Are Avalon's hard to use or setup compared to Butterfly?

[opentoe]

Do you need to know any programming or how to code anything to setup an Avalon miner? Is it as easy as downloading the miner program and setting up a worker and ahead you go? Does anyone know what would go into setting one up, and what you need to know or BUT beforehand? Thanks.

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[crazyates]

Are Avalon's hard to use or setup compared to Butterfly? In a word: yes.

Avalon units are not for the uninitiated, or the timid. It comes with no instruction manual of any kind. It comes with a per-configured IP, that you have to remote into, and change the default config settings. Once it is running, I've heard of Jeff complaining about restarts, but I think that's been pretty well addressed by the memory leak fix in CGMiner 2.10.5.

BFL Singles will be very similar to their current products: plug the device into a USB port on your computer, and run a program (like CGMiner).

[creativex]

Do you need to know any programming or how to code anything to setup an Avalon miner?

No.

Is it as easy as downloading the miner program and setting up a worker and ahead you go? Does anyone know what would go into setting one up, and what you need to know or BUT beforehand? Thanks.

Looks pretty st8forward and easy to me. Most of this stuff has been addressed in user threads threads available here and elsewhere:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=140539.0

...as to comparisons to BFL gear ease of use, one can only speculate as no end users have their gear.

[opentoe]

I can get around a command line pretty well and operate Linux pretty good. If that's all this machine is using then I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get by. What I'm really trying to figure out is how does cgminer or other pool programs recognize the unit? Is the unit hooked up to your computer via USB or Ethernet somehow? Just trying to learn how it connects and how the unit is administered. I saw the pictures, but was too hard to see the connections.

[01BTC10]

Avalon is standalone and don't need to be hooked to a computer. Connectivity is done via wireless or ethernet.

You need a computer only for first time setup via ethernet.

[crazyates]

I can get around a command line pretty well and operate Linux pretty good. If that's all this machine is using then I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get by. What I'm really trying to figure out is how does cgminer or other pool programs recognize the unit? Is the unit hooked up to your computer via USB or Ethernet somehow? Just trying to learn how it connects and how the unit is administered. I saw the pictures, but was too hard to see the connections.

It connects directly to your network via an ethernet jack. You need to use another computer to remote into the device (SSH or webportal, IIRC), and then set it up for your network and pool credentials. After that, it connects to the pool directly and mines away. I would say that if a CLI or manually setting an IP scare you, then Avalon is not for you. Sounds like you could probably handle it, as it's not exactly rocket science. However, there are a few members on here who openly admit they are scared of a command prompt, and refuse to touch anything of the sort. They're more than happy to plug their Singles into a laptop, and run the Bitminter client. For those people: no, Avalon is not a good idea.

[gyverlb]

Do you need to know any programming or how to code anything to setup an Avalon miner? Is it as easy as downloading the miner program and setting up a worker and ahead you go? Does anyone know what would go into setting one up, and what you need to know or BUT beforehand? Thanks.

To setup an Avalon miner, the first step is to raid China customs mining with them at the moment. To setup a BFL single, the first step is to teleport in the magical land where the unicorns are currently testing and packaging them.

I'm not exactly sure which one is the easier.

If you manage to get one unit though, we know Avalon can be made to work and information is already available on how to do so on the forums with known quirks/workarounds/patches. For BFL, there isn't any tested procedure at all yet so people can only guess based on what BFL published.

[Fuzzy]

It's taking me FOREVER to get my BFL ASIC mining, I can't even get my hands on the damn thing, let alone get it running.


 

[opentoe]

I can get around a command line pretty well and operate Linux pretty good. If that's all this machine is using then I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get by. What I'm really trying to figure out is how does cgminer or other pool programs recognize the unit? Is the unit hooked up to your computer via USB or Ethernet somehow? Just trying to learn how it connects and how the unit is administered. I saw the pictures, but was too hard to see the connections.

It connects directly to your network via an ethernet jack. You need to use another computer to remote into the device (SSH or webportal, IIRC), and then set it up for your network and pool credentials. After that, it connects to the pool directly and mines away. I would say that if a CLI or manually setting an IP scare you, then Avalon is not for you. Sounds like you could probably handle it, as it's not exactly rocket science. However, there are a few members on here who openly admit they are scared of a command prompt, and refuse to touch anything of the sort. They're more than happy to plug their Singles into a laptop, and run the Bitminter client. For those people: no, Avalon is not a good idea.

Yea, sounds easy stuff to me. I thought I would need to know programming and all that crazy stuff. If I can setup a good usenet indexer via command line, this looks to be much easier. I wish I knew which to try and order from.

