Newcomer / Intro Be careful what you target .... it could be a Sun!

[Ashnak]

Reboot/Repair: if one of the components of your ship is down to 0% (and you're still alive), you can trigger the reboot/repair sequence. That one will:

• take everything offline (so you gon on life support)
• cannibalize the still working systems (i.e. they will be degraded further)
• bring the completely dead systems back to a low percentage (so you can use them again)

This is useful in those cases when you've been shot down and your thrusters, FSD or sensors have been killed. Also useful for explorers - if you brought a AFMU and, for some reason, that one is down to 0% while your hull and powerplant are still operative, you can reboot&repair that AFMU back into serviceability again. So there's no need to bring two AFMUs to repair each other.

Heatsinks: much simpler - they cool down your ship. When you would want to use them:

• break the scanning lock on your ship (smuggling, combat against tracking weapons)
• when using a SCB (those create an insane amount of heat)
• inside a burning station
• escaping after being crashed into a star
• jumping into a system where you end up inbetween two close stars
• scoop-jumping under racing conditions

 

[Wombat1940]

You use reboot to repair vital modules that are not working, like power plant, FSD, etc. It normally gives them just enough to operate enough to get you back to port. It takes your systems off-line for a short period while it repairs them. You use it whenever you're stranded because of inoperable systems. It doesn't destroy your ship. There's no need to self-destruct. I can't think of a reason why to use it to escape after you've fallen into a star unless you take so much damage climbing out that your ship becomes inoperable.

Right ...... so I have to reboot my computer ...... I'm amazed it works. Ha! Thanks.

 

[Para Handy]

Right ...... so I have to reboot my computer ...... I'm amazed it works. Ha! Thanks.

I don't know whether you are making a joke.

The reboot and repair which people are referring to is an option selected in the RHS UI screen - so you are rebooting the ship's systems in the game, not rebooting your own computer.

 

[Wombat1940]

A heatsink launcher is useful for many things detailed below. If you have a spare slot you should carry one. You can bind it to its own button in the bindings. It's best not to have it on a trigger in a firegroup.

Your ship will take damage whenever the heat is 100% or above. If you keep it above 100%, it will eventually get destroyed,

When your heat gets to anything above 95% and is still climbing, you fire a heatsink, which will take your heat down to zero after a few seconds, then your heat will climb back up according to circumstances.

In the case where you've fallen into a star, your heat will start to rise when you engage your FSD, so fire the heatsink when you get to 95% heat, and it'll cool down your ship until the FSD engages and you escape.

When scooping fuel, your ship will heat up a lot depending on how you're doing it and which ship and load-out you have. Especially at large stars, it's easy to overcook your ship. To be safe, and as a general rule, you should turn away at right angles to the star when you reach 80% heat. Some ships cook faster than others depending on the load-out and the ship. If you misjudge it and your heat reaches 99% or is lower and still climbing, firing a heatsink will take your heat down to zero to prevent over-cooking. That will give you time to get away to where your fuel scoop will no longer scoop.

You can also use heatsinks in combat, and I would say that they're more effective than chaff, but you only get 3 heatsinks per launcher compared with 10 chaff. When you fire the heatsink, your ship goes so cold that the enemy can't target it and will have to retarget after you warm back up. It's specially useful when you're trying to escape, like from an interdiction or a high RES after you accidentally became wanted and all the cops turn on you.

Finally, you can use it for sneaking past the cops. When your ship is cold, it won't show on their radar, but they can still see you if you fly in front of them, though they won't be able to target you for scanning.

Like everything, carrying a heatsink launcher means that you can't carry something else in that slot, so it's not a rule that you should always carry one. You have to consider the best load-out for what you're doing. As I said above, for climbing out after you've fallen into a star, if you switch off all but the vital modules, you can climb out with minimal or no damage without using a heatsink.

