During my HiveFest presentation, I had a running node in my purse. It was running in live sync on a Raspberry Pi 4B with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. On the display, it showed the several properties of thebeedevs account (including manabar levels, balances, notifications about incoming/outgoing funds) and the producer of the current block. After the presentation, you asked me some questions, so let’s answer them now.
Why did you decide to run a node on a Raspberry Pi?
We want to show that everyone can run their own node. After all optimizations that were done, you can do it on the Raspberry Pi. You can read about the optimizations in two previous posts:
Resent optimizations
Core services the block log revolution is here
In the chart below, you can see how our optimizations resulted in lower costs, even though the number of blocks is growing.
And moreover it was fun! We did everything from scratch: hooked up the display to the Raspberry Pi, wrote the software, and even designed and sewed the purse.
I want that! Can I do it myself?
Yes, you can!
Try our recipe: How to bake a raspberry pie
What were the biggest challenges during setup and configuration?
The biggest challenge to achieve Raspberry Pi support was the reduction of memory and CPU requirements needed to process data by the hived node. It was only possible due to hard work on software optimizations we did last year.
The important aspect of C++ code porting itself was WASM support (needed for WAX) which in the past improved C++ codebase enough to enable support for different platforms like ARM.
What are limitations in running a Hive node on such lightweight hardware?
We plan to make more performance tests by setting up a special test network and pushing a large number of transactions to the hived node working on the Raspberry Pi device. These tests should show how stable it is under stress conditions.
Usual block processing (incoming from mainnet) which we performed for about one month, didn’t show any problems. Below you can find several grafana statistics we collected for the last two- week period before heading to HiveFest. The device was able to run for several hours without needing to be recharged.
Is it the same kind of node that witnesses have?
Yes, there is no major difference in the hived node specific to witness node configuration. Block production only requires enabling witness_plugin and setting the private keys used to sign blocks. There are no major performance differences to a regular consensus node.
Where did the idea of making a purse for the node come from?
Actually, we have two unique, designer cases for the node. One of them is a purse for carrying the node with you at all times, and the other is a more stationary version.
We wanted to show that now the node can be so small and convenient that you can always have it with you.
If you ran it on a Pi 4 then it should easily run on a Pi 5 that doesn't cost much more. I am very tempted...
Got this one already running with Pi OS - It's just a Beast at this Costs :)
I like this idea too. Maybe someone could clone the complete installation?
I may look into it soon. I like the idea of being a witness, but need to understand the basics first.
It is truly amazing that you managed to optimize it so we can run it on a potato! Nodes for everyone!
The work you did is truly incredible; the nodes are very interesting.
That you designed and sewed your own purse makes it that much more fun. Now people won't be able to resist getting one. Haha.
We'll be publishing a post soon about how the purse was "born" :-) It's quite an interesting story - it actually started out as a pendant! But once we integrated the round screen, battery pack, and 4-RP, it became... well, a bit too chunky for that :-)
I hope you will enjoy it too...
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STOPI am running on an OrangePi 5 Ultra
Got it from here:
http://www.orangepi.org/html/hardWare/computerAndMicrocontrollers/details/Orange-Pi-5-Ultra.html
No sabía que eso del los modos podía simplificarse y llevarlo en un bolso es bueno que todo va evolucionando