Avalon Nano - Stick Mining Fun!

[notlist3d]

Thanks! You may want to note that it ONLY worked with the BFGminer included in the Avalon package. The core BFG did not recognize them at all.

Thanks! I added a note saying it to question.

Happy Mining!

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[notlist3d]

Review has been added to the Avalon Nano Wiki - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Avalon_nano#Review

[MRKLYE]

Price works out to 0.08BTC for 3.6GH/S.. Wow.

I think the days of USB miners even possibly pulling ROI is completely out of the picture.
I think these are neat little devices.. don't get me wrong. The design is neat and the speed is ok though.
Maybe for a collector of mining hardware or people first getting into BTC it would be ok.. But it will never mine .08BTC.

[notlist3d]

Price works out to 0.08BTC for 3.6GH/S.. Wow.

I think the days of USB miners even possibly pulling ROI is completely out of the picture.
I think these are neat little devices.. don't get me wrong. The design is neat and the speed is ok though.
Maybe for a collector of mining hardware or people first getting into BTC it would be ok.. But it will never mine .08BTC.

This has been discused before in thread a few times:

That is exactly how I describe them: "With this miner chances are it will not be your pick for your next ROI miner.  But I would say is more in the market for someone who want's to learn how about bitcoin mining and doing it for knowledge or experience of mining with spending a smaller amount."

For those learning it is a great little stick miner.

I still stick with it they will be for learning or fun projects.  If you are wanting ROI, stick miners will most likely never be the best option.  Just a lot of hardware for 1 single chip. 

[Lorenzo]

Why only 1-3.6 GH/s?

I'm aware that these aren't supposed to reach ROI but the number still seems quite low since ASICs have advanced quite a bit since 2013. I have 9 Ice Fury stick miners which I bought used back in 2014 and those are capable of >2 GH/s. An S5 is 6 times more powerful than an S1 from the same era.

Article about a stick miner from 2013 capable of 2.6 GH/s:

http://www.coindesk.com/redfury-2-6gh-usb-miner-now-available/

[notlist3d]

Why only 1-3.6 GH/s?

I'm aware that these aren't supposed to reach ROI but the number still seems quite low since ASICs have advanced quite a bit since 2013. I have 9 Ice Fury stick miners which I bought used back in 2014 and those are capable of >2 GH/s. An S5 is 6 times more powerful than an S1 from the same era.

Article about a stick miner from 2013 capable of 2.6 GH/s:

http://www.coindesk.com/redfury-2-6gh-usb-miner-now-available/

You get more in area of 4.38 GHs in real world mining, but it does get a tad hot at that.   I cant say much about redfury I never had one personally.

[TheRealSteve]

Why only 1-3.6 GH/s?

You can get some higher values, the important bit for this one is that it self-throttles really well based on temperature.  The red fury is a relatively large StickMiner with a chunky heat sink that you'd still want to point a fan at.  It does use the BitFury chip, though, and only rev1 (don't think I've seen any around with rev2's on them - the nanofury is a better base design to use for that anyway), which is a pretty efficient little chip.
If you want higher hash rates out of a single chip miner, you'll want to look at GekkoScience's project.

[Ecnad]

Finally got the config set just right so the Avalon Miner program recognizes both of my sticks. They are hashing away at 4.79GH/s each with a Thermaltake A1888 Mobile Fan II keeping them cool

[notlist3d]

Finally got the config set just right so the Avalon Miner program recognizes both of my sticks. They are hashing away at 4.79GH/s each with a Thermaltake A1888 Mobile Fan II keeping them cool

I didn't have active cooling on mine, so thanks for adding this.  Appears activly cooling it gets a even higher hashrate.

I got around 4.38, with active cooling you got 4.79.  So active cooling has added around .41 GH/s.  (unless config is set even better then default this also could have caused it).

Do you mind posting your config Ecnad?  Would love to have it as part of the thread.

[Ecnad]

Finally got the config set just right so the Avalon Miner program recognizes both of my sticks. They are hashing away at 4.79GH/s each with a Thermaltake A1888 Mobile Fan II keeping them cool

I didn't have active cooling on mine, so thanks for adding this.  Appears activly cooling it gets a even higher hashrate.

I got around 4.38, with active cooling you got 4.79.  So active cooling has added around .41 GH/s.  (unless config is set even better then default this also could have caused it).

Do you mind posting your config Ecnad?  Would love to have it as part of the thread.

Sure! Here's the part that Matters:

Code:

[Avalon]
Log=avalon.log
Parameters=-T, -S, ICA:\\\\.\\COM8, -S, ICA:\\\\.\\COM15, --set-device, "ICA:baud=115200", --set-device, "ICA:reopen=timeout", --set-device, "ICA:work_division=1", --set-device, "ICA:fpga_count=1", --set-device, "ICA:probe_timeout=100", --set-device, "ICA:timing=0.22", --api-listen

Change the COM numbers to the ports your Avalons are on and good to go.

