Starbase/Reference/EGOTech/rigger/USAGE.md

Usage

Summary of the ship functions can be found on the YOLOL chips bolted behind the pilot chair. Swipe down on the lock to read each one. More detailed usage instructions are available below.

To enter the ship, there is a button above the cockpit that will open a Hatch. Once inside you can also open and close the cockpit glass Canopy. Buttons for these are available in the pilot right side console and also on the ceiling next to the hatch.

Flying the Ship

IMPORTANT: Before flying the ship you should bind your keys by using the V key while sitting on the pilot chair. You will to bind keys for FWD+/FWD- (for forward thrust, usually SHIFT and CTRL), YAW+/YAW- (for yaw, usually E and Q) and PCH+/PCH- (for pitch, usually S and W). No longer needed as of v1.1.0.

The left lever on the center console controls backwards thrust (braking) and the right lever controls forward thrust.

Interface	Function
ForwardThrust	Current forward thrust, maximum of 10,000 units
SafeZone	Whether current location is in the safe zone.
StrengthFactor	Current strength of ship. May fluctuate as ore crates are filled. Anything below 1.0 means ship is damaged.
Cruise	Activates cruise control, forward thrust will not reset to zero unless turned down.
Turtle, TurtleRate	Activates turtle mode which sets forward thrust to a maximum limit of TurtleRate (percent) of full thrust.
Sloth, Sensitivity	Activates sloth mode which sets yaw and pitch thrust to a maximum limit of Sensitivity (percent) of full thrust.
Aim	Reduces the response time of key presses for pitch and yaw.
Guides & Guidance	Activates rangefinders (except center one which can be activated separately). Can be used as guide lasers. Guidance shows alerts showing position of objects detected with text and visualisation. For the visualisation, O means object is detected by the particular rangefinder.
Range & Distance	Activates center rangefinder, with Distance showing distance to object.
Scanner & Scan	Turns on the Ore Scanner.
Approach, Collect, Mine, Lasers, Laser Sweep Height & Laser Sweep Depth	Mining controls. See Mining.
Nav, Autopilot & Avoidance	Autopilot controls. See Autopilot and Crash Avoidance.
Transponder Toggle & Ping	Transponder controls, Toggle turns on and off ship transponder while Ping will activate transponder for three seconds
ISAN2, Heading, Dest, DTW & Deltas	See ISAN Waypoint System for more informaton.
G Rotated	Compass display. Shows direction towards Dest waypoint, + is in front of ship while O is behind the ship. Best used when stationary. See Compass for more informaton.

NOTE: For safety, firing full braking thrust will deactivate Cruise.

Using the Waypoint System

This is a custom interface for the ISAN Waypoint System.

Viewing, Loading and Naming Waypoints

View a waypoint (WP1 to WP18) by pressing the individual buttons. The waypoint will be shown on the WP panel. Load the waypoint in WP to Dest using the Load Dest button. Once in Dest, the waypoint will be used by the compass, ISAN and autopilot systems.

To give waypoints a name, use your universal tool to change the panel values with the name you want. This is for display purposes and your own reference only, it is not used anywhere else.

Saving Waypoints

Use Save Loc to save waypoint of current location to the waypoint position viewed on the WP panel.

To manually save coordinates, use your universal tool to add X, Y and Z values to NewX, NewY and NewZ respectively. Then use the button to save the coordinates to the waypoint position viewed on the WP panel.

Autopilot and Crash Avoidance

The ship uses a modified version of NavCas which uses the 3 in 1 ISAN from Compass and waypoint from ISAN Waypoint System.

Use while the ship is stationary. Activating Nav will start point the ship towards Dest waypoint and deactivate itself when done. Autopilot will activate Nav and fly to within 5km of Dest waypoint with Avoidance activated.

NOTE: Nav needs to be tuned more for accuracy. I recommend using it in conjunction with the compass.

Avoidance will activate Guides. If the guides detect objects it will pitch the ship down and cut forward thrust. If Autopilot is activated, it will readjust and continue its flight.

