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How to Use a Digital Miner (Mekanism): The Definitive Guide

The Digital Miner in Mekanism is your key to automating resource gathering on an industrial scale. It’s a powerful, configurable machine that can selectively excavate resources from the ground based on a variety of criteria, from ore type to mod origin. In essence, you use it by:

Placing the Miner strategically over the area you wish to mine.
Providing Power. The Digital Miner is energy hungry. Ensure you have a stable and sufficient power supply (Joules or alternative equivalent depending on your modpack).
Configuring Settings. This is where the magic happens. Use the Digital Miner’s GUI to define what you want to mine by:
- Defining a Filter: This allows you to target specific blocks (e.g., diamonds, specific ore types, even blocks from certain mods).
- Setting a Radius and Depth: Determine the size of the area the miner will cover. Be mindful of power consumption with larger areas.
- Applying a Replace Filter (Optional): Configure what blocks the miner should replace the mined blocks with.
Starting the Miner. Once powered and configured, simply activate the miner, and it will start systematically extracting resources.

Now, let’s dive into the nuances of how to optimally utilize this fantastic machine.

Understanding the Digital Miner Interface

The Digital Miner’s interface is your command center. Familiarizing yourself with it is crucial for effective operation. It’s divided into several key sections:

Energy Display: Shows the current energy level and consumption rate. Keep an eye on this; running out of power mid-operation is a headache.
Filter List: This is where you define the blocks the miner will target. You can add multiple filters, each targeting a specific resource.
Replace Filter: Allows you to replace the mined blocks with a specified material. Useful for preserving the terrain or preventing cave-ins.
Settings Panel: This allows you to configure several settings related to the miner’s functionality, including radius, depth, silk touch, and inverse mode.
Status Display: Informs you about the miner’s current activity, such as scanning, mining, or idle.

Setting Up Your Digital Miner: A Step-by-Step Guide

Let’s break down the process of setting up your Digital Miner.

Step 1: Placement and Power

First, place the Digital Miner on the surface above the area you intend to mine. The miner mines downwards, so choose your location carefully. Next, connect a reliable power source. This could be a Mekanism Energy Cube, a Thermal Expansion Energy Cell, or any other compatible energy storage device. Remember that the Digital Miner consumes a significant amount of energy, particularly when mining large areas or using the silk touch feature. Overestimate your power requirements rather than underestimate.

Step 2: Configuring the Radius and Depth

The Radius setting determines the horizontal area the miner will cover, while the Depth setting controls how far down it will mine. Larger values increase the area mined but also dramatically increase power consumption. Start with smaller values and gradually increase them as your power infrastructure allows. A good starting point might be a radius of 8 and a depth of 32.

Step 3: Adding Filters

This is the heart of the Digital Miner’s selective mining capabilities. To add a filter, click on one of the filter slots in the interface. You’ll be presented with several filter options:

Material Filter: Allows you to target specific blocks by name (e.g., “diamond_ore”).
Ore Dictionary Filter: Targets blocks based on their Ore Dictionary entry (e.g., “oreIron”). This is incredibly useful for mining all types of iron ore, regardless of the mod they come from.
Mod ID Filter: Targets blocks based on the mod they originate from. Useful for isolating resources from a specific mod.
Tag Filter: Targets blocks based on Minecraft Tags, offering another way to group and mine similar blocks.

Add the filters for the resources you want to mine. Consider using Ore Dictionary filters for broader compatibility across mods.

Step 4: Replace Filter (Optional)

If you want to replace the mined blocks with something, add a block to the Replace Filter slot. Common choices include dirt, stone, or sand. This is particularly useful if you want to maintain a safe working environment or prevent cave-ins.

Step 5: Additional Settings

Silk Touch: Enable this to mine blocks in their intact form, such as ore blocks instead of raw resources. This consumes significantly more power but can be worth it for resource efficiency.
Inverse: This setting tells the Digital Miner to mine everything except what’s defined in your filters. Be careful with this setting!
Do Eject: Controls whether the miner automatically ejects mined items into adjacent inventories. If disabled, you’ll need to manually extract the items.
Require Exact Metadata: When enabled, the miner will only mine blocks with the exact metadata specified in the filter. This is relevant when blocks have variants or different states.

