[IN-STOCK, SHIPPING, OPEN] Professional quality USB hubs for USB bitcoin miners

[KyrosKrane]

How many logical hubs is it?

(For example, a typical 7-port hub is two logical four-port hubs, with hub #2 "plugged" into a port of hub #1, leaving seven open ports for the user.)

Reason I'm asking is, the Raspberry Pi can have issues with this hub if there are too many logical hubs inside it.

[klintay]

If I buy this hub, then I need to buy the USB cards and run it using my computer? Does it matter what computer I have or what USB port it needs?

I can do my best to answer but may get corrected later  

What comes in the box is the USB hub (metal inclosure), a power cable (for connecting to a socket), a USB cable (for connecting to a computer), and a USB LED fan (pleasant surprise!).

You have to buy the ASICs and whatnot separately, this is only a powered hub. I honestly haven't checked power usage or anything but so far the ASICs are running great off a Raspberry Pi. Takes far less space and less hassle than the D-link hubs I was using.

Nwoolls, thanks for answering those questions, its sounds correct to me. The casing of the hub is made out of steel. They are proper mens hubs as my grandfather would say  

The hubs themselves run cold but i have heard some people post before about cooling the miners which can get quite hot. I think everyone's setup is different but i have five hubs running at the moment with 16 red furies in each one. I haven't used any fans and they have been fine for the past 3 weeks. Although it is the middle of winter at the moment so temperature is a bit cooler than usual.

How many logical hubs is it?

(For example, a typical 7-port hub is two logical four-port hubs, with hub #2 "plugged" into a port of hub #1, leaving seven open ports for the user.)

Reason I'm asking is, the Raspberry Pi can have issues with this hub if there are too many logical hubs inside it.

I think they are three logical seven-port hubs. So each hub used counts as 21 usb ports with 19 usuable. Razorfish correct me if i am wrong here!

[madao]

I'm interested but sort of iffy on how to calculate what to send.

Don't suppose you could post an official price of the day, or something.

If not, what would I need to do to qualify to use paypal?
My ebay account is in good standing, if that can put your mind at ease

[klintay]

I'm interested but sort of iffy on how to calculate what to send.

Don't suppose you could post an official price of the day, or something.

If not, what would I need to do to qualify to use paypal?
My ebay account is in good standing, if that can put your mind at ease

we use the coinbase.com btc valuation to determine btc price. Just check it out at the time of sending then minus 6%
I have sent a PM with details about paypal payment as well.

[bitgtr]

http://blockchain.info/tx-index/c5d213962751b47ac02130ff175fe67d4e41350475f0388d7252a8f1495fa568

Purchasing 8 please! ~$112.8 per unit, plus shipping. Very much looking forward to receiving them.

UPDATE
One unit received and loaded up:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9817077/IMG_20140201_123915.jpg
16 Yellowjackets... mmm...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9817077/Screenshot%202014-02-01%2019.25.20.png
All overclocked to 54 oscillator bits, there don't seem to be any power-related error messages; it seems rock solid

Very happy, can't wait to get the rest!

[madao]

Put in an order for 1 unit via Paypal, thank you

[razorfishsl]

If I buy this hub, then I need to buy the USB cards and run it using my computer? Does it matter what computer I have or what USB port it needs?

I can do my best to answer but may get corrected later  

What comes in the box is the USB hub (metal inclosure), a power cable (for connecting to a socket), a USB cable (for connecting to a computer), and a USB LED fan (pleasant surprise!).

You have to buy the ASICs and whatnot separately, this is only a powered hub. I honestly haven't checked power usage or anything but so far the ASICs are running great off a Raspberry Pi. Takes far less space and less hassle than the D-link hubs I was using.

Yep, I was going to do FREE fans with all the hubs (as a thank-you to purchasers )BUT then I found a CRITICAL Quality assurance problem with the fans, and am now sitting with a SHITLOAD of useless fans

Please don't use swan neck FANS with hub/ computer.

