Innosilicon's A4 Dominator, 1.2W/Mhs 14nm ASIC and miner, open for Partners

[CjMapope]

.......
Of course Titan's will stay viable for much longer but lets keep in mind that these cost $9,995 new and were fraught with serious delivery and quality issues.

To make a fair comparison as of today, the price of a Titan now on Ebay is about $2800 and those outfitted with Gentarkin software are rocking along nicely.  Continuing to use your logic, the residual value would be~ $500 at the end of the same period due to the age of hardware.  That leaves $2300 to recapture.  Using LTC as a baseline, the increase in difficulty for all scrypt networks is going to decrease returns as the number of A4s come online.  Therefore the new ROI would approximate to September 2017 (worst case).  Bump that $4/LTC to $5 and it drops back to June 2017.
http://www.vnbitcoin.org/detailcalculationltc.php?name=LiteCoin_Mining_Rig&startdate=2016-10-31&costperunit=2300&wattperhour=1250&gigahazarate=270000&daytoincrease=3&testlopfirst=2&diffincrement=0.0268&bitcoinperdollar=4&electriccostinput=.11&begindifflevel=51699

I think that's getting closer and really does show what a good buy the A4 is.  The completed auction you're referring to was for a batch 1 300 MHs Titan with no power supplies

Here's what the buyer said "This batch 1 miner runs a little above 300MH, but it does fall to 250-260MH after a few days, but a quick reboot puts it back up to 300MH. This miner has never once been overclocked, but it has that option for those who choose." 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Titan-Miner-KNC-Batch-1-300-MH-Scrypt-Litecoin-LTC-Bitcoin-BTC-Digibyte-/262627666129?hash=item3d25d428d1:g:ehYAAOSwvzRX0Emo

Given the track record of Titans and the stated instability, I'm amazed that he sold it for $2800, but lets look at this as more closely.

Titan: 300Mhs @ $2800 = $9.33 Mhs
A4: 280Mhs @ 1800 = $6.43 Mhs

Hmm, one is 3 years old, 40% more expensive and has a history of failing dies and burnt out PCIe connectors whereas the A4 is new, has a 45 day warranty and Innosilicon has a good track record with many very happy A2 owners who appreciate the reliability. I'm ignoring the cost of PSU's and freight because they kinda equal out.

Titan 300Mhs @ 1200W = 4w/Mhs (I've read they can actually use up to 1590W OC'ed to 325 Mhs)
A4: 280Mhs @ 1080w = 3.85w/Mhs

Not much difference there, Inno have not improved the efficiency much with their 14nm dies so it's a draw on electricity cost.

ROI: I used to use online calculators like the one above but then I worked out that mining a multipool that pays out in BTC is much more profitable. Zpool paid 0.00011381 BTC per scrypt-Mhs yesterday. Whatever hardware you buy, with BTC=$728 that's 0.08285368c per MHs less electricity.

An A4 @ 280Mhs would return $23.19 per day and a Titan @ 300Mhs would return $24.85 per day
Less power at $3.60 per day and lets call it $19.50 and $21.00 per day respectively so 1800/19.50 = 92 days to totally pay for the A4, whereas $2800/21.00 = 133 days.

Like I said, amazed anyone would buy a Titan for $2800 with no PSU's and known issues vs buying a a new A4. If you choose to stick with mining LTC exclusively your ROI will be longer, but given any consistent benchmark, the A4 is much better proposition IMO.

i agree, but would like to throw in the "admin" problem of these new a4's :/
it seems users are not only having trouble with the miners being set to default gateway (wow), but also users having trouble, if im not mistaken, ssh'ing into them/a.k.a their OWN hardware? 
BUT, let noone forget the rock steady (IMO), stability of innoscilion's miners. (the a2's are stable as shit, almost 4 years later, WITHOUT MODS)**
SO., All in all, i think the A4 is a good buy, given the next few weeks dont report owners saying their's went up in flames heehee (what's up with that microscopic documentation? lol )




**yes, they had the same "growing issues" as these a4's off the bat but there's no denying they are of the "never quit" variety, as compared to the RMA kings Bitmain

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[vinylwasp]

.......
Of course Titan's will stay viable for much longer but lets keep in mind that these cost $9,995 new and were fraught with serious delivery and quality issues.

