BitMinter.com * Optional Custom Miner, PPLNS, Merged mining, Newbie-Friendly! *

[ccualumni]

I am as new as they get, but came across the Bitminter site. After looking at the site, it makes it seem like I can simply register at the site (which I did), then hit the start button and you can start mining.

The problem I get is that once I hit the start button, my computer wants to down load the Java software "Java Network Launching Protocol" (Bitminter.jnlp).
Once I download it and try to open the software, I get the message "Windows can't open this file...bitminter(1).jnlp.

The instructions do not cover that error message.

Any ideas what I need to do to resolve that issue?

Thanks

Edit: It looks like I need to download Java Webstart.

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[Gogreen]

Hi all i just start mining with a lousy usb stick and getting o.ooooo1   Thank for the Dr for opening this topic here for newbies.  

ccualumni : how about doing a reinstall from http://java.com/en/download/windows_ie.jsp. restart pc then try again? then check your browers for add on java or firefox plugin for java to on it? correct me if i am wrong.

updating java app is important for security reason.

[DrHaribo]

is there any way to get this to work with the new bi fury 5gh/s usb sticks as I have been trying to get it to work but it doesn't work for me

Those are not supported. Try bfgminer instead, link from front page of bitminter.com. Maybe Bitminter client will get support for those in the future.

Edit: It looks like I need to download Java Webstart.

Just install Java from java.com. Java Webstart is included in the Java distributions for Windows and Mac OS X.

[ccualumni]

Thank you for the response.

I finally have the software running, but am getting an error:
No devices to start! Please connect mining hardware to USB port(s) and use devices menu to probe for them.

I thought we just used our computer and your software to do everything? Is there something else we need?


Thanks

EDIT: I see that you say you are mining from a USB stick. Is that what I am getting the message that an external device is missing?

[DrHaribo]

No devices to start! Please connect mining hardware to USB port(s) and use devices menu to probe for them.

CPU mining was obsoleted in 2011 and is completely useless now. It has been disabled in the latest version of Bitminter client.

GPU mining was obsoleted in 2013, and the electricity costs outweigh the income. Even though it is not profitable you could try it to learn how mining works. This is still supported in Bitminter client. But it appears the graphics card you have does not support OpenCL so it won't work on that computer. Either that or you don't have proper drivers installed. Try it on a computer with an AMD graphics card.

Real mining now is done with ASIC hardware:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#ASIC

[ccualumni]

Thank you for the information. Yes, I am trying to learn bitmining and realize that I will not become rich doing what I am doing.

My goal is to learn about it and will most likely pick it up as a hobby and maybe make a few bucks doing so.

I find the subject and the potential of these alternate currencies fascinating and would like to more about it by doing it.

[KnifeToy]

Hi!
When i try to start bitminter i get the yellow coin for a while and then i get the java confirm thingy and the the downloading application. It then just exits. I have only had it working once and that was the first time when my computer shut down when it was running.
I have tried ti delete Catalyst and installing the beta 13.11.
I have a 7970 Sapphire and an fx-8350 amd processor.

[DrHaribo]

Hi!
When i try to start bitminter i get the yellow coin for a while and then i get the java confirm thingy and the the downloading application. It then just exits. I have only had it working once and that was the first time when my computer shut down when it was running.
I have tried ti delete Catalyst and installing the beta 13.11.
I have a 7970 Sapphire and an fx-8350 amd processor.

This is usually due to AMD drivers crashing. Often it leaves a hs_err_pid crash log file on the desktop, but it can sometimes end up elsewhere. It usually contains some text saying the problematic frame is amdocl.dll (AMD OpenCL driver). Usually this is fixed by installing another Catalyst version. Sadly many of the 2013 versions are unstable.

[ccualumni]

CPU mining was obsoleted in 2011 and is completely useless now. It has been disabled in the latest version of Bitminter client.

GPU mining was obsoleted in 2013, and the electricity costs outweigh the income. Even though it is not profitable you could try it to learn how mining works. This is still supported in Bitminter client. But it appears the graphics card you have does not support OpenCL so it won't work on that computer. Either that or you don't have proper drivers installed. Try it on a computer with an AMD graphics card.

Real mining now is done with ASIC hardware:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#ASIC

Thanks again for your help and creating an easy to use program.

I have been mining and I have actually made some money with you, but was wondering what it will take to get to the next step, which is to increase my mining power.

I understand that on my low end, I will not make much money but that will be something I worry about later.

Per the link, there are still several products that you can buy and mine with.

