[ANN] FutureBit Moonlander 2: The Most Powerful and Efficient USB Stick Miner!

[QuintLeo]

Hey Jstefanop,

you might wanna tell bitmain to stop their false advertising, they still claim that the L3+ is the most efficient litecoin-miner
You have 1.3 W / MH which meant an L3+ with 500 MH built with your ASIC-chip would consume 650 Watts. 700 if your controller-board and the fans were really shitty.

 Bitmain will be more likely to pay attention when the A4+ actually starts shipping, I forget how the D3+ compares to the BW.com L21 (pretty close as I recall but I think the L21 narrowly loses) but the A4+ IS ALSO specified to be a hair more efficient than the L3+ and is a major miner from major competition.

[1714792068]

1714792068

[QuintLeo]

Is it technically possible to build usb ETH miner like this?
Would it be impossible due to ASIC-resistance feature of Ethash?

 ETH isn't going to be POW long enough for any ASIC miner to pay off at this point, unless someone started working on one many MONTHS ago and got it to market TODAY.
 Also, the "memory hard" factor of the altorithm and very high AMOUNT of memory needed to run that algorithm would make any efficiency gains from going ASIC fairly minimal at best, and the cost wouldn't be all that much better than a GPU rig for similar hashrate.

 GPUs aren't the only devices on the market that use GDDR - one of the 2 current "game consoles" also uses it (XBox One line I think, not the PS4) to feed it's custom AMD APU with for both the GPU *AND* the CPU sides.

 A "pure ETH" ASIC would actually need more like 4GB (possibly MORE if it's intended to be viable on the ETH spinoffs like ETC for more than a couple years).

[Mr_Snipes]

Vitalik also stated that they will change the algo if they see an asic coming out.
For the gpu-guys it's a software-update - for the ASIC it's a death-sentence

[Throestyle1]

I see ASICPUPPY and Holybitcoin is sold out, is it too late to reserve or purchase 1 or 2 of these?

[dora-gt]

difficulty soars, price falls, omfg!!!

[Ventureum]

This device looks interesting. I may place an order and try one.

[TidalWaves]

do you need a partner with $ to ramp up production?

[sunk818]

I ended up the USB 2.0 7-port hub from Plugable. Same as the USB 3.0 but $10 cheaper. You don't need USB 3.0 as the external power is same on the USB 2.0 versions.

Take a look at this one from Plugable 7-Port USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Charging Hub with 60W Power Adapter with BC 1.2 for $40.

what about short USB extender cables?

You can try, but sounds like three Moonlander2 will work best. I was planning in using 4 Moonlander2 with this, but worried about Port 5,6,7 as two Moonlander2 will share one regular. Not sure if there will be enough watts for port 5, 6, 7.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1779423.msg17921042#msg17921042

As I discovered with my 7-port, 60W charging hub from Plugable -- pop it open and look at how the power is distributed.

On the Plugable, it takes 12vdc in and has 3 buck regulators taking that down to 5v  for the USB plugs. That said... 1 regulator feeds ports 1 & 2, the 2nd regulator feeds ports 3 & 4, the 3rd feeds ports 5-7. See where this is going?

After futzing around with 2x of the 2PAC's along with an original Compac just plugging them in 1-2-3 I was unable to run all 3 at decent speed without at least 1 stick dropping out. Looked inside the hub and found ^^ so...

Put one 2PAC on port-2, the other on port-4 and the Compac on port-6 so each stick has it's own 5v regulator.

[31biggestholderofsigt]

Ok well I have more than most ill put it that way but is there any cheapish big usb hub like 50+ per one

[sunk818]

Go read in the USB Hub link I posted. Sipolar (10 port), Eyeboot (19 port), Block Erupter (49 port)

[aarons6]

Go read in the USB Hub link I posted. Sipolar (10 port), Eyeboot (19 port), Block Erupter (49 port)

 without special adapters the sipolar 10 hub can fit 6 of these and the eyeboot 8. at 245 for the eyeboot i think its not a good buy.

