ANTMINER U3 Discussion and Support Thread

[BITMAIN]

Antminer U3: Decentralization continued

Only Available at bitmaintech.com

Published on October 18th, 2014,

Bitmain are committed to furthering the decentralization of the bitcoin network and providing quality products to consumers. In light of this, Bitmain is proud to announce its latest miner, the U3 USB miner.

The U3 utilises 4 of Bitmain’s latest generation BM1382 chips in high quality, domed case.

Batch 1 will go on sale on Oct. 18th Beijing (UTC +8 Time Zone). The 1st Batch of U3s are priced at 56 USD per unit (excluding shipping), with dispatch estimated Nov. 5th. A minimum order quantity of 60 is required, each extra units added must be the integral multiples of 20.


Specifications:

* Hash Rate: 63 GH/s at 0.75V Max Hash Rate: 63GH/s
* Power Efficiency: 0.8 Watt/GH/s on wall at 0.75V
* Voltage: DC 12V input, 6A
* Chip Quantity per unit: 4
* One 80mm fan
* Noise: ~25 DB at 25 °C ambient temperature
* Hashrate and VDD core voltage can be adjusted via cgminer command line
* USB connection
* 12V AC/DC power brick of 6A 16A, but power line not included
* Certificate Compliance: FCC/CE
 

Note:

1)   Power consumption: Quoted figures depend on your PSUs efficiency, the ambient temperature and the accuracy of the power meter.
2)   PSU: You must provide your own ATX PSU with 1 PCI-e connector, or a power line.



Features:

Scalable: Multiple U3 miners can be maintained by one controller running cgminer due to its USB port.

Hassle free: Setup consists of plugging in the USB and power cables and running Antminer CGMiner.

Cool: U3s remain cool and quiet due to its 80mm fan which quietly exhausts air out the side of the case.  

Stable and Accurate: Based on the tried and tested BM1382 chip, the U3 is extremely stable and is able to run 24 hours a day without problems.

Exquisite: The refined design of the U3 allow it to blend on any desk or shelf without standing out.

[dogie]

FAQ and Technical Support

Setup requirements:

• Requires power via included AC/DC adapter. You will need to purchase a power cable for the AC/DC adapter.
• External controller [PC, Pi]
• USB cable is included

Dogie's comprehensive setup guide now up in super HD!

Configuration

Wiring:

• Plug in the USB cable from the U3 to your computer.
• Plug in the power supply into the mains.
• Plug in power supply into the U3.

Configuration:

• Download the latest version of CGMiner and Zadig.
• Extract, and run the zadig application.
• Select "CP21202 USB to UART Bridge Controller" and then click "Replace Driver". You only have to do this once per computer.
• Create a new file in notepad and enter pool information as below. Save it as a .bat in the same folder as CGMiner.
• Run the bat file to start mining.

[dogie]

Hello all,

Bitmain has employed me to help liaise with the community and later provide technical support. They have done this in order to help provide:

1) timely technical support
2) provide better feedback (if I don't know, I can find out from the people within Bitmain who will)
3) provide product and sales input from you guys directly into the company. If something is going wrong, YOU can fix it
4) provide native English press releases - less ManderEnglish, more sense.

This is a paid position, however it will in no way affect my independence or freedom in being critical towards Bitmain outside of this thread. My contract specifically stipulates:

Dogie will speak on behalf of BITMAIN and will not criticize BITMAIN in these threads. Dogie still reserves the right to criticize BITMAIN in his other threads. Both parties acknowledge that this relationship has no impact whatsoever on BITMAIN’s rating or standing in “Dogie’s ‘Manufacturer Trustworthiness” thread.

This means I won't sit here and reply to every post saying Bitmain is a scam, don't buy from Bitmain etc etc, in this thread. It does NOT prohibit me from saying that in my own threads, if that is what I believe. It also has absolutely no impact on their rating in the Manufacturer trustwothiness thread [in which Bitmain just went down 10 points].

[CryptoCrane]

Yay, I've been waiting for for these! The U2s were great.

[Gogreen]

Look like the latest rice cooker! 

[thehairymob]

Min order 60 units at $56 per unit and that is before shipping and customs added. Pity they aren't selling them individually it might have been tempting as a early Christmas gift for someone.

[dogie]

Min order 60 units at $56 per unit and that is before shipping and customs added. Pity they aren't selling them individually it might have been tempting as a early Christmas gift for someone.

They'll be sold to regional resellers/distributors for individual purchase. It just doesn't make sense to ship individual units round the world.

[Flying Hellfish]

Decentralization continued, really??.  Sorry Bitmain, while you guys have provided lots of good product to consumers the decentralization train left the station some time ago.

