Introducing ATX-Pi

[ik2013]

Am I missing something, or is this really just a power button for an ATX Power supply and a Raspberry Pi? How much does it cost, and can you really justify it over something like this?

https://secure.robotshop.com/cytron-atx-power-supply-breakout-board-right-angle-2.html

I just did a random check, and it seems a bare Arduino board with no accessories runs $30.  Add another $10 or so for the other components, and you effectively have a $40 power switch for your $50 Pi. I can see some value if you're making a sealed, plug-and-play miner that you will hand off to someone else (or sell on eBay at an insane markup), but I think for most folks, the breakout board above (or heck, a bent paperclip!) would be more cost effective.

You aren't missing anything except the fact that it also talks to your Pi and halts it when you want to power off. I'm not even that interested in selling anything. I started a Tindie campaign just to gauge interest, if people like the design and want to source their own they are free to do so by visiting https://github.com/KD8SSF/ATX-Pi

If a cheaper board suits you better than by all means use it, I thought there was value in the idea so I produced and shared it. Enjoy

[crazyates]

Very nice product! One thing the Youtube video didn't mention: Can it support auto-power-on-on-failure? I'd like it to automatically power up if it freezes and I power-cycle the PSU.

Also, are you selling for BTC?

[KyrosKrane]

Like I said, it has merit in specific use cases, but in general, it may not be cost-effective.  If you can add some functionality to it beyond just a power button, it would be more viable.  

A couple of ideas come to mind.  First, software integration with the Pi so that you could control multiple individual miners and power-cycle a stuck one, or turn on additional miners at set times, when power may be cheaper.  Also, Crazyates mentioned auto-power-on; that got me thinking that it would be nice to automatically power on the system as soon as the power supply is plugged in, so that if power goes out in your area, you wouldn't have to do anything to start up your miners after power is restored.

Side note, I went looking for a cheaper alternative to that breakout board ($9 each, plus about $10 to ship), and I found this item on eBay.  Functional, but certainly not elegant.  The guy sells them for $5.50 each, or five for $19, with free shipping in the US.

[ik2013]

Well the PSU control and shutdown features only take 1,680 bytes on ~32k bytes available, you could go nuts with other ways to use this board. It's all there you just need to extend it's functionality yourself

[ik2013]

Very nice product! One thing the Youtube video didn't mention: Can it support auto-power-on-on-failure? I'd like it to automatically power up if it freezes and I power-cycle the PSU.

Also, are you selling for BTC?

The way things are setup now, if you power cycled the PSU via the switch on it, the board would be in standby again and you would just press the button. If you want it to remember it's state after power off you will have to look at using some EEPROM I guess

I have sold out of my available prototypes, which were sold for BTC. I have two bare circuit boards available that I am willing to part with for BTC, PM for details. Past that there is the tindie campaign ($29.99 USD, $5 shipping to the US): https://www.tindie.com/products/KD8SSF/atx-pi-2/

I would prefer going the tindie route because I believe it will offer better customer service. Easier for me to ship and easier for people to get refunds if I don't. If no one here is interested in using paypal I am open to arranging a group buy if we can get at least 30 boards together.

[synapseattack]

Just an FYI for all those interested. I have one of these running with my RPi with MinePeon (Arch Linux). Sadly I'm still waiting on my ASICs to arrive but I spent a good deal of time going through the process of getting the scripts running and everything and this little board kicks ass. I have the RPi and this board mounted inside a computer case with standoffs, hooked up to the cases power switch and it works perfectly. When the power button is press when the computer is already on it starts the shutdown sequence, turning off each of the services before finally coming to a halt and turning off the PSU. This is by far the most important part. Without a proper shutdown of the Pi you risk corrupting your SD card and causing more downtime for your mining controller.

Me and ik2013 stumbled across each other on another thread while he was still in the process of developing one of these for himself. I took a chance and bought one from him and I couldn't be happier. If anyone has any specific questions on getting this setup with MinePeon let me know. If I don't respond to the thread just PM me and I'll come back an comment on the thread. However I found it pretty straight forward.

Definitely worth the 30 bucks since i didn't need to cobble one together myself.

[ik2013]

Thanks for stopping by synapseattack, glad to hear you like the board. Would you mind posting some pics of it mounted with the Pi in your case?

[synapseattack]

Sorry for the delay on this. I haven't been home. Pics of it mounted on the standoffs are below. As you can see each board is mounted on a single standoff. This is because neither the RPi nor the ATX-Pi are large enough to straddle two standoffs that line up with the provided holes. The second screw you see on the RPi actually isn't in the board, it's just holding the board in place for me for it doesn't move around. There is a standoff under it and the SDcard is just placed under it so the head of the screw rests on top of it.

Additionally one minor issue I had is that the holes on the ATX-Pi are too small for standard standoff screws. I initially tried to mount it by the hole next to the power switch pins. Bad idea. That edges is too thin around two sides of the hole. But I did that first because there was nothing on the board in that area that could be damaged. So, don't do this. Get yourself a smaller screw that fits through the hole and put a little Gorilla Glue in the standoff itself. Don't fill the whole standoff, just enough for the screw to reach it and push the glue up a little bit around a few threads. As long as you don't put enough in that it comes up and touches the board then it's fairly easy to unmount the board should you need to in the future. That little tiny bit of glue is strong enough to hold everything in place. But if you apply a little pressure with a screwdriver then you can easily break the seal later. There are better ways to mount this if you order the parts I'm sure. But I worked with what I had around my house.

I plan to put my klondike-16s in the 5.25 and 3.5 bays using adapters from https://cp.virtualvm.com/cart.php (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=246638.0)

Luckily the extra case I am using has a external LED temp display and a wired sensor which you can see laying between the boards. Case fans and this display will also be run off the power supply that is powering everything so it should be a nice and neat self contained system.

Pictures: http://imgur.com/St8utsm,voSKWow,YLEIUrI

Is it perfect? Nope. But it does the job. Let me know if you have any questions.


Edit: Oops, pictures way too big to put directly in the thread.  

[ik2013]

Hey all, a little update for everyone: I have pictures of my ATX case mounting plate up now at http://imgur.com/a/HzsU3

Design files (for 3D printing OR 2D laser cutting) available at https://github.com/KD8SSF/ATX-Pi

[Foofighter]

looks nice, good job!

[tarui]

does this somehow offers users the ability to remote shutdown the miners?

[ik2013]

does this somehow offers users the ability to remote shutdown the miners?

"Out of the box" - no. If you wanted to write a script on the Pi to listen for a remote shutdown and then write an interrupt on the Arduino side that watches a pin on the ribbon cable (so your remote shut down script can signal to have the PSU shut off), that would work. There is plenty of available program memory left on the Arduino so an interrupt should pose no problem.

[ik2013]

I have recently uploaded new firmware to github that enables the ATX-Pi to automatically resume after power is restored. Should be useful if your power goes out while you are away from your rig.   

https://github.com/KD8SSF/ATX-Pi