Best easily movable mining setup

  • I didn't want to post a one-word reply, so I wrote this sentence instead: you want to look into the Pump.


    A miner->pump->compressor combination? Please forgive my stupidity. :wacko:

  • The miner only stops at liquids if it doesn't have a pump attached, so attach one. The pump will need cells and power to operate, of course, but it will allow the miner to continue doing its thing.


    At least, that's my understanding. I haven't actually tried this myself, though I'm certain my next "quarry" will be a flying autominer design.

  • I am still working on a similar idea but use a nuclear reactor instead that runs with only 7 components at 40 EU/t. Since a miner roughly uses 20 EU/t this would allow to power 2 miners (including pumps). So you would have to carry around the reactor + components, the mining setup including a LV converter, cables and a MFE for a total of 22 item slots. If you take some tools with you, that still leaves enough slots to even carry around Macerators/Furnaces to immediately convert the resources found. Add a compressor and you have your infinite, portable mining setup. ;)


    The question however is how to carry the resources you find?

  • I am still working on a similar idea but use a nuclear reactor instead that runs with only 7 components at 40 EU/t. Since a miner roughly uses 20 EU/t this would allow to power 2 miners (including pumps). So you would have to carry around the reactor + components, the mining setup including a LV converter, cables and a MFE for a total of 22 item slots. If you take some tools with you, that still leaves enough slots to even carry around Macerators/Furnaces to immediately convert the resources found. Add a compressor and you have your infinite, portable mining setup. ;)


    The question however is how to carry the resources you find?


    i'd still advise you to use two geothermals instead. if you place the pump next to the miner and the geothermals next to the pump the pump will pump directly into them, without needing any cells. if you put cells into the pump to get the surplus lava, the pump will prefer to fill the geothermals before it fills cells. with geothermals you actually wouldn't need any kind of energy storage, since they stop automaticly when no one needs energy.
    my experience also tells me that lava also quite offen prevents you from finding the neet resources below it, you can miss quite a lot of diamonds because of that.
    with that said i think it's worth to use geothermals and to invest into an automatic empty cell refilling complex for a mining platform.

  • i'd still advise you to use two geothermals instead.


    That was my last mining setup, however this has severe limitations: at first the miner will stutter, as it frequently uses much more than the 20 EU/t the geo can deliver so you need a Batbox buffer for constant mining, and second the power usage of an average mining run is about 500k, which requires you to supply the geo with about 25 lava sources. Since you usually find much less than that on each run, you have to constantly refill your lava supply.


    The nuclear method is only slightly more difficult to setup as you need to dig a 3x3x3 hole for the reactor and fill it with water, however from that point on everything runs smooth. The reactor generates more power than 2 miners are using average and the MFE buffers for the EU spikes. In addition those 2 uraniums keep you powered for about 16 complete mining runs, during which you usually find way more than 2 new uranium ores.


  • That was my last mining setup, however this has severe limitations: at first the miner will stutter, as it frequently uses much more than the 20 EU/t the geo can deliver so you need a Batbox buffer for constant mining, and second the power usage of an average mining run is about 500k, which requires you to supply the geo with about 25 lava sources. Since you usually find much less than that on each run, you have to constantly refill your lava supply.


    The nuclear method is only slightly more difficult to setup as you need to dig a 3x3x3 hole for the reactor and fill it with water, however from that point on everything runs smooth. The reactor generates more power than 2 miners are using average and the MFE buffers for the EU spikes. In addition those 2 uraniums keep you powered for about 16 complete mining runs, during which you usually find way more than 2 new uranium ores.


    i usually make sure that i start my first operations over a big lava lake to get my starting supplies. the first run brings me around 2-3stacks of lava cells. also notice that lava pumped directly into the geothermal is worth 30.000EU, while buckets or cells only bring 20.000. the stuttering is due to the miner needing around 24EU/t, while the geothermal only produces 20EU/t. that's why i'm using two for one miner, also because the other machines want some EU, too.
    while i can see your point i don't like the idea of burning shiny, pretty, expensive and glowing uranium when i could use worthless lava that's hampering my miner anyway. i also think it's annoying to frame nuclears, since you have to also frame the water around it.

  • while i can see your point i don't like the idea of burning shiny, pretty, expensive and glowing uranium when i could use worthless lava that's hampering my miner anyway. i also think it's annoying to frame nuclears, since you have to also frame the water around it.


    During my last test, my miners found 18 uranium ore while burning away 2 of them. I consider uranium an infinite fuel source unless you plan to create matter with it. ;)


    Building the reactor is easy: dig a 3x3x3 hole, place a block in the bottom center, place the reactor on top of then, place the MFE on top of it and set it to "Emit if full". Then fill up the hole with water and remove the bottom block you placed initially. Then get paranoid for creepers. :D

  • Then fill up the hole with water and remove the bottom block you placed initially.


    two blocks, you need to frame the cable going out of the chamber, too^^ don't let it blow up because you forgot that. you talked about digging holes twice, i thought we were talking about a frame platform :?:

  • For a totally different style of doing things - I run EV cable, and then terminate it with an HV,MV and LV transformer. I then connect 4 miners up to it using diamond cable - you need about 20 pieces of cable so it's not a cheap solution, but it definitely simplifies the process of setting up and tearing down the temporary wiring.


