Bitcoin Forum

Hi Guys,

Quick question - I have a single USB Block Erupter running on my work PC 24/7 - without cooling.

I know I am probably just being paranoid (I am a health and safety obsessive sometimes), but I can't stop occasionally thinking - could this be a fire risk? Is this a bad idea? Just from how hot it seems to get.

So my question:

Is there a risk of fire (or any kind of damage/significant problem)?

Also, bonus question:

Should I buy a USB fan for my single Erupter - or would this be overkill/not financially viable?


Big thanks in advance if anyone has the time to answer.

Cheers

I put heat sinks and fans on all my BE's.  Not because it may be a fire risk.  But because I want them to last as long as possible.  I don't think a $7 USB fan will break the bank.

Fire is probably unlikely but frying the thing is very likely I would think.

Big thanks for the reply os2sam! That is very interesting.

I guess my worry with buying even a cheap fan would be the length of time it would take to recoup the cost via mining. Seems to take a long time to make even what equates to pennies worth of bitcoins at the moment...

Or would the logic be the chip will burn out so quickly it is essential even to come close to recouping the total cost?

Cheers

pm  me  I will send this to you


http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Mobile-External-Cooling-AF0007/dp/B002OJN250/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1385846908&sr=1-2&keywords=thermaltake+usb+fan


7 bucks.  that includes shipping.  as long as you are in the usa.


 it is used and I have quite a few of them.  as I ran a lot of usb sticks.

Thanks for the offer my friend, but in the UK so many not be a good idea postage-wise. Plus it has to be subtle/work friendly - which will probably make any fan a little tricky now I think about it...

Cheers

That is the logic I'm operating on.  We don't know what the longevity of these things are so prolonging them as long as possible would seem like a good way to assure a profit.

The usb fan will cost more than your usb miner will ever made in return   :-X :-X

Thanks for the input os2sam and pand70 - you are both like the angel and devil on my shoulder! A catch 22 situation.

I will see if I can find a passive cooling solution that it isn't too expensive.

Have seen the tiny Block Erupter heat sinks sold on eBay - surely they are too small to be effective...

I use the heatsinks that come in pack of 20 from Amazon.com.  I think they are .25" square.  But I do have fans blowing on them too.  Every little bit helps.

This every little bit adds up both in the number of shares per hour and also the longevity of your hardware. Not mentioning anything new under the sun but I will mention that I noticed a significant decrease in hardware errors simply by having a small fan circulate air over my mini farm. My small set up sits in my unheated garage, so the ambient air temperate has averaged at 37° degrees Fahrenheit (3° Celsius). Both my mining console & my my pool stats show that my erupters are hashing at 338-340MHs. I believe this is a result of the cold enviroment they are in all the time. All in all heat is a killer so in the end your potentially extending your hardware operation life.

Everyone has been giving good advice regarding cooling to protect your equipment and prolong operating life.  I don't disagree with that. 

However, I would like to offer an alternative opinion based on the the relatively low-cost nature of the equipment:
Run it with no additional cooling.

Every ASICMINER Block Erupter USB has a basic heat sink.  It can be improved upon, but it is adequate for the job.

I have 9 BEs that I have been running 24x7 since July 2013 (some of them longer, as I started with just one and built up).  I had an ARCTIC Breeze Mobile USB-Powered 92mm Portable Fan blowing on them, but for the last couple of months I've stopped the fan and left the BEs with no cooling.  They've been working fine, the hash rate is near the theoretical maximum for the units.  I know they are uncomfortably hot to touch, but don't worry, they are designed to operate at that temperature.

If you had a large farm of BEs, then improved cooling would be a good idea.  But just running one BE at work... don't bother.

I've got a setup (laptop  + 2 Erupters) and had it up and running for at least a week without the roof getting on fire  :P

As mentioned before, maybe not there will be no fire, but you can fry it a little bit ;)
Also devices on high temperatures works worse.

Looking at it from this perspective makes sense.

Unless you paid a stupid amount of money for your erupter, today's btc prices may argue otherwise.

If you had a large farm of BEs then opening some books to learn basic maths would be a good idea.  :P

Guys thanks loads for your thoughts - have read through everything and really appreciate the input.

Have to admit am leaning towards the idea of either passive cooling or (thanks Zelek Uther) no extra cooling.

@pand70 just out of interest what did you mean by the basic maths? Did you mean running a BE farm isn't a good idea compared to alternatives?

Thanks again everyone, really appreciate your thoughts.

There is no fire risk, I have been running this novel things for 24/7, without fan used, just horizontal connected. There is no errors, Just ensure there is enough space, the air will do good.

I mean that there is no point on throwing money to that usb miner because it's useless anyway.

more importantly what is the temperature of your block erupter?

I am running 7 BE's in a hub horizontally no extra cooling (just the stock heatsinks) for the past 4 months, no issues with hardware errors, and no fires :)

I epoxy'ed small VGA coolers to some of the BE's I have.

Should be safe as they are only consuming 2.5 watt....

so far I have never heard of block erupters catching fire.

I wish no harm or mal event on any man but please, if any of you manage to get your Block Erupter to catch fire. Make sure you get it on video and post the youtube link here. Your youtube ad revenue alone would probably make you enough fiat to purchase another one as Im sure it would go viral in the community.

Well I took this project on! If you connect a RaspPi (wifi connection) and just one erupter it consumes 6.8w... with and artic fan connected it rises to 8w.... so with fan $1.09 a week profit! Without a fan $1.17!...I only went for a week as the difficulty will kill it depending on BTC price ($930 at time of posting) Power was calculated on german price of $0.35c (US is $0.15c) Hope this helped you? I had an energy monitor plugged in. RaspPi is the best method of running them. A laptop consumes much more! Plus they are great fun to play with...have a look at my other posts.

A fan looks great though! Brings your miner to life... It is also quite silent. Looks very good under the blue LEDs of my USB hub....

Thanks for the replies everyone.

@Blackswan122 thanks for the experiment! So there is not a huge difference in money earned between the two prices. I think if I had it at home I would definitely go for a fan, but at work it is tricky.

I bought a little heatsink for a couple of quid. May make a small difference...

After reading everyone's replies I think we can be pretty sure there will be no fire - that is good to know :)