[Announcement] Block Erupter USB

[arklan]

There are lots of tutorials, for example https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=121253.0

i should have clarified: i'm on windows.

i'm quite nervous about all this cause i'm getting the first of these, besides the units the devs and such got, and i've never touched cgminer or such with any success. i've used guiminer for my amd/nvidia cards. (i know, nvidia bad.) i kinda feel like i'm wading into uncharted waters.

[1713574205]

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[1713574205]

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[Luke-Jr]

any clue about the software that can be used for mining? Preferably on linux.

BFGMiner from git will work.

and... how will it work? as in, settings, menu options? tiny hint?

Figure out what COM port Windows assigns it, then use:

Code:

bfgminer --scan-serial \\.\COM1 -o poolhostname:port -O user:pass

To build from git, it's probably a pain on Windows - check out the docs, though they might not be completely up to date.
If you can't get it to build once yours has arrived, ping me and I'll make a special build...

[DPoS]

any clue about the software that can be used for mining? Preferably on linux.

BFGMiner from git will work.

and... how will it work? as in, settings, menu options? tiny hint?

I'm running that on a WinXP 32 bit with a ModMiner... As long as these things get a com port assigned by windows when you plug them in it should be fine

(not sure if I need to recompile or get another version, I'll look at that if it doesn't work as is)


PS - what Luke said!

[arklan]

oh. well ok then. well, i feel dumb. hopefully there aren't any issues.

[mdude77]

oh. well ok then. well, i feel dumb. hopefully there aren't any issues.

I'm a windows guy.  I intend to use cgminer.  I'll post my experience and tips if no one else has.

ps.  I'd install linux and use cgminer before I'd use bfgminer.  It's a matter of principle you see. 

And I can't stand linux.

M

[Luke-Jr]

oh. well ok then. well, i feel dumb. hopefully there aren't any issues.

I'm a windows guy.  I intend to use cgminer.  I'll post my experience and tips if no one else has.

ps.  I'd install linux and use cgminer before I'd use bfgminer.  It's a matter of principle you see.  

And I can't stand linux.

M

What principle is there in using cgminer over BFGMiner?
You prefer to only support trolls?

[kano]

Heh funny, I guess I missed this thread when I posted about the cgminer code when I got the USB last week

I'll link back to it and repost here in the right thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=99497.msg2137231#msg2137231

A final update from yesterday on the USB Erupter performance.

17 hour run statistics on ozcoin using direct Stratum and
 --icarus-options 115200:1:1 --icarus-timing 3.0=80
(see further below for more optimal settings)

Code:

[SUMMARY] =>
(
   [0] => SUMMARY
   [Elapsed] => 61325
   [MHS av] => 334.00
   [Found Blocks] => 0
   [Getworks] => 2779
   [Accepted] => 4686
   [Rejected] => 5
   [Hardware Errors] => 44
   [Utility] => 4.58
   [Discarded] => 5433
   [Stale] => 4
   [Get Failures] => 2
   [Local Work] => 15895
   [Remote Failures] => 0
   [Network Blocks] => 115
   [Total MH] => 20482802.5584
   [Work Utility] => 4.64
   [Difficulty Accepted] => 4686.00000000
   [Difficulty Rejected] => 5.00000000
   [Difficulty Stale] => 4.00000000
   [Best Share] => 11913
)

So - less than 1% HW errors.
I'm not sure if the earlier higher figure yesterday was burn in or overnight being cooler - I'll see today - but certainly don't expect it to get over 1.5% (Ambient temperature for the last 24hours has been around 21C or less)

Accepted hash rate: Difficulty Accepted / Elapsed = 328MH/s

Work utility (4.64) = 332MH/s

So all in all performing ~10% above the expected 300MH/s

Based on those figures I'd suggest the cgminer options to get it to report a little closer to accurate MH/s:
 --icarus-options 115200:1:1 --icarus-timing 3.012=100

The actual timing for mine would be 3.012=128 but I'm not sure what sort of variance there will be with the final product.
The 3.012 number helps get the MH/s display correct but doesn't affect the device performance.
The =100 number determines how long it should hash (100 = 10.0seconds) before restarting work, so if it is too long, it will allow it to go idle and thus reduce performance.
However, being a bit low (in this case 100 is 22% below the expected figure of 128 for me) has a very minor ignorable effect but allows for a large 22% performance variance with devices.

