mynode rasp pi 4 builds and comparisons

[philipma1957]

Changed title to reflect that I did 2 builds and will do more.

build 1
1 kit from mynode rasp pi 4 prebuilt
99 USD worth of firmware/soft ware
1 samsung t5 ssd

build 2
1 kit from amazon rasp pi 4  8gb ram
1 t5 samung ssd
99 USD worth of mynode firmware/software

build 3  and build 4 to follow


So I grabbed a 4gb rasp pi kit from their website.


and I attached my own 1 tb Samsung

 https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-T5-Portable-SSD-MU-PA1T0B/dp/B073H552FJ/ref=sr_1_3?

I am close to done with synch almost 3 days

I have lots of questions and would like to create a FAQ thread on mynode.

[philipma1957]

spacer

so the oem model with 4gb fully loaded.

I am now doing the kit I made from scratch. Has 8 gb not 4gb I allowed 4gb from the hard drive to also be used thus maxing ram to 12gb.

I purchased the 99 software codes as I want this to be a full version.

this was

99 software
115 1tb ssd
119 rasp pi 4 with 8gb ram

333 total cost

[philipma1957]

spacer



First question I have is why do they charge for the software it seems to be 99 usd
Second question is they have a community option which appears to be free not sure.
Third question is I paid for software and got a code much like a windows op code. cost is in the my node kit it would have been 99 alone.

So I can buy parts and make my own and pay 99 to use the software.

It is cheaper to build one from amazon parts and buy the 99 software.

1tb ssd 115
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-T5-Portable-SSD-MU-PA1T0B/dp/B073H552FJ/ref=sr_1_3?

8gb rasp pi kit 119
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08956GVXN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

99 for the software.

https://www.mynodebtc.com/order_now


so 115+119+99 = 333 and it is the 8gb rasp pi

but the full kit on the website is 339 and a 4gb rasp pi

So I am figuring out the mechanics of build a rasp pi from the amazon kit  hint easy peasy

and I will start that synch.

 I want to find out do I need to buy the 99 software and why.  If I must buy the license  its fine.
I want to see how much better is the 8gb rasp pi.
I can also get a 4gb rasp pi 4 kit on amazon for 65

so 65 + 115 + 99 = 279 for the exact same set up

So who has a mynode. anyone.

[NeuroticFish]

I want to find out do I need to buy the 99 software and why.  If I must buy the license  its fine.

I don't have a myNode, but from what I see, if you don't need the bolded features/software, you can safely use the free community edition (and yes, the community edition is totally free)
And that's what I would have been using for a test/start and see if it's enough. If support is needed, you have a good chance to receive it here, and I guess that this is where most of that money matters, since probably some remote control software and BTC pay, if needed, can be installed separately by hand.

[NotATether]

2. Additional features

Code:

* One-Click Upgrades
* VPN - Remote Access
* Tor - Remote Access
* BTC Pay Server
* Mempool Viewer
* Caravan
* Specter
* LNBits
* Thunderhub

I want to find out do I need to buy the 99 software and why.  If I must buy the license  its fine.

Seems expensive and probably not necessary as you can take the community edition image and then mod it to install Tor, BTCPay, LNBits, etc etc and self-hosted mempool.space, then slap a free version of ProtonVPN for VPN functionality. It's probably running Ubuntu so these deps should be easy to satisfy using apt.

One-click upgrades is just for updating all the versions of stuff at once. if you run everything inside docker then a simple script that pulls newer versions of everything from Docker's registry will suffice.

[philipma1957]

Thanks for answers
So I did the full kit without a ssd from them.

Added my own ssd.  Saved a few bucks. As I had an ssd on hnd

  I am now doing the amazon 8gb kit added the software and an ssd.  This was 333 usd vs 339 usd but the rasp pi is 8gb model with a fan in a plastic case.
 It is quicker easy enough to assemble. Fan keeps it cooler. I am up to block 402000 this download will be under 3 days maybe 2 .

[HCP]

Curious as to why you opted for MyNode as opposed to something like the RaspiBlitz or Umbrel? Asking because I've sort of been on a bit of a mission to try them all... and was considering trying the MyNode setup (the free community edition tho)

Seems that spending $100 on something that is using a lot of open-source software that is freely available and/or included in other packages like RaspiBlitz/Umbrel is unnecessary.

I can certainly understand that someone might want to go with the premium package purely for the support option, so they don't have to rely on forums/telegram groups etc... but charging to get "free" features (btcpay server, Spectr, LNBits etc) from the other systems seems excessive.

