USB ASIC ERUPTER - Setup & Config. BCG Miner, cgminer & Hubs "Oh Pi"!

[Rotorgeek]

Why buy the Dlink when you can buy the rosewill "7" port for $15AR? I linked it above, and it seems to be running 5 erupters perfectly.

There's a 20% off code on it today too! Damn, that's pretty cheap.

The Pi has some limitations on what works well with it, I don't see that one on the Confirmed working" list.
http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals#Powered_USB_Hubs

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[Beastlymac]

Why buy the Dlink when you can buy the rosewill "7" port for $15AR? I linked it above, and it seems to be running 5 erupters perfectly.

There's a 20% off code on it today too! Damn, that's pretty cheap.

Yeah I plan to use a pi with it

[Beastlymac]

Hi could someone please measure the distance between the ports on the dlink 7 port hub. MM would be amazing. THANKS.

11mm from top to top, 6 from bottom to top.

Thank for measuring it

[stellan0r]

well.. picture says it all




Got my Pi today, installed Minepeon, it works.

Now I will try to configure my wifi.

More block erupters and a fan are arriving next week.


edit: well, wifi setup was quite easy with this guide https://forums.butterflylabs.com/showwiki.php?title=Tutorials:Raspberry+Pi+-+Mining+with+MinePeon&viewfull=1&page=4&do=comments#post38317

[clicknbuyit]

Thanks for such a good thread and informative posts!

I'm getting the gear together while waiting for 10 Erupters to arrive, and have a very noob question. I've looked around but can't find an answer.

I'm not sure how the miners work so don't know whether there is any advantage of using USB3.0 vs UCB2.0 hubs. (for running 10 Erupters of a USB hub or two). I'm guessing no, but to be sure...

No there is no advantage to USB 3.0 vs 2.0.  These are USB 1.1 devices.

If you plan on using CGMiner DO NOT get USB 3.0 hubs as that support is still in development.

What you need to pay attention to is the Power Supply of the USB Hub.  People have been using the Anker 10 Port USB 3.0 hubs because they have a 4 Amp power supply so they can put 8 Block Erupters per Hub.  I am using 7/5 Port Rosewill USB 2.0 Hubs which have a 2 Amp Power Supply so I can put 4 Block Erupters per Hub.  Each Block Erupter draws .5 Amp.

So unless you modify a Hub you cannot put 10 devices on a 10 Port Hub, not safely/reliably anyway.

I have (2) Anker 10 port 3.0 usb hubs. I am going to put 8 usb erupters on each hub.
I have a Lenovo H520S that I bought from Newegg. Can I only put (2) 10 port 3.0 usb hubs on one computer.

Thankyou.

[os2sam]

Thanks for such a good thread and informative posts!

I'm getting the gear together while waiting for 10 Erupters to arrive, and have a very noob question. I've looked around but can't find an answer.

I'm not sure how the miners work so don't know whether there is any advantage of using USB3.0 vs UCB2.0 hubs. (for running 10 Erupters of a USB hub or two). I'm guessing no, but to be sure...

No there is no advantage to USB 3.0 vs 2.0.  These are USB 1.1 devices.

If you plan on using CGMiner DO NOT get USB 3.0 hubs as that support is still in development.

What you need to pay attention to is the Power Supply of the USB Hub.  People have been using the Anker 10 Port USB 3.0 hubs because they have a 4 Amp power supply so they can put 8 Block Erupters per Hub.  I am using 7/5 Port Rosewill USB 2.0 Hubs which have a 2 Amp Power Supply so I can put 4 Block Erupters per Hub.  Each Block Erupter draws .5 Amp.

So unless you modify a Hub you cannot put 10 devices on a 10 Port Hub, not safely/reliably anyway.

I have (2) Anker 10 port 3.0 usb hubs. I am going to put 8 usb erupters on each hub.
I have a Lenovo H520S that I bought from Newegg. Can I only put (2) 10 port 3.0 usb hubs on one computer.

Thankyou.

I'm assuming that is a question.  You can put more than two hubs on a computer.  You can daisy chain them.

