Block Erupter Prisma (>=1.4 T/device, 0.75-0.78 W/G, <1 BTC/T, October Shipping)

[CrazyGuy]

Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

So it's either buggy ethernet controller with uncertain fix or Raspberry PI with uncertain capability (possibly unreliable and/or underpowered) in an uncertain setup.

If there's a problem with the Pi it's going to be the driver.  There's no trouble running cgminer on a Pi and the BE200 ethernet controller is much weaker than a Pi.  As in, 1/4000th of the RAM space.

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novak

I believe the issue with the RPIs are USB and ethernet bus related. The BTCGarden units ran great on an RPI but they were using GPIO.

I'm thinking the Prisma limit on RPI will probably be lower than the BE controller but we'll know soon enough. The good thing about the USB adapter is that it should be trivial to get these running on any controller you choose.




I've been told by phasebird that the adapter should be compatible with tubes as well, waiting on confirmation.

[novak@gekkoscience]

Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

So it's either buggy ethernet controller with uncertain fix or Raspberry PI with uncertain capability (possibly unreliable and/or underpowered) in an uncertain setup.

If there's a problem with the Pi it's going to be the driver.  There's no trouble running cgminer on a Pi and the BE200 ethernet controller is much weaker than a Pi.  As in, 1/4000th of the RAM space.

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novak

I believe the issue with the RPIs are USB and ethernet bus related. The BTCGarden units ran great on an RPI but they were using GPIO.

I'm thinking the Prisma limit on RPI will probably be lower than the BE controller but we'll know soon enough. The good thing about the USB adapter is that it should be trivial to get these running on any controller you choose.




I've been told by phasebird that the adapter should be compatible with tubes as well, waiting on confirmation.

Full speed USB is 12 Mb/s, and the UART (at least for tubes) is 460800 baud, or about 1/24 the data rate.  Ethernet requires... basically nothing, on stratum.  I'm not sure where the hold up would be.  I guess we'll see.  Do you have a higher resolution image?  I'm curious what the USB->UART chip is, I think it might be a Silicon Laboratories CP2110.

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novak

[xstr8guy]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=795477.msg8967499#msg8967499

That is what CrazyGuy has posted up for the Pi solution. Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

Except that rPi's are completely unreliable and probably too underpowered to handle the workload.

Source?

My btcgarden miner ran flawlessly for over a month with zero downtime.

Firsthand experience with rPi's running Bitfury, Monarchs and Gridseeds. BBB's are a far better choice in my opinion.

[Blazed]

Well I agree they should have a built in solution...just like Bitmain / SP-Tech / etc..  The controller is pretty much useless, but if they can make R-Pi or a BBB run reliably then that is good enough for me. I have never had issues on a R-Pi other than if you overload it USB device wise (anything over 20 gridseeds and it was unreliable for me).

[novak@gekkoscience]

Well I agree they should have a built in solution...just like Bitmain / SP-Tech / etc..  The controller is pretty much useless, but if they can make R-Pi or a BBB run reliably then that is good enough for me. I have never had issues on a R-Pi other than if you overload it USB device wise (anything over 20 gridseeds and it was unreliable for me).

Yeah, but gridseeds do not daisy chain.  That's a lot of USB traffic.  If I'm correct gridseeds have a baud of 115200, so 20 would be about 2.3 Mbit/s, plus whatever overhead you have, and that's going to be a lot with 20 devices.  A single UART bus at 1/5 of that speed would hopefully work well.
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novak

[dance191]

Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

So it's either buggy ethernet controller with uncertain fix or Raspberry PI with uncertain capability (possibly unreliable and/or underpowered) in an uncertain setup.

Raspberry PI + cgminer is not enough, you need an OS running on the PI, as well as an own power supply and the shown UART->USB adapter, and without custom OS image with proper implementation you are bound to command-line to operate cgminer manually, instead of having a nice web-GUI like on all the other miners around.

AM should have gone the right way offering a proper control unit with proper web-GUI, everything else is sub-standard nowadays.

Personally, I would much rather run cgminer over ssh (rather than have a GUI).  Way more powerfull (you can do whatever cgminer can do, rather than what the web interface to cgminer lets you do).  One of the first things I look for in a machine is ssh access.  I think most people here can ssh to a machine and type ./ (I hope at least

I was about to write some perl scripts to connect to the web interface on the tubes, but got busy.  With these, no need, I'm excited.   I know it isn't for everyone, but 100 times more powerfull.

