Fumbling In the Dark

[T3NU0US]

Hi. 

I've spent tens of hours pouring over forums, reading through hardware and software writeups and technical information. I can assure you that I have no illusions of getting rich from mining. I am more wanting to dabble. Learn how how the whole process works so that I can teach my children. I work in IT, having had some history as a field tech and desk side support before moving into Unix administration. So none of this is alien to me yet, it seems that getting to clear, unencumbered information about the finer points is the bigger challenge than mining coins.

What I currently have in hand -

• A desire to learn how to do this.
• an RPi: to which I have loaded Raspian and updated
• a powered USB hub
• some ASIC USB block eruptors: I think that the correct designation is Sapphire? I am finding that info on exactly what these are and who actually makes them seems rather vague. If you can help me clear that up I'd be thankful.
• cgminer

I have the system up and running sort of... here's my impediment and where I really could use some help/direction.

Can I get some help translating this into layman readable form?

I ran a single block erupter last night and after a few hours had the following...
(5s):249.1M (avg):399.4Mh/s | A:1  R:0  HW:968  WU:3.5/m
 ST: 3  SS: 0  NB: 40  LW: 3298  GF: 0  RF: 0
 Connected to ***snipped***
 Block: ***snipped***...  Diff:65.8M  Started: [07:38:59]  Best share: 873
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Pool management Settings Display options Quit
 AMU 0:                | 364.4M/399.4Mh/s | A:1 R:0 HW:968 WU: 3.5/m

[murraypaul]

(5s):249.1M (avg):399.4Mh/s | A:1  R:0  HW:968  WU:3.5/m
 ST: 3  SS: 0  NB: 40  LW: 3298  GF: 0  RF: 0
 Connected to ***snipped***
 Block: ***snipped***...  Diff:65.8M  Started: [07:38:59]  Best share: 873
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Pool management Settings Display options Quit
 AMU 0:                | 364.4M/399.4Mh/s | A:1 R:0 HW:968 WU: 3.5/m

A: Number of shares accepted by pool
R: Number of shares rejected by pool
HW: Number of hardware errors resulting in invalid shares generated.
This number should be zero, or at least very small compared to A+R, something is wrong with your setup.
Try pointing a fan at the block erupter, in case the problem is heat-related.
It could also be that you have a poor quality powered hub, which is not providing a good/consistent power supply.

You may find some useful information in this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=220905.0

[T3NU0US]

Thanks for the feedback! I have swapped out the USB hub and can already see a huge difference after only 5 minutes. Time will tell if this hub does the job.

 
 (5s):203.7M (avg):290.6Mh/s | A:14  R:0  HW:0  WU:3.6/m
 ST: 3  SS: 0  NB: 2  LW: 51  GF: 0  RF: 0
 Connected to ***snipped***
 Block: ***snipped***...  Diff:65.8M  Started: [12:33:25]  Best share: 9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Pool management Settings Display options Quit
 AMU 0:                | 334.3M/331.8Mh/s | A:14 R:0 HW:0 WU:3.9/m

[T3NU0US]

Once again, many thanks!! Still some fine tuning to do but it's working.

 (5s):362.7M (avg):333.5Mh/s | A:893  R:0  HW:12  WU:4.4/m
 ST: 3  SS: 0  NB: 35  LW: 2633  GF: 0  RF: 0
 Connected to ***snipped***
 Block: ***snipped***...  Diff:65.8M  Started: [15:42:07]  Best share: 207
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pool management Settings Display options Quit
 AMU 0:                | 334.1M/334.1Mh/s | A:893 R:0 HW:12 WU:4.4/m
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[murraypaul]

Yes, that level of HW / A+R looks much more reasonable.
Glad it is working for you.

[Towiee]

Your aproach is good. You treat it as a gadget. Just don't expect some earning from erupters. They are overpriced and considering rising difficulty at alarming rate will never see ROI.

[dog.sport]

I am posting here because it seems like the best place for my question. Okay so I know I will be lucky to ever break even but the best way to start is to jump in. I am using BFG miner I had 5 USB miners working just fine I got 10 more in the mail this morning. It looks like the new rosewill 10port hub only handles 7 well and I may take that down to 5 to see if the error rate goes down. The thing that I am having a hard time with is that BFGMiner only see 14 of the miners not 15 but the light blinks on all the USB's and I do not know why any ideas here. Thanks for your help I have been reading through the old post and it is nice to know what all he letters mean in BFGMiner.