While I mention scooping, there's something else that helps. If you switch off all the modules that you don't need for travelling, you will not heat up nearly as much when scooping. You have to think about which modules you might need. if you're carrying cargo or running missions, you will need your shields in case of interdictions. A lot of people don't know that you can switch of your power distributer too. Set it to 4 pips to engines and 2 to shields before switching off. Switching it off saves a lot of power, but it doesn't stop it functioning. It only stops you from changing the pips.

Fascinating ........
But much of it fictitious naturally and written to suit the sim. However, heatsinks are very real, and, being a mechanical engineer, I always thought of a car radiator as a good example of one, and adjustable, temperature wise. But to have a heatsink capable of dropping the temperature to zero in a few seconds, I doubt it. However, maybe in the electronics industry.

 

[Wombat1940]

I don't know whether you are making a joke.
The reboot and repair which people are referring to is an option selected in the RHS UI screen - so you are rebooting the ship's systems in the game, not rebooting your own computer.

Of course I was joking Para!!!!!! What a thing to suggest otherwise!!!!! I can't stop laughing at your suggestion!!!!! or my stupidity ..... where's that RHS UI screen?

 

[Wombat1940]

Reboot/Repair: if one of the components of your ship is down to 0% (and you're still alive), you can trigger the reboot/repair sequence. That one will:

Please don't read this and this ..........

 

[Ashnak]

Fascinating ........
But much of it fictitious naturally and written to suit the sim. However, heatsinks are very real, and, being a mechanical engineer, I always thought of a car radiator as a good example of one, and adjustable, temperature wise. But to have a heatsink capable of dropping the temperature to zero in a few seconds, I doubt it. However, maybe in the electronics industry.

Give it another thousand years of engineering development...

If your look at your ship (e.g. from the external cam) when it's heating up, you can se the heat vents operating (different on each ship type). Guessing from their colour (and a handy Wikipedia chart...), they run at up to 1300 °C. So my explanation is that your ship's cooling system includes a highly efficient high temperature heat pump that can dump the waste heat either in the external heat vents, or a small chunk of material that is then ejected while glowing white-hot.

 

[Wombat1940]

Give it another thousand years of engineering development...

....... So my explanation is that your ship's cooling system includes a highly efficient high temperature heat pump that can dump the waste heat either in the external heat vents, or a small chunk of material that is then ejected while glowing white-hot.

Yes, I like it.
Of interest: If you ever see a coal-fired electric power generating station. They have huge, hundreds of feet high and in diameter, stacks (chimneys) "belching" out something. It looks hugely environmentally unfriendly. You see them shown in TV programs as examples of pollution causing smoke dissipators. They are not. Its water vapour (steam). They are cooling towers, to help water-cool the coal-fired turbines. They drop the hot water from 32 feet (funny I should remember that) inside the towers to reduce its temperature by evaporative cooling, so the water can be recycled for continued cooling purposes. The Cooling Towers are the least polluting part of the whole process.

 

[Wombat1940]

Thanks RJ. Will do a dummy run with your suggestions now as practice. It's bound to happen to me again.

I don't think my "dummy run" was "dummy" enough. I flew out of mass effect range of the station and that was all. I didn't activate the life- support system. That seemed a too radical dummy run. I was not able to turn-off: cockpit canopy (naturally), the cargo rack, or any of the 3 scanners. I ran the reboot/repair "module" without any ill-effects.

However, with my flying skills, it won't be long before I have to do the real thing. Stay tuned ......

 

[A C Ender]

Yes, I like it.
Of interest: If you ever see a coal-fired electric power generating station. They have huge, hundreds of feet high and in diameter, stacks (chimneys) "belching" out something. It looks hugely environmentally unfriendly. You see them shown in TV programs as examples of pollution causing smoke dissipators. They are not. Its water vapour (steam). They are cooling towers, to help water-cool the coal-fired turbines. They drop the hot water from 32 feet (funny I should remember that) inside the towers to reduce its temperature by evaporative cooling, so the water can be recycled for continued cooling purposes. The Cooling Towers are the least polluting part of the whole process.

