[Stratum Cycle beta] - automatic pool switcher

[scyth33]

I have created a simple utility that uses slush's mining proxy to cycle through different pools. I created this tool because the antminer s5 lacks support for cycling through different pools (correct me if I am wrong) and it also allows controlling of multiple miners to a pool, so you do not need to enter each miner to change the pool's address.

steps to use this utility
1)download slush's mining proxy from https://mining.bitcoin.cz/user-manual/mining-proxy/
2)download Stratum Cycle  from http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=15968582744109582093
3)extract "mining_proxy.exe" to the same folder as "StratumCycle.exe" - make sure the names are identical

setting up the miner
1)point your miner to the computer where the utility is running
2)the name and password does not matter
3)save and apply

adding pools to the utility
1)fill in the mining pool information and worker name accordingly
2)set the duration you want to mine in the pool (in hours)
3)listening port is where you point the miner to
4)click the "Add" button to add to the list
5)after adding your pools, select the pool (on the table) you want to run first and click "start mining"

FAQ
- the utility will loop forever until the "stop mining" button is pressed
- information can be edited in the table
- currently the duration must be in whole numbers (1,2,3,4,10,20,30,etc)

I apologies if there are any similar utility out that. I am not aware of it. This utility was written by me without any reference to any existing utilities. I hope you guys enjoy it.

Donation Address: 1AKypfzDMyx4pEV3nPfQE3pPGWmgopbJqW

[scyth33]

[reserved]

[toptek]

wow, nice Ive been hoping for some one to come out with some thing like this .. Sense Windows 10 hits on July 29 th   and it now works on the Rasp PI b2 this might be just the thing once 10 does come out.

Soon we will have both BFG and CFMINer to play with in our S5, so this should work nice by then .


There might be one like this for Script ALT-coins but that Script coins and  who really does SHa256 alt coins and makes much, so this might just be it for bit coins and  some of us who need to set timers on pools  to move during slow times like westhash nicehash lets us do but with any pool. some others have been asking for some thing like this if works out, i will be donating .



The S5 can balance mine ETC you have edit a file in the soft ware  i had mine doing it once but the problem is on reboot it resets back to defaults for that setting.

I think its meant to because of how it works now .

[-ck]

the antminer s5 lacks support for cycling through different pools (correct me if I am wrong)

The antminers use a variant of cgminer which I created.

The pool strategies include a strategy of switching called "rotate" which I put in the code in Jul 20 2011.

You are recreating the wheel and adding an extra tool to do what cgminer already does.

[Epinnoia]

the antminer s5 lacks support for cycling through different pools (correct me if I am wrong)

The antminers use a variant of cgminer which I created.

The pool strategies include a strategy of switching called "rotate" which I put in the code in Jul 20 2011.

You are recreating the wheel and adding an extra tool to do what cgminer already does.

Antminers tend to fail when you configure too many pools in the .conf, and you get dead time mining on those pools that don't pass the initial connection test (eg. getting a packet lost to cloudflare ddos protection) -- which, in order to even consider doing, you have to do manually by SSHing into the machine (an S7 in my case).  My S7 has room for 3 pools in the Bitmain interface, and no way to choose the rotate option, except for manually SSHing into the machine and adding it to the .conf file myself.  If I use too many pools (eg. 5 or 6 or more, manually configuring), the S7 tends to invariably not connect to one or more of them, and gives that dead mining beeping for the entire duration of the rotate.

So I disagree strongly.  I find this switcher quite useful for the fact that I do NOT have to keep SSHing into the machine whenever I want to briefly mine some other coin.  Would it be better if Bitmain allowed us to enter more than 3 pools and had a rotate option in their config panel?  Of course.  But in the meanwhile....

I do, however, question why the author went with hours instead of minutes in the duration field, and provided no way to save config.  Minutes would be far more useful and far less restrictive.  And tying it in to some difficulty/exchangeprice listing to give preference to whatever coin makes the most sense out of a list would be even more useful.  If it allowed for minutes instead of hours, I may have considered sending in a donation.  But forcing hours seems a bit unnecessarily restrictive.  In any case, my $0.02 for what it's worth...

[toptek]

the antminer s5 lacks support for cycling through different pools (correct me if I am wrong)

The antminers use a variant of cgminer which I created.

The pool strategies include a strategy of switching called "rotate" which I put in the code in Jul 20 2011.

You are recreating the wheel and adding an extra tool to do what cgminer already does.

Antminers tend to fail when you configure too many pools in the .conf, and you get dead time mining on those pools that don't pass the initial connection test (eg. getting a packet lost to cloudflare ddos protection) -- which, in order to even consider doing, you have to do manually by SSHing into the machine (an S7 in my case).  My S7 has room for 3 pools in the Bitmain interface, and no way to choose the rotate option, except for manually SSHing into the machine and adding it to the .conf file myself.  If I use too many pools (eg. 5 or 6 or more, manually configuring), the S7 tends to invariably not connect to one or more of them, and gives that dead mining beeping for the entire duration of the rotate.

