Topic: Official FutureBit Moonlander 2 Driver and Support Thread - page 27. (Read 71717 times)

Hi guys. What coin are you mining now in July 2018 with this USB sticks? Still litecoin? Or others? Have you find any profitable coin or are you holding for long after mining?

Any thoughts on the settings for lowest wattage usage? Want to use for energy efficiency between Moonlander2 vs CPU mining on Rasp Pi.  Not number of hashes, but purely setting to achieve lowest wattage.

Quick couple of points - although it's tempting to work your 'earnings' back into fiat, do bear in mind that LTC is very low at the moment, so that'll make you feel worse. Always best to look at the coin earnings rather than the conversion rates. Secondly, LTC has seen a massive spike in difficulty, as others have noted, so best hunt around for other options - hashfaster has a few, and there are plenty of other scrypt coins out there - solo mining something esoteric might work too.

I have 7 MNL2  (6 on their way) 1 up and testing : raspberry pi 3 running one MNL on litecoin pool.  I can see clearly now that at 9million difficulty and earning 0.0001724303117568 LTC over 24 hours , that is 1p .  With 7 MNL2 running I will be making 7p every 24hours.  This is seriously loss making.  I would have invested almost £470 invested for 7 miners + 2 USB (one serious USB) I paid roughly £64 each miner ... looks like I will make a serious loss.  Should I have bought a Bitman Antminer L3+ for £250 ?

This is all new to me.  I am pleased that I am finally mining. I also think the raspberry pi is a great tool. Love the fact can control via VNC tool.

The MLN2 has the advantage of being quiet and be mined from home.

Surely we should find new pastures for the MNL2 away from LTC ?  We have the advatange of such low wats to hash ... there must be somewhere we can use this to our advantage ?  LTC must be mined at a loss for everyone if entering market now?  Difficulty jumped so much, which is weird given price has dropped.

Are there any ASIC resistant coin we can mine ?  

How would you set up the Raspberry pi ?  I just managed to set up BFG miner , and that was not easy.  

One note on BFG, we are told to update to new version , however all the instructions / tutorials only explain how to install the 1st version on a raspberry pi.  Could someone tell me how I can check which version of BFG I am running, and step by step how to upgrade ? i.e. sudo gets install method.

I am also thinking, why can't we here set up a coin.  For the Futurebit Moonlander community ?  Optimised for our miners i.e. not pure hash power, however efficiency will play part.  Coin , needs a community, well it starts here : we have the mining tool that is both affordable and cheap to run and not too difficult to set up (this will improve). 

Thanks for any replies

This is great advice ... will try and set up . 


Many Antminer L3+ were sold in the last few months, so I saw difficulty almost double. You can try multipool.us if you want to try a multi coin pool that will switch automatically for you. Even if you have 6 MLDs, I don't think you'll recoup your investment ever, especially with cost of electricity. Do it for fun and leave it at that.
[/quote]

I think you're probably right. I could have bought more LTC than I will earn with the MLDs over the next decade for the same price. But really that isn't the entire point. I am interested in understanding mining, so its just like another hobby. But at the same time, trying to mine a much cheaper coin (like DGB) may turn out favourable if it increases in value.

Thus my second question: How do I split, say 3 miners to mine LTC in litecoinpool and then another 3 miners to mine Digibyte in multipool or hash-to-coins? I am not a big expert. Basically this exercise was the first time I have started using sudo commands ever. So if you know how to divide the miners up, pls ELI5.

Using raspi3, Linux access through a mac.

