RIG RESETER - electronic device for remotely reset failure rig

[merphi]

My company is working on small electronic device to manage multiple bitcoins miners.

The goal to achieve is build small cheap device, which will be able to physically reset mainboard after detecting mining failure.

Technical specification 
-   based on arduino chip
-   Ethernet module (with DHCP support)
-   supply with almost any power supply 5-15V or even battery
-   emulate reset (button press) up 8 mainboard using 2m pair cable
-   reset is started by http API command
(example: http://192.168.100.10/?resetrig=5)



API  command will be  submitted by some external rig checker (by snmp, ssh, http) which submit command to reseter after detecting miner failure.

Future version will have built in checker (snmp, http) and external host wont be necessary.

I know there are managed power control unit from Avocent or APC but they cost  at least 300$ and they will always need external host to check.


Suggested price for this device will be about 100-140$  - depending on some parts cost price (case, psu, goldpins)

There is also possible to build a device with support up to 128 mainboard (for some rig farm)

Please tell me what do you think about my project and are you interested in buying such device for your farm.

I will post video of working device very soon.

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[merphi]

I want to deliver much more complex solution.

From my experience with rigs 95% of miners failures doesnt poweroff or reset rig. So to discover if miner is working you need to perform some checks over network And then do reset.

Also many ppl have rigs at remote locations (workplace, basement) and need to automate check of rigs. Downtime of miner during weekend can cost few BTC so this 100 bucks can return easly.

[Stephen Gornick]

Related:

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67062.0
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7150.0
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=54777.0

[mrb]

Also related:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=37451.0

merphi: I designed a similar product, for my own needs, that controls more computers (45), is cheaper ($80), and is simpler. Like yours, the device activates the power/reset swich and is controllable by an API using my own scripts. I think you need to revise your specs or price if you want to find a market in this community. Like Blazr said, the people here are very resourceful and favor very much simple & cheap products over overengineered/expensive ones.

[merphi]

I see many releated project with reseting / power switching rigs but every reseter in other topic was dependent from other hosts.

We are working on  device independent from any external host. Which will have some logic like snmp icmp / hash / temperature monitoring and then reset broken rig.

Now its still work in progress, and i dont want make mass production or plan anything bigger at this point

About the price 100$ isnt small price, and some of electronic fan can build it for half price, but for those who dosnt have electronic skill its much cheaper sollution than buying some APC managed power control unit to handle 8 rigs which cost much more

[mrb]

Yes, most of the resetters are USB devices, but connect them to a $25 Raspberry Pi computer (USB host), and your $100+ device still seems overpriced...

[Blazr]

Reset (switch on the motherboard) might not work with all motherboards under some hung conditions.  Only power cycle works 100% of times.  So you might want to rethink your "motherboards reset button control module".

Something (call it "VA-reset") that can have Ethernet access and cycle power (110V@15A) of each individual rig.  You still need a watchdog host (Pi or similar) to check each mining host, and send command to "VA-reset" to power cycle.

You probably need something like my akbash  (see my signature) to check the actual hardware activity as some (unnamed) miners  erroneously report mining activity when they crash.

See, yes you're right, the motherboard reset header won't always work, but the amount of times mining rigs need to be restarted is fairly low & the reset header will work most of the time. It doesn't make sense to me to spend $140 on a resetter that will always work, it'll take ages to pay it back from the mining time you save. An <$20 resetting device would pay itself off much much faster.

[merphi]

Reset its just name

Reseter will actually work on power switch pins - it make circut on power switch pins on mainboard for 6 second to shut it down, then wait 3 second and finally make short circut to power on it again

It can poweroff, poweron and reset (using above procedure) via web page, api. And this is working now. I will post video in few days. Now working on checking snmp/http/icmp to detect mining failure.

price should be lower than 100$, but still depends how many order we will get, some parts (like ethernet module) are much cheaper when ordered in 10+ pcs

[AzN1337c0d3r]

motherboard reset header won't always work

I would have thought it would have been an trivial process to make a reset switch completely power down and up a system. In fact, this is the case of most motherboards I've observed. Only with my new X79 board is this not the case. However, the reset switch always works without a flaw (although if the system is truly hung, it seems to wait on some kind of watchdog timer before it actually power-cycles itself).

Does anyone know why the new behavior in terms of reset switches?

[joemde]

If you have an iPhone you can use "log me in" app. Most mainboards even support the wake on lan function so even if your comp is powered off you can just wake it and then start your miners back to mining remotely. Not really necessary to have an iPhone you could use any computer with internet access but an iPhone or Android is pretty damn handy.

[Aseras]

My miners are on a apc ip KVM. It uses a USB port and a vga\dvi.  If its not active it I'll trigger a watchdog that will reset the box or turn it on. It works great. Probably not ideal for small time miners.

[merphi]

If you have an iPhone you can use "log me in" app. Most mainboards even support the wake on lan function so even if your comp is powered off you can just wake it and then start your miners back to mining remotely. Not really necessary to have an iPhone you could use any computer with internet access but an iPhone or Android is pretty damn handy.

wake up on lan doesnt help you if your rig will hang, sometimes even if you have ssh active soft reset doesnt work, then hard reseter comes handy

also for users who have many rigs (10+) its very dangerous for fuse when all box starts at same time, we also have in plan to make our reseter start every rig with some delay after power failure

we do all this for our rig farm, and if someone will be interested we can make a custom copy for him

[joemde]

I get what your saying. Just thought I would drop it on you for a possible alternative. BTW I can't get wake on lan to work anyhow .... I tried this morning after posting. Otherwise it works great you can restart inactive miners or reboot the system or whatever else you need to do. But hard lock .... no I don't think it would work in that situation. Good luck on your project, who knows I might even be a customer one day.