25th of April

I purchased some more 32GB Micro SD cards and swapped out the two Pi4 4GB with Pi4 8GB. That means the cluster now consists of:

4 x Pi3 compute nodes

8 x Pi4 8GB compute nodes

3 x Pi4 2GB support nodes

I've have been using one of the Pi4 4GB to run Pi-Hole and its been working fine on its own Pi. I will probably combine it with the proxy server and have them both run on the same Pi4.

I have plans to use the other Pi4 4GB for a Pi NAS, not that I need lots of disk space, but that will be for another blog post.

17th of April

10 million 

The cluster passed 10 million credits for Einstein@home about two weeks ago, but I didn't notice at the time. Its had a separate account since April 2016, which means it has taken around 5 years to reach this point.

 

 

Rearranging

Two of the Pi3 nodes were retired and two Pi4 (8GB) nodes replaced them. That increases the flexibility of the cluster as the Pi4's are faster and have more memory. The cluster now consists of:

3 x Pi4 (2GB) as support nodes

4 x Pi3 compute nodes

2 x Pi4 (4GB) compute nodes

6 x Pi4 (8GB) compute nodes

The recent changes at Roesetta@home have meant the Pi4 4GB are no longer able to run their work so I will swap them for Pi4 8GB, after I buy some more micro SD cards.

Pi^4 case and Meanwell PSU

This is one of the MeanWell power supplies I bought months ago to run the Pi4's. As you can see a bare-bones PSU but capable of outputting 14amps at 5v, which is enough to run about 7 Pis without peripherals.

 

And here is one in a cover back from the 3D printing place. This was their prototype which needs more work but it was hard enough to get it back from them. They had it and the Pi^4 case for almost 6 months.

 

This is the Pi^4 case (Mk I) that I did some years ago. I have changed the fans to 40x20mm (the original had 40x10mm) and its now got 8GB Pi4's in there. I had a revision to the top but the sample they printed off wasn't right.

Now that I have finally got them back I hooked up the PSU and its running the Pi4's. If I can get the design for the PSU and case revised I hope to run 3 of these.

Rosetta@home decided to change their minimum system requirements to 6.6GB of free memory and 8.5GB of free disk space. As a result the two Pi4's 4GB with the black heatsink case that you see behind the Pi^4 case are no longer able to get work from the project so they're now running Einstein only.

I also had to buy four 32GB micro SD cards as the 16GB ones that I normally use didn't quite have enough free space. I got four of the Sandisk Ultra Plus which seem to be a little faster than the Sandisk Ultra. I usually get the smallest, cheapest ones as they wear out eventually.

27th of March

Marks Rpi Cluster continues computing 24/7. The Pi3's are running the Einstein BRP4 work and the Pi4's are running Einstein and Rosetta work in a 50/50 split.

 

Pi^4 case

I finally managed to get my Pi^4 case and one of the power supplies cases back from the 3D printing studio. They printed off a sample top piece for the Pi^4 case but its not right. They also printed off a cover for the Mean Well power supply. Unfortunately they pulled the earth wire in the power cable off its spade lug so I will have to get it re-crimped before I can use it. In the mean time I have swapped the power cable with another one.

I'll be trying out the power supply shortly and if it works out will see if I can get 4 of the Pi4's going. I've got 9 sitting in their boxes ready to go along with fans. Its taken almost 6 months just to get the design and case back. I will have to find another 3D printing company to adjust the design, get another sample and if that is okay run off a couple of cases. It has been extremely frustrating.