Detailed Surface Scanner HELP

I was out exploring today and somehow my detailed surface scanner stopped working(module pannel has it as active and wont turn off). I might have accidently pressed a wrong key and turned it off but i cannot find a keybind to turn it back on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
The DSS is completely passive. There is no way to trigger it manually, you just scan an object and the DSS automatically collects detailed data of the object.

Maybe you confuse it with the Discovery Scanner? If this is the case, maybe you didn't assign a fire group at the right panel (default key '4').
 
So.... i went into a system and started to scan the black hole that was there, i cracked a beer then stwitched over to the neutron star and noticed that the DSS was not scanning. I then went into the system map to check to see if the black hole was scanned and it still said it was undiscovered. I have restarted the game multiple times and jumped in and out to try to get it to work and have had no luck so far. I might have fat fingered something on my keyboard but i am not sure.
 
Last edited:
Nothing you could have fingered on the keyboard. There's no way to turn it off. It doesn't use any power so it can't get powered down from power priority settings. If your panel says it's active and it's not damaged it should be working.
In any case, you don't need a DSS to scan something. You should get the scanner sounds and animation even without a DSS (level 2 scan)

BUT, you need to be within 5ls of a BH or NS to scan it. Sometimes it's scary to get that close.
I just jumped in front of a NS tonight and selected it as usual but after a few seconds I noticed it wasn't scanning and then noticed I was over 7ls away so I had to creep slowly forward until the scanner started making noise, which was at 5ls.
It's unusual to be dropped that far away, but if they are both in the same system fairly close to each other, the game may have dropped you further away for safety.

I assume Your ships sensors are powered on and not damaged. I'm not sure but I assume Sensors need to be on for the DSS to work and those could get powered off.
 
Last edited:
I assume Your ships sensors are powered on and not damaged. I'm not sure but I assume Sensors need to be on for the DSS to work and those could get powered off.

I'm a bit more confident ;)... Activated sensors are not required for the disco/DDS to work. I usually fly with sensors powered off while exploring and it does not prevent me from scanning stellar bodies.
 
I then went into the system map to check to see if the black hole was scanned and it still said it was undiscovered.
How far are you from the BH?

Have you tried another ADS-honk? I've had the situation (once or twice) where I was right infront of an object and couldn't scan it - only worked after I did another ADS-honk.
 
Sometimes the ADS doesn't scan like it should, so you have to do it again. Just cause you can see the object in front of you, doesn't mean the ship can, hence the honk. The DSS will only scan objects that it can see, and depending on the size of the object in question, you have to be in range of it. Small objects like most BH's and NS's you have to be within 5 LS to scan with the DSS (that's with an unmodified DSS), other large objects you can be up to 50k Ls, like large suns and what not. Most Gas Giants can start to scan upwards of 2k Ls away. When you first jump into a system, the main star and any large close objects will appear in your view screen, but the ship can't see them yet until the ADS honks. You have to put the ADS to a fire group in order for it to work, you can bind it to the primary fire key along side your weapons, while in supercruise, it will not activate the guns when you honk the system, only activates the Scanner. I use my AI to scan the systems when I jump in, I just say "scan" and it scans for 10 seconds and shuts down, enough to get a honk.
 
I'm a bit more confident ;)... Activated sensors are not required for the disco/DDS to work. I usually fly with sensors powered off while exploring and it does not prevent me from scanning stellar bodies.
But how will you know if there's another ship out there sneaking up on you? :eek:
 
But how will you know if there's another ship out there sneaking up on you? :eek:

I'm also confident in the void of the black out there ;)

But you're right, during the Luxury Tour I had to keep my scanners on in order to avoid missing an unexpected (but welcomed) meeting out there. Genuine question : in which mode do you Explorers explore ?
 
I was out exploring today and somehow my detailed surface scanner stopped working(module pannel has it as active and wont turn off). I might have accidently pressed a wrong key and turned it off but i cannot find a keybind to turn it back on. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

How does your power consumption look? Does your "system" have power distributed to it? Do you have enough MW? What is the % repair state of your power plant? Do you have the object selected?

Seems odd if all of the above are accounted for. I'd open a support ticket.
 
Not too far away and not a power issue, just had the same issue and even though its probably a little late hopefully i can help you understand what went wrong. Same issue as you trying to scan some rings and realized i had another planet targeted, un-targeted the planet and the DSS worked right as it should again. Didn't know targeting had a connection to the DSS.
 
I'm always quite amazed at how deep these necromancers dig. Like, surely one can't accidentally upon a thread this old, so they must be actively searching, and thus must be aware that responding to them is irrelevant, right?
 
I'm always quite amazed at how deep these necromancers dig. Like, surely one can't accidentally upon a thread this old, so they must be actively searching, and thus must be aware that responding to them is irrelevant, right?
If you search for a topic and a relevant thread comes up, you don't necessarily look for the tiny datestamp before replying..

Looks like the NP had an issue, searched to see if anybody had a similar issue, found this thread, and helpfully replied to it.

But yes, as others have said, completely different game mechanic these days :)
The old DSS worked passively - you just had to be close enough to the object (mass-dependant) and pointed at it, then it scanned the object in a short amount of time and filled out additional details in the System Map. The only time I had it not work was when I was too far away from an object or not facing it correctly but it was pretty obvious that's what was wrong.I can't remember whether you had to assign it a power priority.
 
Back
Top Bottom