Newcomer / Intro Mining - Collector Limpets & Size 7 slot

[withnail67]

When it comes to mining, the current limiting factor to how fast I can work through astroids is waiting for the Collector Limpets to finish clearing up. To have 4 rather than my current 3, I need a ship with a size 7 slot for the controller, but still nimble enough to navigate around 'roids and with enough hard points for all the mining gear.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

 

[GroG79]

Put multiple collector limpets from smaller sizes on your ship. 1c = 1 limpet 3c = 2 limpets c5 = 3 limpets
So use the smaller ones for collectors and the big slots for cargo
Python is the best medium ship for mining

 

[Dommarraa]

My python has 2 X 5A collectors which gives 6 limpets

Most big ships run with 9 limpets

 

[aRJay]

I concur run with multiple smaller controllers and save the large slots for cargo.

Agility in the ship is less important if you are only laser mining, large A rated thrusters especially with drive tuning will help with agility.

 

[Chris Simon]

Just to add a personal experience with numbers to support the guys above:
It's ideal to have 2-3 limpets per equipped mining laser so they can cope with the amount of chunks you're producing, which means you won't have to wait too long for them to collect everything.
Sub-surface mining and core mining is best with 5+ limpets as well for the same reason.

 

[withnail67]

Thank you all and face palm for not realising you could stack multiple Limpet controllers!

Re Nimble: I know it's not overly important, but having been flying a Type 9 Heavy, I was a little cautious

UPDATE: What a difference that makes! By the time I've depleted one roid and turned to fire a Prospector at another, the first Collector is reporting "No valid targets" - Perfect

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

I’m late to the party, but just to say that if you share your build with a Coriolis or EDSY link people will be more than happy to give you hands on advice for your particular build.

 

[withnail67]

I’m late to the party, but just to say that if you share your build with a Coriolis or EDSY link people will be more than happy to give you hands on advice for your particular build.

Here's my current build AMS Hancock.

 

[[VR] Orodruin]

Here's my current build AMS Hancock.

I took the liberty of doing some alterations to your ship. The main changes:

• You should be running with a smaller, but better, power plant. The 6A power plant is superior to the 7C one in all aspects and the difference is just about 2M credits on a 100M ship.
• D-rate life support and sensors to maximize jump range.
• Your power distributor is not sufficient to run your two mining lasers indefinitely (or at least until the asteroid depletes). Exchange it for a 7A distributor.
• Place your surface scanner in the size-2 slot and upgrade your prospector to a size 3. This allows you to prospect more than one asteroid at a time.
• A-rate your prospector! This is an absolute must if you are ever going to use the mining lasers. The prospector rating directly affects how many fragments you can extract from an asteroid with the lasers.

If you get comfortable with docking manually, you should throw out the docking computer, send the surface scanner to the 1-slot, downgrade the refinery to size 2 and put it in the 2-slot, and insert another size 3 collector controller.

You may also want to consider ripping everything out of the Krait mkII and install all of the modules in a Python instead, which will give you 64 tons of additional cargo space.

 

[Mr T]

Thank you all and face palm for not realising you could stack multiple Limpet controllers!

Re Nimble: I know it's not overly important, but having been flying a Type 9 Heavy, I was a little cautious

UPDATE: What a difference that makes! By the time I've depleted one roid and turned to fire a Prospector at another, the first Collector is reporting "No valid targets" - Perfect

Something else you may not realise that hasn't been mentioned yet, you can put all your collectors on the same trigger in your fire group. When you press the trigger it will automatically program the next limpet from whatever controller slot is available.

 

[withnail67]

I took the liberty of doing some alterations to your ship. The main changes:

• You should be running with a smaller, but better, power plant. The 6A power plant is superior to the 7C one in all aspects and the difference is just about 2M credits on a 100M ship.
• D-rate life support and sensors to maximize jump range.
• Your power distributor is not sufficient to run your two mining lasers indefinitely (or at least until the asteroid depletes). Exchange it for a 7A distributor.
• Place your surface scanner in the size-2 slot and upgrade your prospector to a size 3. This allows you to prospect more than one asteroid at a time.
• A-rate your prospector! This is an absolute must if you are ever going to use the mining lasers. The prospector rating directly affects how many fragments you can extract from an asteroid with the lasers.

If you get comfortable with docking manually, you should throw out the docking computer, send the surface scanner to the 1-slot, downgrade the refinery to size 2 and put it in the 2-slot, and insert another size 3 collector controller.

