Does the name resolve OK on your usual PC? Maybe a minor mis-spelling of the name?

Be prepared to pay with Bitcoin in the Marketplace here, almost never is there any other accepted form of payment.

I think the 10x is an exaggeration for Ebay prices, they might be higher some times. My most recent Bitcoin miner purchase on Ebay was an SP20 for $410. I can assure you there were no $41 SP20's to be had on this forum.

One item of note: The numbers that Phillip comes up with I assume are measured "at the USB connector"  as I understand it. The actual final "at the wall" efficiency won't look as good, since there has to be power supply, and hub losses. These numbers also, except for some early ones, don't include the PC that's running the mining software.

When compared to an S5 for example, where it's all pretty much bundled together,  you only really get to measure the "at the wall" figure. That's I think where the .52W/GH comes from .

Don't get me wrong, this is all really good work. It's just not quite as good as it seems is all.

So in short, your goal is to "optimize" your use of Grid electricity based on time of day pricing. On Sunny days you hope to minimize or eliminate use of grid electricity during the daylight hours.

You are NOT trying to use Solar exclusively for your mining enterprise.

One random thought on this. You might want to consider performing the lower frequency (i.e. lower power) tests before you push onto the higher speed and higher power tests. I say this because I think there is zero risk to the hardware  at the low end, but the higher up the scale you go, somewhere along the line something could go POOF. Once it goes POOF, then you may not be able to test the low end. I am not saying don't ever push the high end, just that with the extremely limited number of these devices, it might make more sense to get the "low end" end data first, and then "go for the MAX".

I completely understand the urge to push the envelope, but it might make sense to adjust the sequence of tests.

I don't understand how a 7 KWH battery can support 4 S5's (well over 2KW) overnight. Isn't the TeslaWall going to go empty about 3 hours after the sun goes down (maybe sooner).

Will the solar panels supply the 2KW for the S5's during the day, AND charge the Tesla Wall? I don't know how much sun you get where you live, but my guess is the Solar + TeslaWall is really better sized for a single (maybe two) S5's, unless you are getting well over 12 hours of full sun per day.

Can you elaborate on how you figured this out, or is it primarily budget driven?

Just the late night update from Minnesota:

Bitcoin Difficulty:    49,692,386,355
Estimated Next Difficulty:    50,640,481,394 (+1.91%)
Adjust time:    After 1444 Blocks, About 10.3 days
Hashrate(?):    348,309,234 GH/s
Block Generation Time(?):    
1 block: 10.2 minutes
3 blocks: 30.8 minutes
6 blocks: 1.0 hours
   
Updated:    2:40 (38.0 seconds ago)

Price: $246 (was $250 earlier in the day)

I am confused as to why "cutting the blue wire" would alter the RPM of a 3-pin fan. My understanding of a 3-pin is as follows:

- Ground: The black wire in all cases I have seen.
- +12V: Usually yellow, maybe Red on some fans?
- Tachometer: Blue wire? This is a signal FROM the fan TO the controller. It allows the controller to "sense" what what the speed of the fan is. Originally used to detect a stalled/broken fan. This is how you can get the RPM on the GUI.

Usually most variable speed fans these days have a 4th wire, which carries pulses TO the fan to control it's speed. Prior to the PWM (aka 4-wire) fans, the controller would have to adjust downward the actual voltage on the +12V line to slow it down.

I'd swear the S5 had 4-wire PWM control logic and connectors for it's fans.

It seems to me that if you want a 3-wire fan to always at full speed, you connect the +12 and Ground wires directly to the power supply, and call it a day. No need to have the controller board get involved at all. This seems particularly attractive if you add a 2nd fan to the S5.

I've read that the S5 can in some cases lower the fan speed and still run the hashing hardware at near full speed. A fan directly wired to the power supply will continue to run at full speed even in this case.

Given the above exchange, it might be useful to include the specific miner model (e.g. SP10, SP35, etc), early on to provide the right context for folks. As best I can tell this thread covers a whole wide gamut of Spondoolies products.

It's going to be critical to understand what your cost per Kilowatt hour is. If it's too high (say $0.15/KWh), then there is NO "economy of scale " that can fix that. Even free mining hardware can't help, if you are spending more in electricity than you are getting BTC.

Electricity cost is really just about your first question to answer.

.........

*crickets*

.............

Probably should be thinking about your 1.6TH when BTCguild closes later this month (i.e. June 30th). Maybe you already know about this, but thought I'd mention it anyway.

Sad to see it go.

Maybe the stick miner should be the U4 in homage to the U1 and U2 series? Or maybe the U2+ ?

While I am sure my recollections are off a bit, other than packaging, is this just about what the original BFL ASIC  miner was supposed to be? USB powered, and 6-8GH? This is better than a Jalapeno in terms of speed, and maybe 1/10 the power draw?

You do, just not as many as you would like..... 

I always find it amusing that a product that is priced in USD, for which virtually none of it's inputs (e.g. chips, assembly, case, controller) are priced in BTC, somehow then is influenced by the price of BTC?

I think they changed the price, "because they can". Who else are you going to buy from, today?

Maybe so Bitmain can have a "Sale" on S5's when the S7 comes out, and they can make the price look better?

Maybe Bitmain wants to get the maximum amount from the S5's they can build from ASIC parts already ordered?

Maybe because there isn't anybody else making a "ready to ship" miner at this time?

I thought that conversion to/from fiat would happen within an Exchange (e.g. Coinbase), and NOT a Bank. I can't see sending BTC to a Bank which they then keep in an account? What would they do with the BTC I sent them? I guess they could bundle up BTC to make a "loan", although they could never lend more BTC than they had "deposits", like they can today. It's really not obvious to me what role a traditional Bank would play in a Bitcoin universe.

I really think the whole mining segment will have a radically different look in 20 years, if Bitcoin doesn't collapse before then. All the existing massive mining infrastructure can't be supported by BTC transaction fees in terms of electricity costs alone. I really have never understood (believed) the "end game" for mining. How many Petahsh and mining companies are really needed to support Bitcoin once it tries to be a currency for real. Right now most folks treat Bitcoin, myself included, like a highly volatile speculative commodity. At this time, as a currency, it blows (to put it bluntly).

Why do banks exist in your model? My simplistic understanding of Bitcoin is that folks have 1 or more wallets and that transactions happen, and nary a bank to be seen in that transaction. Almost every thing I read touting the benefits of Bitcoin proudly proclaim the lack of any kind of "Central bank". It's hard to see that there is service a bank could provide in a Bitcoin universe.

I understand the "Exchange" box, though it seems that it's more of a "Currency converter", and has precious little value beyond that.

While modeling Bitcoin may be interesting, in the long run (i.e. a few decades), the whole mining component largely evaporates. Once most of the 21 million coins are minted (aka mined), then there's no more currency created.

Just to clarify: Bitcoin mining difficulty adjusts after every 2016 blocks. That's supposed to take 14 days. If those 2016 blocks are mined in less than 14 days, then difficulty will increase to try and do the next 2016 blocks in 14 days. If the 2016 blocks take longer than 14 days, then difficulty will decrease, again to bring the next 2016 blocks in right at 14 days.

While it may feel like it's "every few days", it's actually block count based and not time based. If you scroll down a bit on the following page, you can see some past difficulty adjustments and such. Makes for interesting context.

https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty

Minor diversion here: Is it possible to "downclock" a Neptune enough to relieve the pressure on the single PCIe connector for power?