Antminer S1 - Managing more than 3 pools from the web interface

[fulanomengano]

I'm sorry if this is a repost, but I couldn't find it. Moderators, feel free to delete if it is. Also, I'm not sure if this belongs to Mining support or Hardware. Following the line of the post I mention bellow I posted here, but also feel free to move it to Hardware if you deem it appropriate.

Inspired by this thread http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395721, and specially by n4spd's great addition that allows you to change the pool's quotas from the web interface (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395721.msg5452008#msg5452008, message #15), I decided to try to see if it was possible to manage more than 3 pools from the web interface.

I'm happy to report that it could be done quite easily. If you were able to do the changes described in that post, no extra skills are required. The following steps are for adding a 4th pool, but they can be repeated for N number of pools. I haven't tested it for more than 5, so I'm not sure how high can it go.

1) First you need to vi (edit) file /etc/init.d/cgminer. Basically, copy anything that is there for pools 1-3 and change it to 4. The following is a list of changes I made, with the action (A=added line, M=modified line) and the line number where I made the change between []. E.g. the first line means add "local _pool4url" on line 22. The line numbers could be slightly different in your system.

Code:

     [A22] local _pool4url
    [A23] local _pool4user
    [A24] local _pool4pw
    [A47] config_get _pool4url default pool4url
    [A48] config_get _pool4user default pool4user
    [A49] config_get _pool4pw default pool4pw

The next 4 lines are an extension of n4spd's mod

Code:

     [A82] if [ "$_pool4url" != "" -a "$_pool4user" != "" -a "$_pool4pw" != "" ]; then
    [A83]     POOL4="$pool_switch $_pool4url -O $_pool4user:$_pool4pw"
    [A84] fi
    [M91] PARAMS="$AOPTIONS $POOL1 $POOL2 $POOL3 $POOL4 $_pb $custom_option --api-listen --api-network"

2) Then vi /usr/lib/lua/luci/model/cbi/cgminer, same concept.

Code:

    [A18] pool4url = conf:option(Value, "pool4url", translate("Pool 4"))
    [A19] pool4user = conf:option(Value, "pool4user", translate("Pool4 worker"))
    [A20] pool4pw = conf:option(Value, "pool4pw", translate("Pool4 password"))

You don't need to reboot. Now when you go to the Miner Configuration tab you'll see the options to enter information for a 4th pool.
https://i.imgur.com/Vluy4wf.jpg

You'll also see it on the Miner Status :-).

I hope it helps. If you like it, consider contributing a small donation. 40% of every donation will be forwarded to giletto and n4spd (20% each) or the charity of their choice for the inspiration.

FM

[1714609942]

1714609942

[1714609942]

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[1714609942]

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[jammers]

Hi there,

Thanks for this post. I found it very useful but I had a problem with the second part as it kept saying file not found, which did not let me add the extra mining pools to the Mining Configuration Screen.

However, I did get it working, with this revised second step for anyone looking to get this working. I have it now with max 9 pools (although I'm only using 6)

For step 2, do the following to get access to the file

vi /usr/lib/lua/luci/model/cbi/cgminer/cgminer.lua

See it working on the config screen



And six of the 9 pools I have filled in mining away concurrently

[jammers]

Just a couple of learnings a few days on from this.

I can mine six pools concurrently, mixing and matching using the xx;poolurl:port making sure that all the xx's add up to 100

However, this evening, I tried adding a seventh pool details to my pair of antminers, and both had a hissy fit, and started beeping at me.

On one I cleared the seventh pool details, and it kicked back into mining the six, but on the other, it continued to beep and not mine. So to fix this, I put in one at 100, and deleted all the rest (copying into notepad). I then hit save and apply, and a minute or two later the beeping antminer stopped and started mining again. I then put back in the five pool details and balanced them, and they mined away happily again.

So maybe there is a hardware limitation of six pools, is there anyone more educated than me on the hardware side who can confirm?

I know a lot of people won't use this for mining lots of pools with small amounts of hashes, but it is very handy having six pools in there, and being able to just change the figures around, without having to re-enter them the whole time

[hotwired007]

Are you mining on 6 pools at the same time?

Also what kind of figures ar eyou getting from the wall with you miner at 325? are you running the pencil mod?

[jammers]

Yep,

Well actually 7 now, I added ozcoin successfully after re-doing my config. The very nice person I bought the antminers off had pencil modded them, and I'm waiting for an energy monitor to arrive in the post before I can see how many watts it's pulling, so I can work out how much it's costing me to generate this.

I have two miners running about 300ghs between them off one Corsair CX750 Bronze PSU. Electricity is really expensive here, so I'm intentionally running them undervolted, and only part-time overnight and off for about 12 hours a day during expensive time. They're more for reviewing pools and giving me bitcoin so I can test some website/e-commerce projects I do as part of my day job than making any serious money (unless someone on talk is based in Ireland and wants to do a deal to host them for me so I can run them 24/7 ;p)

I spent the last few days since getting them to learn about the hardware, luci, learning putty, the wonder that is vi, read tons of posts on the forum, cocked things up a few times but now they are set up the way I want to potentially mine 9 pools at the same time, or at least have everything stored so I don't have to keep inputting pool information every time and can just play with the figures to switch pools on or off.

Now I'm trying to get the hashing balance right. I have one at 325 giving about 160-170 ghs, and 1 at 275 giving about 130-140 ghs, (with minimal hardware errors). If I go above this on either, both starts getting lots of hardware errors in the stats and x's on the second blades. I think this is more to do with hitting the limit of the power supply than anything else.





I've also started tracking the earnings so I can see the increments. I have been messing a little bit with the smaller pools to get the balance right, but discus fish has consistently had 50% of the power. I'm only putting in actual earnings, not the estimated earnings some pools show, so I know that when the next blocks are found by Eligius etc, that there'll be a jump. Polmine and Discus are PPS, so they tick up throughout.



I'm also getting earnings go up during the downtime on the likes of btcguild, eligius and slush, as my shares get credited for blocks.

But my gut feeling after seeing several 0 - 2 block shifts on btcguild before I got the antminer s1's is that this strategy will give me more than focusing it all on one pool, and I can balance between pps and then get smaller earnings but off a lot more blocks.

[blogpstr]

Hi,

Is it possible to mine on all the listed pool? as far as i know, my machine only mine according to their numbers (eg pool 1 dead, it goes to pool 2 automatically).

[hotwired007]

I've pencil modded one of my S1s and its much less juicy - will be doing the other 2 tonight - running 3 off a Corsair AX1200 PSU was pulling 1150w now 950 after pencil modding one so hopefully will drop down to around 600 region after modding both = i might be able to make a profit!

How are you mining on more than one pool at a time though? I can only mine on one at a time atm - that would massively increase my profit potential if i can mine on a few pools at once

[jammers]

@blogpstr, yep, that's what i've done with a little tinkering

@hotwired007, yes by following the instructions in the OP in the various config files and then the second bit from my first post on this thread to add things into the Luci UI

[SunnyIgor]

Does this work for s3 aswell?

[jammers]

I don't have a S3, so I'm not sure

[sandpaper]

In essence this is just splitting up your hashrate evenly between the pools? Or attempting to?

[tolazy]

hi.

i've tried this i see the new pools and can add them but cgminer wont start after a reboot of the miner.
i have to ssh in and stop/start cgminer for it to work.

anyone know why this happens?