[SUPPORT THREAD] BFx2 Bitfury USB stick miner

[goodney]

Greetings! This thread is for support and information about the BFx2 USB stick miner that will be available shortly. It looks like this:





Specs:
2x Bitfury gen 1
~4GH/s depending on how hot you want to run
Power draw of ~1000mA
FTDI USB-SPI bridge
cgminer and bfgminer support in main branches

Resellers:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=547303

www.cryptoware.co.uk (defunct, but still available from the forums)

Also, check eBay, there are lots for sale there.

Check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3A6GdWrOSs

(I am not affiliated with the video producer)

[goodney]

Windows cgminer support:

As mentioned above we have full support in the master cgminer branch. If you are a Windows user and you already know how to download and get cgminer running on Windows, then you are good to go. Just get the latest version. These miners are identified as "BXM" devices by cgminer.

cgminer binaries: http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/
cgminer source: https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer

If you want a statically built (no extraneous DLLs) Windows cgminer with *only* the Bitfury USB drivers enabled, then download this build:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pdlfk4z3tisokfm/cgminer.exe.zip

Note: you must first follow the Zadig instructions to set the Windows driver to WinUSB. The instructions are summarized here:

1. Download Zadig: http://zadig.akeo.ie/

2. Insert one BFx2 miner into a USB port on your Windows machine. If you have never installed any FTDI drivers, then Windows will fail to install a driver. This is OK.

3. Run Zadig. Use the drop-down to find the "Single RS232-HS" entry. If it doesn't show, select "Options->List All Devices"

4. Set the new driver to be WinUSB and click Install (or Re-Install) driver.

5. Exit Zadig and install any other BFx2 miners you have.

You can now run cgminer with your favorite command line options and/or config file.

[goodney]

Linux cgminer support:

Since support for this miner is in the master cgminer branch, getting a Linux binary is as easy as downloading the latest cgminer-<version>-x86_64-built.tar.bz2 file from:

http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/

Please read and follow the instructions in the ASIC-README file provided by cgminer. It will help you get your Linux set up to use USB based miners.

If anyone needs a 32-bit Linux binary that will work on a recent Ubuntu (tested on 13.10), reply to this message and I'll post one.

[goodney]

Example cgminer command line:

./cgminer -o stratum+tcp://<Pool URL> -u <Pool user> -p <Pool pass> --bxm-bits=XX

Where XX is in the range of 50-55. I recommend some experimentation to find the best setting for your particular miners.

[-ck]

Since people will ask what hashrates these get, I've been running mine at bxm bits 54, but they are engineering samples and not final units. Nonetheless this is what I have:

Code:

  1: BXM  0:                         | 3.747G/3.743Gh/s | A:  205605 R:     0 HW:    0 WU:   52.3/m
  2: BXM  1:                         | 3.781G/3.772Gh/s | A:  234938 R:     0 HW:    0 WU:   52.8/m

[bitwhizz]

A link to reseller

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=524774.msg5887960#msg5887960


or

http://cryptoware.co.uk/collections/mining-hardware/products/twin-fury-5gh

[jamie10511]

i am just curious why would somone buy this at 0.17

when you could buy a 2gh antminer for 0.037 and even 2 for a total of 4gh or 4.4 overclocked for 0.74 which is half the price

 

[klintay]

Can you tweak these to get them up to 5 gh/s?

Is there a guide for over clocking them yet?

[bitwhizz]

THey can be overclocked to 5 giga hash,

at 0.165 bitcoins they are priced at $95, which is a fair price

[TheRealSteve]

Looks like there's a U.S. Asian reseller selling them for exactly that amount ($95): http://www.eyeboot.com/Bitcoin-Miners-btc-mining?product_id=59
Edit: U.S., Asian, European, Atlantian.. global village, right?

[klintay]

Looks like there's a U.S. reseller selling them for exactly that amount ($95): http://www.eyeboot.com/Bitcoin-Miners-btc-mining?product_id=59

That is my site, we are the Asian reseller  

In stock today and we are shipping immediately.

[kevinm]

Looks like there's a U.S. reseller selling them for exactly that amount ($95): http://www.eyeboot.com/Bitcoin-Miners-btc-mining?product_id=59

That is my site, we are the Asian reseller  

In stock today and we are shipping immediately.

