Raspberry Pi alternatives that can run multiple BFL singles, ASICs ?

[LWCoder]

I recently picked up a Hackberry A10 for this exact purpose and it should arrive this week. If you are interested, I'll let you know how it works.

[wogaut]

What mining software do you guys use for such a small system?  I'm looking at cgminer but on my main rig its fairly CPU intensive.

One BFL Single on a Raspberry Pi with cgminer draws about 0.3% CPU using the top command, and less on average.

I don't think CPU performance should be an issue.

[Cablez]

What mining software do you guys use for such a small system?  I'm looking at cgminer but on my main rig its fairly CPU intensive.

One BFL Single on a Raspberry Pi with cgminer draws about 0.3% CPU using the top command, and less on average.

I don't think CPU performance should be an issue.

That is interesting, I have 4 7970s on an I7 rig and cgminer is showing 50% usage. Does the CPU usage scale with the number of devices controlled?

[wogaut]

What mining software do you guys use for such a small system?  I'm looking at cgminer but on my main rig its fairly CPU intensive.

One BFL Single on a Raspberry Pi with cgminer draws about 0.3% CPU using the top command, and less on average.

I don't think CPU performance should be an issue.

That is interesting, I have 4 7970s on an I7 rig and cgminer is showing 50% usage. Does the CPU usage scale with the number of devices controlled?

It gets higher with more devices for sure.
But you are talking about GPUs; there's more work to do for cgminer than with BFL Singles.

[Cablez]

Ah I see, thanks.

[crazyates]

What mining software do you guys use for such a small system?  I'm looking at cgminer but on my main rig its fairly CPU intensive.

One BFL Single on a Raspberry Pi with cgminer draws about 0.3% CPU using the top command, and less on average.

I don't think CPU performance should be an issue.

That is interesting, I have 4 7970s on an I7 rig and cgminer is showing 50% usage. Does the CPU usage scale with the number of devices controlled?

It gets higher with more devices for sure.
But you are talking about GPUs; there's more work to do for cgminer than with BFL Singles.

4 GPUs still shouldn't be that high. I would make sure you have the 12.8 drivers/SDK (newer is better, cept for the newest 12.10 is crap), and set your I: at acceptable levels, maybe 9 or lower. I'd bet ur I: is too high, as that can cause high CPU usage.

[Cablez]

4 GPUs still shouldn't be that high. I would make sure you have the 12.8 drivers/SDK (newer is better, cept for the newest 12.10 is crap), and set your I: at acceptable levels, maybe 9 or lower. I'd bet ur I: is too high, as that can cause high CPU usage.

Wow that was huge!!!   Now its nice and under 1% at I=9 with only a loss of 4Mh/s per card, not perfect but much nicer. Does Con know about this?

Check your addy crazyates: BTC

[crazyates]

4 GPUs still shouldn't be that high. I would make sure you have the 12.8 drivers/SDK (newer is better, cept for the newest 12.10 is crap), and set your I: at acceptable levels, maybe 9 or lower. I'd bet ur I: is too high, as that can cause high CPU usage.

Wow that was huge!!!   Now its nice and under 1% at I=9 with only a loss of 4Mh/s per card, not perfect but much nicer. Does Con know about this?

Check your addy crazyates: BTC

Why Thank you! Yes it is a known problem, and one that I actually picked up from the CGminer thread.

[Cablez]

I am just glad that it has a workaround. I was puzzling over it for a while now where a while = 1 month.
Being as it was my main rig I did not like losing 1/2 my cpu power.

[Chalkbot]

I recently picked up a Hackberry A10 for this exact purpose and it should arrive this week. If you are interested, I'll let you know how it works.

I'm interested in any low power solution, so yes, please do.

Also if anyone is interested in selling a preconfigured solution, please post in this thread. I'm afraid I don't have the time to invest in researching/setting up a solution myself and would pay for the convenience. For reference, the best alternative I've found (that would not take significant time for me to setup, and runs under 20W) is a micro-itx PC on ebay for around $120. If you can beat that, it would be a very attractive option.

[crazyates]

TP-Link 703n, about $25-30. runs openWRT, hook it up to a USB-hub and go.

It's only got 32MB of DDR1 RAM. That isn't enough to run cgminer, is it?

[LWCoder]

I recently picked up a Hackberry A10 for this exact purpose and it should arrive this week. If you are interested, I'll let you know how it works.

I'm interested in any low power solution, so yes, please do.

Also if anyone is interested in selling a preconfigured solution, please post in this thread. I'm afraid I don't have the time to invest in researching/setting up a solution myself and would pay for the convenience. For reference, the best alternative I've found (that would not take significant time for me to setup, and runs under 20W) is a micro-itx PC on ebay for around $120. If you can beat that, it would be a very attractive option.

The Hackberry A10 showed up this afternoon and is working well. I found an old 4GB SD card for the Ubuntu install, setup wifi, and compiled cgminer. Only problem I had was cgminer didn't see my BFL Single as the ftdi_sio module was missing. Once I compiled and added the module everything is working perfectly. Hooked the A10 up to my meter and it's measuring ~3W while mining with 1 BFL Single and top is showing between 1% and 4% CPU usage.