Soon I'll be updating the cgminer Icarus driver to use USB direct (it's the last untouched cgminer serial-USB driver) so these will be HotPlug also soon.

Screen cap at the same time as the above numbers:


Edit: much later edit with a few updates:
Size: 24.5mm wide
Board alone is 45mm long
Board+USB plug is 59.5mm (of course the plug isn't removable)
Weight: 6g
Height; 6mm (the highest component)

Errors: between 1% and 1.5%
Hash rate: 336MH/s

[kano]

And for a screen copy (almost 12 hours at 256 diff) using the newer Icarus direct USB HotPlug:

Code:

 cgminer version 3.1.1o - Started: [2013-05-23 00:46:50]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (5s):6.608G (avg):6.533Gh/s | A:241  R:0  HW:34  U:0.3/m  WU:91.1/m
 ST: 2  SS: 1  NB: 61  LW: 72867  GF: 0  RF: 0
 Connected to au.ozco.in diff 256 with stratum as user
 Block: 005d1fb2a7b92966...  Diff:11.2M  Started: [12:16:53]  Best share: 17.8K
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options [Q]uit
 AMU 0:                | 326.1M/335.6Mh/s | A: 11 R:0 HW:27 U: 0.02/m
 ICA 0:                | 379.5M/379.6Mh/s | A: 14 R:0 HW: 5 U: 0.02/m
 BLT 0:                | 398.5M/399.3Mh/s | A: 12 R:0 HW: 2 U: 0.02/m
 BAJ 0:  max 42C 3.45V | 5.513G/5.419Gh/s | A:204 R:0 HW: 0 U: 0.29/m
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This will be in the next cgminer version and has been in git for a while.
Note that the next cgminer automatically finds and sets the settings for any Icarus device
e.g. the correct options for the AMU (Asicminer USB) is --icarus-options 115200:1:1

If you think your device might be a little faster or slower, and your computer isn't going to take CPU away from cgminer (for the first hour it runs) then you can use --icarus-timing short to override the default timing and see what cgminer calculates it to be.

[klotzenhotz]

2 x USB Miner vs. Radeon 7970, a simple power calculation for german users:

7970: let's give it 180W (GPU only) -> 0,18 kWh x 24h x 31d x 0,27 EUR = 36 EUR / month ~ 46 USD / month power costs
2 x USB Miner: 5W -> 0,005 kWh x 24h x 31d x 0,27 EUR = 1 EUR / month ~ 1.28 USD / month power costs

Well, in my book there are no open questions...

initial cost(investment) is the most important factor
7970 cost 100 usd less, also 7970 isn't the best vga for mining

a right comparison is 2 usb versus 7950, so 200 usd less(both 600MH\s)
also electricity is subjective(mine is 0.13 euro)
so i can run for 8 months mining before i start losing in comparison
and last but not last a gpu can be resold, those things not so much

Well, I see it in long-term. And so for instance, I would lose ~45 USD/month after 8 months (I just took your example) just for electricity. Or do you stop mining after you got your ROI? I don't think so.

[alibert]

You didnt calculate the difficulty increase. Given a current difficulty of ~11 million you earn 0.82 BTC per month. With 20 million you earn 0.46 BTC. With 30 million 0.31 BTC. Expect the difficulty to be 30 million in some months, so your profit after power costs is much lower with GPUs.

[klotzenhotz]

That's exactly what I meant.

Edit: Giving the most weight to initial investment costs and not paying attention to power costs can only do people who live at "mommy's and daddy's" and don't have to pay for electricity But that's maybe not the best way to calculate

[arklan]

the first box of 200 has arrived. link to other post with pictures:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195052.msg2249127#msg2249127

also, uh... how do i get cgminer to check the usb ports? far as i can tell, it's got a com port assigned and the driver is properly installed (c210x uart) but cgminer doesn't seem to notice it's plugged in.

[Luke-Jr]

the first box of 200 has arrived. link to other post with pictures:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195052.msg2249127#msg2249127

also, uh... how do i get cgminer to check the usb ports? far as i can tell, it's got a com port assigned and the driver is properly installed (c210x uart) but cgminer doesn't seem to notice it's plugged in.