Do you have some comments on how mining will turn now? A lot of home miners stopped mining due to -ve ROI.

Interesting question. All the more interesting because no one has actually asked me before on the forums, even though I've discussed it at length on IRC and am very happy at any time for people to know what I think.

Mining died for the community/home miner a long time ago. It's just that the community miners haven't realised or accepted it yet. Community mining is only 15% of the hashrate now and shrinking. They're always hopeful and expectant but there really is no reason for them to be that way. Mining has gone to the data halls and the massive farms, mostly run by the manufacturers themselves who have the ability to create hardware on the cheap and offer it to the select few entities who can help their mining operations or provide funding or cheap hosting, instead of the consumer buyer market which is annoying, small time, noisy and boring. The only reason they continue to sell to that regular consumer market is there are enough people who have unrealistic expectations of making a profit somehow because they simply cannot believe that the numbers are stacked against them, such that the hardware manufacturers can charge a ridiculous premium to sell to that market to make it worth their while.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who's been watching bitcoin at large, but it will continue to surprise bitcoin miners, past, present and future. The reason miners don't see it is they're so blinded by the concept of a "money making machine" or the "goose that laid the golden egg" that they just can't see it.

Here's a quote of mine. Note the date on it:

Long term, cgminer will be the lowest overhead c software to drive ASICs to do bitcoin mining, with lots of code in it that is no longer relevant to BTC mining. What I really worry about, is that new hardware will continue to come out frequently enough that people end up on a cycle of investing in hardware that basically never pays itself off as slightly newer hardware and higher diffs keep coming out. Sure at some stage the limits of technology will be reached, but given the best tech at the moment is going to be 65nm ASICs when CPUs are 28nm devices, I can see the cycle going on for some time, and then even if btc mining ASICs end up in line with CPU manufacturers, they still continue to evolve over time. Dramatic profits from ASICs will likely only last a couple of weeks at most for a lucky few. The rest of you who paid for devices that don't even exist yet will not be making any magical profit no matter how big the hashrate appears. Your proportion of the total bitcoin hashrate will remain pitiful.

To give you an idea of how long this has been known to the bitcoin community, even if miners refuse to see it, I think it's best to leave the final word to Satoshi himself, the inventor of bitcoin:

The current system where every user is a network node is not the intended configuration for large scale.  That would be like every Usenet user runs their own NNTP server.  The design supports letting users just be users.  The more burden it is to run a node, the fewer nodes there will be.  Those few nodes will be big server farms.  The rest will be client nodes that only do transactions and don't generate.

[dogie]

Decentralization continued, really??.  Sorry Bitmain, while you guys have provided lots of good product to consumers the decentralization train left the station some time ago.

Why does everyone quote ck like he is a God? He's just one person, like everyone else. He has no additional knowledge of the market, like everyone else.

[klondike_bar]

Decentralization continued, really??.  Sorry Bitmain, while you guys have provided lots of good product to consumers the decentralization train left the station some time ago.

Why does everyone quote ck like he is a God? He's just one person, like everyone else. He has no additional knowledge of the market, like everyone else.

fact is that the U3 wont make any profit unless there is a drastic shift in BTC value - which would still ensure better profits for a larger miner anyways.

IMO ck's post is accurate, and it shouldnt be surprising that the bitcoin service will slowly centralize in areas where power is cheap. Even 2 years ago there were guys running $50,000 worth of GPUs in their garages or even rented buildings - those people now run $200,000 farms

[jonnybravo0311]

Bitmain,

Why does your announcement state that a 16A power brick is needed, but then later you state that an ATX PSU with a single PCI-e connector is needed?

The render you provide certainly appears to show a standard power brick barrel adapter and not a PCI-e connector... or is that strange-looking thing in the center of the bottom supposed to be the PCI-e connector?

Basically what I'm asking: Is the power to be supplied by EITHER a 16A brick OR an ATX PSU?  The choice is up to the customer?  Or, does the unit require both a brick and an ATX PSU?

Also, in the specs you state DC 12V, 6A... so why the need for a 16A brick?  Is that a typo?

Thanks.

[bobsag3]

Bitmain,

Why does your announcement state that a 16A power brick is needed, but then later you state that an ATX PSU with a single PCI-e connector is needed?

The render you provide certainly appears to show a standard power brick barrel adapter and not a PCI-e connector... or is that strange-looking thing in the center of the bottom supposed to be the PCI-e connector?

Basically what I'm asking: Is the power to be supplied by EITHER a 16A brick OR an ATX PSU?  The choice is up to the customer?  Or, does the unit require both a brick and an ATX PSU?

