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Topic: Block Erupter Prisma (>=1.4 T/device, 0.75-0.78 W/G, <1 BTC/T, October Shipping) - page 31. (Read 108056 times)

sr. member
Activity: 261
Merit: 250
hey bro you get the tubes? I gave you a trust. for the sale.

 I am holding back on these long tubes for the next shipment.

I think I will buy one then.

Hey Phil,

I sent you a PM, thanks for the miners!
legendary
Activity: 896
Merit: 1001
If a R-pi isn't powerful enough, then the new banana pi should be more than adequate to control the unit.
legendary
Activity: 4326
Merit: 8950
'The right to privacy matters'
Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

So it's either buggy ethernet controller with uncertain fix or Raspberry PI with uncertain capability (possibly unreliable and/or underpowered) in an uncertain setup.

Raspberry PI + cgminer is not enough, you need an OS running on the PI, as well as an own power supply and the shown UART->USB adapter, and without custom OS image with proper implementation you are bound to command-line to operate cgminer manually, instead of having a nice web-GUI like on all the other miners around.

AM should have gone the right way offering a proper control unit with proper web-GUI, everything else is sub-standard nowadays.

Personally, I would much rather run cgminer over ssh (rather than have a GUI).  Way more powerfull (you can do whatever cgminer can do, rather than what the web interface to cgminer lets you do).  One of the first things I look for in a machine is ssh access.  I think most people here can ssh to a machine and type ./ (I hope at least Smiley

I was about to write some perl scripts to connect to the web interface on the tubes, but got busy.  With these, no need, I'm excited.   I know it isn't for everyone, but 100 times more powerfull.


 hey bro you get the tubes? I gave you a trust. for the sale.

 I am holding back on these long tubes for the next shipment.

I think I will buy one then.
sr. member
Activity: 261
Merit: 250
Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

So it's either buggy ethernet controller with uncertain fix or Raspberry PI with uncertain capability (possibly unreliable and/or underpowered) in an uncertain setup.

Raspberry PI + cgminer is not enough, you need an OS running on the PI, as well as an own power supply and the shown UART->USB adapter, and without custom OS image with proper implementation you are bound to command-line to operate cgminer manually, instead of having a nice web-GUI like on all the other miners around.

AM should have gone the right way offering a proper control unit with proper web-GUI, everything else is sub-standard nowadays.

Personally, I would much rather run cgminer over ssh (rather than have a GUI).  Way more powerfull (you can do whatever cgminer can do, rather than what the web interface to cgminer lets you do).  One of the first things I look for in a machine is ssh access.  I think most people here can ssh to a machine and type ./ (I hope at least Smiley

I was about to write some perl scripts to connect to the web interface on the tubes, but got busy.  With these, no need, I'm excited.   I know it isn't for everyone, but 100 times more powerfull.
full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 100
Well I agree they should have a built in solution...just like Bitmain / SP-Tech / etc..  The controller is pretty much useless, but if they can make R-Pi or a BBB run reliably then that is good enough for me. I have never had issues on a R-Pi other than if you overload it USB device wise (anything over 20 gridseeds and it was unreliable for me).

Yeah, but gridseeds do not daisy chain.  That's a lot of USB traffic.  If I'm correct gridseeds have a baud of 115200, so 20 would be about 2.3 Mbit/s, plus whatever overhead you have, and that's going to be a lot with 20 devices.  A single UART bus at 1/5 of that speed would hopefully work well.
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novak
legendary
Activity: 2128
Merit: 1119
Well I agree they should have a built in solution...just like Bitmain / SP-Tech / etc..  The controller is pretty much useless, but if they can make R-Pi or a BBB run reliably then that is good enough for me. I have never had issues on a R-Pi other than if you overload it USB device wise (anything over 20 gridseeds and it was unreliable for me).
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1004
Glow Stick Dance!
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.8967499

That is what CrazyGuy has posted up for the Pi solution. Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

Except that rPi's are completely unreliable and probably too underpowered to handle the workload.

Source?

My btcgarden miner ran flawlessly for over a month with zero downtime.

Firsthand experience with rPi's running Bitfury, Monarchs and Gridseeds. BBB's are a far better choice in my opinion.
full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 100
Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

So it's either buggy ethernet controller with uncertain fix or Raspberry PI with uncertain capability (possibly unreliable and/or underpowered) in an uncertain setup.


If there's a problem with the Pi it's going to be the driver.  There's no trouble running cgminer on a Pi and the BE200 ethernet controller is much weaker than a Pi.  As in, 1/4000th of the RAM space.

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novak

I believe the issue with the RPIs are USB and ethernet bus related. The BTCGarden units ran great on an RPI but they were using GPIO.

I'm thinking the Prisma limit on RPI will probably be lower than the BE controller but we'll know soon enough. The good thing about the USB adapter is that it should be trivial to get these running on any controller you choose.




I've been told by phasebird that the adapter should be compatible with tubes as well, waiting on confirmation.

Full speed USB is 12 Mb/s, and the UART (at least for tubes) is 460800 baud, or about 1/24 the data rate.  Ethernet requires... basically nothing, on stratum.  I'm not sure where the hold up would be.  I guess we'll see.  Do you have a higher resolution image?  I'm curious what the USB->UART chip is, I think it might be a Silicon Laboratories CP2110.

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novak
legendary
Activity: 1973
Merit: 1007
Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

So it's either buggy ethernet controller with uncertain fix or Raspberry PI with uncertain capability (possibly unreliable and/or underpowered) in an uncertain setup.