1. The fans have a contact that is copper and fails after about 1 week of continuous running…….. fan continues but lights die (not critical, just an annoyance)
2. The fans vibrate and transfer the force down the swan neck and into the USB hub socket… thereby fucking them up………. (critical failure, can damage USB connections)

Please don't use the swan neck fan  directly into ANY fixed USB socket, this is why I think it is difficult to find swan neck fans, and yes I know 'loads of people use them', but I am fairly scientific in most things I do.



Additional taxes…on delivery.. Hong Kong is a free port, and I'm currently looking at ways to pass that saving on……, but ultimately it is down to YOUR local government and customs.
Air post is fairly stringent on declarations, what with people trying to blow planes up…..
SPEED POST demands 3 copies of an invoice is supplied with the documentation.

regarding Power usage, the unit contains a switched mode PSU, so it should be as least as efficient as a phone charger…


A bit of background
On Testing…
Normally I'm fairly private, but I can say I have over 30 years experience in Quality assurance & design/electronics, 25 of which are in China/Asia.
(which is why my first post was a bit technical)

At my last company I managed 3,000 products out of a 28,000-32,000 range and dealt with/controlled about 110 factories over a period of 16 years.
If you live in The UK or Europe, you may see some of the products I have designed. (Homebase/Argos)

The issue is not finding product in China or using a translator for TaoBao/ ali…etc, but rather ensuring what you purchase meets the required levels.



I evaluate Circuit layout
to make sure I get what was agreed…



Here I use  a PAT (portable appliance tester), this  performs leakage, flash test earth bond, cross wired & short tests, This is in addition to the factory tests….
Nope!! I do not trust Chinese factories to say they will do what they agree too.

On 'UK 3 pin' Cables….

Yes I know…. they are NFG (no fucking good) other than for a few countries in the world.
For this shipment I figured people would just substitute in the 'correct' cable, Yep… even I get caught out by the idiots sometimes….
Normally I do on-site inspections BEFORE taking goods, unfortunately before Chinese new year is a problem.


RF

[philipma1957]

mine is stuck in customs in New York.  Maybe I will get it on fri. I am looking forward to using it.

[ManeBjorn]

There seems to be a major slowdown in NYC with customs.  I have had a RedFury trapped there for over 1 week with no further info.
They are slow.

mine is stuck in customs in New York.  Maybe I will get it on fri. I am looking forward to using it.

[razorfishsl]

That is great to know.
Is it metal or a plastic case? It looks fairly rugged.

Thanks for the info. Does it work well so far?

Got mine today (US) - works great!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/olaujsguevxo8np/Q_joZpaMp7#/

This is a SOLID STEEL construction, cam shell,
 Internally the  USB PCB is mounted on a steel back plane,via steel/brass bushings spaced so they take the force from any USB items being plugged in.
This backplane is then screwed into outer case, the Switched mode PSU is mounted under that, again bolted to the outer case.

More importantly the parts are replaceable, I.E you can swap out the power supply or even the USB PCB, so if you blow the ass out of the power supply (lightning strike?), you can just swap it out.

Also the USB tree is structured in such a way as to MINIMIZE the number of levels… (127 is NOT the ONLY limitation per USB HOST controller)

Many people think that building a usb hub is 'easy' you just get a PCB and some USB chips and stick them together…..

Yep that works fine for basic setups 1 computer 1 hub… but the real design thought comes in when…… you take two identical hubs and chain them together…..
Badly designed and you can end up with 'mis nested' hubs. (signals travel ~ 3 inches per ns unless it is silicon then it is WAY slower…)
There is a REASON this hub has the 3 side ports……, they are not just basic USB ports.

RF

[ManeBjorn]

Excellent.
Thanks for all the info and help.

That is great to know.
Is it metal or a plastic case? It looks fairly rugged.

Thanks for the info. Does it work well so far?

