OHM Delta IV Launch Vehicles 2.0

[OrbitHangar]

Author: virii2k

New Exhaust textures from Francisdrake.
A basic Autopilot feature.
2 Launch sites.
Delta IV variants with 1 proposed design.
Various bug fixes.
Customizable payloads while in the simulation (before launch).
9 pre configured, with the ability to launch any payload.
If you are updating, make sure you delete the scenario folder first.
 A= Autopilot
 J = Jettison stages
 F = Jets fairing
 K = work satilite's solar panels
 M = Mobile Service Tower / Config menu (before launch)
*****  CUSTOM PAYLOAD  *****
Can now be configured in the Menu by pressing M before launch
 
 PAYLOAD      sets payloads CFG file location
 MESH         sets payload mesh
 Z_OFFSET     sets the offset for the payload
 PLDWEIGHT    weight of payload
 Fairing_attached  1 = true / 0 = false (used to launch the dg)
 
 Credits :

 Dr. Martin Schweiger  for the awsome Orbiter space flight simulator.
 Francisdrake  for allowing me to use his Delta 4 Heavy Versatile Exhaust textures.
 My wife , Kelly Harrington  for allowing me to spend ALL my free time working on this    project.
 All the people who posted in the forum inspiring me to improve this addon.
 
 - Thomas Harrington


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[Izack]

I've been looking forward to this. Will test tonight. :woohoo:

 

[IronRain]

yeey! I've been looking forward to this. Thanks!!

 

[Scruce]

What has been changed?
The description was not clear enough for me.

 

[virii2k]

Added autopilot, SLC6, and various bug fixes

 

[N_Molson]

Ah, thanks for this ! I really like this add-on ! :thumbup:

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Breaking news: My test launch of the Delta IV Heavy from CCAFS ended in failure: the rocket functioned normally up to stage separation. Unfortunately, the upper stage failed to ignite under autopilot control, and the payload fell into the Atlantic Ocean. Thomas, can you check if there's a bug in your autopilot? Thanks!:tiphat:

 

[Grover]

whats wrong with using taking control yourself? after stage separation is easy anyway

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

whats wrong with using taking control yourself? after stage separation is easy anyway

That's because I'm not sure about the scope of the autopilot, as the documentation wasn't clear on this. That's why I asked if I would need a joystick to control the pitch, yaw and throttle of the rocket stages from the ULA control consoles in Denver...
Edit: The upper stage functions normally in the Medium configuration... so it does seems to be a bug...

---------- Post added at 23:33 ---------- Previous post was at 23:14 ----------

Found another bug: VAFB SLC-6 is placed too north in Orbiter. The correct co-ordinates are: 34.581455 N, 120.626462 W. Thanks for your attention.
P.S. One of the best EELV class launchers I've seen in recent months! Great job!

Oops! ULA faced another set-back with the Delta IV. The test flight from VAFB (using a M+(4, 2) configuration) lost control soon after core stage separation: not only the engine did not ignite, the stage pitched up to 90 degrees and rolled so fast that the stack disintegrated.:blink:
Looks like I would have to stay on manual control after all...

 

[IronRain]

Are you sure it's a bug? I have no problems at all..

 

[Cosmic Penguin]

Are you sure it's a bug? I have no problems at all..

Hmm... which configuration, payload and inclination target do you use? I tried three scenarios, and two of them have problems:

• DIV Heavy, from CCAFS, with Sat 2 (mass 13000 kg), altitude 350 km, inc. 29 degrees, ascending node
• DIV M+(4,2), from VAFB, with Sat 3 (mass 3000 kg), altitude 350 km, inc. 90 degrees, descending node

The one that worked was a DIV Medium, from CCAFS, with Sat 3 (mass 3000 kg), altitude 350 km, inc. 29 degrees, ascending node
Can you try these configurations? Thanks!:tiphat:

 

[IronRain]

Tried them both and they are working for me. some more details:
I hide the autopilot screen during the launch,
I installed V2.0 over V1.0 but first deleted the Delta IV scenario folder as mentioned in the readme..

 

[virii2k]

Galactic Penguin SST
What are your computer specs? I have noticed if I am using a web browser while running the autopilot, it can be a little erratic. I will check into it though.
It was written and tested on a AMD 3000+ , 2 GB ram, 512 mb gforce video card. It seems that if another process takes cpu power
Orbiter lags and this causes the autopilot instability.
The autopilot code uses some calculations from Azimuth Calculator which gets it close to the target inclination , but different payload weights and the fact that it needs to reach the desired inclination before the final burn took some calibrating to get it close enough.
I used an inclination of 51.64 for this (for launches to the ISS) and it seems to work ok for inclinations +/- 10 of 51.64.
If I can find a better way it will be updated in future releases.
Also , hiding the autopilot window will skip the code for updating the information shown and should be a little less cpu intensive.

---------- Post added at 08:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:49 PM ----------

http://www.astronautix.com/sites/vannberg.htm
Puts SLC6 at
Location: Vandenberg AFB, California.
Longitude: -120.6012 deg.
Latitude: 34.7720 deg.

While [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandenberg_AFB_Space_Launch_Complex_6"]Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 6 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
Seems to give 2 different sets of coodinates
Coordinates:

34°34′53″N 120°37′35″W
and
Location34.5813 N
120.6266 W

 

[Grover]

just two quick questions:

1) can you use UCD to attach vessels without messing things up like autopilots and stuff

2) if i launch it from somewhere other than the stock bases, will it still work?

 

[Interceptor]

Thanks Virii2k,This looks great. I am going to try it out sometime tonight.

 

[virii2k]

Im not sure if it is compatable with UCD.I dont have it installed.
Launching from other bases should work but, autopilot wont be very accurate
and Pressing M to bring up the configuration menu passes focus to the base and then back to the rocket to start the base animations.Future releases will probably provide a way to disable base animations.

 

[Izack]

2) if i launch it from somewhere other than the stock bases, will it still work?

The old one did.

 

[Interceptor]

Thanks again for this really great addon,and if you decide to improve this anymore, could you add a hide button panel for the configuration pop up panel,and seperate buttons for the arms and cables extend retract,also the DGs landing gear deploys at launch,and I dont know what exactly it;s called but there is some type of gas bleed off near the launch pad I always see in the background before launch in the real videos that would be great to see in this wonderful addon.:tiphat:

 

[Grover]

also, i cant seem to get the autopilot panel for the heavy+, is that a bug?

 

[Piper]

Great addon. Would it be possible to have a larger fairing? Or even to use your own custom fairing?