How to use it

Three steps to moving power without taking a hand off.

1 Turn on key injection.

Ship systems Let D47 press keys in Elite on Pips and panic buttons are all your own Elite bindings.

2 Say where the power goes.

four pips to engines Ask "balance the pips" — "two to systems, two to weapons" It presses the pip keys the right number of times.

3 And the two you want in a hurry.

silent running Ask "heat sink" — "silent running off" Both are one press, and both need Elite in front.

! The one that stops people.

Pips are counted, not read. D47 presses towards what you asked from where it thinks you are. Say "balance the pips" to resync.
Why it works this way

Moving power around, and the two panic buttons: silent running and heat sinks.

1 One request is one press, so ask for four.

“FOUR PIPS TO ENGINES” press press press press ENGINES +4 Each request moves power one step — the same as one press of your own key. So ask for it the way you would press it.

In the SRV the same words reach the SRV's own power bindings, because Elite binds those separately and you meant the vehicle you are sitting in.

2 The panic buttons are yours to misuse.

ONLY WHILE FLYING refused when docked or landed, with the reason SILENT RUNNING IS A TOGGLE asking twice turns it back off, and nothing here will stop you Directive 47 will not stop you cooking your own ship, and does not pretend otherwise.

3 The fuel scoop is not a switch at all.

THE FUEL SCOOP Elite has no binding for it SO NOTHING TO PRESS scooping is not something you turn on Fly a scoop-fitted ship into a star’s scoop zone and it starts by itself. It can tell you whether you are scooping. It cannot start it, and neither can you.

The details

Moves power around and reaches the two panic buttons: silent running and heat sinks.

Ask for it

“pips to engines” “balance the power” “heat sink” “silent running”

Pips

Each request moves power one step, the same as one press of your own key. “Four pips to engines” is four presses, so ask for it the way you would press it.

Pressed Numpad_7 for power to engines.

In the SRV the same words reach the SRV’s own power bindings, because Elite binds those separately and you meant the vehicle you are sitting in.

Heat sinks and silent running

Both work only while you are flying — they are refused when docked or landed, with the reason. Silent running is worth knowing about before you use it by voice: it is a toggle, so asking twice turns it back off, and Directive 47 will not stop you cooking your own ship.

The fuel scoop is not a switch

Elite has no fuel scoop binding, because scooping is not something you turn on. Fly a scoop-fitted ship into a star’s scoop zone and it starts by itself.

So there is nothing here to press, and asking for it gets an answer rather than a keystroke — Directive 47 can tell you whether you are currently scooping, because the game reports that, but it cannot start or stop it and neither can you.

You have to turn it on

Everything here needs Let Directive 47 press keys in Elite, which is off by default and cannot be switched on by the AI. See Flight and navigation for why, and for what happens when an action is on your stick rather than your keyboard.

The tool surface, for contributors

control_systems

Move power between engines, weapons and systems, and reach silent running and heat sinks. Only the actions listed as reachable in the current game state will work; anything else comes back with the reason it did not.

{"type":"object","properties":{"action":{"type":"string","description":"Which action to perform.","enum":["power_to_engines","power_to_weapons","power_to_systems","balance_power","silent_running","heat_sink","analysis_mode"]},"state":{"type":"string","description":"What to leave it in. Elite binds a single toggle, so asking for \u0022on\u0022 or \u0022off\u0022 checks the game\u0027s own report first and does nothing if it is already there. Defaults to toggling.","enum":["on","off","toggle"]}},"required":["action"],"additionalProperties":false}

silent_running resolves to Elite’s ToggleButtonUpInput, which is the game’s own name for it and has been since long before silent running had a HUD indicator. It is spelled that way here because that is the only spelling that resolves against a bindings file.