The art of automatic, direct-to-storage mining / For BEGINNERS with PICTURES

[DeepspaceMechanic]

Hi, fellow citizens! :D

I started this thread because I'm a big fan of mining ships and wanted to help beginner players who are interested in building more advanced salvage systems. Share the wisdom if there are better solutions for salvaging than those presented here. (I know that cyclical signaling can be solved in a much simpler way, but I think a 'clock' that actually spins, while in use, adds a more 'alive' feeling to ships)


As to those who are new to designs presented in the images below, feel free to ask if you have any questions! And have fun with building!


SOME EXTRA NOTES:

- This kind of system is especially useful at downward-mining ships (to create systems that emit salvage beams vertically when harvesting planets, rotate both the salvage modules AND the controller before placing them);
- You should always check if the amount of 'cargo space' blocks you add is sufficient for your mining capacity;
- Try to set your optimal 'fire!' signal tempo manually (via activation modules linked to the rail-speed-controller), but make sure that those activation modules can be toggled on and off with the inner-ship-remote (by having the proper amount connected to it).




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[DeepspaceMechanic]

FURTHER IMAGES IN THE ROW:


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[AndyP]

Great job!

Should help people searching for it, by the tags you added.

- Andy

 

[Jananton]

A very nice documented tutorial you've made here DeepspaceMechanic.

My preferred salvage setup are two salvage arrays with slaved damage pulse arrays. These give the most money for your buck, but have a timing of 15 seconds on and 15 seconds off. I was not able to use your setup for this without having phases creep in that nothing fires or both fire at the same time. The idea is that both arrays fire intermittent and keep doing that for as long as the system is on.

I went for the old fashioned extended delay block clock as shown below

Lets start at the Activator at the far right, what can be an Inner Ship Remote of course, from there go into the NOT and from that into the OR. From the OR go into the other NOT and from that one into the bottom right delay block. Hook all the 14 delay blocks up from right to left until you end with the left top one. With that block selected (C) hook it up to the OR (V) from the beginning and to the FlipFlop (V) behind the left salvage/damage pulse computers. From the FlipFlop go into the NOT next to it. Hook the FlipFlop and the NOT each to one of the salvage computers and you're done.

Because a flipflop only fires on a high pulse (blue) the delay block clock needs to traverse twice to flip it. Fifteen chained delay blocks times two gives the needed 15 seconds cool down time. From testing however I found one delay block less, fourteen, works best. With this setup there's no down time at all and the arrays will fire intermittent as long as you like.

I didn't had the time to make a nice tutorial like you did, but I hope the explanation is good enough to follow my steps.

Greets,

Jan

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

A very nice documented tutorial you've made here DeepspaceMechanic.

My preferred salvage setup are two salvage arrays with slaved damage pulse arrays. These give the most money for your buck, but have a timing of 15 seconds on and 15 seconds off. I was not able to use your setup for this without having phases creep in that nothing fires or both fire at the same time. The idea is that both arrays fire intermittent and keep doing that for as long as the system is on.

I went for the old fashioned extended delay block clock as shown below

Lets start at the Activator at the far right, what can be an Inner Ship Remote of course, from there go into the NOT and from that into the OR. From the OR go into the other NOT and from that one into the bottom right delay block. Hook all the 14 delay blocks up from right to left until you end with the left top one. With that block selected (C) hook it up to the OR (V) from the beginning and to the FlipFlop (V) behind the left salvage/damage pulse computers. From the FlipFlop go into the NOT next to it. Hook the FlipFlop and the NOT each to one of the salvage computers and you're done.

Because a flipflop only fires on a high pulse (blue) the delay block clock needs to traverse twice to flip it. Fifteen chained delay blocks times two gives the needed 15 seconds cool down time. From testing however I found one delay block less, fourteen, works best. With this setup there's no down time at all and the arrays will fire intermittent as long as you like.

I didn't had the time to make a nice tutorial like you did, but I hope the explanation is good enough to follow my steps.

Greets,

Jan

Greetings, Jan!
Thank you for your approving words, and sorry for the delayed reaction (forgot to hit "watch theard").

