RCS Translation controls not working or not working well?

[CiberX15]

I was trying to use the IJKL H and N RCS translation controls to dock with a ship in orbit but they didn't seem to want to respond correctly. It felt like they were inverted? But only sometimes? Or barely had enough power to do anything? When SAS is set to Stability mode it seems to work ok. I can translate up down left and right well enough, though pretty slowly. However when it’s set to point at my target it’s like the rotation controls take priority and it doesn’t even attempt to fire in the direction I’m trying to move.

I was literally holding the L key for like 10 seconds, expecting to see white jets come out of the left RCS block, but that never happened. Instead it kept firing all of the other ones, desperately trying to make minor unnecessary rotation corrections to line up with the target that I was trying to dock with and apparently ignoring my input.

Optimally I’d like to be able to use the JKLI H and N keys to translate the ship using RCS without RCS actually being turned on. In most cases I only want the RCS for translating anyway and I don’t want the ship burning monoprop for rotations when I have adequate reaction wheels. I only need RCS for turning on really big ships.

I know I could set the RCS thrusters to manual only in the parts manager, but that removes the option of ever using them for rotation, and is super tedious. Since the JKLI H and N keys only handle translation, they don’t do anything while RCS is off, so it feels like making those buttons work even when RCS is disabled would solve most of this problem? 

[sir_frost]

this is a known issue with a simple fix (works both in ksp 1 and 2)

the simple fix is to use actuation toggles to make sure the same thruster is not used for rotation and translation.
in general you want omnidirectional RCS thrusters close to the center of mass to handle all translation.
and optionally you can use RCS far away from the center of mass to rotate the craft but not translate it.
personally i only use RCS for translation in docking scenarios. and i let the reaction wheels handle the rotation.

to sort this out go in to the settings of your RCS thruster and click advanced controls then deselect pitch yaw and roll.
see the imgur link for how to configure it. https://imgur.com/nDTnaiS

when i first learned this trick i had problems with running out of RCS fuel for docking. often i would bring a spare tank just in case.
now i dock with high precision and often only use the RCS fuel built into the capsules and have plenty to spare.

the problem with having the RCS for translation and rotation. is the feedback loop that can occur with unbalanced crafts.
and every time you translate the SAS will fire the opposite thruster to cancel the rotation.

I hope this information is helpful