Introduction
Bitfountain a.k.a. ASICMiner has produced two versions of it’s Blade product. This guide provides instructions and information about the second version (Rev 2) of the product.
If you are interested in purchasing blades or supporting components see our store at jonesgear.com
Specs:
- 10+ GH/s Bitcoin miner
- Fixed speed. Not over-clockable.
- 200mm x 160mm in size
- Consumes 75watts of power @ 12V DC
- Connects to network via Ethernet
Each blade requires a power source and separate ethernet connection. You may need to run a client on a local computer in order to translate the getwork protocol from the blade to the stratum protocol supported by most mining pools.
Each blade package contains:
(1) ASICMiner Blade Erupter
(1) 4-port green power connector
Power Setup (Without Backplane):
Required components:
(1) ASICMiner Blade Erupter
(1) 4-port green power connector
(1) standard computer power supply with a 4-port molex connector [include amazon link w/ affiliate]
(1) molex extension cable or splitter [include amazon link w/ affiliate]
Each blade consumes approximately 75W each of 12V power and have a custom 4-port power connector.
The most standard approach to power blades is to use a 4-port molex connector from a standard computer power supply.
To build a molex to blade power adapter:
Get a molex extension cable or splitter
Clip the two black (GND) and one yellow (12V) cable from the male end and strip the cables
Connect to the 4-port green power connector. Orientation is critically important. With the green adapter screws facing you, the cable orientation is: Black (GND), Black (GND), blank, Yellow (12V). See images:
To turn power supply ‘On’:
If you are not using the power supply for anything else, then you will need to jumper a couple of ports on the 24 port connector in order to imitate the ‘On’ switch. To do this you will bridge the green wire with a black wire on the 24 port connector using a paper clip.
Now connect all components together and turn it on.
Power Setup (With Backplane):
Required components:
(1) ASICMiner Blade Erupter
(1) ASICMiner Blade Backplane
(1) 1000w HP hot-swap style server power supply
Note: Orientation of components is important. Putting something in the wrong direction may fry your Blade.
To set up power for a blade with a backplane:
Remove the ‘power jumper’ on the backplane. This is just to make sure you do not accidentally power things up before you are ready.
Insert power supply into backplane. Orientation should be obvious. The ‘fat’ part should face out. Make sure power supply is fully inserted.
Insert blade into backplane. If you are inserting multiple blades we recommend you start with the slot closest to the power supply. It is important that the blade be in the correct orientation. The blade’s heatsink grill should be facing the power supply. Repeat this step for each additional blade you install.
Plug in power supply and re-attach power jumper.
Network Setup and Configuration
The default IP address for the blade is 192.168.1.254 and the default port for the web configuration is 8000. Once the blade has been powered on and connected via ethernet, you can access the web configuration page by clicking on this link http://192.168.1.254:8000. Note that if your home network is using a different configuration than the typical 192.168.1.x setup, you will need to either temporarily reconfigure your home network, or to connect the blade and computer to a separate router in order to reconfigure the blade to be compatible with your existing network.
The three fields labeled “Ports”, “Server Addresses”, and “user:pass” require a primary and secondary value in the format
primary,secondary
These values can be the same. For example, the “Ports” field can have the value 6332,6332 as a valid entry.
The “Ports” and “Server Addresses” fields are used for connecting to local proxy discussed in the next section.
Proxy Setup
The Blade requires the use of a stratum mining proxy in order to receive work . There are many available on the web, here is an example of an easy to configure proxy for Windows with a download link and configuration instructions – http://mining.bitcoin.cz/mining-proxy-howto
Another way to run a stratum mining proxy is by using bfgminer on a raspberry pi with Mine Peon
Reset
To reset to factory default configurations, jumper/connect the two holes/pins closest to the ethernet jack while power is on.
Additional Resources
There is a very comprehensive guide to setting up Asicminer revision 1 and revision 2 blades at the bitcointalk forums.
Jones Gear 