Want to get started on the right foot?

Buy an AntMiner S1, why?  Here's why:

• There were originally $6,000 a piece
• They used to power over 25% of the network at some point
• Most remaining miners had them and maybe even still use them
• They're un-shrouded, it lets you see the miner's appearance
• It's a lot more consistent than the S3
• It resists shock a lot better than the S3
• You can get them for less than $100 now
• You will learn most about mining with the S1 than any other miner

Cons is the heat the produce if you live in a hot area and are power extensive.

Alternatively, I recommend a USB miner like U2 or anything from BitFury's decent.  They are cheap to buy and operate, and many even don't need a controller nor a PSU...

Ha!  You fucking rock!!

This could work, yes, it looks like them, different colors but mining's not supposed to be pretty anyways 

I'll look if I can get shorter ones but if all else fails, this is it right there.

It's that or go fuck myself I guess, eh? lol

Cheap price, free shipping, mind blown, day saved.  Those would perfect spares, if they do work.

That said, I would, however, still want Bitmain OEM parts on my Bitmain AntMiners... :/

If anything, I can always keep that elusive miner that makes it way in my "miner retirement" closet.

That's perfect, too bad I can't buy right there on eBay, I need that like yesterday, not in Mid January lol

I'll now be able to find a store near me to order a bunch and see what happens but at least now I have a target to hunt for.

A part on one of my S3's broke...

Well, didn't really break but let's say it does not do its intended job anymore.

I know, I tried its opposite side's wire and it's definitely the wire.

I know why, my own stupidity, don't ask but it happened  

It's the one of the two, 2 x 10 pin ribbon wires that connects the hashboards to the control board.

The ones that are over/under, as in:

xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx

I don't have a spare and I cannot for the life of me find a website that sells this... I just don't know the fancy name, if there is ever one.

No sense putting a picture, I'm sure a "few" miners know what I'm talking about.

Anyone know where to get one in North-America, hassle free or does this need to be special ordered from Bitmain?

They're not very co-operative, all I want is an invoice, I'll pay it then they can ship it, after 3 back and forth emails, still no payment request.

When they reply they talk to me like I'm a computer n00b; been a client of theirs for over a year now and still buying hardware.

Can someone help me find the wire I need?  I'm sure I'm not the only guy who's had one of those wires go bad...

There's also people who know their shit a lot more than me =D

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Looks like the name of the part is SPI Ribbon Wire.

Thanks!  even if I don't buy there, I'll know what to buy.  Sweet guide btw, will use it later once I get them.

Hey, I have a few questions.

I'd rather not import coolant, would it just be aluminum safe coolant?

Why is this shocking to anyone?

GHash went from having around 70PH/s down to below 50PH/s...

Most pool operators would say it's a significant difference.

They had once near 50% the network and now only 13%

The big fish have all gone... to Discus Fish because of its daily, hassle free payouts and well, every wants to be part of the winning team.

So the bozos who mined GHash religiously saw DF overtake GH and followed suit.

Get ready to see 24 hour blocks by the end of the year.

GHash is a good base pool if you're a pro pool hopper but they been known to rip off miners.

You mine at GHash when the gettin's good and leave when luck is really bad... Bad luck at GHash is felt worst than any other pool.

Yesterday, two block in 17 hours... this would have never been thought of 3 months ago; I left after 7 hours, lucky for me.

The history of them ripping off miners is in this forum alone; I won't go in details but I been victim a few times.

They do, however, pay their mistakes but you hav to be on your guard mining there.

I mine there occasionally and when I need to as I have erratic internet and N clip is quick to load.

However, you'd be better off going into smaller pools and help distribute the hash rate.

Try out BitMinter, EclipseMC, Slush, Eligius and of course, BTC Guild.

The above pools have a proven track record greater than GHash and operators are pretty cool folks.

I currently mine BitMinter because my S4 requires a manual difficulty input; it gives me greater power than any other pool for my S4.

Hope this helps and welcome to the exciting world of mining cryptos

With stock settings, you can pretty much mine any pool that allows you to manually input the difficulty settings.

Pools which I know have that feature are:

• GHash.io
• BTC Guild
• BitMinter

I believe you can also do a hard input as adding your minimum difficulty at the end of your username in eligius and other pools but cannot confirm, I like sticking to easy-peasy; why complicate anything?  Right now, I am running on BitMinter.  The N clip is lengthy to load so I wouldn't recommend it if you have erratic internet or electricity.  However, my registered speed is higher at BitMinter than any other pool.

Well, miners are packing up and leaving... little to no profit makes miners poor, not fun anymore more for most.

Right now, it's set for a reversal in difficulty next update, according to Bitcoin Wisdom.

There's a saying in Gold mining:


Many are leaving the game like many leave the Gold mining game; miners are now machine tenders for energy companies.

Easy job but not the best paying.

In Gold mining, the advantage is to have a high amount of Gold per yard, in Bitcoin, it's free power.

Fail to plan, plan to fail.

Check out antpool.com, BitmainTech's own pool.

