Fuel scoop no use on a cobra?

[AnnuverScotinExile]

So how do I keep the temperature down to get the scoop rates high enough? At 20 kg/s I was at 108% temperate with smoke coming off the dashboard (This was with a C2 scoop).

S.

Temperature is determined by how far away from the star you are, and how long you stay there. So with a piddling scoop, you have to stay there longer, and the temp goes up.

However, 108% is no worry, and the smoke appears to be just for show. You don;t take damage until about 150%. I tend to bail out at about 120%

 

[Unfluffydave]

Finally managed to buy a cobra after a lot of saving. It's a thirsty beast. Fitted a fuel scoop to try and save some money.

Scooping at my local sun. Managed to get the rate up to 20 and then just sat there. And sat there.. The fuel gauge hardly moved.

In fact it's so slow I estimated that I could dock, and do another cargo run and make a shed load more money than the fuel would cost in less time than it would take to scoop.

So, am I using it wrong? Or is a full scoop on a larger ship a waste of space?

S.

a D2 scoop on a cobra will take a while and as you have discovered caps at 20, by contrast an A2 you can get 75 out of. Combine that with taking efficient rather than direct jumps and fuel is no longer an issue. Just in case you are not aware the amount of fuel used to jump systems is not linear. A very simple example is:

5 ly jump uses 1 ton of fuel
6 ly jump uses 3 tons of fuel
7 ly jump uses 5 tons of fuel

as you can see there to make a 10 ly jump would use a lot of fuel and it is more efficient to make two 5 ly jumps if you can. Obviously those figures are plucked out of the air but that is the principle on how ED calculates how much fuel you use. That is why there is an option on the galaxy map for efficient or direct route planning.

 

[theEmohawk]

Temperature is determined by how far away from the star you are, and how long you stay there. So wil a piddling scoop, you have to stay there longer, and the temp goes up.

However, 108% is no worry, and the smoke appears to be just for show. You don;t take damage until about 150%. I tend to bail out at about 120%

And also how hot the star is. Not all stars are the same temperature, so some will cook you quicker than others.

 

[Sts]

I think I might ditch the fuel scoop for now and fit another cargo bay. Do some trading until I can afford a detailed surface scanner and better discover scanner and then put a decent class 4 scoop in for a spot of exploring.

S.

 

[Morbad]

FuelScooping is only good for exploration, otherwise replace the scoop with more cargo space. Scooping you dont only lose time but cargo space too and ofcourse the money used to buy the scoop. Im up to a Type7 right now and the price of gas is way too insignificant, at worst i "lose" a few tons of cargo to pay the bill, best to just have more cargo space, the cash from the scoop price and the time to do your thing.

Done right, scooping saves considerable time.

So how do I keep the temperature down to get the scoop rates high enough? At 20 kg/s I was at 108% temperate with smoke coming off the dashboard (This was with a C2 scoop).

S.

Better heat efficiency rating on the PP will keep heat down, and a better scoop will gather more fuel at a given temperature.

And also how hot the star is. Not all stars are the same temperature, so some will cook you quicker than others.

Yep.

 

[tristancliffe]

Done right, scooping saves considerable time.

But refuelling at a station is instant, and is covered by the cost of additional cargo. Fuel scooping takes some time, so if you can do half a route without a scoop then you should. Even with a Python's fuel costs it saves money and time buying fuel.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

Done right, scooping saves considerable time.[\quote]

But refuelling at a station is instant, and is covered by the cost of additional cargo. Fuel scooping takes some time, so if you can do half a route without a scoop then you should. Even with a Python's fuel costs it saves money and time buying fuel.

Depends what you are doing.

If you have no other need to visit the spaceport, the fact that refuelling is immediate is irrelevant, if it takes 5 minutes to SC out to it and dock.

Bottom line, to me, is that a small scoop is pointless, as you spend a lot of time scooping, and time is money. Once you can afford/have a ship that can use a big one, then refuelling is very fast. However, if you are going to dock anyway, then the money you save on fuel probably does not compensate for the lost profit of not having a few more tons of cargo. But if doing a rare goods run, and only docking when you have a rare goods source, then a scoop will make life quicker for you.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

With an A2, I refill at every scoopable star.

I can select my system destination, and get on the nearest side of the star to it, in the relatively short time it takes to fill up.

If you wait until your tank is half empty, refuelling can be a chore.

 

[SE-Apocalypse]

The scoop rate is, to my understanding, kilograms per second. This is not stated anywhere obvious to my knowledge. I've just heard it on forums.

Cobra has 16 ton fuel tank if I'm not mistaken. With your scoop rate of 20kg/s your 16t = 16000kg fuel tank will take 16000kg / 20(kg/s) = 800 seconds to fill from zero to 100%. So bit under 12 minutes. Scooping is an action that pretty much always requires minutes to accomplish, so yeah, patience is needed.

Strangely it requires a few seconds with my viper, sure I downsize my fuel tank when not leaving my sector of space and sure I heat up a lot when going fast and close to a sun to get above 100kg per second, and true if I would be really empty I still would need nearly 15 seconds, but still patience is for people without a decent fuel scoop and fuel scooping is in general nothing that is worth it for traders who can just buy fuel.

 

[Sts]

Better heat efficiency rating on the PP will keep heat down

What is a PP?

S.

 

[Kopachris]

What is a PP?

S.

Power plant.

 

[Sts]

Power plant.

duh.. Of course. Thanks. So upgrading to a better power plant will help keep heat down?

S.

 

[jadefriendly]

my exploration cobra has an A class fuel scoop.

get it to 22 kps, pull throttle back to minimum speed. refuels pretty quickly, doesn't overheat. job done.

 

[Zeeman]

2A fitted to my Cobra - gets 75/s (as mentioned). It still takes a bit of time, but not worth sacrificing other things for. Though now that I have an Asp, I may just start sacrificing cargo space for other stuff...

Z...

 

[NEBBI]

I have an A4 scoop and it scoops at 343/s and will fill a full tank in less than a minute

 

[Sts]

Can you remember which system you picked up your A4 scoop?

S.

 

[Rivka]

duh.. Of course. Thanks. So upgrading to a better power plant will help keep heat down?

S.

Yup, I noticed a tremendous difference after slapping a B class powerplant on my cobra. Never took damage on my occasional crash into stars, and I was able to basically park and slurp fuel at about 65/sec.

Also nice, super fast cooldowns, so you can get back to jumping, and colder "base" temp, for when you have to go cold and sneak in a station for some smugglin'.