Dear Doctor,

Thank you for pointing me toward power as a probable issue!

I read the link you give above and checked the brick that came with my ANKER HUB. It is a "MyPowerSwitching Adapter PS601BCAY 5000S", rated Output is 12 volts at 5000ma.

This should have been be able to power three (or more) sticks. I am drawing 100 ma per stick, for a total of 300 ma.  That is less that one half amp. And the Brick is "nominally" capable of 5 amps. But as was pointed out by the comment you linked me to, some bricks work better than others.

I decided that the "switching" part of that brick might be the offending element, and just ordered at a cost of less than $10, the brick indicated in the comment I read as a good reliable source of power for these HUBS.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VE7GQQ/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

When I get the new power brick I will hook it up and report the results back here.

Meanwhile, I just want to report to all that I discovered a valuable set of free tools available at www.nirsoft.net One of them "USB DEVIEW" shows me in a clear table format all the USB connections active in the machine and those that are running COM ports which it identifies by COM Port Number.

The other program is extremely informative, and it is called "SmartSniff". It shows in real time who is connecting, their protocol, and with what message or instructions (ie the packets content). I have had great difficulty, especially with Microsoft and with other outfits like Google, Amazon, and others which are obscure, with getting "disconnected" by ICMP, UDP, and other "remote" signals.  The Bit mining will be going fine for a while, and then everything stops and all LED lights are solid green.  Microsoft in particular and Amazon Technologies are pests constantly in the background partition messing about. (Also something called "Softlayer").

The immediate solution I am using for now is to use "Outpost Security" to block various IPs, and a VPN called "Hide My Ass" to encrypt and redirect all my communications through Poland. It slows down my work rate a bit, but keeps the machine "up" all day.

I think the longer term fix is to get out of Windows altogether (too many back doors) and into a Linux distribution like "Mint" for example.

Rick 



 

Thank you for the good on/off advice. I also tend to push too fast, and not give the puter a chance to respond before confusing it with a new command or keystroke.

Right now I am getting aprox 1 GHs with three 330MHs sticks in an ANKER USB v3.0 HUB. Using the very comfortable (for me) and assuring bitminter GUI with the dynamic meter and verbose commenting screen.  I tried to put in a fourth stick (nine slots are available) but the fourth stick is "found" then goes inactive and will not boot. I thought the problem might be a mismatch on speed of transmission between my old DELL XP which uses USB v2.0 connectors. So I ordered a PCI adapter card from Hong Kong ($9.95) to upgrade the PC to USB v3.0 connectors that will make it in synch with the ANKER HUB.  Here is the link I used for that order:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Port-5Gbps-Superspeed-USB-3-0-PCI-E-PCI-Express-Card-Adapter-for-XP-Vista-Win7-/290877977758?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160

Hopefully when I match the speed of the HUB with a corresponding high speed card it will allow me to load the nine slots eventually and increase my contribution to the pool rate.


Rick

Totally New. (Although years ago I was one of the first programmers - PL/1, HASP, JCL, FORTRAN4, UNIX, etc. 1970-71 on the IBM 360 (and had experience with the 1401 (vacuum tubes just before they were replaced then!)  

After some weeks of exploring now, buying a Raspberry Pi for self training, trying many sites I am here now at Bitminter.com with a Windows XP SP2 machine running the Bitminter client, and an ANKER Hub with one stick going (finally!) After reading the specs of the CP2102 chip and then finding the http:/www,ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm site and downloading the Icarus driver I finally got the one stick to work in the new hub. (Working now at 325 Mhps).  As we used to say in the day when the main IBM 360 computer at AO Smith where I worked had only 11 kb of memory in it!! "I pushed a line through".

So, at 350 Mhps I am now at least "In the game", but tiny tiny tiny, and frankly you newer younger people are way smarter programmers than we were. (But then we were cutting the tree line back, hard work with many coke cans and late nights and "blatties" on the desk tops.

REQUEST HELP: I am having trouble though getting the other four sticks to work in this hub  (a "9 hole" w/ fan) when I add them to the hub. (Hub is powered 5 v, 3.5 amps capacity running as USB 2, but it is a 3) I would like to get in touch with a stick miner who has time for a newbie. When I put them in the hub they show up in the device manager as ports (most of them, with one always seemingly trying to be a "duplicate port" and not working with an exclamation point because it is duplicating another com port I can not find). The bitminter client is not picking up on all these sticks when "probing all" is tried.

