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Antminer S1
D'oh. It turns out after I bought my Corsair CX600M PSU that I had a perfectly good one available in a box under my bed. Chalk up another AUD$120 I should not have spent.
The Antminer S1 is performing great. Its uptime is now 58 days, and the mining software has restarted exactly once (don't know why or if this is a problem yet). It's just chugging away in the patch panel in the corridor. Temp is 52 degrees C and fan is at 2820 rpm. There is noticeable noise.
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One Year Later
It's been a year since I began this experiment. In that time I have spent about AUD$2500 for a current balance of 0.67 BTC plus an Antminer S1 mining at 180GH/s. Difficulty has risen from 15 million to 10 billion. The current blockchain on my PC is 20GB (didn't check when I started). Bitcoins have risen from AUD$130 each to AUD$700 each, peaking at over AUD$1200. I have invested and reinvested 5 times. I have solved at least one block. I've had a lot of fun, a lot of frustration, and gained a whole lot of knowledge. You'd have to say that as an investment this has failed completely, but as a learning experience it has been worth it. Rather than speculating, I put up the cash to find out for sure whether this was worth doing. I haven't solicited any donations -- only technical assistance running my rig.
Funnily enough, I really haven't spent my bitcoins on anything besides mining hardware! I don't plan to cash out to fiat, but rather to save the BTC for future online services.
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Musings
So my Antminer S1 has been plugging away for a while now, and it's providing me with an income of 0.01 BTC per day. Of course this will decrease as difficulty rises, but it's nice to have an automatic daily payout from BTC Guild while it lasts.
I'm disappointed at this stage. Each of my reinvestments has lost me more of my original BTC capital. As has been pointed out, my original 13 BTC for AUD$2000 would have been all I would ever have needed. Instead I decided to go all in with mining, and lost virtually everything.
What's really killing me here is rising difficulty. As ever-faster hashing hardware comes onto the market, return from mining rapidly decreases. You can either watch your income diminish into nothing, or reinvest at a loss. It's a lose-lose situation.
My major conclusion from this experiment is all hardware seems to have an effective lifespan of just a few difficulty adjustments (which occur approximately every two weeks). As every new generation of mining hardware enters service, current-gen hardware quickly becomes obsolete. This makes it extremely difficult to achieve ROI no matter what hardware you buy. Add in utility costs like power and bandwidth and you lose even more.
The other thing working against me was my stubborn insistence on using USB miners with MinePeon. I had to spend extra money on USB hubs which don't provide any return, and MinePeon itself wasn't exactly super stable either. Maybe if I had gone with different hardware things would have been different -- then again, maybe not. At least I didn't get scammed into buying something from Butterfly Labs.
I'm beginning to wonder how anyone makes a profit mining. It seems impossible from an individual's point of view.
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Thanks for the interest guys, but I sold them on ebay.
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I've got a Corsair CX600M that worked flawlessly with a single S1. Now I drive 2 S1 off a single Corsair HX1050 with plenty of power. My S1s are over clocked. PS - don't start!!!!  +1 for Corsair CX600M I've got exactly the same model, and it works well for me too. AUD$118 from ebay with free shipping. |
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If that is sitting on the carpet, i'd put something between that carpet and the miner. even card board would be ok. anything to insulate it from the carpet. Potential for static discharge is great.
Thanks for the warning. I just cut a panel of carboard from the box and placed it under the miner, ensuring to ground myself before touching it. I'd rather not fool around with altcoins if all I'm going to do is trade them for BTC. It could be more profitable, but it requires an extra layer of micromanagement and complexity. I'd rather just contribute to the bitcoin network. I unplugged MinePeon for a few reasons. It's messy, it requires too many power points, and -- in spite of Neil's best efforts -- remains unstable for me. I've just had enough of it. |
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Going down swinging My Antminer S1 and Corsair power supply both arrived today. Although I updated this in the OP, I've been saving this one as a bit of a secret, and now it's time to reveal! Setup was relatively easy. The only real trick is shorting the motherboard connector. I used a short piece of hook-up wire and some electrical tape. It didn't work first go, so be sure to test the PSU with a fan before you hook up the S1. Additionally, the length of cable between the two PCIe connectors from the PSU was *just* long enough to connect. My miner's IP was set to 192.168.1.xx so it integrated immediately with my home network. Just needed to plug the Cat6 in. I ported my pool settings from MinePeon, which was very easy. Performance is great. Hashing at 180 GH/s almost immediately. Only downside is that the PSU and Antminer fans are a bit loud. I may have to relocate it to the patch cupboard. My BitFury USB ASICs are unplugged, and I plan to sell them.
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Thanks for the reply. My hub is a D-Link DUB-H7, so it looks like I could only fit four.
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 For sale: 2x D-Link DUB-H7 7-port powered USB 2.0 hub. Ideal for USB ASICs including Block Erupters; Antminer U1 and U2; Blue and Red Fury devices. The power supplies operate on universal voltage: 100-240V One power supply is Australian; the other is European -- but I'll throw in a free adapter for Australian buyers. Fully compatible with MinePeon/Raspberry Pi. USB cable included. Full Disclosure: the power supplies provide up to 3A which is enough to power six USB devices. However, if the devices have BIG heatsinks, you'll only be able to fit four. In other words, you won't be able to use all seven ports for miners. The two "fast charge" ports don't have any effect on miners. |
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Website is back up, but in Firefox I needed to hit Escape to stop it trying to load before I could get to the next screen. I got an Order Details email, and my order is listed as Paid -- but no confirmation or shipping notification.
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I'm using Armory 0.90-beta with bitcoind 0.9.0. I don't believe I've ever used rcpssl -- but I'm not sure. I have an encrypted online wallet, and an offline wallet. Could my wallets be compromised?
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Serious buyer, please check PMs.
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Are the power supply units universal, ie 100-240V?
Also, would you ship internationally to Australia?
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Looking for a seller who can ship to Australia. New or used. I need the version with 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Price negotiable. Will pay extra for tracked shipping.
Also interested in purchasing a compatible power supply unit.
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