[CLOSED] BTC Guild - Pays TxFees+NMC, Stratum, VarDiff, Private Servers

[SilentSonicBoom]

Word of warning:  These chips do get quite hot if you don't have any active cooling.  A 20 minute run did not produce any more hardware errors than what I saw when running with active cooling, but one was cool to the touch and the other was hot enough to cause a bit of pain if you rested a finger on it.  Running them 10 on a hub with 3 hubs next to each other surely doesn't help.

If you're looking at high density mining of USB Erupters, I highly recommend looking at some form of active cooling.  An Arctic Breezer USB Powered fan kept 9 cool.  Obviously if you're going to run a lot, a standard box fan/oscillating fan would probably do a pretty good job as well .

Specifically, what brand and model number of USB hubs are you using? Any reply is appreciated. Thank you!

[eleuthria]

Word of warning:  These chips do get quite hot if you don't have any active cooling.  A 20 minute run did not produce any more hardware errors than what I saw when running with active cooling, but one was cool to the touch and the other was hot enough to cause a bit of pain if you rested a finger on it.  Running them 10 on a hub with 3 hubs next to each other surely doesn't help.

If you're looking at high density mining of USB Erupters, I highly recommend looking at some form of active cooling.  An Arctic Breezer USB Powered fan kept 9 cool.  Obviously if you're going to run a lot, a standard box fan/oscillating fan would probably do a pretty good job as well .

Specifically, what brand and model number of USB hubs are you using? Any reply is appreciated. Thank you!

For testing, I'm using Anker 10-port USB Hubs (http://www.amazon.com/computers-accessories/dp/B007ZWFKX8).  The ones I got were black, but the 10-port Apple Style is the same.  They're much more expensive than other hubs, but they're one of the only hubs that has adequate power for 10x powered USB devices.  However, I know a few others have ordered cheap $5-7 10-port hubs from China, and then attached a custom 5V power supply into them.  Generally the issue with powered hubs is not the hub itself, but the external power supply.

I'm not comfortable with rewiring this stuff, and I wanted a solid hub that I know had more than adequate power, rather than risk testing on shoddy hubs.

[eleuthria]

No duds in the next 20, so current DoA rate is 2% (1 in 50), which is what ASICMINER ships extra with each order.  Hopefully the next 50 has 0, or at most 1.

This batch I'm using bfgminer, still in Windows.  bfgminer requires one less step to recognize the Block Erupters, and it's a step that can really screw you up if you decide to go with cgminer on Windows.  The extra step on cgminer can screw up your other USB devices if you're in a rush (I killed my wireless keyboard and spent about 25 minutes trying to get it working again).  Alternatively, cgminer is hotpluggable, while bfgminer requires command line arguments and must be restarted if you add a device.


UPDATE:  Done testing for the night.  The 20 units ran for an hour, and just like the previous 30, they were right within that +/- 5%, this time +1%.  At this point, I'm definitely going to say bfgminer wins if you're going to mine on Windows!  Tomorrow will be the day of Linux testing on the other 50 units.  I should have great guides for how to start mining with Erupters on BTC Guild over the weekend, so once your units arrive (Shipping starts Monday), you can quickly get them hashing.

[mdude77]

I have a number of these USB devices already.

Getting cgminer to work isn't that hard on win7 if you use v3.1.1.  I posted a how to here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=220450.0

I haven't attempted to get the newest version working yet.  Supposedly it has problems working with USB 3.0 hubs.  Like you and many others I decided on the Anker hub (they had the non apple version for a while, must be out of stock now due to us miners), which is 3.0.  I don't use bfgminer as a matter of principle, but you have to do what you have to do.

Also, +1 on the active cooling note.  Going without a fan is not recommended.

M

[os2sam]

 At this point, I'm definitely going to say bfgminer wins if you're going to mine on Windows!

Granted I don't have a USB Keyboard to screw up on my mining rig.  But CGMiner was very easy to setup with Block Erupters.  My experience has been very positive on Win7 32bit with CGMiner 3.2.1 and 6 USB Block Erupters.
Sam

[AvL42]

Having bought such a device already back when it was still 2BTC, I don't use active cooling(i.e. fans) with it, but I attached it to some piece of solid metal that I had lying around at home, and that works well enough for draining enough of the heat of that one usb-asic.

[bit_NINj4]

Nooooooooo!!!!!!!  

I thought for sure that Registered Mail can be applied to all First Class Mail. My eBay purchases always seem to be trackable. I only wanted 6, if you figure out how to do, I would appreciate it. ~$60 is insanely high, I agree.
 

