Active Control System (Custom control concepts I designed, and would like to share).

[Themohawkninja]

I would like to share with the KSP community two new ways that I have found to control a craft. Both of these revolve around toggling one or more of four engines utilizing the 2, 4, 6, and 8 custom control keys.

The first is used in my Titan-Mule craft on the Spaceport. It utilizes five engines configured with one LV-T45 engine in the center, and four LV-T30 engines next to the center engine shown as such:

Each of the four LV-T30 engines is put on individually so they can each be set to one of the four aforesaid action groups. The key that is associated with the engine can be found by looking at the numpad: 2 is the front engine, 4 is the left engine, 6 is the right engine, and 8 is the back engine. When any button is pressed during burning, this shifts the center of thrust, causing the rocket to pitch to the respective side. By counter toggling the opposite engine, juggling it until it is almost perfectly stable, and double tapping the ASAS toggle to reset the position, the gimbal of the center engine should be sufficient to keep the craft stable.

The second is a sort of inverse to the first. In this system, you use four of the Rockomax 24-77 engines facing outward high up from your center of mass as shown here:

Once again, each of the 24-77 engines is put on individually to allow for individual action grouping, however the keys that are bound are the inverse of the first idea: 8 is the front engine, 6 is the left engine, 4 is the right engine, and 2 is the back engine. This is because whereas the first system worked by shutting of an engine, this system works by turning on an engine. By counter toggling the opposite engine, juggling it until it is almost perfectly stable, and double tapping the ASAS toggle to reset the position, the gimbal of the center engine should be sufficient to keep the craft stable.

[Luis]

This looks interesting but I'll confess I don't understand what problem you're trying to solve. Does this give you more control authority than simple engine gimbals and fins? Does it make the ship easier to fly? Is this just for launch?

[RawChicken]

I tried this, it is a good idea, but once you are out or control, dealing with witch number is which side of the vessel is a nightmare

[rodion_herrera]

Someone already did something similar, to make realistic Space Shuttle analog flights. In this video you can see a similar setup that controls pitch using a 24-77 up on the ET...

Starting at 4 mins 42 seconds into the video, if you watch in HD, you notice the two 24-77s being activated to control pitch. I believe the user made this to be controlled manually, similar to what the OP describes in his post.

[Themohawkninja]

This looks interesting but I'll confess I don't understand what problem you're trying to solve. Does this give you more control authority than simple engine gimbals and fins? Does it make the ship easier to fly? Is this just for launch?

The idea started out simply to make a rocket design which gives a lot of pitch control, but doesn't use RCS, or have winglets high up on the craft. The first idea is relatively simple to fly, since due to the central gimballed engine, and (I think) the drag/lift on the winglets at the very bottom, it doesn't roll. The second design I had just recently came up with, and I wanted to see if I could improve on the first, as the disadvantage of the first design is that you are shutting off one of your main boosting rockets, and therefore losing thrust. The second design keeps you from losing that thrust, and is a lot faster than the first design, at the expense of a bit more fuel lost.

[Themohawkninja]

I tried this, it is a good idea, but once you are out or control, dealing with witch number is which side of the vessel is a nightmare

Yeah, I must confess that I have panicked sometimes, and not pressed the right key to disable an engine (mainly with the second design), and it flipped over.

[3_bit]

I would question the ease of use.... but with a post count like yours... if only we could wire action groups for momentary-on and to WASD keys.

[Themohawkninja]

I would question the ease of use.... but with a post count like yours... if only we could wire action groups for momentary-on and to WASD keys.

The second one isn't as easy as the first one, but I've only tried it with one rocket design, so I'm sure I could make a more stable version. Being able to wire the controls to WASD would be a God-send with this idea.