RPi Zero BTC Node? | Bitcointalksearch.org

unamis76

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Quote from: Abiky on March 01, 2016, 08:01:55 PM

Quote from: unamis76 on March 01, 2016, 07:05:19 PM

Pi 3 is already released and going out fast (but not enough to be already out of stock, so you can get it fairly easily). 64 bit will certainly be an advantage for things related to cryptography... But we'll see if it will be a major improvement for Bitcoin. I doubt that a bit. An improvement to run a node would be more RAM, and that's not possible with the current SoC on the Pi.

Wow that was really fast. So that means I could get my hands on one and improve my BTC node. Still, I would also order a Pine 64+ which has bigger RAM and will be suitable for running a BTC node as well.

Well, it took some time for development, but yes, it was quite fast to be released after the rumors. After all, Raspberry Pi's anniversary day was the best and obvious choice to release a new product.

Pine gives you 2GB + Wi-Fi for 39$, excluding shipping, making a little bit more expensive and shipping in May only... I'm not sure if I'll be getting one just to upgrade RAM in order to run a bigger node as my personal usage does not require 2GB RAM (neither a Wi-Fi chip for that matter... I'd settle for 2GB without Wi-Fi which has a much more appealing price).

Also, no reviews and low community support doesn't inspire me confidence in Pine, yet. Things might change if or when I can afford running bigger nodes just because Cheesy

Abiky

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Quote from: unamis76 on March 01, 2016, 07:05:19 PM

Pi 3 is already released and going out fast (but not enough to be already out of stock, so you can get it fairly easily). 64 bit will certainly be an advantage for things related to cryptography... But we'll see if it will be a major improvement for Bitcoin. I doubt that a bit. An improvement to run a node would be more RAM, and that's not possible with the current SoC on the Pi.

Wow that was really fast. So that means I could get my hands on one and improve my BTC node. Still, I would also order a Pine 64+ which has bigger RAM and will be suitable for running a BTC node as well.

unamis76

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Quote from: jackg on March 01, 2016, 06:36:40 PM

Quote from: Abiky on March 01, 2016, 03:28:30 PM

Quote from: Svelto on February 27, 2016, 06:38:33 PM

why run a node in a Raspberry board Huh

for hobby or a practice motivation?
just to understand....

I just want to run a node on a Raspberry Pi since it is the cheapest to go with experimenting and practicing about BTC nodes. This would be more like a hobby than a real thing since the RPi is not very powerful for this task. Grin

If you tried to use a flash drive to store the data on the raspberry pi to allow the bitcoin node to function faster. So long as you did a backup every week you could try to enable write-only on the drive to stop it from being likely corrupted. Or just leave it and format it when i does become corrupted.

Write only? Then you wouldn't be able to run a node... Or do pretty much anything...

Quote from: Abiky on March 01, 2016, 06:40:50 PM

Quote from: jackg on March 01, 2016, 06:36:40 PM

If you tried to use a flash drive to store the data on the raspberry pi to allow the bitcoin node to function faster. So long as you did a backup every week you could try to enable write-only on the drive to stop it from being likely corrupted. Or just leave it and format it when i does become corrupted.

Thanks for the advice. A flash drive might come in handy for the RPi BTC node. I am thinking of setting up a swap partition from within the drive for better performance of the node.

P.S. Just saw that there will be a much more powerful SBC to be released soon. Its name will be the Raspberry Pi 3. It will have a 64-bit CPU. Grin

Pi 3 is already released and going out fast (but not enough to be already out of stock, so you can get it fairly easily). 64 bit will certainly be an advantage for things related to cryptography... But we'll see if it will be a major improvement for Bitcoin. I doubt that a bit. An improvement to run a node would be more RAM, and that's not possible with the current SoC on the Pi.

Abiky

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Quote from: jackg on March 01, 2016, 06:36:40 PM

If you tried to use a flash drive to store the data on the raspberry pi to allow the bitcoin node to function faster. So long as you did a backup every week you could try to enable write-only on the drive to stop it from being likely corrupted. Or just leave it and format it when i does become corrupted.

