[CLOSED] Prisma 1.4Th/s group buy @ 1.42 btc with coupon

[philipma1957]

Please forgive the noob questions bu the answers may help someone else decide to pull the trigger.


How difficult is setting one of these up?

What purpose does the Block Eruptor serve?

The Prisma can not stand-alone like the Antminer S3?  -----correct it does not have a built in controller

Sounds like it will run cgminer on a RaspPi but takes some set-up? ---- correct it needs an adapter wire which is provided and the rasp pi needs an sd with the correct image on it.

Will Minera support the Prisma?

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[bigredbutton]

Thanks Philipma1957.

My next question I guess is hard to answer since these aren't in the wild yet but what RaspPi image will work best with these?

[CanaryInTheMine]

Thanks Philipma1957.

My next question I guess is hard to answer since these aren't in the wild yet but what RaspPi image will work best with these?

A limited number of Prisma's have gone out already, so they are out there.
They have a USB interface and you can run cgminer on a device of your choice, there are many choices.

[davecoin]

Thanks Philipma1957.

My next question I guess is hard to answer since these aren't in the wild yet but what RaspPi image will work best with these?

I used RASPBIAN (Debian Wheezy) and then compiled cgminer with --enable-blockerupter.  The default speed is --bet-clk 23 (which will run the prisma at 240 Mhz).  On a tube, you need to set it to --bet-clk 26.

links:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/
https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer

[bigredbutton]

Sounds simple enough davecoin. Guess I'll have to find out. I'm in for 1.

Hopefully the learning curve isn't as bad as the Gridseeds. My hope is an idiot proof self-starting RaspPi image is available by the time these ship.

[InvalidSnack]

At this point, it's pretty difficult to imagine anyone questioning whether it's "safe" to trust Canary or not -- but it still feels that a quick note/fyi is appropriate:

Ordered 3 Prisma (Prismas? Prismi?  Prismaux?  Prismoxen?) and received 2 in the first batch; the third showed up yesterday.  My experience with Canary was excellent -- considering I've never participated in a group buy before (only direct purchases from manufacturers, eg, Bitmain and the like), the process was smooth sailing the entire way.  

Everything arrived on-time -- in fact, I had mine in hand before certain other GBs announced they'd received their first "batch."  (No disrespect to any other GB intended -- just pointing out that Canary's "All mail comes here first, before anywhere else" claim seems to be pretty damned accurate.  My current suspicion is that he's secretly like the Brother-in-Law of the Postmaster General or something.  In fact, if you look closely at his user pic, it's *clearly* a photoshop job -- I don't think he's even a bird at all.)    People were still debating in the main Prisma thread "whether or not any Prismas are in the wild yet" at least 2 days after I'd already received mine and placed 'em into service.  

And all three sound like enormous "industrial hairdryers" (if such a thing existed) -- so yes, I can confirm they arrived undamaged, with absurdly loud fans functioning per the manufacturer's specs.  What's that?  NO, I SAID THAT THEY ARE FUNCTIONING PER MANUFAC-- oh nevermind. :)

It has been a pleasure doing business with you, Canary; I still might grab a couple more of these from you later on...if and when I'm able to adjust the exhaust setup in my spare room enough to lower the ambient temp a few degrees...anything cooler than the surface of the sun will do for now. :)

But back to my main point -- I highly recommend Mr Yellow Bird of Happiness to anyone out there (especially any GB-newbies like myself...unless I was the only one left, which could easily be the case):  If you're in the market for an Avian-Managed Prismaux Group Buy, this one's your best bet.


[ Noted one more time for clarity:  No disrespect to the other Prisma Group Buy, which AFAICT appears to be handled in an equally professional manner. ]

--- EDIT ---

I was asked to include some setup details, which I'm happy to do:

So, 3x Prismaux...currently supported by:

• 2x Delta/IBM DPS2000BB Server PSUs (in current-share/load-balance configuration)
  
  • Not using the breakout boards -- I would have loved to, but they weren't in stock when I set these guys up; but Sidehack makes quality stuff so I'd recommend them to anybody even though I never used 'em.  
  • A previous poster earlier in the thread mentioned that he can be grumpy sometimes...I don't know him well enough to dispute that statement (although it's probably true about anybody, myself included, depending on when you happen to catch me), but the fact is he makes quality stuff, right here in the USA, and -- most importantly:  if I could pay $50-60 today and get back all the hours it took me to solder those damned wires to those bastard PSUs a few weeks back ...I'm pretty sure I could just *sleep* for all those extra hours and still find the tradeoff well worth it.  So definitely worth considering, IMO.
• BeagleBone Black (the development board, not the Porn Star -- and if there isn't a porn star by that name, I will *happily* eat a Prisma.  Some things in life are just guaranteed.
  
