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

[Master One]

ASICMINER has released their branch of cgminer:   https://github.com/blockerupter/cgminer

How about a pull request back to CGMiner so that it can be included upstream instead of introducing Yet Another Miner Fork?

[CrazyGuy]

ASICMINER has released their branch of cgminer:   https://github.com/blockerupter/cgminer

How about a pull request back to CGMiner so that it can be included upstream instead of introducing Yet Another Miner Fork?

AM forked from 4.6, wrote a seperate driver(as opposed to mucking with icarus or some other) and made minimal changes elsewhere to include the driver. Merging it in shouldn't be a big problem.

[Master One]

ASICMINER has released their branch of cgminer:   https://github.com/blockerupter/cgminer

How about a pull request back to CGMiner so that it can be included upstream instead of introducing Yet Another Miner Fork?

AM forked from 4.6, wrote a seperate driver(as opposed to mucking with icarus or some other) and made minimal changes elsewhere to include the driver. Merging it in shouldn't be a big problem.

Do we get any official feedback from AM or @friedcat in this thread at all?

A little more interaction with the manufacturer and developer would be really appreciated.

[michelem]

ASICMINER has released their branch of cgminer:   https://github.com/blockerupter/cgminer

How about a pull request back to CGMiner so that it can be included upstream instead of introducing Yet Another Miner Fork?

AM forked from 4.6, wrote a seperate driver(as opposed to mucking with icarus or some other) and made minimal changes elsewhere to include the driver. Merging it in shouldn't be a big problem.

+1 for pull request back to official CGminer

[Master One]

I've seen a video about assembling a Tube yesterday, which answered a few questions and opened new ones:

Each unit has a 5 bit DIP switch allowing to assign 32 different addresses for daisy-chaining 32 units resulting in up to 8 devices on a single USB adapter or ethernet controller.

A Raspberry PI B+ has 4 USB ports, an ethernet controller 3 UART ports.

Can more than one chain (with up to 32 units each) be connected to one Raspberry PI B+ or ethernet controller?

What exactly is the limit / limiting factor on the number of miners operated by one controller?

Why would it not be possible to connect 4 chains with a total of 128 units (= 32 devices) with 4 USB adapters to a single Raspberry PI B+?

In the video I've seen the guy mentioned that only the first UART port on the ethernet controller was working. Is this true and only one chain can be connected to the ethernet controller, or could indeed 3 chains be operated by a single ethernet controller?

[tutorialevideo]

send me the video please to see how it looks this prisma block erupter.

[Master One]

send me the video please to see how it looks this prisma block erupter.

The mentioned video was about assembling a Tube, not about the Prisma, but it gave some hints on what to expect, after all, the Prisma pretty much is nothing else than a longer already assembled Tube (besides the technical advances).

[tutorialevideo]

send me the video please to see how it looks this prisma block erupter.

The mentioned video was about assembling a Tube, not about the Prisma, but it gave some hints on what to expect, after all, the Prisma pretty much is nothing else than a longer already assembled Tube (besides the technical advances).

do you own a prism? could you post some pics?

[Master One]

send me the video please to see how it looks this prisma block erupter.

The mentioned video was about assembling a Tube, not about the Prisma, but it gave some hints on what to expect, after all, the Prisma pretty much is nothing else than a longer already assembled Tube (besides the technical advances).

do you own a prism? could you post some pics?

Nobody has got a Prisma yet, last word was they are all stuck at customs in HK right now. I'm interested in the Prisma, because it should be the best miner for the buck right now, but I haven't ordered yet.

[sdjernes]

A Raspberry PI B+ has 4 USB ports, an ethernet controller 3 UART ports.

Can more than one chain (with up to 32 units each) be connected to one Raspberry PI B+ or ethernet controller?

It is very feesible to put a whole chain on one USB controller adapter to use with a computer (aka RPi). The problem is the RPi has it's Ethernet on a USB port also as part of the internal hub. So what happens is interrupt problems because you are trying to keep your data stream constant on both Ethernet and to the USB connected miners.

What exactly is the limit / limiting factor on the number of miners operated by one controller?

Basically it comes down to how well the USB circuits on the board are designed and what else is using it. If you were on a desktop computer you would want to make sure that you put the miners on a separate USB controller port from a hard drive. On the RPi you don't have this option. There is one USB controller port on the processor. This is then used to drive hub chip. Off that hub chip hangs your 2/4 external ports and the RPi's Ethernet controller.

Now if you could re-write the driver for CGminer and build the correct cabling you could possible get more units connected to the UARTs. 

Why would it not be possible to connect 4 chains with a total of 128 units (= 32 devices) with 4 USB adapters to a single Raspberry PI B+?

I have mentioned some of the technical reasons above but their is one other reason not to do this.


Single Point of Failure


You don't want to have a single $35 device shutdown your operation. If the miner software crashes in your single RPi setup your entire 11.2Ths is offline until you notice it and then are able to fix it. Splitting that load over several devices allows you to keep most units mining while the one Controller is delt with.

