Raspberry Pi 4B, image source: https://www.raspberrypi.org/, modified with the Hive logo
I recently bought a Raspberry Pi 4 and finally found the time to set it up:
* Raspbian
* Python development environment via `virtualenv` using
* [Beem](https://github.com/holgern/beem)
* [Lighthive](https://github.com/emre/lighthive)
* numpy, matplotlib, ... and whatever is needed
* remote access from anywhere with an SSH server as a Tor Hidden Service
I added heatsinks to the ICs because they came with the case, not necessarily because they were necessary. In fact I haven't tested it without, so I can't really tell. A fan was included as well, but I didn't install it and it isnt' necessary so far. The CPU reports around 50 degC. Compared to the RPi3 I had before, I'm really excited by the performance! Here's a comparison of the (wall) time it takes to sign the same Hive transaction 200 times on a RPi3 and the RPi4:
| Device | Mean Time (s) | Median Time (s) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Raspberry Pi 3 | 0.3398 | 0.3811 |
| Raspberry Pi 4 | 0.1839 | 0.1969 |
Now that's a basically a factor 2 difference! The test script is identical, both were idle and both use `secp256k1` for signing. I'm not really sure why there are multiple peaks around the same time differences apart from each other. Does the signing algorithm randomly use multiples rounds? Worth to look into - at a later time :)
Main point here:
#### RPi4 is typically around a factor two faster and than its predecessor makes a decent platform for Hive-related tools and scripts!
For the moment, it runs the following things for me:
* @curx on Hive and Steem
* Account creation token claiming script on Hive and Steem
* An autovoter for my main account on Hive
* Some tribe-related helpers and scripts
Both beem and lighthive work like a charm!
Anyone else using Pi's for Steem/Hive? What do you do with them?
See: Hive Tools/Libs on a Raspberry Pi 4
by
@crokkon