  • Running Debian 7.7 (image downloaded from the elinux.org site)
  • cgminer version $whateverCurrentVersionIs with --enable-blockerupter
• Rosewill USB 2.0 Powered hub, take your pick they all seem to work great.
• Um, afaik that's it...?  
• oops, almost forgot: A lovely heaping handful of Klondike_Bar's 16AWG PCI-E cables.  Nice and friendly and conductive...all the things you look for in a bundle of wires... Made in Canada, which is almost the same thing as "Made in the USA" ... just much more polite. :)

Anyway I hope that helps...someone...somewhere.

[Chris_Sabian]

At this point, it's pretty difficult to imagine anyone questioning whether it's "safe" to trust Canary or not -- but it still feels that a quick note/fyi is appropriate:

Ordered 3 Prisma (Prismas? Prismi?  Prismaux?  Prismoxen?) and received 2 in the first batch; the third showed up yesterday.  My experience with Canary was excellent -- considering I've never participated in a group buy before (only direct purchases from manufacturers, eg, Bitmain and the like), the process was smooth sailing the entire way. 

Everything arrived on-time -- in fact, I had mine in hand before certain other GBs announced they'd received their first "batch."  (No disrespect to any other GB intended -- just pointing out that Canary's "All mail comes here first, before anywhere else" claim seems to be pretty damned accurate.  My current suspicion is that he's secretly like the Brother-in-Law of the Postmaster General or something.  In fact, if you look closely at his user pic, it's *clearly* a photoshop job -- I don't think he's even a bird at all.)     People were still debating in the main Prisma thread "whether or not any Prismas are in the wild yet" at least 2 days after I'd already received mine and placed 'em into service. 

And all three sound like enormous "industrial hairdryers" (if such a thing existed) -- so yes, I can confirm they arrived undamaged, with absurdly loud fans functioning per the manufacturer's specs.  What's that?  NO, I SAID THAT THEY ARE FUNCTIONING PER MANUFAC-- oh nevermind.

It has been a pleasure doing business with you, Canary; I still might grab a couple more of these from you later on...if and when I'm able to adjust the exhaust setup in my spare room enough to lower the ambient temp a few degrees...anything cooler than the surface of the sun will do for now.

But back to my main point -- I highly recommend Mr Yellow Bird of Happiness to anyone out there (especially any GB-newbies like myself...unless I was the only one left, which could easily be the case):  If you're in the market for an Avian-Managed Prismaux Group Buy, this one's your best bet.


[ Noted one more time for clarity:  No disrespect to the other Prisma Group Buy, which AFAICT appears to be handled in an equally professional manner. ]

Is there anyway to replace the fans with a quieter one?  Do you happen to know the CFM of the fan used?

[InvalidSnack]

Is there anyway to replace the fans with a quieter one?  Do you happen to know the CFM of the fan used?

In reply to your first question, my answer would be "Sure, but you'd better make sure it's a damned good one."  I don't know the CFM/Static Pressure info on these (I think the labels were removed -- kind of like filing the serial number off a handgun, lol) but I think if you go to Dogie's review of the ASICMiner Tubes, he has some info on the fan THEY use -- and I bet it's similar.  

In that same Tube thread -- or it might be the main, ASICMiner/Friedcat announcement thread -- look for a post by phillipma1957.  He went into great detail discussing some mods he'd made to the tube which worked well (and should work here, AFAIK).  IIRC, he had quite a bit of luck replacing the super mega hyper loud one with a pair of slightly less super mega hyper loud fans.  So that's an option, I suppose.


