Topic: Butterfly Labs vs. ASICMiner Block Erupter (Read 3817 times)

I'd prefer this because the Price per Mineable-Port is lower:
http://www.amazon.com/JETION-Ports-Multi-Expansion-Splitter/dp/B009VRKPR6/ref=sr_1_51?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1379224969&sr=1-51&keywords=hub

I mind you I will not be using every port for mining, but the price is still better than spending $120 for 20 ports (18 of which are mineable) when I can spend $48 for 14 mineable ports and put a fan on 2 of them and still have 12 ports left over which is perfect for the 12 block erupters I already planned on ordering

Oh and Spathi, I will not be running PI instead I'll simply be installing the device driver and using that through my pc.

Spathi is right.

Looking at the specifications for this hub here:
http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-Hi-Speed-7-Port-Powered-DUB-H7/dp/B00008VFAF/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1379199838&sr=1-1&keywords=dlink+usb+hub

It looks like it comes with a 5v 3a power supply, which should be enough to power 6 erupter at 500mA each.

If you were to order two of those and just put a fan in front of it, it would cost you about the same amount as the solution I listed, with the Anker hub.

Just get two DLink DHUB-H7s and chain it. Each one will rock 6 miners with a 7th port for something else.

I hope you haven't already purchased this.

"For a stable connection, the devices connected to the 12 Port hub must not exceed a combined current of 5 volt 2A."

Each USB miner will consume about 500 mA so you're looking at a max number of 4 erupters possibly running stably on that USB hub with that power supply.

You have two choices, go with a hub like this one that comes with a better power supply:
http://www.amazon.com/Release-Anker%C2%AE-Uspeed-Charging-Adapter/dp/B005NGQWL2/ref=pd_cp_pc_1

That comes with a 5A power supply, which would allow you to run 9 miners and that fan and be safe.

Or try to find a new power supply that will work with that specific USB hub. This is a bit trickier and can possibly ruin both the asic miners and the hub if you dont use the right power supply.

I would personally just go with a USB hub with a power supply that can handle everything out of the box. Sure its a bit more expensive but it's more of a sure thing that way.

Are you going to use your PC to control it or pick up a Pi for $35?

Keep in mind you'll need a SD card with the pi for the OS.

Perfect as that's already the fan i had in my car haha

This is my cart currently:

Fan came from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003XN24GY/ -- It will be available on Amazon US or whatever location you are.

I have my 6 block erupters into the DLink DHUB-H7 which is hooked to a raspberry Pi. The Pi does everything to do with the block erupters (it runs cgminer).

So in terms of cost you're looking at $20-30 for the hub, $35 for the pi and whatever the block erupters cost you. Pretty cheap and nice and easy to setup.

This was my original setup: https://i.imgur.com/Rj8vzwt.jpg
* The LCD screen is an Adafruit LCD kit for the Raspberry Pi and is not critical to mining. I just like to see the hashrate easily.
* The hub was some crappy USB 2.0 powered hub but could only support 4 block erupters (2Amp power adapter).

This is my current setup: https://i.imgur.com/zl81Lgu.jpg
* Same LCD screen (I can change the colors on it)
* New DLink DHUB-H7 with 3amp power supply
* Fan added from the 2nd usb port on the Pi

This is CGminer hashing away on the Raspberry Pi (via ssh) with 6 block erupters: https://i.imgur.com/ADJKsSr.png

Deliberately using that version of cgminer as I heard newer ones had problems with the block erupters. However, I've also tried the newest version with no problems.

You don't need a fast computer. A lot of people have them running with raspberry pi mini computers,
or even smaller devices like tp-link router with openwrt on it. But you need a powered usb hub, because
each usbminer uses like 500ma power or so.

BFL shipping orders take a very long time, I hear some can be 12 months.  Mining bitcoin in and of itself is not very profitable anymore anyways.

which would be perfect because a thermoelectric generator uses the differences in temperature. So if the space between the motherboards and the heatsink/thermoelectric generator can't be reached by the fan, but the other side of the heatsink/thermoelectric generator can be reached by the fan and cooled, then the electrical output will be greater.

Anyway, 2 questions, where did you get your fan and if you're mining using a Erupter, do you even really need a fast computer or can you just use a cheap, semi-crappy desktop?

With this small USB fan I have, they aren't even warm to the touch anymore. Pretty good for such a little thing.

If it wasn't for the fact I just dropped $11,000 on my new used car, I'd definitely be looking into spending a few thousand on hardware (the 1 TH/s that should be out in January?) but I would prefer something that's ready to ship today. Something that's already developed and ready to go as opposed to something that's in development and we're told will be here in December.

On a separate note, I think the heatsinks on the Erupter should be thermoelectric generators which then can be easily connected and pushed into a usb strip to help power it along with the ac power in order to increase the efficiency of the mining units.