Thanks for the advice. A flash drive might come in handy for the RPi BTC node. I am thinking of setting up a swap partition from within the drive for better performance of the node.

P.S. Just saw that there will be a much more powerful SBC to be released soon. Its name will be the Raspberry Pi 3. It will have a 64-bit CPU. Grin

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Quote from: Abiky on March 01, 2016, 03:28:30 PM

Quote from: Svelto on February 27, 2016, 06:38:33 PM

why run a node in a Raspberry board Huh

for hobby or a practice motivation?
just to understand....

I just want to run a node on a Raspberry Pi since it is the cheapest to go with experimenting and practicing about BTC nodes. This would be more like a hobby than a real thing since the RPi is not very powerful for this task. Grin

If you tried to use a flash drive to store the data on the raspberry pi to allow the bitcoin node to function faster. So long as you did a backup every week you could try to enable write-only on the drive to stop it from being likely corrupted. Or just leave it and format it when i does become corrupted.

Abiky

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Quote from: Svelto on February 27, 2016, 06:38:33 PM

why run a node in a Raspberry board Huh

for hobby or a practice motivation?
just to understand....

I just want to run a node on a Raspberry Pi since it is the cheapest to go with experimenting and practicing about BTC nodes. This would be more like a hobby than a real thing since the RPi is not very powerful for this task. Grin

jackg

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https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory

Quote from: unamis76 on February 28, 2016, 04:21:55 PM

Quote from: jackg on February 28, 2016, 03:30:58 PM

Quote from: unamis76 on February 28, 2016, 02:30:14 PM

Quote from: jackg on February 28, 2016, 02:27:03 PM

Quote from: Abiky on February 19, 2016, 01:57:16 PM

I want to know if the Raspberry Pi Zero is really capable of becoming a full BTC Node before I start getting one for myself. Has anyone tried this? I would like to know your experiences about this. Considering it has lower specs than other RPis such as the RPi 2, it makes me wonder whenever the Zero one could have the requirements of running a full BTC node and remain powered on 24/7.

I don't think even only ONE RPI on its own can handle this.
If you set up 8 or more RPi2s in a cluster then tey should work well as a node with a nNAS/external hard drive connected to one of the PIs or switches in order for it to function better.
I have not used the RPi Zero but, I know from experience that these can be overclocked which would increase teir speed as a node (bu at a cost).
You would also need a fan for powering he pi for long periods of time.

The biggest issue is RAM. No fan needed.

As it runs of flash technology, as long as you try to keep the drve as free as ossible, it shouldn't slow it down by too much.
I would suggest Kingston Class 10 drives.
I fyou get a 128gb on eof them they are usually ony around £36/drive and good quality.
Once the drive reaches the end of its usual cycle, you could try reusing it as well as it mainly has to hold volatile memory if you move the root system to a hard drive.

I agree, Kingston drives are what I've always used on my Pi's, they're rock solid. I hear the Samsung ones are also amazing on the Pi's (some say they're considerably faster), but I haven't had the chance to test them. But Samsung's SD's are usually more expensive, so it's questionable to spend the extra coins to put a Samsung on a Pi that's going to hammer it 24/7. Maybe for a setup that isn't always on it's a better choice.

Moving root to a hard drive is also a good option. But this is going a bit off the topic I guess Cheesy

Maybe time for a Pi thread on the offtopic section? Grin

Can the OP move a thread offtopic? The topic is made by the OP so can be changed by the op.

Kingston is usually the best and comes with a 5 year warrently.