    What definitely helps when using cable is setting up four miners/pumps at once, and running cable into the centre of the square. Even using regular cabling you get much less cable setup when doing four at a time.



    At the other end I've tended to use geothermal generators going into an MFSU, but since you need the equivalent of a small base to power 4 miners, you could put anything there.

  • two blocks, you need to frame the cable going out of the chamber, too^^ don't let it blow up because you forgot that. you talked about digging holes twice, i thought we were talking about a frame platform :?:


    Not if you place the MFE directly next to the nuclear reactor and set it to emit if full. It will for once receive the EU output of the reactor and in addition switch off the reactor once it is full. Saves you the hassle of redstone setups and you can attach the cable directly to the MFE output.

  • After some field testing, I modified my equip setup for mobile mining a bit and came up with the following:


    2x Miner (+diamond drill, OV scanner and 64 pipes for each)
    2x Pump (+64 cells for both, that's 32 for each one to save 1 spot in inventory)
    3x LV converter (2 for the miners, 1 for additional machines you bring with you)
    1x MFE
    1x Nuclear reactor
    4x Heat dispenser
    2x Cooling cell
    3x Uranium cell
    10x Solar generator
    20x gold/diamond cable
    6x chest
    2x buckets with water
    1x bed (only useful in single player)


    That leaves enough room to carry your usual set of tools and some food. You won't need any building blocks like cobble or wood as you usually find enough at the spot where you will build the reactor. The remaining slots can be filled up with whatever you feel is useful and make sure you have a lap or bat pack with you, it can be refilled at the MFE. I grabbed 2 macerators and 2 electric furnaces to directly process the ores found. In addition I use a geothermal generator to feed the lava back into the MFE, although that isn't happening very often as the lava usually is found near the end of the mining run and you need to use diamond cable to properly feed the energy back without loosing half of it on the way.


    The setup is as follows: first use the OV scanner for a good spot (100+) and place down the miner. Search the area north/south/west/east at a distance of 9 blocks in a straight line to the miner for the best value and place the second miner there. Place the pump next to the miner and the LV converter on top of the pump and connect them. In the center dig a 3x3x1 hole and will it with water using the buckets (make sure to fill up the buckets afterwards) and place the MFE in the center, facing upwards (should be right 1 block below the cable). Now dig down another 3x3 layer and place the reactor below the MFE, then dig the 3rd layer so the reactor is surrounded by water (except for the MFE spot). Set MFE to emit if full. Now place the solar generators on top of the cable and connect the 3rd LV converter if you brought additional machines. Fill the reactor as above using only 2 cells and you should be good to go. The third uranium cell is for short-time additional power if you need it, you can as well use your lappack to pre-fill the MFE, you will have plenty of EU after the mining run to refill it.


    The problem initially was that the miners use 24 EU each for a total of 48 EU. Overcharging the reactor with a 3-chain reaction was problematic as it took ages for the components to cool down or the setup became very inefficient (with a single 3rd cell for +10 EU). Using the solars did fix that at least in single player, as you can just sleep there for more sun. In MP you might want to stick with the 3rd cell instead and add another heat dispenser instead of the solar generators and the bed.


    Now I just need a portable ender chest to get the resources back home or some way to power a teleporter. ;)

  • Odd question perhaps but I've been wondering why the miner doesn't support lapotrons by default? My setups are pretty terrible and usually rely on other mods to "decrease" the size everything. It feels pretty cheap to enable something that is off by default, but then again I guess the same applies to using "other" mods to make the miner setup more compact.

  • You guys are making me feel lazy using the Rocketpower addon's mobile auto-miner.


    My mining routine:
    Locate miner
    Collect goodies
    Replace crystals
    Restart miner


    Man, I am kind of lazy....Industry!

  • You guys are making me feel lazy using the Rocketpower addon's mobile auto-miner.


    Rocketpower addon? Auto-miner? What is this sorcery, can you link to the mod please. I'd love to check that out. From what you're saying it would basically be a RP2 frame driven miner. Sounds quite nice... but of course the question is, does it work for 1.4.2/.108?

  • Rocketpower addon? Auto-miner? What is this sorcery, can you link to the mod please. I'd love to check that out. From what you're saying it would basically be a RP2 frame driven miner. Sounds quite nice... but of course the question is, does it work for 1.4.2/.108?

    Sorry, I meant the Rocket Science addon. It adds long range missiles, a fusion reactor, the mobile autominer, and some other random stuff. I'm not sure what it's updated to, as I'm still on Minecraft 1.2.5. I know there was takeover in progress, no idea how far it's progressed.


    Original thread:
    [Addon v1.95]Rocket Science v0.89 - flying autominers, missiles, and nuclear fusion!



    Takeover thread:
    Rocket Science IC2-based Takeover IC2 [103]Needs Friendly Helpers