Problem Spacecraft high speed rotation

[Blacklight]

I'm wondering if this is a bug. You might think I'm nuts, but I've been flying in Orbiter for YEARS but I've never left the Earth-moon system and everything I've done has been between those two locations (and that's a lot of stuff. Just a testament to the vast amount of stuff you can do with this sim.)

So I've made my first venture out to other planets and I've hit a snag. I've noticed that my spacecraft start tumbling uncontrollably for some reason and "Kill Rot" is unable to compensate. I have NO CLUE as to what causes the tumbling but the spacecraft seems to increase it's spin speed over time till it's spinning at a blur. I NEVER see this when I'm flying between the Earth and the moon and I suspect that it's due to the time compression calculations. Is this some kind of bug happening? I can't imagine why the spacecraft should be tumbling like this and then be speeding up like it does.

 

[Urwumpe]

Orbiters autopilots only work at low time warps - at 100x and a low frame rate, the thruster commands will apply too long to function properly.

 

[Blacklight]

The spinning wasn't due to an autopilot done at high warp. I did my maneuver and completed it. I then went to high warp. It was then that the spacecraft went into the crazy spin. As soon as I noticed it, I popped back to real time but the spin still appeared to be near infinite. I hit "Kill Rot" and it couldn't compensate at all. A half hour after, and the ship was still a spinning blur so I assume the calculations go haywire at high warp or something? I've NEVER seen this when going between the Earth and Moon. I would always complete the maneuver and the ship would never spin on me, but then again, I would never have to pop myself up to a very high warp to get there in a timely fashion. I wonder if I'm just warping too high for the sim to handle or something? I definitely should NOT be dealing with a slow frame rate with Orbiter. This is a really HOT new modern gaming computer. I'm wondering if something in the program breaks down when you pop up into to high a time compression.

 

[Castor]

Is your spacecraft being flung to Nan space ?

 

[Blacklight]

All I know is that the spacecraft is not spinning. I pop up the time compression and suddenly, the spacecraft is immediately spinning at infinite speed.

Is there a proper time compression I should be using when doing interplanetary voyages? I'm thinking I'm just setting this thing too high and some calculation is breaking down because the ship isn't spinning in one instance and then suddenly it's infinitely spinning. And when I pop back to real time the spin speed doesn't slow. It stays exactly the same. So I'm thinking bug or math breakdown in the physics engine.

 

[Castor]

See if your problem is similar to this one: http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=33630

---------- Post added at 09:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 AM ----------

Also, does this problem persist with every ship or does it happen only for a particular vessel ?

 

[Blacklight]

Sounds similar although they didn't really have an answer other than they assumed that it was either an autopilot or him accidentally thrusting while in high warp.

Let me ask this. Would traveling from Earth to another planet with my spacecraft pointed in a certain direction, even if I used "Kill Rot" begin to tumble and increase tumble speed over time for any conceivable reason during it's journey without me touching a thing? Because this is what's happening. The spacecraft is traveing mid-rout with me touching nothing. Not tumbling. The tumble doesn't become noticeable until I up the time compression. Then, when I drop the time compression to real time, the tumble speed does NOT change. "Kill Rot" will not recover the spacecraft from it.
So yeah. It's SIMILAR to what he's reporting. I'm going to give that "Absolute KilRot" a try, but it sounds a little like cheating.

 

[Castor]

Sounds similar although they didn't really have an answer other than they assumed that it was either an autopilot or him accidentally thrusting while in high warp.

He had kept the prograde autopilot on, which caused the tumbling when over 100x.

Then, when I drop the time compression to real time, the tumble speed does NOT change.

If your tumble speed does not change when you slow down to real time, it is unlikely Absolute Killrot will solve your problem. Could you please specify which vessel you are using ?

 

[Blacklight]

I first noticed it with the Deepstar, but I've found that it happens to me with the Delta Glider, and Ravenstar and all the other ships too(There's quite a list of ships). Let me find out exactly the time compression that it wonks up.

Okay. Arrow Freighter is the ONLY ONE that doesn't do it so far. It seems completely unaffected even at the highest time compression.
100-1000x seem to be the start of the trigger times although it seems to be triggered at RANDOM time compressions above this.
(This is the older Arrow, not the new one. I havn't updated to the new UCGO and new Deltaglider4 yet).

 

[Izack]

Do you have a joystick plugged in? Sometimes joysticks can create a tiny pitch or yaw when in the neutral position.

 

[jedidia]

It's either joystick, or some autopilot is firing at high timeaccel. Try switching RCS off before increasing timewarp and see if it still happens.

 

[Blacklight]

There's no joystick plugged in and there's no autopilot going on. I fire all my thrusters manually. I'll try switching off the RCS. That's a REALLY good idea. I didn't think of that!