I got a new 741 miner from Avalon Wednesday, had it up and running by Wednesday night. Everything's been going great, and I have been pleased. However sometime between 6 PM and 10 PM tonight  it went black and needed to be rebooted. No fans, and no response from the controller. After rebooting everything was fine. Have other people experienced less than one week uptime with these units?

 It did coincide with some local stormy weather, but the weather had passed before this occurred and I was here the whole time and never saw any indication of a black/brown out on any of my other equipment or lights.

PS I have the equipment on a surge protector, but I do not have it on a UPS.

Thanks!   Both are good(had seen the Wikipedia already of course) - probably use both for friends of differing backgrounds.

While searching for the Wikipedia article so I could grab the link, I found - and was shockingly unaware of - the existence of a "simple english" Wikipedia.  I think it is designed for ESL folks but it is even better for some of my friends and relatives (ie 81 year old mother-in-law).  They do a nice job of aggregating the main page's information without introducing inaccuracy.

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

Thanks again,

So I get the question:  "What is bitcoin mining?" every time someone sees my equipment.    My explanations are lacking.   Likewise, my spouse just knows that money is supposed to show up magically.  I try to explain how and shes pretty convinced I'm "hacking the web"  

Is there a good, but layman's, document on the web that explains what we are doing ?   You know - 3 page white paper style but for the uninitiated
 Everything I seen is too technical or glosses over it to the point its inaccurate.

Thanks!

Thanks for everyone replies.   The unit came in today and set-up was simple.   I had a question on power supply connectors but got that straightened up.   So I am mining!   


Thanks again,

Thanks!

I did misspeak - my 750 does have three separate cables(actually 4 I think but only need three for one side).    But by weird coincidence an ex-PC repairman friend came by.  After handing him a beer he looked at it.  He thought that using the "daisy-chain" 6pins on the 650 for 2 of the 6 power connectors would be perfectly fine.  With my fingers crossed we powered it up.  Works fine and the infrared thermometer indicates no heat-up in the cables or connectors after about an hour.

So I am good.

By the way, for novices, it is not obvious that you need to connect the CPU cable, leaving the "tester" in place to wake up the power supplies.  I put this tidbit here in the post for future searches.

I'm mining!

Short version:

My PSUs:

EVGA SuperNova 650G2
EVGA SuperNove 750G2

My Miner:
Avalon 741

What cables that came with the PSU do I use?   The 8pinx2-6/2pinVGA?  

Long version

I bought these two power supplies - one for each side - for my Avalon 741.  I need six, 6 pin female connectors for power.   The power supplies  each came with two VGA cables(four total); 8 pin at the PSU end and two 6 pin connectors(one with a 2 pin breakout) at the device end.   Can I use three of the the four available VGA 6 pin (ignoring the 2 pin break-out) connectors on each PSU as power for the Avalon 741?   I am a software engineer, not a hardware guy.   But I *think* this is the PCI  I need as power for the 741.  I would look on the Avalon web site but it is down for maintenance  )-:  Plus - I don't think they say.  The video just shows a happy guy hooking stuff up - no real detail.

Connector size and gender is right and enough connectors - Just want to make sure this is correct(ie voltage, polarity, etc).

Thanks in advance for any confirmation!

PSU END:
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#pciexpress8

Device END:

One of these
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#pciexpress
And one of these
http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html#pciexpress6plus2

PS:  I searched the forum but didn't see anything obviously directly related

Decided to set-up a single ASIC proof of concept mine.   After looking at the calculators it was clear I was either going to make a little bit of money or lose a little - in either case I would learn a lot so not too terribly concerned.

So I ordered an Avalon 741 and controller today for Oct 16, 2017 shipment.  Have the power supplies, the network, and the electrical all ready and in place.  My question is:   What is your recommendation for the "soft" part of the mining set-up?  wallet recommendation?  Pool or not to pool?

I did look/search but did not see any other older threads or stickys that asked this question so directly.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks for all the thoughts and replies.   Couple of questions:

Can you install multiple cards in a single system?
Ethereum?  Monero?  What altcoin would you do on a GPU?

I had ruled out GPUs because I don't have a PC chassis - just a laptop - to my name.   So by the time I am done buying a halfway decent used chassis with a good power supply and an operating system I figured I was pretty close, money wise, to an ASIC miner like the Avalon.   But now that I learned ASIC hardware will be not available for months, maybe I'll revisit that.



