Which USB hub to use with Block Erupters | NanoFury NF1 | BPMC Red Fury | Ant U1

[Nemo1024]

Reposting this message chain from Canary's group buy thread:

My USB hub won the race. I waited to order until confirmation from Canary.

I went with the GearMo. It looks so lonely right now with just a fan in it and a USB data stick I threw in just to test.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BZABGWK/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 


as a heads ups  it reads a 12v 3 amp brick   that is about  a 7 or 8 stick max.   

Not sure about that, saw that this had actually been reviewed by some people here that 10 spots out of 10 were usable. Not too worried for me personally though since I only ordered 7 and a fan from amazon.

never used it but all my 10 port hubs with 10 sticks using a 12 volt 4 amp brick killed the bricks after 2 weeks of run time.  I have a lot of spare 12 volt 5amp bricks and they worked great.  Your gear is 12 volt 3 amp but the markings or ratings are not what count.  for all I know my 12 volt 4amp bricks were less then your 12 volt 3amp brick.  I have found this brick works well

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VE7GQQ/ref=oh_details_o05_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1   I have 1 of these

as does this one

http://www.power-guide.com/pdf/SPU50.pdf    meanwell spu50-3

  I can't find these any more I have 8 or 9 from other projects these are very good if you can find them.

[dave111223]

As per my post here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137934.1060

I'm using Sipolar 20 ports hubs to run 100 USB block erupters.
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Great-price-Sipolar-20-port-USB2-0-HUB-USB-HUB-Copy-Industry-level-HUB-Original-quality/215038_979153532.html

The hubs appear to work fine, however there are some notes:

On windows they are a bit finicky to get working.  I had to plug them into various ports in varying combinations and order of power-ons etc...but finally did get it working on windows.  Also the "connected" lights doesn't come on with windows machine unless you are actually using the USBs.  On Linux (minepeon) they were detected and working right away without any configuration.

They appear to be configured in such a way that 1 hub is actually like 3 hubs merged together, when you plug them into a windows 7 machine you get some really odd reads indicating you have plugged in 3 or 4 hubs and there are some driver issues.

They seller seem to indicate that you can use 1 output cable on the hub or "2 cables for double speed"...this does not seem to be the case, it seems to me than 1 cable controls about half of the hub and the other cable the other half...you need to plug in both cables, keep this in mind as it uses up 2 ports in every daisy chain.

The hubs seem to have plenty of power to handle anything you can stick in them, adapter reads 90W 20VA

Would certainly recommend these hubs.  Had them working with up to 45 miners with 3 hubs + 1 Raspberry Pi (was not able to go over 45 with a raspberry).  But decided to decrease the number to 34 miners + 2 hubs + 1 Raspberry as this more stable.

Plus these hubs feel industrial (metal).  I'm not worried about coming home and finding them melted.

[Nemo1024]

Thank you, Dave. I've updated the main table with your findings.

A small review from me. I am waiting for 30 more BEs, so I decided to do a little testing and ordered a 10-port ST-Lab hub from the local net store. It didn't have power rating specified, so it was a bit of a gamble.

Having arrived today, it turns out it has a 4A adapter, which should be good for 8 BEs! My plan is, however, to use it as a root hub for 7 D-Links + fan.


Part No: U2-N21-UH61-11-00012
http://www.st-lab.com/assign.asp?keyid=bq13
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ST-Lab-TRUE-USB-2-0-TO-10-PORTS-HUB-WITH-POWER-ADAPTER-WORK-WINDOWS-8-32-64-BIT-/200948894993?pt=US_USB_Cables_Hubs_Adapters&hash=item2ec97ccd11

EDIT: Reporting back, it's been running 8 sticks for an hour stably. I would think that 7 sticks would be preferable for 24/7 operation so as not to overload the adapter.

It's marked with efficiency level V. Found this document:
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/prod_development/revisions/downloads/International_Efficiency_Marking_Protocol.pdf
Can anyone explain it in play English?

[DBordello]

A quick update on the MCM hub.  It appears to support 6 miners.  The 7th port is not usable due to physical constraints.  However, it was able to power 6 miners + a fan.

