Bitminter client (Windows/Linux/Mac)

[Vorksholk]

Is it possible to mine on a Butterfly Labs single FPGA unit from a Mac? I've been unable to do this... it says "No COM ports found" when I try to scan for FPGA devices. Device works on Windows, have yet to test on Linux.

Yep, when you scan for devices and it doesn't find any it will give you some hints in the log. Try grabbing Mac drivers from http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

Edit: The stable version runs fine on Mac. But if it's not too much bother I'd love to hear how the beta runs (look a few posts back). Hopefully it still runs fine and with low CPU usage.

Yeah, I went to that link, but it said if you want the mac drivers to contact them... should I do that?

The beta version runs great from what I can see, aside from the FPGA issue it seems great and fast, low CPU...

[DrHaribo]

Yeah, I went to that link, but it said if you want the mac drivers to contact them... should I do that?

Just click the version number in the table for 32-bit, 64-bit or PowerPC depending on your CPU. I don't think you need "VID/PID combination" (whatever that is), so no need to contact them.

[DrHaribo]

BitMinter client v1.3.0beta2 is ready for testing.

News since beta1:

• Improved automatic timer tuning and hash rate detection for Icarus FPGAs.
• Improved FPGA error handling, should fix lockup that could happen with beta1.
• Fix bug introduced in beta1, crash when unplugging FPGA while mining.
• Bugfix: detect CPU model on Raspberry Pi, and hopefully other ARM systems.
• Only scan USB ttys on Linux - prevents many error messages about ttySxx.
• Bugfix on Linux: devices detected by a full probe and devices added
    through probing a specified port were named differently and it was possible
    to add the same device twice.
• Sort devices alphabetically when dynamically adding external devices
    to device display.
• Default to compact display for anything but the bottom "total" display.
• Do not start CPU when clicking "total" display's start button for the first
    time after starting the program, unless it is the only device. Would
    previously start all visible (non-hidden) devices.
• Added X-Mining-Hashrate HTTP header to report hash rate to server.
• Staggered start of devices when multiple devices are started with the button
    on the status line or the "total" display's start button. Should give
    a smoother start up of (multiple) BFL minirigs.
• When going to performance mode remember the old window size and restore it
    when going back to detailed mode.

Please check it out:

[Fefox]

working good on the 2 MiniRigs, startup on 36 devices is much SMOOTHER now

 Thanks DrH, Love it! 

[davidspitzer]

BitMinter client v1.3.0beta2 is ready for testing.

News since beta1:

• Improved automatic timer tuning and hash rate detection for Icarus FPGAs.
• Improved FPGA error handling, should fix lockup that could happen with beta1.
• Fix bug introduced in beta1, crash when unplugging FPGA while mining.
• Bugfix: detect CPU model on Raspberry Pi, and hopefully other ARM systems.
• Only scan USB ttys on Linux - prevents many error messages about ttySxx.
• Bugfix on Linux: devices detected by a full probe and devices added
    through probing a specified port were named differently and it was possible
    to add the same device twice.
• Sort devices alphabetically when dynamically adding external devices
    to device display.
• Default to compact display for anything but the bottom "total" display.
• Do not start CPU when clicking "total" display's start button for the first
    time after starting the program, unless it is the only device. Would
    previously start all visible (non-hidden) devices.
• Added X-Mining-Hashrate HTTP header to report hash rate to server.
• Staggered start of devices when multiple devices are started with the button
    on the status line or the "total" display's start button. Should give
    a smoother start up of (multiple) BFL minirigs.
• When going to performance mode remember the old window size and restore it
    when going back to detailed mode.

Please check it out:

I impressed an intrigued with the ease of this software - Will it work with BFL singles  - I am starting up a mining operation and I am looking for the right pool to join  - I want one that requires very little maintenance and will work steadily. I am not interested in getting the last 3% efficiency out of my hardware, only that it is easy to setup and works reliably and non-stop

[rjk]

Yes it will work with singles, and yes it is a well-done bit of software. However, you can't just use it anywhere, although bitminter is an excellent pool to be on.

