Bitcoin Forum

Hi

Anyone mining with a BFL single out there. Got any tips on setting one up. Did you flash yours when you first received it? Do you recommend flashing it? Which firmware is the best to use? Which mining software? How do you go about setting it up?? ???

I'm eager to learn, thanks in advance!  ;D

I autotuned mine with Easyminer and that was it. I use CGMiner which is the best mining software IMHO.

Hiya

Thanks!

How do you autotune? What does it do exactly? What speed is it working at?

 :)

I got mine, plugged it in, and it was throttling even with the stock 832 firmware. I had to bump it down to the 816 firmware so it wouldn't throttle.

Then I took it apart, repasted  the chips with some CM stuff (they used WAY too much paste), directed the fan down instead of up, attatched a small 80mm CPU fan from and old AMD heatsink, and now I run it outside of it's case and laying on it's side. The Easyminer autotune flashed it with the 880 firmware, which is what I'm running now. I could prolly switch to the 896 since I added the extra fan on the bottom, but I havn't done it yet.

Using CGMiner, and it's been great.

AutoTune loads bfl firmware from the fastest downwards, until your unit stops throttling.

go here:

http://www.butterflylabs.com/drivers/

and get this:

http://www.butterflylabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/EasyMiner_V1.2_Beta.exe

and this:

http://www.butterflylabs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/AutoTunePackage_Single.bfp

Then use EasyMiner, run AutoTune, and select the AutoTune package file when prompted.

Thank you so much! ;)

Just plug it in and run cgminer.  If it starts throttling, then worry about changing the bitstream.  Most of the time when I tried autotuning, it installed a bitstream that was too fast and ended up throttling, leading me to manually lower the bitstream back to normal anyway.

Sounds like you had to do a bit of DIY  ;D

I saw a quite a few people with similar issues! Do all units come this way? Or do you think yours was a one off? I mean the fan direction, too much paste etc..


Also, will it affect you if you send it in for an upgrade? I mean all the DIY? Will BFL mind that you modified the device just a little bit?

Thanks

Did you have to do a bit of DIY with it??

Ya I had to give it some TLC, but I like tinkering. The fan direct is actually standard, as I guess it works better blowing up if you leave it in it's case, but works better blowing down if you take it out of it's case. Either way, it's pretty easy to take out of it's case.

The thermal paste is another issue, as some people have said that theirs were fine, others havn't had as much luck. I do think mine was a random occurrence, tho.

And finally, BFL doesn't care if you take it apart or open it up or repaste it or whatever. As long as you don't break it, they'll still accept it as an upgrade. I still plan on putting it back together when I do send it in, of course.

Thanks for the insights..

When will you send it in for a replacement?

I've found that the FPGA singles are very touchy when it comes to heat, so a little tinkering definitely helps.

I've tried it all... Removed the cases, reseated the heatsinks using new compound (ArticSilver), upgraded the 92mm fans to 120mm fans, ran a custom power supply, tried just about every miner I could figure out how to run, tried auto-tuning as well as flashing them by hand...

One of the things that caused me some hassles was the USB chain.  I figured out if you are running a harddrive or other high-bandwidth device on the same host as the singles, they will appear like they are throttling, and flashing them will crap out making you reflash them again.  Keep them cool, and keep them on their own USB host/hub.

In the end my final setup was to use a Corsair AX1200 PSU (with cables provided by cablez), no cases, 92-120mm fan adapters, 120mm UltraKaze fans (also powered by the corsair), and on their side (left side, when looking at the front).  I was able to keep them cool by running the a/c in here during the day, and they all managed the 880 mhash/s firmware pretty well (except for one, which is still having issues at 800).

I've settled with keeping an updated copy of both BFGMiner and CGMiner, though I haven't seen a whole lot of difference between the two for at least month (when running).  BFGMiner used to handle throttling more gracefully than CGMiner (it'd just hang up), but they both seem to handle it pretty well now.

When they tell me my SC Single is ready.  :P ;D

 ;D Hope its soon mate!

If you have a poorly running single it probably pays to reseat the heatsink and reapply thermal paste. IMO they applied 10 times more thermal paste than was necessary.

Two of mine had badly seated heatsinks caused by the top fan applying pressure on the copper piece. These would not even run on the 768 Mhs firmware without throttling. It looks like some lazy person intentionally bent the copper piece of the heatsing upwards in order to get to the fan connector that it partially shrouds. They then tried to make up for this by applying a ton of thermal paste. Anyway after bending back the heatsink and properly re-seating it with the right amount of paste, I was able to run the singles with faster firmware.

On the other hand I also received a few singles running at 832 MHs or higher out of the box. They seem to be well assembled and I left them alone.

Hi

Ok so I set it up and did a auto-tune and it auto loaded the 896 MH/s firmware!

Ended up throttling . I tried every single one, all the way down to 800 and its ok now, temps around 38 centigrade !


Can it handle more you think?
 

Maybe, if you can add an additional fan or two to keep it cool

But how come it auto loaded the 896??

Mine runs the 880 firmware, and it's temps usually vary between 47 and 50 C, depending on ambient. I would say you could go higher than 800.

The auto tune works by loading the fastest firmware, and running it for a set amount of time (I think 20 minutes?). If it throttles at all in that time, then it drops to the next lowest firmware. It keeps repeating this process until it finds a firmware slow enough that the unit doesn't throttle.

Did the auto-tune decide on the 800 firmware? I would try manually loading some other firmware, like the 880 or the 864.

Hello mate, thanks for the input!

The auto tune decided on the 896 firware. But when I started mining it is started throttling using cgminer 2.8.7 . So I started from the top and worked my way down the speeds. They all throttled except 800. Its running at 40 centigrade right now on 800. Any ideas?? I know I can get more out of it since ambient temps are around 24 centigrade. I may be doing sumthin wrong?? :P

 

Hmm that is pretty odd. You shouldn't be throttling at such low temps. Maybe one chip isn't getting heatsink contact / proper cooling? One chip might be overheating, while the other is nice and cool and reporting 40C.

Yes,  I see what you are saying dear friend.. Yet that hardly explains why auto tune picked the highest speed in the first place.

I will ask bfl if it's okay to open her and check out what is going on inside..

It's okay to open the BFL to change fans, re-apply thermal paste, etc.  If it's at 40C you should be able to run a faster firmware.
Did you move the BFL after you ran AutoTune?

I was also getting throttling with temps of less than 44C. Downgraded to 800MH/s firmware and it is happy running very cool at39.2. If I wasnt going to trade this in soon would call them but as a trade in dont want to deal with the RMA process

No, didnt move it at all! It likes where it is :)
 
I dont know maybe an error with autotune.

I'll just leave it alone for know, make as many coins as I can before the reward halves :)