[1.9-1.10] Throttle Controlled Avionics

[allista]

20 minutes ago, drhay53 said:

sorry. I don't think the monoprop engines are in the expanded spaceY, I think it's probably either the tanks or the big module itself that you're missing.

Try this: using the SpaceY engines, make a lander that has ~1000 delta-v and try landing it. See if that triggers the message.

I will try in a little bit but I can't at the moment.

I've managed to get it work: removed KAX and Mk2 expansion to free memory and installed full MKS. But I can't reproduce what you describe; the lander either lands normally, or uses emergency landing when there really is not enough fuel left. And in the latter case it brakes in time. Don't know what to think. But it's late already, so I think it's best to let it rest for now...

[drhay53]

46 minutes ago, allista said:

I've managed to get it work: removed KAX and Mk2 expansion to free memory and installed full MKS. But I can't reproduce what you describe; the lander either lands normally, or uses emergency landing when there really is not enough fuel left. And in the latter case it brakes in time. Don't know what to think. But it's late already, so I think it's best to let it rest for now...

Hmm. I'm also having trouble reproducing that first result. At one point I changed the location of the engines to be closer to the center of mass. That might have reduced the monoprop usage or something.

The next time it happens I will post the craft and see if I can debug it. 

[allista]

19 hours ago, drhay53 said:

Hmm. I'm also having trouble reproducing that first result. At one point I changed the location of the engines to be closer to the center of mass. That might have reduced the monoprop usage or something.

The next time it happens I will post the craft and see if I can debug it. 

I've played a bit with this lander and found some bugs and landing algorithm flaws; in the end I was able to achieve the proper emergency landing (normal landing was working all along). I've also added a status message that warns the user if TCA "thinks" that there's not enough fuel to land; it appears after the initial trajectory calculation and pauses the landing sequence until dismissed by clicking on it. And in "advanced" pane there's now an option to autosave the game before landing attempt is made (it is on by default). I'll post the update for testing in a bit... Done. Look below the video.

 

TCA-3.2.0.1 with another set of fixes to Orbital Landing 

@drhay53, I've also changed status messages for on-planet landing autopilot to be more verbose; this may help us to catch the bug you've found. Before that some messages were displayed across multiple internal states, so the "Checking landing site..." was pointing to several places in the code.

Edited July 7, 2016 by allista

[drhay53]

@allista thanks for continuing to investigate. Things are looking good. I'm sure it's frustrating to have tested it so much yourself and then have people find ways to break it right away

I've been sick all day today but I will test the new version as soon as I play again.

[allista]

23 minutes ago, drhay53 said:

@allista thanks for continuing to investigate. Things are looking good. I'm sure it's frustrating to have tested it so much yourself and then have people find ways to break it right away

I've been sick all day today but I will test the new version as soon as I play again.

Well, a little bit  But I understand it's inevitable -- a developer is unable to circumvent subconscious defence against bumping into his or her own bugs. We know how to use the product so that it would work; how to create "test" crafts in this case. And of course there's only so much time for testing when your main task is to write the code. It was the same when @smjjames first started to test the newly created Navpoint Navigation and the whole follow the leader thing 

Thank You for the testing, it is a great help indeed. And please, take your time and heal properly. (I may confess: being married to a doctor (albeit a veterinarian) teaches one to take one's health seriously )

Anyway, I'll be on vacation from 11th to 24th, so I guess I'll publish the last version tomorrow as stable and reap the fruits of the large-scale "testing" when I return 

[drhay53]

8 hours ago, allista said:

Well, a little bit  But I understand it's inevitable -- a developer is unable to circumvent subconscious defence against bumping into his or her own bugs. We know how to use the product so that it would work; how to create "test" crafts in this case. And of course there's only so much time for testing when your main task is to write the code. It was the same when @smjjames first started to test the newly created Navpoint Navigation and the whole follow the leader thing 

Thank You for the testing, it is a great help indeed. And please, take your time and heal properly. (I may confess: being married to a doctor (albeit a veterinarian) teaches one to take one's health seriously )

Anyway, I'll be on vacation from 11th to 24th, so I guess I'll publish the last version tomorrow as stable and reap the fruits of the large-scale "testing" when I return 

Out of curiosity, what is that long and narrow test craft that is in a lot of your videos?