You can use BFGMiner with the standard driver. For now, you need the latest git, and you can use -S all

Edit: Here's a build of BFGMiner master for use with these.

[arklan]

the first box of 200 has arrived. link to other post with pictures:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195052.msg2249127#msg2249127

also, uh... how do i get cgminer to check the usb ports? far as i can tell, it's got a com port assigned and the driver is properly installed (c210x uart) but cgminer doesn't seem to notice it's plugged in.

You can use BFGMiner with the standard driver. For now, you need the latest git, and you can use -S all

i'll give it a shot. thanks.

[kano]

the first box of 200 has arrived. link to other post with pictures:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195052.msg2249127#msg2249127

also, uh... how do i get cgminer to check the usb ports? far as i can tell, it's got a com port assigned and the driver is properly installed (c210x uart) but cgminer doesn't seem to notice it's plugged in.

If you use current cgminer (3.1.1) - you'll need to use:
 --icarus-option 115200:1:1
for timing if your computer is pretty stable
 --icarus-timing short this will show MH/s as whatever each one is
OR if not
 --icarus-timing 3.0=100 this will show MH/s as 333.3 (over time) even if it is a little different
and for the devices
 -S \\.\COM1 -S \\.\COM2 etc
or if you have linux
 -S /dev/ttyUSB1 -S /dev/ttyUSB2 etc

Edit: Which do you have? Windows or Linux?
I'm still testing the new Windows code (and need to resolve one problem I've found)
If you have Linux then the current git branch icarus-dev does all the new auto identification and hotplug of these

[Xian01]

-S /dev/ttyUSB1 -S /dev/ttyUSB2 etc

<pedant>

Will -S ALL work ?

</pedant>

[kano]

-S /dev/ttyUSB1 -S /dev/ttyUSB2 etc

<pedant>

Will -S ALL work ?

</pedant>

Well there is the -S auto that Luke-Jr wrote in cgminer long ago but it didn't work at all in windows and was unreliable in linux according to his documentation comment (which is still there in 3.1.1)
you can try it in linux and see if it works I guess?

See my comment above about current git if you have linux.

[Xian01]

Well there is the -S auto that Luke-Jr wrote in cgminer long ago but it didn't work at all in windows and was unreliable in linux according to his documentation comment (which is still there in 3.1.1)

 Would rather not touch any code Luke-Jr writes with a 10-foot pole. I'm sure you and arklan will work things out Really excited to see these have arrived on this continent. Slick-looking packaging ! Running Windoze in my farm, FWIW.

[arklan]

the first box of 200 has arrived. link to other post with pictures:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195052.msg2249127#msg2249127

also, uh... how do i get cgminer to check the usb ports? far as i can tell, it's got a com port assigned and the driver is properly installed (c210x uart) but cgminer doesn't seem to notice it's plugged in.

If you use current cgminer (3.1.1) - you'll need to use:
 --icarus-option 115200:1:1
for timing if your computer is pretty stable
 --icarus-timing short this will show MH/s as whatever each one is
OR if not
 --icarus-timing 3.0=100 this will show MH/s as 333.3 (over time) even if it is a little different
and for the devices
 -S \\.\COM1 -S \\.\COM2 etc
or if you have linux
 -S /dev/ttyUSB1 -S /dev/ttyUSB2 etc

Edit: Which do you have? Windows or Linux?
I'm still testing the new Windows code (and need to resolve one problem I've found)
If you have Linux then the current git branch icarus-dev does all the new auto identification and hotplug of these

using windows 7.

tried the "and for the devices
 -S \\.\COM1 -S \\.\COM2 etc" part. \\.\COM3 (in this case) isn't recognized as a number. tried just entering 3 and 03, no change.

[Luke-Jr]

Well there is the -S auto that Luke-Jr wrote in cgminer long ago but it didn't work at all in windows and was unreliable in linux according to his documentation comment (which is still there in 3.1.1)

 Would rather not touch any code Luke-Jr writes with a 10-foot pole. I'm sure you and arklan will work things out Really excited to see these have arrived on this continent. Slick-looking packaging ! Running Windoze in my farm, FWIW.

Guess you're stuck using MPBM if you want to take your trolling here seriously.