Newcomer / Intro How does the ECM work?

[Limpooka]

How does the ECM work? I guess you have to charge it up and then time the release for when a missile is incoming, but sometimes it just says 'low power' and nothing happens. Have I mis-managed my power settings somehow? What am I missing?

 

[Dommarraa]

Sorry, don't know. Never used one or seen the need. Missiles do nothing if you have Shields. They are pretty rare from npcs, and they are stupid and use them when your Shields are still up. A human will only use them at very close range, so you won't get to trigger it. I carry pdl which will do missiles automatically , but only because the slot is free.

 

[andyraptor]

you have to assign it to a fire group and fire and hold the button in until it charges and fires

i find it good to have on a slow trader when boosting away from interdiction in combo with PDT

more info here

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Electronic_Countermeasure

 

[Limpooka]

Think I've figured it out now. It shows low energy and doesn't work until you put some pips into SYS. Seems that also applies to similar modules, such as chaff

 

[Red Kite]

Think I've figured it out now. It shows low energy and doesn't work until you put some pips into SYS. Seems that also applies to similar modules, such as chaff

That's right. All the secondary weapons are powered from the SYS capacitor and need some power in it to work. I've never used the ECM, but I beleieve that the longer you hold down the button the wider the range over which it works. When fired it will kill every missile which has a target lock within that range.