Also it appears my previous statement that you quoted may be incorrect.  Eleuthria states that an Anker 10 Port Hub has a 12 Volt 4 Amp power supply so you can put Erupters on all 10 Ports.  I was assuming that it had a 5 Volt 4 Amp power supply as USB Hubs usually have 5 Volt Power Supplies.  I still don't know first hand since I don't have one but I trust Eleuthria.
Sam

[clicknbuyit]

os2sam

It is a Anker Uspeed usb 3.0 10-Port Hub with 12V 4A Power Adapter.

what do you mean by daisy chain them

Thankyou.

[os2sam]

os2sam

It is a Anker Uspeed usb 3.0 10-Port Hub with 12V 4A Power Adapter.

what do you mean by daisy chain them

Thankyou.

Plug one hub into the Mother Board and the next Hub into the first Hub and so on and so fourth.  USB can handle something like 127 devices so you should be able to do that for a while if need be.
Sam

[clicknbuyit]

I have windows 8

I am only using usb asic erupters.

The only Bitcoin mining pool I have gotten to work is bitminter.

Will the Anker hubs that I am using with the usb asic erupters only do bitminter.

Thankyou.

[Trillium]

I have windows 8

I am only using usb asic erupters.

The only Bitcoin mining pool I have gotten to work is bitminter.

Will the Anker hubs that I am using with the usb asic erupters only do bitminter.

Thankyou.

They should work for any pool that you can mine SHA-256 algorithm coins on. You can even solo mine with them, but that would a bad idea for BTC unless you have hundreds of gigahash/s of erupters.

The hubs will either work with your OS and mining software or they will not. The pool doesn't really have much to do with it as far as I can see.

[aigeezer]

I have windows 8

I am only using usb asic erupters.

The only Bitcoin mining pool I have gotten to work is bitminter.

Will the Anker hubs that I am using with the usb asic erupters only do bitminter.

Thankyou.

A thread here was very helpful getting my erupters going with an Anker hub using cgminer on Slush's and btcguild pools. Win7 though, not Win8 in my case: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=220450.0

I doubt that the hub you use will have any restrictive effect on the pools you can use. Good luck!

[stellan0r]

just borrowed a laser thermometer and checked the temperature of my Block Erupter.

I put a tiny heatsink with some Arctic MX-4 thermal paste onto the ASIC and measured the following at room temp of about 26°C

- tiny heatsink top 51°C
- tiny heatsink bottom/side of ASIC 61°C
- side of pcb/heatspreader next to ASIC 60°C
- heatspreader below ASIC 38°C
- D-Link hub 35°C
- RPi CPU (also with a tiny heatsink on top) 37°C

HW error around 1%

I'm getting a USB fan tomorrow and will measure again

[clicknbuyit]

I have windows 8

I am only using usb asic erupters.

The only Bitcoin mining pool I have gotten to work is bitminter.

Will the Anker hubs that I am using with the usb asic erupters only do bitminter.

Thankyou.

They should work for any pool that you can mine SHA-256 algorithm coins on. You can even solo mine with them, but that would a bad idea for BTC unless you have hundreds of gigahash/s of erupters.

The hubs will either work with your OS and mining software or they will not. The pool doesn't really have much to do with it as far as I can see.

I need a Windows 8 instructions on how to get the usb asic erupts to mine using cgminer

Thankyou.

[os2sam]

I have windows 8

I am only using usb asic erupters.

The only Bitcoin mining pool I have gotten to work is bitminter.

Will the Anker hubs that I am using with the usb asic erupters only do bitminter.

Thankyou.

They should work for any pool that you can mine SHA-256 algorithm coins on. You can even solo mine with them, but that would a bad idea for BTC unless you have hundreds of gigahash/s of erupters.

The hubs will either work with your OS and mining software or they will not. The pool doesn't really have much to do with it as far as I can see.

I need a Windows 8 instructions on how to get the usb asic erupts to mine using cgminer

Thankyou.

There is a file in the CGMiner archive called ASIC Readme.

[Trillium]

just borrowed a laser thermometer and checked the temperature of my Block Erupter.

