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Difference between SAS and Advanced SAS?


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Hello, in the past few flights i've been just using the advanced SAS and i sometimes had trouble controlling the ship, aparently putting the normal SAS on a ship helps you control the vehicle, but i don't see a difference between normal SAS and ASAS except the ASAS can control RCS and winglets.

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ASAS is the brain, only one per ship is needed. SAS is the muscle, use a few of these in key locations

Pretty much this. ASAS is like an autopilot, wich helps your ship stay upright. SAS is like a gyroscope that helps your ship control itself.

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Yeah, just to explain it from a slightly different angle:

You want to use SAS modules on large ships so that you can maneuver the ship -- usually one per stack per stage is sufficient for most applications. ASAS will be able to take control of SAS, pitch/roll/yaw, control surfaces and vectoring engines in order to maintain a fixed heading. Activate it to fly straight, basically. It won't work if you don't have enough control authority, though, so use vectoring engines, RCS and SAS modules in conjunction for the most effective results.

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Yeah, SAS/command module SAS are gyros that will resist course change, ASAS is a flight computer that will use all steering mechanisms at it's disposal (including SAS) to keep the ship to the course it was on when you enabled ASAS.

I don't use the Avionics package much but I believe it's a blend of the two, something like ASAS behavior for roll but SAS-like behavior for pitch and yaw - although it contains no gyro itself.

Unlike the command pod gyros I don't think there's any way to use the normal SAS modules to turn the ship rather than keeping it on course - you have to use RCS.

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There are also alternate methods of achieving stability. Rotating the ship often helps as it ensures uneven drag/thrust is evenly distributed in all directions and won't tip the ship over, although not possible for all designs as it imposes additional stresses.

Fixing the problem that's causing the stability problems in the first place can also be an option.

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But then, SAS and ASAS together on the upper stages tends to conflict and cause uncontrollable ships. Since I had a lot of trouble with that, I've stopped using SAS altogether and haven't missed it.

I've never had that problem, all that I've read and my own experience says that ASAS uses/works with SAS. Was it in the current version you had problems?

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Maybe it wasn't about SAS/ASAS conflict, but rather a case of too much control authority? Rocket is like a car with rear-wheel drive, and engine in the back. If You turn the light front end, with too much force You will loose control.

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ASAS has a tendency to be absolutely terrible at controlling your craft. When I was testing aircraft recently, on one of them the ASAS was consistently sticking my heading 10-20 degrees above what a set at, despite it being easy to manually hold it at the setting.

Also, even if your craft is stable the ASAS will tend to do small oscillations, that can cause unnecessarry stress on your craft.

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