Just out of curiousity, how well pleased are you with these small Gridseeds? and its basically just small mining as hobby right? I was thinking about getting a couple of them just to have em ya know, but i am bit of newbie are these newbie friendly? I say newbie, as i've not ever set up a miner before, but im pretty quick at catching on and following instructions, and some what computer litterate (not a programmer or anyhthhing like that) but can figure out most.
Well so far I am liking. I literally got my first one today. I plan on using my Gridseed for mining LTC for now, but the cool part is that you can also mine SH256 (Bitcoin) by itself or both LTC & BTC. So far I have chosen to only go the Scrypt only route for the time being to mine more profitable crypto-currency (LTC/Doge) and then convert those coins to BTC since BTC is more useful - thank you NewEgg, et al for your support!
Right now I am mining around 350kh/s at stock (600Mhz). From my research, most people push this thing around 800Mhz to 850Mhz for Scrypt, 750Mhz to 800Mhz Dual Mode, 600Mhz to 750Mhz SHA256 only. Most posts lean to 750 Mhz or stock for Dual Mode due to hardware errors generated at higher frequencies. Also, remember the higher the frequency, the more power this thing will need.
For mining BTC, I am running 3 Antminers and planning on getting a forth (or fifth - maybe?) once I get my new powered USB hub
I would recommend the Gridseed Orb, if you can snag them at a good price. I got mine for less than $25 new on eBay. Supposedly the seller I used does a pre-test to ensure they work before shipping them. I just look at as a flexible miner, if LTC/Doge doesn't work out, yay it can still mine BTC; if BTC does not work out, yay Scrypt whatever is popular.
The only problem I have with the Gridseed Orb is that the 90mm fan is freaking loud. It's in my basement - thank God - and should have excellent cooling regardless of the fan. I seriously think the fan is louder than my dehumidifier's fan
P.S. - I use Minera (latest version) and my Antminers are displayed on the dashboard and I run the Gridseed using the following entry in my /etc/rc.local file:
su miner -c "p bfgminer -o stratum+tcp://server.domain.com:3333 -u username -p password -S gridseed:all --set-device gridseed:clock=600 --failover-only --scrypt &"
Just use that string if you plan on using it as a Scrypt miner only. I tried running two instances of BFGMiner on the Gridseed for dual miner mode and it was a no go. Axiste is right, you should only CGMiner (DMAX version I believe, check with him though, because I could be wrong) for dual mode. Since I like BFGMiner - just a personal preference - I am sticking with it's either or of mining with the Gridseed; meaning I can only mine Scrypt (LTC/Doge) or SHA256 (BTC) only, not both.
Since LTC/Doge is more profitable, I would recommend Scrypt only mode for two reasons:
1. It only uses 7w (when overclocked beyond 600Mhz - 5w @ stock supposedly).
2. Scrypt is easier to mine and thus you get more payouts more often. You can exchange the Scrypt towards BTC at an exchange, which is what I am doing.
Note: You can use a pool that automatically converts Scrypt to BTC and switches to the more profitable currency over time, but I feel like I get paid less often by these pools. It's up to you how easy you want to convert to BTC and what your are willing to sacrifice.