[allista]

8 hours ago, drhay53 said:

Out of curiosity, what is that long and narrow test craft that is in a lot of your videos?

Long and narrow? You mean that "piglet" (a codename my wife gave it) with six legs and four/eight radial double-nozzle engines? Hmm... I'm not sure I can explain "what" it is. It's just the simplest design I've come up with when I first started testing TCA (big Mk3 fuel tank, probe core, engines, legs... you saw it all). I simply stuck with it somehow. The engines are from my other mod -- the Hangar -- which I'm currently trying to reanimate (using voodoo, yea).

By the way...

Edited July 8, 2016 by allista

[drhay53]

2 minutes ago, allista said:

Long and narrow? You mean that "piglet" (a codename my wife gave it) with six legs and four/eight radial double-nozzle engines? Hmm... I'm not sure I can explain "what" it is. It's just the simplest design I've come up with when I first started testing TCA (big Mk3 fuel tank, probe core, engines, legs... you saw it all). I simply stuck with it somehow. The engines are from my other mod -- the Hangar -- which I'm currently trying to reanimate (using voodoo, yea).

By the way...

Ah, I couldn't figure out where the engines came from. Happy Birthday

[allista]

For those of you who are testing things from time to time.

And for all the others who may find it a little bit frustrating to skip through KSP start screen every time.

AutoLoadGame

Edited July 9, 2016 by allista

[allista]

TCA v3.2.1.1 for KSP 1.1.3 (2016.07.11)

ChangeLog:

  Hide contents

• Numerous fixes and improvements to:
  • Deorbit autopilot
  • Landing autopilot
  • Attitude and Bearing control
• Compiled against AT_Utils library that will now be common to all my mods. It is distributed with TCA, so no additional action is required.
• The naming convention of the .glob and .user files has changed: these files are now namedThrottleControlledAvionics.glob and ThrottleControlledAvionics.user. If you have done any customizations, don't forget to rename your TCA.user file accordingly.

Edited July 10, 2016 by allista
Reposted: v3.2.1.1 with a hotfix for AttitudeControl

[stali79]

Dude i really love this mod! Thank you for your work on it and also thank you for the radial sabre!

[allista]

1 hour ago, stali79 said:

Dude i really love this mod! Thank you for your work on it and also thank you for the radial sabre!

Alas, the radial SABRE will be left out of the next Hangar beta (which will come later today) for the sake of development speed. Once the mod is on track again, I'll add it back; it needs to be reconfigured for KSP-1.1.3 anyway.

[stali79]

1 minute ago, allista said:

Alas, the radial SABRE will be left out of the next Hangar beta (which will come later today) for the sake of development speed. Once the mod is on track again, I'll add it back; it needs to be reconfigured for KSP-1.1.3 anyway.

Nooooooooooòoooooo its my favourite part lol

[Denko666]

Hey Allista!

CKAN isnt considering TA tools as a dependency for TCA.... and so its not installing it when updating. Just letting you know... could save you some time figuring out why people arent getting the plugin UI.

 

And with that: THANK YOU!!! For this mod.... i couldt operate my spaceplanes without it. 

[allista]

Thanks for the report. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about it right now. For one thing, I'm riding to the airport right now and won't be near my working place till 24th. Athens are waiting 

Aside from that, AT_Utils is in beta now and I dare not release it as standalone library publicly. The reason is, It was an integrated part of the Hangar until now.

[kiwi1960]

@allista ..... Sir. Firstly, way back in .90 I think, I found your mod, it was the best mod since sliced bread. But then, new versions of KSP came out and things didn't work the way they were suposed to, the game, I mean, not your mod.

BUT... this newest version???? It will almost certainly be my number one mod from now on, its been expanded to include all I have ever wanted... in one foul swoop, Sir, you have advanced the Kiwi Space Program by decades... again.... Kiwi rovers will roam the planets... mining bases will be a reality... no more will I have to build ships in an up/down configuration... no longer will they need to land right way up...

