[1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

[allista]

4 hours ago, Daveroski said:

To be honest I only watched a couple of hourst. Without commentary it was hard to figure out which aspects you were testing on each landing.

Couple of hours!

The tests were completely automated

I was sleeping at the time, since they were running from about 3 till 9 AM.

The test is simple: pick random surface target and land. Log the success/failure along with the final error and fuel used.

I was checking if my fixes are working for wider set of situations than the one I used for manual testing.

4 hours ago, Daveroski said:

Does TCA play nice with the 'other' one? The only reason I'm asking is that The 'other' one does help with interplanetary nodes.

Yes, I used TCA with MJ maneuver planner many times. You obviously shouldn't use both at the same time to control ship's attitude, engines and such (e.g. to execute a maneuver node). But enabled and idle TCA won't interfere.

 

[SkiRich]

@allista Can you point me to a video tutorial (or any tutorial) for hot to setup a rocket to use TAC as an autopilot to precisely land at a base?

[allista]

2 hours ago, SkiRich said:

@allista Can you point me to a video tutorial (or any tutorial) for hot to setup a rocket to use TAC as an autopilot to precisely land at a base?

This is old, but it shows the process of landing from orbit. Starting from 11:12

There's not much setup, except that you need deorbit autopilot module and it's dependencies installed in TCA GUI in Editor. It would work for a simple rocket with some axial engine, if it has enough torque in reaction wheels and RCS.

[allista]

Teasing a bit before release 

* for some reason the recording has actually started several seconds later than it seemed to, so the introduction words were lost, sorry.

[allista]

Version 3.7.2 for Kerbal Space Program 1.10.0

Released on 2020-07-30

• Taking aerodynamic forces into account
  • when balancing engines
  • in vertical speed controller
  • in altitude controller
• Improved Deorbit and Ballistic Jump autopilots
• Improved performance in Editor
  • no more FPS drop when TCA GUI is closed
  • better performance when dragging a new part over the ship
• UI
  • Vertical Flight HUD
    • made more compact
    • improved formatting of altitude and velocities
  • HUD panels are showed when TCA is uncontrollable
  • Fix: Info Panel unlocks controls when it is cleared

 Download (584.12 KiB) 

[Dejakr]

Great mod, have used this in the past with great success. Thank you for the good times.

When I tried to use it today, however, it doesn't seem to work. I'm able to group my engines for my aircraft in the builder and do all the other setup, but when I get to the runway I have no UI and no button will summon it. My plane immediately faceplants as if there is no balancing going on, either. Please help!

Edit 1: I started a new sandbox game and it works there. It may be that my science playthrough has an engine or cockpit type from an incompatible mod. In the broken save, the engines allow grouping and the cockpit says TCA software is installed so I don't know why it doesn't work. The engines are "Deployable" types for changing direction of thrust, could that be an issue?

Edit 2: TCA mod works on the first plane i will link to here:

https://ibb.co/ByXGSWK

 

But TCA refuses to activate on this other plane and I can't fathom why:

https://ibb.co/RjY6gFH

 

Edited August 1, 2020 by Dejakr
update 2

[Dejakr]

OK I figured out the conflict in my earlier post (not able to edit it, my account is too new and it's under review)

Apparently a landing gear added by a mod was causing TCA to not operate. Insanity Aerospace, I think it came from a mk2 parts expansion mod.

[allista]

15 hours ago, Dejakr said:

OK I figured out the conflict in my earlier post (not able to edit it, my account is too new and it's under review)

Apparently a landing gear added by a mod was causing TCA to not operate. Insanity Aerospace, I think it came from a mk2 parts expansion mod.

Thanks for the report and the research!

I'll check it out.

[GoldForest]

On 8/1/2020 at 2:59 PM, Dejakr said:

OK I figured out the conflict in my earlier post (not able to edit it, my account is too new and it's under review)

Apparently a landing gear added by a mod was causing TCA to not operate. Insanity Aerospace, I think it came from a mk2 parts expansion mod.

If you look at the debug menu while in game, or the log file outside the game, you'll be able to tell what's going on. 

