Budget inkjet printer FPGA mining?

[Drewbert]

Has anyone considered using old inkjet printers for mining?

I'm looking at a board out of an Epson inkjet printer/scanner/copier, and it has a Zoran ZR374100TQCG-U Quatro 4100U ARM processor and a Xilinx XC9572XL FPGA (used for motor control, I suspect).

An awful lot of inkjet printers with dead printheads get turfed out every day. Would be nice to save them heading to the landfill, if you could plug them in, send new firmware down the USB, and start mining.

I realise that's a low power FPGA, but considering the potential acquisition price ($0 out of a dumpster), and the high MHash/Watt it would beat out GPU mining?

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[b¡tco¡n]

I am definitely no expert but I imagine that the clock cycle (178Mhz) is so low that it wouldn't be worth your time mining with this. Even if you had 1000 of them.

[hodginsa]

The words "just send new firmware" sounds over simplified by 1000

[Drewbert]

I am definitely no expert but I imagine that the clock cycle (178Mhz) is so low that it wouldn't be worth your time mining with this. Even if you had 1000 of them.

True, but depending on the power costs where you live, it might be cheaper than building huge power hungry heat-generating GPU miners. Obviously the maths needs to be done first to calculate the Mhashes per kWh.

Certainly the up-front capital costs are lower as is the entry point.

[Drewbert]

The words "just send new firmware" sounds over simplified by 1000

Sending the new firmware isn't oversimplified, but actually writing the new firmware is.

If the maths indicate that it's cheaper than GPU mining, then it might be worth someone with the brains taking a look at it.

[Jay_Pal]

If writing new firmwares for printers were that simple, wouldn't we have people not only using the stepper motors from printers, and using also the "brains" for robotics?
I wish I was 12 again... everything seemed so easy by then (even everything I was unable to make. Then I grew up!)

[Drewbert]

Yes, Jay, I know I'm a noob on this forum, but please don't make the assumption that I'm a 12 year old.

Nowhere in my first post did I say it would be easy. I just asked if people had considered it as an option.

Printer controller cards are probably not used for motor control and robotics because they're bulkier than an arduino with a motor shield and yes, it would be hard work to hack the firmware.

But in THIS case it MIGHT (notice the MIGHT) be worthwhile doing rather than all these people running out and buying power sapping GPU card to try and compete against FPGA's and ASIC's.

Like I said before, these units are being thrown out in the trash. IF the maths proved it worthwhile and someone could produce a hack for them (the JTAG pins go to test points), thousands of these printers could be saved from being trashed and could be utilised as miners merely by a firmware update and then being plugged into a USB hub.

What I'm looking for is someone here with FPGA skills willing to see if the maths adds up, rather than people trolling to jump down noob's throats without offering anything constructive to the debate.

[Jay_Pal]

Yes, Jay, I know I'm a noob on this forum, but please don't make the assumption that I'm a 12 year old.

Never did. I Just wished I was.

[Drewbert]

K. Yeah, being 12 again would be fun. Especially if I got to keep the wisdom I have now.

[Jay_Pal]

K. Yeah, being 12 again would be fun. Especially if I got to keep the wisdom I have now.

Totally.
I have some started projects and none of the knowledge or patience to keep them rolling...
My daytime job take me too much time and gives me too many headaches!!!
Sometimes I miss dreaming again...

Loved to have 12 and a 3D printer!!!
Kids, nowadays have things I've never dreamed of.
Even so (at least, here in Portugal) they prefer to be dumb: "Hey, what are you doing? - oh, nothing, I buy everything already made".

As for the printers, I might have a slightly different challenge to you that would make my point: grab some cheap key chain picture frame and try to inject in it some graphics Or... make a new board and controller for the PCB...
"Might", yeah, it "might". But the time and effort you would put on that, for what, let's say, 100hash/second... would it be worth?!
Ok, let's make them work in a pipeline basis (it would be easy to implement in eeproms, I believe) and in parallel. But if you follow this idea, you would be designing an ASIC, after all.

Would you be offended if I asked you what are your skills?
Perhaps we could create a "knowledge" and skills pool and perhaps, reach somewhere

[Drewbert]

12 year olds these days are lucky they have access to so many resources we didn't have, but on the other hand they're bombarded 24/7 by dross on TV so harder to get them to think for themselves.

Me, I'm ex radio tech, ham radio operator, and semi retired. I think I have ADD because I start too many projects to be able to complete. Currently attempting to finally finish an arduino-controlled auto-tuner for an AM DX loop antenna, and try to concentrate on getting a processor-controlled robot metal detector up and running.

Then there's toys like a 3D printer, Epson 2400 conversion into t-shirt printer, etc etc. So many projects, so little time.

Also very concerned about up-coming global economic collapse, which explains my bitcoin interest. I could afford to buy an Avalon ASIC (actually several) right now but hate the waiting.

I'm hoping to devote some time to learning about hardware re-purposing hacking, but really need to start with something a bit simpler than this inkjet printer FPGA project. I started this thread to alert people to the fact that some inkjet printers have low power FPGA's in them, as most people would not realise that. I like projects that think outside the box, and recycling old stuff instead of it being trashed.

[Jay_Pal]

The same here, this side of the Atlantic!
The worse part is getting electronic components in this country - we have no Radio Shack equivalent.
Sometimes I source components from dead electronics, sometimes order from eBay, but lately, my income has been dramatically reduced by taxes.
I don't blame this government for not having other option than raising the taxes - I don't like it, but ok.
I blame the previous governments who borrowed money from EU, I blame those who used and abused the subsidies and those who never payed taxes.
I also blame my people for not seeing this and not asking for those ministers heads. They prefer to blame this ministers and ask for their demission to sit in their place all the left wing, which in turn, will rise the taxes even more and blame the current ministers... anyway...

Well, I also might have ADD then, lol!
Let's see... I've tried to use nokia color displays, picture frames and a Mattel Juice Box to create external informative displays without success.
I'm trying to learn to program a TI Launchpad with little success, for now.
I Have some ideas for cooling systems I wanted to try.
I wanted to build some 3D printers.
I also wanted to build some sort of water bottles and other plastics recycler to produce filament to 3D printers.

As for the FPGA's in printers, I might have an idea: why not desolder them and create a "test bed"?
Even so, I believe that the specs of those XC9572XL aren't the best after all and I believe it has something to do with the gates.
But, since any mining compatible graphics card consists in a sort of FPGA, why not check on those, instead?