If Squad doesn't offer you a job... then shame on them.... if they have, and you already work for them, then they ain't paying you enough!

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by kiwi1960

[Deimos Rast]

I gave this mod a whirl (thinking it was mainly for planes, and I never fly those) and I'm blown away. There are a ton of cool features! Kudos!

A couple things:

• does it disable features after reaching space? I lost my landing options 100km up, go figure.
• Trying the "Orbit" option without nodes unlocked yet caused a wall of NRE spam, but goes away when cancelled.
• I like how detailed the manual is! I didn't read it, but it looks impressive! It's rare that someone actually provides documentation in game, thank you. I'll read it when Jeb isn't flying....promise!

[TwinKerbal]

How exactly do I rendezvous? I have a craft in orbit that I need to refuel using the other crafts. They're both in stable orbit around Kerbin. However, even though I click and set one craft as target, the rendezvous button is greyed out.

[Sarducar Kahn]

21 hours ago, Denko666 said:

Hey Allista!

CKAN isnt considering TA tools as a dependency for TCA.... and so its not installing it when updating. Just letting you know... could save you some time figuring out why people arent getting the plugin UI.

 

And with that: THANK YOU!!! For this mod.... i couldt operate my spaceplanes without it. 

Hi Allista, I think this is my problem? None of the Command modules show the TCA control in their descriptions and the TCA square is not available in any of the toolboxes. I am using Ckan and a ton of other mods. Is there a fix for this?

[SaintWacko]

24 minutes ago, Sarducar Kahn said:

Hi Allista, I think this is my problem? None of the Command modules show the TCA control in their descriptions and the TCA square is not available in any of the toolboxes. I am using Ckan and a ton of other mods. Is there a fix for this?

What you'll need to do is download TCA from this thread, and manually copy the AT Utils folder into the Gamedata folder.

[Denko666]

26 minutes ago, Sarducar Kahn said:

Hi Allista, I think this is my problem? None of the Command modules show the TCA control in their descriptions and the TCA square is not available in any of the toolboxes. I am using Ckan and a ton of other mods. Is there a fix for this?

Yup, download TCA from Spacedock.info and copy the 000-at-tools (guessing here, not sure about the actual name) directory into your Gamedata. 

[Sarducar Kahn]

Well that was easy, Thanks guys!

[allista]

50 minutes ago, SaintWacko said:

What you'll need to do is download TCA from this thread, and manually copy the AT Utils folder into the Gamedata folder.

From Spacedock, to be precise. All links in this thread point there. CKAN, for that matter, downloads the archive also from there. It just filters the content afterwards, removing any additional plugins not mentioned in the manifest.

5 hours ago, TwinKerbal said:

How exactly do I rendezvous? I have a craft in orbit that I need to refuel using the other crafts. They're both in stable orbit around Kerbin. However, even though I click and set one craft as target, the rendezvous button is greyed out.

Hm... either the target was not actually set, or you're playing career and have some unsatisfied module dependencies. Open the "advanced" pane and find the Rendezvous module in the list. It should be said there what modules are needed for Rendezvous to be active.

Edited July 11, 2016 by allista

[TwinKerbal]

2 hours ago, allista said:

From Spacedock, to be precise. All links in this thread point there. CKAN, for that matter, downloads the archive also from there. It just filters the content afterwards, removing any additional plugins not mentioned in the manifest.

Hm... either the target was not actually set, or you're playing career and have some unsatisfied module dependencies. Open the "advanced" pane and find the Rendezvous module in the list. It should be said there what modules are needed for Rendezvous to be active.

I am playing sandbox, have targeted a space station, using the stock targeting system, and it still doesn't work.

[allista]

8 hours ago, TwinKerbal said:

I am playing sandbox, have targeted a space station, using the stock targeting system, and it still doesn't work.

Then it has to be a bug. But I don't know how it is possible: literally, the only thing that is checked when that button is drawn is if the vessel has a target and that target is a vessel. And that is a KSP code, not mine: I only check the value of the vessel.targetObject and then call the vessel.targetObject.GetVessel().

Could you experiment a little with other vessels and other targets? Also, what does the tooltip of the inactive button say?