[allista]

I'm planning to gradually develop a set of orbital maneuver autopilots. Here's a document where I started to describe some of the programs along with their boundary conditions (read options) that came to mind.

Anyone who want to participate is welcome to comment:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19iExnuWOuXae8uUk7ZM9llTNy0aD42fuzuRq6LJ0A_4/edit?usp=drivesdk

[GoldForest]

2 hours ago, allista said:

I'm planning to gradually develop a set of orbital maneuver autopilots. Here's a document where I started to describe some of the programs along with their boundary conditions (read options) that came to mind.

Anyone who want to participate is welcome to comment:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19iExnuWOuXae8uUk7ZM9llTNy0aD42fuzuRq6LJ0A_4/edit?usp=drivesdk

Trying to take on @sarbian are we? 

[allista]

25 minutes ago, GoldForest said:

Trying to take on @sarbian are we? 

It's just too inconvenient to have to use two autopilot systems at once.

Then again, I don't know how MJ looks now, but as I remember it, it was quite different from TCA in approach.

[Daveroski]

When launching from KSC to intercept a target in orbit, I need to lower the angle of attack so that drag doesn't kill my ship.

Can I do this?

D.

 

[allista]

4 hours ago, Daveroski said:

When launching from KSC to intercept a target in orbit, I need to lower the angle of attack so that drag doesn't kill my ship.

Can I do this?

D.

You can manually set time to ApA to big enough value. Try 2-3 minutes.

Problems with drag usually mean low TWR.

[Daveroski]

On 8/7/2020 at 3:51 PM, allista said:

You can manually set time to ApA to big enough value. Try 2-3 minutes.

I'll play with it and see what happens

 

On 8/7/2020 at 3:51 PM, allista said:

Problems with drag usually mean low TWR.

The drag is arising from the fact that while the air is travelling in a retrograde direction the ship is not taking advantage of it's needle like shape and instead is trying to fly several degrees off prograde. Those several degrees present a long surface area to the wind and cause a tremendous amount of shear. My light but powerful ship becomes 'a leaf on the breeze' but not in the way that was meant in the popular show.

If I can cut down on that shear, my awl like vessel will respond just as well using your autopilot as it does by my hand and I just paid your autopilot a compliment because I fly beautifully.

D.

 

 

[allista]

8 hours ago, Daveroski said:

I'll play with it and see what happens

 

The drag is arising from the fact that while the air is travelling in a retrograde direction the ship is not taking advantage of it's needle like shape and instead is trying to fly several degrees off prograde. Those several degrees present a long surface area to the wind and cause a tremendous amount of shear. My light but powerful ship becomes 'a leaf on the breeze' but not in the way that was meant in the popular show.

If I can cut down on that shear, my awl like vessel will respond just as well using your autopilot as it does by my hand and I just paid your autopilot a compliment because I fly beautifully.

D.

Ah, I see. So what we actually need is either an option to set maximum deviation from prograde (currently it is hard-coded to 10°), or an option to offset the start of the gravity turn to lower dynamic pressure. Or maybe I could just made the former dependant on the latter.

Could you, please, share the craft file, or, better, make something pure-stock that'll have the same problem?

[Daveroski]

On 8/9/2020 at 7:45 AM, allista said:

Ah, I see. So what we actually need is either an option to set maximum deviation from prograde (currently it is hard-coded to 10°), or an option to offset the start of the gravity turn to lower dynamic pressure. Or maybe I could just made the former dependant on the latter.

Could you, please, share the craft file, or, better, make something pure-stock that'll have the same problem?

Well now... there's the rub right there see?

Most of my ships don't like the 5° that MJ defaults at I almost always have to drop it a couple or three.

If yours is hard coded at 10° then that will explain the nose getting pushed down by shear.

The bigger and heavier the craft, the less the affect. As bigger craft tend to be Bum Heavy,

I like to make a craft just big enough to do the job. If I have to drop more than my emergency reserve of fuel before re-entry, I get sad.

< sad see?

I always try to make a craft that doesn't need tail fins and most of the time I manage. But even with tail fins and a heavier craft that 10° shear is like taking an uppercut... pow! right on the noggin.