[/quote]
1. Connect your Pi to a monitor keyboard and mouse.
2. Open the desktop
3. Set up a VNC viewer account on the Pi, Raspbian comes with a free licence, located in the start menu (it's a raspberry icon on the taskbar) under the internet sub menu.
4. Download VNC server to the Pi and VNC viewer to the mac.
5. Follow the setup instructions, they are pretty straight forward
5. Enable SSH and VNC connections on your Pi, start menu>raspberry pi configuration> interfaces tab and save
     This will allow you to access the desktop on your Pi from your mac, lessen the need for using Sudo commands, and provides a more familiar user interface.  Also, you can download a VNC viewer app to your phone as well, great if you travel or want to check on your miners through out the day.  Now to setup the multi coin mining. 
1. Connect to your Pi using VNC viewer
2. Start your moonlander's up, click the start-mining.sh file, click execute in terminal.  The file has a gear icon and is located in the folder
    "/home/pi/moonlander2/bfgminer_5.4.2- futurebit2_linux_armv6" , or "/home/pi/futurebit/bfgminer_5.4.2-futurebit2_linux_armv6" depending on
    which instructions you followed when compiling bfgminer on your Pi. 
3. Open the pool management menu by pressing "p"
4. Press "a" to add your new pool, and add your info
5. Still in the pool management menu, press "c" to change your management strategy
6. Press "2" for a time based pool rotation, there is also a balance option which for some reason does not work properly
7. Set the rotation interval in minutes, go with at least 60 as each time it switches pools you will have 1-5 minutes of down time
8. Exit the pool management menu by pressing any button
9. Open the settings menu by pressing "s"
10. Change the queue to 0 and the scantime to 3, this will help lower down time when switching and reduce rejected shares
11. Still in the settings menu, press "w" to write a config file
      *Note: This will save all of the changes you have just made in a new folder "/home/pi/bfgminer".  If you chose not to write a config file you would
                 have to repeat all of the above steps every time you restarted.  I also find the config file much easier to edit when managing multiple pools.
12. Exit the settings menu, close bfgminer using the "q", and re-launch bfgminer by using the executable icon It has an airplane instead of a gear, and is
      located in the same folder as the start-mining.sh file.  You can still use the startmining.sh if you wish ,however; it will add whatever pool you have
      saved in it to the pool rotation.
    
     In order to edit your config file, using the file explorer, navigate to the folder "/home/pi/bfgminer".  Open the config file and edit, remember to save your changes.  You will have to close bfgminer using the quit command, not the restart form the settings menu, in order to have the changes take effect.  Spaces, commas, and tabs matter in the the config file, one wrong and the config file will not work.  If you ever corrupt the file, just delete it, re-launch bfgminer using the start-mining file, and write a new one with the above steps.
     Make sure all of the pools you are rotating between pay out using "PPS" or "PPS+" not "PPLN".  PPS pools, like litecoinpool.org,  pay you for each share submitted. PPLN pools, like litecoin on Multipool, pay out in a way that is not good for pool hoppers, see Multipool's FAQ for a more detailed explanation on the differences between the two payout methods.  Also the only PPLN scrypt coin on Multipool is litecoin, all the rest are PPS.  PPLN pools tend to have higher payouts and lower fee's, total difference 3-5%, and are great if you want to mine one coin at a time for 24 hrs or more.  Also, if you are considering using Multipool check out mining-dutch.nl or hash-to-coins, same fees more coins available.
     The best sites I have found to discover new coins are the Yiimp protocol pools.  I like lycheebit.com, lpool.name, and blockmasters.co to find new coins.  Then I mine them on the second or third largest pool, always good to spread the hash around or we end up with another VERGE in our bags.  Do your research when mining new coins.  These pools will host just about any coin that has a 1 Gh network, scam or not.  Look for coins that have little pre-mine, an active developer, lowish supply, are listed on two or more exchanges, a clear vision or use, and no crazy POS or maternode rewards.  Remember most coins never get above 500 or 1000 sats before some decides to make them a pump and dump.  My rule is every time some new coin I mined increases, from when I started mining it, 50% against BTC sell 25%, decreases 50% sell 10%, convert BTC to LTC when it is under .013, HODL LTC til the halving.  A fair amount of the exchanges that list new coins have frequent airdrops if you hodl BTC on them. Hope this helps, and makes sense Happy mining and good luck.
    
[/quote]

Does the issue persist if you shutdown/restart your computer and replug your moonlanders?

