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I wanted to let everyone know about a new revision of the bitaxe miner being developed based on the Bitmain BM1366 ASIC from the Antminer S19XP. Like the previous bitaxe based on the BM1387 (S9) and the BM1397 (S17) this is fully open source hardware and firmware.

HW development GitHub repo: https://github.com/skot/bitaxe/tree/ultra

Let's get this party started!

Thank you Skot for proposing great projects like this one! We need more open source ASIC projects!

I hope you'll be able to produce something as cool and clean with bitaxeUltra as you did with Bitaxe!

I wish to you and this project a great success! As always, don't hesitate to let me know if you need funds or components, I'd be happy to contribute to the project!

Let me start with  :o
I'm watching this for sure! I've got a few remarks after looking at the schematics. I presume you've got the bm1366's connections from tracing the signals on a hash board and not from an 'official' repair guide? There are a few things that stand out to me and might be worth looking in to;
- the mode_0(in) and mode_1 signals are connected together.
  &&
- the decoupling caps c4 & c16 are connected to to these pins
  To me it seems as both pins are actually ground (vss). You can check for connection of these pins with the big ground pad to see if that is correct.

- the mode_0 pin is left floating for mode0
  Antminer has previously defined mode0 as mode_0 pin connected to ground.

Changing the description of these pins and of the mode does not change the functionality of anything but seems more correct to me (if the 2 connected pins are actually vss).
Did you find a way to log the communication with the hash boards or are you going the software disassembly route first?

First, Thank you for all your efforts.

Did you find any datasheet on 1397/1398 yet?

AFAIK there are no datasheets for these parts.

- how much hashrate you've manage to get out of bm1366?

- I think you should somehow arrange your tree branch in github someway. maybe sort them by chip kind. its a bit confusing by their names IMO. hex, ultra and some number based branches...

- did you see gekko compac f? it's using much less components as far as I know, like doesn't include any microcontroller or esp for mining and solely depends on usb, right? any thought on doing something like that?

thanks again.

Initial tests are sitting just under 500 GH/s and 22 J/TH. plenty of optimization left to do.


I agree.. things have been moving a little fast for organizing just yet, but it does need to happen sooner or later


yes, definitely. GekkoScience is cool stuff! I'm probably not going the usb stick miner route myself, but all the design files are out there, so you could easily adapt it if you'd like.

Thank you for your efforts, skot!

I've been following your project for a while.
I have thought several times about building my own miner with the help of your detailed instructions. Unfortunately I haven't had the courage so far. :(

Wondering if it would be possible to get a few chips attached to a single board? Would this be a thing for the future?

I know that there are some Gekkos out like the R909 but your project comes with a lot of benefits like:
- Open-source
- Standalone Miner
- way more efficient

Hi seek3r!

Thanks for your support! It’s a daunting project for sure. Have you heard of d-central? They are a miner repair shop in Canada that has been a big supporter of the bitaxe. They are selling partially assembled kits that sound like what you are looking for. https://d-central.tech/product/bitaxe-diy-kit/

Currently d-central just has the BM1397-based bitaxe, but that is a great place to get started, IMO. I haven’t ordered from d-central myself, but I know of several people who have, and no complaints!

Thank you for ur reply. Yeah. I watched the 3 hour livestream video on YT when they assemblied the v2.2 a few days ago! :D
Would wait for Kit with the BM1366 chip instead of buying one of the S17 chip.

But still curious if its possible to use boards with the possibility of using more chips.

Yes, it’s very possible! There are a couple designs in the works that I know about with both BM1397 and BM1366. The BM1366 is especially well suited to chaining multiple chips together.

The ASIC is the hardest part to solder, by far. I suspect once we get into multi chip boards, soldering beginners will be left behind.

As long as both versions exist, I think it could be of interest to everyone. Those (like me) who are new to chip soldering will always have the basic version to get the hang of it and build their experience.

Having an open source multi-chips board would be great, and I actively support this idea!

it would also be cool if Skot would team up with crypto cloaks (https://www.cryptocloaks.com/) to make a nice case for their ultras, which would also be available in different colors.
cc has already printed/manufactured the matching boxes for some hardware in the past.

what about the cooling - how hot do the chips get? as i can see on the picture, a noctua nf-a4x10 would be enough, right?

Can help you out with some 3d designing for ur bitaxe if needed. :) It doesn't necessarily have to be a business and might be easier. :)
Atleast for the individual and personal design. If you are satisfied with their prints you are good to go! :D

There are already a few simple solutions for cases if you look around on Twitter.. um I mean X!