You can solo mine there using their system.

Best of luck.

Safety should have had its own sub-forum long ago.

In Gold mining, your mine site still has to be "federally safe" and has to be part of your mine plan before you are allowed even mine.

If you own a mine, or mining claim, you'll know what a mining plan is and how important the safety aspect of it is.

It's sad to see someone's hard labor and investment go up in smoke...

Don't rule out sabotage, that's a lot of income, making a "poor" government jealous.

None the less, for those that are safety aware, here's the wiring section of my mining plan in a few words:

-Build an auto-kill switch system.
-When it comes to wiring, ALWAYS your largest gauge wire.
-Anything with Bitcoin mining should be 14 gauge minimum over 15 feet but 12 gauge is most desirable in any application and any length.
-The longer the extensions, the more you pay on delivery fees and the harder/expensive it gets to find large gauge extensions.
-I buy mine from Zoro, they sell good quality, large gauge, long extensions; good for USA and Canada. 
-Keep PSU wires separate or as far from each other as possible.
-Use white wires when possible since it doesn't attract heat like black does.
-Monitor cable heat by hand throughout the day, report unusual hot-spots.
-Make sure that if you have light coming in that it cannot cause hot-spots to wires or machines. (A Running Black PSU in the sun is ticking bomb)
-Use white foam cores to cover black areas from the sun if miners can become exposed to harmful sunlight.
-If PSU wires are too wimpy, buy larger ones, those should definitely be 16ga to begin with.
-Overpower PSU - Works less but costs a bit more, always at least 100W over maximum recommended, 150 is ideal, 200 is best, 250 is overkill.
-Overpowering PSU also reduces the overall power tension in the system since it works less for the same work.
-The best cooling is outside air because it's free and plenty but that may not work in areas where the outside temp is too high; IE: Florida
-Keep mine's temperature around 35 degrees; miners are their own dehumidifier, very dry conditions increase fire hazard too.
-Make sure your home's wiring is modern, meaning, newer than 1975 (Not 100% sure on the year).  If not, get it modernized.
-Make sure there is someone that can keep an eye on your mine if you leave for extended periods of time and train/pay them.
-Stack machines no more than 3 high for 1U's and do not stack 3U's at all.

Just because it's "computer mining" still makes it, mining.  Same offline rules apply here too, that is, shit's gonna break, your suppliers will screw you over, you're gonna swear a lot but you'll enjoy what you're doing.  There is a little saying in the Gold mining world we tell rookies.


I think your problem was a lack of an automatic kill-switch system.  Another type of miner that arose from Gold mining are "the hacks"... guys that do everything right all the way but hacks the last mile and loses everything. #ToddHoffman (A disgrace to Gold Miners)

Well, I hope new miners will read this thread before getting into Bitcoin mining, lots of good electrical and general safety comments in this thread.  Should be made a sticky in the Getting Started forum.

You won't be able to and should not overclock with a CX500M PSU... return for store credit if you can.

Other solution is, you buy new wires... the same ones they have on modular 650's, they have two connections per wire.

However, I find that too much feed for 500's though...

I would not recommend it, heck, I wouldn't even recommend using 500W PSU on an S3 at all...  I use 650 Watt'ers...

If you want to overclock definitely then you should get a stronger PSU, I think running 500's on S3's is just pushing it for nothing.

On the flip side, I run 2 S1's (The Previous Model) with 550W's and 2 with 650W's; The 650w powered ones make more coin than the 550 ones.

More power feed, the more power the S3 can use and the more coin it can make for you too; and greater your power bill will be too.

In the last 3 months, I've made about 15% more coin (Conservatively) by using a PSU at least 100 watts more than the Miner's max settings @ OC.

In Bitcoin, coin loves speed... it loves power too, give it both.

My laptop is a state of the art ThinkPad and only puts out a whopping 38MH/s... so if you get more than that, consider yourself lucky.

Keyword: Laptop - A very finite and compact computing environment, faster cards are too big for today's laptops.

To save space, they cram multiple critical components on one card.

I run nearly 200 watts for that little hash power and I can't even play my games nor conduct business properly.

The only way to increase hashrate is changing to a newer video card.

Unfortunately, laptops builders often solder the video card and mobo together; making upgrades completely impossible.

The best thing you can do is purchase external video cards but at that rate, look at Bitmain's U3 

Sorry but laptop technology is mainly for extensive business use, and general gaming, not industrial use or expert gaming.

You might get a much higher hashrate on a AlienWare, which are gaming centric laptops.

Happy (mini) Hashing!

PS: Following the Pioneer trail (CPU Mining) is what makes great new miners
PPS: I also said I'd only ever mine with a CPU but now have 6TH/s, it's an addictive hobby...

I never heard of anyone mining a U2 directly with a Pi lol

A Pi is a memory control card, you use one for miners that don't have built in miner software; it's not meant to power a Bitcoin miner.

The best way to set those up is to get a regular USB hub and a fan, MinerSource.net has awesome ones

You'd use a Pi for miners like RockMiners, a USB miner can be set up with a program like EZMiner (or whatever the name is).

