[Review] Avalon 4.1 Miner- Summer Mining - Notlist3d

[adaseb]

I really wish

1) They would of included the controller inside the case like an S5.

2) Was priced cheaper



I don't understand why they don't just mass produce this miner, sell it cheaper then Bitmain's S5 and make millions. Instead selling small quantites but larger profit margins.

[notlist3d]

I really wish

1) They would of included the controller inside the case like an S5.

2) Was priced cheaper

I don't understand why they don't just mass produce this miner, sell it cheaper then Bitmain's S5 and make millions. Instead selling small quantites but larger profit margins.

Well I cant argue on price.  I would love to have more of these if it drops.  There are some things that are not comparable with S5 such a the quality metal case.   They have been able to utilize the case to make it very quiet. The S5 does not come with a metal case enclosure, but that saves you money.  So it has plus and minus either way you go.

I can say is the external Raspberry Pi is actually not bad at all not being integrated.  It would actually be nice if you had multiple miners having them all on the one controller.  Most important thing is it being stable for me, and so far the raspberry pi with their custom image does this.

I would consider their external controller a success after testing.  I have had others such as a SilverFish 28 were the sharing of a controller was a pain and caused stability issues.  So far very stable and no control issues.  It is also nice knowing if I ever need another controller I can get a regular Raspberry Pi and not some custom controller.  That is a huge plus to me.

[philipma1957]

The rasp pi is rock solid with 3 miners.  I have a spare rasp pi and 3 spare  pre programed sdcards.

I love that it is an external controller.

Brick a controller  on an  s-1 s-2 s-3 s-4 s-5  c1   and you lose your gear for a while.  Well if you have 2 s-5's you can run 4 boards on 1 controller.

All spondoolies gear the controller dies the gear is dead.

I would like 4 pools not 3 pools
I would like the balanced pool option to work.

But the truth is just make them cheaper.  A set of 3 for 1200 usd shipped not 1600 would be good.

[notlist3d]

Well I'm not getting the summer weather quite as much as I thought it would be this week.  It has been a good test of going through quite a bit of range of temperature.  Tonight has been the coldest with an ambient temp of mid 50's outside.  It is the lowest RPM the fan has gone.  I can vouch that the miner has did a good job with a changing ambient temp.

*Turns out time was set wrong, has been fixed. Noticed it when looking at image.  In future will show proper time.

[Meech]

I really wish

1) They would of included the controller inside the case like an S5.

2) Was priced cheaper



I don't understand why they don't just mass produce this miner, sell it cheaper then Bitmain's S5 and make millions. Instead selling small quantites but larger profit margins.

Apparently until they get the price right or deliver a better product ahead of the competition we wil be hit with a higher price.  Avalon isn't geared up and able to afford huge runs of chips and components until they have a winner that makes profit to do so in the future.  For now they have to stick to small quantities and higher prices.  Better marketing would definitely help them and other suppliers not just one.

[notlist3d]

Looks like around midweek I will be able to test again in more ambient temps of "summer" mining.  We had a cooler week this week so it was still cooler the most of summer will be.   But will be mid 70's to 80's to come soon.

[crazyearner]

Looks like around midweek I will be able to test again in more ambient temps of "summer" mining.  We had a cooler week this week so it was still cooler the most of summer will be.   But will be mid 70's to 80's to come soon.

Summer is indeed near and avalons gonna kick some heat out of them as to the old avlaon units do kick out some heat and need goo cooling.. You might want to do some mods to the units them self to see if you can channel airflow better and get some air cons running in room to drop temperatures down as best as can get. Or use for heating at night if cool open doors across the house and channel it with pipe work and have free avalon heating xD

[notlist3d]

I still have some more things to try out.  I have been happy with testing right now it has been easier then I planned with colder weather then I expected.

But I am happy with results of running the Raspberry Pi with the custom ddwrt Avalon image.  It has been very stable.  I don't think I will even try the TP-Link as I'm so happy with Raspberry PI.

On a side note if you do go TP-Link route make sure to get the newer model: TP-LINK TL-WR703N  I thought I had 2 sitting in my part's but TP-LINK TL-WR702 has no usb besides the one to power it. So no full usb to connect the Avalon to.

[notlist3d]

More to come with this review.   Today I ended up moving it to one of my mining areas.   In my room I had it in the corner to close to wall heat was building up from exhaust going at a corner in 70ish degree ambient.  Nothing dangerous just uncomfortable when windows were closed.  The summer weather seems to finally be coming.

I moved some miners around. Now it is sending exhaust outside and seems happy .

[notlist3d]

Have my summer plan drawn out.  Still need to work on it and buy some things.  But the exhaust system will be enough for my "hobby".  Just wanted to make sure I was not paying for AC on my miners.   

This miner will end up there eventually. I'm guessing it will take me around a month or so with free time to complete wiring, fan's and exhust.  Will be first time I have not put miners in multiple areas.  It's kinda on back burner not my main project right now.

As far as this review hopefully within the next 2 weeks or so I will have another one or two to test and show multiple working together.

[mavericklm]

Standard power supply with 4 PCI-E 6 Pin adapters (up to 1000 watts depending on setting, also at underclocked you only need 2 PCI-e cables(One on each blade).)

so the power connectors are bridged on each blade; sp20 has 1conector for 2asics

how many units can you connect to a Raspberry Pi?

does the miner have a buzzer? like the s3....

