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THIS THREAD IS INTENDED AS A TUTORIAL AND SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE NEW TO BTC MINING WHO ARE HAVING TROUBLE GETTING THEIR ANTMINER U1 TO MINE!

So you've got a new ANTMINER, but you don't know how to get it mining? You've come to the right place! Lets get you started.

There are 2 methods that I'm going to outline, the main difference is that one is cheaper and safer to leave running 24/7, but either method will work fine.

Method 1

This method lets you mine bitcoins using your miner and your computer (Windows), and is fairly simple and easy to set up. Firstly, what you need to do is get mining software. The software I'd recommend for this is bfgminer. Go to http://bfgminer.org/ to get the latest version. The version I was working with for this tutorial was 4.9.0, but any version should be fine. Simply download it, and extract it to a new folder.

Then you'll need to install a driver so that your computer can recognize the miner. Simply go to http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/pages/usbtouartbridgevcpdrivers.aspx and get the one appropriate for your version of Windows. Extract the zip file and install the driver.

You now need to find a mining pool that you like. The pool I will be using for this example will be slush's pool. You can find it at mining.bitcoin.cz. Just sign up for an account and make a note of your username, worker name and worker password, and also the url of your chosen pool. These are very important, without them you can't mine! (You could mine solo if you wish, but the returns would not be worth the electricity you spend, given the low hash rate of the U1.)

This is the part that'll get you ready to mine. Open up Notepad. We are going to create a batch file to launch bfgminer with the correct settings. Just copy and paste the following line:

Code:

bfgminer.exe -o http://api.bitcoin.cz:8332 -u USER.WORKER -p PASS -S antminer:all --set-device antminer:clock=x0781

This is the code I would use for mining, however you will need to modify it for your needs.

Code:

http://api.bitcoin.cz:8332

will need to be changed to the url of your pool,

Code:

USER

will need changing to your username,

Code:

WORKER

will need changing to your worker name, and finally

Code:

PASS

must be changed to the password of your worker.

You may also overclock your miner if you wish. This will increase the hash rate of your miner, but it will make it get hotter, it could damage it, and IT WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY! If you wish to overclock it, look at where it says

Code:

--set-device antminer:clock=x0781

. To overclock your miner, simply change

Code:

x0781

according to the table below:

Hash Rate	Code
1.6GH/s	x0781
1.8GH/s	x0881
2.0GH/s	x0981
2.2GH/s	x0A81

Then, go to File->Save As... and navigate to where you extracted bfgminer. Save the file as "FILENAME.bat", where FILENAME can be anything; the important part is the file extension, ".bat".

Then, plug in your miner, run FILENAME.bat, and you should be mining bitcoins!

Method 2

This method is the cheaper method. It doesn't require your computer to be running all day consuming many watts of power. However it does require a Raspberry Pi, and a HDMI compatible monitor. These little microcomputers can be picked up for about £20-£30, and they run on a phone charger.

Once you have your Raspberry Pi, you'll need an SD Card to flash a mining operating system called Minepeon onto. Get your SD Card and SD Card reader, plug into your computer and download 2 things.

Win32 Disk Imager (http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/files/latest/download)
Minepeon (http://sourceforge.net/projects/minepeon/files/latest/download?source=files)

Simply run Win32 Disk Imager and use it to write the .img file of Minepeon to your SD Card. This takes about 5-10 minutes.

Insert the SD Card, hook your raspi up to your chosen monitor (mine is a TV) using a HDMI cable and start the raspi. You will be greeted with a login screen. The default username is minepeon and the default password is peon.

This step is only required if you will be using a WiFi adapter instead of an Ethernet cable. Type 0 at the interface to get to the command line. Then type

Code:

sudo wicd-curses

and use peon as the password if you are asked. At the new interface, press SHIFT+P to get to the preferences, go to the line that reads "Wireless Interface" and type wlan0. Press F10 to return to the previous screen and then SHIFT+R to refresh. Your network should appear in the list. Go to it and press the RIGHT ARROW to edit the config for it. Go down to "Key" and put in your WiFi password. Press F10 and then SHIFT+C to connect to the network. Make a note of the IP address in the bottom right. You can then press SHIFT+Q to exit.

If you don't already know the IP Address (you need to know it) you can find it by exiting to the command line, typing

Code:

su

and the password

Code:

peon

to login as the superuser. You should have the IP Address given to you on-screen.

You then need to update the in-built version of bfgminer on Minepeon. From the command line, if you are not already the superuser, do

Code:

su

and enter the password peon. Then run each of the following lines of code in turn:

Code:

sudo su
wget http://luke.dashjr.org/programs/bitcoin/files/bfgminer/3.10.0/bfgminer-3.10.0.tbz2
tar -xvf bfgminer-3.10.0.tbz2
cd bfgminer-3.10.0/
./configure
make
mv /opt/minepeon/bin/bfgminer /opt/minepeon/bin/bfgminer.old
cp bfgminer /opt/minepeon/bin/bfgminer
exit

If you are sent back to the main interface, simply select "reboot" from the menu, otherwise type

Code:

sudo reboot

to restart the Raspberry Pi (NEVER just unplug the power supply, this can corrupt your SD Card and it isn't healthy for the Raspberry Pi!).

Then things get easy again. Just go onto a computer connected to the same network as your raspberry pi. Once the pi has booted up again, go onto a web browser on your computer and type in the IP Address you got earlier. You will be asked for a username and password, which are minepeon and peon by default. You may be given a security error, just ignore this and find out how to bypass it in your browser. You may be asked to enter your username and password again.

You should be given a nice GUI with graphs and tables. At the top, click the tab that says "Pools". In here, enter the information for your mining pool (if you need to know how to set one up, check Method 1). Save the settings and then click on the "Settings" tab. Scroll down to "Miner Startup Settings" and click the "Default bfgminer" button. We need to make a few quick adjustments to this now. Where it says

Code:

-S all

change it to

Code:

-S antminer:all

Then add

Code:

--set-device antminer:clock=x0781

to the end of the line. You can use this last part to overclock the miner, just change "x0781" according to the table below:

Hash Rate	Code
1.6GH/s	x0781
1.8GH/s	x0881
2.0GH/s	x0981
2.2GH/s	x0A81

Be warned: Overclocking can damage your miner.

Then just click save and return the the "Status" tab. Click the Reboot button and you will be given a 60 second timer. When it restarts, give the Raspberry Pi 10 seconds, and your U1 should appear on the table of devices, with a nice hash rate next to it. You are now mining.

The advantage of this method is that it has a low power consumption, and it can be combined with a low-power USB Hub to get many more USB miners plugged in (my USB Hub goes up to 4).

If this tutorial has helped you out, feel free to donate a small amount of what you earn from it Grin

My bitcoin address is 1DUrDhL2kF2WWysTW5zJk5vsk7nEcvrCci

Thank you for reading, and I hope it helped.