... I am up to block 402000 this download will be under 3 days maybe 2 .

Do you not have another node you could have copied the blockchain/chainstate/indexes from? or were you wanting to see what the full IBD time would be like?

In my testing with RaspiBlitz/Umbrel... copying the chain from another node cuts the initial setup time down to hours rather than days.

[philipma1957]

Curious as to why you opted for MyNode as opposed to something like the RaspiBlitz or Umbrel? Asking because I've sort of been on a bit of a mission to try them all... and was considering trying the MyNode setup (the free community edition tho)

Seems that spending $100 on something that is using a lot of open-source software that is freely available and/or included in other packages like RaspiBlitz/Umbrel is unnecessary.

I can certainly understand that someone might want to go with the premium package purely for the support option, so they don't have to rely on forums/telegram groups etc... but charging to get "free" features (btcpay server, Spectr, LNBits etc) from the other systems seems excessive.

... I am up to block 402000 this download will be under 3 days maybe 2 .

Do you not have another node you could have copied the blockchain/chainstate/indexes from? or were you wanting to see what the full IBD time would be like?

In my testing with RaspiBlitz/Umbrel... copying the chain from another node cuts the initial setup time down to hours rather than days.

Went slow on purpose as I want to see the time it takes for 8gb no tor vs 4gb tor.

I also paid for software to get setup with less effort.
I will be doing another companies.  forgot name.

I will also do it with free software but I have so much real stuff happening that will take a while.

I will end up with at least 4 nodes for LN.
I will also compare to the miner/node sold here on bit coin talk I own that one. I have it running a node but no wallets yet.

So  it will be a long set of reviews and info  by the time I am done.

[HCP]

Went slow on purpose as I want to see the time it takes for 8gb no tor vs 4gb tor.

That's an interesting little experiment... will definitely be interested to see the results of that!

So  it will be a long set of reviews and info  by the time I am done.

Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you! Best of luck, I look forward to seeing all the details when you finish it all!

[philipma1957]

Okay the down load of my build from kit is done.

I did no Tor
I used an 8gb rasp pi
I used 2gb from the ssd


The download takes over 3 days and 11 hours.


Just 5 blocks short of the download





About 2 or 3 minutes later up pops the next screen

[philipma1957]

Note. to modes I separated this post for clarity

So I created the LN wallet. it is easy peasy just click create wallet

up pops this page









The click create wallet.


it will pop with this  the seed save it.. hit continue

and it asks for that seed to be entered






here is page you reenter seed



once you do that you go to next page

[DaveF]

I have been using both mynode & raspiblitz for a while. Been discussing it on and off in a few of the LN threads.

Both are sold products. But regardless of what people say I really feel both are pushing the limits of what you can do with an RPi.
I setup the mynode as a VM with 4GB of RAM using a 7200RPM drive that is being used for other things on the PC and it just feels better then the 8GB RPi with an SSD.
Can't explain it past just how the web browser or SSH feels when using it.

But, enjoy, you will learn a lot. And having your own lightning node is good to. And you can also use it as your own personal electrum server :-)

-Dave

[philipma1957]

I have been using both mynode & raspiblitz for a while. Been discussing it on and off in a few of the LN threads.

Both are sold products. But regardless of what people say I really feel both are pushing the limits of what you can do with an RPi.
I setup the mynode as a VM with 4GB of RAM using a 7200RPM drive that is being used for other things on the PC and it just feels better then the 8GB RPi with an SSD.
Can't explain it past just how the web browser or SSH feels when using it.

But, enjoy, you will learn a lot. And having your own lightning node is good to. And you can also use it as your own personal electrum server :-)

-Dave

Frankly I was interested in it on the rasp pi level, but and this is big I think that buying the firmware for 100 and running it on a unit like this one below is better.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/284352530843?

I am not there yet but will be playing around with the mynode for a while. I want to see if simply buying the firmware and getting an image for a pc from them is feasible.

but that will be down the road from now.


I think I will end up running a dell with virtual box  much like you are.

I have a very nice dell with an i7 8700 inside it.

  it is a 32gb ram micro pc.  much like this one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/164666727891?

It has 2 tb ssd in it.  and the 32gb of ram.  I am thinking it smokes the rasp pi.

[Rath_]

I think I will end up running a dell with virtual box  much like you are.

There is one important detail that you need to know. LND does not support moving its data directory between different system architectures. You will need to close all of your channels if you decide to switch, or take the risk. I have closed all of my channels and decided to try c-lightning instead on my new server.

[Philipma1957cellphone]

I think I will end up running a dell with virtual box  much like you are.