[QuintLeo]

Go read in the USB Hub link I posted. Sipolar (10 port), Eyeboot (19 port), Block Erupter (49 port)

 without special adapters the sipolar 10 hub can fit 6 of these and the eyeboot 8. at 245 for the eyeboot i think its not a good buy.

 Sipolar is USB2 (not an issue of itself) and only .6 amps per port rated (DEFINITELY an issue) - not a good option.

 The ports on the Block Erupter are too close together to be able to use all of them, it would probably handle 28 Moonlanders though (one every OTHER port on each row) but even then cooling might get a bit iffy without a substantial fan blowing lots of air into it.

[2xjO9M3P]

Any insights/experience as to whether something like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N0VBH63/

could work for powering a _single_ miner?

[QuintLeo]

Any insights/experience as to whether something like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N0VBH63/

could work for powering a _single_ miner?

 Per the specs, it should work well even for an high clocked Moonlander.

 1.4 Amp rating....

[Jack123451]

I grabbed 100 so happy I did but you can't buy now and when you can they will be 3x the price
 

[2xjO9M3P]

Any insights/experience as to whether something like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N0VBH63/

could work for powering a _single_ miner?

 Per the specs, it should work well even for an high clocked Moonlander.

 1.4 Amp rating....

Any insights/experience as to whether something like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01N0VBH63/

could work for powering a _single_ miner?

It seems good. Thanks  for the link.

Thanks both. I put in an order for 2. Will report back how it goes, when I get my miners.

[qctechno]

The final design has been locked in for production next month, and I'm happy to reveal it you all! PCB is a cool matte black design, with the same anodized black aluminum heatsink as the original moonlander. I decided to include both memory voltage adjustment in addition to core voltage, as my tests had an efficiency gain of 10-20% for ASICs that can handle lower memory voltage!

As a super thank you to all who pre-ordered I decided to include a 25mm fan into the cooling solution as well, so no need to come up with clumsy external fan solutions to keep these cool. A top side small ASIC heatsink will also be included to further increase thermal efficiency (it will be black not blue). With this setup I've achieved 1.6W/MH all the way up to 800mhz, which is 4.6 MH of hash power for just 7.5 watts! Pretty impressive for a chip thats designed to do 3.8 MH at the same watts.

Check out the pics below!



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I didn't have time to follow up much, just read up the latest news and it's looking very good, I like the design.
Glad I ordered a batch from AsicPuppy, nice hardware coming home soon.

[jstefanop]

Quick update for you guys!

So finally got ASIC ship date from packager. They are expected to be delivered to me on the 30th (there was about a 1 week delay due to the Chinese holiday all week last week). Production and shipments will start the week of the 30th, and I expect the full batch to be shipped out by mid november.

Since I decided to include a fan with these, I reworked the thermal design for it around the fan. There is no point in including a large passive heatsink with a fan, so am now including a pin type heatsink designed for fan induction airflow. This has done wonders for efficiency and max these can be pushed. Looking at about a 10c reduction in temperatures for all frequency ranges, and allows a max clock of nearly 1GHz (I was going to cap the clocks at about 800mhz with the old heatsink). This allows for a hashrate of nearly 6MH per miner (even though I would not recommend running it past 800mhz for stability/longevity)!

Below is a pic of the new thermal design...its only 20mm thick from base of PCB to top of fan, and the whole thing is 10mm shorter due to the fan not being stuck in the back.



Here is a pic of me trying to make the voltage regulator blow up...after nearly 3 days it was still going (that was running on a hub controlled by an original Rasberry Pi btw)




Windows binaries are also done, as well as Pi 1/Zero, and Pi 2/3. I will be posting instructions and driver links probably next week for you guys to download and making sure the software runs on your systems (so these will run on Windows/Mac/Linux/armv6/and armv7/8 systems).


Were just a few weeks away and can't wait for you guys to get your hands on these!

[Theebard]

Is there anyway of getting these in the UK?

[Lafu]

Cant wait to get this little Beasts  !!!!!