Advice on Raspberry pi hardware for running full BTC node

[DaveF]

There are many fake microsd, so you might got fake sandisk microsd.

The problem is with SanDisk is they have / had many different lines / price points of SD cards
a quick search of 64GB from Amazon:

Ultra $ 10.99
Extreme: 14.99
High Endurance: $13.49
Extreme Pro $25.95
Extreme Plus $12.99

You then have to spend some time searching about which ones have which features.

And then they did (might still do not sure since WD took them over) have some slightly different ones that were sold at some retail spots.
Going back to my car example it's like saying you bought a small Honda so you could drive to work. You can get a $17000 Fit or a $36000 Civic Type R.

And then you have to worry about the knockoffs.

As for the get a real computer comment. There is a point. If you want it done quick and simple getting a used PC can you up and running (possibly for less money) if you want to learn and play and tinker, getting the RPi is good. If you want to get to work get the Honda Fit, if you want to get to work with tires smoking while sliding through corners and engine screaming get the Civic Type R

-Dave

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[Dabs]

oh hey... I'm all for the learning process. The Pi is cheap enough for people to learn from trying to make it work, or actually making it work, despite all it's limitations. And the foundation seems to be always making improvements to the hardware every few years, so we are now at version 4.

Pi works great for emulating game consoles, as a media player box, robot projects, and many other things.

[Deathwing]

There are many fake microsd, so you might got fake sandisk microsd.

The problem is with SanDisk is they have / had many different lines / price points of SD cards
a quick search of 64GB from Amazon:

Ultra $ 10.99
Extreme: 14.99
High Endurance: $13.49
Extreme Pro $25.95
Extreme Plus $12.99

You then have to spend some time searching about which ones have which features.

True, but i'm using cheapest one (Ultra) and don't have any problem so far.

As long as you don't have heavy and constant R/W on it or put the Pi in a weird place where it can't really dissipate heat. You should be fine with SanDisk. I've used them before on several of my Pis, some failed, some didn't.

[DaveF]

Morning update.
I have posted about using good power adapter for running your RPi
The cheap ones can run the range from total crap to good.

One of our customers used to have a business selling cheap cell phone accessories, when he stopped doing that we (the people I work for) wound up with a lot of his old stock. The running joke is if you need a phone charger take 2 because one of them probably will not work. Yeah, that bad.

So yesterday I took 4 to run a test.
4 of the exact same setup. RPi3 + high endurance SD card + Toshiba 500GB external usb drive + one of these cheap ass power adapters.
I installed RaspiBlitz on all of them, got them started on the updates and went to bed.
This was the BEST of them:  UndervoltageReports in Logs: 4
This is the worst of them:          [Left blank because it failed]

If you are doing this spend more then the cost of a cup of coffee on your power supply people.

-Dave

*I am doing this testing for things other then running a bitcoin node but whatever you are doing with it the point remains the same.

[Dabs]

Branded power supply works. Like from a "real" phone company, the ones Samsung and Apple provide with their phones seem to be decent ones. Could also try branded powered USB hubs like Anker. However, you might need a little bit more power for the RPi, so just check to make sure it gives more than 1 amp or something.

Some stores sell them with a 0.1 added voltage ... so it puts out 5.1 volts or something.

[DaCryptoRaccoon]

Another thing that helps take the load off the initial download process is do it on your main machine then just copy the data to the PI HD I found this to be much better than leaving the PI to download the chain.

On the cooling side I have noticed some liquid cooling kits and some processor coolers like below, This one is called the Ice Hat seems to have had good reviews in the space and relatively cheap too




I think now we are seeing kit's like this come out the next round of PI may just come with some additional cooling and some more power I hope

[Dabs]

That looks bulky, liquid cooling a pi. I think the giant heatsink ones that take up the entire case are better for this purpose, ... I don't even use liquid cooling on my regular desktop and servers. (I used to stick them closer to the window to get cooler air.)

[DaveF]

I really think both of the below coolers fall into the category of just because you can does not mean you should.
But, yeah the name brand adapters do tend to have better power then the generic ones.
Telling people they are not good is one thing, going "look 1 in 4 did not make the night and the best one still had power issues" makes it a bit more obvious.

Makes you wonder how many RPi issues we have discussed over the years fall into bad power / bad SD

-Dave

Another thing that helps take the load off the initial download process is do it on your main machine then just copy the data to the PI HD I found this to be much better than leaving the PI to download the chain.

On the cooling side I have noticed some liquid cooling kits and some processor coolers like below, This one is called the Ice Hat seems to have had good reviews in the space and relatively cheap too




I think now we are seeing kit's like this come out the next round of PI may just come with some additional cooling and some more power I hope

[mindrust]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-Eee-PC-Windows-Starter-Laptop-Black-with-Power-Suply/362875904326?hash=item547d16e146:g:zhsAAOSwGIJeFiwR

Shits pretty much on every raspberry there is.

[Dabs]

Costs more to ship.. Crazy. I think the ones who are using multiple raspberry pis, they use name brand powered hubs. Makes it easier for whatever they are doing too, cable management and stuff.

[philipma1957]

i push

 lenovo m700 tiny  so much more versatile

I have had the rasp - rasp pi 3+  and all the ones in-between.

