Hinge-Mining Arm-Turret controller

[WarGiver]

Basically I am planning on messing with this in Survival, while on Planets a hinge can just hang loose, what I need is for one to "sync" and move at the same angle so that the drills always face down (or forward on a ship)

In essence the build I am planning is (simplified) Rotor>Hinge>Piston>Hinge>Piston>Drill I need both hinges to move in sync so that the drill will always face the same direction. I plan to use a turret controller to control where it aims down at and I want something, without a script to control the second hinge, if a script is needed that's fine but please do not trouble yourselves making it.

[Jack Schitt]

You'd need to use a script for that since we can only tell the turret controller to use one single hinge. Using 2 hinges also decreases stability while increasing the chance of summoning Klang. I suggest only using one hinge.

These setups don't work on ships. Instead of the arm moving the arm stays in place and the ship moves around as we move the mouse to aim the arm. When we do get it to work the arm the mining drill causes the ship to get thrown around. This makes using a Custom Turret Controller (CTC) for mining on a ship impossible. It works for weapon turrets but it doesn't work for drills.

It does work making a drill this way on rovers (one hing for CTC arm). We have to set the parking brake or use landing gear or magnetic plates to keep the rover steady while mining with the arm.

[WarGiver]

Originally posted by Jack Schitt:

These setups don't work on ships. Instead of the arm moving the arm stays in place and the ship moves around as we move the mouse to aim the arm.

Interesting, as I am a bit of an old school SE player who got most of their 3k hours prior the the TC release and am just getting back and trying the new blocks out this is important to know.

I was not intending to directly control the second hinge, I was wondering if there was some round about way to handle it, an AI block used in some wierd way to always look in a specific direction, a remote control block, a sensor, a timer block or anything unusual that I have not thought of.

I have made many mining drills and arms in the past, but as I am stepping up my game, I am trying to step up my knowledge. Thankfully the Wrath of Klang was never a worry for me, it would be entertaining if I did see it.

(Side note, I was really thinking static grids to be honest anyway not really mobile ones, they are an after thought and a learning thing.)

[Jack Schitt]

There might be a way to use an event controller to watch the first hinge and control the second hinge to match the first hinge's angle? I haven't tried that.

What you intend to do can surely be done using a script to match the angle position of [this] hinge with the angle of [that] hinge. I'm not positive it can be done without a script.
Maybe someone else does know of a way to do it with vanilla blocks. I don't.

My first response was sharing my experience making mining arms, hopefully saving you from wasting time trying it to find out it doesn't work. You can see an example of it doing this in this image (animated gif): https://i.imgur.com/G2pv9SH.mp4
Credit: Whip's TCES (Turret Controller Enhancement Script).

....the ship moves around on the custom turret instead of how it *should* work with the turret moving around while the ship is static.

As I said it does work correctly on rovers but it does that stupidness on ships.

[WarGiver]

Hmm. That script does look interesting, and I did use the old school Whip before the CTC was added. I do have my own plans for using scripts for other projects. But this is something I feel should be in reach for vanilla.

[Jack Schitt]

I agree it should be possible vanilla. It might be. I'd start testing with the Event Controller. That's the only AI block I can think of that might possibly do something like that.
I'm interested in this so I'll test it out myself and see what I can come up with.

I don't think a C# script would be too complicated to create for this if you'd end up having to go that route.

[Wojak]

This problem seams to be very interesting, I wont be able to find time to play SE for some time, but I would be happy if you could provide an image of your crane setup witch more detailed description, so I can try to make a circuit for it in the future.
For the record, I managed to sync two rotors using timers and event controllers, though I have a feeling that your problem may be harder.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3018499631
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3008744122