Mined ore not getting into cargo hold.

[jrlaudio]

Been playing for a while on and off, mainly as a trader. So I just began trying some mining. So ... Have all the things I need; limpets, controllers, the scanners, a refinery, mining lasers, etc, all in a Python. Have plenty of reserve power. So I go out and do some mining, the limpets collect and I see the refinery has materials that the limpets have brought back. I even know how to tell the limpets not to collect what I don't want. Everything seems to be fine. So ... Here's the question, why after an hour or so is my cargo hold empty. I get back to a station and I have things in the hoppers, but I can't sell it. The refinery doesn't seem to be refining. I even tried limiting the number of limpets I'm carrying to keep some open space in the cargo modules. I go back to a station and I have nothing. Yes the power is on in the refinery. I can't figure this out.

[Elitewrecker PT]

You need to collect several fragments for the refinery to process one ton of ore.

[jrlaudio]

Yeah but after an hour, collecting huge chunks. How do I tell? Is that the percentage thing on the refinery? Do I need multiple refineries, higher than level 1. I keep getting messages "the refinery is full" or some such thing.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by jrlaudio:

Yeah but after an hour, collecting huge chunks. How do I tell? Is that the percentage thing on the refinery?

Yep, that's the percentage.

And keep in mind that each different mineral requires its own refinery bin. If you have more different minerals than you have bins in your refinery module, your hopper will be full and you will have to purge one of minerals for your refinery to continue to work.

[jrlaudio]

OK ... that could be it. When you say purge, is that the little up-arrow symbol next to the hopper. I guess I select the material I want to purge and hit that?

I'm guessing I should also get a higher level refinery as well, so I can process more faster?

[Antaiir]

Just a shot in the blue:

The refinery has limited number of slots. Each slot can hold only one type of ore. If that slot holds any amount of an ore, this slot is blocked for any other type of ore. It can only take more of the ore that is already in the slot, until it reaches 100% and is being refined.

So, let's say for example your refinery has 4 slots. Your limpets collect a little volume of 4 different ores. Now all 4 slots in your refinery are in use. If your limpets now start collecting a 5th ore, you have no free slot for this ore, and yuo get the message that your refinery is full.

You need a refinery with more slots, or you need to empty the refinery slots (waste them into space) to free them up for the ore you are actually collecting.

It's been a while since i was an active miner, but as far as i remember how it works, your issue could be something like that.

[JL::Jose-Juan Kenobi]

What exactly were you mining and where? 1hr and not a single ton of ore refined?

Besides the explanations from above, remember to pack Prospector limpet controller to see what the asteroid is composed of, and also with a prospector will increase the number of fragments released by the asteroid. Always pack a class A prospector.
On every released fragment, you can see how much of that mineral it contains, let's say (15% of Osmium) that means you will need roughly 9 or 10 similar fragments to refine 1T of Osmium.

Ideally chose systems with rings in Pristine reserves, and with the hotspot (found using Detailed Surface Scanner) of the mineral you are looking for.

And no, higher class refineries don't process faster, they just have a bigger internal bin, meaning how many different minerals processed at the same time (so you don't have to jettison stuff) and technically offer tiny extra cargo (full refined ore can stay in the bin if your cargo is full).
I have a Python dedicated for mining, and a class 2A Refinery is all I need.
3A Prospector
two 5A collector, or 1 5A and 1 3A

gl!

[jrlaudio]

Originally posted by JL::Jose-Juan Kenobi:

What exactly were you mining and where? 1hr and not a single ton of ore refined?

Besides the explanations from above, remember to pack Prospector limpet controller to see what the asteroid is composed of, and also with a prospector will increase the number of fragments released by the asteroid. Always pack a class A prospector.
On every released fragment, you can see how much of that mineral it contains, let's say (15% of Osmium) that means you will need roughly 9 or 10 similar fragments to refine 1T of Osmium.

Ideally chose systems with rings in Pristine reserves, and with the hotspot (found using Detailed Surface Scanner) of the mineral you are looking for.

And no, higher class refineries don't process faster, they just have a bigger internal bin, meaning how many different minerals processed at the same time (so you don't have to jettison stuff) and technically offer tiny extra cargo (full refined ore can stay in the bin if your cargo is full).
I have a Python dedicated for mining, and a class 2A Refinery is all I need.
3A Prospector
two 5A collector, or 1 5A and 1 3A

gl!

I have all the correct limpets, what it was is the type of refinery I had. It was the most basic. Now I have one with five bins. So I'm good now. I haven't ventured to far into the galaxy so finding pristine systems is a bit difficult right now. I haven't done exploration either. I've been mostly trading, I found a system where the planet has a refinery with cheap gold and silver, and the station orbiting that same planet is high-tech where gold and silver profit me 15k per ton. So been making the tiny hop from the station to the planet and back in a Type-7. But I got bored with that. So I went mining. Hoping to make more than 2M per sorte like I was hauling and trading in the same system.

I have a bit of tweaking with the Python mining build. I just have to find a better system for outfitting. I'm still around Sol based on EZ Equarii, so I need to spread my wings a lot more.

Thanks for the help. I think I have it sorted out. Now to go explore and find more pristine systems.

[Amon]

Just to add to the above two posts. This would be a good time to sort out the add to ignore option from your contacts tab. You can ignore ore you are not interested in, and the limpets won't pick those up. Also use for cargo cannisters of no value or stolen.

[Simoko]

blacklist everything that you don't want to appear in the refinery or you'll just clog it up.