freight drones

[handzon]

hi all wondering how to get freight drones to work ie, what addons i might need what commands to set etc ;

cheers thanks in advance

[zazie]

Commands for the Freight Drones are usually given when docked at a ship. In the trading menu of that ship you find the option "Trading using freight drones" (or the like). Trading with Freigh Drones (FD) does not need any specific software (info from german FAQ, no translation in english available).
Then select station, ware and amount of products to be shipped. At the end, confirm by selecting "Start ..." .

The number of deployed Freight drones is proportional to the amount of products.

As an example: Your M2 has 10 FD onboard and you order them to bring in 5000 E-Cells. The M2 will deploy 7 FD. The first six bring 800 EC each, the last one 200.

If you only have two FD and order 2000 EC they will bring in 1600.

=> Each command is run only ONE time by a FD.

Do it OOS for fastest transfer.

Edit: Info about no need for trading SW when trading with drones

[StarSword]

Actually, zazie, you can only use the "Transfer freight with drones" command to move cargo between your own ships and stations. Transferring cargo to NPC stations using drones requires a little more effort, a transporter device, and a trading system extension (at minimum):

1. Open your cargo bay doors and vigorously apply boot. Assuming you booted the drone, it will appear outside your ship and begin to follow you.
2. Use your transporter device (every ship needs one) to transfer the cargo to the drone (Advanced -> Freight Exchange on the pop-up menu.)
3. Go to the drone's command console and order it to dock at a station. It will head for the station.
4. When the drone reports that it has arrived, open the drone's menu from the message, and click Trade (requires your ship to have a TSE). Make your transactions, then order it back to your ship.
5. The drone may or may not dock on its own. If it reaches some distance from your ship and just stops moving, give it the stop command, then run over it. The drone and its cargo will be scooped into your cargo bay.

[handzon]

cheers guys thanks for the advice was stuffing aorund with this last night had the drone onboard a tl but the command isnt lighting up i`ll try to load some cargo across to one first and see how i go.

[Snafu_X3]

Zazie & Starsword are both pretty much correct in what they say, but they don't go far enough

Freight drones are best used with a ship with at least 1 empty hangar bay, else you'll lose the drones (unless you want to spend the time picking them up in-ship manually)

Best used OOS, but either way: automated drone use will only move cargo from /your/ factory(s) to the ship, & vice versa. This is useful for (say) refuelling a capital from your ecell fab

Manual drone useage.. well, I've never done it, but I expect the advice Zazie gives above is correct. Just be aware of the time limit (all drones have a certain amount of battery power; once that expires, the drone's destroyed)

You need Trade2 (& possibly TSE?) on the drone carrier to use drones

[Triaxx2]

Just TSE I think. Kick them out the cargo hold, and order them to dock. Then Trade via TSE, and bring them back.

[Snafu_X3]

Just TSE I think. Kick them out the cargo hold, and order them to dock. Then Trade via TSE, and bring them back.

Nope. For auto-use, Trade2 is explicitly mentioned in the description (& the menu option is greyed out if you don't have the correct s/w installed).

[handzon]

cheers guys i got one to get some ecells, i thought they would all go off to fill the order. instead of having to order each one, i have a hq set up in the mid map unknown sector curently flogging space weed and nivdium and making a killing and i find these little buggers are cheap for me to cart goods around block up landing docks and im looking to see aobut putting in a factory to produce them my self once they are super tuned they sure beat me taking my albatross thru the xenon sector to the northeast of me ive allready lost a couple of ts there allready now its just a matter to get them all going at once lesson the burdon of micro management