You may also want to consider ripping everything out of the Krait mkII and install all of the modules in a Python instead, which will give you 64 tons of additional cargo space.

Thanks for the advice and build tips. As you can see, it's currently a bit of a mish-mash of stuff I took off my Asp X mining build and what was available at the time. I'd just got used to using it and hadn't really checked how optimized it was(n't)! Since discovering the joys of bulk Tritium shipping, money's not the issue it was

Cheers o7

 

[withnail67]

Something else you may not realise that hasn't been mentioned yet, you can put all your collectors on the same trigger in your fire group. When you press the trigger it will automatically program the next limpet from whatever controller slot is available.

I think that's where I had gone wrong before. I'm sure I tried installing two Collector Limpet controllers before but, being early in my Elite adventure, I don't think I set up the Fire Group properly, so it didn't work.

Cheers o7

 

[Stabby_Dave]

My mining Python can carry 144t when the refinery is full and has 3x 5a collectors. Hoovers stuff up pretty quickly. Add to that the 3 mining lances and I can keep the trigger down nonstop.

 

[Rob_the_Sparky]

2 medium mining lasers and 6 collectors (+2 prospectors) here but if you get it right then you only need 4 collectors to hoover up the chunks. It all depends how far the collectors have to fly. If you shoot the asteroid such that the chips fly off under your ship and get REALLY close to the asteroid then even 4 collectors can collect chips as fast as I can blow them off. However, you can't get all that close on some of the larger asteroids so I carry 6 for those times.

 

[WeComeInPeace]

Something else you may not realise that hasn't been mentioned yet, you can put all your collectors on the same trigger in your fire group. When you press the trigger it will automatically program the next limpet from whatever controller slot is available.

You can even put the collectors to the same trigger as your mining lasers (same group). Then you'll just fire the lasers and the limpets will keep being launched as needed.

 

[Chris Simon]

2 medium mining lasers and 6 collectors (+2 prospectors) here but if you get it right then you only need 4 collectors to hoover up the chunks. It all depends how far the collectors have to fly. If you shoot the asteroid such that the chips fly off under your ship and get REALLY close to the asteroid then even 4 collectors can collect chips as fast as I can blow them off. However, you can't get all that close on some of the larger asteroids so I carry 6 for those times.

The way the chunks leave the asteroid depends on the angle at which the laser hits the surface. The asteroids are bumpy so this angle changes and the chunks fly to random directions, especially if the asteroid is spinning quickly.
But if you can be bothered to find the axis of rotation of the asteroid, shoot the spot that doesn't move and position your ship correctly, you can have a nice "stream" of chunks leading directly to your cargo scoop and your limpets will have a 2 second turnaround times.

 

[Mr T]

You can even put the collectors to the same trigger as your mining lasers (same group). Then you'll just fire the lasers and the limpets will keep being launched as needed.

You can do that .. but I like to have more control over how many collector limpets are out there at a time. I generally do a combination of surface, subsurface, and core mining depending on what the asteroid I'm staring at has to offer me. I'll put all the collector limpets for every fire group on the left trigger and the tool I'm using in different fire groups on the right trigger.

 

[withnail67]

Does anyone fancy sharing their Python Mining Ship builds for reference please?

Also; how do you work out if you have enough power to fire mining lasers (or any other power hungry module) continually, rather than having to let them cool down after a while?

Finally - I'd like to say a big "thank you" to those of you who keep an eye on the new player section and are willing to share your hard won experience. Not just in answering the questions I've posted, but I've learned loads from reading other threads too. Your time is much appreciated o7

 

[Chris Simon]

1) No, I hate Pythons, sorry.

2) Look at the laser's power consumption and multiply it by the number of lasers. Then look at a power distributors recharge rate and compare the numbers. If your lasers consume 3MW of power and the distributor only recharges at 1.5 MW/s then you will run out of juice.
I think that the theory-building sites like Coriolis will also tell you info like this.
But you don't actually need to fire continuously all the time. You can recharge in between asteroids, so what firing continually really means for a miner is the ability to mine the whole asteroid in one WEP capacitor charge. Then it can recharge while you're looking for your next victim.

3) People here are awesome. Compared to both the world in general and even to the rest of this very Forum.

 

[Dommarraa]

Heres my mining Python. Note the big Guardian FSD Booster, it takes up a big slot, but you will be amazed how far you can travel without a scoop with it fitted. Swap it for more cargo if you have a FC or close selling station.

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