Back on topic, the PIs are definiely able to become Nodes and handle Bitcoin cores.

unamis76

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Quote from: jackg on February 28, 2016, 03:30:58 PM

Quote from: unamis76 on February 28, 2016, 02:30:14 PM

Quote from: jackg on February 28, 2016, 02:27:03 PM

Quote from: Abiky on February 19, 2016, 01:57:16 PM

I want to know if the Raspberry Pi Zero is really capable of becoming a full BTC Node before I start getting one for myself. Has anyone tried this? I would like to know your experiences about this. Considering it has lower specs than other RPis such as the RPi 2, it makes me wonder whenever the Zero one could have the requirements of running a full BTC node and remain powered on 24/7.

I don't think even only ONE RPI on its own can handle this.
If you set up 8 or more RPi2s in a cluster then tey should work well as a node with a nNAS/external hard drive connected to one of the PIs or switches in order for it to function better.
I have not used the RPi Zero but, I know from experience that these can be overclocked which would increase teir speed as a node (bu at a cost).
You would also need a fan for powering he pi for long periods of time.

The biggest issue is RAM. No fan needed.

As it runs of flash technology, as long as you try to keep the drve as free as ossible, it shouldn't slow it down by too much.
I would suggest Kingston Class 10 drives.
I fyou get a 128gb on eof them they are usually ony around £36/drive and good quality.
Once the drive reaches the end of its usual cycle, you could try reusing it as well as it mainly has to hold volatile memory if you move the root system to a hard drive.

I agree, Kingston drives are what I've always used on my Pi's, they're rock solid. I hear the Samsung ones are also amazing on the Pi's (some say they're considerably faster), but I haven't had the chance to test them. But Samsung's SD's are usually more expensive, so it's questionable to spend the extra coins to put a Samsung on a Pi that's going to hammer it 24/7. Maybe for a setup that isn't always on it's a better choice.

Moving root to a hard drive is also a good option. But this is going a bit off the topic I guess Cheesy

Maybe time for a Pi thread on the offtopic section? Grin

jackg

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https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory

Quote from: unamis76 on February 28, 2016, 02:30:14 PM

Quote from: jackg on February 28, 2016, 02:27:03 PM

Quote from: Abiky on February 19, 2016, 01:57:16 PM

I want to know if the Raspberry Pi Zero is really capable of becoming a full BTC Node before I start getting one for myself. Has anyone tried this? I would like to know your experiences about this. Considering it has lower specs than other RPis such as the RPi 2, it makes me wonder whenever the Zero one could have the requirements of running a full BTC node and remain powered on 24/7.

I don't think even only ONE RPI on its own can handle this.
If you set up 8 or more RPi2s in a cluster then tey should work well as a node with a nNAS/external hard drive connected to one of the PIs or switches in order for it to function better.
I have not used the RPi Zero but, I know from experience that these can be overclocked which would increase teir speed as a node (bu at a cost).
You would also need a fan for powering he pi for long periods of time.

The biggest issue is RAM. No fan needed.

As it runs of flash technology, as long as you try to keep the drve as free as ossible, it shouldn't slow it down by too much.
I would suggest Kingston Class 10 drives.
I fyou get a 128gb on eof them they are usually ony around £36/drive and good quality.
Once the drive reaches the end of its usual cycle, you could try reusing it as well as it mainly has to hold volatile memory if you move the root system to a hard drive.

unamis76

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If you always wanted to run a Bitcoin node but did not want to spend $40 plus shipping on a Raspberry Pi, fear not because an even cheaper alternative is here. Running a Bitcoin node just got cheaper with the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero. That's Really nice.

You're forgetting that it's those 5$ + shipping + PSU + 128GB SD or an external disk + micro-usb to usb + something to get your network on, either through cable or wifi and then you'd be really short on RAM to at least sync. With the current availability of the Pi Zero and it's highly speculative prices, even if it had more powerful hardware the price difference would make you just choose a Pi 2 or a Pi 3 that's coming out soon.

Quote from: jackg on February 28, 2016, 02:27:03 PM

Quote from: Abiky on February 19, 2016, 01:57:16 PM

I want to know if the Raspberry Pi Zero is really capable of becoming a full BTC Node before I start getting one for myself. Has anyone tried this? I would like to know your experiences about this. Considering it has lower specs than other RPis such as the RPi 2, it makes me wonder whenever the Zero one could have the requirements of running a full BTC node and remain powered on 24/7.