They also use the same towers for propaganda against nuclear power. What they actually are showing are "cloud machines"...

 

[aRJay]

Yes, I like it.
Of interest: If you ever see a coal-fired electric power generating station. They have huge, hundreds of feet high and in diameter, stacks (chimneys) "belching" out something. It looks hugely environmentally unfriendly. You see them shown in TV programs as examples of pollution causing smoke dissipators. They are not. Its water vapour (steam). They are cooling towers, to help water-cool the coal-fired turbines. They drop the hot water from 32 feet (funny I should remember that) inside the towers to reduce its temperature by evaporative cooling, so the water can be recycled for continued cooling purposes. The Cooling Towers are the least polluting part of the whole process.

Went round one many decades ago as part of a school or cubs trip, one of the things I remember was the control room which looked suitable for any SF movie.
In the Terry Gilliam film Brazil the final interrogation scene is filmed inside an old cooling tower.

 

[Ashnak]

Of interest: If you ever see a coal-fired electric power generating station. They have huge, hundreds of feet high and in diameter, stacks (chimneys) "belching" out something. It looks hugely environmentally unfriendly. ....

Not that many coal fired power stations in southern Germany, but on reasonably clear days, I can see these on the horizon on my commute.

Last occasion I just had to shake my head, though, was an illustration on the online version of an article in a (usually reputed) German magazine. Background: there is currently a discussion in Germany to prohibit and/or strongly discourage the use of private "luxury" chimneys burning wood, as those are made responsible for a large part of the fine dust emissions. Leaving aside that I think this is major rubbish and mainly intended to keep the attention away from motorized traffic, that illustration showed a chimney between roofs blowing out a thick cloud of smoke.

That "chimney" was a stainless steel tube inside a traditional brick chimney, a surefire indicator for the exhaust of a (probably retrofitted, gas powered) condensing boiler, which makes the white smoke coming out almost pure water vapour.

 

[Wombat1940]

They also use the same towers for propaganda against nuclear power. What they actually are showing are "cloud machines"...

Exactly. Mind you, although I worked close to the power industry in education, I'm not a fan of coal or fission. But 50 years we didn't recognize the threat, particularly with coal.

 

[Wombat1940]

That is so right. Coal is not the enemy, its the terrible way we burn it! Nuclear? I'm not so sure ......

 

[MaxG10]

On that private chimney note:

When I got our property on the Atlantic coast, NW Ireland, back in a condition worth mentioning, we bought a ruin so to speak, I worked for 10 month flat out with a couple of people on that, one part was the gargantuan open fire place.

Impressive, really, could throw half a tree in there so to speak, and in Ireland they burn turf preferably. So before stripping the house naked, I had the fire going a few times. As I said, impressive boy scout flashbacks. LOL

Got someone with expertise, and he explained that (from memory, don't nail me on the numbers) that fireplace creates about 15-20% max. heat for the living room, the rest goes up the chimney. Wow! That is a helluva waste I thought, besides the hassle when there is storm, and there are a lot of storms in the NW, and ashes blowing into the room.

I did not want to loose a fire in the room, so we re-designed the chimney and invested in a fire cassette instead. This sucker was so big, that even three strong people were bend to breaking point fitting that in. The system worked a charm with now around 72% energy going into the room and not out of the chimney. It was a clever canadian built, with sophisticated circulation, motorised as well.

Never regretted that, around 3.5K all in all, admittedly costly investment. The glass window cleaned itself >95%, the rest was a doodle to clean with a bit of paper and ashes. I did not burn turf though, but the compressed hardwood chunks with high BTU output and less than 1% ash. Got them delivered on palettes. Clean out the ashes? Yeah, once a week at the most. The massive glass window provided the same cozy feeling as an open fireplace, and placing your cognac sniffer onto the granit in front to warm up nicely was a bonus.

 

[aRJay]

Exactly. Mind you, although I worked close to the power industry in education, I'm not a fan of coal or fission. But 50 years we didn't recognize the threat, particularly with coal.

