[ANN] Smartino - Android Bitcoin Core Full Node

[simpic]

It looks a bit like a phone booth, but it's a full node made with what I had at home: an old android smartphone and an old 3.5'' hdd

Would you try to do the same?

https://github.com/smartm0use/smartino

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[DaveF]

OK, very cool, but definitely in the department of just because you can does not mean you should.
If I had some free time I would linker with it.
Could also see a modified version of something like this cable: https://uk.pi-supply.com/products/wd-pidrive-cable being useful to power the phone and drive.

-Dave

[dkbit98]

It looks a bit like a phone booth, but it's a full node made with what I had at home: an old android smartphone and an old 3.5'' hdd

This is very interesting to see, it could be even better than using Rpi if everything works ok, and it is certainly better than to throw away your android phone in garbage.
I guess phone needs to be connected to power all the time, but I am wondering how is it handling hard drive space, can you also use 1TB micro SD card or faster SSD drive?
It's nice to see code released on github, but you should add license information if it's open source.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

I guess phone needs to be connected to power all the time, but I am wondering how is it handling hard drive space,

It's possible with specific Samsung phones that can detect the hard drive via the OTG cable and also charge at the same time

I have an old Huawei Mate 8 phone and would love to play around with it. Not sure if it will work. I guess there's only one way to find out.

[DaveF]

It looks a bit like a phone booth, but it's a full node made with what I had at home: an old android smartphone and an old 3.5'' hdd

This is very interesting to see, it could be even better than using Rpi if everything works ok, and it is certainly better than to throw away your android phone in garbage.
I guess phone needs to be connected to power all the time, but I am wondering how is it handling hard drive space, can you also use 1TB micro SD card or faster SSD drive?
It's nice to see code released on github, but you should add license information if it's open source.

It should read anything that shows as an external drive with a supported file system.
Not all of the microSD to usb adapters are going to work with OTG cables.
And at a guess, the phone is going to be the slowest part and a faster drive is not going to do much to help.

-Dave

[pooya87]

Would you try to do the same?

This is one of those projects that are only cool to watch from afar not something you'd do yourself.

I'm curious about the sustainability of such thing though. The phone has to run 24/7 connected to power and processing transactions constantly. That means heat and also the battery life could be a concern too.

[SFR10]

Would you try to do the same?

If you meant as a replacement to my current node setup ^{[it's more convenient for me to run it on an ancient/low-end laptop]}, my answer would be "NO"... I had a bad experience in the past when I tried downloading large files in a similar manner ^{[it kept getting corrupted, so I had to redo it in another way]} + I have a feeling it might drain the battery faster than it could be recharged ^{[in "some" of the older phones]}!

[DaveF]

I played with one of these things a year ago:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5357714
And although it will run a bunch of versions of Linux it came with Android. Makes you wonder how many project boards are out there that run Android that can be setup to run Bitcoin Core.

Not practical at all and I think we all know that, it's just more of a play with it thing.

-Dave

[simpic]

This is very interesting to see, it could be even better than using Rpi if everything works ok, and it is certainly better than to throw away your android phone in garbage.
I guess phone needs to be connected to power all the time, but I am wondering how is it handling hard drive space, can you also use 1TB micro SD card or faster SSD drive?

The installation is for external drives connected using an OTG USB cable. So you can attach whatever you want, including SD card or SSD drive.

It's nice to see code released on github, but you should add license information if it's open source.

Added, thank you for the hint.

[fillippone]

That's a very interesting project.
This is something I definitely want to try to build a node on.
This is even more true today, when android phones are cheap and ubiquitous, while Raspberries are dear and difficult to find!

[mendace]

It looks a bit like a phone booth, but it's a full node made with what I had at home: an old android smartphone and an old 3.5'' hdd

Would you try to do the same?

https://github.com/smartm0use/smartino

This is a really cool project, but how can the phone stay charged all day and plug in a hard drive at the same time?  Can you do it through the USB port?  And if the only port works in OTC can it recharge the battery meanwhile?  I have a thousand more questions but at the moment this is the one that really interests me.

[fillippone]

This is a really cool project, but how can the phone stay charged all day and plug in a hard drive at the same time?  Can you do it through the USB port?  And if the only port works in OTC can it recharge the battery meanwhile?  I have a thousand more questions but at the moment this is the one that really interests me.

I would say you can connect the phone to a powered USB dock. Then the USB to the SSD. That should work.
Go with the other thousand of question.

[mendace]

Go with the other thousand of question.

mmh nice, this is a good solution.  Another question I ask myself is: beyond the hard disk which could be a bit bulky.  With this solution, does the node have the characteristics to be transportable using a SIM card for connectivity?