Yeah, I mean if the block erupters are what your budget can support and you want to get into mining, I say go for it. If anything you can use them as a learning tool and then put you in a much better position to judge your next purchase. Just keep in mind they are unlikely to ROI quickly and you are more likely going to buy something else before they do.

The CoinTerra Terraminer IVs are some special machines and can produce some nice numbers at the current market conditions. However, you must factor in the whole 3 month wait for delivery and that is assuming they *dont* run into problems like the other ASIC hardware manufacturers are.

As with everything, it comes down to risk. As long as you do some due diligence you can mitigate any risks and get the ROI in expected timeframes. This is exactly what I am doing with the block erupters. I started with 4 of them (3 would have been better tbh) and now have jumped it to 6 to make sure my scaling calculations are correct. This way I can somewhat accurately predict what sort of figures I could expect from a much larger investment into some significantly more powerful hardware (Terraminer IVs included).


Also this. I will not give BFL a single satoshi unless I can get a guaranteed date with heavy heavy penalties for failure - in writing

don't do it. BFL will fail you. I waited 9 months for my unit.

If you don't mind, shoot me a pm because I might want to be involved in your investment.

And @the other post, of course the more money you spend, the more money you'll earn. The same is true with just about anything. The guy with the $10,000 car is going to beat the guy with the $1,000 car in a race any day. But the guy with the $10,000 car is going to be beat by the guy with the $100,000 car any day.
The point is to spend you money, earn money, reinvest that money, earn more money, repeat the cycle until you have the money to buy the "daddy of all asics"

To be honest, that's why i want the ASICMiner block erupter. It may not have a huge ROI, but it may turn enough money to buy something nicer vs. waiting months or even years for something better that, by the time it shows up, will be equivalent to a GPU today

Very very much this. I never expected the Block Erupters to make a huge profit and *maybe* ROI in a year. I bought mine for educational purposes and research. The quicker you can get into the next gen hardware the better off you'll be.


I want a CoinTerra Terraminer IV and was considering getting into the december delivery slots but unfortunately missed that boat.
However, difficulty increases coming over the next few months might make the Terraminer IV another one which wont ROI in any good time period. We'll see.

To be honest I think the bigger factor now is more how much hashing power do you have *now* and how quickly can you get more. I could have a billion dollars and throw it into Terraminer IVs but if they wont deliver until Jan, I might be better off buying some of the slower hardware which is shipping now and take advantage of the current market conditions. In the 3 months until Jan I might even be able to pay for the Terraminer IVs.

Actually I got two 355MH/s Block Erupter USB and one 10 GH/s Blade. And I will never invest in them again. The longer I spent researching on different hardware. It looks like if you can spend big lump of money on a hardware. The quicker you can get ROI. The cheaper the hardware the slower your ROI.

I am going to save up for the daddy of all ASIC Hardware. Which is Cointerra 2TH/s Terraminer IV, it costs $5999. But if you calculate the Hash per cost ratio. It is only $3 per GH/s.

The longer I look into the mining game, it still look like the Rich will also get Richer. (The more money you can spend the more quicker the ROI)

Don't buy from Butterfly Lab, you will not get it until 12 months time.

I don't mine with my GPU or CPU and just leave it to the Pi with the Block Erupters 24/7. I have one of those little USB fans to keep them cool also.
Right now I don't plan to add any more block erupters to this setup as I only went from 4 to 6 to see if my calculations/estimations on scaling are correct (so far they are).

Even if I added in my dual sli gtx480s I don't think I could add more than *maybe* one more block erupter in hashing speed.

I'm actually using the information I gather to plan a much much bigger investment with some business partners.

That's actually not too bad for 6 erupters. I plan on buying 11 or 12, mining 24/7 using my CPU, GPU and the erupters, and as i earn bitcoins, buying more erupters to increase my revenue from bitcoin mining exponentially. I think it will just be a side hobby for right now, but if it turns profitable, I'll continue going.

Truthfully it isn't a huge amount and they push about 2GH/sec in total.

However, I always knew they wouldn't make me rich and I've used them to learn so much more about the mining side of Bitcoin.
Based on the pool I have them in, the figure is currently at ~0.01 to 0.02 BTC per 24 hours (this might be incorrect as it hasnt been 24 hours since I added in block erupter #5 and #6).
Obviously at those figures it is not gonna buy a yacht, but may eventually pay for the hardware.

I think even if you did drop the money on a 5GH/sec, you probably wont get a ROI for a while. I don't think the smaller hashing devices are a good investment now unless you're using it as a learning tool or can get the hardware at dirt cheap prices.

Use http://mining.thegenesisblock.com/ to get an idea of any returns you might get.