I'am in!
Got the KiCad drawings downloaded and I will Post changes also open source (or send it to you, as I got no Github account).
My time is limited until end of september, but then I can produce a batch of boards.
I mean fully assembled SMT and THT. So I can start to do some work with Hard and Software.

Good offer?
https://bitcoinmerch.com/products/bitcoin-merch%C2%AE-bitaxe-1366-solo-bitcoin-miner-up-to-500gh-s?variant=43907234169062

Depends on ur skills. If you got some free time you can invest it in building it on ur own. Way more fun and you would save more than 100$.
In addition to saving money, you get so much more into the matter and keep yourself busy automatically.

But as mentioned before, you have to see for yourself whether you have the time + desire to do so. Otherwise, the offer is of course an alternative, but of course you pay. ;)

If you only want to use one Bitaxe, it's a good deal.

If you want more than one, and you have the desire (motivation + skills ) and the time to build them yourself, it would probably be much more cost-effective to buy the tools needed to assemble your own ones than buying them like the link you shared.

Buying equipment, if you don't already have it, would be expensive for a single Bitaxe, but that depends on who it's for. If you see building it as a hobby, the cost shouldn't bother you too much either.

Has anyone pointed out the equipment required to attach a BM chip to the board?
Anyone got any idea how much that is?

Yeap,



Some answers on Bitaxe's github : https://github.com/skot/bitaxe/blob/master/assembly.md

Zeus Mining for the prices : https://www.zeusbtc.com/ASIC-Miner-Repair/

lol - "Get a convection toaster oven."

Seriously! They work great. I have reflowed a lot of prototype PCBs over the years in a $50 toaster oven... The only reason to upgrade to a fancier reflow oven is so you don't have to sit there and manually adjust the temperature.

there is a small update from Skot and his project. yesterday he sent the following tweet in which he tells us that the development of the bitaxeUltra miner is as good as finished. the orders should be placed in about 2 weeks.

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/10/20/TU85N.png
https://twitter.com/skot9000/status/1715054398655676864 (https://twitter.com/skot9000/status/1715054398655676864) 

at the same time they are also working on a 'multi' solution. this is called bitaxeHex and as you can see on the following picture, up to 6 chips can be used.

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/10/20/R00Fo.png
https://github.com/skot/bitaxeHex (https://github.com/skot/bitaxeHex)

the fully assembled bitaxeUltra Bitcoin miner can now also be ordered on altairtech: https://altairtech.io/product/bitaxe/ (https://altairtech.io/product/bitaxe/)

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/11/08/t48I3.png

Unfortunately, delivery only to the US :-[

That's one more reason to make some DIY bitaxes in Europe  :)

i picked 2 of these up from opensourceminer.com at $125 each. the performance is extremely impressive and the set up was pretty brainless too. insane work.

 https://i.postimg.cc/d14Rnfkr/Screenshot-from-2023-11-08-22-02-43.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/7hZFQjBk/IMG-20231108-220544926.jpg

Skot is talking about Bitaxe right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PH5sKrkzZY

Thank you for the link, just watching that right now.

Edit: Suprise, a bottle of champaign is stronger than a Bitmain miner LOL.
Ocean, aha, time will tell.

that was crazy the bottle beating apart that miner!

im curious about the esp32 im not a fan of unknown radios which is what kept me from messing around with the bitaxe stuff can you remove the radios with some snippers or are they in the main chip?

here is the first picture of a bitaxeHex compared to a bitaxeUltra - in my opinion, not much bigger than the 1-chip version
here you can see the difference in size very well and what you can also see are the 6 built-in asic chips 8)
fingers crossed!

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/12/02/Ny28C.jpeg
https://twitter.com/Silexperience/status/1730927131796844706 (https://twitter.com/Silexperience/status/1730927131796844706)

This looks epic! 6 chips!

Have you had it running yet? any temps hashrates?

Looking at getting a few of them myself the S3's really need to retire.

Waiting for the HEX version :) Pulling about 100w is enough for my electricity bill ^^

Just ordered 2 of these for the home mini farm!

Great  :D
You'll see, they are very nice products!

But the screenshot you shared show a price which looks expensive to me. You can find them already assembled for 130-150 usd.
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/01/03/swUUD.png
https://d-central.tech/product/the-bitaxe-ultra/ (link in CAD)

Yeah but these are in the US and come with a nifty little case!  :D

feedback: please make a ethernet vesion. Due to privacy and security issues, i dont use wifi. Hope the bitaxe  HEX makes  it or atleast has a USB Type C so one can use a ethernet to type C adapter.