Would it be worth spending the $200 or so for a Single Blue Fury?
The Block Eruptor Fury is cheaper, yet shows a MHash rate of 5 times that of the Blue Fury. I am not sure if there is an issue with the pricing on Amazon or maybe they have reduced in pricing.


I can see this being worth putting $200-$200 into, but cannot afford the new equipment at $10k or higher.
I do realize that the low end equipment will not make me rich, but would like to make a buck or two.

Thank you

[ccualumni]

One other question....


The bitminter shows additional tools and such... Is there anything else I can be doing to mine on top of running your software?

I know I am not adding much to the pool, but every little bit counts.

Thanks

[DrHaribo]

Would it be worth spending the $200 or so for a Single Blue Fury?
The Block Eruptor Fury is cheaper, yet shows a MHash rate of 5 times that of the Blue Fury. I am not sure if there is an issue with the pricing on Amazon or maybe they have reduced in pricing.

You'll just have to run some bitcoin mining calculators (google those) and try to predict whether it is profitable. Noone knows for sure how the difficulty will be in the future.

The bitminter shows additional tools and such... Is there anything else I can be doing to mine on top of running your software?

It's mostly about hardware. Add more hardware and run whatever mining client supports it.

[ccualumni]

I have another question... Sorry about all of these.

The Bitminter Client software shows that it is working and giving me stats back for how I am doing.

My question is about the comments/log at the bottom.

When I start the software, I get the following messages:
2014.01.19 [13:52] BitMinter Client v1.4.3 started
2014.01.19 [13:52] Found 1 OpenCL-compatible GPU
2014.01.19 [13:52]  Hint: Use performance mode for best GPU results (bottom right button)
2014.01.19 [13:52] Probing all ports for external devices
2014.01.19 [13:52]  Cannot probe COM3: port in use
2014.01.19 [13:52] No external devices detected.
2014.01.19 [13:53] Difficulty is now 1789546951

I am sure everything is working properly as the software shows that it is working.

My question is about these two comments: "Cannot Probe COM3; port not in use" and "NO external devices detected".

Is that simply telling me that it is using what my computer has and that I do not have an attached device, such as something plugged into my USB port?

Thanks

[DrHaribo]

Is that simply telling me that it is using what my computer has and that I do not have an attached device, such as something plugged into my USB port?

Yes, it's looking for ASIC hardware and not finding any.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#ASIC

[Jeremiah1]

Questions about BitMinter client:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8xnHjfkTh1rZG44ZGhTY2lTdUU/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8xnHjfkTh1rZG44ZGhTY2lTdUU/edit?usp=sharing
#1. Does this screen capture look normal to you? I am new to mining, so I'm not sure if the amount of miscalculations should be that high compared to all the other numbers. If the miscalculations number is too high, what should I do to remedy?
#3. Are the "work rejected" notifications normal? Should I be getting that many? Again, if not, how do I remedy?

Questions about BitMinter.com web interface:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8xnHjfkTh1rVnl6c21NcTlfWEk/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8xnHjfkTh1rZG44ZGhTY2lTdUU/edit?usp=sharing
#1. The Ghps numbers are not matching up with what the client is reporting as my speed. How do I fix, or is it just a problem on the website side? As you can see from previous screen shot of client, I am getting 2.6 Ghps, but the web stats are only showing .72 Ghps. The "statistics > Shifts(work effort)" tab is also not matching up. It reported "completed (2014-01-18 23:22), duration (2h 12m), difficulty (1,789,546,951), Total Thps (388., Your Ghps (0., Your Score (0.000196%), Your Work (1,406). I don't expect to get 2.6 Ghps as an average all the time, but .8 definitely does not seem right.
#2. How should I set up the options for my worker for optimal performance?

If it matters, I am running the client on Mac OSX Mavericks version 10.9.1. I have an ASIC usb "Big Picture Mining BF1 v1 serial 15011a10". I also changed the perks to "pro minter" at 2% to see if the "easy mode" and "non stop minting" would fix things. It did not

[DrHaribo]

Questions about BitMinter client:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8xnHjfkTh1rZG44ZGhTY2lTdUU/edit?usp=sharing
#1. Does this screen capture look normal to you? I am new to mining, so I'm not sure if the amount of miscalculations should be that high compared to all the other numbers. If the miscalculations number is too high, what should I do to remedy?
#3. Are the "work rejected" notifications normal? Should I be getting that many? Again, if not, how do I remedy?

