How to use Connectors?

[Team Triss]

Hi guys,

I'm in the process of updating my small mining ship with conveyors (thanks again devs!), and I have a few questions about the connectors.

I have conveyors/tubes taking the ore from the drills to a conveyor that is connected to a medium cargo container and a connector. It seems like the connector fills up first; is there a way to change the order?

Second, when I want to dump the ore, it seems I have to fill the connectors manually and then it will dump it. Is there a way to get it to pull automatically from the container and dump everything? I filled an 80k liter container, manually filling the connectors 100 liters at a time will take a bit.

[xx]

I have not tried mining yet with them, however based on other thread. the connector fills up first as its designed to dump the ore so its at the end of the chain, you could try switching it off.

As for it not emptying the cargo container, people have reported that it only works if there is a little space in the container. So if you empty some out by manually moving it to the connector then it should start to work.

[andreykl]

> It seems like the connector fills up first
I believe it can be 'disconnectied' in controls, you will have to turn it on manually anyway to drop cargo, so disconnecting is not an issue.

[Sullen Secret]

I noticed that each drill holds more ore than a medium cargo container, so I just left it out and ran conveyor lines to an output connector. When I dump my ore, it all leaves the drills just fine.

[kymsheba]

mine work when fully loaded no space left in pods, my mining ships have 9 drills which feed into my 10 cargo pod freighter/miner i have the connectors directly attached to the pods on my 10 cargo pod freighter/miner and turn them all on when ready to empty and just watch them dump into my landing barge which has a landing pad made of hoppers and they feed it straight to refinery or cargo pods works brilliantly

[Team Triss]

I thought I tried putting it on a separate conveyor than the one that was feeding it into the container. I'll try that. Also when I turned dump to on, it would empty whatever it was filled with, but no more. Do I have to be located above/near a collector for it to dump properly?

[Bob Vanus]

I'm having the same issue, but I'm trying to dump salvaged parts.

Here's my setup.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Mr_X1/screenshot/450667408555426988

(@ front, small cargo pod just to access the ships inventory to unload salvage from inventory. I access the inventory from that point, and dump them in the medium pod at the rear. The conveyor splits oddly since the ship was originally built with a large pod, which I removed. Set of 4 reactors linked through the same conveyor system for quick refueling.)

[Team Triss]

Similar to what I'm working with. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=250684251

I have an array of six drills that aren't in the picture that feed into the conveyors on the right side of the pic. Ore moves from the drills to the container no problem, but not out the connector when dumping.

[Team Triss]

I'll be damned, I just got it working. I have to turn Collect on AND Dump on; it's now working both in space and above hoppers.

Will try putting a conveyor between the container and the collector.

EDIT: works with a conveyor and pointing at right angles, I swear I tried this yesterday to no avail.

[Bob Vanus]

...And now that I think about it, that would make sense. Collect tells it to pull from the cargo pods, and dump tells it to dump what is in it's inventory.

Edit - And mine works now. Yay.

[Team Triss]

Yeah, I thought it meant it could double as a collector, which didn't make as much sense.

[default_player]

Still wondering how to make my cargo empty out into another ship via connectors

[Tal Maru]

you line up 2 connectors and they turn yellow. Then you hit P and they lock together <they turn green>
At this point your 2 ships are essentially 1 when it comes to inventory. You will be able to transfer materials between containers from the inventory screen <only when they are locked together and green>.

[default_player]

Originally posted by Tal Maru:

you line up 2 connectors and they turn yellow. Then you hit P and they lock together <they turn green>
At this point your 2 ships are essentially 1 when it comes to inventory. You will be able to transfer materials between containers from the inventory screen <only when they are locked together and green>.

But how to make the connector AUTOMATIC is the real question, it pulls the ore all fine and dandy if I connect to a ship with a refinery, but I want to empty out all the salvage without manual sorting... I wonder why I can't set 1 connector to 'throw out' and another to 'collect all' when connected and it would transfer all my connected containers into my large ship

[Ric]

Originally posted by TadasJA:

But how to make the connector AUTOMATIC is the real question, it pulls the ore all fine and dandy if I connect to a ship with a refinery, but I want to empty out all the salvage without manual sorting... I wonder why I can't set 1 connector to 'throw out' and another to 'collect all' when connected and it would transfer all my connected containers into my large ship

If you have a connector at your main base already connected to refineries and you then dock a ship to this(by using p/lock button) the ores will automatically go into the refineries. No buttons need pressed, as long as both connectors as on(no need to set throw out) it will work.

I can post some screenshots later to show my base setup if you want? I'm at work just now so it would have to wait but I'm happy to do it if need be.

I also have another couple of connectors setup at my main base so I can isolate a large cargo container from my main system but lock it back in when required to feed resources to assemblers. This allows me to control the flow of resourse via either a locked connector(to feed resources to assmeblers from cargo contaner) or a connector/collector setup(for emptying all my refineries and assemblers back into my cargo container).

That last paragraph has probably confused you even more & can be ignored until screenshots are supplied..lol..

[NrKy]

What I think is being asked for here, is the ability to set storage rules for a ship, ie. Dump all Ores, or Collect all Uranium, etc.