[SgtSpike]

BitMinter client v1.3.0beta2 is ready for testing.

News since beta1:

• Improved automatic timer tuning and hash rate detection for Icarus FPGAs.
• Improved FPGA error handling, should fix lockup that could happen with beta1.
• Fix bug introduced in beta1, crash when unplugging FPGA while mining.
• Bugfix: detect CPU model on Raspberry Pi, and hopefully other ARM systems.
• Only scan USB ttys on Linux - prevents many error messages about ttySxx.
• Bugfix on Linux: devices detected by a full probe and devices added
    through probing a specified port were named differently and it was possible
    to add the same device twice.
• Sort devices alphabetically when dynamically adding external devices
    to device display.
• Default to compact display for anything but the bottom "total" display.
• Do not start CPU when clicking "total" display's start button for the first
    time after starting the program, unless it is the only device. Would
    previously start all visible (non-hidden) devices.
• Added X-Mining-Hashrate HTTP header to report hash rate to server.
• Staggered start of devices when multiple devices are started with the button
    on the status line or the "total" display's start button. Should give
    a smoother start up of (multiple) BFL minirigs.
• When going to performance mode remember the old window size and restore it
    when going back to detailed mode.

Please check it out:

I impressed an intrigued with the ease of this software - Will it work with BFL singles  - I am starting up a mining operation and I am looking for the right pool to join  - I want one that requires very little maintenance and will work steadily. I am not interested in getting the last 3% efficiency out of my hardware, only that it is easy to setup and works reliably and non-stop

Should be perfect for you then.  I was looking for a similar setup.  Didn't want to mess with configuring a batch file to work with 10 singles, so I just started up BitMinter and it worked perfect.  Granted, I sold all 10 singles since then, but it is a solid piece of software, and I'm still using it for mining on a couple of GPU's.

[Fefox]

oh here is minter with 2 Mini-Rigs 

[||bit]

BitMinter mining pool has it's own custom miner.

Features of the BitMinter miner:

• FAST - top notch GPU and FPGA speeds
• Easy to use good-looking GUI
• Zero installation(!)
• Long polling, to reduce stale work
• Mine on OpenCL-compatible GPUs or BFL FPGAs
• Supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS X

No need to manually install the miner, and certainly no need to build/compile the miner yourself.

Try it now:

• 1. Fill in the pool sign-up form at http://bitminter.com/signup
• 2. Start the miner with "engine start" here or on our website (Java required)
• 3. Experience mining the way it should be

I just tried using this pool miner. It's pretty straightforward... snazzy display...good stuff. But it automatically mines for namecoins along with bitcoins. Why??  After looking around, there is no obvious way to disable the namecoins from being generated. Why waste the processing power? Can it be disabled so that all resources mine exclusively bitcoins?

||bit

[Turbor]

I just tried using this pool miner. It's pretty straightforward... snazzy display...good stuff. But it automatically mines for namecoins along with bitcoins. Why??  After looking around, there is no obvious way to disable the namecoins from being generated. Why waste the processing power? Can it be disabled so that all resources mine exclusively bitcoins?

||bit

You waste nothing. Namecoins use the same results as bitcoins. Since the difficulty is lower you generate more blocks.

[||bit]

I just tried using this pool miner. It's pretty straightforward... snazzy display...good stuff. But it automatically mines for namecoins along with bitcoins. Why??  After looking around, there is no obvious way to disable the namecoins from being generated. Why waste the processing power? Can it be disabled so that all resources mine exclusively bitcoins?

||bit

You waste nothing. Namecoins use the same results as bitcoins. Since the difficulty is lower you generate more blocks.

oh cool....thanks for the info....that might even make it better (if namecoins ever become worth anything). do most other mining pools or software do this? ....used guiminer, but never saw namecoins being generated.

||bit

[dankroxel]

Do you plan on integrating the asic chips into this program?

[DrHaribo]

Definitely would be nice to have a backup pool option for times like now...