[-ck]

Avalon is almost trivial to set up. Initially you need a computer to set it up but after that, even the computer is not needed. But... the firmware that is currently installed on it is still not stable with the few Avalon owners out there forced to regularly reboot it when it just stops. Of course with time this will be fixed, but as trivial as it is to set up, it's not a set-up-and-forget affair just yet...

When the BFL hardware eventually comes out, we plan to work very hard to make cgminer work very well on it and become reliable software to use quickly and to run stable for very long periods without intervention. However it will require a separate PC/laptop/tablet/phone or something to actually keep running it.

[bonker]

Basically its like this:

1) Avalon are slightly more technical to set up, some tweeking with the ethernet is required.

2) BFL is a much easier machine to get going on better technology

3) GoblinAsic is possibly the best option out there are present, the highest Hash/Watt with a trivial plug-and-hash setup.

But pretty much all three are essentially free money. Just plug them in and effortless money falls out.

[creativex]

Basically its like this:

1) Avalon are slightly more technical to set up, some tweeking with the ethernet is required.(fair)

2) BFL is a much easier machine to get going on better technology(speculative)

3) GoblinAsic is possibly the best option out there are present, the highest Hash/Watt with a trivial plug-and-hash setup.(fairy tale nonsense)

But pretty much all three are essentially free money. Just plug them in and effortless money falls out.(silly)

FTFY

[DrG]

Basically its like this:

1) Avalon are slightly more technical to set up, some tweeking with the ethernet is required.(fair)

2) BFL is a much easier machine to get going on better technology(speculative)

3) GoblinAsic is possibly the best option out there are present, the highest Hash/Watt with a trivial plug-and-hash setup.(fairy tale nonsense)

But pretty much all three are essentially free money. Just plug them in and effortless money falls out.(silly)

FTFY

Did I just see somebody try to "correct" one of Bonkers' posts 

[creativex]

Basically its like this:

1) Avalon are slightly more technical to set up, some tweeking with the ethernet is required.(fair)

2) BFL is a much easier machine to get going on better technology(speculative)

3) GoblinAsic is possibly the best option out there are present, the highest Hash/Watt with a trivial plug-and-hash setup.(fairy tale nonsense)

But pretty much all three are essentially free money. Just plug them in and effortless money falls out.(silly)

FTFY

Did I just see somebody try to "correct" one of Bonkers' posts 

Guilty. I was bored. ...No I do not expect any lasting impact.

[bonker]

Basically its like this:

1) Avalon are slightly more technical to set up, some tweeking with the ethernet is required.(fair)

2) BFL is a much easier machine to get going on better technology(speculative)

3) GoblinAsic is possibly the best option out there are present, the highest Hash/Watt with a trivial plug-and-hash setup.(fairy tale nonsense)

But pretty much all three are essentially free money. Just plug them in and effortless money falls out.(silly)

FTFY

Did I just see somebody try to "correct" one of Bonkers' posts 

Guilty. I was bored. ...No I do not expect any lasting impact.

Come on now, I do make some pretty good posts.... At least one national magazine has picked up on my wisdom

[DrG]

Basically its like this:

1) Avalon are slightly more technical to set up, some tweeking with the ethernet is required.(fair)

2) BFL is a much easier machine to get going on better technology(speculative)

3) GoblinAsic is possibly the best option out there are present, the highest Hash/Watt with a trivial plug-and-hash setup.(fairy tale nonsense)

But pretty much all three are essentially free money. Just plug them in and effortless money falls out.(silly)

FTFY

Did I just see somebody try to "correct" one of Bonkers' posts 

Guilty. I was bored. ...No I do not expect any lasting impact.

Come on now, I do make some pretty good posts.... At least one national magazine has picked up on my wisdom

My favorite post of yours was the one about cooling the miners by leaving a refrigerator door open.  I hate you - had to buy 23 mini fridges only to find out it wasn't making the room cooler 

[bonker]

My favorite post of yours was the one about cooling the miners by leaving a refrigerator door open.  I hate you - had to buy 23 mini fridges only to find out it wasn't making the room cooler 

Sounds like there's something wrong with your fridges.

[opentoe]

The Avalon needs to be connected to the internet at all times for mining, right? If you are connected to the Avalon using the Ethernet cable, how is is connected to the Internet at the same time? Is a switch/hub used? I mean the Avalon's have a fully working Ethernet port capable of a standard IP address via DHCP or static, right?

[creativex]

The Avalon is wireless capable.

[wormbog]

My favorite post of yours was the one about cooling the miners by leaving a refrigerator door open.  I hate you - had to buy 23 mini fridges only to find out it wasn't making the room cooler 

Sounds like there's something wrong with your fridges.

Fridges make it cooler inside the box by moving the heat to the outside.