How to Build a Thrust Vectored Model Rocket [video]

Joe Barnard is a very entertaining and incredibly smart dude making some seriously cool things. His YouTube is absolutely worth a follow. He’s entirely self taught and is pushing model rocketry to a whole new level.

If you haven't seen Joe Barnard's BPS.space videos, give them a try! He's doing a lot of fun control systems engineering on rockets and electric vehicles. The production value of his videos is really standout among other similar RC project channels (For example, see his recent TVC test project, Sprite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VvCIbDdbKg). His channel feels like a real space program, which makes it a lot of fun to watch.

The last 10 years has seen a huge influx in powerful, cheap RC components: better/smaller receivers, brushless motors, autopilot systems like ArduPilot, etc. It's more accessible than ever to experiment with control systems in RC craft, which is really exciting.

great presentation - not even really a rockets guy, but I found it very interesting

The PID controller explanation left out a critical concept: The controller first generates an error signal, i.e. the deviation of the input (angle in the example) from the desired input, known as the setpoint. The error is fed to the P, I, and D sections.

If you don't want to watch the whole thing, if you skip ahead there is a really good explanation of PID control systems towards the end.