The trip to New York is over, but it was great. Thanks to all that let us stay with them and showed us around.
Back at home, I have the chance to delve into tiny packages all waiting for my return. Also waiting was the Raspberry Pi. Before any further tinkering I should update the status of the mining as it goes with the BITMAIN Antminer U2. I left it running while I was away on my laptop with lid down in attempts to minimize power consumption. It has been running at 0781 frequency setting and is averaging just over 1.5 GH/s at 1.57 GH/s over the past week. I have no active cooling currently, so I fear increasing the frequency. This little circuit board runs hot! I will follow this post with updates on my thermoelectric cooling/energy recovery attempts and setting up the Raspberry Pi and getting it to mine with the Antminer U2.
Seebeck(Probably Peltier) Chip and Micro Heat Sink with Fan
In the packages awaiting my return from New York were a set of micro heat sinks for the Antminer U2 and a Seebeck chip - or so I thought. Excited I grabbed a battery and a candle and the tiny heatsink/fan I purchased and received before I left. I held the leads to each respective end of a AA battery. Sure enough one side grew hot and the other cold. I don't know everything about Seebeck and Peltier chips but I may have a Peltier despite the seller claiming it was a Seebeck. As I said I don't know everything about them so it may be possible to produce the Peltier effect with a Seebeck, and hopefully vise versa. Attempting a quick trial, I connected the leads to the matching leads on the fan. Next I lit the candle and carefully held the chip, hot side down, over it. No motion.
It may be possible that I am not effectively cooling the cold side of the chip and therefore not allowing it to generate electricity. Likewise my quickly finger twisted connections were not sufficiently conductive. A third option could be that the chip is producing a current, but that current is insufficient to drive the small fan. Tonight I will research a bit more about setting up a thermoelectric generator and post my findings in following posts.
The other arrival, the micro heat sinks, were pretty fool proof. The came with pre-applied thermal conductive adhesive. I shut down my mining and carefully removed the Antminer U2 (it was very hot). Once it cooled I peeled the backing off of the adhesive sections and pressed them to the appropriate chips. I inserted the Antminer and restarted mining. I don't expect a hash rate increase form simply adding the heat sinks, but I do hope they dissipate more heat while I work on alternative cooling options mentioned above.
Yesterday I celebrated Pi Day a bit late when the Raspberry Pi arrived! I didn't have much time to delve into the setup. I also didn't have a spare keyboard to use and the TV was claimed by my girlfriend.
I'm vacationing in New York for a few days starting tomorrow, so I won't have much time to play until I get back. I should be able to borrow one of the numerous spare keyboards from work. I can claim the TV to use as a monitor for a bit while I set it up and will hijack the network drop for the Xbox 360.
Some of the parts I ordered for the Antminer cooling apparatus arrived. I sacrificed an old USB printer cable to get the fan to work. I may attempt to rig the fan to the heat sink of the miner with zip ties until I have everything. Heat may not transfer well to the pot metal heat sink on the fan from the Antminer's. At this point though I may wait to avoid the annoyance of taking it all apart.
I'm planning to sandwich a Seebeck chip between a heat sink and the Antminer. I will mount a small fan to the heat sink and it will be powered by the Seebeck chip. Perpetual motion, details will follow soon.
Wading through search results majoring in the sales of BITMAIN Antminers, ASICMiner Block Erupters, and all other variety of devices one can find a few quality resources with installation instructions for the previous version of the Antminer. Finding a guide specific to the U2 was a challenge and I am yet to be successful. Luckily the technology is not far off from the U1 and so the setup was basically the same.
Note: This installation is for Windows 7 64 bit. Other operating systems may vary.
Before inserting the Antminer I needed to accumulate a host of software and drivers. I also needed to establish that my account with the mining pool BTC Guild was still active and accessible. I was easily able to log in with my old credentials. There were also a few fractions of Bitcoin left that I never paid out. Actually these were what I thought was in my wallet but couldn’t recover. No losses! For future reference, mining with NVidia GTX 560 is not fruitful…
The account with BTC Guild pool is good to go and I have miners set up there. I took note of the host URL, my miner or username, and the password for use later when launching the mining client.
I found many recommendations, and instructionals, pointing towards BFGMiner and CGMiner. In truth, I couldn’t get BFGMiner to work last night. I may give it another try but for the scope of this project it may not be worth the time. CGMiner gave me some issues but at the 11 th hour I found the magic combination of arguments to pass and USB finagling voodoo when launching that got it working. I didn’t let it mine over night as my PC is a bit too power thirsty for a long run mining mission. Tonight, or sometime this weekend, I will fire up my laptop and run through this installation again to see what I can get for a few days’ worth of mining.
