Asteroid -- a new Mac mining client (0.9.7)

[cytron]

Hello there, i'm new to asteroid, and I seem to have a problem with it..

The app is telling me i'm mining at 7MH/s, while my pool indicates a hashrate of 12kh/s... I don't understand what's my problem..

[Karin]

Hello there, i'm new to asteroid, and I seem to have a problem with it..

The app is telling me i'm mining at 7MH/s, while my pool indicates a hashrate of 12kh/s... I don't understand what's my problem..

Hey cytron, my guess is that you are using a non-US locale, which confuses Asteroid when it tries to read "7,00 kh/s" for example (versus "7.00 kh/s").  This is my fault and better international support will be coming in an upcoming version.

If I'm wrong though please let me know and we'll look at other possibilities.

[Karin]

Asteroid 0.9.7 is now out
Download here or run "Check for updates..." from the in-app Asteroid menu

Among the biggest changes is the addition of live coin balances!  Enter the API key from your pool's webpage and you'll see live balances in Asteroid of what you have currently mined.  Also changed is the switch to sgminer for all scrypt mining.  sgminer seems to be the spiritual successor to cgminer 3.7.2 insofar as scrypt mining, and it has already seen a number of bug fixes and improvements -- one of which is the ability to choose between 5 different kernels.  The Asteroid website will track these kernels for you, and as always, recommend the best kernel and other settings for you to use based on the contributions of other users (16,000 scrypt setting submissions to date).

Redesigned pool setup sheet:

Change log is as follows:

• Live coin balance monitoring
• Added new mining engine, sgminer, for scrypt mining
• Can now pick which kernel to use for scrypt mining
• Improvements and bugfixes to community scrypt settings
• Full support for multiple GPUs
• Mac OS X Notification Center support
• Updated mining engine to cgminer 3.12.3
• Devices remember on/off state between launches
• Redesigned pool editing sheet
• Added a command-line options window
• Added international support for non-US number formats
• Reduced CPU usage when Asteroid window is closed
• Added checkbox to turn off autostarting mining
• Added Asteroid log to console window
• Fixes for "Initializing miner..." and more
• Countless bugfixes and tweaks

Please remember that Asteroid does not need any extra drivers or installs of any kind, nor any knowledge of the command-line!  True plug-and-play.  And one of my favourite new features?



Asteroid is one of the few pieces of bitcoin software written in an interpreted language, meaning the code you read on your screen is the code that your computer executes -- there are no fully compiled intermediaries apart from the mining engines themselves (cgminer, sgminer, etc) which are also open-source.  So if you wonder how Asteroid does something, just go to "View source code" from the Asteroid menu and it will pop up.  Feel free to edit it, save it, and re-run Asteroid to see your coding changes.

[film2240]

Can you add support for my DualMiner ASIC with all mining modes (BTC only,LTC only and BTC/LTC combo mining) asap as I really want to try this out/get started quickly/reliably on my mac?

Thanks

[Karin]

Can you add support for my DualMiner ASIC with all mining modes (BTC only,LTC only and BTC/LTC combo mining) asap as I really want to try this out/get started quickly/reliably on my mac?

Thanks

They haven't yet released the source code they're using (possibly contravening the software license), but I've sent them an email and we'll see what they say.  Thanks for the feedback via PM too, it's good to hear this is a real device.

[ladycor]

Hi there. Excuse my absolute noob-ness. I have a Macbook Pro with an Intel 4000 card and have tried to run Asteriod to mine Litecoins and Dogecoins. The max rate I can seem to get is 13 or 14 kh/s. Is this the limit of my card/laptop or is it possible to get a better rate? I am in the US on US pool servers.

Thanks!

[Karin]

Hi there. Excuse my absolute noob-ness. I have a Macbook Pro with an Intel 4000 card and have tried to run Asteriod to mine Litecoins and Dogecoins. The max rate I can seem to get is 13 or 14 kh/s. Is this the limit of my card/laptop or is it possible to get a better rate? I am in the US on US pool servers.

Thanks!

According to the scrypt database on the Asteroid site, people are generally getting around 21kh/s with that device.  You may just need to increase the intensity you are mining at, which you can do from the small triangle seen here:



If you increase your intensity too high your computer will bog down and may feel less responsive.  Too low and you may not be getting the best hashrate. 

[ladycor]

Hi there. Excuse my absolute noob-ness. I have a Macbook Pro with an Intel 4000 card and have tried to run Asteriod to mine Litecoins and Dogecoins. The max rate I can seem to get is 13 or 14 kh/s. Is this the limit of my card/laptop or is it possible to get a better rate? I am in the US on US pool servers.

Thanks!

According to the scrypt database on the Asteroid site, people are generally getting around 21kh/s with that device.  You may just need to increase the intensity you are mining at, which you can do from the small triangle seen here:

http://www.asteroidapp.com/images/Change_intensity.png

If you increase your intensity too high your computer will bog down and may feel less responsive.  Too low and you may not be getting the best hashrate. 

Thanks for the advice! On my screen, the intensity defaulted to 10 and I've bumped it up to 12 or 13 and still get a bit shy of 14 kh/s. At this point I do not try to use my machine for anything else. Should I give up on mining until I have a more powerful machine and card?

Thanks again!

[Karin]

Thanks for the advice! On my screen, the intensity defaulted to 10 and I've bumped it up to 12 or 13 and still get a bit shy of 14 kh/s. At this point I do not try to use my machine for anything else. Should I give up on mining until I have a more powerful machine and card?

Thanks again!

It depends what you're mining.  Most serious mining is done with fairly high-end graphics cards, but you may still find it fun to play around in what are called "altcoins", or basically anything that isn't bitcoin / litecoin.  A website like CoinWarz is a great resource for finding what may be profitable and/or worthwhile