BitForce Jalapeno (4.5 GH/s Bitcoin Miner)

Communities Blog
1

well; That's how it arrived.

The BitForce Jalapeno from ButterflyLabs was dubbed as the most 'cost effective' one. At least at that time. It arrived about 7 months late(r) so you'll have to excuse me if I'm not up to date.

At unpacking I stumbled upon 1 minor hickup;

A 2 phase powercord that ends in an american plug. I'm from Belgium, damnit. Luckily I have loads of those (with an european plug, I thank you) lying around, so I could get to testing immediately.

So, when connecting the USB and the Power, it booted up pretty fast and.. if you watch the video, the fan really makes alot of noise, Yes, thats a -1. I hope I can retrofit the fan in the future, But first ill have to find out if that's even a good idea. When mining it DOES become very hot in there. Also, the order was delayed because of 'thermal' issues. I'm pretty sure they replaced the fan with some kind of delta fan to get rid of the heat....

When Windows finds the device, it automaticly installs the serial driver. there's no need to manually do that, so no time wasted there. You will however need software to use the device, after connecting to the correct COM port. (like most serial devices, Duh)

This seemed to have happened automaticly. For instance, mine was on COM port 54. The software didn't even ask me for that.

Anyho this is how the butterfly software looks like: (you may click to enlarge)

The next logical step is to insert pooldata, And get it mining asap!

The included binary (BFGMiner) has stratum support. Well ofcourse it does, but just saying :-) . There is also a provided CGMiner binary, but I'm using BFGMiner for better results. (So yup, you can also use a custom binary, no worries there). After adding the pool data 'manually' (it only has a couple of preset pools, mine wasn't in them) from the binary and commandline (Something you should be familiar with when mining); Theres only one thing left, Mine my minion, MINE!

It sets off with 5.83Ghz. The log of the client (3th tab) is always going bezerk with information; You could find errors there aswell if something goes wrong. (also not uncommon with miners). Theres also a red indicator LED telling you its actually doing alot of math or not.

 

Thats pretty much it. At the end of writing this blog I can tell you however the device is becoming hot. But with an advertised Gigahash of 4.5, and a practical Gigahash of 5.8+, I am not complaining. It does explain the overly eager fan though.

EDIT: I don't have a wattmeter here, I'll update the facts when I get home.

2

Maybe if the fan gets too annoying you could put in a new one. 

But it would be most likely soldered in.

3

Yeah probably, the box is pretty sealed off so it looks like it. I'll check it out later if I have my tools.

I'll also have to be carefull, because this loud fan is already tasked to capacity with transfering the heat imo ...

4

Excuse me for my ignorance in this topic, I probably shouldn't be here, but I find Bitcoins rather interesting.

What does this device do? Does it automatically mine the bitcoins for you, eventually turning a profit in bitcoins, in which you can sell for real money or use for merchandise online? Cause if so, that sounds like a rather neat alternative to clicking a lot, despite the heat.

Cheers. 

5

If you are new to it, it's alot to take in. I'll even have trouble explaining it; I could write entire books about it, but you are better off googleing about it.

In short, this device finds unique hashes to add to theblockchain. these unique hashes are what makes the bitcoin valuta cryptographicly "perfect". they consist of all the previous transactions made with the bitcoin valuta. bitcoins transactions are vice versa verifiable with those blocks. 

(It is also worth noting bitcoins have a maximum number, meaning that there will be a time mining stops. This is also something that stops inflation, making this an intresting valuta)

This device is searching for that unique, unused block at a certain speed. you can mine in 2 ways. Solo, or pool.

Solo means that you alone are searching for that lucky block. in otherwords, you are going lottery mode. youll have to get very lucky tho, and theres only 1 price to win.

I prefer pool mode. a pool is a "network" of miners clustered together. You get payed for the amount of hashes you try out and send to the pool. if a member of that pool finds a block it gets divided among the pool. so basicly you are getting payed for your speed. much more consistent & reliable , if you ask me.

What can you do with bitcoins? Well believe it or not, I bought a cpu and a motherboard with it from a store that accept bitcoins. I had mined the BTCs with 2 7970's. (yeah, bitcoins were alot easier to mine back in the days..)

there are also some exchangesites to real money, but I haven't tried that out yet. It's a complicated proces to say the least.

Hope this helps a bit

6

You could turn it into a fake fireplace if you have an extra lcd panel lying around. It'll keep you warm in the winter, have an extra function and pay for itself. Happy mining. ;)

7

wow, up until now i've only seen grainy low resolution video taken on the worst camcorder ever made of it lumbering through the woods

i thought it was just a smudge on the lens or something, i can't believe the legends are true

8

Yup that Video looks horrible.

Then again the point was to capture the sound, not crazy-story comments.

9

what? i was just speaking as if it were bigfoot, because they've been selling them for over a year likely making millions without ever actually having anything to give to their "customers"

10

Too bad that mining bitcoins is pretty much useless unless you spent thousands of dollars. I was going to order this same model, but I read that THOUSANDS of people ordered and still had not gotten one. Now that they are actually being shipped out, the difficulty will go way up, just like when GPU mining was popular.

Im glad you got yours early though. mine while you can. I would set up a box fan near it and mine 24/7.

 

When did you first order it? I heard the wait was over a year.

11

I'm going to head out now, Nick.

12

I ordered it in March, took about 7 months. I was very patient, I bought the device with self-mined bitcoins.

So it didn't really feel like lost money to me :)

13

also about the temperature, after 3 days of mining it stagnated at 51°C. It is placed in the serverroom of my work which is airconditioned, so not much to worry about. Not even the electricity bill. (Don't tell my boss)

14

What's the returns like with 5 Gigahash over X weeks with it being so hard now, $50 a month? 

15

you should watercool it. is there a 12v source to run pump and fan?

16

depending on the pool luck i get about ~0.00063720BTC per round

How long does a round last? 5 mins to 3 hours. Whats the average? about 1 hour (enourmously variable, sometimes its just strings of 5 minute rounds)

0.0006/hour ~ 0.0144/day ~ 0.4 BTC a month? I'm throwing variables around here....

Its all VERY random. I can give you a real-life estimate after a couple of weeks, maybe after 1 month.

Then again its not my electricity bill, if it was I would be making almost no revenue indeed....

17

I havent even pried it open. If it stagnates at ~50°C, Is there really much to gain with extra cooling?

18

not really.

I'm glad you didn't use cash, though. I think you would be disappointed with the results, then.

At least it works as advertised, though. Im shocked.

19

Its a shame it was so late to arrive now that minning is much more difficult...

21

I've been wanting one of those...