Dan

[Trongersoll]

Today i got a Plugable 7 Port Hub and a Rosewill 10 port hub today. Although the Rosewill claims 4 amps, i couldn't get more then 6 Sticks to mine. and it wouldn't even let me daisy chain another Hub in the unused ports.

The Plugable on the other hand will power 7 Sticks with no problem. as others have said the ports are too close together to put erupters side by side. My solution was these:
 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007X82ZPA/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

they will fit between two erupters perfectly. Be wary shopping for these, they are as low as .01 each but they make it up on shipping costs. yeah, it raises per port cost but it is a neat, clean solution.

I prefer only using 1 hub per port on the PC, so my next thing to do is see if a 5 port PCI-e card that came with windows drivers on a cd will play nice on a linux machine with no cd player.

[djtriggz]

im going to have to recommend this

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-USB-BTC-Miner-pbx-private-branch-exchange-10-Port-USB-Bitcoin-Mine-Machine/1165698958.html

i have one  of those cheapy pluggable usb 10 hubs and guess what today it just died on me well the powered part of died it still works using the usb to the computer but can only power one usb and the fan i will order another as i only paid £5.99 for it on ebay and order the product above

it can power 9 USB ASIC + My artic breeze fan = 3 Giga Hash it is USB 2.0 so when i set up my raspberry pi it will work on that too (currently just need a sd card + some time)

If anyone is using this item at the moment please let me know

Its called the OIMASTER FURTHER1 for the list.

[DopeLabs]

FYI the orico 10 port and the aitech 10 port are identical in every way... the only difference is they stamped a different name on it... i have successfully mined with all 10 ports filled for over a 48 hour period with no problems on both the orico and the aitech. i am mining with 9 in each one now as i have a fan plugged into the 10th port.

[Unacceptable]

Soooo,useing 12 volt adapter on a 5 volt hub is ok?? Just asking,don't want to fry anything  

Trying to find 5 volt adapters is a real pain,ALL search engines throw 12/9/7.5 volt & any other volt in there,crazy 

[bzh]

Soooo,useing 12 volt adapter on a 5 volt hub is ok?? Just asking,don't want to fry anything  

Trying to find 5 volt adapters is a real pain,ALL search engines throw 12/9/7.5 volt & any other volt in there,crazy 

Some hubs won't supply too many mA to each port. Before I understood everything I bought a hub that only supplies 250mA.

I hooked up a 3A 12v supply to compensate and it did not reliably power my raspberry pi or block erupters (even just 1).

[Nemo1024]

Soooo,useing 12 volt adapter on a 5 volt hub is ok?? Just asking,don't want to fry anything  

Trying to find 5 volt adapters is a real pain,ALL search engines throw 12/9/7.5 volt & any other volt in there,crazy 

It will fry your hub and, possibly, your Erupters.

[SolidBitShop]

I'm using modified (customized power supply) Logilink 10 ports 2.0 and 7ports

Industrial Switching power supply 5V 30A - capable of supporting 50 Erupters (with a bit of capacity left for in time power supply degradation)

I have found that most hubs, does have a limit of 2.5 - 3A current as in total. Even if somehow they can handle 5-6A, the printed circuit itself its too thin, The whoe hub after a while were hot as hell, and after another while, The IC chip on the hub melted
Even if you connect to thin cables from PSU they can get really hot, so now there is a 2x0.75 cable to support the current, Inside the HUB I had to modify the power connection to each port, and cut the +5V from bus, not to damage USB port in pc.

Current set up 100 Erupters 2x30A power supply.
It has been running excellent. I advise to cool the PSU as it can get hot (its 150W)
PSU efficiency 77% under load.
Over current protection
Shortcircuit protection
Auto reboot, after fault condition has been removed.

5x10 port HUB cooled with 80mm fans
Modification to this hub is the power supply.
This 10's takes 5.5-5.7 A (5V) direclty from the PSU (low voltage drop - approx 0.25-0.35V on 50 erupters attached to PSU)
I have been testing it under Linux, and Win7 without any problems.
Haven't tested it under raspberry

Total cost: 50Erupters
Roughly 6,5 USD per port.

