Newcomer / Intro Noob Mining - Hopper vs Cargo

Well, I think I just made a stupid mistake.
I'm in a Cobra III, outfitted to do LowTempDiamond mining (DSS, mining lasers, refinery w/ 3 bays, limpets).
I hop into Borann, and seem to find some likely asteroids... blast away and see one of the Refinery hoppers says
Low Temperature Diamonds 29%.
So - I'm thinking, "percent of what, I don't know, but it sounds like I have some LTDs!"
When I run out of limpets I jump to a nearby station to sell my load of LTDs, and discover I don't have any.
My hopper still shows "LTD 29%".
So I click on it, and now it shows "empty".
Questions to y'all who know:
1) did I just dump a load of LTD ore in my landing bay?
2) did i ever actually have any LTDs on board?
3) what else should i have done to convert this ore into actual saleable LTDs?
So confused.
Siderwinder.
 
Those numbers in the hoppers mean how close you are to having a ton of LTDs.

All commodities in Elite are measured in tons (in standardized cannisters).
If you had a prospector limpet as well (You'll get there once you have a bigger boat. :) It speeds things up because you can see beforehand if that particular roid has LTDs and how much of them. It also downright improves the yield of the asteroid) you'd shoot it at an asteroid and it would tell you the percentages of certain minerals that fall out of it when you shoot it.

Basically, each chunk has some mineral content. When you collect it, it goes into the hopper and it converts it into the minerals and throws away the rest. As you collect more chunks it adds the minerals to the hopper (the percentages you see are kind of a "progress bar"). Once the hopper reaches 100%, it spits out one ton of mineral (LTDs in your case) and moves it into the cargo bay. Only then you can sell it.


In other words - you have to go back and shoot some more ice rocks. :)
Not all asteroids contain LTDs and even those that do can contain only a small amount. So just keep at it and watch the hoppers. Throw away stuff you don't want and keep the diamonds.
edit: Oh and that button next to each hopper that looks like an "eject" button of an old VCR? Yeah. That's an eject button. So yeah. You dumped your third of a LTD cannister. :LOL:
But no worry. You're gonna have more in no time.

edit 2: Oh, and just to be completely clear and if you don't know that - you DO need a cargo rack to put your finished LTDs in. I know you mentioned you've got limpets so you probably know how this work, but just in case you have the controller but no actual cargo. :)
 
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No prospector controller I guess. OK.
1) It may be obvious to you, but EVERYONE gets this wrong at some point. Never target a fragment then launch your Collector Limpets. The limpet will pick up that 1 fragment then die. Always launch limpets with nothing targeted, then they will run around for ages picking up everything they can.
2) Even in a crazy hotspot like Boraan, you might only get LTD from 1 in 4 roids, and you are only interested in roids that have LTD, so blast a few chucks off a roid then check on the contacts panel what the fragments are made of. No LTD ? - Pick another Roid. LTD and some other stuff ? - Set the other stuff to Ignore and carry on blasting.
 
It is tonnes (metric system).

To save having to clear unwanted stuff from hoppers,go to the contacts panel on the left hand screen, highlight a fragment that has stuff you don't want in it and to the right click "add .... to ignore list" - so only the stuff you want goes from the collected fragment into a refinery bin.
 
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A Cobra isn't the best ship for LTD mining because of the size and arrangement of modules. After your first succesful trip, change it for a T6 (10 mil), then a T7 (40 mil).
 
Thanks Commanders!
I had no idea how hoppers -> 1T of LTDs -> cargo worked. Now it's 100% clear.
Also - the tip about ignoring unwanted stuff is gold.
I'll head back to Borann and do it right this time.
And... I AM considering upgrading my ship. Cobra only carries 32 limpets..
(T6/T7 are on the list, and am also looking at an Asp Explorer for deep-space exploration)
Cheers.
Sider
 
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