Yes,the core voltage is set to .80v, memory at .82v-I could probably lower mem volts,but while its working I dont see the need.

To run at 876 did you need to adjust the core voltage and if so what is it set at?  Thanks.

Never mined before,useless with any kind of programming,dont know if this is of any use to more experienced people.
I have ten MLDs running on a win10 desktop using modded usb2 hubs with 140 amp power supply spliced in.
I also had the problem, where 1 MLD would drop to 2 -2.5 Mhs for no apparent reason. Power was not the problem-plenty of spare,could not find any problem with connections,until I changed the usb leads from the hubs to the pc.
It seems it was an intermittent or damaged data lead,or possibly shield.
The old leads read fine on a meter.
All 10 now running rock solid at 876Mhz.

What are you running the Moonlanders on? Sounds like it has run out of ram and/or your disk is full.

Will tell you what I did, as it may help you:

I ordered replacement fans online. First I got wrong ones (12V) - the right ones are 5V (25mm*10mm). So I also got some of the 5V ones, since they're cheap. But after all, I actually replaced the 5V with 12 V. These 12V are obviously underpowered and therefore run at low speed/limited cooling capacity. But that also means they are completely silent. In my case the noise is an important factor, as if its too noisy my wife will complain...

What I also did to ensure enough cooling, because we're having close to 30 degrees Celcius at the moment: I ordered a very quiet and very effective Volador USB fan fan off of amazon.  <-- this fan has two speed options. Most of the time, lower speed is totally enough to keep the miners below 60 degrees. As a result I have 6 quite stable running miners that make as much noise as a desktop computer.

Hi all, did anyone change the fans or modded them somehow? I have 4 of them running, and they are really loud and vibrating. I checked the screws, but it didn't change much.

Thank you very much Donkenstien!

This is awesome help, quite involved instructions. Will be my Saturday or Sunday mission to work through your instructions.
Thank you for explaining to this level of detail.

Good karma back at you!

1. Connect your Pi to a monitor keyboard and mouse.
2. Open the desktop
3. Set up a VNC viewer account on the Pi, Raspbian comes with a free licence, located in the start menu (it's a raspberry icon on the taskbar) under the internet sub menu.
4. Download VNC server to the Pi and VNC viewer to the mac.
5. Follow the setup instructions, they are pretty straight forward
5. Enable SSH and VNC connections on your Pi, start menu>raspberry pi configuration> interfaces tab and save
     This will allow you to access the desktop on your Pi from your mac, lessen the need for using Sudo commands, and provides a more familiar user interface.  Also, you can download a VNC viewer app to your phone as well, great if you travel or want to check on your miners through out the day.  Now to setup the multi coin mining. 
1. Connect to your Pi using VNC viewer
2. Start your moonlander's up, click the start-mining.sh file, click execute in terminal.  The file has a gear icon and is located in the folder
    "/home/pi/moonlander2/bfgminer_5.4.2- futurebit2_linux_armv6" , or "/home/pi/futurebit/bfgminer_5.4.2-futurebit2_linux_armv6" depending on
    which instructions you followed when compiling bfgminer on your Pi. 
3. Open the pool management menu by pressing "p"
4. Press "a" to add your new pool, and add your info
5. Still in the pool management menu, press "c" to change your management strategy
6. Press "2" for a time based pool rotation, there is also a balance option which for some reason does not work properly
7. Set the rotation interval in minutes, go with at least 60 as each time it switches pools you will have 1-5 minutes of down time
8. Exit the pool management menu by pressing any button
9. Open the settings menu by pressing "s"
10. Change the queue to 0 and the scantime to 3, this will help lower down time when switching and reduce rejected shares
11. Still in the settings menu, press "w" to write a config file
      *Note: This will save all of the changes you have just made in a new folder "/home/pi/bfgminer".  If you chose not to write a config file you would
                 have to repeat all of the above steps every time you restarted.  I also find the config file much easier to edit when managing multiple pools.
12. Exit the settings menu, close bfgminer using the "q", and re-launch bfgminer by using the executable icon It has an airplane instead of a gear, and is
      located in the same folder as the start-mining.sh file.  You can still use the startmining.sh if you wish ,however; it will add whatever pool you have
      saved in it to the pool rotation.
    