I don't think even only ONE RPI on its own can handle this.
If you set up 8 or more RPi2s in a cluster then tey should work well as a node with a nNAS/external hard drive connected to one of the PIs or switches in order for it to function better.
I have not used the RPi Zero but, I know from experience that these can be overclocked which would increase teir speed as a node (bu at a cost).
You would also need a fan for powering he pi for long periods of time.

The biggest issue is RAM. No fan needed.

jackg

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https://bit.ly/387FXHi lightning theory

Quote from: Abiky on February 19, 2016, 01:57:16 PM

I want to know if the Raspberry Pi Zero is really capable of becoming a full BTC Node before I start getting one for myself. Has anyone tried this? I would like to know your experiences about this. Considering it has lower specs than other RPis such as the RPi 2, it makes me wonder whenever the Zero one could have the requirements of running a full BTC node and remain powered on 24/7.

I don't think even only ONE RPI on its own can handle this.
If you set up 8 or more RPi2s in a cluster then tey should work well as a node with a nNAS/external hard drive connected to one of the PIs or switches in order for it to function better.
I have not used the RPi Zero but, I know from experience that these can be overclocked which would increase teir speed as a node (bu at a cost).
You would also need a fan for powering he pi for long periods of time.

bob123

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Quote from: Quantus on February 27, 2016, 07:06:49 PM

Your not helping network running a full node on a raspberry pi.

Thats the point.

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i dont think that you can run a node to a zero pi. I say that because i have try to run a node to pi 1 and i always have crashes. I am sure that the same will happen and to pi zero.

unamis76

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Quote from: Soros Shorts on February 28, 2016, 12:30:31 AM

Quote from: unamis76 on February 27, 2016, 08:44:32 PM

Quote from: Quantus on February 27, 2016, 07:06:49 PM

Your not helping network running a full node on a raspberry pi.

Why?

If you have a full node that is slow in relaying blocks and transactions, you are using up valuable connections to other nodes that could have been used by somebody else. Those nodes that are connected to your slow node will probably receive blocks/transactions from other nodes first.

If we're going to shutdown all underperforming or "slow" machines acting as a node we'll probably end up with half the nodes we already have, if not less. And if we only run high end machines as nodes we're definitely going to have a bad time. There will always be slower machines and faster machines. Unless there's an army of Pentium 3's being deployed and/or Bitcoin clients start connecting to only one node we'll be fine with slower machines.

Raspberry Pi 2 handles a node quite well for it's size, price and electric consumption. And after all, I can have a powerful machine and a poor connection too...

Soros Shorts

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Quote from: unamis76 on February 27, 2016, 08:44:32 PM

Quote from: Quantus on February 27, 2016, 07:06:49 PM

Your not helping network running a full node on a raspberry pi.

Why?

If you have a full node that is slow in relaying blocks and transactions, you are using up valuable connections to other nodes that could have been used by somebody else. Those nodes that are connected to your slow node will probably receive blocks/transactions from other nodes first.

unamis76

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Quote from: Svelto on February 27, 2016, 06:38:33 PM

why run a node in a Raspberry board Huh

for hobby or a practice motivation?
just to understand....

Cheap and fun way to run a node. You can say it's both a hobby and a motivation to keep the network with as many nodes as possible.

Quote from: Quantus on February 27, 2016, 07:06:49 PM

Your not helping network running a full node on a raspberry pi.

Why?

Quantus

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Your not helping network running a full node on a raspberry pi.

Svelto

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why run a node in a Raspberry board Huh

for hobby or a practice motivation?
just to understand....

Abiky

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Quote from: unamis76 on February 19, 2016, 09:37:05 PM

Pine64 is released but sold out. 64+ and 64+ 2GB are unreleased and on pre order as you can see on their website.