The ESP32-S3 we use in the bitaxe does not have a Ethernet MAC, so this is not an easy change. What sort of privacy and security issues do you have with WiFi?

I am very happy about the project. I already have two bitaxes running in our small solo mining pool project and there are more and more.

Can't wait until the bitaxeHex is available, I'll buy one or two if the price is right.

If anyone would like to support us, please feel free to join us on the hunt for a block.

We mine under a common address. Details in the two posts either in German or in English.

EN: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5478927.0
DE: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5477020.0

Best regards,
Willi

Edit:
Live view to our small miner https://solorun.lima.zone/

I dont like wifi due to health issues, You can atleast have a V2 or USB type C so that users can buy their own ethernet to usb type c adapter.

I dont like wifi due to health issues, You can atleast have a V2 or USB type C so that users can buy their own ethernet to usb type c adapter.
[/quote]

You’ll need Linux and host mode USB for that to work — both a long shot for the ESP32. I think there is another ESP32 variant that has an Ethernet MAC, so that would be an easier place to start. There is a company called Olimex that make some ESP32 Ethernet dev boards (PoE too, I think). That would be a reasonable place to start.

PoE+ miners would be insane! :~)

how long now for one with the new s21 chips? wouldnt that be easy to implement given s19 xp chip experience?

i would love a 6 chip one  ;D

I can understand that, and I am thinking the same way.
There is a development kit for the esp with phy but you have still the firmware and tcp stack from the vendor, with all the "goodies".

Anyway, there is a fork of the bitaxeultra named Pi-axe.
I pointed that allready out here in the german section:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5464963.msg63279811#msg63279811

The design is as a "hat" for the Raspberry-Pi and you use the Pi Network, LAN or WiFi for comunication and it runs under a normal Linux.
The User Mampf of the electronic forum mikrocontroller.net has made this as a hat for the Raspberry-Pi and provided the files for it in github:

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/01/07/ssEBq.jpeg

Pi-axe Hardware:
https://github.com/shufps/piaxe
Miner software in python for the Raspberry-Pi:
https://github.com/shufps/piaxe

The original thread is in german, but you can of corse write in english there:
https://www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/561921#new

Health issues? Due to electromagnetic radiation? Because you're exposed to that 24/7 no matter if you turn off your WiFi or not. Think: HF radio, amateur radio, cellular radio, police radio, other people's WiFi networks, and the list goes on. Walk around your home with a software defined radio and check out how much is going on across the whole frequency range.. :P

Great project, inline with the Bitcoin spirit! Skot, did you try to use a PWM pin connected to an RC filter, can even be two stages of RC filtering, to get rid of the DAC IC? Let me know if I can help.

For those BitAxe Ultra users there is a new firmware V2.0.6 out for the device!

https://github.com/skot/ESP-Miner/releases (https://github.com/skot/ESP-Miner/releases)

If you want to retain your settings then update the following 2 files named (esp-miner.bin & www.bin) each is listed under v2.0.6.

this new bitaxe web flasher supports all bitaxe models: https://wantclue.github.io/bitaxe-web-flasher/ (https://wantclue.github.io/bitaxe-web-flasher/)
this tool is designed to flash your bitaxe with the latest version of axeos, ensuring you have the most up-to-date features and improvements for your device.

https://github.com/WantClue/bitaxe-web-flasher (https://github.com/WantClue/bitaxe-web-flasher)

Not sure you wouldn't go right from the source but to each their own...

In any event V 2.0.7 of the firmware is out with a few fixes!

https://github.com/skot/ESP-Miner/releases (https://github.com/skot/ESP-Miner/releases)

Hi
Has anyone tried using a voltage value of 1300mv for a few months?  could it be exaggerated or dangerous for a long time?  Thank you

I don't own the BitaxeUltra, but having worked with similar chips on stick and pod miners in the past, it's generally safe to run any voltage, as long as the chips stay cool enough.
In some cases, industrial miners run their chips at substantially higher voltages than the ranges we use on micro-miners, even when using the exact same chips, simply because they have better cooling solutions like high-flow, high-pressure - but very loud - industrial fans, or liquid cooling setups.

Do keep in mind that there's a point where your efficiency starts to decrease, simply because the increased power draw from the higher voltage stops yielding substantial improvements in stable clock speed (and thus maximum hashpower), so keep an eye on that as well.

I'm reverting back to the V2.0.4 firmware.

