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I ordered from user MineFarmBuy on August 17th - it was currently back ordered at that time. The idea was within a week or so, they would have them in stock. On August 23rd, I got notice it would ship on August 27th (actually shipped August 24th) - miner was received at my home on August 31st. So, total time was 14 days - not too bad considered it was out of stock at the time of order.

I did not use escrow for the order as I placed it direct on their site minefarmbuy.com - there was a decent discount for paying in BTC so that was a plus.

The miner was packaged very well and came with a 8A power brick and a 6 foot long USB cord.

https://i.ibb.co/851vBPf/1.jpg (https://ibb.co/SnFYxVM) https://i.ibb.co/6NKVXGg/2.jpg (https://ibb.co/qxHXJhk) https://i.ibb.co/Q85BZgv/3.jpg (https://ibb.co/XywB9Qx)

https://i.ibb.co/3CSKdRT/4.jpg (https://ibb.co/x7zZLF2) https://i.ibb.co/vB9kt3x/5.jpg (https://ibb.co/RS8c53p) https://i.ibb.co/30SRSbv/6.jpg (https://ibb.co/xMzFzbY)

I did need to download a few things -

1. cgminer http://23.108.83.14/images/cgminer-4.11.1-windows-gekko-9e51f0b.7z
2. zadig http://zadig.akeo.ie/

both of the above originally linked here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5053833.0

once I opened Zadig I went to Options > list all devices and then selected R606 Bitcoin Miner and selected "Reinstall Driver"

https://i.ibb.co/0sHgmZB/zadig.jpg (https://imgbb.com/)

after that I unzipped the CgMiner and reviewed the readme files - after which I ran cgminer.exe

following the prompts for pool info/user name/pw  and the miner was hashing away!

The loudest the miner got was 81 dB also worth noting the miner is cool to the touch, not even slightly warm

https://i.ibb.co/wJ84BRv/9.jpg (https://ibb.co/TKJtYkC)

edit - when I took the dB reading, I had left my Apollo miner on - new reading with Apollo off 62 dB

https://i.ibb.co/Z1jZCCb/70690592-1278520438985415-3934775150825701376-n.jpg (https://ibb.co/rfjWJJX)

Power usage I found after letting it run for 3 hours now on setting 5: 1.193 amps - 118.4 volts - 76.7 watts

https://i.ibb.co/2WXpdSs/pwr1-2.jpg (https://ibb.co/mbQP40X) https://i.ibb.co/VJDXM9p/pwr2-2.jpg (https://ibb.co/Bcj8T3K) https://i.ibb.co/RgzBjsx/pwr3-2.jpg (https://ibb.co/ZfWY2Fn)

I now have a miner on either side of my desk :)

https://i.ibb.co/2gPg0Wp/10.jpg (https://ibb.co/f4t4VqT)

I am currently running the miner on zpool to clean up some dust (about 10k) I will be doing this with at least a dozen pools before I eventually toss it on kano.is or maybe go solo on ckpool

I realize this miner (along with my FutureBit Apollo Scrypt miner) is a hobbyist miner and will not be making me a fortune (unless I get some considerable luck when solo mining :)  But I like having these type of miners in the house away from the loud and hot ASIC's in my mining building. They are really handy when a visitor asks about mining and has very little knowledge - these beat taking them out there to the loud sweatbox lol

I will need some more days to fully test and get stats for the various settings this miner has available - but right now (and it may be the pool?) the hash rate is all over the place from 1.5 Kh/s to over 1.1 Th/s  - currently I am on the 440mV (setting 5) and it has dropped to zero hash rate for past 5 minutes.

when I restart the miner, it will go back up to around 1 Th/s but then within 15-20 minutes it goes back to zero.

I am not sure what the issue is - can it be related to running it via my pc? is it the pool? did I get a faulty unit? (I rather it be one of the first two than the last)

now after about 2 hours it is showing that if "found 0 chip(s)"

https://i.ibb.co/5j5xB6M/zero-chips.jpg (https://ibb.co/fNCG421)

I am going to try another pool and see if it just a pool issue.

after almost 4 hours, it also stopped hashing on ViaBTC - says found zero chips again. only solution I can find is to turn miner off and restart it.

https://i.ibb.co/BCyTg8g/zero-chips.jpg (https://ibb.co/LZx9C4C)

isn't lasting more than 30 minutes now no matter what pool I stick it on. always goes to zero chips message.

6th attempt - lasted 34 minutes, it slowly would lower the frequency eventually lowering the number of chips - screenshot below was right before it went to zero chips and 5s speed went to zero.

https://i.ibb.co/D8WbHL1/Capture3.jpg (https://ibb.co/Tb2Txrw)

end result: Sidehack stated unit should be RMA and would send me a new miner asap.