[Lorenzo]

Why only 1-3.6 GH/s?

I'm aware that these aren't supposed to reach ROI but the number still seems quite low since ASICs have advanced quite a bit since 2013. I have 9 Ice Fury stick miners which I bought used back in 2014 and those are capable of >2 GH/s. An S5 is 6 times more powerful than an S1 from the same era.

Article about a stick miner from 2013 capable of 2.6 GH/s:

http://www.coindesk.com/redfury-2-6gh-usb-miner-now-available/

You get more in area of 4.38 GHs in real world mining, but it does get a tad hot at that.   I cant say much about redfury I never had one personally.

Why only 1-3.6 GH/s?

You can get some higher values, the important bit for this one is that it self-throttles really well based on temperature.  The red fury is a relatively large StickMiner with a chunky heat sink that you'd still want to point a fan at.  It does use the BitFury chip, though, and only rev1 (don't think I've seen any around with rev2's on them - the nanofury is a better base design to use for that anyway), which is a pretty efficient little chip.
If you want higher hash rates out of a single chip miner, you'll want to look at GekkoScience's project.

Thanks for the explanation (and the link).

I also did a quick comparison of the prices and it seems the Avalon Nano only costs 0.08 BTC while the RedFury cost 0.49 BTC back when it was launched (and also when the BTC/USD exchange rate was much higher than it is today) so the prices for these things have dropped quite a bit as well. Not saying that either would be profitable though since the difficulty has gone up a lot since late 2013.

[TheRealSteve]

Yeah, I've got a bit of a rant on ROI that still applies there

The Avalon Nano is fairly consistently priced at ~$18.50 from the manufacturer; the price in Bitcoin with them is updated automatically.  It is definitely one of the cheapest miners as well, as far as new goes.  Pre-owned or old stock miners can go for cheaper, but this is a pretty solid miner to go for, tight package, nice flat heatspreader.  I think only the iMiner is even nicer for the casual miner (no exposed components at all), but it's relatively expensive and not as easily sourced in AU/EU/RU/US.

[notlist3d]

Finally got the config set just right so the Avalon Miner program recognizes both of my sticks. They are hashing away at 4.79GH/s each with a Thermaltake A1888 Mobile Fan II keeping them cool

I didn't have active cooling on mine, so thanks for adding this.  Appears activly cooling it gets a even higher hashrate.

I got around 4.38, with active cooling you got 4.79.  So active cooling has added around .41 GH/s.  (unless config is set even better then default this also could have caused it).

Do you mind posting your config Ecnad?  Would love to have it as part of the thread.

Sure! Here's the part that Matters:

Code:

[Avalon]
Log=avalon.log
Parameters=-T, -S, ICA:\\\\.\\COM8, -S, ICA:\\\\.\\COM15, --set-device, "ICA:baud=115200", --set-device, "ICA:reopen=timeout", --set-device, "ICA:work_division=1", --set-device, "ICA:fpga_count=1", --set-device, "ICA:probe_timeout=100", --set-device, "ICA:timing=0.22", --api-listen

Change the COM numbers to the ports your Avalons are on and good to go.

Great thank you for addition Ecnad! I will add it to questions it is so good

[notlist3d]

Yeah, I've got a bit of a rant on ROI that still applies there

The Avalon Nano is fairly consistently priced at ~$18.50 from the manufacturer; the price in Bitcoin with them is updated automatically.  It is definitely one of the cheapest miners as well, as far as new goes.  Pre-owned or old stock miners can go for cheaper, but this is a pretty solid miner to go for, tight package, nice flat heatspreader.  I think only the iMiner is even nicer for the casual miner (no exposed components at all), but it's relatively expensive and not as easily sourced in AU/EU/RU/US.

I will be honest I don't think it is horrible either.  If you compare buying 10 block erupters your talking 7-10 dollars each.  So this is around 10 if not more of these to equal a Avalon Nano.  It makes it sound pretty good on price.

To get this for it's price is not really bad.  USB miners are just costly to make a lot of parts for one chip.  But people will always compare to bigger miners, which I can understand as ROI is goal.  But really usb sticks and the big miners are very different markets.

[Mt. Gox]

Finally got the config set just right so the Avalon Miner program recognizes both of my sticks. They are hashing away at 4.79GH/s each with a Thermaltake A1888 Mobile Fan II keeping them cool

I didn't have active cooling on mine, so thanks for adding this.  Appears activly cooling it gets a even higher hashrate.

I got around 4.38, with active cooling you got 4.79.  So active cooling has added around .41 GH/s.  (unless config is set even better then default this also could have caused it).

Do you mind posting your config Ecnad?  Would love to have it as part of the thread.

Wouldn't the extra power consumption required for active cooling negate the benefits of having an increased hashrate?