After 2h30m
 100          | 31.75/31.71/32.46Gh/s | A:2434 R:1+0(.05%) HW:829/1.2%

1 Rejected
HW usually drops below 1%

If someone would be interested in someting like this I can make more of them.
Also I have bunch of small radiators for Erupters if someone is interested PM me.

Sorry for the images I don't know how to properly post them.

10 Port HUB


7 Port HUB


PSU 5V30A


Setup


2xPSU


Miner



Current

[merv77]

now you're not mucking around... that's a serious setup... I like it 

I recent bought the exact same power supply from ebay for $22
but I don't have no where near as many erupters, just a measly 20 

[SolidBitShop]

Thank You I have been working on it quite some time, taking measurements, temp, voltage, amp etc etc.
22$? nice do you have a link? My source is much more expensive. (exact the same 30A?)

First I connected 6BEE per 10's HUB, and connedted 10 in a row. It was working ... for a day
After that I made the wires from PSU to HUB's (but the wires were too thin), the vlotage drop was hudge 1.5-1.75V, so even when I tuned up the PSU to 5.5V the errupters got 3.75V on each, so they did not work properly, They were turning off an on, massive HW errors.
So I got new idea, connected fat wire direclty to each port, and to PSU, small voltage drop, no heating (except the erruptors themself), Only now the PSU is heating up bot its 30A, so its not unusuall. (try to touch the small PSU addapter that comes with HUB's, after a while with 6-7 erupters...)

So the reason most HUB's doesn't work is the power, or the power distribution inside the HUB.

[merv77]

fantastic tips, especially about the wire thickness. thanks

below are some links of 5V 30A 150W power supplies I found on eBay

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/110979089260

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/111122899860  <--- I bought this

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/280565950519  <--- and this

haven't received them yet hopefully on monday I'll get at least one of them.

[Unacceptable]

Soooo,useing 12 volt adapter on a 5 volt hub is ok?? Just asking,don't want to fry anything  

Trying to find 5 volt adapters is a real pain,ALL search engines throw 12/9/7.5 volt & any other volt in there,crazy  

It will fry your hub and, possibly, your Erupters.

I figured I'd ask    Kinda thunk it  

Any hints to a 5 volt either 3amp or 4 amp adapters with the 5.5mm barrel connector??

I've been through the thread & most would require cutting & soldering or opening the USB hub,I just want to upgrade the adapter(wall wart or laptop style)  

Unless this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058RLD9C/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ok found one,I'll update my post as I find more:
Thanks merv77  
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-100V-240V-Converter-Adapter-DC-5V-8A-40W-Power-Supply-Charger-DC-5-5mm-New-/350794968653?pt=US_Server_Power_Supplies&hash=item51ad026e4d

Thanks MonocleMan  
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-5A-AC-DC-Power-Supply-Replacement-Adapter-with-2-1mm-x-5-5mm-Tip-Center-/220961860354?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33725a6b02

[dyingdreams]

Soooo,useing 12 volt adapter on a 5 volt hub is ok?? Just asking,don't want to fry anything  

Trying to find 5 volt adapters is a real pain,ALL search engines throw 12/9/7.5 volt & any other volt in there,crazy  

It will fry your hub and, possibly, your Erupters.

I figured I'd ask    Kinda thunk it  

Any hints to a 5 volt either 3amp or 4 amp adapters with the 5.5mm barrel connector??

I've been through the thread & most would require cutting & soldering or opening the USB hub,I just want to upgrade the adapter(wall wart or laptop style)  

Unless this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058RLD9C/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ok found one,I'll update my post as I find more:
Thanks merv77  
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-100V-240V-Converter-Adapter-DC-5V-8A-40W-Power-Supply-Charger-DC-5-5mm-New-/350794968653?pt=US_Server_Power_Supplies&hash=item51ad026e4d

Thanks MonocleMan  
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-5A-AC-DC-Power-Supply-Replacement-Adapter-with-2-1mm-x-5-5mm-Tip-Center-/220961860354?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33725a6b02

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-5A-AC-DC-Power-Supply-Replacement-Adapter-with-2-1mm-x-5-5mm-Tip-Center-/220961860354?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33725a6b02

I ordered 3 of these, from the same seller no less, and they are working well so far with no issues running 9 block erupters and 1 artic breeze. The brick does get kinda warm but not disconcertingly so.

