does anybody use the small ore drill?

[xendelaar]

I made a small ore drill refiner and flew it to dress and eelo. I found out that you need to exceed a certain ore concentration in order to make the small drill work.  This minimum concentration does not seem to correlate with the overlay cut-off concentration which is shown in the map view . This makes finding a proper refuel landing spot rather difficult. 

Seeing that the large drill weighs the same as the small one, but doesn't have the limitations of the smaller one, i wonder if anybody uses the small drill at all? 

 

 

[Reactordrone]

36 minutes ago, xendelaar said:

Seeing that the large drill weighs the same as the small one, but doesn't have the limitations of the smaller one, i wonder if anybody uses the small drill at all? 

 

 

In my game the large drill weighs 1.25 tonnes vs 0.25 tonnes for the small one. I've done some Kerbin testing with the small drill but never used them operationally.

[xendelaar]

Maybe there is something wrong with my version ... my large drills weighs 0.25t... that's odd.

[bewing]

Considering that you have to sit and watch them run, I'd rather have a drill that runs 5 times faster.

 

[Just Jim]

I'm planning on using it for a small shuttle I'm working on, but only because the ship itself is mostly mk-1 parts, and the large drill just looks goofy on a ship that small.

[xendelaar]

2 hours ago, Just Jim said:

I'm planning on using it for a small shuttle I'm working on, but only because the ship itself is mostly mk-1 parts, and the large drill just looks goofy on a ship that small.

Be advised to mount a narrow band and surface scanner on top of your vessel if you're planning to use the small drill. Without them, it will be difficult to find a proper ore field.

 

2 hours ago, bewing said:

Considering that you have to sit and watch them run, I'd rather have a drill that runs 5 times faster.

 

For me,  Time is not a real issue in ksp. It's all about the weight

[Geschosskopf]

6 hours ago, xendelaar said:

I made a small ore drill refiner and flew it to dress and eelo. I found out that you need to exceed a certain ore concentration in order to make the small drill work.  This minimum concentration does not seem to correlate with the overlay cut-off concentration which is shown in the map view . This makes finding a proper refuel landing spot rather difficult. 

The cut-off on the overlay has NOTHING to do with the actual amount of ore in the ground.  The overly shows how one large, ill-definied area of the planet compares to other similar areas on a scale of 0 to 100% relative to eachother.  IOW, it's not at all the absolute, actual ore values.  The highest ore "concentrations" (and I use that term VERY loosely given complete lack of geographical precision inherent in the M700 orbital survey scanner), will be shown on the overlay as 100% and the others in proportion, when in actual fact the highest ore level on the planet might be only 7% actually in the ground there.

The M700 orbital scanner is just meant to be the 1st step in a long process of zeroing in on the best place to put your drills.  It basically just tells you where the next clue is hidden, instead of providing actually useful information.  You also have to do its "perform survey" function before the NBS will work at all.  Then you have to use the surface scanner and NBS to actually find the good stuff.  Do NOT set up your miner based solely on the overlay.  The information it shows is DELIBERATELY misleading and intentionally vague.  You MUST use the other scanners to find the good stuff.

I wrote a tutorial on how to use the various scanners to find the "best" ore.  The link is in my signature.

But anyway, the small drill requires a minimum of IIRC 2.5% ore actually in the ground in order to work at all.  This really isn't hard to find.  If you know how to use the scanners, you'll USUALLY have way more than that, so this only becomes an issue on planets that just don't have much ore at all.  Which is why it's a good idea to send out the scanners before sending out the miners.  The important differences between the big and small drills and ISRUs are as follows:

• The big ones obviously are larger and heavier than the small ones.  This makes it easier and cheaper to fly the small ones.
• The big ones require more and larger radiators than the small ones, which makes them even bulkier and heavier, again impacting vehicle design.
• The small ones require the same amount of power as the big ones.  So no savings on that for using the small ones.
• The small ones produce at 1/2 the rate as the big ones.  Normally, this is not an issue.  It is extremely rare that elapsed gametime of a few days more or less has any effect on the outcome of a mission.  And it's usually no problem for the player, who can take the opportunity of the processing time to debeer and rebeer, check email, etc. 

So really and truly, I find the small stuff more useful than the big stuff in most situations, mostly due to its reduced weight and bulk, and therefore reduced cost for the whole rocket needed to send it somewhere.  It's only on the rare planet where the only good places to land have less than 2.5% ore that you can't use them.

[fourfa]

In my testing, the small drills always produce ore at one-fifth the rate of the big drills. They also weigh one-fifth. 

Edited December 21, 2015 by fourfa

[xendelaar]

Thanks for the advice Geschosskopf. This is very helpful!

Here's a screenshot from my  VAB (version 1.05). I don't know why, but my large drill really weighs 0.25 tonnes... I guess I have to re-install the game or something...

Edited December 21, 2015 by xendelaar

[Superfluous J]

11 hours ago, bewing said:

Considering that you have to sit and watch them run, I'd rather have a drill that runs 5 times faster.