Got mine today (US) - works great!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/olaujsguevxo8np/Q_joZpaMp7#/

This is a SOLID STEEL construction, cam shell,
 Internally the  USB PCB is mounted on a steel back plane,via steel/brass bushings spaced so they take the force from any USB items being plugged in.
This backplane is then screwed into outer case, the Switched mode PSU is mounted under that, again bolted to the outer case.

More importantly the parts are replaceable, I.E you can swap out the power supply or even the USB PCB, so if you blow the ass out of the power supply (lightning strike?), you can just swap it out.

Also the USB tree is structured in such a way as to MINIMIZE the number of levels… (127 is NOT the ONLY limitation per USB HOST controller)

Many people think that building a usb hub is 'easy' you just get a PCB and some USB chips and stick them together…..

Yep that works fine for basic setups 1 computer 1 hub… but the real design thought comes in when…… you take two identical hubs and chain them together…..
Badly designed and you can end up with 'mis nested' hubs. (signals travel ~ 3 inches per ns unless it is silicon then it is WAY slower…)
There is a REASON this hub has the 3 side ports……, they are not just basic USB ports.

RF

[philipma1957]

There seems to be a major slowdown in NYC with customs.  I have had a RedFury trapped there for over 1 week with no further info.
They are slow.

mine is stuck in customs in New York.  Maybe I will get it on fri. I am looking forward to using it.

yeah not the first time I have had delays with NYC customs.

[ManeBjorn]

I hope it gets sorted down there soon.  I just ordered one of these myself and I am looking forward to it.

There seems to be a major slowdown in NYC with customs.  I have had a RedFury trapped there for over 1 week with no further info.
They are slow.

mine is stuck in customs in New York.  Maybe I will get it on fri. I am looking forward to using it.

yeah not the first time I have had delays with NYC customs.

[klintay]

Put in an order for 1 unit via Paypal, thank you

Thanks payment received. I am getting your shipment ready this evening, will post it first thing tomorrow morning

[razorfishsl]

How many logical hubs is it?

(For example, a typical 7-port hub is two logical four-port hubs, with hub #2 "plugged" into a port of hub #1, leaving seven open ports for the user.)

Reason I'm asking is, the Raspberry Pi can have issues with this hub if there are too many logical hubs inside it.

I think they are three logical seven-port hubs. So each hub used counts as 21 usb ports with 19 usuable. Razorfish correct me if i am wrong here!

The hub is 19 external USB ports , 3 are level 1, 16 are level 2… that is all we need to care about… for expansion hubs plug the shit into the side.


This is something I have been  HARPING on for over a YEAR on the forums and WHY the Pi is NFG for large installations.

Most of these shitty little 'cutter' SBC's have major problems with the USB… then add into this equation SHITTY hubs.

Nearly everyone knows about the 126 USB device limit per Physical controller, but what is not often discussed it the level limitation.
'Theoretically' a usb chain can be nested to upto 5 levels.

 I.E

Controller+Hub+hub+hub+hub.
Now here is the rub… inside the silicon of the SBC or sometimes on the PCB is a hub chip (NOT for users)…, because these SBC devices CHAIN the  ethernet/bluetooth or other I/O internally off the USB protocol, just the manufacturers don't tell you directly….

So what they do is 'hide' as many as TWO logical USB hubs INSIDE the SBC (Huba Huba), BUT then Chain them off each other and into a SINGLE silicon port……,
The reason why they hide two, is because as soon a you plug a slow device into a chain then the WHOLE chain is that speed(new smarter hub chips can act as translators without destroying the speed of the whole chain as long as there is a clear path at 480Mb/s).

The net effect of this SBC hand job is that straightway the 5 levels become 3 or less!!!, which is basically enough for 1 extra 10 port hub (because 1 chip HAS to be chained off another one and hence the problems with the PI, if you are lucky you plug the other hubs into the  FIRST chip in the chain then you get a second level, if not they get plugged into the second chip and go out of range)

Coming back to the metal hub:
if you use the 3 side connectors, then it is one level ,
if you use the top, then it is basically 2 levels apart from 2 top ports where it is 1.(work it out!! )

So… if you buy 4 metal hubs

you plug your computer into one of the hubs via the 'B' type connector and then you plug the other THREE hubs into the side connectors of that ONE hub, UNLESS your computer has more than 1 port, in which case you use ALL the connectors on the computer first.

