Introduction

A ship mining laser does the work of many men through the use of laser precisely cutting through the blocks and pulling them aboard the ship.

General principle

The first mining laser was made by one of our (lazy) geology research interns who decided that gathering samples from asteroids with a pick axe was too tedious. Many different version of the mining laser have been created since up to the current ship mounted one. While other versions still exist in the wild, they're considered fairly unstable and not accepted aboard ships, so we won't talk about them here...

The laser itself is produced by a Laser medium attached to the mining block. The latest scan a layer before mining it. As usual, any EU or RF energy source can be used for charging your Laser medium.

To activate the laser you will need to attach a ComputerCraft or OpenComputers router and wire it to a computer. When no computer mod is available, mining laser will automatically operate.

A Mining laser is packed with optical systems and computing power, so you'll need to use an external container to hold mined blocks. Any chest or assimilated container placed next to it can be used. As part of the "Galactical energy conservation act", mining operation will automatically stop when no more storage is available. However, the overflowing items will be dropped on the ground, so ones will have to cleanup the mess before nature does its work.

Building

1- Mining laser

Place your Mining laser block at the bottom of your ship.

2- Laser medium

Laser beam energy is built through a laser medium. You need at least one to output a beam. Place a Laser medium on any horizontal side, or above the Mining Laser.

Each laser medium contains a gas that'll be ionized with an equivalent of up to 100kEU. You'll to recharge the medium periodically to sustain continuous mining.

4- Power connection

Each Laser Medium needs a power connection. Both RF and EU are supported. The Mining Laser itself doesn't require power connection, it draws energy from the Laser Medium.

5- Storage Container

Mined items are stored in the first Storage container found next to the Mining Laser. The simplest of those container is a vanilla chest. Place a Chest (or equivalent) on any horizontal side, or above the Mining Laser.

6- Computer Interface

Right click the mining laser with the computer interface in your hand. This allows the mining laser to communicate with computers.

7- Computer for Mining control

To control the mining laser, we'll need a connection with computer. Place your Computer right next to the Mining laser, horizontally or on top of it.

Right click the computer to open it's console.

Usage with ComputerCraft

To check the preloaded scripts type the following command:

ls

If you see only "rom", your computer couldn't see the mining laser: check that it's actually right next to the Mining Laser, and that you have upgraded the mining laser with a computer interface.

To start mining, type mine in the console. For help, type the following command:

mine help

Mining will continue on its own, the script only shows the current state.

To stop mining, reset the computer by holding Ctrl-R for a few seconds, then type the following command:

stop

Usage with OpenComputers

To check your connection and the Mining Laser mount name, type the following command to see a list of connected devices:

df

You should see a line starting with warpdriveMiningLaser. At the end of this line, there's the mount name "/mnt/xxx" where xxx is a set of hexadecimal digits. Change to that mount by typing the following:

cd /mnt/xxx

If you can't find a line starting with warpdriveMiningLaser, your computer couldn't see the mining laser: check that it's actually right next to the Mining Laser.

To start mining, type mine in the console. For help, type the following command:

mine help

Mining will continue on its own, the script only shows the current state.

To stop mining, reset the computer by holding Ctrl-R for a few seconds, then type the following command:

stop

Scaling up

For more advanced setup, multiple Mining lasers can be connected to a single Computer using Networking cables and Wired mode (for ComputerCraft), or Cables (for OpenComputers). The preloaded script will automatically detect all connected Mining lasers and control them.

Programming your mining laser

There's no specific events to program the mining laser; you may refer to the LUA API for the commands to use.

Tips and tricks

You can choose the starting level, or mine only ores through the script parameters.