Walkthrough: Raspberry Pi/Block Erupter mining rig setup with autostart and vnc

[phrog]

hot plugging works perfect in 3.3.1 and you don't need -S anymore, also I'm getting a bunch less hardware errors.
And was easy to get it to boot up and run at init without having to check for ttyUSB's. I'm sure there must be other improvements with keeping up with the latest versions.

Excellent.  Is there a guide for this setup?  Many thanks!

All you need to do is edit /etc/apt/sources.list by commenting out wheesy and adding jessie:

#deb http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ wheezy main contrib non-free rpi
deb http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie main contrib non-free rpi

Then run "apt-get update" and then "apt-get dist-upgrade" and install cgminer from git.

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[theDF]

Wow, that was a lot of Block Erupter  , I dont even have the Raspberry 
Anyway are you only using the fan to cool it?

[willinliv]

Yes just using two of those Arctic Breeze mobiles (the one without the stand). Seem to do a very good job at keeping it cool. I did actually fit heatsinks onto the chips (on the other side from the preinstalled large heatsinks). Lots on ebay, and the fans hit the erupters from that side so the ridged heatsinks I installed keep nice and cool. I can't say it makes anything run faster, probably more stable though and may last longer until I sell them.

[Degenerate]

Is there any benefit to using the Raspberry Pi instead of a PC when mining with Block Erupters? Or is it simply a space/cost saver?

Thanks!

[N8isGr8]

Is there any benefit to using the Raspberry Pi instead of a PC when mining with Block Erupters? Or is it simply a space/cost saver?

Thanks!

Using a Raspberry Pi is definitely a space/cost saver. Compared to a PC, its a fraction of the size, costs $25/$35 for 256MB/512MB models respectively, and uses much lower amount of power (5V micro-USB charger). Things like heatsinks and fans add a little bit of cost, but definitely improve the performance (I know this from experience).

If you have an old PC layout around, you could certainly use it. Over time the extra energy costs will definitely add up though.

[willinliv]

Is there any benefit to using the Raspberry Pi instead of a PC when mining with Block Erupters? Or is it simply a space/cost saver?

Thanks!

Using a Raspberry Pi is definitely a space/cost saver. Compared to a PC, its a fraction of the size, costs $25/$35 for 256MB/512MB models respectively, and uses much lower amount of power (5V micro-USB charger). Things like heatsinks and fans add a little bit of cost, but definitely improve the performance (I know this from experience).

If you have an old PC layout around, you could certainly use it. Over time the extra energy costs will definitely add up though.

I'll add to that that it is also a discrete package, nice and small to hide away somewhere. And also with the way I have set it up, I have every faith (touch wood) that if I had a power outage/cut it would happily turn on, boot up and start mining all by itself. Certainly a lot more confidence that it won't BSOD or someother reason why it shuts down and then doesn't come back up. Very robust I'd say

[uletter]

Going to fall in love with this things, are we can mining using raspberry pi model a?

[AussieHash]

Thank you.  Looking forward to my bitfury rig 

[alpha5th]

Great walkthrough. Thanks.. Wondering what do you do if you have used the 2 usb ports on the pi. Can you chain usb hubs or is there another trick to it?

[emospacemonkey]

Still make no money on this. 600 MHZ is not enough

[jimsonunique]

work in progress. 2 block erupters using 2 usb hubs from macbook pro.

9v RC car battery powering an old CPU fan



just finished turning it into a usb fan, with an old pc power switch to turn it on/off



still waiting for raspberry pi, usb hub and 8 more block erupters to arrive


all donations will go towards some less ghetto setups lol

148sqSg9uz41X1Q4METXJYzgsBpHrr149A

[willinliv]

Going to fall in love with this things, are we can mining using raspberry pi model a?

