Topic: A case study in entry-level mining - page 5. (Read 53568 times)

Just a small heads up.  For alternative sha256 coins there is a pool which monitors which is most profitable and switches to it for you.  www.multipool.us You just keep the one address and it'll take on TRC if that is 30% more profit then btc, which I have seen at times

I think you do have to sell the TRC yourself but on such a small operation you have to grab every advantage available to you.  A massive farm will probably not be doing this or as agile as you can be with your operation.

There might other innovative alternatives Ive not seen but that site is pretty simple to use or test at least

Interesting read!  Thanks for keeping up the thread throughout the year.  The S1 is a nice piece of hardware.  I've got 2 of them running off a Corsair HX1050 with no problems at all.  I agree that they're a bit loud... and they keep my office nice and warm    Going to have to move them to the basement for the upcoming summer months.

Ants run great on p2pool.

Thanks for the warning. I just cut a panel of carboard from the box and placed it under the miner, ensuring to ground myself before touching it.

I'd rather not fool around with altcoins if all I'm going to do is trade them for BTC. It could be more profitable, but it requires an extra layer of micromanagement and complexity. I'd rather just contribute to the bitcoin network.

I unplugged MinePeon for a few reasons. It's messy, it requires too many power points, and -- in spite of Neil's best efforts -- remains unstable for me. I've just had enough of it.

If that is sitting on the carpet, i'd put something between that carpet and the miner. even card board would be ok. anything to insulate it from the carpet. Potential for static discharge is great.

Just a friendly tip using your new Ant, check Coinwarz from time to time.

Sometimes Bitcoin isn't the most profitable coin at the moment.  If you see say one of the Alts hang around the top, switch to that Alt coin pool for like a day or 2, then trade your mined alt coins to BTC on Cryptsy.

Sometimes it's mentally good to see hundreds or thousands of coins come in, instead of seeing only 0.01 or 0.02 payment a day.

After you've had your alt coin pool fill, switch back to BTCGuild, Eligius, or whatever your regular pool is.  That's kind of why there's 3 pools showing in the Antminer Miner Configuration.  Not just for pool redundancy, but easy pool switching.

My 2 millibits

Chuck

Why not mine with them until they have sold?

Interesting, I'm replying so I can see future updates

Going down swinging



My Antminer S1 and Corsair power supply both arrived today. Although I updated this in the OP, I've been saving this one as a bit of a secret, and now it's time to reveal!

Setup was relatively easy. The only real trick is shorting the motherboard connector. I used a short piece of hook-up wire and some electrical tape. It didn't work first go, so be sure to test the PSU with a fan before you hook up the S1. Additionally, the length of cable between the two PCIe connectors from the PSU was *just* long enough to connect.

My miner's IP was set to 192.168.1.xx so it integrated immediately with my home network. Just needed to plug the Cat6 in.

I ported my pool settings from MinePeon, which was very easy.

Performance is great. Hashing at 180 GH/s almost immediately.

Only downside is that the PSU and Antminer fans are a bit loud. I may have to relocate it to the patch cupboard.

My BitFury USB ASICs are unplugged, and I plan to sell them.

Well I am still impressed by your persistence also a good case study for mining

Pretty much what STT said
Its rare to have someone update a thread like this through thick and thin.   You could write a book at this point  Grin

Its rare to have someone update a thread like this through thick and thin.   You could write a book at this point  


I started not that long before you but I took the route of GPU not asic so my parallel is not as studious more of a minor diversion to this new crypto phenomena.   I used to mine BTC and I totally agree btcguild is very well done.    I still have the NMC I had from back then as I vowed to keep it as part of the long game.

I upped the stakes with more GPU and eventually switched to Scrypt mining, quite late really.   I do use the GPU in its natural habitat so asic was never as much appeal to me.   I have covered my original costs just about I think and the heat is nice in the winter .    My general policy was to hold mining proceeds for the next upswing, I have sold too early often but other times was lucky to sell in December.   I had Quark long before its upswing, I sold it and regretted so since then Ive tried to focus on the dynamics of why coins are even used and generally trade in and out.  
My story roughly ends as I dont mine much for the moment and I may not bother for summer but I hold some btc and others and Im still interested in various codes used and which might prosper vs BTC   Asic is coming to altcoins so if you are asking where next, its a possibility to go that route

[ I forgot to mention, holding BTC I actually bought royalty shares in exchanges.    That has been very profitable as again its another form of trading, so I can say the best success was actually using the BTC and backing those who operate in this economy.  Of course that is risky but so is the whole deal]

I'm using 4 USB miners in each 3 Amp hub. With 10% current fluctuation that's still only 2.2 Amps per hub. It could be a heat issue, but I just checked the miners' temperature in the middle of a restart cycle and they were cool to touch. I'm beginning to think it's a memory leak in cgminer.

And yes, it's a fun hobby!

one question how much from your investment have you earned back??

It's a great documentation and thread idea!

Any update on this case study?

lol

Well that is good to know that your recent adjustments are giving you some positive results.  You sure have put in the effort and deserve some rewards I hope things stay on this positive trend for you friend, thanks again for the update.

Steady As She Goes

1) Stabillity has greatly improved since I upgraded to MinePeon 0.2.4.4. Current MinePeon uptime is 19 day 6 hr 52 min 23 sec. However, cgminer seems to be restarting approximately once a day. Current Miner uptime 22 hr 46 min 59 sec. I'm going to  switch to bfgminer to see if this issue improves.

2) BTCguild has been great. Highly recommended.

These two factors (platform and pool) have improved my operation significantly. Much steadier rate of income. I wish I had known this much sooner, but hopefully those who read this will benefit from it.

 

well I'm finally getting around to checking out the thread after a year...   

Very sorry for the loss and I'm hoping that bitcoin you've made profit works out to pay for all the expenses.  Very sad to hear you haven't been able to recoup you investment after all the effort you put into mining.  I do thank you for putting in the time updating this thread.  If you do decide to upgrade your equipment I wish you the best but I don't think it is a good idea.  That being said I'm far from an authority on mining, I just wanted to add my 2 cents.

This thread is very interesting to read right now. I notice some people being rather pessimistic at start but I'm guessing you don't worry any more

I actually wonder for how many years it will be updated and how often