I don't only want to be able to change that variable. I want your Auto Pilot to take the variable into account and not be too late to catch the bus after I have changed it.

Now I am playing with a bunch of 0.625

While I am not that bothered about a launchpad for it, I have managed a rescue from lunar orbit and I suspect I can do a rescue from the surface of The Mun using the same wee system. It is all terribly unrealistic but it is a LOT of fun.

Anyway... these little rockets really hate your wind shear.

But as I said, I even turn down MJ to 2 or 3° even for most of my own stock rockets. 10° is just way too much.

D.

 

[allista]

@Daveroski in any case, I'd love to get a craft file from you to address this issue properly 

[Daveroski]

On 8/12/2020 at 7:40 AM, allista said:

@Daveroski in any case, I'd love to get a craft file from you to address this issue properly 

Ok...

I really noticed the problem when I was playing with

But had the devil of a time trying to reproduce it on stock craft because most of the vanilla parts are a bit bigger.

So I found this old bird in one of my archives and brought it back from limbo.

Now here's the thing...

I can fly it to orbit manually easily. Once one understands that these thrusters don't want to be at low altitudes then the idea is a steeper ascent to let them work where they work best.

MechJeb can fly it to orbit if I set it's AoA to 2 deg. It still has to have the cowl jettisoned too soon and it has a bit of a psychotic twitch trying to keep the Ap at 100m but it manages. To give MJ it's due, it had almost as much fuel left in the last little tank as I did.

Your auto pilot can get it to around 23000 meters
I have tried having the 'Time to AP' manual longer and shorter. but it just ain't workin'.
It is fighting the atmosphere all the way. Trying to get into a fast horizontal configuration so that it can get the Pe down at the same time.
(Which MechJeb managed to do by-the-way got it up in the 40k's)

As requested, Craft file and metadata file.

https://www.dropbox.com/preview/KSP stuff/Little Squawk.loadmeta?role=personal

https://www.dropbox.com/preview/KSP stuff/Little Squawk.craft?role=personal

https://imgur.com/NYkgO31

Ain't she purdy?. The future of communications.. I'll tell ya.

 

Have fun and have-at-it

D.

 

[allista]

4 hours ago, Daveroski said:

As requested, Craft file and metadata file.

https://www.dropbox.com/preview/KSP stuff/Little Squawk.loadmeta?role=personal

https://www.dropbox.com/preview/KSP stuff/Little Squawk.craft?role=personal

Ah, I can't download it -- the links point me to my own dropbox account.

[allista]

5 hours ago, Daveroski said:

I really noticed the problem when I was playing with

Also, I'd love to have a craft with these parts too; since what you describe -- the problem with shearing -- sounds different than what is happening with this Little Squawk.

[Daveroski]

13 hours ago, allista said:

Also, I'd love to have a craft with these parts too;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5p5vye6rvb0ib16/Rescue Casket 2M.craft?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w9tflgdjdjzoowm/Little Squawk.loadmeta?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o5o507z0u75sbiu/Little Squawk.craft?dl=0

Got Access now?

D.

 

[allista]

6 minutes ago, Daveroski said:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5p5vye6rvb0ib16/Rescue Casket 2M.craft?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w9tflgdjdjzoowm/Little Squawk.loadmeta?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o5o507z0u75sbiu/Little Squawk.craft?dl=0

Got Access now?

D.

Thanks! Got them!

[Daveroski]

Just now, allista said:

Thanks! Got them!

Oh.. BTW.. I can't seem to get Launch to Rendezvous to work at all.

It goes through a few days of trying to find the best window, warps to the time, launches and immediately turns groundward and spreads itself liberally over the ground 

D.

Edited August 14, 2020 by Daveroski

[allista]

Just now, Daveroski said:

Oh.. BTW.. I can't seem to fet Launch to Rendezvous to work at all.

It goes through a few days of trying to find the best window, warps to the time, launches and immediately turns groundward and spreads itself liberally over the ground 

D.

You work as QA specialist is impressive 

Can you spare the save to reproduce this?