Hi yeah I should think so, I greatly assume that no difference in Ram or speed (or if there is that it wouldn't cause any hassles), the only thing is that you'd have to get the wifi up and running as model A doesn't have ethernet I think? I think this is pretty easy to so but you might find it useful search google or the raspberry pi foundation for a list of known compatible usb wifi receivers. There are loads of instructions on line, but if you run into probs or need more info, post back to here and eventually I check here again. Thanks for taking a look. Cheers, Will

[willinliv]

Thank you.  Looking forward to my bitfury rig 

Yeah that's the only thing putting me off upgrading (plus no money is that any bigger miner I would really still like to have control of the computer part of the miner. Look at kncminer or anything like that, lots of gigahashes but you have to use the linux board that comes built into it to control it. I like tinkering with my pi - guess that's the difference between a hobbyist and an investor. Anythink I think the bitfury works through usb? I am envious

[willinliv]

Great walkthrough. Thanks.. Wondering what do you do if you have used the 2 usb ports on the pi. Can you chain usb hubs or is there another trick to it?

Hi, for my setup I have a 4-port powered hub (2.5Amp power adapter for each), and each of these hubs plugs into 1 of the usb sockets on the rPi (I don't need a keyboard or mouse or whatever because I have it set up to be controlled over the network). If I had to plug in a keyboard I have a spare socket on each of the two hubs because I have 6 block erupters instead of 8. If I wanted to get more block erupters then I would buy another hub and hope and pray that this would daisy chain on from one of the hubs, but from what I have read this can be iffy with an RPi. best of luck

[willinliv]

Still make no money on this. 600 MHZ is not enough

They're 336mhz each and I have 6, so that's just over 2gh. They are turning over about £1.30 / $2.30 per day. And in order to work out if I was making any money you'd have to know how much I paid for them!

[willinliv]

How would you manage sending mined earnings to different wallets automatically?

Could you just use different workers?

Is it safe to get worker usernames and passwords from other people (for yourself and them) if you want to mine for them?

First and foremost I'm no expert at this, but as a professional troubleshooter my suggest is below. I think you are correct but to be sure

If you wanted to have the earnings of one miner sending to one address and the earnings of another (lets say block erupter) sending to another address, assuming that you are mining via a pool (and from my experience that would have to be Slush's), what I would do would be:

• Set up two accounts for a pool, each with one worker, and each with a different payout address
• Run two instances of CGMiner on the RPi (you might get warning about API but that is not important), because I don't think you can have more than one worker logged in in one instance of Rpi
  Have both having a separate config file with each going to the pool but with different users and workers.

I am currently comparing slush vs btcguild pps vs btcguild pplns weekly payouts, and have written some personal documentation on the processes, currently up to top of head with a dissertation but if I get a chance I'll update the OP with some instructions about running multiple instances with different block erupters.

Thanks for looking, Will

[willinliv]

work in progress. 2 block erupters using 2 usb hubs from macbook pro.

9v RC car battery powering an old CPU fan

http://s23.postimg.org/qfj0ityaj/IMG_0440.jpg

just finished turning it into a usb fan, with an old pc power switch to turn it on/off

http://s23.postimg.org/l0evvlw4b/IMG_0441.jpg

still waiting for raspberry pi, usb hub and 8 more block erupters to arrive


all donations will go towards some less ghetto setups lol

148sqSg9uz41X1Q4METXJYzgsBpHrr149A

Looks good, like the power switch idea. Post back if you use my guide and have any q's.

[jimsonunique]

work in progress. 2 block erupters using 2 usb hubs from macbook pro.

9v RC car battery powering an old CPU fan


just finished turning it into a usb fan, with an old pc power switch to turn it on/off


still waiting for raspberry pi, usb hub and 8 more block erupters to arrive


all donations will go towards some less ghetto setups lol

148sqSg9uz41X1Q4METXJYzgsBpHrr149A

Looks good, like the power switch idea. Post back if you use my guide and have any q's.

used the guide, didnt have any problems, a friend of mine used it too and now we are both up and running. cheers

[recon3325]

hopping you gents can help out a total beginner using Linux.

I have tried the tutorial on adifruit but can't get cgminer to download.

whenever I put the line


wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/3.1/cgminer-3.1.1.tar.bz2

I get a message along the lines of: failed.  timed out
and it retries over and over continually timing our
after a few minutes each time

do I need to change a timeout setting and if so
could someone help me learn how?

thanks

[willinliv]

Hia, I am no expert but lets work through the simple things - so you have got the internet up and running via either wifi or ethernet? (did you check it out by opening up Midori)