To make a fair comparison as of today, the price of a Titan now on Ebay is about $2800 and those outfitted with Gentarkin software are rocking along nicely.  Continuing to use your logic, the residual value would be~ $500 at the end of the same period due to the age of hardware.  That leaves $2300 to recapture.  Using LTC as a baseline, the increase in difficulty for all scrypt networks is going to decrease returns as the number of A4s come online.  Therefore the new ROI would approximate to September 2017 (worst case).  Bump that $4/LTC to $5 and it drops back to June 2017.
http://www.vnbitcoin.org/detailcalculationltc.php?name=LiteCoin_Mining_Rig&startdate=2016-10-31&costperunit=2300&wattperhour=1250&gigahazarate=270000&daytoincrease=3&testlopfirst=2&diffincrement=0.0268&bitcoinperdollar=4&electriccostinput=.11&begindifflevel=51699

I think that's getting closer and really does show what a good buy the A4 is.  The completed auction you're referring to was for a batch 1 300 MHs Titan with no power supplies

Here's what the buyer said "This batch 1 miner runs a little above 300MH, but it does fall to 250-260MH after a few days, but a quick reboot puts it back up to 300MH. This miner has never once been overclocked, but it has that option for those who choose." 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Titan-Miner-KNC-Batch-1-300-MH-Scrypt-Litecoin-LTC-Bitcoin-BTC-Digibyte-/262627666129?hash=item3d25d428d1:g:ehYAAOSwvzRX0Emo

Given the track record of Titans and the stated instability, I'm amazed that he sold it for $2800, but lets look at this as more closely.

Titan: 300Mhs @ $2800 = $9.33 Mhs
A4: 280Mhs @ 1800 = $6.43 Mhs

Hmm, one is 3 years old, 40% more expensive and has a history of failing dies and burnt out PCIe connectors whereas the A4 is new, has a 45 day warranty and Innosilicon has a good track record with many very happy A2 owners who appreciate the reliability. I'm ignoring the cost of PSU's and freight because they kinda equal out.

Titan 300Mhs @ 1200W = 4w/Mhs (I've read they can actually use up to 1590W OC'ed to 325 Mhs)
A4: 280Mhs @ 1080w = 3.85w/Mhs

Not much difference there, Inno have not improved the efficiency much with their 14nm dies so it's a draw on electricity cost.

ROI: I used to use online calculators like the one above but then I worked out that mining a multipool that pays out in BTC is much more profitable. Zpool paid 0.00011381 BTC per scrypt-Mhs yesterday. Whatever hardware you buy, with BTC=$728 that's 0.08285368c per MHs less electricity.

An A4 @ 280Mhs would return $23.19 per day and a Titan @ 300Mhs would return $24.85 per day
Less power at $3.60 per day and lets call it $19.50 and $21.00 per day respectively so 1800/19.50 = 92 days to totally pay for the A4, whereas $2800/21.00 = 133 days.

Like I said, amazed anyone would buy a Titan for $2800 with no PSU's and known issues vs buying a a new A4. If you choose to stick with mining LTC exclusively your ROI will be longer, but given any consistent benchmark, the A4 is much better proposition IMO.

i agree, but would like to throw in the "admin" problem of these new a4's :/
it seems users are not only having trouble with the miners being set to default gateway (wow), but also users having trouble, if im not mistaken, ssh'ing into them/a.k.a their OWN hardware? 
BUT, let noone forget the rock steady (IMO), stability of innoscilion's miners. (the a2's are stable as shit, almost 4 years later, WITHOUT MODS)**
SO., All in all, i think the A4 is a good buy, given the next few weeks dont report owners saying their's went up in flames heehee (what's up with that microscopic documentation? lol )




**yes, they had the same "growing issues" as these a4's off the bat but there's no denying they are of the "never quit" variety, as compared to the RMA kings Bitmain

Yep, stupid move by Inno to lock down the pi account. As for setting a static IP, you can mount the SD card in Linux and edit the network config file, or simply allocate a new IP to any device you currently have that's using the .254 address and use the UI. That's simple to address if you have some basic IT skills. I've been mining for the past 6 hours on Prohashing using no extra password arguments and my 2hr average is 281.5 Mhs.

I have to say that I strongly suspect that Inno have added some thermal protection to the A4 which limits voltage when they get too hot, as I've experienced a card stop working a couple of times, and different cards each time. This seems to happen in the high 40s. I can't confirm it yet, just suspicious.

My A2's were brilliant, just set and forget. Some times it was months before I even logged on to one, they were that stable. As long as the pool was showing good hash rates I just let them run.
Hoping the A4 will be just as stable. 

