Control lock with RA-2 relay antenna?

[ray.mcdonough]

I got my tanker out to Duna to refuel my ships there to go home, and I get a 'control locked-cannot delete node' I thought I would be ok with the RA-2 relay antenna.

I was able to burn the maneuver and shut it down, but I can't use RCS or make a new node.

What gives?

[Jupiter3927]

Is your relay antenna close enough to KSC or another relay to get a signal?
You can't control your stuff without a signal unless you turn that feature off.

[ray.mcdonough]

It says I have limited control of the probe. I have three other ships in orbit, two of them man...er Kerbaled with non-relay antennas. The two manned have the dish antenna that folds, I forget the name.

[ray.mcdonough]

I don't want to cheat by turning off stuff, if I can help it.

Kerbal is pretty far away at present. Almost on the other side of the solar system.

[ray.mcdonough]

the ships have Communotron HG-55s

[Jupiter3927]

Is your kerbal a pilot?
Scientists and engineers can't make manuevers.

You have a handy little handbook you can access from in the game and it tells you exactly what you can and can't do in every possible control condition.
I think limited locks you out of manuevers and thrust values between 0% and 100% but I'm not sure.

[ray.mcdonough]

The tanker has no Kerbals aboard. I have an RC 001-s probe core. Two of them, acually. It's two complete ships clamped together at the nose, each with a probe core, and a HG-55 antenna

[ray.mcdonough]

Originally posted by RoofCat:

1. is HG-55 deployed? You have to for it to work. It should be strong enough with decent Tracking station.
2. Aren't probes hibernated by any chance?

Probe hybernation is off. It was working fine on the way to Duna.

Originally posted by RoofCat:

Possible solutions if that doesn't help:
wait till you rotate to the side of Duna where you have a direct vision to Kerbin
if that's not enough, wait till Kerbin and Duna are close on their orbits so your signal is stronger
or upgrade your tracking station to the max level

I had direct vision, but Kerbin is pretty far away. Tracking station is fully upgraded

Originally posted by RoofCat:

send another rescue ship there - powerful relay or piloted one
...
or forget the whole crap. Why do you need to rescue some dumb tanker in the first place?

Lol, I don't care about the tanker- I'm about to move all the fuel to one of them, and ditch the other, but My two crews of Kerbals and tourists need the fuel to get home.

I thought of launching a relay sat, but I might have a solution.

I have two landers in orbit attached to two mother ships. I have two pilots on one ship, so I might pilot a lander over to the tanker, EVA over to it (I have two Klaws on the tankers, but a docking port on the lander I want to use) and then clamp the lander, get it's fuel, ditch it, fly the tanker over to my other ships.

[ray.mcdonough]

btw, am I correct in my observation that when you 'unlock' the Klaw when attached to another ship nose-to-nose, it balances the two for engine burns?

[Chibbity]

Originally posted by ray.mcdonough:

btw, am I correct in my observation that when you 'unlock' the Klaw when attached to another ship nose-to-nose, it balances the two for engine burns?

Unlocking the Klaw just let's it rotate freely.

This could potentially be beneficial or disatrous depending on the two crafts in question/where you actually connected with the Klaw.

In general, in space, pulling is always better than pushing. Ideally you'd "tow" the other ship behind you if possible.

[ray.mcdonough]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

Originally posted by ray.mcdonough:

btw, am I correct in my observation that when you 'unlock' the Klaw when attached to another ship nose-to-nose, it balances the two for engine burns?

Unlocking the Klaw just let's it rotate freely.

This could potentially be beneficial or disatrous depending on the two crafts in question/where you actually connected with the Klaw.

In general, in space, pulling is always better than pushing. Ideally you'd "tow" the other ship behind you if possible.

I must have just got lucky, then. I Klawed two very heavy tankers together, and pushed them to Duna.

Interesting idea, though. I'll have to consider that in future designs.

[ray.mcdonough]

When I set 'comm net' to 'network' it shows green lines to the other three ships in Duna orbit (and a red one to a derelict I'm suppose to rescue) and a yellow line from the closest to Kerbin in orbit back to the home planet. But still 'limited' control on the un-kerbaled tanker. This lets me burn the engines and align with nodes using the SAS and RCS, but with no maneuver node removal or creation.

[Chibbity]

Originally posted by ray.mcdonough:

When I set 'comm net' to 'network' it shows green lines to the other three ships in Duna orbit (and a red one to a derelict I'm suppose to rescue) and a yellow line from the closest to Kerbin in orbit back to the home planet. But still 'limited' control on the un-kerbaled tanker. This lets me burn the engines and align with nodes using the SAS and RCS, but with no maneuver node removal or creation.

Do you have more antennas on those ships?

Most antenna stack, but with diminishing returns.

As a rule of thumb, I believe it takes 4 more of a given antenna to double the strength of the first one.

[ray.mcdonough]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

Do you have more antennas on those ships?

Most antenna stack, but with diminishing returns.

As a rule of thumb, I believe it takes 4 more of a given antenna to double the strength of the first one.

I did not know that the antenna stacked. However, I had two of the HG-55's on the tankers. I mean, they were acting as one ship when attached, right?

[ray.mcdonough]

Yeah, Kerbin and Duna are only going to get further away from each other for a while, so I'm going to have to try the Kerbalnaut solution to this. I'm going to have to attend to boring old real life for awhile today, but I'm all over it soon.

[Chibbity]

Originally posted by ray.mcdonough:

I did not know that the antenna stacked. However, I had two of the HG-55's on the tankers. I mean, they were acting as one ship when attached, right?

Yeah, if they are docked, it counts as one vessel and the antennas combine afaik.

Originally posted by ray.mcdonough:

Yeah, Kerbin and Duna are only going to get further away from each other for a while, so I'm going to have to try the Kerbalnaut solution to this. I'm going to have to attend to boring old real life for awhile today, but I'm all over it soon.

Good to hear! Best of luck.