I put a tiny heatsink with some Arctic MX-4 thermal paste onto the ASIC and measured the following at room temp of about 26°C

- tiny heatsink top 51°C
- tiny heatsink bottom/side of ASIC 61°C
- side of pcb/heatspreader next to ASIC 60°C
- heatspreader below ASIC 38°C
- D-Link hub 35°C
- RPi CPU (also with a tiny heatsink on top) 37°C

HW error around 1%

I'm getting a USB fan tomorrow and will measure again

I've also measured mine with a 'laser' (IR) 'thermometer' (pyrometer), but stopped when the top of the ASIC and the heatspreader on the bottom both exceeded 70 deg C (ambient ~26 deg C too and without any fans). The operating temp limit of some of the components on the PCB is just 85 deg C, getting too close for my comfort. On that topic, does anyone know if AM have released technical information about their chips with electrical data and some recommended temp limits? I fear that this information may be out there but in Chinese.

It is actually pretty hard to use a IR thermometer at close range because the laser beam (which has nothing to do with the temperature measurement and is intended as a crude indication of the measurement position) and the location that the thermopile sensor 'sees' and takes its measurement on are several centimeters different at close range (<6", usually), because they are designed to operate usually at distances of 6" or more and measure relatively large surface areas. For example my 12:1 optics model reads an average from a 1.5" diameter spot size at 12" distance. Most have fixed optics too so the best you can do is guesstimate what component is being measured at any time and if you end up measuring a site 50% over the top of the chip and 50% over the PCB, the sensor is giving an average reading which is going to mislead you and the actual component temps could be much higher than the averaged value shown on the display.

A while ago when I got my erupters I had planned to borrow one of my work's colour FLIR thermal imaging cameras but I have found that one has been taken offsite for unknown period of time and other fails cal and shuts itself down.

[stellan0r]

with my new non-CE-conform self-build USB fan I could reduce the temps on the Block Erupter down to 36°C!

[Trillium]

with my new non-CE-conform self-build USB fan

Please be careful with that. Someone could hurted their finger. At least display some WARNING: HAZARDOUS MOVING PARTS signs nearby.

[clicknbuyit]

So I got my first erupters today and spent about 2 hours trying to take the advice in a bunch of threads about settings them up with cgminer. Silly me tried to set them up with the latest version of cgminer 3.3.1. Since the -S command was removed a few versions ago it seems like you are now supposed to get a perfect install of the drivers and then it magically detects the USB devices on start up. But this didn't work for me, and others in some threads had problems with this too.

So I followed this guide http://rdmsnippets.com/tag/install-block-erupter-on-windows-7/ to the letter and used the older 3.1.1 and it worked more or less perfectly.

Not sure how support for the USB miners will progress with new versions of cgminer. I suppose its best to just leave it alone since it works.

Also I used the D-Link DUB-H7 hub and it works flawlessly. Running of my netbook (~13 watts) which runs 24/7 anyway, seems like a good host.

Unless you have USB 3.0 hubs, you should have just followed the simple paragraph in the ASIC readme file and installed the WinUSB driver with Zadig and associate your USB Erupter with the WinUSB driver.

I did that and had my Erupters running in minutes and has been running flawlessly since with no command line arguments besides --usb ICA:3 since I'm running three instances of CGMiner with 3 Erupters per pool.

Much simpler than mapping all of those serial ports and putting each port/miner in the command line.
Sam

ASIC-README.txt in version 3.1.1 only refers to BFL and Avalon devices. I had a look in it but figured it was not relevant at the time.

How do you create a desktop shortcut.
I know how to copy and paste and get my com numbers like below.
I just do not know how to make a command line on my computer from the example below


Thankyou.


STEP 5: Create a Desktop Shortcut.

To launch cgminer, create a shortcut with a target command line that looks like this:

C:\cgminer\cgminer-nogpu.exe -o [pool]:[port] -u [username].[worker] -p [password] --icarus-options 115200:1:1 --icarus-timing 3.0=100 -S //./COM3 -S //./COM4 -S //./COM5 -S //./COM6

[aigeezer]

Right click on your desktop. A window will open. In it, click "new". Choose "shortcut". A window will open in which you can enter one line - that's the target line. Enter or paste your data. Click "next" when you're done.

[stellan0r]

Please be careful with that. Someone could hurted their finger. At least display some WARNING: HAZARDOUS MOVING PARTS signs nearby.

thank you for your concern but luckily i did neither change the plastic-blades with steel-blades, nor does it go at 10.000 rpm only thing that could be hurt are insects trying to fly through it (actually i hope they do try.. )