[QuintLeo]

I had to do that "mount the SD card on a linux system" edit thing on my A2s when I got them from Zoomhash - they had the *last 2* octals of the IP address written on them, but NOT the FIRST 2 - and it turns out they were all on the Class B subnet range and were ALL OVER that subnet.

 I've never been able to SSH into them - but they've been rock-solid reliable since I got them set up on the RIGHT subnet for *MY* network.

[usao]

Ive updated the php file for the miner web page, nothing which will affect performance or stability, but only GUI features.
I added another pool, and im thinking about adding a pool swap button, similar to the old A2 way of switching pools. Cleaned up some of the english, and correctly numbered the pools as 1-4 rather than 1-1.

[valkir]

Where can you get that miner ?

[Searing]

Where can you get that miner ?

Well I'd try the main page. They only sell them if you are lucky in lots of 3 at 1800 each w/o shipping wire xfer only just on wire xfer put on when you
contact them on main page that this is a 'bitcointalk group buy' you could get lucky and it still works

otherwise I THINK it is 5 units min buy and 2100 bucks ...but could be just the 5 units at above price

anyway that is how it WAS done ...and told to me (i considered it) Sunday Oct 30th

so heck it is worth a shot...maybe the password will work

send chloe (sp?) an email in sales on their main page

below is this threads main page with info but you will have to contact sales on the page I guess no prices etc listed

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1523298.0;topicseen

http://www.innosilicon.com/

[valkir]

Where can you get that miner ?

Well I'd try the main page. They only sell them if you are lucky in lots of 3 at 1800 each w/o shipping wire xfer only just on wire xfer put on when you
contact them on main page that this is a 'bitcointalk group buy' you could get lucky and it still works

otherwise I THINK it is 5 units min buy and 2100 bucks ...but could be just the 5 units at above price

anyway that is how it WAS done ...and told to me (i considered it) Sunday Oct 30th

so heck it is worth a shot...maybe the password will work

send chloe (sp?) an email in sales on their main page

below is this threads main page with info but you will have to contact sales on the page I guess no prices etc listed

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1523298.0;topicseen

http://www.innosilicon.com/

Thanks for the update. Do you have any problem with your unit? I did read the other thread and look like there is some problem with balde dropping ?

[usao]

The blades do drop periodically. I have not noticed a pattern yet.
A simple reboot does not fix the issue, it requires a power cycle to get the blade online.
I have resorted to a switched PDU so that a job on the pi can detect when blades are offline and send a command to the PDU to cycle power on the PDU port.

[Searing]

Where can you get that miner ?

Well I'd try the main page. They only sell them if you are lucky in lots of 3 at 1800 each w/o shipping wire xfer only just on wire xfer put on when you
contact them on main page that this is a 'bitcointalk group buy' you could get lucky and it still works

otherwise I THINK it is 5 units min buy and 2100 bucks ...but could be just the 5 units at above price

anyway that is how it WAS done ...and told to me (i considered it) Sunday Oct 30th

so heck it is worth a shot...maybe the password will work

send chloe (sp?) an email in sales on their main page

below is this threads main page with info but you will have to contact sales on the page I guess no prices etc listed

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1523298.0;topicseen

http://www.innosilicon.com/

Thanks for the update. Do you have any problem with your unit? I did read the other thread and look like there is some problem with balde dropping ?

I do not have one (yet?) I helped with the group buy and talked with them about the group buy but got ZEC gpu setup (lovely 2 year warranties)

likely just as silly as an A4 or two..but where I'm at now..anyway what i was told on the above date...worth a shot yet if you plan on getting one

worse they can say is the group buy is over

[papasmurph]

Hey there, who can provide support for my messed up image for innosilicon dominator. PI does not assign any address to pi on network . That happened after i have changed IP on webgui...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1680082.0

[Longsnowsm]

Hey there, who can provide support for my messed up image for innosilicon dominator. PI does not assign any address to pi on network . That happened after i have changed IP on webgui...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1680082.0

Hey Papasmurph,  Which image version do you need? 

[Longsnowsm]

Just as a heads up to potential buyers of the A4.  Some of the early Batch 3 miners are now in some forum members hands and they are still reporting dropped cards and restarts.  I will defer to those members to post their results here as I don't want to add to or take away from what they are seeing. 