[philipma1957]

Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

So it's either buggy ethernet controller with uncertain fix or Raspberry PI with uncertain capability (possibly unreliable and/or underpowered) in an uncertain setup.

Raspberry PI + cgminer is not enough, you need an OS running on the PI, as well as an own power supply and the shown UART->USB adapter, and without custom OS image with proper implementation you are bound to command-line to operate cgminer manually, instead of having a nice web-GUI like on all the other miners around.

AM should have gone the right way offering a proper control unit with proper web-GUI, everything else is sub-standard nowadays.

Personally, I would much rather run cgminer over ssh (rather than have a GUI).  Way more powerfull (you can do whatever cgminer can do, rather than what the web interface to cgminer lets you do).  One of the first things I look for in a machine is ssh access.  I think most people here can ssh to a machine and type ./ (I hope at least

I was about to write some perl scripts to connect to the web interface on the tubes, but got busy.  With these, no need, I'm excited.   I know it isn't for everyone, but 100 times more powerfull.

 hey bro you get the tubes? I gave you a trust. for the sale.

 I am holding back on these long tubes for the next shipment.

I think I will buy one then.

[Chris_Sabian]

If a R-pi isn't powerful enough, then the new banana pi should be more than adequate to control the unit.

[dance191]

hey bro you get the tubes? I gave you a trust. for the sale.

 I am holding back on these long tubes for the next shipment.

I think I will buy one then.

Hey Phil,

I sent you a PM, thanks for the miners!

[klondike_bar]

Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

So it's either buggy ethernet controller with uncertain fix or Raspberry PI with uncertain capability (possibly unreliable and/or underpowered) in an uncertain setup.

If there's a problem with the Pi it's going to be the driver.  There's no trouble running cgminer on a Pi and the BE200 ethernet controller is much weaker than a Pi.  As in, 1/4000th of the RAM space.

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novak

I believe the issue with the RPIs are USB and ethernet bus related. The BTCGarden units ran great on an RPI but they were using GPIO.

I'm thinking the Prisma limit on RPI will probably be lower than the BE controller but we'll know soon enough. The good thing about the USB adapter is that it should be trivial to get these running on any controller you choose.




I've been told by phasebird that the adapter should be compatible with tubes as well, waiting on confirmation.

would this same USB dongle work for running S1 blades? (theres a thread dedicated to running them on an RPi)

[opentoe]

Please, a real picture of this Prisma!

[diwangxing]

好顶赞

[TheRealSteve]

Please, a real picture of this Prisma!

There's one a few pages back:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=791827.msg8931990#msg8931990
( note that I replaced that picture the other day as the original disappeared )

[Friedman]

Looks like a longer tube. How did they get the efficiency up?

[yslyung]

still no pricing yet ? pls pls pls revise !

[MrTeal]

Looks like a longer tube. How did they get the efficiency up?

Downclock and downvolt each chip.

[stompysteve]

still no pricing yet ? pls pls pls revise !

what do you mean no pricing yet?

[Master One]

What I'd like to know:

• Can a Prisma be over/under clocked/volted?
• Will AM or friedcat provide a ready-to-use Raspberry PI image?

I think it's wrong that AM still sticks to those buggy ethernet controllers, they should drop that one and concentrate on providing a real controller unit. I also find it wrong that CrazyGuy only wants to offer his Raspberry PI image for use with Prisma to his customers, because it does not really make any sense that all the other AM customers should have to reinvent the wheel themselves.

Why doesn't AM or friedcat start a github repo for offering a ready-to-use image (preferably featuring a web-GUI as well) as well as the source code for their modified cgminer / USB drivers?

[wasubii]

• Will AM or friedcat provide a ready-to-use Raspberry PI image?

...
Why doesn't AM or friedcat start a github repo for offering a ready-to-use image (preferably featuring a web-GUI as well) as well as the source code for their modified cgminer / USB drivers?

This!

Sort it out FC!!

Offer a bounty for a RPi image with nice web GUI - someone could fork MinePeon to work with AM tubes...

[dogie]

Looks like a longer tube. How did they get the efficiency up?

Downclock and downvolt each chip.

Nope. Its a new parallel powering layout which is simply more efficient. If I get a Prisma you'll be able to see it in the pictures.