If there's a problem with the Pi it's going to be the driver.  There's no trouble running cgminer on a Pi and the BE200 ethernet controller is much weaker than a Pi.  As in, 1/4000th of the RAM space.

--
novak

I believe the issue with the RPIs are USB and ethernet bus related. The BTCGarden units ran great on an RPI but they were using GPIO.

I'm thinking the Prisma limit on RPI will probably be lower than the BE controller but we'll know soon enough. The good thing about the USB adapter is that it should be trivial to get these running on any controller you choose.




I've been told by phasebird that the adapter should be compatible with tubes as well, waiting on confirmation.
full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 100
Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

So it's either buggy ethernet controller with uncertain fix or Raspberry PI with uncertain capability (possibly unreliable and/or underpowered) in an uncertain setup.


If there's a problem with the Pi it's going to be the driver.  There's no trouble running cgminer on a Pi and the BE200 ethernet controller is much weaker than a Pi.  As in, 1/4000th of the RAM space.

--
novak
full member
Activity: 238
Merit: 100
Wanna buy a Tesla? Visit TeslaBargain.com first!
RPi can have a web UI. Source: btcgarden

Yes, but is there a ready to use solution for the AM Prisma?

"Can have" is relative, of course you can do whatever you want with a PI when running a Linux distribution, if you have the time, resources and knowledge to setup your own custom OS for the desired solution, but that's not really "ready-to-go".
hero member
Activity: 770
Merit: 509
Raspberry PI + cgminer is not enough, you need an OS running on the PI, as well as an own power supply and the shown UART->USB adapter, and without custom OS image with proper implementation you are bound to command-line to operate cgminer manually, instead of having a nice web-GUI like on all the other miners around.

RPi can have a web UI.

Source: btcgarden
full member
Activity: 238
Merit: 100
Wanna buy a Tesla? Visit TeslaBargain.com first!
Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

So it's either buggy ethernet controller with uncertain fix or Raspberry PI with uncertain capability (possibly unreliable and/or underpowered) in an uncertain setup.

Raspberry PI + cgminer is not enough, you need an OS running on the PI, as well as an own power supply and the shown UART->USB adapter, and without custom OS image with proper implementation you are bound to command-line to operate cgminer manually, instead of having a nice web-GUI like on all the other miners around.

AM should have gone the right way offering a proper control unit with proper web-GUI, everything else is sub-standard nowadays.
full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 100
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.8967499

That is what CrazyGuy has posted up for the Pi solution. Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

Except that rPi's are completely unreliable and probably too underpowered to handle the workload.

You're just wrong.  The Pi is much more powerful than the Ethernet controllers.  The ethernet controllers have an 80MHz CPU and 128 kb RAM, compared to 700MHz and 512 MB Ram for the Pi.  Granted, the Ethernet controllers have less overhead because they don't run linux but that's at least partially because it's essentially impossible with that little memory.

--
novak
hero member
Activity: 770
Merit: 509
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.8967499

That is what CrazyGuy has posted up for the Pi solution. Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

Except that rPi's are completely unreliable and probably too underpowered to handle the workload.

Source?

My btcgarden miner ran flawlessly for over a month with zero downtime.
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1004
Glow Stick Dance!
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.8967499

That is what CrazyGuy has posted up for the Pi solution. Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!

Except that rPi's are completely unreliable and probably too underpowered to handle the workload.
hero member
Activity: 845
Merit: 609
Great to see FC still pumping out new devices.

In the end you are really betting against difficulty. With the tubes it was a ~7% diff rise for ROI. I haven't calculated it with the prisma, but again it'll be around that level.

With btc not rising/declining recently, I think we may see a much slower rate of rise (even look over the past few months).

I may bite depending on final price.
legendary
Activity: 882
Merit: 1000
legendary
Activity: 2128
Merit: 1119
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.8967499

That is what CrazyGuy has posted up for the Pi solution. Really no need to fix those controllers if we can use a Pi!!
full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 100
I haven't followed all that Tube / Prisma hype, so hopefully someone can explain please:

  • What exactly are those ethernet controllers?
  • How are hashing units connected to an ethernet controller or Raspberry PI?
  • If ordering 10 full devices it's 40 hashing units requiring two ethernet controllers or two Raspberry PIs?
  • So each set of 10 full devices comes with 3 ethernet controllers included, which can be deducted when intending to run on Raspberry PIs instead?
  • What exactly is necessary for using cgminer on Raspberry PI (hard- & software)?

Now with the S4 out of reach due to Bitmaintech's unreasonable pricing that pretty much leaves SP-T and AM, but I'm not quite convinced yet.

P.S. Yes I know about the two GBs, but I'm from Europe and those GBs are for people in the US only.

Everyone is waiting on friedcat to explain what's going on with the controllers.

  • The ethernet controllers are stand alone controllers with an ethernet connection which can run up to 8 units/32 boards.  The ethernet controllers are very buggy and only work with a couple pools (or using a proxy) and do not support failover.  Friedcat recently said they were working on fixing the controllers but it is not yet done.
  • They connect to the ethernet controller via UART, and they come with the needed cable. They connect to the Pi using a USB->UART adapter: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.8967499 I do not know anything about buying adapters.
  • Yes.
  • Not sure what the sentence means, exactly.
  • That should be a raspberry pi and cgminer, respectively.  There might be a custom cgminer version, I haven't found the driver yet so it's likely not yet released.  I suppose you'll also need the adapter and a way to power the Pi.


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