Screen capture looks normal. Red fury for some reason reports a lot of nonces that are wrong. I'll see if I can improve this in the future, filtering out some of them if they are supposed to be expected. Red fury support isn't quite 100% yet. There's no docs for this thing and it is a bit of a weird device.

Stale work rejected is normal up to 0.5% of your work. More than that and it's not normal.

Questions about BitMinter.com web interface:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8xnHjfkTh1rZG44ZGhTY2lTdUU/edit?usp=sharing
#1. The Ghps numbers are not matching up with what the client is reporting as my speed. How do I fix, or is it just a problem on the website side? As you can see from previous screen shot of client, I am getting 2.6 Ghps, but the web stats are only showing .72 Ghps. The "statistics > Shifts(work effort)" tab is also not matching up. It reported "completed (2014-01-18 23:22), duration (2h 12m), difficulty (1,789,546,951), Total Thps (388., Your Ghps (0., Your Score (0.000196%), Your Work (1,406). I don't expect to get 2.6 Ghps as an average all the time, but .8 definitely does not seem right.
#2. How should I set up the options for my worker for optimal performance?

If it matters, I am running the client on Mac OSX Mavericks version 10.9.1. I have an ASIC usb "Big Picture Mining BF1 v1 serial 15011a10". I also changed the perks to "pro minter" at 2% to see if the "easy mode" and "non stop minting" would fix things. It did not

#1 some users have reported this with Red Fury. So I recommend using bfgminer for now. The Red Fury support definitely needs more work.

#2 no more setup needed. Easy mode is for being able to set a high number of work submits per minute. That's for some high hashrate users who are worried about daily variance and want to mine at low difficulty.

[Battleorigin]

I love bitminter but what I prefer is posting in newbies forum.

[CuongDoan]

Hi Dr.

I'm a newbie and started mining at your pool today. I did some research and found out that not all ASCI devices are fully support by your miner client. I though that you should make a list of supported ASCI devices to let newbie like me easier to choose which one to buy

Thanks in advance

[DrHaribo]

Hi Dr.

I'm a newbie and started mining at your pool today. I did some research and found out that not all ASCI devices are fully support by your miner client. I though that you should make a list of supported ASCI devices to let newbie like me easier to choose which one to buy

Thanks in advance

Currently only Butterfly Labs and ASICMiner Block Erupter USB sticks. I added support for Red Fury, but it's not working well for most people, so I suggest using bfgminer instead. The problems are proving hard to fix so far.

I plan to add support for Antminer U1 soon.

There's a short feature list in the Bitminter client thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=31163

[freddyfarnsworth]

Hi Dr.

I'm a newbie and started mining at your pool today. I did some research and found out that not all ASCI devices are fully support by your miner client. I though that you should make a list of supported ASCI devices to let newbie like me easier to choose which one to buy

Thanks in advance

Currently only Butterfly Labs and ASICMiner Block Erupter USB sticks. I added support for Red Fury, but it's not working well for most people, so I suggest using bfgminer instead. The problems are proving hard to fix so far.

I plan to add support for Antminer U1 soon.

There's a short feature list in the Bitminter client thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=31163

+100 waiting on that, speed is about 1564mh and way to many errors being logged, only about 3% or so of them are real (affect shift work).

Those are my two issues, It plugs and plays very well, BGminer was a complete fail with windows for me, was going to try BFGminer next, but really want to wait till I have a jally or blade to go to those programs.

Prolly be on asics for another few months (few meaning 3) inside joke maybe ? was told that on a halloween when a guy said take a "few" so I grabbed a handfull
He said no...few means three. Been using that ref since 1957.

[bens.btc]

*Question regarding Workers and Worker Names and Worker Logins*

Hi,

I have a number of Block Erupter cubes that are proxied through the stratum proxy. They connect just fine to Bitminter and report accurately. However:

I also have a number of Antminer U1's running under bfgminer. With bfgminer I log in with -u bens.btc_ant1. However when I check "workers" on the website it lumps all of my workers together. Do I need to create a worker named "ant1" (whatever name that I'd use an underscore in the command line) on the worker website page for the separate worker names to properly display? The bfgminer client is on a completely different external IP address from the stratum proxied BE cubes. Or should I make a separate Bitminter account for my u1's? This does not appeal, I would prefer a more elegant solution.

I am also wondering about bandwidth. I am going to move my cubes temporarily to a location served by crappy ADSL. Maybe 1.1mbit down and 50k up? Will I be bottlenecked by running on low-tier DSL? I'm not running GETWORK, I plan to use the mining proxy for ingoing/outgoing communication.

Thank You!