 

Who told you you need to sit and watch them run? I get them started, and then come back when the tanks should be full.

Unless you only do one thing at a time in your save, in which case yeah, you have to sit and wait because that ship is your "one thing."

[KerikBalm]

I beleive 100% ore on the overlay is actually 15% ore concentration (the ore /cfgs make it clear that 15% is the highest surface concentration that you can get).

Thus 2.5/15% = 16.7%.... I guess you should set the filter for at least 20%... although somehow I seem to recall getting much lower ore %'s... I'll check later.

Also, the basic overview sucks... its very inaccurate... I'm not sure how exactly it changes after you check all the biomes with the survey scanners, but it seems to get more accurate.

If you don't mind "cheating" (I consider it time saving rather than using the NBS and clicking for horus on end to get snapshots rom a polar orbit), you can mod overlay.cfg in the gamedata>squad>resources folder

Lower the interpolation number, raise the map resolution (note, this can cause a bit of a delay when loading the overview, seems to require more computation to display all the ore)... and you can get much more accurate overviews.

[FancyMouse]

Small one is just too short and often on asteroids it just cannot reach even if I put it as top as possible. I'll have to establish another strut stack and put it there.

Sorry but you're out of my picture.

[A_name]

Yes! It's super useful for go-anywhere ships. Just hop from body to body (excluding Eve and Tylo) mining at each place until you get to where you're going. Now you can do it in a compact design small enough to fit nicely into a Mk2 cargo bay for a Single Stage to (Almost) Anywhere spaceplane.

12 hours ago, bewing said:

Considering that you have to sit and watch them run, I'd rather have a drill that runs 5 times faster.

 

You can time warp while drilling.

[bewing]

On 12/21/2015 at 3:59 PM, 5thHorseman said:

Who told you you need to sit and watch them run? I get them started, and then come back when the tanks should be full.

Unless you only do one thing at a time in your save, in which case yeah, you have to sit and wait because that ship is your "one thing."

 

Are you using a modded version? I'm using vanilla, and when I switch away from watching a ship with a drill, the drill stops.

On 12/22/2015 at 4:56 PM, A_name said:

You can time warp while drilling.

Yes, I know. But I'd rather have drills running on 5 planets and moons simultaneously, in a perfect world. Just provide power and cooling and come back to them in a week when I need the fuel.

 

[Superfluous J]

4 minutes ago, bewing said:

Are you using a modded version? I'm using vanilla, and when I switch away from watching a ship with a drill, the drill stops.

Nope that's stock. It was reported as such by RoverDude when 1.0 was released and my tests show it to be true.

You need enough storage space for 6 hours of ore drilling because the "in the background" processing happens in 6-hour intervals, and you have to make sure if you're using solar power to come back to your base when it's in the sun (or the batteries will just quickly drain) but yeah, it works just fine.

[Fearless Son]

On 12/21/2015 at 4:26 AM, bewing said:

Considering that you have to sit and watch them run, I'd rather have a drill that runs 5 times faster.

Only if it is given a customized red paint job.

[Terwin]

I tried using mini-drills on a rescue driller craft(I had just unlocked ISRU in order to rescue some stranded tourists on the Mun), but it is not very effective compared to the normal sized drill(same weight per ore mined, higher energy and heat per ore mined)

Then again, I have tweakscale and have become enamored of 200% and 400% drills to cut down on the number I need for my fuel stations(using UKS with Logistics hubs)

Just launched a Jool fuel station with 4 200% sized drills(unmanned station due to life support needs), and my Kerbin fuel station(Mk2) has 4 400% drills and 6 3.5m ISRU converters to keep up(manned with a 3 star engineer as it is only about 3 km from KSC and it is easy to rotate/resupply life support holding 48K ore, 6K monoprop and 325K/397K LF/O of which I regularly use most/all with only ~80 parts, as opposed to my minmus colony with 170 parts and ~20 normal sized ore drills(also has life support generation and ship manufacturing capabilities though)).

(200% has the same cost/size/weight/heat/power drain/ore of 8 drills and 400% is identical to 64 drills except for the part count)

 

[Teilnehmer]

On 22.12.2015 at 6:56 AM, A_name said:

Yes! It's super useful for go-anywhere ships. Just hop from body to body (excluding Eve and Tylo) mining at each place until you get to where you're going.

Tylo is not an exception: [1.0.4] Burolyot Almost Grand Tour

[bewing]

On 12/23/2015 at 10:54 PM, 5thHorseman said:

Nope that's stock. It was reported as such by RoverDude when 1.0 was released and my tests show it to be true.

You need enough storage space for 6 hours of ore drilling because the "in the background" processing happens in 6-hour intervals, and you have to make sure if you're using solar power to come back to your base when it's in the sun (or the batteries will just quickly drain) but yeah, it works just fine.

 

Wow! I'll have to try that out to make sure I understand, but that sure makes the small drills a lot more interesting.