[notlist3d]

Finally got the config set just right so the Avalon Miner program recognizes both of my sticks. They are hashing away at 4.79GH/s each with a Thermaltake A1888 Mobile Fan II keeping them cool

I didn't have active cooling on mine, so thanks for adding this.  Appears activly cooling it gets a even higher hashrate.

I got around 4.38, with active cooling you got 4.79.  So active cooling has added around .41 GH/s.  (unless config is set even better then default this also could have caused it).

Do you mind posting your config Ecnad?  Would love to have it as part of the thread.

Wouldn't the extra power consumption required for active cooling negate the benefits of having an increased hashrate?

Depends on active cooling.  If using a small usb fan and it can do the job it could be justified.  But if were talking about a big full size desk fan then yes it would far outweigh the gain in power.

[smoothrunnings]

Price works out to 0.08BTC for 3.6GH/S.. Wow.

I think the days of USB miners even possibly pulling ROI is completely out of the picture.
I think these are neat little devices.. don't get me wrong. The design is neat and the speed is ok though.
Maybe for a collector of mining hardware or people first getting into BTC it would be ok.. But it will never mine .08BTC.

Using anything to get ROI from mining bitcoin is impossible today. There is someone mining at Bitminter who has a 500TH setup, do you think he/she will ever hit ROI?

At this stage Bitcoin mining is a hobby for some and a long-term investment for others. No one expected the price to climb to $1200 when it did. It will do it again the question is when. Since the writing is on the wall that the US economy (and it's empire) will crash there is no reason not be mining bitcoin.

[notlist3d]

Price works out to 0.08BTC for 3.6GH/S.. Wow.

I think the days of USB miners even possibly pulling ROI is completely out of the picture.
I think these are neat little devices.. don't get me wrong. The design is neat and the speed is ok though.
Maybe for a collector of mining hardware or people first getting into BTC it would be ok.. But it will never mine .08BTC.

Using anything to get ROI from mining bitcoin is impossible today. There is someone mining at Bitminter who has a 500TH setup, do you think he/she will ever hit ROI?

At this stage Bitcoin mining is a hobby for some and a long-term investment for others. No one expected the price to climb to $1200 when it did. It will do it again the question is when. Since the writing is on the wall that the US economy (and it's empire) will crash there is no reason not be mining bitcoin.

I don't like to delete comments so I won't.  But if we could please keep thread based on the Nano's vs ROI in general.

As ROI in general is a completely different topic unless your talking about Nano ROI.

[smoothrunnings]

Price works out to 0.08BTC for 3.6GH/S.. Wow.

I think the days of USB miners even possibly pulling ROI is completely out of the picture.
I think these are neat little devices.. don't get me wrong. The design is neat and the speed is ok though.
Maybe for a collector of mining hardware or people first getting into BTC it would be ok.. But it will never mine .08BTC.

Using anything to get ROI from mining bitcoin is impossible today. There is someone mining at Bitminter who has a 500TH setup, do you think he/she will ever hit ROI?

At this stage Bitcoin mining is a hobby for some and a long-term investment for others. No one expected the price to climb to $1200 when it did. It will do it again the question is when. Since the writing is on the wall that the US economy (and it's empire) will crash there is no reason not be mining bitcoin.

I don't like to delete comments so I won't.  But if we could please keep thread based on the Nano's vs ROI in general.

As ROI in general is a completely different topic unless your talking about Nano ROI.

Nano ROI? - ROI means Return On Investment. Regardless how big or little (Nano) the investment is still ROI, so I am not sure what the big deal is?

[Mt. Gox]

The Avalon Nano is fairly consistently priced at ~$18.50 from the manufacturer; the price in Bitcoin with them is updated automatically.  It is definitely one of the cheapest miners as well, as far as new goes.  Pre-owned or old stock miners can go for cheaper, but this is a pretty solid miner to go for, tight package, nice flat heatspreader.  I think only the iMiner is even nicer for the casual miner (no exposed components at all), but it's relatively expensive and not as easily sourced in AU/EU/RU/US.

The iMiner is indeed very pretty but it only hashes at 0.3 GH/s. I'm not sure if that's high enough to reach any pool's minimum payout threshold. Eligius enforces a limit of 0.04 BTC and Ghash.IO's limit is 0.01 BTC. At 0.3 GH/s, you would probably mine <0.01 BTC per year.

Does anyone know if these Avalon Nanos at 4 GH/s will be able to mine enough BTC to reach any pool's minimum payout threshold or would one be better off just solo mining and hoping to mine a block instead?

Nano ROI? - ROI means Return On Investment. Regardless how big or little (Nano) the investment is still ROI, so I am not sure what the big deal is?

Usually in this type of context, the term "ROI" means whether or not it will recoup its costs. Technically speaking, it's not the correct meaning of the term but it's probably the most common.