Exploration

Yesterday I fitted a new strategic cruiser for lowsec exploration. It was rather expensive with over 800 millions ISK cost. All T2 rigs and a deadspace repper do this to you...
It does not need a probe launcher, because I am probing with James in a Cheetah.
As I cannot fly Caldari ships, I used a Proteus as my ship of choice. But somehow I am not convinced I did it correctly. Should I use a drone setup? Or any recommendations?

I tested it in Hisec in a Sansha site and promptly got an escalation "Nation on the rise". Which I will do today in the evening :)

Edit: I changed the subsystems.
It has a Capacitor Regeneration Matrix as engineering subsystem now and a Hybrid Propulsion Armature as offensive subsystem. Much more cap regen, Hammerheads as drones (and a flight of Hobgoblins) and four midslots (2 with tracking computers). Works much better. I did the Nation on the Rise escalation in it, the last escalation of the series in lowsec. No problems.
I was probed shortly before I finished and warped to a station after looting. Just in time, a Sleipnir wanted to get a juicy killmail.
Loot? A Sansha plate for 6 mil in the second part of the escalation and an armor plate...nothing else in all 4 parts. Not even the "endboss" dropped anything. Only a laser lens.