Science & Industry

I normally do not use a survey scanner when mining, I just accept that I sometimes waste a cycle. I do this for two reasons:

My fit is so tight a survey scanner will not fit. But I could nerf the tank a bit and squeeze one in.

I fly 2 Hulks for a total of 6 strips. In addition I play on a laptop so have a small screen that makes it hard to see both miners at once. So if I did scan, I'd have 6 strips all of which have to be stopped and restarted at different times. I'd have to scan, start up the strips, note down the number of cycles and the cycle percentage they get turned off at, then switch back and forth between the two miners to catch each strip as it reaches the proper point in its cycle while all the time keeping track of how many cycles each has done so I do not do things like turn off a strip after 2.2 cycles when it should have run 3.2 cycles. Then restart that strip on a new roid and note down the new stop time. This all sounds like it would drive me crazy. So instead I just keep all the strips in phase, cycling them all at the same time.... and wasting cycles.

How much do I waste? I timed the time to fill the Orca (a third account I fly along with the two miners) and it takes 25% longer to fill it than if the strips could run without interruption.

For 25% more ore it sounds like figuring out a method to use the survey scan results would be worth it. But how to do it without having to manually keep notes on 6 strips and diving myself nuts?

I do not want to buy new ships. The Hulks are cool as I got Orca support.
I could run all the strips on the same roid. That would give quite short cycles, but at least they would all be cycled together. But it also uses up crystals faster.
I could use T1 strips and manually cycle them more often, but still in synchrony, causing any partial cycle to be less of a waste.

Or....?

I guess I'm missing something. If you need to do a partial cycle on a roid, say 25% of a cycle, you you just let the other two strips sit there unused for that time, essentially wasting a half cycle of mining? Or do you start them up, thereby getting all the strips out of synchrony?

The other issue is the roids in the belts near me have roid sizes all over the place. From ones that last 5 cycles to ones that last one cycle and produce 10 units of ore.

Doesn't the Orca get a survey scanner bonus?

It does, but only to the orca pilot, not the miners. And really the scanner is only useful if the miner can target the roids from the scanner, otherwise there is no easy way to direct each miner to specific roids they should be targeting. So basically pretty useless.

I have tried to use scanners a few times. It just didn't seem efficient to me. I use 2 x H + 2 x O, to mine. Not a lot of time to check scanners. (Only two monitors.)

Orca scanning and fleet target designation doesn't seem to work very well. It could work if you use tags, but that becomes a nightmare if you have several mining ships.

I don't know if scanners perform a useful function, but I would suggest they don't unless you have a well integrated fleet.

Good stuff in there. The only thing I wonder about is why miners should be restricted to 22km. A good Orca pilot gives them a 25.6km range, and a 29km targeting range. I agree that T2 scanners are worthless at that range.

Put a scanner on the Orca. Add a tag column to all overviews. Have the Orca pilot tag the asteroids that have less than a cycle left in them.

... and this is why I don't have a problem with bumpers and gankers.

For low effort ISK, I do manufacturing.

Vincent, what do you think of this suggestion?

Make a chart, like an excel spread sheet, with a row for each type of ore you like to mine. On each row note how much ore all your lasers combined mine in specific amounts of time.

What specific amount of time? At start let's assume you can only judge your mining cycles to a quarter of a cycle. So let's see, a Hulk has 3 lasers, so you will want to know how much it will mine at 1/4 of a cycle, 1/2, 3/4 and a full cycle using all 3 lasers on the same roid.

Now let's say you land at a belt, you run your scanner and select the roid you wish to mine and put all your lasers on it. You then look at your chart and decide if you need to run a partial cycle or let it run full duration. After every full cycle run your scanner while you move your ore to your Orca. Eventually, you will need to run a partial cycle. Judge the size of the roid vs. your chart and manually turn off your lasers after you reach the proper amount mined. It should pop the rock.

As you get better at judging your HUD's mining laser cycle display you can increase your resolution to 8th of a cycle and then 16ths of a cycle. If you really want to be uber you can use # of seconds instead of fractions of a cycle and with a stopwatch time your lasers, turning them off just after they mined the roid out. Honestly, I'm not interested in working that hard but I have made the notes on my chart.

Some people instead use a cardboard clock with a minute hand and ore amounts where the numbers would be so that they can set to the hand to the ore amount and therefore fraction of a cycle that they need to turn off their lasers. This makes it easier to judge your HUD’s display. You just match them up. You may want to make one for each mining ship to help keep everything straight in your mind.

I use excel so that it can do the math for me as my mining amount changes.

Finally, I don't like to do a really short laser cycle so I use mining drones to finish off those rocks. For example, if I see a rock that will take 1.1 cycles, I'll set the mining drones on it to either "mine" or "mine repeatedly" depending on how much I need to "shave" that roid.

You are over complicating it. You do not have to have the timing perfect to increase your productivity, it is just about reducing the wasted cycles. You do not have to get it perfect.

I generally have each strip working on a different roid. And multiple ships will harvest different types so I never have two strips on the same rock.

The hardest part is keeping track of which targeted rock, is which one on the survey tab. Which gets much easier with practice.

Basically say your scanner shows a veldspar rock with about 2200 units, your strip miner pulls about 1500m3 per cycle, veldspar is 0.1 m3 per unit. so your strip will pull about 15000 units per cycle. 2200 units is about 1 1/2 cycles. so stop that strip about 1/2 way through its second cycle, maybe a little past just to be sure it pops, or a little under in farming a belt without popping rocks.

Once you get used to it, it becomes second nature, you won't even think about it, you will just do it. by doing this you can take your efficency from 75% up to about 95%. if you try to get closer to 100%, you will just get frustrated.

Using this method you need to keep track of 3 rocks per ship, and pre target the next rock to be mined so you do not get much delay between rocks. When mining with multiple ships this can get tricky, but a little practice, and you will be doing it with your eyes closed, well not literally, but you know what I mean.

When only running a few ships you do not need to worry about keeping strip miners timed the same, that just leads to lost cycles, and inefficiency. with 3 minute cycles, or just over 2 minutes with boosts, you have plenty of time to switch back and fourth.

keeping each ship on a different type really helps you keep it all straight. I usually mine with 3 HULKs and an ORCA.