Personally, I found the noise *really* annoying not due to the volume but the *pitch* of the fans.  They just have a loud, high-pitched ... well, literally the exact same sound as a hair dryer (there's a reason people keep using that comparison).  Unlike the other fans which just all kind of fade into the background as a low-pitched "hum" they are absurdly loud and cut through walls and brain-tissue alike.  lol   I think the primary issue (Someone knowledgeable please correct me if I'm wrong) is that even though they're 3-pin fans, they're being run flat-out (100%).  Seemingly no "throttling" like you have with Bitmain fans, for example.  And almost any fan if you run it at 100% is going to be obnoxious.

I'm not sure if that's a mistake, or a design flaw, or if ASICMiner was just lazy...or if they did careful math and concluded that they needed exactly 100% of the fan 100% of the time to cool the chips (although that last one seems a bit unlikely).  Others have hooked up fan controllers (in between the prisma and the fan).  And if you felt like "60% of the fan was sufficient" (and you thought that was going to be the case 24/7) you could always just put a resistor in-line with the ... um... again, let me defer to other websites and/or people who can tell you exactly what kind of resistor and between which wires you want to put it.  But the point is, you can *usually* slow fans down...either crudely (with the resistor method, though that might not work with PWM fans) or with a fan controller, or ideally by doing *something* with the blue wire to throttle the fans appropriately.


Oops.  Sorry, I'm a bit longwinded -- now that I re-read your questions, apparently the normal human reply would have been:

1. Yes.
2. No, I don't know the CFM off-hand, but see Dogie's thread because it's not JUST CFM, but also static pressure you'll want to match.



PS, I should point out that I have an exhaust duct sucking hot air from the back of my shelf/rack/whatever and blowing some/most of it out the window.  (Doing my part to destroy the planet...because I'm a complete dick, I guess, but that's beside the point.)  Anyway, I had the Prismas sitting on a different shelf when i was first messing with them -- and the noise was terrible, I could hear it on the other side of my apartment, with two closed doors in-between!   However, yesterday I finally made some room on the rack/shelf/thingy and moved all three Prismaux in there...and since it's partially enclosed (to funnel the hot air out the back vent/duct) the noise just magically vanished overnight.  

Okay, it didn't *vanish* but I can sit here in the living room without clawing at my face and begging to die like previous days.  So if you can enclose/muffle the units just a little bit, that helps a *lot*.  I wouldn't recommend doing that unless you have a duct or fan evacuating that heat, of course--otherwise you'd be creating your own little Bitcoin Greenhouse, which IIRC is *not* a Best Practice if you want things to function longer than a few days.

Hope that helps and if you try something new, be sure to share with the group...  I can still just *barely* hear those obnoxious fans (nothing like it was before, but the AC kicked off just now so I can barely make them out) and the more solutions the better, because I think more than a few people are going to be having to choose between "Mining" or "Divorce" if they can't get these bastards to run a bit quieter.  

[TracerX]

In reply to your first question, my answer would be "Sure, but you'd better make sure it's a damned good one."  I don't know the CFM/Static Pressure info on these (I think the labels were removed -- kind of like filing the serial number off a handgun, lol) but I think if you go to Dogie's review of the ASICMiner Tubes, he has some info on the fan THEY use -- and I bet it's similar.  

Here's data on the stock fan: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=791827.msg9247490#msg9247490

[bigredbutton]

Will I need a block eruptor to run 1 Prisma or will just the RaspPi work?

Anyone know if Dogie plans on reviewing and writing a guide for the Prisma?

[davecoin]

Will I need a block eruptor to run 1 Prisma or will just the RaspPi work?

Anyone know if Dogie plans on reviewing and writing a guide for the Prisma?

You can use the BE Controller or a raspberry pi. You'll need the usb adapter supplied by Asicminer to connect the rpi to the miner.  You can follow this guide (but use cgminer instead of bfgminer):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=735728.msg8549984#msg8549984 

use cgminer --bet-clk 23 for Prisma and --bet-clk 26 for Tube.

[terrapinflyer]

Thanks again Canary got my first order yesterday and all was just as expected.

[bigredbutton]

Will I need a block eruptor to run 1 Prisma or will just the RaspPi work?

Anyone know if Dogie plans on reviewing and writing a guide for the Prisma?