DO NOT build up a single chain of 1:1:1:1 and think it is cooler and faster, because it is not.
USB is a TREE structure and no tree has all the branches on a single limb (consider the controller as the TRUNK, notice how mother nature has ALL this 'effective distribution' shit already worked out!!!).


These metal hubs I PERSONALLY have had a full device chain of nearly 126 devices, the miner count reached ~104 devices, the rest was hub chips………
But NOTE, the miner performance is less with an SBC than a 'real computer', I suspect it is due to kernel task switching.


Next up……..
Realtek, yep you see they make all sorts of USB silicon…. In fact they developed a shit load of silicon when USB 1.0 came out, and since silicon development is expensive, when USB 2.0 came out they took a silicon 'wrapper' that runs USB2.0, but then the internal cores of their chips are USB 1.0…., their chips are mostly used in cheap crap hubs from China.

BUT they all advertise the products as USB 2.0 compatible with 1.0, because the silicon wrapper is good to USB2.0 standard (which Is compatible with 1.0) ,but the actual internal core silicon communicates at 12mb/s or SLOWER!!!.
Same with their Ethernet to USB chips, the whole core runs at USB1.0, which is ironic because the Ethernet is '100/10 compatible' but it is bottlenecked because it is running at USB1.0 speeds internally!!!!
(bit like some old lady driving her battery powered trike in a 45MPH zone, because it is 'road worthy' but holding up all the traffic behind her)

Needless to say Microsoft was involved in this…..

[philipma1957]

Your tree explanation is solid.
Thanks.

Back in NOV. I was able to run 122 asic miner be's due to hidden hubs in the 3x 49 port hubs I used a while back.
on the 123rd be it read 100% percent error rate as I exceeded the magic 127 port usb limit.
I posted a photo or two of it on a thread some where.

btw my hub has escaped customs and is out for delivery . I hope to report on it late today.
The goal is to run all ice 'nano' fury sticks at the freq set to 55 getting 2.6/2.7gh a stick. If this hub does this I will buy a few more.

How many logical hubs is it?

(For example, a typical 7-port hub is two logical four-port hubs, with hub #2 "plugged" into a port of hub #1, leaving seven open ports for the user.)

Reason I'm asking is, the Raspberry Pi can have issues with this hub if there are too many logical hubs inside it.

I think they are three logical seven-port hubs. So each hub used counts as 21 usb ports with 19 usuable. Razorfish correct me if i am wrong here!

The hub is 19 external USB ports , 3 are level 1, 16 are level 2… that is all we need to care about… for expansion hubs plug the shit into the side.


This is something I have been  HARPING on for over a YEAR on the forums and WHY the Pi is NFG for large installations.

Most of these shitty little 'cutter' SBC's have major problems with the USB… then add into this equation SHITTY hubs.

Nearly everyone knows about the 126 USB device limit per Physical controller, but what is not often discussed it the level limitation.
'Theoretically' a usb chain can be nested to upto 5 levels.

 I.E

Controller+Hub+hub+hub+hub.
Now here is the rub… inside the silicon of the SBC or sometimes on the PCB is a hub chip (NOT for users)…, because these SBC devices CHAIN the  ethernet/bluetooth or other I/O internally off the USB protocol, just the manufacturers don't tell you directly….

So what they do is 'hide' as many as TWO logical USB hubs INSIDE the SBC (Huba Huba), BUT then Chain them off each other and into a SINGLE silicon port……, the reason why they hide two, is because as soon a you plug a slow device into a chain then the WHOLE chain is that speed(new smarter hubs can act as translators without destroying the speed of the whole chain as long as there is a clear path at 480Mb/s).

