Remote Access Screen

The Remote Access screen can be opened through a separate button above the tabs in the Terminal. The Remote Access functionality requires the presence of powered Antennas and its usage expects knowledge of how antennas work.

To the left of the Remote Access button is a menu from which you can quick-select grids whose Terminal you can remotely access.

• If no owned grid is in your range, or if the grid has no antenna, or is out of power, this menu can be empty.
• At minimum, the list contains the Terminal of the grid you are seated in, and the player's own terminal.

The keyboard shortcut to open Remote Access anywhere is (SHIFT+K key).

Preconditions

Your space engineer’s suit has a built-in short-range antenna. You can technically use Remote Access as the engineer, but it’s more reliable from a cockpit. In either case, verify you fulfil the following conditions:

• You have (or the grid you're seated in has) an antenna and it is set to broadcast. Tip: Press (O key) to toggle broadcasting on.
• The target grid has an antenna which is set to broadcast.
• You have faction permissions or ownership of the target grid's antenna and other relevant blocks (remote control block, etc.).
• Both sender and receiver must be powered.
• Your antenna's broadcast range reaches the target grid, and vice versa.

If you want to use the Control action:

• The target grid must additionally have a Remote Control block.

Tip: It’s a common issue that the target grid's antenna range may reach you, but your antenna can't reach it, so check that, if it doesn't work.

How to Remotely Access Grids

The Remote Access screen shows a list of remote grids. Note: A grid that has several antennas (e.g. a carrier with docked ships) appears as one entry!

From here you can view the following information and access following interactions:

• Grid name
  Hover the mouse pointer over a truncated name to see the full name in a tooltip
• Distance in metres from you
• Status
  Shows three properties of remote grids that must be ready before you can remote control it:
  • Connection stable or Cannot establish connection to this grid
  • Remote control ready or No Remote Control on grid
  • Ownership Correct or Wrong ownership settings (plus a list of affected blocks)
• Take Control button
  If the three conditions are met, you can click this button to use the grid's Remote Control block to steer it, or use other terminal functionality, such as a camera.
• Open Terminal button
  If only two of the conditions are met (connection stable and ownership correct), then you can only access the Terminal. This button is available independently of the presence of a Remote Control block.

Tip: Read more about how to use remote cameras in the Remote Control article.

Use Cases of Remote Connections

• Remote Control cockpit-less repair drones, spy drones, or defense drones
• Check in on an asteroid facility or neighbouring base's terminal using a fixed Laser Antenna.
• Access security cameras and manually control turrets in your base's vicinity

Why can't I find the grid/antenna in the list?

• Make sure that the controlling antenna's range can reach the target. Your suit antenna may be able to hear the strong target antenna -- but your suit's range is often too weak for the remote target to hear you.
  • Solution: While remote accessing grids, it's best to be seated in a grid that has a powered long-range antenna.
• Vehicles/drones that are docked via Merge Block or via Connector do not show up as separate controllable grid in the list! Even if a grid has more than one antenna, it's still only listed once in the list of grids.
  • Solution: Connect to the their parent grid and use the terminal to unlock them from the parent grid first. This situation is one of the reasons why it's recommended to prefix the names of blocks with their ship ID.

How can I see the broadcast range?

You make antenna ranges visible on the HUD by enabling the respective options on the game-wide Info Screen. Similarly, you can also verify your own broadcasting status and the target's signal on your HUD.

Troubleshooting a Remote Connection

After you have lost connection to a flying drone, it will be hard to reconnect to the target long enough to change settings in the Terminal, and it's even harder to find and recover a drifting drone. Most troubleshooting tips require that the owner can physically reach the grid.

If a target grid is suddenly grayed out (not available) in the list, that's because it is not broadcasting. Make sure that it has a functional antenna, that the antenna is on, that the range reaches far enough, that the antenna is set to broadcast, and that it has enough power to broadcast that far.

If you intend to steer a grid remotely, it must have a functioning Remote Control block. If the Remote Control is missing or damaged, you can only use the grid's Terminal remotely. In such a case, you could still, for example, manually access its camera, activate its self repair welders, or with a bit of luck, attempt to slow down a drifting drone by setting manual thruster overrides.

You cannot access or control a grid if the owner does not give you (your faction) permission. If the screen says that the ownership is “wrong”, find out who (which faction) owns the target grid. Additionally make sure that you have permissions to use all relevant functional blocks. If the Antenna, Remote Control block, Camera, Thrusters, Gyro, etc. are not shared with you (for example, because you are an enemy), you won't be able to remote control the grid.