Now I just need to come up with a case.

[crazyates]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Google-Android-4-0-TV-Player-Box-Mini-PC-Dongle-1GB-DDR3-MK802-A10-HDMI-WIFI-/230847418402

I just bought one. We'll see how it works for mining, but should be fun to set up nonetheless!

Pro: $31
Con: Estimated delivery: Between Friday, Nov. 30 and Tuesday, Dec. 18

[Berni]

The Hackberry A10 showed up this afternoon and is working well. I found an old 4GB SD card for the Ubuntu install, setup wifi, and compiled cgminer. Only problem I had was cgminer didn't see my BFL Single as the ftdi_sio module was missing. Once I compiled and added the module everything is working perfectly. Hooked the A10 up to my meter and it's measuring ~3W while mining with 1 BFL Single and top is showing between 1% and 4% CPU usage.

Now I just need to come up with a case.

Good news! 
I bought a few hackberry days ago, i think they will be delivered this week.
Please can you give a more information about Ubuntu and cgminer version and how you compiled ftdi_sio? 

[LWCoder]

Good news! 
I bought a few hackberry days ago, i think they will be delivered this week.
Please can you give a more information about Ubuntu and cgminer version and how you compiled ftdi_sio? 

This should be everything, but if I missed something in my notes please let me know.

Ubuntu OS

Follow the instructions from the first post of this thread to download and install the OS image.

System Setup

Once Ubuntu is booting run the following commands on the Hackberry.

Code:

#Remove web and sql servers from base image
sudo apt-get remove lighttpd mysql-server
sudo apt-get autoremove

#Update system
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

#Install tools
sudo apt-get install git autoconf

#Install libs for cgminer
sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev libncurses5-dev pkg-config libtool libudev-dev

#Retrieve cgminer source
cd /opt
git clone https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer.git

#Compile and Install cgminer
cd /opt/cgminer
./autogen.sh --enable-bitforce
make
sudo make install

#Create the modules directory used later
mkdir -p /lib/modules/3.0.36+/kernel/drivers/usb/serial

Compile Modules
I followed these instruction for compiling the kernel and modules on a separate linux server. Grab the .config file from here instead of generating a new one. (If needed I could possibly provide the ones I compiled.)

Once you have finished the compile instruction the only two files you need are ftdi_sio.ko and usbserial.ko. With the Hackberry still on I did the following.

On the Linux Server

Code:

scp output/lib/modules/3.0.36+/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/ftdi_sio.ko linaro@HACKBERRY_IP_ADDRESS:/lib/modules/3.0.36+/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/
scp output/lib/modules/3.0.36+/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/usbserial.ko linaro@HACKBERRY_IP_ADDRESS:/lib/modules/3.0.36+/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/

On the Hackberry

Code:

sudo depmod -a

WiFi
My access point uses WPA2-PSK so your settings may be different.

Add to the end of /etc/network/interfaces

Code:

auto wlan2
iface wlan2 inet dhcp
wpa-conf /etc/wpa.conf

Create new file /etc/wpa.conf

Code:

network={
        ssid="MY_ESSID"
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
        psk="MY_PASSPHRASE"
}

Reboot the hackberry and you should be good. Let me know how it works.

[Berni]

@LWCoder
Thank you very much for this tutorial.

I hope my hackberry's come soon, problem is, that i only have GPUs for mining and nothing to test for the hackberry.
I only can prepare and wait for my bASICs. 

[CrazyGuy]

Let us know how it goes, that looks like a viable alternative. My Dell workstation is running at about 90 watts, which isn't too bad I suppose.

[bitcoindaddy]

Since the Raspberry Pi's USB issues prevent it from running even one single reliably, are there any alternatives around 60-85 dollars that people are using for mining? The Mele A1000 and MK802 look promising but I'd like to know if anyone is using them before I purchase and give it a try.  

If the quest is hopeless I may just spring for a book sized atom based machine like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856205007

Not correct, depending on HW/SW details. I used to have issues with the older Linux distro and some older cgminer too (I have a 256MB RPi)
After updating its system and cgminer, I am running it with a BFL Single for close to 2 months now without ever needing to touch it.

With regard to multiple Singles, it depends on the specific USB hub.

So, Wogaut, don't leave us hanging... what kind of USB hub are you using?  Brand, model, powered or not?  Is the Pi getting it's power from the USB hub or a separate power supply?

[stevegee58]

A BeagleBone would be a potential alternative.  I'm surprised noone has mentioned it yet.  They draw about 3 watts, less than the RPi.

[crazyates]

A BeagleBone would be a potential alternative.  I'm surprised noone has mentioned it yet.  They draw about 3 watts, less than the RPi.

Those look to be between 90 and 100 USD. Kind of on the pricey side. $50 is about my personal cap for these types of hardware.