The Stocker is a 232 ore crate capacity mining ship. It is designed as a direct upgrade for those who have outgrown the Rigger.

The Stocker is also available to buy in game at Scenery Showroom of Rando 4 Ship Shop at stations with Rando ship shops.

Usage

To enter the ship, there is a button on top of the center of the ship that will open a Hatch. Once inside you can also open and close the cockpit glass Canopy. The pilot Chair can be rotated around for easy access. Buttons for these are available in the pilot side consoles and also on the ceiling above the pilot seat.

Flying the Ship

The left lever on the center console controls backwards thrust (braking) and the right lever controls forward thrust.

Using the Waypoint System

Viewing and Selecting Waypoints

This uses the NavGrid system. Use the Down and Up waypoints selectors to select waypoint. The selected waypoint information is shown on NavP and NavC panels.

On the pilot center console, NavGrid will show the compass towards the selected waypoint while Attitude will show the ship's pitch, heading and roll directions. NavGrid is best used while not moving.

Editing and Saving Waypoints

Use Set to save waypoint of current location to the current selected waypoint position.

To edit currently selected waypoint, use your U tool to add name, X, Y and Z values to nName, nX, nY and nZ respectively. Then use the Save button to save.

Loading Waypoint to Auto Pilot

Use Load to Auto Pilot to load curretnly selected waypoint to Target to be used with the auto pilot system.

Auto Pilot and Crash Avoidance

The ship uses a modified version of NavCas which uses the 3 in 1 ISAN from Compass. Waypoints are loaded from NavGrid waypoint system.

Use while the ship is stationary. Activating Nav will start point the ship towards Target waypoint and deactivate itself when done. Autopilot will activate Nav and fly to within 5km of Target waypoint with Avoidance activated.

Avoidance will activate Guides. If the guides detect objects it will cut thrust and strafe up or down (will flash either the top or bottom Blue warning lights on the pilot center console according to the direction) while sounding an alarm (check game settings if you do not hear the alarm). It will also flash Red warning lights on the pilot center console according to the position of obstacle detected. If Autopilot is activated, it will readjust and continue its flight.

Avoids will show the counters for number of avoidances. The Trip counter can be reset by clearing the panel value using the U tool.

Resetting Navigation

If ISAN or NavGrid is not working, it can be reset using the Reset ISAN button. Press once to take ISAN offline, then press again to reset.

For v1.0.2 and below, do this by using your universal tool on the ISAN panel on the pilot console and clearing the value of the _ field. The first time will show ISAN as offline, repeat clearing the value again to reset ISAN and NavGrid.

Mining

To approach an asteroid, point the center range finder at an asteroid and activate Approach. Once in range (optimum range is 10 to 14m on Distance), activate Mining Lasers to turn on the mining lasers. Laser Sweep Height and Laser Sweep Depth will adjust sweeping distances of the lasers. Eco mode will only use the top two lasers to conserve power if needed.

Mine is a button which will activate automated mining. Point the center range finder at an asteroid and activate. It will activate Material Scanner and Approach, and once in range it will automatically activate Lasers.

Collect turns on the two ore collectors. Ore collectors automatically adjust to point towards objects detected by the center range finder.

If batteries start running out of charge while mining, turn on Min Gen. Continous use of the lasers and collectors at the same time requires a Min Generator Limit of around 90%.

Ore Scanner

Activate using the Material Scanner button. The laser will try to adjust to point at the objects detected by the center range finder. Scan results will show on the Materials panel in number of stacks. It has a maximum range of 100m.

Managing Power and Fuel

Managing Power

By default the generator will only run and ramp up when the batteries need charging so there is minimum management needed. But you can set a minimum generate rate by setting the Min Generator Limit value using the switch for the minimum rate and turning on Min Gen.

Refueling Propellant

All four resource bridges can be used for refuelling propellant. To refuel from another ship, turn off Flow Out on the pilot right side console and leave Flow In turned on. Then connect a resource bridge to the other ship. To refuel another ship, do the opposite, Flow Out turned on and Flow In turned off.

The two red propellant tanks behind the generators can also be used to refuel the ship. Connect the Red resource bridge to the Green resource bridge to transfer propellant. You can then unbolt the red tanks and craft refills for the tanks using ice and then bolt the tank back to the support. Rinse and repeat until full. The Red and Green buttons toggles the respective resource bridges.

Remember to turn Flow In and Flow Out back on if you are using the Endo to collect ore via any of the ship's resource bridges.

Other Stuff

Timer

On the pilot center console there is a Timer panel which acts as a timer. It will run when the ship is active and show total time in years, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds. To reset the timer, use your universal tool (U key) and clear the value of the Timer field.

Odometer

On the pilot right console there is a Odometer panel which will keep track of the ship's estimated flight distance based on speed. To reset the trip odometer, use your universal tool (U key) and clear the value of the Odometer field.