I like the idea of a pool with its own minter. I am looking at the Bitcoin for the long haul (very long).

My career was in top level management consulting and I know there are four stages of development: formulation / concentration / momentum / maturity, and Bitcoin is not really even started yet!

Pools are important and will eventually drive out single operators. They are the new "banks" with the members being volunteer members of the staff who have a stake in pool success and showing they have the positions they deserve by their "productivity". I am aware that in this pool the PC is totally open to the sysop. Fine with me. Eventually there won't be any personal stuff in my miner anyway. But TRUST inside the pool is important.

This is a transformation the world has been waiting for for the last 500 years. This is time to jump in make a strong commitment to the pool, and make it a strong pool. There will be shake outs ahead, Pools with strong teams will win in those shake outs. Sort of like a new banking industry of a sort is growing up.  I love the concept of members competing with each other for speed and efficiency.

And if I have the right figures in hand with only 11 million BTC produced to date, and the number of BTC that must be getting "lost" in system crashes, security issues, and negligence, and all the newbie mistakes being made daily, there is a lot of mining "upside" in view. I do not "buy" that the day is almost "over". I see it as barely daybreak of the first day with about 500 years ahead! (Things will change again in AD 2500)
 
Barriers to entry are stiff, mainly knowledge. I wrote up my initial try and small first success in first post. This is number 2.  If there is a stick miner out there who is ahead of me (but not so far ahead I would be wasting his time) I would like to develop a email link up with you. Mission: build as fast as possible upon  success, not "jumping" to light speed for "bucks" before "understanding" is there along with the performance. My email is qigrisu@earthlink.net, name is "Rick"

Good to be here. I will keep reading meanwhile looking for stick miners.

R

I am "totally NEW" to this cryptocurrency revolution. And it is just that - a revolution! I am happy to share with you an experience I had yesterday, the first successful mining I have had after weeks of frustration trying to "get going".

I bought a "block eruptor", sometimes being called a "USB Miner", for my desktop, and the guy who sold it to me helped me to start it up. He sent several suggestions over a day or two as I struggled along. As a result I had lots of notes.  When I finally got the thing going yesterday (20131015) it was a pure "joy". And as I write this I am listening to the audio noises of the proofs of work being accepted by my pool.   

I have organized and extracted from my notes and his thoughtful advice a short memo below that should enable you to get mining yourself if you have not yet achieved that, and want to. 

Good luck, and God bless. I think this is going to change our world, and heavens only knows it needs some of that!  - Risu

<hr>


SUBJECT:   HOW TO GET UP AND RUNNING WITH YOUR NEW BLOCK ERUPTOR
DATE:   10/26/13 RISU

TO MAKE YOUR LIFE A LITTLE BIT SMOOTHER HERE ARE SOME SIMPLE TO FOLLOW
You are going to need a WALLET ,  your ASIC Drivers for your new Block Eruptor,  a  POOL Account,  and MINING SOFTWARE to enable you to start mining for Bitcoin. 

BITCOIN WALLET

• As you, mine for Bitcoin the “wallet” will be the place you store your earnings: You are going to need a BITCOIN WALLET first so let’s first get your BITCOIN WALLET set up and going.
  
• If you already have that good. If not go to: bitcoin.org and download the original Bitcoin wallet from that web site. The exact site to download your wallet is: http://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet   At the bottom left choose “Bitcoin-QT”, download, and install it.
  
• Once your WALLET is installed and running it will take some time (maybe even more than a day) for it to download and come up to date on the Bitcoin database of transactions. From now on whenever your PC is running let your WALLET run and be updating always, and it will be “synchronizing” in the background.  I suggest you assign it to start automatically whenever you turn on your computer.
  
• Make sure once you install it, you select “encrypt wallet” from the menu.  Use a strong password and do not lose this password, you cannot recover your wallet without it. Do research on Google or another search engine to find out the best practices about your wallet such as backing it up and securing it.  In time, your Bitcoin wallet will be as valuable to you as a small wallet with gold in it.  It is the new “cash”, and just as with cash, it you drop it out of your pocket it is gone forever!
  

