Nav Ball Control - newbie question

[mrsidknee]

Painful begginer here...

Nav Ball:

I've been watching Mike Aben's Absolute Beginner tutorials (as reccomended by you fine folks -- thanks!).  In the video that explains the nav ball, he seems to be able to move his nav ball with his mouse, which seems to cause his rocket to change position.   I have tried moving the nav ball myself and I can't seem to get it to move.  Can I use it to adjust the orientation/position of my rocket or does it just provide passive information?  It's possible he used WASD to move his rocket and the ball was moving in response, but I can't exactly tell. 

When I try to use WASD to adjust my tragectory,  the nav ball barely moves and then I end up spinning uncontrollably.  Should I just be leaving the attitude (I think it's called attitude) alone?

When I search online 

 

Thanks,

Sid

[Vanamonde]

The navball is a display only. It does not exert control over anything. It should reflect any changes in attitude that your craft makes, though. 

[bewing]

The navball has several modes, orbit, surface, and target. When you change modes, your navball will move. Additionally, your navball "points" in the same direction as the controlling part on your rocket. If you change which part is controlling your rocket, your navball will move.

Beyond that, there is something call SAS that is sort of attached to your navball. You activate it with the T key.  It also has multiple modes. It involves the little buttons to the left of the navball, which change the SAS modes. Using SAS is vital to flying your rocket. SAS steers your rocket for you, according to the markers on your navball. If you don't understand SAS, you need to watch tutorials on it -- because it is so extremely important.

 

[king of nowhere]

10 hours ago, mrsidknee said:

When I try to use WASD to adjust my tragectory,  the nav ball barely moves and then I end up spinning uncontrollably. 

that's because the rocket is taking some time building up speed. when it does, it's hard to stop. you'll need to practice pointing the rocket in the right direction, because otherwise you can't manuever.

[Spricigo]

22 hours ago, mrsidknee said:

When I try to use WASD to adjust my tragectory,  the nav ball barely moves and then I end up spinning uncontrollably.  

That means whatever you are using to controls (reaction wheels, gimbals, control surfaces) don't produce much torque.  So it is hard to start to turn and hard to stop turning (as predicted by the law of the inertia).

If doing the adjustments slowly works for you, than no changes necessary but i guess if you provide some pictures  we can find ways to improve your craft nonetheless.