I don't think a Raspberry Pi USB does well with an unpowered hub. The power that a Raspberry Pi USB port can supply is very limited. While it may have worked with 1 device, and the hub itself, adding devices will just drag down the +5V that the Raspberry Pi tries to supply to the hub. Maybe the Avalon is REALLY low current and it will all work just fine. I just know things get unreliable real quick when the +5V on a Raspberry Pi isn't nice and well regulated at 5.0 (or a smidge higher). I had a variety of reliability problems with a Raspberry Pi setup and a hub, and they all just disappeared when I supplied the hub and the Pi from an ATX +5v line. Fighting power problems is REALLY frustrating in my experience.

There are voltage regulators that will accept 12V input, and deliver a variable voltage output, controlled by a potentiometer on the board. They will handle 10's of Watts, and cost $10-15 on Amazon or Ebay. For many people this will be way easier, and less expensive, that trying to build one.

Bitmain has zero pressure to do anything besides maximize their return on their current S5 miner. They have zero serious competition at the moment, and seem to be able to produce and sell S5's "from stock". While they don't infinite pricing power, they can even tinker with prices enough to maximize their total income from the S5 product. They are only going to make N (pick your value for N) S5's, hence they want to maximize N*Price, don't they? If in a few months if they still have some S5's, they can have a "fire sale, an S5 for $250 quantity one".

While the Avalon box is nice, it's price is still well above Bitmain's price for the S5.

That's interesting. Is that a client of ASICspace that is a cloud, or ASICspace itself? Clearly ASICspace does hosting, I just didn't think they were a cloud at all, though I could easily be wrong.

Could you elaborate on the "exhaust" that you have worked out? I completely understand the idea of exhausting the hot/warm air. What is it replaced with? Outside air? Or is replaced with AC cooled air?

Don't forget reliable Internet access, some kind of cooling for your facility, unless it's in a truly cold climate. Even the coldest parts of the US will require some kind of continuous heat exhaust, if not more active cooling. You might also have to spend some money on security and fire warning/suppression. Cheap electricity is required, but you still won't want to locate your facility in Houston TX (because of the heat).

Rather than a 3-peat, I prefer to call it the "Triple Crown of Bitcoin Speculation", all run by phillipma1957 and funded by suchmoon. 

I remember back in the USB miner days, one guy I bought a Block Erupter from offered to mine using your pool info until your miner arrived. I thought that was quite reasonable offer, and a real inducement to buy from him rather than somebody else. You think you clear $12/day with an SP20 in profit? I am surprised by that.

Another option for your graph would be to have a small "bar" for each current point. Some bars would much like a point, others would be much taller. The bar would be vertical since it happens on a date, and it's height is determined by how flexible it is in terms of efficiency. Just a thought.

For some reason I thought Bitmain was "sold out" until the next batch in June or so. Do they actually have S5's that they can ship tomorrow?

I think it's pretty easy to understand why Sweden Mining wants to sell the results of it's mining activity. While they don't get any benefit from a rise in Bitcoin price, they also have zero risk in the case of a Bitcoin decline. All they are obligated to do is provide 100 GH/s for $67 for 1 year, period. If difficulty increases, it doesn't affect them. If by the same token difficulty falls and Bitcoin price rises, they get none of the benefit. They are willing to trade some upside potential for essentially zero downside. It's unclear what residual value the mining hardware will have at the end of that year, probably not zero.

You, as a purchaser, have to decide if this is good for you or not If you just buy Bitcoin, you have to anticipate a rise in Bitcoin prices to get a positive ROI.

I don't know if it's the FIRST, but I am 100% certain that it won't be the last! I don't know what kind of assets will have to cover a judgement if the power company wins. GAW might just file for bankruptcy in which case I expect the electric company is just another creditor.

I am convinced it's going to be negative. So I'll take:

-2.51% to -2.75%

Phillip's default/pre-assigned -1.11% may well work out for him this time.

I find it amazing that somebody would decide to rent or otherwise reassign a big chunk of SHA-256 hashing to a a speculative alt-con. And I thought Bitcoin was a risky adventure!

Obviously you could inquire of your landlord regarding the electrical capacity for your apartment. My bet is that is when they will make clear your terms of usage, and I'll bet that a "money making enterprise", such as Bitcoin mining is prohibited.

If you want to "fly under the radar" your electrical capacity will run out long before your $5000 budget does in terms of mining hardware. While your electricity appears low cost, or nearly free, it isn't. If you get cross-wise with the University over electrical usage, you could have much bigger problems with your education, than just Bitcoin mining. I think learning is fine, but maxing out your electrical usage and budget won't bring you any great riches.

One last item. What if 20% or more of the other students in your housing complex followed your lead? Do you think the University still wouldn't notice? Do you think they would condone and/or ignore you running a long extension cored out the window and selling recharges for Plug-in electric car?

Just my $.02.

While ASICspace would have the definitive comment, I thinks it's worth noting the difference between a hosting facility, and a cloud mining facility.  A hosting facility doesn't actually own the mining gear inside, nor do they receive any Bitcoin from what is mined. They are paid in whatever currency they work out with their clients, who actually own the mining gear.The hosting facility supplies electricity, cooling, Internet access and so forth for a price. In general they don't care at all about the price of Bitcoin, or difficulty, or the price of mining gear. They probably do have to provide some level of hand-holding for gear that needs attention for their client. Their revenue is derived entirely from what their clients pay them to host the mining gear.

A cloud mining facility looks very similar, though it's more likely to have more uniformity in the type/kind of mining gear inside. The big difference is that the cloud mining facility owns the mining gear, and receives the Bitcoins that are mined. Because of this they really do care about Bitcoin price, difficulty, and the price of mining gear. They have to cover their expense out of what is mined, and whatever they are paid by their clients. It's a really different business model, though at a gross level, the actual facility looks virtually identical to a hosting facility.

I think ASICspace is a hosting facility, NOT cloud mining facility.

If you haven't already done so, you should probably make an equivalent post over in the "Maketplace" forum portion of Bitcointalk. Depends on how serious you are about selling. It's unclear how well this kind of gear will sell, since the market, not just "Marketplace", is pretty merciless in terms of assigning a value.

I had 3 of these connected to a single Raspberry Pi for well over 6 months. I had a single ATX supply for the 12V to these, and the 5V to the Raspberry Pi. It ran un-touched for those 6 months at a steady 96+ Ghash. Supply good power, and a little ventilation and they will run fine, in my experience.

Just to be clear though, there is still risk associated with a hosted miner. While a Ponzi scheme won't happen in a hosted scenario, the host can still "run off with the hardware", or otherwise re-purpose it. While you might own the hardware, without physical possession, you still have to trust your host.

Here's what I run on my SP20:

Start Voltage:    0.63 / 0.63 / 0.63 / 0.63
Max Voltage:     0.69
Max Watts        160 / 140 / 160 / 140

The result is 1167 GH/s, and all ASICs less than 95C. Power draw at the wall is very close to 600W.

Personally I use Slush for my pool. It may not be the best, but it is reliable, and never a hint of scam in my experience. I think you could do a lot worse.