def wrote:
Jamming rats - only goes into fight once damage taken. Old miner used to go right into it and kill them before the lazer cycle ended Miner enters combat mode as soon as jamming detected if you checked "jamming rats" in settings.
With new option (force HP detection after timeout) added to latest version 2.4.2, everybody can decide how many time to spend for mining and how many time to spend for HP/jamming rats detection. Profit/safety ratio in your hands.
Shield rep - reps 1-2 cycles then stops, waits, checks, repeats. takes ages if lots were lost before fight mode activated. Why is that? Set your repairer to activate at 100%, I can do this with retrievers! Why you cannot do this with hulks only god knows. If there is no any sort of a bugs, you are responsible for behavour of your miner. I can only suggest and give you possibilities.
lazers - the waiting for full cycles on empty roids situation. reduces eff 10x on a bad 3-500m roid day. You want me to write ore scanner support? There is no way to know how many ore in the asteroid. Asteroid content prediction method gives maximal ore content, not minimal.
and no (before you suggest), allowing rats to keep shooting you (passive) is just asking for a gank from the extra dps it adds
plus it makes ya few extra mil 
Use active tanking. I see no problems currently, active tanking method for those who want to kill rats, passive tanking method for people who want to avoid rats. Names "active" and "passive" a bit different from eve definitions. For example I suggest to fit repairer as active module to out heal damage taken from rats with passive tanking.