Posts Tagged ‘VerusCoin’

Optimizing the Cooling of Orange Pi 5 for Mining VerusCoin (VRSC)

22, Oct 2023

If you are considering using an Orange Pi 5 for Mining VerusCoin (VRSC) (Ad) one thing you should have for sure is an additional cooling solution like the GeeekPi Orange Pi 5/5B Cooling Fan with Heatsink, however although good and working well this solution is far from optimal and can benefit from some additional tweaking. The main thing that you can improve is the heat transfer efficiency since the default thermal transfer material that sits in between the CPU and the cooler is a pretty thick thermal pad. Thicker thermal pads are not that efficient, however with a big gap you cannot replace a pad with just thermal paste so you need another solution here…

What you need is a solid copper thermal pad to replace the pink thermal interface that the cooler kit comes with. There are a lot of different copper pads available both in terms of size and in terms of thickness. The ideal width and height would be 18 by 18 millimetres, though there are harder to find and you can go with 15 mm or 20 mm just fine as you can see on the photo above, we went for the bigger one as it covers a larger area. The more important thing here is the thickness and what worked out very well for us is a 1.2 mm thick copper pad (Ad), though you could probably use 1 mm or 1.5 mm as well and compensate with more or less thermal compound. Good thermal compound that we like to use is ARCTIC MX-4 Thermal Compound (8 g) (Ad), though you can use anything else that has good capabilities and you may have lying around already.

The average temperature with the active cooler installed with the default flexible thermal interface pad we have observed was around 65-67 degrees Celsius while mining VerusCoin (VRSC) or around 40 without 100% load. Without the active cooler installed the temperature quickly hits 85 degrees Celsius when the miner is started, so the cooler is doing quite a good job in reducing that operating temperature, however it is still higher than we would like to be for a device running 24/7 mining crypto currencies.

As for the hashrate, a little below 6.6 MH/s average hashrate with a power consumption of about 9 Watts measured at the wall. This is again the result with the active cooler installed with the default flexible thermal interface pad, but as we’ve mentioned things can be improved by replacing the flexible thermal interface pad with a solid copper pad and good thermal compound… the question is how much of an improvement will that bring.

In terms of operating temperature, quite a significant improvement when we add the 20×20 mm copper pad with thickness of 1.2 mm and MX4 thermal compound in between… there is more than 20 degrees Celsius drop in the operating temperature. The newly measured stable operating temperature of the CPU of the Orange Pi 5 with the copper pad is now around 43.5 degrees Celsius, just a little bit higher than the Pi 5 with no active cooling and no load. You can hardly get any lower than that probably with conventional air cooling and you probably would not want to do it anyway as that operating temperature is really what we are more than fine with while mining.

After replacing the flexible thermal pad with a copper pad, we are seeing a slight increase in the average hashrate produced of a little over 100 KH/s to about 6.7 MH/s which might not be that much but is still somewhat of an improvement. There is also a slight drop of the power usage, we’ve measured 8.8 Watts at the wall down from 9 Watts before, so 0.2 Watts decrease in power usage. Again, might not be much but is still something that if you put in a large-scale perspective might build up to more significant numbers over time. The main goal was to lower the operating temperature while mining, but it has led to some other slight improvements as well, so a good job doing this little bit of modification to improve things overall. So, if you have an Orange Pi 5 or a few and if you are using them for mining VRSC or for other things that actually do require more processing power you might consider doing this modification for the cooling as well.

– For a guide on setting up and using Orange Pi 5 for mining verusCoin (VRSC)…

Do Not Buy Samsung Galaxy A13 5G Smartphone for Crypto Mining

16, Oct 2023

If you are getting into crypto mining using a smartphone for coins such as VerusCoin (VRSC) you should be extra careful what “mining hardware” or a smartphone you are picking up to use. One would normally assume that nowadays even the cheap smartphones would do just fine for crypto mining provided that they do come with recent Android OS versions (mining on Apple iOS devices is pretty much a no go) and decent 64-bit hardware in terms of ARM-based processors with 4 or even 8 cores available. Even sub $100 USD phones nowadays normally do manage to give you at least that, but it is not always the case as you should get to understand now…

As far as smartphones that will be used for mining you don’t really need expensive hardware and even a locked phone will do as you will not need to use it for phone calls and the Samsung Galaxy A03s locked phones can usually be relatively easily found in the $50-$60 USD range. Although often there are offers for these Tracfone Samsung Galaxy A03s, 32GB, Black – Prepaid Smartphone (Locked) for $29.99 USD (Ad) and it doesn’t get cheaper than that for a mining smartphone. With such good deals for lower-end models one would assume that a slightly more expensive device such as the Total by Verizon Samsung Galaxy A13 5G, 64GB, Black – Prepaid Smartphone (Locked) for $80 USD (Ad) would still work just fine for mining and will be able to offer better performance thanks to the improved hardware it comes equipped with. Well, you would think so, but the harsh reality would be much different and in fact you should avoid buying the Samsung Galaxy A13 5G if you are planning to use the device for crypto mining and you will know exactly why in a moment.