Hiya mate,
you might want to add the Amperage ratings to the USB hubs on your website, I know that the dipo one is 20A which makes it a "monster" for USB mining. Each port delivers 5.26VA which should easily support 19 on second thoughts only 18 (the spacing of the 3 ports on the side may only allow 2) of these miners simultaneously. Still should be able to get 72 Gh/s (minimum) off 1 hub.

cheers,
kev

[goodney]

There has been a request to discuss over clocking these boards. I'm the designer of the board, and these are my thoughts on over clocking, but of course your results will vary and you could end up destroying your boards! I don't recommend doing any over clocking, but since Bitcoin is about experimentation, here goes nothing!

These boards were designed to run at 4GH/s with ambient cooling on the heat sink. This allows them to run at <500mA and thus be USB2 compatible. When over clocking a Bitfury based design, heat is your enemy, you will need active cooling from a fan if you over clock these boards.

With the way Bitfury chips are designed, heat really is the enemy. As the chips heat up, they slow down and also start producing hardware errors. Software over clocking will increase the heat dissipated by the chip and thus can actually produce worse results. Same with increasing the core voltage.

Software over clocking:
The current cgminer release supports software over clocking with the --bxm-bits=XX command line parameter. Non-over clocked optimal is 53 or 54. However, you can go to 55 or 56 if you introduce active cooling.

Increasing the core voltage:
In order to get the Bitfury chips to run stably at higher clock values increasing the core voltage is necessary. Again, the boards were designed to get to 4GH/s so the core voltage was chosen accordingly. Increasing the core voltage will really increase the heat output. Cooling the boards with a fan is absolutely necessary.

The core voltage is set by three resistors, but the only one you want to change is R6. It is right in the middle of this picture:


As built R6 = 499 ohm, to increase the core voltage use a larger value, but don't go above about 1.5k. You'll need a 0805 surface mount resistor. To measure the core voltage the chips are seeing, measure across the decoupling capacitors that surround the Bitfury chips. Explaining how to desolder/solder a resistor is way beyond the scope of the forum ;-)

Active cooling
I thought it might be fun to add a 40mm fan to the heatsink:



To do so, find a 40mm fan and screw it to the heat sink. Then solder the wires to the USB connector as indicated above.

Anyways, have fun hacking up my creation!

[klintay]

To do so, find a 40mm fan and screw it to the heat sink. Then solder the wires to the USB connector as indicated above.

Anyways, have fun hacking up my creation!

Oh man that mini fan is so cool!
thanks for all the info

[-ck]

Linux cgminer support:

Since support for this miner is in the master cgminer branch, getting a Linux binary is as easy as downloading the latest cgminer-<version>-x86_64-built.tar.bz2 file from:

http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/

After unpacking the archive file you will probably need to do two things:

#1: Blacklist the ftdi_sio driver: copy the following single line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ftdi.conf

blacklist ftdi_sio

#2: Fix the permissions on the devices so you can mine without being root: copy the following single line to /etc/udev/rules.d/01-ftdi.rules

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0403", ATTR{idProduct}=="6014", MODE="0666"

or you can follow the instructions in the ASIC-README file provided by cgminer, which will do both of the above.

After doing #1 and #2, reboot and you should be good to go!

If anyone needs a 32-bit Linux binary that will work on a recent Ubuntu (tested on 13.10), reply to this message and I'll post one.

I think your instructions are overly complex and I highly recommend people just use the cgminer way. There is but one step to setting up on permissions on ubuntu (as per  the README):

Code:

sudo cp 01-cgminer.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

[goodney]

I think your instructions are overly complex and I highly recommend people just use the cgminer way.

Con's right. Please follow the install instructions provided by cgminer. I've edited the original post to reflect.

[klintay]

Any word yet on the bfgminer support?

[goodney]

Pencil Trick Over clocking

I kept hearing about a "pencil trick" to over clock other miners and after looking into how that works, it will work on these miners too.

The resistor you need to color is R8. Coloring just a *little* bit of pencil across the resistor will increase the core voltage a few 10's of mV, which is needed to over clock the miners.

Again, if you do this I would recommend a fan!

-a[g
 

[2121]

sorry for probably stupid question, but would like to be sure:
does it work with stratum+tcp pools?

[-ck]

sorry for probably stupid question, but would like to be sure:
does it work with stratum+tcp pools?

Virtually every single bitcoin pool of any signficance only use stratum+tcp, and most miners using cgminer use stratum to mine, so that's a definite yes.