(Talked about how bad stocks of Pine64 are... But Zero's are also virtually nonexistent at this point)

Thanks for the update. Hopefully, I would be able to pre order a couple of Pine 64+ (2GB) to setup a couple of nodes and support the Bitcoin network. I think I might give Bitcoin Classic a go. Bigger block size (2MB) would be better, so I would definitely go this route.

unamis76

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Quote from: Abiky on February 19, 2016, 05:55:38 PM

Quote from: unamis76 on February 19, 2016, 05:49:54 PM

Pine64 is sold out. 64+ and 64+ 2GB look really interesting and at a good price point and would definitely run a node... What I'm wondering is about the community support... I guess I'll eventually order one of these things to fiddle with nevertheless

Waiting for reviews first, tho...

But I am guessing that the Pine64 is in pre-order and not officially released yet, right? If that is the case, then maybe there would be more of them in stock later. I would certainly love to own one, especially the one with 2GB of RAM. It will make the ideal one for a full BTC node. Cheesy

Pine64 is released but sold out. 64+ and 64+ 2GB are unreleased and on pre order as you can see on their website.

(Talked about how bad stocks of Pine64 are... But Zero's are also virtually nonexistent at this point)

Quote from: windpath on February 19, 2016, 06:24:55 PM

Mine is shipping early March, plan to try to get P2Pool running on it, we will see

I'll be posting about it in the P2Pool thread when it arrives...

I believe they plan to ship 5k of them a month starting in March.

Pretty curious about that! Keep us posted

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Quote from: unamis76 on February 19, 2016, 05:49:54 PM

Quote from: Abiky on February 19, 2016, 04:25:39 PM

Quote from: unamis76 on February 19, 2016, 04:17:01 PM

I don't think the Pi Zero will be capable, but if it is, it will be a very limited node due to the amount of RAM (and the need for something to interact as an Ethernet card through USB). If you're buying a Pi Zero to make a node, I'd say you would be wasting your money. You might as well buy a Pi B 2.

Thanks for sharing your advice. I already own a RPi B 2, but it is being used for other purposes. Just wanted something much smaller to carry around easier and set it as a node, but I guess it could not be possible due to the specs. I will have a go at the Pine A64 since it is much more powerful. It might not be smaller but at least it can keep up with its task. Roll Eyes

Pine64 is sold out. 64+ and 64+ 2GB look really interesting and at a good price point and would definitely run a node... What I'm wondering is about the community support... I guess I'll eventually order one of these things to fiddle with nevertheless

Waiting for reviews first, tho...

Mine is shipping early March, plan to try to get P2Pool running on it, we will see

I'll be posting about it in the P2Pool thread when it arrives...

I believe they plan to ship 5k of them a month starting in March.

Abiky

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Quote from: unamis76 on February 19, 2016, 05:49:54 PM

Pine64 is sold out. 64+ and 64+ 2GB look really interesting and at a good price point and would definitely run a node... What I'm wondering is about the community support... I guess I'll eventually order one of these things to fiddle with nevertheless

Waiting for reviews first, tho...

But I am guessing that the Pine64 is in pre-order and not officially released yet, right? If that is the case, then maybe there would be more of them in stock later. I would certainly love to own one, especially the one with 2GB of RAM. It will make the ideal one for a full BTC node. Cheesy

unamis76

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Quote from: Abiky on February 19, 2016, 04:25:39 PM

Quote from: unamis76 on February 19, 2016, 04:17:01 PM

I don't think the Pi Zero will be capable, but if it is, it will be a very limited node due to the amount of RAM (and the need for something to interact as an Ethernet card through USB). If you're buying a Pi Zero to make a node, I'd say you would be wasting your money. You might as well buy a Pi B 2.

