Introducing CherryPicking - new Windows & Linux Pool Hopper

[MrWizard]

I was going to suggest bitcoinpool but after reading their TOS I found then too much of and anal retentive control freeks.    They will freeze your account if there is no activity in a 28 day period, they will freeze your account if you are not "efficient", they will freeze your account if they feel like it  

Donating to the pool ameliorates this problem:
http://www.bitcoinpool.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=103&p=2449&hilit=donate#p2449

Thanks hawks5999.  Good to know.  I always donate to pools that I hop.  It's only fair.

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[hawks5999]

So hawk, if you had to choose right now which is better, cherrypicker or bithopper?  What are the big differences if any?

Trying to figure out if I want to spend the time tonight setting up cherrypicker.

I'm pleased with CP. I really like BH and had been die-hard on BH-RYO since it released.

Here's some pros/cons.

CP
Pros:
BitClockers works
Some algo work on PPLNS/SCORE so more possible pools (though I know these are gambles)
Easy to setup - install JRE, the jssecacerts, add your miner accounts and go.
A responsive dev who is putting in a lot of work

Cons:
No web interface to monitor what's happening (so no monitoring when away from rigs)
No realtime monitoring of any sort (other than watching lines scroll by on the console)
Currently only uses poclbm
Closed Source

BH
Pros:
Web interface to control pool enable/disable and monitor shares, speed, submitted, stales, etc.
Dynamic Penalty (ryo)
Slicing (if it gets stable)
Open source, easy to fork
Responsive group of devs

Cons:
Web Interface of main has become a camel
Frequent updates that can break things - burning mining time
BitClockers hates bithopper for its getwork behavior - that signature will allow other pools to follow BitClockers
Easy to fork - and then features you like don't make it back into the main and you end up with giving up one set of features or the other
Can be difficult to setup due to dependencies.


Bottom line: I'm good with CP right now. The rate of return is comparable to slightly better than BH (primarily because BitClockers has been on a bit of a roll). I see it as the next evolutionary step for hopping software. Proxy -> Client control -> Client integrated.
I would love to see both CP and BH join together and work with the poclbm-autohop guy and bring in some of the work of the Long Polling and Hopping thread guy to create a miner that is self-contained, unblockable, with a web control interface and slicing, drawing stats from unfakeable sources, hopping every pool type.

Until then, a lot of it comes down to your personal preference. Dropping .10 for CP won't be wasted, but sticking with BH has some good benefits too.

[GenTarkin]

Wait, so Im confused when takling about CP and it mentions it supports "scoring" pools... does that refer to PPS type payouts ? ...

[hawks5999]

Wait, so Im confused when takling about CP and it mentions it supports "scoring" pools... does that refer to PPS type payouts ? ...

PPS = Pay Per Share
SCORE = Slush, Eclipse, etc. that use Meni R.'s scoring algorithm or similar.

[Bloodred]

Updated the cfg archive with a few more pools: bitp, Bloodys, BtcMonkey, BTCPool24, BTCWorld, DigBtc, NinjaCoin
Also updated the SSL fix archive to go along with the new pools.

Wait, so Im confused when takling about CP and it mentions it supports "scoring" pools... does that refer to PPS type payouts ? ...

No, that means pools with a score-type payment system, like Slush's pool, Eclipse, etc. It does support them but if you get any extra income from them or not is still a gamble.

[GenTarkin]

got ya, thanks guys! so all the pools listed in the archive have the right type of payment system to work w/ this hopper? In which case if true... I just go make accounts on any of the ones listed in config files...and off I go??

[Bloodred]

They should all have the correct payment type in the cfgs, if not I've made a mistake.

You should choose as many Prop pools as possible and have a few backups as well. Please ignore any .cfg with the pool type 'SMPPS' or 'PPS' for the time being, those are for the next version that I'm currently testing, but since I've already written the .cfgs I've uploaded those too. Actually, you can use PPS pools, just switch them to BACKUP (change Type=PPS to Type=BACKUP) and they'll work in 0.6.3

[GenTarkin]

They should all have the correct payment type in the cfgs, if not I've made a mistake.

You should choose as many Prop pools as possible and have a few backups as well. Please ignore any .cfg with the pool type 'SMPPS' or 'PPS' for the time being, those are for the next version that I'm currently testing, but since I've already written the .cfgs I've uploaded those too. Actually, you can use PPS pools, just switch them to BACKUP (change Type=PPS to Type=BACKUP) and they'll work in 0.6.3

Cool, to make it easier can you put a link to the archive on the 2nd Post?

Also, does one use the config files in the archive over the ones that come w/ the download? The actual cfg file forum...

[Bloodred]

They should all have the correct payment type in the cfgs, if not I've made a mistake.

You should choose as many Prop pools as possible and have a few backups as well. Please ignore any .cfg with the pool type 'SMPPS' or 'PPS' for the time being, those are for the next version that I'm currently testing, but since I've already written the .cfgs I've uploaded those too. Actually, you can use PPS pools, just switch them to BACKUP (change Type=PPS to Type=BACKUP) and they'll work in 0.6.3

Cool, to make it easier can you put a link to the archive on the 2nd Post?

Also, does one use the config files in the archive over the ones that come w/ the download? The actual cfg file forum...

There already is a link, just under 'How to get it'
With the download (from bitcoinservice) you get poclbm.cfg and pools.cfg, which you then need to edit to work for you (see ReadMe). The .cfg files in the archive are for various mining pools and you can choose which to use.

