Fully optimized space scanner setup - Late 2025 edition

[ruhrohraggy]

Been a minute since I've had the itch to play ONI...But boy do I love messing around with space scanners and solar power.

Won't be a how-to yet... Just showing it off. Feels like I've finally achieved peak bunker door / solar efficiency...And it probably took me way too long to figure this out...and get the automation as simplified as it is. And there's just a lot to consider when it comes to solar/bunker door management anyway...

*Images updated with further refined automation*

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*Adding in video of functioning version at cycle 50 of testing*

How optimized? Why the best? 

- Pulses scanners to save a bunch of power. For late-game? Who cares, you've got sour-gas boilers and infinite power. But for a mid-late game transition into rocketry...it's pretty nice having additional, "free" accessible power at the surface, and it's not too crazy to setup with this current iteration.

To compare : 5x Continuous scanners use 18x smart batteries worth of energy per cycle. 

120w x 5x scanners x 600s => 360kJ / cycle

This setup uses ~1/2 a single smart battery (or less?) per cycle at 100% network quality. It's even less than a single scanner running at 24% network quality, which is A) Awful and B) It still uses roughly 3.5 smart batteries of energy per cycle.

Less batteries, less drain, less heat...much better.

- The automation is relatively simple and somewhat straightforward...Muuuuuuch simpler than it started out. Can build as shown without really even understanding it, punch in the numbers, and off you go. (mostly...)

- Not shown, is minimum / optimal solar panel placement, or the exact amount of batteries calculated to run the scanners and the minimum 32x bunker doors required, forever...

- Now has the option to automatically turn 4x of the scanners off after first detection until needed again by automating a power-shutoff switch...

I have now solved this through some slick automation, mainly due to the 2023 update that lets the meteor scanners act as a singular network without having to all be linked up. There is still a pretty serious bug, where an un-powered scanner that went through a meteor shower, would return to activity in the "detected object" state...which seriously borked all of my automation. 

**While I'm not 100% certain of what is fundamentally causing this issue, I'm familiar enough with this system to take a pretty good guess, that it's in relation to the new mechanic synching up the scanning array without them needing to be wired up together, and then the scanners going from on/off, powered on/off states. So....back to a slightly more complicated design to handle this part of the automation....still doable though.

- Will keep all 5x scanners off for the first 100 seconds after the shower is over, saving/gaining even moaaar power. (Unless this got changed in the last 5 years? but easy to change...)

- And it you know...Automates your entire row of bunker doors against meteors...pretty much forever unless you mismanage your batteries or the sun runs out / heat-death of the universe occurs. 

- Since min-maxing this hard...might as well use the regolith-munching airlocks...No power, no cooling, and I like watching 'em munch on regolith anyway. Robo-miners are a pita...but with this setup, there'd be more power to run them at least!

Anyway...that's it...thought I'd share the completed edition. Any sorta interest on a how-to's and I might post a guide explaining the setup in detail...

-Toodles!

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2025 by ruhrohraggy
clarity / ocd / further testing

[sakura_sk]

Are there images in the post?

[ruhrohraggy]

2 hours ago, sakura_sk said:

Are there images in the post?

Reveal hidden contents...

[myxal]

1 minute ago, ruhrohraggy said:

Reveal hidden contents...

Spoiler

I'm not seeing them any more either.

[ruhrohraggy]

18 minutes ago, myxal said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I'm not seeing them any more either.

Poor timing on my end with respect to your checking as well, in this instance perhaps...I JUST got done swapping them out for updated images containing the new automation right as you must have looked/posted your reply. I appreciate this getting pointed out however, and please let me know if it's still borked after this reply...and I'll see what I can do about fixing it. 

Edited November 24, 2025 by ruhrohraggy

[sakura_sk]

8 hours ago, ruhrohraggy said:

please let me know if it's still borked after this reply

Nope! looks fine now. Thank you!