The Samsung Galaxy A13 5G smartphone has been released at the end of 2011, while the Galaxy A03s was released earlier the same year. Both devices feature 8-core 64-bit ARM processors, though they are slightly different models. While the mor affordable A03s is equipped with a Mediatek MT6765 Helio P35 (12nm) chipset utilizing 4x 2.35 GHz Cortex-A53 and 4x 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU cores, the more powerful A13 5G relies on a Mediatek MT6833 Dimensity 700 (7 nm) chipset using 2x 2.2 GHz Cortex-A76 and 6x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55 CPU cores. The Galaxy A13 5G has the faster and more power efficient hardware inside, but that goes only as far as the hardware is concerned. The problem with this particular device is that it does not use the right kernel and operating system version and that is what essentially makes it unsuitable for crypto mining and in general making it unusable with some applications that you might normally use on other smartphones that require an operating system running in 64-bit mode.

The issue with the Samsung Galaxy A13 5G is that when queried with lscpu it reports that the Architecture is armv8l and while the CPU hardware itself is a 64-bit ARMv8 and supports 64-bit operating system, what you are getting on this device is a kernel that is built to run on an ARMv8 chip in its 32-bit mode. That essentially means that while you do have 64-bit hardware, you are not able to use it with 64-bit applications (like crypto miners) as they will either not run at all (they are compiled to run on 64-bit hardware) or they may run with significantly reduced performance in 32-bit mode if they are built like that. In either case – the A13 5G is not good for crypto mining… and it is not because of the hardware of the device, but it is because of the decision from Samsung to use 32-bit software on the device for some reason, while the lower-end and less expensive Galaxy A03s for example is utilizing the proper 64-bit software.

Here is what will happen if you try to install the VerusMiner.apk on the Samsung Galaxy A13 5G smartphone, you will get an error message saying that “App not installed as app isn’t compatible with your phone”. The reason for that is that the VerusMiner application for Android does require you to have a 64-bit OS to install and run and on the A13 5G you do not meet this requirement and there is nothing you can do to update your Samsung phone from 32-bit Android to 64-bit Android even though the hardware inside does support 64-bit software.

Pretty much the same thing is expected going the longer way. Installing UserLand, Debian and trying to get the optimized ARM version of ccminer from Oink70 to run will result in the compiled miner not able to start at all as it also does require 64-bit software along with the 64-bit hardware you have and you do not have a 64-bit kernel/OS available on the Samsung Galaxy A13 5G.

Trying some other miners, you actually might get lucky if they are compatible with 32-bit Android, but even if you do manage to run the mining software in this mode on the Galaxy A13 5G the hashrate you will be getting on it is at least a few times lower than what the same hardware should be capable of providing in a 64-bit OS environment. This essentially makes the Galaxy A13 5G as a very inefficient miner power wise and again makes it pointless to try and use the device for crypto mining. So, again, do not buy Samsung Galaxy A13 5G smartphones for crypto mining purposes as they will only waste your time, go for an alternative like the A03s or another model that is verified to supports aarch64 or arm64 architecture for both hardware and software!

Easily Start Mining VerusCoin (VRSC) With an Android-Based Smartphone

10, Oct 2023

Getting into smartphone crypto mining might be easier than you think, especially if you already have an old Android-based smartphone lying around unused due to you switching to iOS or getting a more up-to date Android device. If you have read the recent publication on how to use Orange Pi 5 for Mining VerusCoin (VRSC) you might think that setting up an ARM-based device for mining VRSC might not be so easy, but with ARM-based smartphones using Android OS it is much easier and you could be up and mining in no time. We’ll show you how using an older Huawei P30 Pro Smartphone that was sitting unused for a while now, but you can easily use pretty much any more recent device from the last 5-6 years that is equipped with at least with a quad-core CPU. Of course, newer and more powerful 8-core ARM processors should be capable of higher hashrate and lower power usage, but it depends and you don’t necessarily need an expensive phone for good mining results.

The Huawei P30 Pro smartphone we are testing has been released in 2019 and is powered by a Kirin 980 (7 nm) chipset that has an 8-core ARM CPU consisting of: 2x 2.6 GHz Cortex-A76, 2x 1.92 GHz Cortex-A76 and 4x 1.8 GHz Cortex-A55. The VerusCoin mining hashrate that this device is capable of is around 3.5-3.6 MH/s on average (a little over half of what Orange Pi 5 is capable of), but newer phones are capable of higher performance while not necessary being the highest-end or the most expensive devices out there. It is interesting to note however that the P30 Pro does about half of the Orange Pi 5 hashrate, but at just 2.2W of power usage with the OLED display on at mid brightness (the screen must be on for the mining to work)) measured at the wall instead of 9W. This is just an example what you can expect from an older device that you might have in your possession already, if you plan on buying new smartphones for mining, then you can get better results without having to spend that much… meaning that you do not go to the current expensive top models.