Add your miner accounts to the pool config files you want, then add the config file names to pools.cfg

So basically:
poclbm.cfg - information about poclbm (where to find it, what arguments to use to start it, etc.)
pools.cfg - the pools you want hopped (one name on each line, CherryPicking will then try to read <name>.cfg to configure the pool)
<name>.cfg - a pool config file where <name> is a name from pools.cfg (these are the files in the separate archive, you need to add your miner accounts to these, 1 for each GPU)

[GenTarkin]

F that crap, mtgox wont let me send just .1 grrr all I have is .215btc .. frustrating.

[Bloodred]

Maybe withdraw to your wallet and send from there? I don't use mtgox, so I can't say for sure.

[GenTarkin]

Maybe withdraw to your wallet and send from there? I don't use mtgox, so I can't say for sure.

Well, I was using them as my wallet...but apparently they wont allow payouts less than 1BTC to someone elses wallet =( grr

[ampirebus]

how do i know if its working? I am looking in cataylst at my card actvitiy (usually at 98% in guiminer). but its at a flat 0% while running this.

it says all that pool info and then

*Cherry Picking
============

but nothing else. Im pretty sure its not doing anything. 

[muyoso]

Is there anyway to see the hash rate you are currently mining at?  Its really reassuring to see that number.

[muyoso]

how do i know if its working? I am looking in cataylst at my card actvitiy (usually at 98% in guiminer). but its at a flat 0% while running this.

it says all that pool info and then

*Cherry Picking
============

but nothing else. Im pretty sure its not doing anything.  

Lol, I did the same thing.  Go to your polcbm.cfg and set the device correctly.

Also, getting this error on every update of the pools:

Code:

* rfcpool
* Error occured while trying to communicate or open a connection to https://www.
rfcpool.com/api/pool/stats
* sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.secu
rity.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certifi
cation path to requested target
* Update error or pool considered invalid (lagging or down)

Using the newest SSL patch.

[Bloodred]

how do i know if its working? I am looking in cataylst at my card actvitiy (usually at 98% in guiminer). but its at a flat 0% while running this.

it says all that pool info and then

*Cherry Picking
============

but nothing else. Im pretty sure its not doing anything. 

That most likely means you've got some invalid arguments or a bad device number in poclbm.cfg

Is there anyway to see the hash rate you are currently mining at?  Its really reassuring to see that number.

No, not in this version, but there will be in the next (info command that shows your miner's stats). Right now I think monitoring GPU load and temps is the best option - if they're high it means poclbm is working.

Also, getting this error on every update of the pools:

Code:

* rfcpool
* Error occured while trying to communicate or open a connection to https://www.
rfcpool.com/api/pool/stats
* sun.security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.secu
rity.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certifi
cation path to requested target
* Update error or pool considered invalid (lagging or down)

Using the newest SSL patch.

I've updated it again, try with the latest please.

[ampirebus]

Great I got it working, I was a doofus and had a colon instead of a semicolon on a line.

I can now see my shares accepted/etc. The only errors are the same ones others are reporting with Mtred but thats the only one (after updating ssl) So I guess I should take mtred out of the pool rotation for the time being or its okay to leave it in there anyways?

[muyoso]

Newest SSL patch is working for everything including Mtred and rfcpool.  Awesome.  Now to see how it handles switching pools compared to bithopper. . . .

Also, can't wait to be able to see the hashrate.

[Bloodred]

Great I got it working, I was a doofus and had a colon instead of a semicolon on a line.

I can now see my shares accepted/etc. The only errors are the same ones others are reporting with Mtred but thats the only one (after updating ssl) So I guess I should take mtred out of the pool rotation for the time being or its okay to leave it in there anyways?

Have you tried the SSL certificates I've posted a few minutes ago or the ones from earlier? I've tested it and all pools are updating on my system. If it's that one and you still have problems I'll have to see what might be causing them later, it's 5:20AM now and I need some sleep. For the time being you can both remove and leave mtred there, it won't make any difference except removing it will stop it from spamming that message every time it tries to update.

Newest SSL patch is working for everything including Mtred and rfcpool.  Awesome.  Now to see how it handles switching pools compared to bithopper. . . .

Also, can't wait to be able to see the hashrate.

Should be coming in a day or two, stats are implemented but I'm still testing to make sure it doesn't display any erroneous information. While debugging I haven't really noticed any difference to guiminer/pure poclbm, both my stock-clocked 5850s are pulling about 288-290MH/s.
Prop pool hopping should pretty much be the same to bitHopper, it mines the youngest round under 43%, I think Score needs to be penalized a bit more (changes in next version as well) but I'll have to see exactly how much when I have some simulation results.

[muyoso]

Should be coming in a day or two, stats are implemented but I'm still testing to make sure it doesn't display any erroneous information. While debugging I haven't really noticed any difference to guiminer/pure poclbm, both my stock-clocked 5850s are pulling about 288-290MH/s.
Prop pool hopping should pretty much be the same to bitHopper, it mines the youngest round under 43%, I think Score needs to be penalized a bit more (changes in next version as well) but I'll have to see exactly how much when I have some simulation results.

Cool.  I am running bithopper and CP right next to each other to see what the differences are.  I did noticed that Slush solved a block and bithopper jumped to it until it reached .1*difficulty and then hopped back to polmine.  CP stayed with polmine the entire time and chose not to hop to Slush.  I guess score pools as a kind of backup pool with CP?  The way bithopper did it worked out pretty well with anywhere from 100-150% efficiency on Slush, but losing it would not be the end of the world.  Also, I don't think CP polls the pools for updates fast enough to catch Slush like that.  I really want to see how CP handles bitclockers, which is actually the entire reason I set it up.