Thanks in advance,

and


Thanks for both replies.  Here are my bottom line numbers(.05799/KwH) .  While I understand some global locations can compete on power, how in the world are there so many miners in the US?:



Average $3000USD and 5% growth in complexity  = Never make money
Average $3500USD and 5%                                 = Run in the green for a few months but after ~1 year out the complexity catches up
Average $4000USD and 5%                                 = Scenario people are hoping for IF YOU HAVE 5cent/KwH electricity.
Average $4500USD and 5% AND $.12KwH energy = Run in the green for a few months but after ~1 year out the complexity catches up
Average $5000USD and 5%                                 = ~$500 profit - 12cent/KwH electricity.  BUT YOU START LOOSING MONEY IN 14 MONTHS and have to shut it down.

I think the only way you make money is to steal power because I think its unreasonable to expect the value to average well over 5K in the next 12-18 months.   Maybe!  But that is a very poor gamble in my book.

The only fly I see in my calculations is complexity rises and falls episodically but averages are smooth.  If it stays the same for 12 months and then rises 5%, then technically my average is "right" but I am making much more money.

Thoughts?

Thanks - that is actually good to know and very helpful to us new folks.   Fortunately mine is capable (Buffalo).  I know this because the shop is connected to another building that has the hard line to the world.  The shop connects to that building's wireless router via wireless client bridging

The calculator I use:

https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/calculator

shows Bitcoin mining as a fools errand.  How can there possibly be thousands of you out there doing it?  I must be wrong.

So I need a fact/peer check on my numbers:

Using an Avalon 741(7.3RTH/s and 1150 nominal watts) as the miner I am showing the day you start loosing money is less than a year away in virtually all reasonable scenarios - and in every one of them the unit is not paid for by that date.  I am using:

1236Watts(1150 with 93% efficiency)
5 , 8, and 12% difficulty growth
7.3 TH/s
3000 BTC/USD
1172 in delivery/hardware/setup costs
$.05799/KWH

Antminer S9 is in the same ballpark.  What am I missing?  I am sure my half price power(half comes from solar array left over from another project) is cheaper than everyone else's.  So bitcoin mining sounds pretty stupid, even at these high bitcoin prices.  Is everyone else stealing power??

Sounds like eMark is the way to go currently?

Good to know, thanks.  Running the wire isn't a problem and I have an extra port available in the NAT/ROUTER/Wireless AP

Yep - forgot to mention that.   I have do solid, broadband internet access at the shop. (wireless too)

PS:  Do most miners use wireless or would I need to run a cable across the spot I plan to install it?

Back story on why I have free power below if anyone cares.

So.....

I thought about mining to chew on the free electrons.    The building is probably more of an issue.  Well built, well sealed and concrete floors but has two garage doors and is not air conditioned.  Temps range widely though rarely gets above 80F or colder than 34F.  Humidity is reasonable in the summer but probably not ideal.  I even have a small 220 plug available.  No wiring required.  Seems to me I can make a little money mining since the power is free; even if the currency rate of BTC drops  a good bit.   Reasonable assumption?

So my assumptions:


Machine recommendation?   Research seems to guide me to Antminer S9
For the S9 - is my power calcuation right?  1,000KwH per month it seems like to me?
Does my building sound OK?
Best bitcoin profit calculator on the web?   Seems like the calculation is based on some assumptions so I imagine some sites make better assumptions than others.
Longevity of these machines?  The investment only works if they can be counted on to run for more than 2 years.  Any longevity feedback?
My timing seems to suck:  It seems the high price of bitcoin has new S9s on Amazon triple the price on the bitmain page.   Better to wait for a new batch?

Thanks in advance!!!

Back story:  I have a 5KW solar array that generates around 5500KWH per year.  I was a small scale producer and sold the electrons and pollution credits to the power company, but recently was forced to migrate (don't get me started on the politicians that changed the rules and the power company policies that took advantage of them even when they were not required to   ).  So anyways, now I am on net metering:  All of this in a building that only runs an occasional power tool and some lights.  So I am racking up hundreds of KW hours of credits every month I have to use or lose.   My guess is 5,000KWH of energy credits yearly will get thrown away if I don't use them.