ASIC DRIVERS FOR YOUR NEW BLOCK ERUPTOR

• The miner program is the way you will earn new BITCOIN. It is a program that has been developed in “open course” which permits you to do research and find the exact coding for the program if you are a programmer and want to know more about what it does exactly.  The latest version contains all the latest programming by the programmers who cooperate with each other to develop the program and keep it humming at top effectiveness!
  
• Download and install the drivers for the ASICminer Block Eruptors here:
  http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx
  
• You also need at this point to hook up your new Block Eruptor you bought from us to your computer. You will notice that your new device has a USB (Universal Serial Bus) plug at its termination.  HOWEVER, and this is IMPORTANT, these devices run so fast they can get hot with the current flowing through them. So, rather than hooking it into the female USB slot on your computer, it is best to purchase and use a “USB HUB” and connect that to your computer, then connect the Block to the HUB.
  
• (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIKFqdoe22Q )  Short film showing a Block Eruptor or “USB MINER” as it is sometimes called.
  
• IT IS ADVISED NOT TO PLUG THE DEVICE DIRECTLY INTO A COMPUTER USB PORT AS THEY CAN HEAT UP AND YOU NEVER WANT TO TAKE A CHANCE OF DAMAGING YOUR COMPUTER PORT.  IF YOU USE A USB HUB THE MOST THAT CAN EVER HAPPEN IS DAMAGING THE USB WHICH IS CHEAP TO REPLACE.
  
• IN ADDITION, IF YOU ARE USING MULTIPLE BLOCK ERUPTORS MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ADEQUATE AIRFLOW AND SPACING BETWEEN THE PLUG IN ERUPTORS AND THAT PREFERABLY YOU ARE USING A FAN TO COOL THEM.  SOME HUBS ARE MANUFACTURED IN A WAY THAT LETS YOU STACK ERUPTORS VERY CLOSE TO ONE ANOTHER AND WITHOUT ADEQUATE COOLING YOU MAY DAMAGE THE USB MINERS. 
  
• Now you must reboot the computer. This will enable all the software and the new hardware to get to “know each other” by being linked and indexed inside your computer registry.
  

MINING SOFTWARE

• Now you can go get the software program that you will be using to actually download and work on transactions.  There are many types of programs in use, but I recommend that you begin with one that has a wonderful GUI or “Graphical User Interface”. That is much easier to deal with for most new users than the typical black DOS screen that looks intimidating to all but the techies!  What we are doing in this this step is downloading and installing a program that downloads “work”, or transactions that need to be encapsulated with a HASH value that meets a certain specification to qualify its block as a “Coin”.
  I am going to advise that you begin using a good MINER program from “BITMINTER”. 
  
• Go to:  https://bitminter.com/   There you will see at the top the MENU bar. Select Tools | Bitminterclient | Latest (autoupdate)
  
• Download and install the latest Version onto your PC.
  
  
• Again, reboot your computer to be sure all the programs and the new hardware is aware of each other in your system.  Sometime you will find that what you are expecting does not happen. If you are using strong Firewalls or anti-virus programs it might be the case you will need to reboot more than once to make sure all the programs and hardware alignments take place.
  
• When working with new tech  you will  find that “walk around the block” can prevent “mental lockup”.  Going to the kitchen and fixing a cup of coffee or tea is sometimes preferable than punching buttons and cold sweating. Do not worry, the GNU software you are using is “solid as a rock”, and everything will begin to work fine after a while. Just keep on keeping on, re-reading your instructions, and persisting until you “punch a line through” (*as the older programmers used to say),  and soon you will be exhilarated to find that you are running a mining operation!
  
• So I suggest you start mining with Bitminter Software first that has a good GUI  for you to use., and then perhaps “bfgminer” later as you gain experiences.
  POOL ACCOUNT
  Well now, you are almost ready to rumble!
  
• Bitcoin is being mined now with rising “difficulty” (see: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/ So that you can experience the success, I advise that you begin by being enrolled in a “Bit Mining Pool”. The one that is often recommend is SLUSH’s.  As you gain experience, you may want to try other pools, including Bitminter. Up to you, the road ahead is yours to navigate.
  
• If you have not yet MINED and you want to, I hope that by sharing this with you it will make it easier for you to get that first MINING success.