I will look at USPS Registered Mail for Canada.  I have only limited experience with international sales in the past, so that might actually be the key to shipping to certain countries without going over $20 in shipping.

Thanks Michael. I understand you're busy, I know 6 isn't a lot, but if you do figure something out please PM me.  I always feel like a jerk clogging the thread.
Thanks again

[Trongersoll]

i have an ASUS eeePC, running Windows XP. For me to run cgminer 3.2.2 all it takes is plugging in the miner, making sure WINUSB is installed and starting cgminer-nogpu. no problems. well except the machine can only power 2, a third pulls too much power. I just run them in this as i get them until i make a trip to the basement and add them to the Hub.

[eleuthria]

Just to clarify the difficulties I had:

The steps I found for cgminer on windows were:

Downloading the Silabs Driver (USB to UART Bridge VCP Drivers) - which has them show up on COM Ports
Downloading the "zadig" program, and changing the plugged in devices to WinUSB.
Download cgminer (I used 3.3.1)
Run cgminer and it autodetects without any arguments passed to it.


Step 1 was easy.  Step 2 only had two problems.

1: I accidentally hit an up arrow key at some point and it selected my USB Wireless Receiver for the keyboard before I hit replace driver.  Caused a lot of headaches getting it removed and trying again.
2: It doesn't apply to future devices.  Any time I plugged in new hubs+units, it required me to run zadig again, otherwise they wouldn't be using the WinUSB driver.


I'm not saying it's extremely difficutly, most my headache was the accidental screwup on my keyboard drivers, but I'm saying it was easier to skip the zadig/WinUSB step entirely and just run bfgminer with '-S all'.

[Trongersoll]

i have an ASUS eeePC, running Windows XP. For me to run cgminer 3.2.2 all it takes is plugging in the miner, making sure WINUSB is installed and starting cgminer-nogpu. no problems. well except the machine can only power 2, a third pulls too much power. I just run them in this as i get them until i make a trip to the basement and add them to the Hub.

This is now mining on BTC. I'll add more as i buy them. I have an old laptop sitting around doing nothing that i can dedicate to this pool.

[ak49er]

My instructions for these using cgminer in linux:

1.  Plug in.
2.  Mine.



(Well, that's because I already have one running of course.  BUt in reality the only extra step that I can remember is setting permissions for the plugdev group.  There's instructions on that in the cgminer README though.  Other than that it was a breeze.)

[eleuthria]

My instructions for these using cgminer in linux:

1.  Plug in.
2.  Mine.



(Well, that's because I already have one running of course.  BUt in reality the only extra step that I can remember is setting permissions for the plugdev group.  There's instructions on that in the cgminer README though.  Other than that it was a breeze.)

Yes, I've heard it is quite painless on Linux.  Right now I'm finishing up the store so it can launch and accept payment within the next 8 hours, then I can play with Linux mining on the other 50 units.

In other news, the additional units are virtually guaranteed to arrive on Monday, if not tonight (unlikely, but possible).  Depending on the time they arrive Monday, I will likely be able to include at least some of those in the orders that ship out, and the rest should ship out on Tuesday.

[ak49er]

Please don't sell them all before I get home from work.   

[eleuthria]

Please don't sell them all before I get home from work.   

No worries.  If units are backordered, the delay is only 4-5 business days [real time, not BFL time].

[phorensic]

Please don't raise the price above 1 BTC even though the market is kind of crashing right now! 

[eleuthria]

Please don't raise the price above 1 BTC even though the market is kind of crashing right now! 

The only prices that will fluctuate based on exchange rate are shipping.  Since I pay for them in BTC, there is no reason to adjust prices based on BTC:USD exchange rates.


FYI, the next 30 are nearing the 1 hour mark.  Actual hash rate on them is 332-334 MH/s, meaning 3 units are just a hair under/over 1 GH/s.

[Fiyasko]

Anyone having connection issues? Im getting alot of downed miner alerts

[eleuthria]

Anyone having connection issues? Im getting alot of downed miner alerts

There was a brief server restart earlier.  If your setup has issues detecting a downed stratum connection/reconnecting, or if they get stuck on backup servers, that may be the cause.

[GrapeApe]

I’m late to the game here. Where do I go to buy one?

[eleuthria]

I’m late to the game here. Where do I go to buy one?

Sales should be up for US Customers within the next 4-5 hours.  Canadian customers sometime this weekend (hopefully), and other overseas customers in about a week (maybe more, maybe less).

It will not be hidden, if you go to the BTC Guild website once the store is launched, you won't be able to miss it .