There is one important detail that you need to know. LND does not support moving its data directory between different system architectures. You will need to close all of your channels if you decide to switch, or take the risk. I have closed all of my channels and decided to try c-lightning instead on my new server.

Good to know. So far I have not loaded coin into to the wallet.

[HCP]

I am thinking it smokes the rasp pi.

Almost any relatively modern PC is likely to "smoke" a Raspberry Pi in terms of speed/processing power... Where the Pi "generally" wins is in size and power requirements, although there are those intel compute sticks and/or NUCs which are similar to Pi's in that regards.

Where the Pi as a bitcoin node really suffers is, as you've already noted, is the initial block download (IBD) phase (3.5 days!!?! )... and any time that a substantial number of blocks need to be synced (ie. if your node was offline for a couple of weeks).

The Pi simply doesn't have the raw processing power to crunch those numbers... and can even run into thermal throttling issues (although this can be mitigated with a good case/fan etc) which make it even slower.

Still, the IBD issues can also be mitigated if one has access to a trusted node that they can clone the block data, chainstate and tx indexes from.

Over the last 4 days since I got Umbrel up and running, I haven't really noted too many performance issues... that's with tor + bitcoind/lnd + electrs + mempool + btc-rpc-explorer + btcpay-server + RTL all running.

On a bare board, sitting on my desk, it seems to run at or below 50C for the most part... so performance wise, I'm pretty happy with it all.


Anyway, I'm going to "destroy" it all and give MyNode a go this weekend, just to see what that is like... I'm still not sure which setup I prefer at this point.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I have lots of questions and would like to create a FAQ thread on mynode.

Great. I ordered a Raspberry Pi 4 and it'll be here within the next 3-4 days. May I use your thread for asking questions too?

I purchased the 99 software codes as I want this to be a full version.

Just realized that it isn't open-source & free. Thanks. Although, the premium version offers the followings too:

• Premium Support
• One-Click Upgrades
• VPN - Remote Access
• Tor - Remote Access
• BTC Pay Server
• Mempool Viewer
• Caravan
• Specter
• LNBits
• Thunderhub

I'm not sure that I need any of these so I may just use the community edition...

115 1tb ssd

Is that an external drive?  Nevermind, I saw that it's an external.

I'll be using an external SSD and I've heard that they're slower than the internal ones. I wonder how many days it'll take for me to finish.

I can certainly understand that someone might want to go with the premium package purely for the support option, so they don't have to rely on forums/telegram groups etc... but charging to get "free" features (btcpay server, Spectr, LNBits etc) from the other systems seems excessive.

It seems a great marketing move in my opinion; leaving those who're willing to donate you some extra features along with a “premium support”, I really don't know how that differs  , but I just have one query with the premium edition:  Do you have the source code? Can you actually take a look on every line of the premium project? It's a double-edged sword to attempt charging your users in an open-source environment. I mean, if you do charge them and reveal the source code, they can share it with others or even upload it publicly. If you don't reveal them your code, you're ruining the whole point of open-source softwares.

[philipma1957]

So far I did 2 builds they work but my feeling is the rasp pi4 is under powered for this task.

I will do a build with a dell micro using an i7 8700t and 32 gb ram. Just busy for now.

build 1  cost was about 260 + 105 = 365 this gives a 4gb ram rasp pi 4 and is easier to build.

build 2 cost was about 120 + 105+ 99 = 324 this gives a 8gb ram rasp pi 4 and is a bit more work to create

both take over 3 days to synch the full block chain

When I do the dell micro build  with a vm I will post results.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I got my Raspberry Pi 4.  #runningbitcoin

I'd like to make some questions before it is completely synced and I can use it.

• Can I connect it to my Bitcoin Core somehow? As far as I saw it provides you an Electrum Server (which you probably connect with the GUI), but I have no idea about Bitcoin Core.
• What's the safe way to turn it off? Do I just hold the power button until it's shut down? What could happen on a power outage?
• Does it store anything else despite the block chain? For example, for the electrum server. My external SSD is 1TB and I want to know that it is enough.

[philipma1957]

It has a shut down option on one of the screens. Or pull the plug I did both ways.

it is synching bitcoin core first. Ofer 3-4 days it will be synched to bitcoin core. I would power off my other bitcpon core if I were you.

1 TB should be good for more than 4 years.  I suspect maybe 6 years.  note my 1tb ssd used 48% to full load 2009 -2021 chain

once the core synchs the software pops this screen
you are running the core as I understand it
and you than select LN option

I am pretty new at this others may chime in with more info.