The net effect of this SBC hand job is that straightway the 5 levels become 3 or less!!!, which is basically enough for 1 extra 10 port hub (because 1 chip HAS to be chained off another one, and hence the problems with the PI, because if you are lucky you plug the other hubs into the  FIRST chip in the chain then you get a second level, if not they get plugged into the second chip and go out of range)

Coming back to the metal hub, if you use the 3 side connectors, then it is one level , if you use the top, then it is basically 2 levels apart from 2 top ports where it is 1.(work it out!! )

So… if you buy 4 metal hubs

you plug your computer into 1 and then you plug the other THREE into the side connectors of ONE hub, UNLESS your computer has more than 1 port, in which case you use ALL the connectors on the computer first

DO NOT build up a single chain of 1:1:1:1 and think it is cooler and faster, because it is not, USB is a TREE structure and no tree has all the branches on a single limb (consider the controller as the TRUNK, notice how mother nature has ALL this shit already worked out!!!).


These metal hubs I PERSONALLY have had a full device chain of nearly 126 devices, the miner count reached ~104 devices, the rest was hub chips………
But NOTE, the miner performance is less with an SBC than a 'real computer', I suspect it is due to kernel task switching.


Next up……..
F***ing Reltek, yep you see they make all sorts of USB silicon…. In fact they developed a shit load of silicon when USB 1.0 came out, and since silicon development is expensive, when USB 2.0 came out they took a silicon 'wrapper' that runs USB2.0, but then the internal cores of their chips are USB 1.0…., their chips are mostly used in cheap crap hubs from China.

BUT they all advertise the products as USB 2.0 compatible with 1.0, because the basic silicon wrapper is good to USB2.0 standard (which Is compatible with 1.0) ,but the actual internal core silicon communicates at 12mb/s or SLOWER!!!.
Same with their Ethernet to USB chips, the whole core runs at USB1.0, which is ironic because the Ethernet is '100/10 compatible' but it is bottlenecked because it is running at USB1.0 speeds internally!!!!
(bit like some old lady driving her battery powered trike in a 45MPH zone, because it is 'road worthy' but holding up all the traffic behind her)

Needless to say Microsoft was involved in this…..

[ManeBjorn]

Congrats on escaping the clutches of customs. 
I can't wait to see your posts about how it works when you are setup to go along with others posts on theirs.

[philipma1957]

Congrats on escaping the clutches of customs. 
I can't wait to see your posts about how it works when you are setup to go along with others posts on theirs.

  real quick post it is running 18 ice 'nano' furies   set on 55 for oc. 


 no other hub that I have tested allows for setting 55 most 10 port hubs allow 6 or 7 nano furies set on 54.     

 it is good enough that I will order some more. 

 I need to fully test it and also get some more hubs attached to it.

[ManeBjorn]

Wow that is a beast.
Is that on US 110v?
Now I am even more anticipating mine.

Congrats on escaping the clutches of customs. 
I can't wait to see your posts about how it works when you are setup to go along with others posts on theirs.

  real quick post it is running 18 ice 'nano' furies   set on 55 for oc. 


 no other hub that I have tested allows for setting 55 most 10 port hubs allow 6 or 7 nano furies set on 54.     

 it is good enough that I will order some more. 

 I need to fully test it and also get some more hubs attached to it.

[philipma1957]

Wow that is a beast.
Is that on US 110v?
Now I am even more anticipating mine.


  I am on usa power 117 volts at the plug.

Congrats on escaping the clutches of customs. 
I can't wait to see your posts about how it works when you are setup to go along with others posts on theirs.

  real quick post it is running 18 ice 'nano' furies   set on 55 for oc. 


 no other hub that I have tested allows for setting 55 most 10 port hubs allow 6 or 7 nano furies set on 54.     

 it is good enough that I will order some more. 

 I need to fully test it and also get some more hubs attached to it.