[merv77]

Ok found one,I'll update my post as I find more:
Thanks merv77  
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-100V-240V-Converter-Adapter-DC-5V-8A-40W-Power-Supply-Charger-DC-5-5mm-New-/350794968653?pt=US_Server_Power_Supplies&hash=item51ad026e4d

Thanks MonocleMan  
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-5A-AC-DC-Power-Supply-Replacement-Adapter-with-2-1mm-x-5-5mm-Tip-Center-/220961860354?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33725a6b02

Don't buy that  5V-8A-40W power supply above because I did and it's only good for 4 erupters 2Amps and this is because it's not a regulated power supply.
I'm not sure, but the other 5V-5A below it probably isn't regulated either.

For those wondering what's the difference between a regulated and a non-regulated...
with a non-regulated the more amps you draw the greater voltage drop.
with a regulated power supply there's minimal or no voltage drop, which is important with the erupters.

[dyingdreams]

Don't buy that  5V-8A-40W power supply above because I did and it's only good for 4 erupters 2Amps and this is because it's not a regulated power supply.
I'm not sure, but the other 5V-5A below it probably isn't regulated either.

For those wondering what's the difference between a regulated and a non-regulated...
with a non-regulated the more amps you draw the greater voltage drop.
with a regulated power supply there's minimal or no voltage drop, which is important with the erupters.

I would have to assume from your definition that it is regulated, since mine are running at near full capacity without any issues.

[Unacceptable]

Ok found one,I'll update my post as I find more:
Thanks merv77  
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-100V-240V-Converter-Adapter-DC-5V-8A-40W-Power-Supply-Charger-DC-5-5mm-New-/350794968653?pt=US_Server_Power_Supplies&hash=item51ad026e4d

Thanks MonocleMan  
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-5A-AC-DC-Power-Supply-Replacement-Adapter-with-2-1mm-x-5-5mm-Tip-Center-/220961860354?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33725a6b02

Don't buy that  5V-8A-40W power supply above because I did and it's only good for 4 erupters 2Amps and this is because it's not a regulated power supply.
I'm not sure, but the other 5V-5A below it probably isn't regulated either.

For those wondering what's the difference between a regulated and a non-regulated...
with a non-regulated the more amps you draw the greater voltage drop.
with a regulated power supply there's minimal or no voltage drop, which is important with the erupters.

Very good info    Thanks dyingdreams & merv77 !!

Was just hoping to get an adapter either brick or wallwart with more power,I have plenty of hubs.I hit Radio Shack & Best Buy today..........nothing worth while   Gonna have to be online order.

Keep us posted to how you get along with yours dyingdreams.That one is in the US not China,which should get here ALOT faster than 2+ weeks  

I'm thinking the easist & cheapest route for me would be to get a bunch of these   http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058RLD9C/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

& one of these.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-20A-DC-Universal-Regulated-Switching-Power-Supply-/110638231265?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c28d6ee1

I have wire & no soldering makes it right up my alley  

Thanks again guys!!!!!!!!  
 

[Nemo1024]

The thread took an interesting and relevant turn to replacement AC adapters. I will copy some of this info to a new section in the OP.

The powerbricks that drive D-Links are rather warm to the touch, so I pointer one of the fans to blow over them. If the worst comes to worst, and they start dying, I have the following contingency plan:

I have 3 old PSUs lying around.
Two ATX ones, where you have to short the green wire for them to start. Their 5V rails are rated 28A and 30A respectively.
I also have one AT PSU from the olden 486 days, where the PSU is turned on my the means of a physical switch (which was operated through a series of levers in the case) This has an 18A 5V rail.

My plan is to connect the cables from any eventual failed powerbrick to the 5V output on the Molex connectors, observing polarity. It works for motherboards, harddisks and all that stuff that gets connected directly to the PSU, so it should work for a hub. Or am I wrong? SolidBitShop, that's a question for you.

Another note. When people start connecting those barrel connectors, pay attention to polarity that the hub expects. So have (+) on the inner connector, other can have (-).