Good to know my system is appreciated. Your explanation of your solution for salvage+damage pulse was great too. Interestingly, I too encountered this problem of timing a damage-pulse-slaved system just recently. I'm working on a massive, tactical pirate station conqueror, that chooses shield- and power draining over heavy firing.

But power draining is always weak if not boosted via D.P. - but then I needed a 20 sec signal frequency, and to be honest, I don't really trust long chains of delays (at least my PC hasitates to animate them properly in large numbers). Another solution in such cases are sequences of liner rails; if you don't have the room, you can either have just a few and largely slow it down via rail speed controller, or implement the flipflops.

But I also tried using a similar NOT+ delay+ flipflop setup. So I can see what you've made, it's clever! In a circular setup of 15 delays, the same delay module changes its state every 7.5 seconds. Initially the last one turns on and:


DelayON ---> FlipON, Salvage-A ON
+7.5
DelayOFF (Flip no change, since changes only if input is high)
+7.5
DelayON ---> FlipOFF, Salvage-B ON
+7.5
DelayOFF (Flip no change)
+7.5
DelayON ---> FlipON, Salvage-A ON

= 4x 7.5 second = 30 s


Gotta love the symmetry of the thing :D By the way, I would like to use upgraded salvage systems too, but my copy of the game never seemed to recognize if a controller had something slaved to it. Maybe sometime in the future.

Have a nice day!

 

[Jananton]

[snip]
Gotta love the symmetry of the thing :D By the way, I would like to use upgraded salvage systems too, but my copy of the game never seemed to recognize if a controller had something slaved to it. Maybe sometime in the future.

Have a nice day!

Hm, that's strange, setting a slave to a salvage or weapon computer works the same as the connecting of logic blocks. For salvage put the mouse pointer on the salvage computer and press (C), it'll show the familiar yellow box, now point at the computer you want to slave to it and press (V), a light blue box will show you've now slaved that computer to the first one.

Another way to do this is by the weapon menu (G). There just drag the computer icon to be slaved to the appropriate slot. To un-slave, is that a word , just drag the slaved computer icon on the computer it's slaved to to disable the slave setting. Note, you need to press the (G) key twice to close and show the weapon menu again to let it show this worked. Direct refreshing of this menu has been a little flaky over time.

Greets,

Jan

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

Hm, that's strange, setting a slave to a salvage or weapon computer works the same as the connecting of logic blocks. For salvage put the mouse pointer on the salvage computer and press (C), it'll show the familiar yellow box, now point at the computer you want to slave to it and press (V), a light blue box will show you've now slaved that computer to the first one.

Another way to do this is by the weapon menu (G). There just drag the computer icon to be slaved to the appropriate slot. To un-slave, is that a word , just drag the slaved computer icon on the computer it's slaved to to disable the slave setting. Note, you need to press the (G) key twice to close and show the weapon menu again to let it show this worked. Direct refreshing of this menu has been a little flaky over time.

Greets,

Jan

Thanks for taking the time to explain this. But I actually was familiar with these operations. Slaving extras to weapon systems works just fine, and the weapons-menu shows the extras on salvage systems too, just no difference in function when used - I tested this with 100% cannons slaved to salvage, but it didn't eliminate the cooldown period. Although this was a couple of months ago, I probably should try doing some fresh experimentation... Never blamed the game though :D

 

[Jananton]

Well, if you slave a cannon computer to a salvage one with both the same amount of modules attached it should reduce the cooldown period to zero when firing. It has worked like that since I have the game and, trust me, that's quite some time.

This brings up the question why it didn't work like that for you?

Try it now and if it still doesn't work maybe better start a new thread about that here so more knowledgeable people about game settings and setup can help you narrow down why that slaving won't work for you. It's an essential part of the game.

Greets,

Jan

 

[DeepspaceMechanic]

Try it now and if it still doesn't work maybe better start a new thread about that here so more knowledgeable people about game settings and setup can help you narrow down why that slaving won't work for you. It's an essential part of the game.

Greets,

Jan

Thanks for the suggestion... I'm kind of embarrassed a little for mentioning it, since the two salvage combos mentioned function as expected now that I tested them again. At least, now that I know they work, these are options too :D Sorry, starmade!