POS Module Locking Times

Penny has a most amusing post up about ambushing a hauler near a POS.  In it she mentions her uncertainty about how long she can linger uncloaked near a POS without being targeted and killed by the POS modules.  This has come up before, too, both at Penny's blog, and for me when I have messed around with the idea of designing a decloak trap to go at my tower.

To get decent estimates of times for locking of various modules, one can use EFT after looking up the module and finding its scanning strength.  In EFT you need to find or create a ship fitting that has the same sensor strength; this is relatively easy to do by putting warp core scramblers on a ship with low sensor strength.

First, though, the scanning resolutions.  Note that all gun batteries of the same size have the same strength, with the exception of faction items.  Faction items have either 10% higher strength, or 20%.
Small [Gun] Battery: 250 mm
Medium [Gun] Battery: 75 mm
Large [Gun] Battery: 35 mm
[ECM] Battery: 50 mm
Energy Neutralizer Battery: 50 mm
Statis Web, Warp Scrambling/Disruption Battery: 30 mm
Sensor Dampener Battery: 10 mm

Let's put these numbers in terms of ships.  250mm is about the resolution that a normal battlecruiser has.  75mm is worse than a battleship and around that of a carrier; battleships average about 125mm.  50mm is the resolution that a Titan has.  No ship has 30mm without fitting a cloak and/or warp core stabilizers.

How does scanner resolution translate into lock time?  This depends only on the signature size of the targeted ship, and the scanning resolution.  I don't know the formula, but EFT does, so I can use various ships to simulate the various batteries.   As for the targeted ships, what we as sneaky hunters care most about are stealth bombers, T3s, and perhaps some Recon ships.  Stealth bombers range in size from 34-41m; for these EFT has a "Frigate (40m)" setting that we can use.  T3s' base size range in size from 143m to 176m, and this may be further increased if you are using a shield buffer fit to perhaps 200m.   Recons generally have the same size range as T3s.  Since the Loki is the likeliest sneaky T3, I am going to use a Loki to get an exact 143m.  (Note that EFT can use specific ships/fittings as well as general presets.)  For medium-sized cruisers, I'll throw in an Arazu (162m).  I'll also show a column created using EFT's setting "Frigate with microwarp (200m)", to simulate a larger and/or shield fit T3.

Here's the table:

Battery			Targets
Type	Scan res (mm)	Simulated with ship/fitting...	Frigate	Small Cruiser	Medium Cruiser	Large Cruiser
			40m	143m	162m	200m
Small [Gun]	250	Myrmidon	8.3	5	4.8	4.5
Medium [Gun]	75	Nidhoggur	24.3	16.7	16	14.9
[ECM], Energy Neut	50	Erebus	41.7	25	23.9	22.3
Large [Gun]	35	Moros + Stoic	59.5	35.7	34.2	31.8
Web, Warp Scrambler/Disruptor	30	Erebus + Warp Core Stab II	69.4	41.7	39.9	37.1
Sensor Dampener	10	Erebus + Warp Core Stab I, Accord, 2x Warp Core Stab II	180	125.4	120	111.7

Interesting, eh?  This is why people like small gun batteries so much.