Now on to installing the Antminer. It is a USB device and obviously not plug and play compatible. So using it out of the box is impossible. The computer and mining clients have no clue what to do with it other than say it’s plugged in… maybe. You will need to grab the branch of CGMiner from Github specifically tailored to mining with the Antminer. I know it says for the U1 but it does work with the U2. Make sure to get the latest stable release, as with any software. Extract it to C:\ into its own directory for easy access from the command line. Next download the Silicon Labs CP2102 driver for your operating system and install it. Finally, download and install Zadig, a piece of software that offers a GUI for USB device driver installation.
Insert the Antminer U2 and let the computer acknowledge it. Next, and very important, launch Zadig and click “Option” -> “List All Devices” and select [CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller] then click “Reinstall Driver” or “Replace Driver.” In all honesty it would be nice to have some confirmation that the Antminer U2 was correctly installed and functioning but that may add too much overhead and cost to the package.
Launch command prompt. Drill down to the directory where CGMiner was installed. You can launch CGMiner using
cgminer.exe --bmsc-options 115200:20 -o [your pool URL] -u [your username/miner] -p [your password] --bmsc-freq 0781
I finalized this line after various other attempts sourced from forums and instructional pages. You should see some output and it should eventually start mining after requesting block information and jobs from the pool.
The whole process above is finicky. If the Antminer is not plugged in it will pause and output that it is waiting for the device. You can plug the device in but it won’t acknowledge it. If the miner is plugged in CGMiner will start but may not begin mining. In one instance I managed to get CGMiner running and mining but it was using my GPU. I was actually unsure of which device was being used to mine until I opened a system monitoring app and notice my GPU was clocking at 99%. With the line above it should specifically use the Antminer and nothing else.
To make life easier I prepended the location of the .exe and saved this line
C:/cgminer/cgminer-run/cgminer.exe --bmsc-options 115200:20 -o [your pool URL] -u [your username/miner] -p [your password] --bmsc-freq 0781
in a .CMD file. That file resides on my desktop and when double clicked launches CGMiner with the appropriate settings.
Results from mining for a few minutes are in the picture.
I tried posting this last night but was distracted by delicious Pad Thai and Les Revenants episodes.
After a not so long wait the Bitmain Antminer U2 is in!
Opening the envelope reveals a modest USB dongle in a nifty white plastic case. Very clean packaging with a spiffy magnet catch. Exposed circuitry on the back for the geeks and a simple black heat sink on the opposing side for the other geeks. No scratches and nothing apparently broken or burned out. Now to get cracking on some blocks!
First off, revive that old wallet...
Easier said than done.
My last attempts at mining left me with about 10 cents worth of Bitcoins, so the effort to unscramble the splattering of numbers and characters I left myself as notes to access said wallet was not worth it. I made a new wallet. Again
I went with BlockChain for no other reason than it was where my last one was. I must have done some amount of research before opening the original, so using it again didn't seem too harmful. I'm no BTC millionaire so if it get hacked or lost or whatever I'm no worse than I am loosing spare change.
After filling out text boxes and waiting for confirmation codes my new wallet is open. Next up, mining pools, mining software, and drivers. Still waiting on the Raspberry Pi.
Perseus Telecom, a private global high precision network provider for trading, gaming, e-commerce, and multimedia announced Wednesday, 12 March 2014 trading Bitcoin on ATLAS ATS matching engine in New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore. ATLAS ATS was built to provide a modern secure platform for digital currency transactions.
Finished writing the last post and then proceeded to order some things. Will post pics when they get here in a few days. I should be able to get the Pi mining with what I ordered. After I get things up and running I'll look into the solar panels and batteries.
For some reason Bitcoin
fascinates me, and if you are here reading this and hopefully following it it does you as well. I have no interest in simply purchasing them from one of the wildly fluctuating markets available. I simply feel that the trade of Bitcoins, like a commodity, stock, or other financial asset undermines their intended use as an alternative decentralized unregulated currency. Either way a currency exchange must exist, so be it.
I am mostly interested in the process by which Bitcoins are created. Again I have no interest in investing thousands into hardware specially designed to mine them. However a little here and there wont hurt just to satiate my curiosity. Better yet if the investment provides me with new fun toys that I can use for all sorts of other pursuits I'm hooked.
As a result of my inability and lack of desire to invest a true US dollar fortune I know that I will never possess the proper equipment to potentially profitably mine. This leaves me with playing with the left overs just for the sake of it.
The idea is to create a mining device that is basically off the grid. In the light of Bitcoin itself being unregulated, a true off the grid device would fit in quite nicely. If I can find a way to produce the electricity without increasing the bill on my apartment I would feel I have succeeded.
Water is in abundance on this planet so with the right equipment I could create hydrogen. This however would be costly and a general pain in the ass. I would also need to contain and compress it, collect it without other gasses getting mixed in and finally acquire equipment to produce electricity from it. Oh, and doing all that would require some other energy source. It seems hydrogen may at best be a suitable battery if you will. A means to store power and create a portable mining rig, but not a fully grid independent one.