I updated one of them to V2.0.7 and was getting reboots every 4-10 hours.

Stock settings so lets see if this is a firmware or hardware issue.

At the moment I have no problem with the 2.07 firmware.
Reverting back is possible with the normal website from the miner? Or do you flash the miner per USB?
Just interested to be prepared if I have also step back to a older firmware.

Best regards,
Willi

Got the same issues that Sledge is reporting.
Cannot address the exact problem but getting reboots in the same time frame or the hashrate is decreasing to 0TH/s and is stuck until I do a manual reboot.

Will flash back to an older version and will monitor it.

You guys make sure to report an issue here:
https://github.com/skot/ESP-Miner/issues

It's much more likely for the maintainers of the firmware to see it there.
Do include as many details as you can (e.g. after how much time exactly something happens, what happens, ...) to help them get it fixed.

Yes you can revert back from miners UI / Website.

For me V2.0.4 seems to be more stable.




Submitted the bug and added an enhancement request to add suggest difficulty to the UI to help expedite the miner finding its sweet spot on pools.

have you found or tried a way to exceed 570mhz?

I found a solution and it seems to work

https://i.imgur.com/kVTLvK6.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/17KGyYz.png

it is work!

i saw this and wondered - is the efficiency accurate? it claims 20J/T

https://d-central.tech/product/minibit-1366-powered-by-bitaxeultra/

Yeap you can check on github: https://github.com/skot/bitaxe/tree/ultra?tab=readme-ov-file#bm1366

Yeah but I am near an Air Force base which routinely knocks out my wifi for 20 or 30 minutes at a time.

I would want to run a few of these with an eth cable.

Like, knocked out from RF interference? That's wild.

It would be a big job to add ethernet to the Bitaxe. It's built for WiFi from the ground up. I wonder what would happen if you directly connected the ESP32 wifi to a wifi router with coax... Espressif makes a drop-in ESP32-S3 variant with a u.fl antenna connector. I assume some attenuation would be necessary.

. I was stunned the first time it happened.

Mostly happens when this Air Force plane flies above me.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_E-3_Sentry


I would think it is the radar that does it. I live about 15 miles from the base. It does training sweeps every now and then.  Really fucks wifi up whenever it doe the low flying tests.



https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/02/06/vFfuq.png

This is interesting because I've never seen anyone else say this besides me, but I too have some experience having wi-fi knocked out from airplanes...  They do some F-35 testing near me and I am an avid drone flyer.  I used to use wi-fi for my drone flights because I liked the idea that I could setup a giant wi-fi mesh network in my area with large antennas and boosters (shhh, don't tell anyone).  My original idea I was testing was to have a set of drones taking turns 24/7 circling my area as a type of surveillance to be controlled by a computer running a program (the challenge is in the automated recharging process).  Whenever they would be testing F-35s in my area I would notice that I would completely lose connection with my drone until the plane had flown away.  It happened enough times that I actually abandoned my giant drone wi-fi network and switched to other technology.  Now I use radio signals and for long range flights I would IN THEORY use the cellular phone network.  I would bet quite a bit that next gen fighters are able to disrupt wi-fi signals either purposefully or via a biproduct of however they operate.

Yeah if they are running the large spiral pattern at say 2000-3000 ft the wifi dies and only a hard reboot will fix it.  worse yet never do a firmware update in my house via wifi I bricked 2 printers and a Mac mini all due to my buddy the us Air Force .  I was navy so it becomes more annoying that the Air Force is doing it to me.

Hi, do you have datasheet of BM1366?

I don't think such thing exists.

I learned about this project today, it seems very interesting! Congratulations on the project!

I remember in 2013/2014 here on the forum there were schemes to create ASIC miners. At the time I analyzed them, and I even thought about putting something together. But, I ended up not moving forward. More recently, I looked for these schemes again, but I couldn't find them. I still know about this project to this day.

That being said, I would like to ask the following:
- What is the link to the technical drawing? ^{I would like to print it and show it to my father, he is the one who knows how to analyze these drawings.}
- Can I find all the components I need to buy here? - https://github.com/skot/bitaxe?tab=readme-ov-file#hardware

Happy to see you here my friend.

For your questions:

-From the drawings, do you search this link or something else? : https://github.com/skot/bitaxe/blob/ultra/bitaxe%20schematic.pdf ?