That is so right. Coal is not the enemy, its the terrible way we burn it! Nuclear? I'm not so sure ......

A long time ago I read a short story/spoof article on this theme called “On the Feasibility of Coal-Driven Power Stations” I include a link below.

Feasibility of Coal-Driven Power Stations

www.mpoweruk.com

 

[JustJon]

Give it another thousand years of engineering development...

If your look at your ship (e.g. from the external cam) when it's heating up, you can se the heat vents operating (different on each ship type). Guessing from their colour (and a handy Wikipedia chart...), they run at up to 1300 °C. So my explanation is that your ship's cooling system includes a highly efficient high temperature heat pump that can dump the waste heat either in the external heat vents, or a small chunk of material that is then ejected while glowing white-hot.

Interestingly enough removing waste heat is actually quite difficult in space - you would have thought because space is cold it would be easy but as not is a vacuum (mainly) there is no way for heat to disperse by convection or diffusion only radiation.

Fascinating really.

 

[Wombat1940]

On that private chimney note:

When I got our property on the Atlantic coast, NW Ireland, back in a condition worth mentioning, we bought a ruin so to speak, I worked for 10 month flat out with a couple of people on that, one part was the gargantuan open fire place.

Impressive, really, could throw half a tree in there so to speak, and in Ireland they burn turf preferably. So before stripping the house naked, I had the fire going a few times. As I said, impressive boy scout flashbacks. LOL

Got someone with expertise, and he explained that (from memory, don't nail me on the numbers) that fireplace creates about 15-20% max. heat for the living room, the rest goes up the chimney. Wow! That is a helluva waste I thought, besides the hassle when there is storm, and there are a lot of storms in the NW, and ashes blowing into the room.

I did not want to loose a fire in the room, so we re-designed the chimney and invested in a fire cassette instead. This sucker was so big, that even three strong people were bend to breaking point fitting that in. The system worked a charm with now around 72% energy going into the room and not out of the chimney. It was a clever canadian built, with sophisticated circulation, motorised as well.

Never regretted that, around 3.5K all in all, admittedly costly investment. The glass window cleaned itself >95%, the rest was a doodle to clean with a bit of paper and ashes. I did not burn turf though, but the compressed hardwood chunks with high BTU output and less than 1% ash. Got them delivered on palettes. Clean out the ashes? Yeah, once a week at the most. The massive glass window provided the same cozy feeling as an open fireplace, and placing your cognac sniffer onto the granit in front to warm up nicely was a bonus.

BTU. Bloody-hell! haven't heard that for years. Just in case you young blokes need educating it stood for British Thermal Unit. An energy (heat) unit.
What a lovely story. Reminded me of so many things:
Mate and I (both of us ex-poms (let you google that)) move to Australia and fell in love with the place. He was an ex-Yorkshireman, me an ex-Brummie. We worked near an open cut coalmine. He as a cleaner and me as a teacher. We both had chainsaws and he had the old Land Rover. Many a time we'd go bush collecting firewood, big stuff which when we got it home we'd reduce with hand splitter and axes. We both had little old caravans and families to go with. We'd head off in the winter months to park them for a week (no showers) next to beautiful sea inlet. I'll drop a name here just in case, Metung. Park the vans, nobody else there, and immediately get the fire going. On with the 3/8in steel plate for cooking, billy on for a cuppa, bottle of red out to have with tea (dinner), kids bikes out so they could go riding. Next day I'd have caught a few fish at a daybreak favorite spot and mate would have knocked a couple of bunnies over, all to have for dinner that night. All cooked on the plate, fire never went out for the week. And those cold nights, sitting round the fire, kids in bed, coffee brewed (with a good shot of Bailey's added) and a night sky that had to be seen to be believed. Stop ..... stop ....... it hurting. He's gone, my wife's gone his daughter's husband has gone...... stop, its hurting more ......

But what memories. How lucky was I. Were we.