Hydro generator may work. All I would need is a gasoline generator sans the motor, gearing, a paddle wheel of sorts, a river, and I could easily produce enough electricity to power a substantial rig. Hey and maybe 100 yards from my window is a huge river with plenty of energy to spare. Issues being all of those things cost a lot of money. I would also need some sharp welding skills to get the armature established to support the generator and connect the gearing and paddles. Additionally I would need a very long extension chord to run back to my apartment and most likely permits to construct such things. I also run the risk of theft of my outdoors equipment. Save this one for another day when I own land with a river running through it and have more funds available to invest in the equipment.
Wind power seems good. Its a no go however as the cost of turbines and the space needed to set them up is prohibiting.
Solar seems to be the winner, but how can I set up a solar array that provides me with enough juice to power a mining rig and takes up less space than the wind idea?
Requirements:
1. Bitcoin Mining Rig - Doesn't need to be the latest and greatest, just needs to run to prove a point.
2. Solar Electricity Generator - Has to be small enough to keep in my apartment or drop off on the roof before work. Preferably attachable to the rig itself.
3. A Container - Must be weather proof and secure. Would be used to house the rig and for mounting of the solar array.
4. Batteries - To power the rig at night and in low light situations.
5. Cooling - These things run hot and I would be placing it in the sun...
6. Overall Portability - As I aim to make this thing off grid and would need to place it in the sun it must be light enough and small enough to move around and remain relatively unnoticeable.
My Plan
Inspiration
No need for an infinitude of TH/s. I just want to mine off the grid. Truly being off grid is impossible as I would need to connect to the internet at some point but bare with me.
I intend to acquire a Raspberry Pi
to function as my controller, or head for the mining array. This little beauty is none too powerful but has proven itself a suitable unit for this task. Couple that with its power conservation friendly design and I think it will be the best option. However for the lack of size and complexity we are left with standard USB I/O so no PCIe expansion here. This is not a huge issue as there are plenty of USB mining options available.
Next up is the mining hardware itself. I'm leaning towards the Bitmain AntMiner
U1 or U2, whichever I can get my hands on. The put up decent numbers for my experiment's purposes. Another option would be the ASICMiner Block Erupter
however I think these are slower. Bonus is that they are cheap and small and don't require external power unless I plan on using multiple units.
As I am going with the solar idea I would need panels and DC regulators to get the power to a safe and sufficient current. These solar panels
would need to be sufficient at providing power to the Raspberry Pi while it mines with one of the above listed ASIC devices. It would also need to provide a little extra to charge batteries that would power the unit at night and in low light conditions. Batteries
and Li-Ion/LiPoly Charger - v1.2
should be added to this list. I plan on LiFePo if I can find something suitable. I'm not sure yet which products would be best for this purpose but I've seen specific kits out there that have been used with the Pi.
Inspiration
For a container my current thought is a plastic ammo box
like the one I store my ammo in. They are a convenient size, have a handle, are drab and inconspicuous, durable, and can be waterproof. It should have plenty of space for the electronics.
For cooling I may originally use a USB-Powered fan
before I finally mount everything in the box. However once inside a container airflow will be an issue. I could compromise the weather proofing and cut holes to mount fans but this could result in water penetration. Conducting the heat outside of the box through solid state means would be ideal. My current thoughts are to use aluminum plate mounted to the heat generating components then directed out of the container and finally transferred to the atmosphere by using some variety of aluminum heat sink
.
Back to perpetual motion.
I had a thought that may make my project differ from those tried by others. The heat issue is a universal one but our brilliant human scientists have long know how to convert heat into electricity. Why would one not attempt to recapture some of this lost energy for use in processing? In a sense this is like turbo charging a car. Use spent waste gas to pump more fuel and air back into the motor for increased power output. In my concept I would take advantage of produced heat, use it to produce electricity and feed that back to the battery array for use again.
Peltier chips will transport heat from one side to the other extremely efficiently with the use of electricity. Seebeck
chips however will produce electricity from the heat. The constraints are that I would need to separate the hot side from the cold and that I wold need an extreme difference between the hot temperatures and cold. The ammo box should suffice to separate the temperatures. The aluminum armatures to conduct heat to the hot side of the chip inside of the box. Finally a heat sink outside to release the heat. However the heat sink may not be enough to gain the sharp contrast in temperature of the element. A fan may help but I feel this arrangement may use all the energy it creates to power said fan. Then again this may not be bad as it may dissipate the heat more efficiently than passive systems. I could always throw the entire box in the fridge and run wares to the panels and mount them outside my window if temperature difference was insufficient but then that would start a small tap on my home utility bill.
This is the experiment. Make the mining rig small and portable. Power it with solar, and cool it passively or through solid state electronics namely Seebeck
chips and heat sinks.
I'll update as this project becomes more of a reality. Off to shopping for electronics :) Raspberry Pi is a trademark of the Raspberry Pi Foundation