Best easily movable mining setup

1st Official Post

    I just discovered IC^2 a couple of days ago, and have been enjoying it a lot!


    I've been thinking about getting a good, easily movable Miner set up. What is the best way of doing this? I tried using Geothermal and Lava Cells from the Miner, but the amount of Lava it was producing weren't enough to keep it running.


    I was thinking of having a large solar park in a desert somewhere, that charges Energy Crystals. Then I need the following for one moveable Miner setup:
    - Miner (w/Diamond Drill and OV Scanner)
    - Pump
    - (2x Chest)
    - MFE Unit
    - LV Transformer


    I haven't done the calculations to see how many Solar Panels are needed to keep this up and running, but I think Energy Crystals can store enough energy that I don't need to change them too often. Any other suggestions?


    In my opinion there should be a better Tech 1 mobile energy storage than batteries, because running a Miner with a Diamond Drill and OV Scanner on RE Batteries isn't a viable alternative.

    I think I can address one of your questions, regarding tier 1 energy storage, you could use a bat pack if you feel the diamond investment is too much initially. it's made from 6 batteries and as such carries 60000EU, but it only takes up one slot.

    Quote from SpwnX

    Charging bench Mk3 (addon) + lapotron crystal + MV/LV transformers + Miner (with drill and scanner) + chests


    Lapotron store enough energy to power (about) 2 mining runs.


    why not change the setting in the config so the miner can use lapotrons?

    If using Buildcraft (hush Greg):


    Power Teleport Pipe (BC addon) + Stone Power Pipe + Pneumatic Generator (IC/BC addon) + Miner + Chest (or BC tele pipe system)


    If NOT using Buildcraft:


    Two Enderchest + Miner + Generator (1 or 2 depending on how much EU demand the miner needs)


    First Chest is for the Miner output material
    Second Chest is for Fuel for the Generator (be it adulterated fuel or otherwise)


    Why two? Dedicating separate chests for resources helps maximize resource potential by allowing the whole space of the chest to be used for one purpose, and you don't have to go thru continually shuffling of material to use the 'right' item for the task at hand...

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    Quote

    this isn't about arrogance or ego, I have a block that I put a lot of freaking work into


    Every Mod Author, in existence. And yet, you STILL say otherwise.

    • Official Post
    Quote from SpwnX

    Charging bench Mk3 (addon) + lapotron crystal + MV/LV transformers + Miner (with drill and scanner) + chests


    Lapotron store enough energy to power (about) 2 mining runs.

    Not when using Diamonddrills and OV-Scanners, then 3 Lapotrons = 4 Miningruns.


    My Frame-Miningplatform just fills the Mineroutput of 4 Miners + 4 Pumps into Blackhole-Chests (Infinite Storage), even if 2 Doublechests would be enough. I'm just Teleporting between the Miningplatform and my Base, to transport the Items after every cycle. And while i'm doing that, i also recharge 3 Lapotrons for the onboard MFSU.

    If you install the Compact Solars mod, one MV solar array is enough to power two miners equipped with diamond drills and OV scanners. All you need then is one LV transformer and a bunch of cable (I use glass fibre cabling, since it means less item stacks).

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    I'm using frames and a nuclear reactor. As for storage, a few double chests which are then connected to the landing pad tubes on my base.

    Thanks a lot guys, I'll definitely get a good mining operation running now!


    Quote from grim961

    I think I can address one of your questions, regarding tier 1 energy storage, you could use a bat pack if you feel the diamond investment is too much initially. it's made from 6 batteries and as such carries 60000EU, but it only takes up one slot.

    So I can just plug a BatPack into the lower slots of the Miner and the Pump? If so, that would definitely be a viable tier 1 solution to all this. I'll look into it when I get back home!

    Quote from FSund

    So I can just plug a BatPack into the lower slots of the Miner and the Pump? If so, that would definitely be a viable tier 1 solution to all this. I'll look into it when I get back home!


    yes you can. it's a very nice trick as long as you're struggling at tier 1 were charging your miner is quite a task or you need to temporarily increase the capacity of your batbox. it's more or less a 60.000EU battery

    Quote from FSund

    Thanks a lot guys, I'll definitely get a good mining operation running now!