Also, in the specs you state DC 12V, 6A... so why the need for a 16A brick?  Is that a typo?

Thanks.

I have exactly the same question...

The middle white connector is a PCI-E 6 pin, I assume to the right of it is a DC barrell connector.

[Flying Hellfish]

Decentralization continued, really??.  Sorry Bitmain, while you guys have provided lots of good product to consumers the decentralization train left the station some time ago.

Why does everyone quote ck like he is a God? He's just one person, like everyone else. He has no additional knowledge of the market, like everyone else.

I quoted him in this instance because he is correct and presented the information well.

I don't think he is god, I don't believe in god/s.  His reputation can speak for itself and if I thought he was wrong I would have no problems saying so.  In this case however he was/is pretty much bang on mate.

I notice you didn't argue with the substance of the post but instead look to misdirect by basically calling me a fan boy.

Don't worry Dogie your meal ticket is still in place, as Conman pointed out there are still enough suckers blinded by greed that they can afford to keep you on contract for a while yet.

[Bicknellski]

Decentralization continued, really??.  Sorry Bitmain, while you guys have provided lots of good product to consumers the decentralization train left the station some time ago.

Why does everyone quote ck like he is a God? He's just one person, like everyone else. He has no additional knowledge of the market, like everyone else.

He isn't God. He is just right as Flying Hellfish and klondike_bar say. If you disagree then why not put up a case to rivals his? Unfortunately the numbers don't square and anyone who is looking forward understands this game of small mining is dead for profit motives.

Do you have any evidence to support some other conclusion? If you do then please share that with the community.

Now having said that. Maybe units with other purposes beyond mining or dual purpose and mining might be the way to decentralize mining this bee hive looking unit is a step in that direction.

This is the right way of thinking about this... but not a rice cooker. Think consumer electronics that require being on all the time. Wallets like the Trezor possibly or maybe storage NAS systems.

Look like the latest rice cooker!  

[tripppn]

Very cool design.  Unfortunately I can't afford 60 of them so I'll keep an eye out for group buys of these.

[jimmothy]

This might have been a decent deal if it was released 3+ months ago but now it's just an overpriced novelty.

Rockminer has been selling cheaper noob miners for months.

[dogie]

Bitmain,

Why does your announcement state that a 16A power brick is needed, but then later you state that an ATX PSU with a single PCI-e connector is needed?

The render you provide certainly appears to show a standard power brick barrel adapter and not a PCI-e connector... or is that strange-looking thing in the center of the bottom supposed to be the PCI-e connector?

Basically what I'm asking: Is the power to be supplied by EITHER a 16A brick OR an ATX PSU?  The choice is up to the customer?  Or, does the unit require both a brick and an ATX PSU?

Also, in the specs you state DC 12V, 6A... so why the need for a 16A brick?  Is that a typo?

Thanks.

I have exactly the same question...

The unit itself requires 5-6A, and is provided with a AC/DC 12V, 16A PSU.

[SpaceCadet]

Decentralization continued, really??.  Sorry Bitmain, while you guys have provided lots of good product to consumers the decentralization train left the station some time ago.

Why does everyone quote ck like he is a God? He's just one person, like everyone else. He has no additional knowledge of the market, like everyone else.

He isn't God. He is just right as Flying Hellfish and klondike_bar say. If you disagree then why not put up a case to rivals his? Unfortunately the numbers don't square and anyone who is looking forward understands this game of small mining is dead for profit motives.

Do you have any evidence to support some other conclusion? If you do then please share that with the community.

Now having said that. Maybe units with other purposes beyond mining or dual purpose and mining might be the way to decentralize mining this bee hive looking unit is a step in that direction.

As a hopeless optimist, not to mention a gadget freak, there are a few SHA altcoin out there that you could mine with these. So far the problem has been that the $/GH/day factor has still been in BTC's favor.  However, if BTC does become even more centralized to the massive farms, then could there be a chance that altcoin mining could still be at least marginally profitable to the hobbyist? There has been some effort to make altcoins more relevant (like NU's attempt to build on PPC - even though the jury is still out on how successful that will be).  While BTC is the 800 lb gorilla in the cybercoin-for-commerce world, there still might be a place for others (again, the hopeless optimist speaking here .

[spooderman]

Mother of god, a BFL 60GH used to cost thousands of dollars. Less than a year ago.....

[tuaris]

Very cool design.  Unfortunately I can't afford 60 of them so I'll keep an eye out for group buys of these.

Also keeping a look out for a group buy. 
I could order the 60 since I have enough BTC, but I don't need 60 and I'm not able to manage a group buy at the moment.