In this post, I will be testing to see what the hash rate change is for each setting.

Setting 0:

Setting 1:

Setting 2:

Setting 3:

Setting 4:
with freq set to 750 in cg miner:
- freq ramped up and I got the following message: asic plateau: (1/3) 605.73 mhz
- after restart I got message: asic plateau: (2/3) 631.25 mhz
- after restart I got message: asic plateau: (3/3) 631.25 mhz
- it also gave the following message: plateau adjust: target frequency 750.00 mhz -> 625.00 mhz and then miner restarted
- it then gave the following message:  plateau adjust: target frequency 625.00 mhz -> 618.75 mhz and then miner restarted
- it then gave the following message:  plateau adjust: target frequency 618.75 mhz -> 612.50 mhz and then miner restarted
- it then gave the following message:  plateau adjust: target frequency 612.5 mhz -> 606.25 mhz and then miner restarted
- miner settled at T: 606.25 mhz and after 15 mins the average hash rate was 832.2 gh/s
- best share was 4.2M

Setting 5:
with freq set to 750 in cg miner:
- freq ramped up and I got the following message: asic plateau: (1/3) 628.13 mhz
- after restart I got message: asic plateau: (2/3) 631.25 mhz
- after restart I got message: asic plateau: (3/3) 631.25 mhz
- it also gave the following message: plateau adjust: target frequency 750.00 mhz -> 631.25 mhz and then miner restarted
- miner settled at T: 631.25 mhz and after 15 mins the average hash rate was 856.4 gh/s
- best share was 64k

Setting 6:
with freq set to 750 in cg miner:
- freq ramped up and I got the following message: asic plateau: (1/3) 660.94 mhz
- after restart I got message: asic plateau: (2/3) 681.25 mhz
- after restart I got message: asic plateau: (3/3) 700.00 mhz
- it also gave the following message: plateau adjust: target frequency 750.00 mhz -> 700.00 mhz and then miner restarted
- miner would keep restarting about 3-4 minutes after reaching 700 mhz but was not changing the target frequency, it was staying at 700 mhz
- after 4 restarts, I decided to move to next setting - hash rate before the restart was averaging 953.7 gh/s though it did hit as high as 1.01 th/s
- best share was 989k

Setting 7:
with freq set to 750 in cg miner:
- freq ramped up and I got the following message: asic plateau: (1/3) 700.00 mhz
- after restart I got message: asic plateau: (2/3) 700.00 mhz
- after restart I got message: asic plateau: (3/3) 700.00 mhz
- it also gave the following message: plateau adjust: target frequency 750.00 mhz -> 700.00 mhz and then miner restarted
- miner would keep restarting about 5 minutes after reaching 700 mhz but was not changing the target frequency, it was staying at 700 mhz
- after 4 restarts, I decided to move to next setting - hash rate before the restart was averaging 940.2 gh/s
- best share was 251k

I will update the list above as I test more settings.

Maybe try using a USB hub, mine would not even start if plugged directly to my PC.

I might - I switched it over to ViaBTC and it has had zero issues - so the pool may have been the issue.

it struggles with switching pools.  iirc

maybe so, but I am setting up only one pool at a time.

Thanks for the order Stryfe. Looking forward to reading more!

RMA was completed and new miner came in and is up and running with zero issues after almost 4 hours of operation so far. Playing with voltage and freq settings presently. will update the post above as I try out different settings.

Your results for Voltage settings 4 and 5 look good.  Curious how you did on Voltage level 6?

Will be doing setting 6 and 7 tonight

update: my results for settings 6 and 7 posted above.

due to the restarts at 700 mhz I set Target frequency to 690 and on setting 7 - will see if that will be stable.

What horrible thing happened that you saw 81dB? Around here they're so quiet I have to stick my hand in front of 'em to make sure the fan's still spinning.

lol, note that is the loudest reading, and the meter is sitting right on the exhaust exit. It might be ambient noise too - I should take another reading with the Apollo off - here I will do so now - so look for an edit on this post in a moment.


this is probably a much more accurate reading with the Apollo off

https://i.ibb.co/Z1jZCCb/70690592-1278520438985415-3934775150825701376-n.jpg (https://ibb.co/rfjWJJX)

Yea, my GPUs are way louder than the r606 at my workstation.

I think the hard part is that I am not in a sound proof room with only the miner - so the readings have to be understood that ambient noise is also present. but that is also why I try and stick the mic right on the exit point.