You can use the BE Controller or a raspberry pi. You'll need the usb adapter supplied by Asicminer to connect the rpi to the miner.  You can follow this guide (but use cgminer instead of bfgminer):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=735728.msg8549984#msg8549984  

use cgminer --bet-clk 23 for Prisma and --bet-clk 26 for Tube.

Canary, happen to have on of these ASICMiner USB adapters or a BE Controller?

[CanaryInTheMine]

Will I need a block eruptor to run 1 Prisma or will just the RaspPi work?

Anyone know if Dogie plans on reviewing and writing a guide for the Prisma?

You can use the BE Controller or a raspberry pi. You'll need the usb adapter supplied by Asicminer to connect the rpi to the miner.  You can follow this guide (but use cgminer instead of bfgminer):

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=735728.msg8549984#msg8549984  

use cgminer --bet-clk 23 for Prisma and --bet-clk 26 for Tube.

Canary, happen to have on of these ASICMiner USB adapters or a BE Controller?

I have both... Prisma comes with USB adapter by default.

[bigredbutton]

I'm an idiot. I was thinking a USB adapter was some sort of brand specific USB hub. GG.

I have a bunch of RaspPis laying around from selling off my old scrypt stuff so I'll convert one to run the Prisma.

While were on the topic though... How much you asking for a BE controller?

[CanaryInTheMine]

I'm an idiot. I was thinking a USB adapter was some sort of brand specific USB hub. GG.

I have a bunch of RaspPis laying around from selling off my old scrypt stuff so I'll convert one to run the Prisma.

While were on the topic though... How much you asking for a BE controller?

PMed

[sdjernes]

Thanks Philipma1957.

My next question I guess is hard to answer since these aren't in the wild yet but what RaspPi image will work best with these?

I used RASPBIAN (Debian Wheezy) and then compiled cgminer with --enable-blockerupter.  The default speed is --bet-clk 23 (which will run the prisma at 240 Mhz).  On a tube, you need to set it to --bet-clk 26.

I will be putting out a packaged version of cgminer 4.7.0 for Rasbian as soon as we can get the bugs in the build system ironed out.  I do not know if I will be able to back port to wheezy or if they will only be early builds for Jessie.  I have a working package for Jessie now on Rasbian but want the official numbering fixes done before I let it into the wild.

[Swimmer63]

Thanks Philipma1957.

My next question I guess is hard to answer since these aren't in the wild yet but what RaspPi image will work best with these?

I used RASPBIAN (Debian Wheezy) and then compiled cgminer with --enable-blockerupter.  The default speed is --bet-clk 23 (which will run the prisma at 240 Mhz).  On a tube, you need to set it to --bet-clk 26.

I will be putting out a packaged version of cgminer 4.7.0 for Rasbian as soon as we can get the bugs in the build system ironed out.  I do not know if I will be able to back port to wheezy or if they will only be early builds for Jessie.  I have a working package for Jessie now on Rasbian but want the official numbering fixes done before I let it into the wild.

Just a heads up on the rpi with these.  The rpi had to be rebooted about every 6 hours as the hashrate falls.  Ended up moving all the miners to a PC and they have been running for days now without a reboot.  Have had similar issues with other miners on the pi.

[CanaryInTheMine]

Thanks Philipma1957.

My next question I guess is hard to answer since these aren't in the wild yet but what RaspPi image will work best with these?

I used RASPBIAN (Debian Wheezy) and then compiled cgminer with --enable-blockerupter.  The default speed is --bet-clk 23 (which will run the prisma at 240 Mhz).  On a tube, you need to set it to --bet-clk 26.

I will be putting out a packaged version of cgminer 4.7.0 for Rasbian as soon as we can get the bugs in the build system ironed out.  I do not know if I will be able to back port to wheezy or if they will only be early builds for Jessie.  I have a working package for Jessie now on Rasbian but want the official numbering fixes done before I let it into the wild.

Just a heads up on the rpi with these.  The rpi had to be rebooted about every 6 hours as the hashrate falls.  Ended up moving all the miners to a PC and they have been running for days now without a reboot.  Have had similar issues with other miners on the pi.

I've been skeptical on Pis ability to handle tubes/prismas...

I wonder if this is something useful however: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=843788.0

[CanaryInTheMine]

bcollan, I've trying to reach you for quite a while... Plz respond.