Thanks for sharing your advice. I already own a RPi B 2, but it is being used for other purposes. Just wanted something much smaller to carry around easier and set it as a node, but I guess it could not be possible due to the specs. I will have a go at the Pine A64 since it is much more powerful. It might not be smaller but at least it can keep up with its task. Roll Eyes

Pine64 is sold out. 64+ and 64+ 2GB look really interesting and at a good price point and would definitely run a node... What I'm wondering is about the community support... I guess I'll eventually order one of these things to fiddle with nevertheless

Waiting for reviews first, tho...

Abiky

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Quote from: unamis76 on February 19, 2016, 04:17:01 PM

I don't think the Pi Zero will be capable, but if it is, it will be a very limited node due to the amount of RAM (and the need for something to interact as an Ethernet card through USB). If you're buying a Pi Zero to make a node, I'd say you would be wasting your money. You might as well buy a Pi B 2.

Thanks for sharing your advice. I already own a RPi B 2, but it is being used for other purposes. Just wanted something much smaller to carry around easier and set it as a node, but I guess it could not be possible due to the specs. I will have a go at the Pine A64 since it is much more powerful. It might not be smaller but at least it can keep up with its task. Roll Eyes

unamis76

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I don't think the Pi Zero will be capable, but if it is, it will be a very limited node due to the amount of RAM (and the need for something to interact as an Ethernet card through USB). If you're buying a Pi Zero to make a node, I'd say you would be wasting your money. You might as well buy a Pi B 2.

Abiky

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Quote from: windpath on February 19, 2016, 02:40:20 PM

I don't know about the Zero, but the RPi 2B is capable, but very slow....

Check out http://pine64.com/ as an alternative

Thanks for sharing this new kind of single board computer. I have found this one even better than most Raspberry Pis considering it has better CPU architecture and bigger RAM (2GB) This might definitely be a better option for the BTC node. However, I was looking for something more portable and smaller such as the RPi Zero. I guess I will have to test it there once I get one. Roll Eyes

Quote from: seedtrue on February 19, 2016, 02:55:47 PM

I looked up the specs of it on the raspberry pi website:

"A Broadcom BCM2835 application processor
1GHz ARM11 core (40% faster than Raspberry Pi 1)
512MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM
A micro-SD card slot
A mini-HDMI socket for 1080p60 video output
Micro-USB sockets for data and power
An unpopulated 40-pin GPIO header
Identical pinout to Model A+/B+/2B
An unpopulated composite video header
Our smallest ever form factor, at 65mm x 30mm x 5mm"

It "should" be able to run one as long as your SD card has enough storage space. If you compile from source you will need use a swap file because 512MB of ram is not enough to compile core.

I have found out Zero's RAM rather limiting, but now that you mention that swap file method, I'm going to give it a try. A 32GB sd card should be enough I guess. I will probably divide it into 2 partitions. One for the Raspbian OS and blockchain data files and the other partition will be used as swap. Grin

seedtrue

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I looked up the specs of it on the raspberry pi website:

"A Broadcom BCM2835 application processor
1GHz ARM11 core (40% faster than Raspberry Pi 1)
512MB of LPDDR2 SDRAM
A micro-SD card slot
A mini-HDMI socket for 1080p60 video output
Micro-USB sockets for data and power
An unpopulated 40-pin GPIO header
Identical pinout to Model A+/B+/2B
An unpopulated composite video header
Our smallest ever form factor, at 65mm x 30mm x 5mm"

It "should" be able to run one as long as your SD card has enough storage space. If you compile from source you will need use a swap file because 512MB of ram is not enough to compile core.

windpath

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I don't know about the Zero, but the RPi 2B is capable, but very slow....

Check out http://pine64.com/ as an alternative

Abiky

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I want to know if the Raspberry Pi Zero is really capable of becoming a full BTC Node before I start getting one for myself. Has anyone tried this? I would like to know your experiences about this. Considering it has lower specs than other RPis such as the RPi 2, it makes me wonder whenever the Zero one could have the requirements of running a full BTC node and remain powered on 24/7.

Topic: RPi Zero BTC Node? (Read 2045 times)