Using the Reentry MFD

[Master of Blades]

I recently installed Reentry MFD, but as its provided with no documentation whatsoever, i have no idea how to use it D: Could anyone tell me?

 

[Cale]

It's a pretty basic MFD, but it helps with finding out the deceleration required to hit a base. Toggle the "BSE" button (should be on the upper-left) until the base you want is highlighted. It doesn't give you lateral guidance to your base, however, so if you're not aligned, you won't hit your target square on. The MFD is also useful in that it accurately predicts the time to atmospheric contact, descent/ascent rates and the amount of G-forces you're pulling. I sometimes use this MFD on launches for G-load management. Dunno if you've already downloaded it yet, but you may also want to get Jarmonik's BaseSynch MFD, which can help you align with your target base. It can be a bit complicated to use, but at least it comes with documentation

Cheers,

Cale

 

[Urwumpe]

You don't need to align for the base. The green ball at the bottom of the MFD tells you, how far your current direction of travel is pointing away from the base. When it is centered, you are flying directly towards the base. When you reenter, you can fly in most spacecraft S-turns, which means you let the ball go from left side to right side until you are close to the base. Capsules with less lift should not use the full range of the "relative azimuth error" display.

 

[Master of Blades]

Thing is, the numbers on the MFD are all "jumpy", they constantly change, and usually in a random order (say 6.5K is followed by 2.3K)... is there anything required for it to work properly?

 

[Urwumpe]

Which number is jumpy? if it is actual decelleration, you need a softer touch on the steeeck.

 

[Scarecrow]

You don't need to align for the base. The green ball at the bottom of the MFD tells you, how far your current direction of travel is pointing away from the base. When it is centered, you are flying directly towards the base. When you reenter, you can fly in most spacecraft S-turns, which means you let the ball go from left side to right side until you are close to the base. Capsules with less lift should not use the full range of the "relative azimuth error" display.

I didn't make the Reentry MFD, so I'm not entirely certian, but the way I use it, the circle shouldn't be at the bottom. The right or leftness of the circle says wether the base is right or left of your heading, and the up or downness says whether your decelleration is on track to stop there cleanly. If the ball is at the bottom, you're decellerating too slowly, and if it is at the top, you're decellerating too fast. A very crude way to think about it is that it sorta-kinda represents a flight path you should follow. If you do it perfectly, you should end up a good distance above the base (10 or 20 km, I can't remember) at about mach 3, at which point you should have a convenient amount of energy left for maneuvering to land.

 

[Urwumpe]

There is no "up and downness" for the ball in my version of reentry MFD. It just shows DeltaAz.

 

[Scarecrow]

There is no "up and downness" for the ball in my version of reentry MFD. It just shows DeltaAz.

Hmmm... The version I have has a black background, you select a base by pushing the only button repeatedly, it has a bazillion data fields running down the left side in white text, it has a little green thing in the middle (I think), and it has a small moving green circle that behaves as I described earlier. I've included the zip file if you want to compare it. If we have the same version, try opening it up, and proceeding with a reentry the way you usually do (whatever that is), but decellerate way too much so you incinerate. At some point you should see the green ball move to the top, when it judges that at that moment you are decellerating just the right amount.

 

[Urwumpe]

According to the MD5 sum, both files are equal on my HD. Strange, i never had up and downness in the last months.

 

[Master of Blades]

Which number is jumpy? if it is actual decelleration, you need a softer touch on the steeeck.

Its both required and actual deacelleration thats behaving oddly D:

 

[Urwumpe]

That's strange. At least required deceleration should be a function of distance alone.