[TracerX]

It is very feesible to put a whole chain on one USB controller adapter to use with a computer (aka RPi). The problem is the RPi has it's Ethernet on a USB port also as part of the internal hub. So what happens is interrupt problems because you are trying to keep your data stream constant on both Ethernet and to the USB connected miners.

Does anyone know of a SoC device that is designed in a way that avoids this issue?  A Hummingbird, or BBB?

Cheers.

[tutorialevideo]

whainting for updates i-am really interested in prisma!

[Master One]

It is very feesible to put a whole chain on one USB controller adapter to use with a computer (aka RPi). The problem is the RPi has it's Ethernet on a USB port also as part of the internal hub. So what happens is interrupt problems because you are trying to keep your data stream constant on both Ethernet and to the USB connected miners.

Does anyone know of a SoC device that is designed in a way that avoids this issue?  A Hummingbird, or BBB?

Thanks for the explanation, @sdjernes. I had no idea about that USB<>Ethernet problem on the RPI and did not think there could be such an issue with the RPI B+.

And yes, so if the AM ethernet controller and a RPI based controller solution are out of question, which low-cost & low-power SoC device capable of running Minera and one or more chains of Prismas would be appropriate?

[CrazyGuy]

It is very feesible to put a whole chain on one USB controller adapter to use with a computer (aka RPi). The problem is the RPi has it's Ethernet on a USB port also as part of the internal hub. So what happens is interrupt problems because you are trying to keep your data stream constant on both Ethernet and to the USB connected miners.

Does anyone know of a SoC device that is designed in a way that avoids this issue?  A Hummingbird, or BBB?

Thanks for the explanation, @sdjernes. I had no idea about that USB<>Ethernet problem on the RPI and did not think there could be such an issue with the RPI B+.

And yes, so if the AM ethernet controller and a RPI based controller solution are out of question, which low-cost & low-power SoC device capable of running Minera and one or more chains of Prismas would be appropriate?

I don't think an RPi controller is out of the question. It may have limitations, but AM rates the RPi as being able to handle up to 4 Prismas. If you are looking to run more than 4, I might suggest a beaglebone black or 2 RPis.

[TracerX]

It is very feesible to put a whole chain on one USB controller adapter to use with a computer (aka RPi). The problem is the RPi has it's Ethernet on a USB port also as part of the internal hub. So what happens is interrupt problems because you are trying to keep your data stream constant on both Ethernet and to the USB connected miners.

Does anyone know of a SoC device that is designed in a way that avoids this issue?  A Hummingbird, or BBB?

Thanks for the explanation, @sdjernes. I had no idea about that USB<>Ethernet problem on the RPI and did not think there could be such an issue with the RPI B+.

And yes, so if the AM ethernet controller and a RPI based controller solution are out of question, which low-cost & low-power SoC device capable of running Minera and one or more chains of Prismas would be appropriate?

I don't think an RPi controller is out of the question. It may have limitations, but AM rates the RPi as being able to handle up to 4 Prismas. If you are looking to run more than 4, I might suggest a beaglebone black or 2 RPis.

Thanks CG,  I'll probably grab an RPI from you and pick up a BBB online for future projects.  The BBB has a seperate Ethernet control chip, for anyone interested--I just finished up researching them.

[Newar]

When using a RPi, I'd recommend to keep a fully configured second RPi ready to go so in case the first one dies it is a simple plugging exercise to get back mining quickly. (Just make a full backup of the SD card once everything is set up and runs as it should).

If you can't spare that extra 35$, at the very least keep a second SD card ready.

[naituida]

ASICMINER has released their branch of cgminer:   https://github.com/blockerupter/cgminer

This branch supports both Tube and Prisma, you'll need AM's USB adapter to connect to your USB port. A random CP2102X usb to uart adapter might work as well if you can customize the adpater by adding a pull resistor to the TXD.

How to build:

• ./autogen.sh
• ./configure --enable-blockerupter
• make

There's also a win32 binary here:
https://mega.co.nz/#!NY1FQbqB!4HFdFED73LbtrdNLU9ixJ-3asjmI1jhwc-7Qik9_x3w

How to run:
No extra command line parameters are needed. The Tube or Prisma will be identified as "BET" in cgminer.

Code:

./cgminer -o YOUR_POOL -u WORKER -p PASSWORD

can I use this with any mining pool ? like nicehash ?

Said yes before, but there turns out many "job not found" errors which causes hash rate loss after long time test.
Now I realize that nicehash has its own modification with stratum protocol, it seems either we patch official cgminer or we fork from nicehash's own branch and add driver for PRISMA.

[vortexz]

anyone recived tracking number
starting to worry here !

[xhomerx10]

anyone recived tracking number
starting to worry here !

Don't worry -

...Round 1 Sales

Shipping date: 8th October, 2014 to 27th October, 2014...

 They'll be shipping by two weeks^tm time

[ensurance982]

anyone recived tracking number
starting to worry here !

Don't worry -

...Round 1 Sales

Shipping date: 8th October, 2014 to 27th October, 2014...

 They'll be shipping by two weeks^tm time

Well, at least ASICMiner delievers their gear. Has ASICMiner ever not delivered their gear on time, or a delay of a day or two tops?