So I disagree strongly.  I find this switcher quite useful for the fact that I do NOT have to keep SSHing into the machine whenever I want to briefly mine some other coin.  Would it be better if Bitmain allowed us to enter more than 3 pools and had a rotate option in their config panel?  Of course.  But in the meanwhile....

I do, however, question why the author went with hours instead of minutes in the duration field.  Minutes would be far more useful and far less restrictive.  And tying it in to some difficulty/exchangeprice listing to give preference to whatever coin makes the most sense out of a list would be even more useful.  If it allowed for minutes instead of hours, I may have considered sending in a donation.  But forcing hours seems a bit unnecessarily restrictive.  In any case, my $0.02 for what it's worth...

This might help some , here is a how to http://bitcoinsinireland.com/antminer-s1-mining-more-than-3-pools/  on a S1 , maybe you can figure out a way on the antminers that lose there setting on reboot. or any custom SSH setting it can be rather annoying to have it set up how you want it, then have it wiped on a reboot or shut down .

[Epinnoia]

Changing the code in the antminer is cumbersome and tedious.  A script that rotates like this is quite useful, and not 're-inventing the wheel'  .  I found his comment rather rude and discouraging, without taking the time to see just exactly how it could be useful.  I doubt he has an Antminer from the sound of his comment.  And more than likely not an S7.  

http://sha256d.ispace.co.uk/

With this program, I can enter in all of those sha256 coins (minus any I don't like), and have it rotate without needing to ssh into the antminer to change a thing!  That, alone, is worth something.  Furthermore, as I said, for whatever reason, if you manually enter a rotate configuration by sshing into the machine (you can't do it through antminer interface), it pukes and gives dead miner time if you put in more than 5 or 6 pools.

I clearly did get more than 3 pools configured by bypassing the normal interface panel, which is how I know what it does when you put in '5 or 6 or more'.  As best as I can tell from looking at the interface panel while it's doing it, the pools that don't successfully test alive and receive a work share from the pool at the init will fail and beep with dead mining time when their rotation cycle comes up.  My guess is that it's cloudflare handshaking routine interference, but it's only a guess.  I don't put much faith that this will ever be fixed by Bitmain, so...

I find this pool switcher software quite useful.  And I find it also quite sad that it has not seen a revision since the 0.0.1.  Instead of encouraging other authors to write code, the author of cgminer seems to have taken personal offense at the very suggestion that his own software isn't the be-all end-all for everyone regardless of skill level or overall objectives he pretends it is.  It's a shame he didn't spend that time productively adding logic within his own cgminer to allow it to load balance different coins of the same type at the same time, instead of presuming they're all working on the same coin (eg. load balance/queuesize a dozen different sha256 coins).  Although, even if he does (or has), it's not likely Bitmain is going to see it as important enough to include in a future firmware upgrade.  =[

[toptek]

I Know i  used to load in 5 or 6  pools using SSH with the balance command on my S3 and S5 had the same issue some pools just didn't work, even tried one time to add more to UI in the S3 by using the S1 guide didn't happen .

Then this program came a long i use it from time to time but it doesn't do enough for me etc or much is being done with it because of why or what you said , I'm being nice or tiring to.and one of the many reason id rather use BFG .

Cya

[Epinnoia]

I Know i  used to load in 5 or 6  pools using SSH with the balance command on my S3 and have the same issue some pools just didn't work, even tried one time to add more to UI in the S3 by using that S1 guide didn't happen .

Then this program came a long i use it from time to time but it doesn't do enough for me etc or much is being done with it because of why or what you said , I'm being nice or tiring to.

Cya

Correct.  The pools will work/rotate on my S7 if there are 4  (maybe 5) or fewer configured, if you ssh into the machine and change the config file manually.  It's just if you get past 4 (or 5...I can't remember which), one or more of them doesn't make it past the init stage.  You can pretty much tell from the miner status window which ones are going to fail when their time comes in the rotation -- the ones showing no work received from the pool at the very start...  So there has to be something more involved than just adding "rotate" : "xx" to the .conf when you have 5/5+ pools configured.  It's possible some bitmain script elsewhere could be tweaked to make it work, but I haven't found a solution anywhere on google.  And it's not for lack of trying.  All the pools beyond the 3 allowed in the config screen, if manually entered, do show up in the antminer's miner status window just fine.  Whether or not the bitmain processes/scripts running in the background expect status results for so many additional pools beyond 3 is another matter, I think...

At least with this automatic pool switcher, I can do what I want (mostly) without any need to ssh and change stuff using vi editor inside the miner.  I can queue up 5+ pools of the same or different sha256 coin types, set their mining duration separately, and I get a nice little status window that scrolls by as it works.  I would donate if the author provided rotation in minutes rather than whole number hours, as well as a save/reload config option.  Internal logic that checked difficulty and profitability (perhaps of those in a savable list which are check-boxed active), and rotated based on that....well, I would donate quite a bit more.  =]