So if you are thinking about getting an A4 I would suggest waiting unless your willing to take the risk.  Right now it appears that Innosilicon has a plan/policy that is going to leave small purchasers of the Batch 1 and Batch 2 miners to take them to an electronics expert to swap out the MCU at our cost, or for the bigger buyers that bought in large volume they are saying they will ship out a flash programmer jig for them to flash their units.  Again not something for the faint of heart in either scenario.  It appears at this time the support from Inno is non-existent for the B1 and B2 miners.  Innosilicon should be swapping out miners boards that have been corrected to resolve this issue instead of laying this at the feet of customers.

As of this time they(Inno) have reported that Batch 3 miners were fixed, but early reports here are indicating that is not the case.  So if you are thinking about buying A4 miners I would not recommend it at this time until they get this sorted out or you will be in the same boat as "we" the early pre-buy customers and left to twist in the wind with no resolution in sight if your miner has issues that requires correction of the miner firmware itself.  SD card updates have not resolved the issues with these miners. 

So this is a buyer beware NOTICE until Inno gets this sorted out.   

[papasmurph]

Some update from my end on this topic : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1680082.0

Latest status & issues..

[papasmurph]

Thanks to all, got it running.

[papasmurph]

Where can i change the cgminer conf settings pertaining to miner?

[papasmurph]

Update after running my miner with v2.0.2 version image.Build 11/20/2016 (I assume its batch 3 then...pls. correct me if i am wrong).  Everything stable when running on multi pool auto-switch.No issues found yet. When running straight on e.g GLD pool board drops hash rate with efficiency by 50% after 3-4 hrs. Restart needed.
When in ssh connection make sure to stop miner prior. The connection gets cut out when you move the cursor to much and to fast.Make also sure to not to change the IP address and nameserver when the miner is running. Always stop miner when doing changes. It can mess up the image bad.

Further only fail-over available yet. Innosilicon didn't respond to my request where the file can be modified for the strategy and cgminer options via ext4 sdcard direct.

Other then that hashrate between 136 to 160 MH can be reached.

I will try some solo mining  and see what happens there.


Maybe someone can give me directions for the startegy and conf file issue.

[mjgraham]

It will be interesting to see, if all it requires is an MCU reflash that shouldn't be to bad, granted not everyone has the tools to do that , now swapping the MCU makes me wonder a bit I pulled the MCU code off the A2 boards and they really hadn't used much of the memory space. I was looking into getting an A4 but I guess I will hold off a little longer although the power savings in my case is about to make my A2s non usable. I have about modified them as much as I can wanted to use them to heat the house this winter so I built a PWM fan controller so they didn't sound like airplanes in the house and I have about repaired all the boards I have parts for.

[Longsnowsm]

It will be interesting to see, if all it requires is an MCU reflash that shouldn't be to bad, granted not everyone has the tools to do that , now swapping the MCU makes me wonder a bit I pulled the MCU code off the A2 boards and they really hadn't used much of the memory space. I was looking into getting an A4 but I guess I will hold off a little longer although the power savings in my case is about to make my A2s non usable. I have about modified them as much as I can wanted to use them to heat the house this winter so I built a PWM fan controller so they didn't sound like airplanes in the house and I have about repaired all the boards I have parts for.

It sounds like with a custom jig the MCU can be flashed.  Inno is presently trying to setup an arrangement in the US to have someone do the flash updates for us.  I assume they will also do the same for the EU part of the world. 

We are trying to sync up Inno with a member here to do the work.  Hopefully something can be worked out for the B1 and B2 repairs.  B3 miners look like they may be working better.  We should be getting more reports here over the weekend how things are progressing on multipool mining with the B3 miners. 

[usao]

Good, was holding off on the B3 miners until I heard more feedback.
My B2 miners auto-restart periodically, and that doesn't really bother me.
What bothers me the most is that boards randomly disappear and cannot be brought back online without a power cycle.
I was going to use the guy offering hosting services in Washington, but until we can clear up the boards going offline, I don't see how it could work.
Im currently using a switched PDU in my data center so I can cycle power when I notice the one or more boards MIA.
I don't see how to get the same capability at the site in Washington though, which is my major reason for holding back.

[papasmurph]

At the moment H2C works well, even when switching to single pool port its running very well. Switch over works on the fly on the UI, on H2C it works as well via pool site. I have between 130-160mh. Once set to auto start it works smooth when re-powered by blackout/power outage, it doesn't work when performing forced reboot via ssh.
I am happy now besides the problem with the miner UI and not being able to adjust cgminer settings/strategy...
I will order Monday the 280mh miner, will take about 10 days to arrive from Hongkong.  

I still have my Zeus 28mh up for solo-mining low diff coins like Hobo/Gen/Lot/Titty etc. as round robing is fine with that.