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| BITMAIN Antminer U2 with Additional Heat Sinks |
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.
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| Seebeck(Probably Peltier) Chip and Micro Heat Sink with Fan |
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.
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.
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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.
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 
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.
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. 
and 
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.
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.
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 
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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.