Yep, that's among the things on the top of my list after Black Hat and Def Con are over.

Do you plan on integrating the asic chips into this program?

Yes, as soon as BFL has info on their new protocol available (for communicating with the devices) I'll start implementing it. In the mean time I am working on other changes to the server and client to make them work better with such high hash rates as you will see with ASICs.

oh cool....thanks for the info....that might even make it better (if namecoins ever become worth anything). do most other mining pools or software do this? ....used guiminer, but never saw namecoins being generated.

Some pools have merged mining of namecoins and some don't. Currently I believe they add about 0.5% to your income if you sell them for bitcoins. After the reward halving on the bitcoin chain the namecoins might be a 1% profit boost. But that depends of course on how the namecoin/bitcoin exchange rate will go.

[DrHaribo]

BitMinter client v1.3.0beta3 is ready for testing.

News since beta2:

• Improve sorting order of FPGAs ("natural" order, usb2 before usb19)
• Re-enabled comm port interval scanning (FPGA section of config)
    Can be used to automatically pick up FPGAs when plugged in
• Count X accepted/rejected when the work difficulty was X (X is rounded down)
• Fixed bug that could cause "probe all ports" to stop working and
    report "no serial ports found"
• Changed regular poll interval to 20 ms (was 10) for BFL default config
    Saves 5-10% CPU usage on testsystem with 2 BFL minirigs, no performance loss
• Changed hammering poll interval to 5 ms (was 1) for BFL default config
    Saves 10-15% CPU usage on testsystem with 2 BFL minirigs, < 0.1% perf. loss
• Bugfix: stopping an FPGA could cause another FPGA to timeout and stop too
• Hopefully works on OpenBSD and FreeBSD as well now. FPGA only, untested.

Please check it out:


I would like to get 1.3.0 out soon, so please help test this beta. I'm particularly interested in performance differences for BFL mining compared to 1.2.0 (the current stable version) and with different poll intervals. Also of course any bugs you find and whether it runs ok on raspberry pi or PC with openbsd or freebsd, if you are able to test on any of those.

[LordMord]

Hi i just got my BFL Single and it runs fine at 826Mhps. But from time to time it drops down sometimes below 700 and then crawles back up to 826. Is that normal? Also do you think v1.3 could help.

[DrHaribo]

Hi i just got my BFL Single and it runs fine at 826Mhps. But from time to time it drops down sometimes below 700 and then crawles back up to 826. Is that normal? Also do you think v1.3 could help.

Because of the way the BFL FPGA devices work some hashes are wasted at every block change. This is why they are useless on p2pool which has block changes every 10 seconds.

Some miners may show a steady hash rate, counting the actual hashes being processed by the unit. I decided to show the effective hash rate instead because it is what really matters and it shows you what is going on. Thrown away hashes are not useful.

In the same vein the BitMinter pool hash rate is the effective hash rate. Many pools count rejected proofs of work for their hash rate, but I don't see the point in this, except that it makes their pools look faster.

I believe I read somewhere that the future ASIC units from BFL will work on p2pool. I assume that means they will have a better protocol for communication between PC and mining device, hopefully resulting in no wasted hashes and perhaps also lower CPU usage (using something smarter than polling).

[LordMord]

th for the reply. i thought it was something like that. But i wanted to be sure that everything is fine.

[rjk]

th for the reply. i thought it was something like that. But i wanted to be sure that everything is fine.

It's also possible that it is throttling, check to see whether the front light is blinking when the slowdown occurs. If so, it needs better cooling or lower ambient temperature.

[LordMord]

th for the reply. i thought it was something like that. But i wanted to be sure that everything is fine.

It's also possible that it is throttling, check to see whether the front light is blinking when the slowdown occurs. If so, it needs better cooling or lower ambient temperature.

Already checked that before posting and it runs fine.

[solari]

I have got a BFL Single a few days ago.
It works very good with you BitMinter 1.2.0.

Now I want to use additional a few  ZTEX USB-FPGA 1.15y  Boards.
Will they work with the new BitMinter 1.3 ?