When I check the sound levels on my 2 R606's along with 2 usb fans attached to them, 2 additional usb fans over my  4newpacs that sits beside them, the tiny fans attached to 2 futurebit moon landers,  and a 1930's F. A. Smith Artic Aire Table Fan sitting directly by it as well on high, my readings are 30 db.  If I turn my 1930's fan off the readings drop to 22 db.   What else do you have running in the room you have these miners at?   Mine are setup in my home office and are quiet as a mouse.

What's sad,  I have another Raspberry Pi 4 that I typically use as a desktop replacement (try to limit my gaming rig to just that, gaming instead of day to day tasks) so that I conserve a bit more energy, with the fan on high on my Pi 4, that's louder than my mining setup  ;D

do your readings negate the ambient noise? and how close is your device doing the reading? I am laying mine essentially right against the miner but I also have ambient noise - it reads at almost 25 dB if the miner is off.
It also could just be that the app I am using (its on my iPhone) is a POS that returns erroneous readings.

Using a phone app as well but android related.  I've placed it at the rear of the unit where my exit fans are (I added these --screen shot https://ibb.co/tq4tXLS)  I also placed the fan on top of the unit, on the PSU, in front etc.  They are very quiet.  The rear fans I am using are these:  https://www.amazon.com/AC-Infinity-MULTIFAN-Receiver-Playstation/dp/B00IJ2J2K0

My home office is also our master bedroom and me and the Mrs sleeps well.  Not loud at all.

Does your app have the ability to reset to 0 with ambient and then where you turn on miner and get reading? If I set my phone on my desk at work, it reads anywhere from 45 to 62 dB - at home, where it is a bit more quiet, it reads between 25-30 dB with the miners off (I have 2 on my desk)

I thought about rear fans but I do not really see the need, my R606 feels like an ice cube to the touch.

I would not be able to sleep with this in the room - the noise while very low is still discernible to me and with the flashing light as well, it would drive me crazy if I was trying to sleep.

I'm thinking it's possibly your app.  60db on up is getting into the normal Asic miner sound levels.  A Bitmain Z9 mini for example is 65db.  There are plenty of youtube videos demoing the sound level of the Z9 mini and these R606's are no way close to that.

maybe it is the app but a normal conversation is rated to be at 60 dB and I can tell you my ASICs are way over normal conversation level - they are loud enough that I wear ear plugs if I am staying in the building long enough.

according to the CDC a whisper is 30 dB - https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/what_noises_cause_hearing_loss.html

I will also say that the Apollo miner is louder than the R606 - and is actually nearly as loud as a S9 when its on turbo.

I will look into getting an actual dB meter for future reviews and will update the ones I have done as well once I get one.

What do you mean by "restarting"?

Do you mean the frequency drops and works its way back up to the target frequency?

yes - essentially cgminer is restarting - kind of like hitting reboot on a S9, I would think.

I would see that, or something similar, on my Windoze PC and my Pi 3.  But on my Laptop running Linux and on my Pi 4 it runs stable.

Not sure if it's a bug but happens on windows. Like it retunes after being at ATH hash for a period of time. I don't even notice it anymore unless by happenstance.

Mine is rock solid on a win 10 build  been running for quite a while.

3 newpacs 1 r606 mining on  viabtc

Aug
18>> 1.206t all time high
19>> 1.187t
20>> 1.181t
21>> 1.184t
22>> 1.187t
23>> 1.186t
24>> 1.190t
25>> 1.189t
26>> 1.183t
27>> 1.190t
28>> 1.189t
29>> 1.182t
30>> 1.176t
31>> 1.190t

Sept

1 >> 1.191t
2 >> 1.173t
3 >> 1.182t
4 >> 1.175t
5 >>1.160t all time  low
6 >> 1.194t
7 >>  1.203t
8 >>  1.173t
9 >>  1.178t
10>> 1.176t
11>> 1.189t
12>> 1.178t
13>> 1.171t
14>> 1.184t
15>> 1.168t
16>> 1.173t
17>> 1.177t
18>> 1.178t
19>> 1.180t
20>> 1.196t
21>> 1.171t

so the range is 1.160 to 1.206.

the average is about 1.18  for 1 r606 and 3 newpacs.

I would love 1 th/s but even at what seems stable - around 630 will eventually retume to lower until it gets to 550

I am about 180 gh for the 3 sticks and 1000gh for the r606

It just runs and runs.  I have a quality plat psu that feeds  the pc the usb hub and the r606.

Maybe a titanium evga.  I will check later.

I have 4 running from Pi 4 4gb.  they are all doing 800mhz  over 1TH each.

Nice I sent one back to 419mining that was flaky.

I use server ps with breakout board.