Landing pad design issues

[av.wright]

I have a simple landing pad based on a piston going up and down with a rotor on the top to rotate the pad. The pad it self is 11x11x1, with 4 connectors built into it offset but inline with the centre. I have a couple of issues with it and I'm looking for how to resolve them, or find a mod that does similar.

So first issue is that it is not very stable, it wobbles, not a huge amount, but Ive seen it enough to mention it. This is more noticeable when a ship lands on it. When I lower the pad down I've added in some wheels on the ground that the pad rests on to help reduce the wobble while it rotates. Would more pistons help if all linked together? Problem I see with this is that the pistons would prevent the pad rotating. And yes the current pistons have inertia shared.

Second. I have a couple of timers on the setup so that it times the pad going down, rotating, and then returning to normal position. Despite having a couple of lengthy delays, I am still finding that some times the pad has only rotated part way round and tries to come up at odd angles. For this issue Im sure it can probably be improved by increasing the amount of torque and braking.

Thirdly, and this is more of how do I do it, how do I make it so that when the pad comes down, the connectors can link up to the system to unload or load? I know I need to use timers to allow for it to happen, what I don't know is how to make the connections work.

[crossed]

You could put a conveyor block on the top of the rotor and connect it to the connectors with conveyor tubes below the platform if there's room for it. The rotor and piston work as conveyors themselves so you can unoad the stuff at the bottom of the piston.
Otherwise you can put another downward facing connector on the bottom of the connectors you have in the platform, and 4 upward facing ones at the base, so your ship connects ot the platform and the platform connects to the base when it lowers. (don't know if it's clear what I mean...)

Make sure to enable inertia share for the rotor too, that might help with the wobble.

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

Rotors and pistons both flex when under strain. More connection points, so more pistons is isually best to counter it.

The issue for you is the pad also rotates. So even iff you do a 4 piston style one... it would still be a single rotor connection to the pad. Whith such a big pad it will always have some wobble. May have to rethink the design if you want it super stable.

Hinges off the rotor body, with a line of blocks, merged to hinges on the underside of the pad like bracing beams may work for the upper assembly.

Then 4 pistons joined for the lower part should achieve a solid design. Very fiddley to set up though :)

Ps actually for the bracing beams it gets a lot more complicated. Still stops the pad from rotating so your gonna need more linkages and maybe pistons to move the rotor...... does it have to rotate lol

[av.wright]

Originally posted by Karmaterrorᵁᴷ:

Rotors and pistons both flex when under strain. More connection points, so more pistons is isually best to counter it.

The issue for you is the pad also rotates. So even iff you do a 4 piston style one... it would still be a single rotor connection to the pad. Whith such a big pad it will always have some wobble. May have to rethink the design if you want it super stable.

Hinges off the rotor body, with a line of blocks, merged to hinges on the underside of the pad like bracing beams may work for the upper assembly.

Then 4 pistons joined for the lower part should achieve a solid design. Very fiddley to set up though :)

Ps actually for the bracing beams it gets a lot more complicated. Still stops the pad from rotating so your gonna need more linkages and maybe pistons to move the rotor...... does it have to rotate lol

The reason to rotate the pad is simply so that the ships are facing the right way when exiting the hanger bay. I'm guessing that it might be a lot easier to just have the ships reverse out, but it wont look quite how I hope it will work.

[av.wright]

Originally posted by crossed:

You could put a conveyor block on the top of the rotor and connect it to the connectors with conveyor tubes below the platform if there's room for it. The rotor and piston work as conveyors themselves so you can unoad the stuff at the bottom of the piston.
Otherwise you can put another downward facing connector on the bottom of the connectors you have in the platform, and 4 upward facing ones at the base, so your ship connects ot the platform and the platform connects to the base when it lowers. (don't know if it's clear what I mean...)

Make sure to enable inertia share for the rotor too, that might help with the wobble.

I added in the conveyor. Not sure why I never thought of that in the first place. So thank you for the reminder that some times the answer is right in front of us.

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

Could a flip design work?

So you fly in, pad flips over and now your pointing out again... if upside down lol

Only reason i ask is that would just need a single rotor each side and would be super stable.

Or instead of rotating the entire pad maybe do a 4 piston for up and down. Then rotate each connector individually. That way its much less weight on each rotor and much less wobble :)

[av.wright]

Originally posted by Karmaterrorᵁᴷ:

Could a flip design work?

So you fly in, pad flips over and now your pointing out again... if upside down lol

Only reason i ask is that would just need a single rotor each side and would be super stable.

Or instead of rotating the entire pad maybe do a 4 piston for up and down. Then rotate each connector individually. That way its much less weight on each rotor and much less wobble :)

I like the last idea of rotating the connectors instead of the whole pad. I think I might go experiment. Thanks. All I need to figure out is how to rotate just the connector once its down and not the whole pad.