-Yeap for components, + the PCB https://github.com/skot/bitaxe/blob/master/assembly.md  
and some tools of course (tips : https://github.com/skot/bitaxe/blob/master/assembly.md)

If you want you can join our Discord community, it is very active and people are always happy to give more specific infos: https://discord.gg/sfHm9GRV

Thanks! It will be useful.
My father having the schematics and the parts should be enough to put everything together.

Are the components easy to buy?

The programming part will only be more complicated, which is something I've never done.

I'll try to visit this group on Discord.  ;)

I hope that you will have some time to learn from your dad skills, this is so satisfying to build your own asic!

Yeah the components are (more or less) easy to buy. Chips can be complicated because of minimum of order for quantities etc... On the discord group, we have someone selling chips frequently (in case you have difficulties to order via chinese websites).

You'll see, the programming part is not complicated, pretty straight forward

I have no problem buying from Chinese websites, as long as I know which components to buy.

Is there any step-by-step tutorial?

I am currently working on a text tutorial on building Bitaxes. I will need more months btw

There is D-Central who did some very nice videos on Youtube:  FRIDAY WARRIOR Special Livestream - Learn how to make Bitaxe v2.2 Open-Source ASIC Miner - 063  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS_Gs5xYmRk)

Another one:  Live Assembly and talk about the Bitaxe  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFQw0qbDt0o)

Without a doubt, this is not an easy task, and it takes a lot of time.
It will be good to see your tutorial. ;)

Thank you for the tips.

All of the PCB components (except the ASIC) can be bought from DigiKey. I have “DK” part numbers in the BOM. You can get the ASIC in single quantities from Chinese sellers on AliExpress. PCBs are cheapest from China. Links for these things are in the readme.

We should be careful when we buy our Bitaxe, there are already scam websites.

For example, here's a message from the OSMU Discord about bitaxe[dot]de, which we should all avoid. You can find legitimate resellers here: https://bitaxe.org/legit.html

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2024/02/21/YYVGH.png

So I did find some interesting things out today as I got to tinker a bit more.

ASUS ROUTERS:
Do not try to assign a "manually assigned ip" on a Asus Wireless Router to a BitAxe. For whatever reason the units seem to crash out sporadically and don't reconnect correctly. Remove the manually assigned IP from wihtin the router UI and all is good. It is recorded as de-authed device in the Asus router log when the units try to continually reconnect. So do yourself a favor and let DHCP handle the IP addressing which should help keep things more stable.

This seems to happen with both v201 & v204 pcb boards and the "Lucky Miner LV06" which is a complete and total rip off of the BitAxe. (I did share a breakdown of the hardware of the Lucky Miner LV06 with Skot)

Now... I bricked a Lucky Miner LV06 so please read this if you have one and try to update the firmware.

The Lucky Miner LV06 can in fact run and use the esp-miner.bin V2.0.7 firmware file from here: https://github.com/skot/ESP-Miner/releases (https://github.com/skot/ESP-Miner/releases) but if you try to update the www.bin from https://github.com/skot/ESP-Miner/releases (https://github.com/skot/ESP-Miner/releases) it bricks the miner and the UI is inaccessible.... So update the esp-miner.bin but DO NOT UPDATE the www.bin file on the Lucky Miner LV06!

Enjoy!

Love the Bitaxe so far.

Been playing about with interface designs and possible updates for additional information in the dashboard.

1. Possible to add a realtime bestshare value I noticed it shows the overall bestshare this is good to know but if I restart the miner it would be good to see a rolling best share from restart below the overall best.

2. Further peak and min voltage values on the dash would be nice.

3. Debug mode (show more information in the log window when debug mode is active (possible?)

https://i.postimg.cc/NGnwjFcT/AXEOS.png

I've got two Bitaxe 201 boards. One of them is happily hashing away after applying esp-miner-factory-205-v2.1.3.bin directly to it over USB.

I was unable to connect via USB to the other one, so I updated the firmware to 2.1.3 (successfully) via the web interface. However, when I tried to update www.bin, it hung for about 10 minutes. After power cycling it, there's no display and I still cannot see it via USB.

Any ideas on how to get this working again?

Thanks!

It's not a good idea to apply the v205 factory firmware to a v201. I'm glad to hear it's still working though!

As for your other unit; Did USB ever work? Make sure you are powering the Bitaxe with the 5V main power and not just USB. If that doesn't work it sounds like faulty hardware.

Oops. Didn't realize I was doing bad things by applying the 205 to the 201. Should I flash it back to a 201 of some flavor?

I've never had USB working on this second device. I was able to see the device on it's provided wifi at first, but it could never connect to my wifi (so it could never connect to the internet).