Question Building Blocks and Robot Arm

[ahunn]

Hi all, I am having a problem figuring out how to use the SBB Remote Manipulator Arm from Greg Burches station building blocks.

I am using the XR-5 Payload SBB41 - Animated Station Components, and after I grapple the robot arm into the bay, I switch ships to the arm, go to external view and then if I press K the arm animation plays to unlock the arm, I then press space bar to activate the controls, and I see a small message bottom left of screen that says "Robotic Arm: Arm Train [34.109]" but I have no clue what the controls are and how to manipulate the arm so that I can move stuff about with it...for station building eventually....

Any pointers would be good, I have trawled the docs but haven't had much luck..

Thanksm

 

[PhantomCruiser]

This stuff gets me every time, and I always seem to have to re-learn it from scratch, so you are not alone.

(Going on memory here...)
I think you've got to hold down the left [SHIFT] key, then use the numpad keys. The [2] and [8] keys are going to select the segments (like shoulder, wrist, etc) and the [4] and [6] keys will cause the selected segment to traverse, pivot, hinge open/close, etc.

I may have it totally backwards (or completely wrong), if that's the case I apologize in advance, but I'm pretty sure I'm close on the operation... (I can't for the life of me remember how to grapple though).

 

[ahunn]

Perfect.. works like a charm,

Left-Shift 4,6 is element selection and left shift 8 and 2 to move it...

Thanks a lot!!

---------- Post added 06-23-13 at 05:42 AM ---------- Previous post was 06-22-13 at 11:19 PM ----------

Aha, spoke too soon...

Although I can manipulate the arm now, when I tried to grapple a module (after deploying it) I couldn't get it to work, the module just drifted out of the cargo bay of the XR-5, I had pre positioned the arm for the grapple, as previously I tried to grapple it before I had deployed it, which hung orbiter.

So my workflow is like this,
Select the arm as the current ship.
Move it into position above the module to be deployed.
Switch back to the XR5 and deploy the module.
Switch back to the arm and press "A" to activate the grapple.

I get a small message bottom right of screen that says Attach:rms:<free>

Anyone able to help out here?

---------- Post added at 06:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:42 AM ----------

Ah well, I am giving up on the arm that comes with building blocks... looks like URMS is the way to go...

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Yeah, I never figured out the grapple either. URMS is pretty awesome, but I wish it had a rotation of the "shoulder" along the long axis like the SSRMS.

SSRMS is available on Thorton's ISS 3.2 and I've used it with good success. But, I with it had an interface like URMS (then it's be relentlessly awesome).

 

[Donamy]

There ia also the SSRMSD available with the ISS A2Z by Siamesecat.