NOTE: There is very limited coverage of range finders for the crash avoidance system. It also hasn't been tested extensively. Use at your own risk!

Mining

To approach an asteroid, point the center range finder at an asteroid and activate Approach. Once in range (optimum range is 10 to 14m on Distance), activate Lasers to turn on the mining lasers. Laser Sweep Height and Laser Sweep Depth will adjust sweeping distances of the lasers.

Mine is a button which will activate automated mining. Point the center range finder at an asteroid and activate. It will activate Scanner and Approach, and once in range it will automatically activate Lasers.

Collect turns on the two ore collectors. Ore collectors automatically adjust to point towards objects detected by the center range finder.

If batteries start running out of charge while mining, turn on Min Gen. Continous use of the lasers and collectors at the same time requires a Min Generator Limit of around 90%.

NOTE: For safety, lasers will turn off if the total fuel is less that 2,000 units.

Ore Scanner

Activate using the Scanner button. The laser will try to adjust to point at the objects detected by the center range finder. Scan results will show on the Scan panel in number of stacks. It has a maximum range of 100m.

Managing Power and Fuel

Interface	Function
Battery	Shows current battery charge of the batteries, maximum of 10,000 units.
Generator	Current generator rate, maximum of 100%.
Min Generator Limit & Min Gen	Toggle and sets minimum generator rate. See Managing Power.
HeatTransferRate	Current heat transfer rate of the heat sinks, maximum of 100%.
StoredHeat	Current stored heat in the heat sinks, maximum of 15,000 units.
Fuel Rod 1 to Fuel Rod 6	Fuel remaining on fuel rods in individual fuel chambers, maximum of 300,000 units for each.
Propellant	Total propellant remaining in propellant tanks, maximum of 38,000,000 units.
PropTime	Time and distance remaining of propellant based on current usage. Distance is calculated from ISAN speed*.
FuelTime	Time and distance remaining of fuel based on current usage. Distance is calculated from ISAN speed*.
WithBackup	Same as FuelTime but takes into account backup rods available. Use the switch for BackupRods to set the number of backup rods available. As standard there are 16 extra rods.
Shutdown	Will turn off all fuel chambers thus shutting down generators.
FlowIn & FlowOut	Toggle flow modes of resource bridges. See Refueling Propellant.
Lights	Turns on and off internal lights.
Headlights	Turns on and off external light on the nose of the ship. May help with mining asteroids.
Canopy	Opens or closes glass canopy.
Hatch	Opens or closes ship entry hatch.
Timer	See Timer.
Odometer	See Odometer.

*ISAN speed is normally quite conservative and not 100% accurate.

Managing Power

By default the generator will only run and ramp up when the batteries need charging so there is minimum management needed. But you can set a minimum generate rate by setting the Min Generator Limit value using the switch for the minimum rate and turning on Min Gen.

Refueling Propellant

All four resource bridges can be used for refuelling propellant. To refuel from another ship, turn off FlowOut on the pilot right side console and leave FlowIn turned on. Then connect a resource bridge to the other ship. To refuel another ship, do the opposite, FlowOut turned on and FlowIn turned off.

The small propellant tank above the crafting bench can also be used to refuel the ship. Turn off FlowOut and connect the tank's resource bridge to any of the ship's resource bridges, this will transfer the propellant from the tank to the ship. You can then unbolt the tank and craft refills for the tank using ice and then bolt the tank back to the support. Rinse and repeat until full.

Remember to turn FlowIn and FlowOut back on if you are using the Endo to collect ore via any of the ship's resource bridges.

If for some reason you need access to the ship's internal tanks, you can unbolt the grates on top of the ship which are marked with circular decals. This will give access to some tanks.

Other Stuff

Timer

On the pilot center console there is a Timer panel which acts as a timer. It will run when the ship is active and show total time in years, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds. To reset the timer, use your universal tool (U key) and clear the value of the Timer field.

Odometer

On the pilot right console there is a Odometer panel which will keep track of the ship's estimated flight distance based on speed from ISAN (may not be that accurate). To reset the trip odometer, use your universal tool (U key) and clear the value of the Odometer field.