[fillippone]

Go with the other thousand of question.

mmh nice, this is a good solution.  Another question I ask myself is: beyond the hard disk which could be a bit bulky.  With this solution, does the node have the characteristics to be transportable using a SIM card for connectivity?

I wouldn't see why it couldn't be doable.
I have a spare Android at home (cracked screen by my grandson). I am going to sacrifice that for science!
My ideal setup: running something similar to raspiblitz from my mobile, and keeping my node synched while skiing on the Dolomites. Useless proof of concept, but doable, sooner rather later.

[mendace]

I wouldn't see why it couldn't be doable.
I have a spare Android at home (cracked screen by my grandson). I am going to sacrifice that for science!
My ideal setup: running something similar to raspiblitz from my mobile, and keeping my node synched while skiing on the Dolomites. Useless proof of concept, but doable, sooner rather later.

I like that you sacrifice this for our thirst for information.
I also have some old dusty android smartphones that I can dig up for a test.  Are there any minimum requirements?  Can an old android donuts go that i don't remind the version ?  And another question: does it currently only work with external hard drives or could one think of using a 1tb microsd in the most recent smartphones?

[fillippone]

I hope the OP doesn't get ange at me, but there is another live thread on this forum on smartino:

Is it cool to run Bitcoin full node on Android OS?

I guess that thread is a little bit more lively.

Also, I contacted smartm0use on Telegram, hope to have him posting here soon (no promises).

[gunhell16]

Honestly, this is so cool to me, this is good news to our crypto enthusiasts actually, a full node in android mobile phones. And what made me even more excited about this is when I saw that it can be used on different types of devices, take a look,



And he has a guide procedure to do it, it's well done for android users.

[simpic]

This is a really cool project, but how can the phone stay charged all day and plug in a hard drive at the same time?  Can you do it through the USB port?  And if the only port works in OTC can it recharge the battery meanwhile?  I have a thousand more questions but at the moment this is the one that really interests me.

Have you read the README.md file of the project?

[dkbit98]

I have a spare Android at home (cracked screen by my grandson). I am going to sacrifice that for science!

I always imagined you as a younger guy, but I guess you look more like Vito Corleone with small moustaches  
If you can please try if in your phone testing everything will work fine with faster SD card (if you have 1tb micrSD), instead of using additional hard drive.
It would also be good if you have power meters to see how much power phone is using with node, and @simpic I would ask same thing from you.
I am considering doing something similar, but old phones I have are with weak processors...

PS
What do you think is minimum specs Android phone should have to work with Smartino?

[simpic]

If you can please try if in your phone testing everything will work fine with faster SD card (if you have 1tb micrSD), instead of using additional hard drive.
It would also be good if you have power meters to see how much power phone is using with node, and @simpic I would ask same thing from you.

I have already tested "smartino" with a 2017 phone and a MicroSD. All works fine and the power consumption is from 0.6 to 0.8 watt.

I am considering doing something similar, but old phones I have are with weak processors...

PS
What do you think is minimum specs Android phone should have to work with Smartino?

AFAIK you can have good performance starting with 2017 phones having Android 7, but but I would be happy to be proved wrong and see it working on older models.

[fillippone]

If you can please try if in your phone testing everything will work fine with faster SD card (if you have 1tb micrSD), instead of using additional hard drive.
It would also be good if you have power meters to see how much power phone is using with node, and @simpic I would ask same thing from you.

I have already tested "smartino" with a 2017 phone and a MicroSD. All works fine and the power consumption is from 0.6 to 0.8 watt.

I am considering doing something similar, but old phones I have are with weak processors...

PS
What do you think is minimum specs Android phone should have to work with Smartino?

AFAIK you can have good performance starting with 2017 phones having Android 7, but but I would be happy to be proved wrong and see it working on older models.

I ran a bitcoin node from a Raspberry PI3 with IBD directly from the Raspi, with syncing time of about a month because of block validation.

I am. It scared of weak performances.

Definitely something I will test over this holiday season.

But I am already ahead of this.
Is it possible to run Umbrel on this setup? Raspibolt?

[simpic]

Is it possible to run Umbrel on this setup? Raspibolt?

As I said in other places next step could be try to install Umbrel...

[simpic]

Is it possible to run Umbrel on this setup? Raspibolt?

As I said in other places next step could be try to install Umbrel...

In the meanwhile I have updated readme file adding steps to run Bitcoin Core under Tor and also to set up an Electrum Server!

https://github.com/smartm0use/smartino#extras---give-more-power-to-your-node