Starbase/EGOTech/fisher/USAGE.md

Usage

To enter the ship, there is a button on top of the ship that will open Hatch. Once inside you can also open and close the cockpit glass Canopy. Buttons for these are available in the pilot left side console.

Flying the Ship

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
Speed	Current speed in metres per second.
Range & Distance	Activates center rangefinder, with Distance showing distance to object.
Cruise	Activates cruise control, forward thrust will not reset to zero unless turned down.
Aim	Reduces the response time of key presses for pitch and yaw.
Turtle	Activates turtle mode which sets forward thrust to a maximum limit of TurtleRate of full thrust.
Sloth	(Right Console) Activates the low sensitvity mode of pitch and yaw by limiting thrust. Use the Sensitivity switch to set the maximum thrust rate of sloth mode.
Transponder Toggle & Ping	Transponder controls, Toggle turns on and off ship transponder while Ping will activate transponder for three seconds
Nav, Autopilot, Avoidance & Target	Autopilot controls. See Autopilot and Crash Avoidance.
ISAN2	Current ISAN coordinates of ship.
NavGrid, NavP, NavC & Attitude	NavGrid system, see Using the Waypoint System.
Tow Status, Tow Mass, Tow & Auto Gen	Towing controls, see Towing ships.
Timer	See Timer.
Odometer	See Odometer.
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.
Canopy	Open and closes the cockpit glass canopy.
Hatch	Open and closes the hatch on top of the ship.
Chair	Spins the pilot chair between forward facing and backwards facing.

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

Using the Waypoint System

Viewing and Selecting Waypoints

This uses the NavGrid system. Use the Down and Up waypoints selectors to select waypoint. The selected waypoint information is shown on NavP and NavC panels.

On the pilot center console, NavGrid will show the compass towards the selected waypoint while Attitude will show the ship's pitch, heading and roll directions. NavGrid is best used while not moving.

Editing and Saving Waypoints

Use Set to save waypoint of current location to the current selected waypoint position.

To edit currently selected waypoint, use your U tool to add name, X, Y and Z values to nName, nX, nY and nZ respectively. Then use the Save button to save.

NOTE: Waypoint 1 to 6 are presets and can not be over written.

Loading Waypoint to Auto Pilot

Use Load to Auto Pilot to load curretnly selected waypoint to Target to be used with the auto pilot system.

Auto Pilot and Crash Avoidance

The ship uses a modified version of NavCas which uses the 3 in 1 ISAN from Compass. Waypoints are loaded from NavGrid waypoint system.

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

NOTE: Nav may not be very accurate. I recommend using it in conjunction with the NavGrid compass. The dd panel on the pilot left console shows debugging information for NavCas.

Avoidance will activate Guides. If the guides detect objects it will cut thrust and strafe up or down (will flash either the top or bottom Blue warning lights on the pilot center console according to the direction) while sounding an alarm (check game settings if you do not hear the alarm). It will also flash Red warning lights on the pilot center console according to the position of obstacle detected. If Autopilot is activated, it will readjust and continue its flight.

Avoids will show the counters for number of avoidances. The Trip counter can be reset by holding down the Avoids Reset Trips button.

NOTE: There is very limited coverage of range finders for the crash avoidance system. Use at your own risk!

Resetting Navigation

If ISAN or NavGrid is not working, it can be reset using the Reset ISAN button. Press once to take ISAN offline, then press again to reset.

Managing Power

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.
Fuel Rod 1 to Fuel Rod 20	Fuel remaining on fuel rods in individual fuel chambers, maximum of 300,000 units for each.
Shutdown	Turns off fuel chambers.
HeatTransferRate	Current heat transfer rate of the heat sinks, maximum of 100%.
Propellant	Total propellant remaining in propellant tanks, maximum of 144,000,000 units.
PropTime	Time and distance remaining of propellant based on current usage. Distance is calculated from speed.
FuelTime	Time and distance remaining of fuel based on current usage. Distance is calculated from speed.
WithBackup	Same as FuelTime but takes into account backup rods available. Use the switch for Backup Rods to set the number of backup rods available. As standard there are 12 extra rods.

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.

Shutdown will turn off the fuel chambers.

Towing Ships

Interface	Function
Tow Status	Status of tow beam, 0 is off, 1 is on and 2 is locked on.
Tow Mass	Mass of locked on ship, in kilograms.
Tow	Activates the tow beam.
Tow Lights	Activates the red flashing lights at the bottom of the ship.
Auto Gen	Activates Min Gen with Min Generator Rate according to Tow Mass.
BackRange & Back Distance	Activates the back facing rangefinders and displays the distance.

The tow beam faces out the back of the ship so position the Fisher in front of, with the back facing the ship you wish to tow. Spin the Chair around to look out the back window and activate Tow to turn on the tow beam. Once the tow beam is locked on the ship, the Tow Status will be 2 and the mass of the locked ship will be shown as Tow Mass in kilograms. Activate Auto Gen which will then turn on Min Gen with a Min Generator Rate based off the Tow Mass. Wait till the generators reach the targeted rate before flying off.

The Fisher has enough power generation to tow a ship of a mass of up to 20ktons or 20,000,000 kilograms. For large ships, it is recommended to turn on Min Gen to ramp up the generator before locking on and then activating Auto Gen once locked on to adjust the Min Generator Rate accordingly.

TIP: Remember to turn off Min Gen after towing to save on fuel.

Other Stuff

Timer

On the pilot left 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 left console there is a Odometer panel which will keep track of the ship's estimated flight distance based on speed. To reset the trip odometer, use your universal tool (U key) and clear the value of the Odometer field.