Step 6: Start Mining!

Once you have configured all the settings, activate the Digital Miner. It will begin scanning the area and mining the specified resources. Monitor its progress and energy consumption to ensure it’s operating efficiently.

Tips for Optimizing Your Digital Miner

Power is Key: Never underestimate the Digital Miner’s power requirements. Build a robust and reliable power infrastructure to support its operation.
Strategic Placement: Carefully consider where you place the miner. Use exploratory mining to identify areas with high concentrations of the resources you want to target.
Filter Optimization: Experiment with different filter combinations to achieve the best results. Ore Dictionary filters are often the most versatile.
Chunk Loading: Ensure the area the miner is operating in remains chunk-loaded. This can be achieved with chunk loaders from various mods. Without chunk loading, the miner will stop working when you move away.
Inventory Management: Plan for effective item extraction and storage. Use hoppers, pipes, or other item transport systems to automatically move the mined resources to your storage system.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What happens if the Digital Miner runs out of power?

The Digital Miner will stop operating. It will remember its current progress, so it will resume from where it left off once power is restored. However, it’s best to avoid power outages to maintain continuous operation.

2. Can I use the Digital Miner to mine specific veins of ore?

Yes, but it requires careful configuration. Use the Material Filter to target the specific ore block and set the radius and depth to encompass the vein. Consider using a smaller radius and depth for more precise targeting.

3. How do I target all types of copper ore with the Digital Miner?

Use an Ore Dictionary Filter and set it to “oreCopper”. This will target all blocks registered with that Ore Dictionary entry, regardless of the mod they come from.

4. What is the purpose of the “Replace Filter”?

The Replace Filter allows you to specify a block that the Digital Miner will use to fill the holes it creates while mining. This is useful for preventing cave-ins, maintaining a safe working environment, or terraforming.

5. Can the Digital Miner break bedrock?

No, the Digital Miner respects the world’s bedrock layer and cannot mine through it.

6. How do I make the Digital Miner faster?

There’s no direct way to increase the mining speed. Focus on optimizing your power supply and filter configuration to ensure efficient operation. Reducing the radius and depth can also improve the overall throughput, even though the area covered is smaller.

7. What is the “Inverse” setting for?

The Inverse setting inverts the filter logic. Instead of mining the blocks specified in the filters, the Digital Miner will mine everything except those blocks. Be extremely careful when using this setting, as it can quickly clear out large areas.

8. How do I automatically extract items from the Digital Miner?

Ensure the “Do Eject” setting is enabled. This will automatically eject mined items into any adjacent inventory, such as a chest or a pipe.

9. Can I mine mod-specific blocks with the Digital Miner?

Yes, using the Material Filter with the fully qualified block name (e.g., “immersiveengineering:ore_copper”). The Mod ID Filter can also be used to target blocks from a specific mod.

10. Why isn’t the Digital Miner mining anything, even though it’s powered and configured?

Double-check the following:

Filters: Ensure your filters are correctly configured and target the blocks you expect.
Radius and Depth: Verify that the radius and depth are set to appropriate values to cover the area you want to mine.
Obstructions: Make sure there are no indestructible blocks (like bedrock or protected blocks) within the mining area that are blocking the miner’s progress.
Power: Confirm the Digital Miner has sufficient power.

11. Does the Digital Miner have a range limit?

Yes, the maximum radius and depth settings have a limit. This limit may vary depending on your modpack configuration.

12. Can I automate the configuration of the Digital Miner?

While the Digital Miner doesn’t have built-in automation for configuration in the traditional sense (like directly setting filters via Redstone), you can use other mods like ComputerCraft or OpenComputers to interact with its inventory and potentially manage its configuration indirectly. This requires advanced programming skills.

By mastering these techniques, you’ll unlock the true potential of the Digital Miner and transform your resource gathering operations into a highly efficient and automated process. Happy mining!