I really like the lenovo gear better.

or the dell

or the hp

fast eBay search

a lenovo
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thinkcentre-M73-Tiny-Core-i3-4130T-2-9GHZ-4TH-Gen-8GB-W-WIFI-NO-HARDDRIVE/274210591567?



a dell
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-3020m-3020-Micro-Mini-Tiny-Computer-i3-4150T-3Ghz-4GB-500GB-Win10/401909056348?

an hp elite
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-EliteDesk-800-G1-Tiny-PC-Intel-i5-4590T-2GHZ-8GB-Memory-500GB-2-5-WIFI/202863414251?



fast search did not try hard.

but to find one under 100 is easy use a 1tb ssd to load blockchain on linux

then clone it to an 2tb hdd

just a better choice.

[DaveF]

Phil, yeah I agree get a PC, but it's fun to tinker.
The other issue is that in reality that the cost of a SSD is more then the PC or RPi.
Yes, either way you can get a spinning drive but the performance on the cheap ones is meh at best and the better ones are back to not being cheap.

-Dave

[philipma1957]

Phil, yeah I agree get a PC, but it's fun to tinker.
The other issue is that in reality that the cost of a SSD is more then the PC or RPi.
Yes, either way you can get a spinning drive but the performance on the cheap ones is meh at best and the better ones are back to not being cheap.

-Dave

yeah  but I just use the same 1tb ssd to do builds  then wipe for a new build.

I then clone to a 2tb hdd.  Since the vast majority is loaded via the ssd the 2tb hdd is not terrible to synch  although I just

let the unit stay on a do a full node.

Sometimes the empty barebones small form pc's are only 50 bucks.

It is an easy piece of gear to play with.

Not knocking rasp pi's  for a node  as long as you don't  keep coin on them they are okay.

[ABCbits]

Branded power supply works. Like from a "real" phone company, the ones Samsung and Apple provide with their phones seem to be decent ones. Could also try branded powered USB hubs like Anker. However, you might need a little bit more power for the RPi, so just check to make sure it gives more than 1 amp or something.

Some stores sell them with a 0.1 added voltage ... so it puts out 5.1 volts or something.

Most of them won't able to run RPi 4 since RPi 4 require 3A, 5.1V, while most USB product have range between 1A - 2.5A, 5V.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-Eee-PC-Windows-Starter-Laptop-Black-with-Power-Suply/362875904326?hash=item547d16e146:g:zhsAAOSwGIJeFiwR

Shits pretty much on every raspberry there is.

There are many version of Eee PC, so i hope it's not 1GB version where Raspberry Pi would win

And if we're talking about cheap laptop/notebook, Pinebook is better option with more RAM.
The only downside it uses eMMC and can't run windows.

[mindrust]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-Eee-PC-Windows-Starter-Laptop-Black-with-Power-Suply/362875904326?hash=item547d16e146:g:zhsAAOSwGIJeFiwR

Shits pretty much on every raspberry there is.

There are many version of Eee PC, so i hope it's not 1GB version where Raspberry Pi would win

And if we're talking about cheap laptop/notebook, Pinebook is better option with more RAM.
The only downside it uses eMMC and can't run windows.

This is probably one of those shitty 1gb. I realized my mistake after I made my post but didn't think someone would notice. Sharp eye you got there.  

I have a 2gb Ram one and it absolutely destroys any raspberry. Got it in sync with the Bitcoin network some time ago but can't get myself to install the Lightning Network. Looks like too much work and I don't know where to start.

I'll probably copy paste the data to my raspberry and experiment with the LN there. (raspiblitz)

[DaveF]

The other issue with going with laptops instead of the micro desktops is that laptops are really not designed to run 24/7/365.
Yes you can do it, but it's not a great idea.

There are also some things you can do with a RPi that you cannot do with a small desktop in terms of placement.

Side note:
I stuck a RPi 4 with a USB SSD in my suitcase and setup a raspiblitz lighting node in my hotel room.
It was synced when I left my house so it just had about 10 hours of catching up to do [which did take a long time since the Wi-Fi in the hotel sucks] but yes I did do it.
Smaller then a laptop, lighter then a laptop and entirely a waste but I did get it up and running.

-Dave

[philipma1957]

The other issue with going with laptops instead of the micro desktops is that laptops are really not designed to run 24/7/365.
Yes you can do it, but it's not a great idea.

There are also some things you can do with a RPi that you cannot do with a small desktop in terms of placement.

Side note:
I stuck a RPi 4 with a USB SSD in my suitcase and setup a raspiblitz lighting node in my hotel room.
It was synced when I left my house so it just had about 10 hours of catching up to do [which did take a long time since the Wi-Fi in the hotel sucks] but yes I did do it.
Smaller then a laptop, lighter then a laptop and entirely a waste but I did get it up and running.

-Dave

the  dell,hp,lenovo  are really good at this.

I must have 8 or 9 of them scattered around nj  doing different tasks for different people.

I would not trust a laptop or a rasp pi for what these are doing.

I don't have a rasp pi 4    but thats another story.

[DaveF]

For those of you who are US based and near a MicroCenter they have the RPi4 on sale at the moment:
1GB = 30.00   SKU: 950071
2GB = 35.00   SKU: 952531
4GB = 50.00   SKU: 959924


I have seen them cheaper online now and then but never at a retail location.

-Dave

[Icygreen]

A couple days ago I came across myNode which seems to be a working open source solution to running a full node on RPi4 along with many other apps including lighting node/wallet and BTC explorer apps. I'll be dropping the idea of compiling a node on raspian and looking forward to getting this up and running. 

[philipma1957]

A couple days ago I came across myNode which seems to be a working open source solution to running a full node on RPi4 along with many other apps including lighting node/wallet and BTC explorer apps. I'll be dropping the idea of compiling a node on raspian and looking forward to getting this up and running. 

let us know how this works out.

I would not mind running a full node with a wallet.

use an external ssd and space becomes a non issue.