even NASA limited Apollo astronauts to the "walk-back distance" (except for 17) for the lunar rover 

[Gordon Dry]

Is it possible that I should not try to build a simple VTOL in early career when not enough TCA stuff is unlocked?

Or in other words: as long I don't have all TCA modules unlocked I should not touch anything I could do with the mod?

 

I have the modules Attitude Control and Propulsion Control chosen, there also is Orbital Maneuver Autopilot available but I don't need it.
These are all modules currently unlocked.

I have the vessel on launch pad / runway (tried them both) and TCA is enabled and AutoThrottle is enabled but using Shift/Control doesn't do anything ...
Or the vessel is just autolaunching itself at full thrust without any chance to control it at all.

I tried it with all 3 engines in one group or ungrouped and with all possible variants.

I had TCA working and understood it last year in a sandbox, but everything was unlocked and I just could try and error.

[ss8913]

On 3/29/2018 at 10:49 AM, allista said:

Note that's a request to comprehend! 

I certainly understand the desire, but you know, bad estimate is worse than no estimate at all.

Anyway, I'll see what I can do: internally I already calculate some top boundaries...

Please make this so it's not directly slaved to anything, or can be defeated... this seems like something which would have Issues with non stock engines and fuels... like kspie...

[Acvila]

simple plane, 4 juno engines, perfectly balanced, twr 2+, hover input example 100m, plane go to 100m and after that decrease throttle, plane lose altitude and crash to land because it's starting to throttle to late, if i play without hover plane can be balanced to keep altitude, it's like it can't read thrust of the plane well. ksp 1.4.1

Edited April 1, 2018 by Acvila

[allista]

1 hour ago, Acvila said:

simple plane, 4 juno engines, perfectly balanced, twr 2+, hover input example 100m, plane go to 100m and after that decrease throttle, plane lose altitude and crash to land because it's starting to throttle to late, if i play without hover plane can be balanced to keep altitude, it's like it can't read thrust of the plane well. ksp 1.4.1

I need a screenshot to recreate the plane or a .craft file (if it's stock enough) to test.

[ss8913]

A lot of times if you have just enough thrust for lift, but you try a maneuver or even if your craft is a little off balance and differential thrust is needed for attitude control, your aggregate thrust falls below what's needed to stay flying.  Try changing all vertical engines to thrust only, and see if the thing can hover, or if it flips out of control 

[allista]

1 hour ago, ss8913 said:

A lot of times if you have just enough thrust for lift, but you try a maneuver or even if your craft is a little off balance and differential thrust is needed for attitude control, your aggregate thrust falls below what's needed to stay flying.  Try changing all vertical engines to thrust only, and see if the thing can hover, or if it flips out of control 

If you set all engines to thrust only you'll deprive the ship of control authority and it will inevitably flip out of control. What's wrong with that?

I still need the design of a thing that behaves badly for you.

[Blackline]

On 28.8.2017 at 7:25 PM, allista said:

In the beta, all settings that you can change in Editor, could be saved as default for new crafts.

In the current version it's only possible to save them per craft.

But there's no notion of global settings in TCA: everything is stored inside ships, and there's no propagation of config options to already flying ones.

Hi, are global settings a thing now? Or at least (any) way to deactivate stuff for good?

[Acvila]

3 hours ago, allista said:

I need a screenshot to recreate the plane or a .craft file (if it's stock enough) to test.

I think i find what's wrong, engines attached to procedural parts, so you need to instal procedural parts for this craft. When i tried to make stock plane i saw that the plane fly very well, with PP when on hover over accelerate and when goes down wait last moment to accelerate, but is to late when fly low...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GBLCs3RnCKRkjqzdiyidAbtKS-yBwec9

[allista]

1 hour ago, Blackline said:

Hi, are global settings a thing now? Or at least (any) way to deactivate stuff for good?

I can only recite the prost you quoted:

All settings that you can change in Editor, could be saved as default for new crafts. Separately for VAB and SPH.

Everything is stored inside ships, and there's no propagation of config options to already flying ones.

There never were any plans to globalize TCA settings, as TCA is a part module: TCA on a ship is an entity distinct from another TCA on a different ship.

57 minutes ago, Acvila said:

I think i find what's wrong, engines attached to procedural parts, so you need to instal procedural parts for this craft. When i tried to make stock plane i saw that the plane fly very well, with PP when on hover over accelerate and when goes down wait last moment to accelerate, but is to late when fly low...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GBLCs3RnCKRkjqzdiyidAbtKS-yBwec9

Funny. I'll check it, thanks.