     In order to edit your config file, using the file explorer, navigate to the folder "/home/pi/bfgminer".  Open the config file and edit, remember to save your changes.  You will have to close bfgminer using the quit command, not the restart form the settings menu, in order to have the changes take effect.  Spaces, commas, and tabs matter in the the config file, one wrong and the config file will not work.  If you ever corrupt the file, just delete it, re-launch bfgminer using the start-mining file, and write a new one with the above steps.
     Make sure all of the pools you are rotating between pay out using "PPS" or "PPS+" not "PPLN".  PPS pools, like litecoinpool.org,  pay you for each share submitted. PPLN pools, like litecoin on Multipool, pay out in a way that is not good for pool hoppers, see Multipool's FAQ for a more detailed explanation on the differences between the two payout methods.  Also the only PPLN scrypt coin on Multipool is litecoin, all the rest are PPS.  PPLN pools tend to have higher payouts and lower fee's, total difference 3-5%, and are great if you want to mine one coin at a time for 24 hrs or more.  Also, if you are considering using Multipool check out mining-dutch.nl or hash-to-coins, same fees more coins available.
     The best sites I have found to discover new coins are the Yiimp protocol pools.  I like lycheebit.com, lpool.name, and blockmasters.co to find new coins.  Then I mine them on the second or third largest pool, always good to spread the hash around or we end up with another VERGE in our bags.  Do your research when mining new coins.  These pools will host just about any coin that has a 1 Gh network, scam or not.  Look for coins that have little pre-mine, an active developer, lowish supply, are listed on two or more exchanges, a clear vision or use, and no crazy POS or maternode rewards.  Remember most coins never get above 500 or 1000 sats before some decides to make them a pump and dump.  My rule is every time some new coin I mined increases, from when I started mining it, 50% against BTC sell 25%, decreases 50% sell 10%, convert BTC to LTC when it is under .013, HODL LTC til the halving.  A fair amount of the exchanges that list new coins have frequent airdrops if you hodl BTC on them. Hope this helps, and makes sense Happy mining and good luck.
    

Ok thank you 

I think you're probably right. I could have bought more LTC than I will earn with the MLDs over the next decade for the same price. But really that isn't the entire point. I am interested in understanding mining, so its just like another hobby. But at the same time, trying to mine a much cheaper coin (like DGB) may turn out favourable if it increases in value.

Thus my second question: How do I split, say 3 miners to mine LTC in litecoinpool and then another 3 miners to mine Digibyte in multipool or hash-to-coins? I am not a big expert. Basically this exercise was the first time I have started using sudo commands ever. So if you know how to divide the miners up, pls ELI5.

Using raspi3, Linux access through a mac.

Never say that in crypto world People that bought my original Moonlander in 2015 when LTC was $2 weren’t making anything either in terms of dollars, but would have mined nearly 2 LTC total from 2015-2017, which even at $70 LTC price would have more than 4x the intial $40 cost.

Many Antminer L3+ were sold in the last few months, so I saw difficulty almost double. You can try multipool.us if you want to try a multi coin pool that will switch automatically for you. Even if you have 6 MLDs, I don't think you'll recoup your investment ever, especially with cost of electricity. Do it for fun and leave it at that.

I think gekkoscience cgminer does some non-nice things on the uart ports when it’s scanning/setting up the miners, which corrupts the Moonlanders, so they currently don’t play nice together. I’ll see if I can talk with the dev and sort it out.

Hey ther moonpeeps! so I'm getting an error on one of my moonlander2s. (timestamp) futureBit write error: Permission denied over and over again, any ideas what the issue is? windows 10, bfgminer 5.4.2.38-gl06380a99, all other moonlanders are hashing away just fine, its just the one stick so far.