[ANN] Twinfury USB miner

[aauer1]

Hello Community,

I would like to annouce my latest development. It is a "Twin Bitfury Chip USB Miner". It is the further development of the Blue-/Redfury miners I developed some month ago. I'm posting this because a very limited number of 200 devices are manufactured right now. They will be available soon for sale.

Some specs of the device:

• Rated hashrate: 4.5-5GH/s (Prototypes are currently hashing stable at 4+GH/s on an USB 2.0 port)
• Power usage: ~3.25W@4GH/s (~0.8125W/GH)
• Dimension: L55mm x W35mm x H37mm (including the heatsink and the components on the PCB, USB connector excluded)
• Powered from the USB port. No external power supply needed
• Temperature sensor to measure the device temperature
• Software controlled voltage scaling

Compared to the Blue-/Redfurys, the Twin Bitfury Miner is about 5mm wider and 10mm shorter. The heatsink is bigger to cope with the generated heat of both Bitfury chips. An additional temperature sensor is used to track the temperature of the device. Currently, the device is running with a modified version of bfgminer 3.6.0. The device is supported by bfgminer 3.7.0 and higher. The Twinfury miner is tested on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. The Raspberry Pi can also be used to use the Twinfury. But you definitely need a USB hub.

For Mac OS, nwoolls has written a blog post about the Twinfury: http://blog.nwoolls.com/2013/12/28/bitcoin-mining-on-mac-os-x-twinfury-asics/

My prototypes are hashing stable at 4+GH/s on an USB 2.0 port. I guess most of the USB 2.0 ports are able to source a bit more current than the rated 500mA. However, to be on the safe side, the device should better be used on an USB 3.0 port or on an USB hub which is rated for a higher current. The devices comes with a preloaded USB bootloader for updating the device firmware if necessary.

Updates

26.11.2013:	bfgminer 3.7.0 is supporting the Twinfury!
27.11.2013:	Price fixed (see above)
29.11.2013:	I got the assembled PCBs from the fab and they are looking so good.
04.12.2013:	Online shop will be available soon: http://minecoin.net. Register with your mail address to get notified when the shop opens.
06.12.2013:	First units are available in our online shop.
13.12.2013:	One tuning method published on http://minecoin.net.
18.12.2013:	We reduced the price to 250 EUR per unit as a Christmas special.
02.01.2014:	We wish everyone a happy new year. We are again ready to accept your orders. All the units we ship from now on support the voltage scaling feature.
20.02.2014:	SOLD OUT

If you have any questions, please use this thread. I will also keep you updated about the device and it's availability here!

[Dirtyissa]

How much € Is it ? And you from America or europ?

[aauer1]

How much € Is it ? And you from America or europ?

The price depends on a number of things I have to consider. So, can't tell you a price at the moment.
I'm from Europe.

[Bicknellski]

Another solid product Andreas, Good Luck!

[Chronikka]

Curious why not go for USB 3.0 spec standard for more power? The Bi-fury usb supposedly can hit 5.3 gh/s stable.

You recommend USB 3.0 for increased current but will it actually draw a full 900 mA?

[klintay]

Nice they look sweet! reserved!
Is there a discount for buying in bulk?

[kr105]

Awesome, looking forward to this product! Can we reserve them?

[klintay]

If it is drawing 900mA, on a 20 port usb hub that would be almost 20 amps. Is there any risk in running that much power through the hub. Won't it burn out the hub internal tracks? I mean are standard usb hubs designed to take this much current?

[railzand]

very interested

[aauer1]

Curious why not go for USB 3.0 spec standard for more power? The Bi-fury usb supposedly can hit 5.3 gh/s stable.

You recommend USB 3.0 for increased current but will it actually draw a full 900 mA?

The power consumption isn't depending on your will. The consumed power depends mostly on the Bitfury chips and how they are used. These are the power hungry parts on the miner. But you cannot tell the chips they should use a specific amount of current. The power depends basically on two things:
1. supply voltage of the chip and
2. frequency of the internal oscillator (this is a software thing)

I designed the board to be stable. Doesn't want to get them all back because the specified hash rate is hardly met. For the final hash rate, I have to test the miners when I get them from the fab.

To come back to your original question. I tested my boards on USB 2.0 ports. And they are working stable for days and they are not hashing faster on an USB 3.0 port. But I know that the cosumed current is higher then specified for USB 2.0. So, I have to tell you that it is better to run them on USB 3.0 ports to be within the specs of the USB. But there are also some USB 2.0 hubs which can cope with the higher current.
Furthermore, I think my prototypes have some bad performing Bitfury chips on it. So, I hope the final product will perform better.

Some notes for the engineers out there: The Twin Bitfury Miner can be modified to support scaling the supply voltage of the Bitfury chip. But therefore some resistors have to be changed and the firmware has to be modified to support this feature.

[aauer1]

If it is drawing 900mA, on a 20 port usb hub that would be almost 20 amps. Is there any risk in running that much power through the hub. Won't it burn out the hub internal tracks? I mean are standard usb hubs designed to take this much current?

If they are specified for this amount of current, it should be working. Depends probably on the quality of the product.

[AuroraHF]

Looks really good, when are you planning to finalize the price and ship it out?

Also, have you tested it on a USB 3.0?

[aauer1]

Looks really good, when are you planning to finalize the price and ship it out?

Also, have you tested it on a USB 3.0?

Yes, I tried one of my prototype on a USB 3.0 port. But wasn't hashing with a higher rate. But I think the prototypes have some bad performing chips on it. Final hash rate will be tested when I get the devices from the fab.

The plan is to finalize the price until next week. Hopefully, the production finishes also this week and I have the devices in hand next week. Thats the plan.

[AuroraHF]

Looks really good, when are you planning to finalize the price and ship it out?

Also, have you tested it on a USB 3.0?

Yes, I tried one of my prototype on a USB 3.0 port. But wasn't hashing with a higher rate. But I think the prototypes have some bad performing chips on it. Final hash rate will be tested when I get the devices from the fab.

The plan is to finalize the price until next week. Hopefully, the production finishes also this week and I have the devices in hand next week. Thats the plan.

I see. Are you planning to ship the product overseas or only in land?

[ercolinux]

It's a really nice product: if the price is nice too I'll buy some

[balanghai]

That's a neat miner there. Saves space and easier cooling I guess. Please let us know the price as soon as you have them all checked.

[Dwarf #8]

Looks interesting, will be following this thread 

[lubah]

put me down for 2 to 5 depending on price...

[bclcjunkie]

hey do you intend to produce boards? since you have access to fab i figured you might as well start assembling bigger miners...

[firejuan]

Watching and waiting for price.