One of the most popular Android smartphones that is used for mining VRSC is the Samsung Galaxy A03s released in 2021, a lower end device that is far from spectacular specs wise, yet powerful enough and most importantly available for a very low price, making it especially attractive for miners that need to buy a lot of devices. As far as smartphones that will be used for mining you don’t really need expensive hardware, even a locked phone will do as you will not need to use it for phone calls and the Galaxy A03s locked phones can usually be relatively easily found in the $50-$60 USD range. And now, during the current Amazon Prime Days there is an offer for the Tracfone Samsung Galaxy A03s, 32GB, Black – Prepaid Smartphone (Locked) for $29.99 USD (Ad)… it doesn’t get cheaper than that for a mining smartphone, though the deal is up to 2 devices per customer.

The Samsung Galaxy A03s is powered by a Mediatek MT6765 Helio P35 (12nm) chipset and an 8-core ARM processor consisting of 4x 2.35 GHz Cortex-A53 and 4x 1.8 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU cores and the mining hashrate that this is capable of currently is around 3.9-4 MH/s and that is already faster than a high-end top model like the P30 Pro from a few years ago. This is from a device that you can currently get for just $30 US dollars (or a little more without a good deal), that even though locked for phone calls should do more than great if you plan on just using it for mining purposes. So, do look into Samsung Galaxy A03s or similar devices that do use the same chipset and hardware, though you probably won’t easily find a better price deal than these of locked Galaxy A03s.

Let us see what you need to do in order to get easily get yourself in starting to mine VerusCoin (VRSC) on your Android-based smartphone. First you need to make sure your device has been allowed to install applications from unknown sources, to do so go into Settings, then Biometrics and Security and allow Install unknown apps for My Files or Chrome (on Samsung) or your file manager you will be using or Install apps from unknow sources and allow Files for Huawei. This can be slightly different from phone maker to phone maker, but you should easily be able to figure it out for your specific device and enable either the browser you are using or the fila manager on your device to download and install APK files from places other than the Google Play store. This is needed as you would need to download and install the Verus Miner APK from GitHub. This is the software you will be using on your smartphone for the actual mining process and it is not available on the Google Play, so you cannot directly download it from there using the official application store of Google.

You need to download the latest Verus Miner v4.0.1 by Pangz Lab, go for the generic version first. You will download a ZIP archive file on your smartphone, you need to open it up and run the APK file inside it in order to install the application and then (if you’ve enabled the installation from unknown sources) you will see the VerusMiner application icon on your device. Just open in up and you need to go to Settings and set up your mining settings such as the Mining Pool you will be using (there is already a list of the most popular pools), your VRSC wallet address, worker name and the number of CPU threads you will be using for mining – just go for 8 for octa-core CPUs. Then just save the settings and go to Mining and hit Start. This is it, your smartphone should be mining on the VerusCoin mining pool you have chosen and it a few moments you should see some hashrate, though you might need to wait a bit in order to get a better idea on the actual average performance as the initial hashrate might be higher or lower than the average that your device is capable of. It was really all that simple to get started, but now you need to get a bit deeper into it, especially if you want to continue mining problem free and long term.

You can get back on the miner’s download page and download the other archive with optimized versions for specific CPU architectures, so if you are using a Galaxy A03s for instance you can try the ca53 -> cortex-a53 optimized version and see if it might get you a bit more extra performance compared to the standard generic version that you started with. Try and see if it will help or not, for Huawei P30 Pro there was not much of a difference in terms of performance between the generic and other versions apart from some temporary peaks in hashrate, but the average hashrate remained pretty much the same. It is still worth trying if in your specific case you might be able to squeeze something extra with an optimized version of the miner for your specific CPU type. More importantly however you should get back to the Settings page and take a look at some extra options you have available, these are the Temperature Control and Charge control. You should not forget that your smartphone needs to be plugged into the power at all times while mining and not run on battery and also to keep it cool and not overheating as heat is not good for the battery inside the device. So, make sure that you enable the temperature control and set a low maximum threshold in order to prevent overheating, although you might also think of a external cooling solution, especially if mining with multiple smartphones.

The miner supports local monitoring (used together with the additional app VerusBox monitoring service) in the regular Settings as well as a new online monitoring option that is a bit “hidden” inside the More – Setting – General Setting page and not in the regular Setting menu like the local monitoring. The online monitoring is a new just released feature and it allows you to easily monitor multiple devices via a more user-friendly interface. Both the local and the online monitoring features looks nice, though they might need some more work to become more useful and functional.

Then there is another thing that you need to consider when using smartphone for mining and that is to make sure that the miner starts when the phone is restarted or turned on automatically. It might not be much of an issue if you use just one device to manually start the miner from time to time if the smartphone restarts, but imagine doing that every time tens or even hundreds of devices update and restart themselves for example. There is a good guide for automatic that task using the MacroDroid – Device Automation app available in the miner’s help file, so do take a look into it for details on how to do that, it also covers more in detail how to setup the monitoring functionality.

– Visit the official website of Pangz Lab VerusMiner for Android Smartphones…


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