[notlist3d]

Standard power supply with 4 PCI-E 6 Pin adapters (up to 1000 watts depending on setting, also at underclocked you only need 2 PCI-e cables(One on each blade).)

so the power connectors are bridged on each blade; sp20 has 1conector for 2asics

how many units can you connect to a Raspberry Pi?

does the miner have a buzzer? like the s3....

The two blades each have their own PCI-e power connecters.    If you OC'ed you would need all 4 but since I'm running a underclock at around 550 Watts it just is not needed.

On units you can control Ehash describe it as "You can also manage 13 clusters by connecting controllers to USB HUB, with hash rate up to 152T.".   In real life I was running 1 and it used around 3 percent of CPU of Raspberry PI.  In next week or two when I have another to test with I will give a better idea of what happens to Raspberry PI with more then 1 unit.  (I am thinking it's safe to say it's more then a individual will ever use, but I cannot verify that).

No buzzer that I have heard also it would take away from the quiet if it had one.  The usb cord and front panel let you know if it's working fine with using the lights.  Also if you had a bad unit, and lots hooked up in the software it allows you to turn off the led so you could find which unit it is.

[alh]

Have my summer plan drawn out.  Still need to work on it and buy some things.  But the exhaust system will be enough for my "hobby".  Just wanted to make sure I was not paying for AC on my miners.   

This miner will end up there eventually. I'm guessing it will take me around a month or so with free time to complete wiring, fan's and exhust.  Will be first time I have not put miners in multiple areas.  It's kinda on back burner not my main project right now.

As far as this review hopefully within the next 2 weeks or so I will have another one or two to test and show multiple working together.

Could you elaborate on the "exhaust" that you have worked out? I completely understand the idea of exhausting the hot/warm air. What is it replaced with? Outside air? Or is replaced with AC cooled air?

[mavericklm]

Sounds like a very engineered miner

Maybe in the future i will own one or 2, but the efficiency will be worse with newer miners... time will tell!

[notlist3d]

Have my summer plan drawn out.  Still need to work on it and buy some things.  But the exhaust system will be enough for my "hobby".  Just wanted to make sure I was not paying for AC on my miners.   

This miner will end up there eventually. I'm guessing it will take me around a month or so with free time to complete wiring, fan's and exhust.  Will be first time I have not put miners in multiple areas.  It's kinda on back burner not my main project right now.

As far as this review hopefully within the next 2 weeks or so I will have another one or two to test and show multiple working together.

Could you elaborate on the "exhaust" that you have worked out? I completely understand the idea of exhausting the hot/warm air. What is it replaced with? Outside air? Or is replaced with AC cooled air?

Currently my miners are where AC can be used to cool them down.  But I've started to get quotes on electricity to put them all in one area.   

If I have all in one area my plan is to use enough CFM to keep hot exhaust going out and replace the air.   I current plan is a high cfm fan to help it work.   One duct bringing in outside air, a inline fan up in air taking hot air and it leading to a duct fan to exhaust.

This could change greatly as i get it done and see how it works in real world.   And if all else fails I can leave miners where they are but then AC is being used.

[notlist3d]

Sounds like a very engineered miner

Maybe in the future i will own one or 2, but the efficiency will be worse with newer miners... time will tell!

It is a very well engineered miner.   As far as current gen it's hard to beat if you go to the extreme overclock not many can go to .4X range.   I currently am in .5X range as it seems pretty well balanced on getting around 950 GHs and using not to much electricity.

[notlist3d]

I am preparing a little bit ahead.    In next week or two I will be testing more then one. So today one of my goals was to test a usb hub.

I ended up going to my parts closet and found a 5 port usb non-powered hub (generic inexpensive hub).  Plug it into Raspberry Pi and then the one Avalon 4.1 I have into it.  Worked perfect It's now mining away on a hub, did not slow down mining or any bad things.   

[philipma1957]

I am preparing a little bit ahead.    In next week or two I will be testing more then one. So today one of my goals was to test a usb hub.

I ended up going to my parts closet and found a 5 port usb non-powered hub (generic inexpensive hub).  Plug it into Raspberry Pi and then the one Avalon 4.1 I have into it.  Worked perfect It's now mining away on a hub, did not slow down mining or any bad things.   

they can daisychain using only 1 usb port.

I ran 3 all daisy chained 

[valkir]

I am preparing a little bit ahead.    In next week or two I will be testing more then one. So today one of my goals was to test a usb hub.

I ended up going to my parts closet and found a 5 port usb non-powered hub (generic inexpensive hub).  Plug it into Raspberry Pi and then the one Avalon 4.1 I have into it.  Worked perfect It's now mining away on a hub, did not slow down mining or any bad things.   

Just plug them in chain like Philipma explain!    You can run up to 127 avalon in chain. 

[alh]

I don't think a Raspberry Pi USB does well with an unpowered hub. The power that a Raspberry Pi USB port can supply is very limited. While it may have worked with 1 device, and the hub itself, adding devices will just drag down the +5V that the Raspberry Pi tries to supply to the hub. Maybe the Avalon is REALLY low current and it will all work just fine. I just know things get unreliable real quick when the +5V on a Raspberry Pi isn't nice and well regulated at 5.0 (or a smidge higher). I had a variety of reliability problems with a Raspberry Pi setup and a hub, and they all just disappeared when I supplied the hub and the Pi from an ATX +5v line. Fighting power problems is REALLY frustrating in my experience.