Miners that have their own power supply, require very little power from the Pi...

So try it with a good quality USB hub and see what happens!

Hope this helps and happy hashing

Just goes to show ya... you have to think of everything.

Cubes should have been turned off long ago.

A simple auto-shutoff (Thermostat) system would have saved your mine and part of your home; Costs $100 for a really good one.

There is still money to be made in mining, not only in Bitcoin mining, there's AltCoins too if you want to test your luck.

New miners need to realize that they have to make their hardware profit other ways than just mining.

They also have to realize that they will have to have a regular income.

Don't get into mining then sell all you coin to pay bills; that's the problem with the industry forcing a constant selling pressure.

Miners who leave the game are players who give up on pretty much any game they can't easily win at or whine themselves to victory. #MMOG's

It's no longer an easy game for most since the price and rewards are so low, it's a smart player's game.

Those who do good have free power, very close to or pay the power out of their own pocket and save the coin for future interest.

I got in mining a few months before Mt. Gox crashed and still mine profitably but I have a mining plan.

I also come from Gold mining so my experience on the field serves me well virtually.

For most new miners, I don't recommend it because they have zero relatable experience then complain when price tanks or hardware fails.

Experienced miners can adapt easily because they know what can happen and made provisions for such disasters.

(Look at the person's who's entire mine went up in smoke, he'll keep mining)

Smart miners see it coming and adapt before it does; you have to be at the helm daily and be don't waste time.

If you want to mine for fun then that's the way to look at it... if you're looking for profit, anything above $0.05 power is not really profitable with today's price; well, not by my standards.

I started with $2,500 about 2 years ago and my mine now makes BTC0.5 per week, growing monthly...

Pretty good ROI, all my hardware re-investment now pays for itself.

However, I don't just sit on my ass either, I work hard and constantly look for new opportunities; that's what mining is

The best recommendation I can give you is learn about Gold mining, look at the first season of Gold Rush: Alaska - You can expect similar problems.

It's that Gold Miner life experiences that serves me best in Bitcoin mining.

As long as you realize how much of an asset a Bitcoin miner is, an asset YOU control, you'll do fine...

After all, not many devices you can buy that you can plug in the wall and it starts making money for you 

I'd be willing to help, if you're looking for a partner.

I'm Federally incorporated in Canada, where our laws are rather lax and no authority argues for long with me.

We also operate one of the largest independent mines in the country running on 80% free power.

We're also in the works of registering with FinTRAC, the Canadian version of FinCEN, the regulatory body for another project.

Would be easy for me to add your pool to our services requiring MSB licensing.

You got mail, check it out of interested, I don't comment on here often, very busy, too much pessimism.

Peace Out

Saw that article this morning, that's huge but looks too good to be true.  

Does anyone own any of their machines??  I mean a person, with reputation I guess is where I'm getting at.

I smell a scam, 1.6 HexaHash (The stage after Peta) is way too high for this stage in the game.

It would be like the entire network going from being powered exclusively by an overclocked S1 AntMiner to a Spondoolies Jackson nearly overnight.

It could theoretically kill the network, Bitcoin mining altogether and those guys would be the only mining company in existence.

No one would buy, there would be a massive sell-off on launch day or shortly after.

This is basically what Bitcoin was meant to be against, large central firms and let's not forget the imminent risk of a 51% attack.

Except in this case it would be a 150% attack, imagine that...  just like imagine the network gaining 6 times its power at a flick of a switch.

They'd literally own the network...  times six over.

If it does go on, the foundation would likely step in.

Even at 0.15 joules per GH/s, the cost to run those in Germany would be too great; expect high prices from the get go.

Smells like a trap, I'll keep buying HW, my instinct rarely fails me.

Well, if they were able to transmute quantum computing and cryptography together, they'd be on to something.

Just one of those impulse buys I'll pass onto the bigger risk takers I guess.

Too many red flags, not enough concrete for me... still will be interesting to see what unfolds.

Plus the latest machines from proven, which are still on pre-order, is at 0.22 joules per GH/s (Aire) or 0.58 (SP30) then 0.69 (S4)

Many don't even believe the Aire yet and won't until they've been shipped.

Could be an attempt by the elite for everyone to sell off their Bitcoin so it remains in the hands of radio guided idiots like the Wanklevoss twins.

Lots of speculation can arise from this.

I'd be curious to know what the highest bid is...

Is it on Flippa?  That's likely where I'd go to get the most bang for my buck if I was in this situtation.

Existing Business go for a lot of money, even premium domains.

I Might even join in on this party, always looking to expand business.

Ever thought of incorporating in another country?  Or partnering with an existing, foreign company?

Incorporating in another country is about $1,000 and a partnership costs nothing.

Just saying, there's loopholes to every rule.

I just don't think you should give up that easily.

#HarrietTubmanSecretUndergroundRailroad

OMG!

Those things are so awesome!

Yikes, pretty expensive, will stick to S series for now.