    So I can just plug a BatPack into the lower slots of the Miner and the Pump? If so, that would definitely be a viable tier 1 solution to all this. I'll look into it when I get back home!


    As others have said though, keep in mind one batpack won't be enough to power your miner for any long period of time, so it's best to invest those first few diamonds you get from the miner into making an energy crystal setup and then a lapotron setup.

    Quote from grim961

    As others have said though, keep in mind one batpack won't be enough to power your miner for any long period of time, so it's best to invest those first few diamonds you get from the miner into making an energy crystal setup and then a lapotron setup.


    I just did a test with a BatPack, and it powered a Miner w/OV and Diamond Drill (+ a Pump) for about 2 minutes and 15 seconds, so Lapotron Crystals definitely seems like the way to go.


    Are there plans for making the Miner compatible with Transformer upgrades? I know that I can edit the config file to use Lapotron Crystals in Miners, but I think that's kind of cheating though. The Transformer upgrades work with a lot of other tier 1 machines, so I don't really see any reason that the Miner (and the Pump btw) shouldn't be.

    Quote from FSund

    I just did a test with a BatPack, and it powered a Miner w/OV and Diamond Drill (+ a Pump) for about 2 minutes and 15 seconds, so Lapotron Crystals definitely seems like the way to go.


    if you had a diamond drill why didn't you have some energy crystals?^^

    Ye, a miner ~64 deep with diamond drill/OV uses around 500k EU. That is quite a bit. Honestly I have no idea how much a quarry uses in comparison. It's just less fuss putting up a quarry than a miner, with the added benefit of all the "junk" you recycle/EE or whatever you do it.

    Quote from Gaxx


    if you had a diamond drill why didn't you have some energy crystals?^^

    The difference in storage capability between of a energy crystal and a BatPack isn't really that big, so I did the test with the BatPack because that was what I had at the time.


    Quote from huldu

    Ye, a miner ~64 deep with diamond drill/OV uses around 500k EU. That is quite a bit. Honestly I have no idea how much a quarry uses in comparison. It's just less fuss putting up a quarry than a miner, with the added benefit of all the "junk" you recycle/EE or whatever you do it.

    I'm trying to stick with just plain IC^2 for now (no addons), but thanks. But how do you handle lava/water when using the quarry? Is there something like the Pump that removes it automagically?

    When I used to use BC quarries, I would drop a bucket of water in the center of the quarry and the water would eventually cascade outward as it was dug and turn any lava into obsidian so it could be mined by the quarry and then the quarry could get past them. Then when the quarry hit bedrock, I'd use an RP pump to pull the water out of the quarry, and the grate doesn't even need to touch source blocks, it just needs to touch water blocks and then it iterates out and finds all the source blocks connected. The nice thing about the RP pump is it tends to pull water source blocks faster than they can regenerate which is perfect for this kind of use.

    Quote from grim961

    When I used to use BC quarries, I would drop a bucket of water in the center of the quarry and the water would eventually cascade outward as it was dug and turn any lava into obsidian so it could be mined by the quarry and then the quarry could get past them. Then when the quarry hit bedrock, I'd use an RP pump to pull the water out of the quarry, and the grate doesn't even need to touch source blocks, it just needs to touch water blocks and then it iterates out and finds all the source blocks connected. The nice thing about the RP pump is it tends to pull water source blocks faster than they can regenerate which is perfect for this kind of use.


    Put the water on the sides of the quarry then just scoop it up from each side when the quarry hits the bottom.

    Quote from huldu

    Put the water on the sides of the quarry then just scoop it up from each side when the quarry hits the bottom.


    That doesn't solve the problem of random water pools that can spawn, I suppose if you put the initial intentional water source on a corner and had an RP pump ready to suck out the water, when it hits bottom, it will not only suck out the initial source but also any others that happened to be within the quarry bounds, though I think we're going off topic with BC quarries and RP pumps when the whole point of the thread was to discuss IC2 mobile miner setups.