Looks like it just plowed through the 1100 snowbank....

Yup, didn't quite work but pls try to do it.

C

So in the meantime I sat down over the weekend and finally traced out the shorted chip problem. This is the one where when you plug a cube into a controller it shuts off the green light and crashes the controller. This is caused by a short in one of the die hotel circuit supplies and I have been hoping that cutting the lines to that die would clear the fault.

What I did was get the chip hot, then slide under the chip desoldering braid to remove the solder from the quarter of the chip that is shorted. Took awhile to do but I cleared out all the solder around the hotel circuits on the die that was shorted.

Board however was still dead. So I lifted the chip carefully and found when the short would go away. In a nutshell the hotel power circuits are connected together INSIDE the chip itself, so when one die goes, they all go.

Ergo, it is not possible to fix this type of fault. Drat. Can still fix just about everything else, but not that....

C

Indeed. Try something, doesn't work, try again. Keeps me busy wish we had things like documentation...

Ok, here is what needs to be done to get Titan code to work on a BBB. Enjoy my raw notes and comments.

Note: It still doesn't work, there is something you need to do with bfgminer's configure to make Titans go. But this should get the whole thing up to the point where you can run a neptune with sha256 so all communications are working.

Note: I probably missed a few things like putting that ioboard rbf code in etc. Do that of course, the titan rbf code will work with a titan or a neptune.

Start with a clean BBB Debian install.
Create a user called pi, home directory /home/pi
Download the knc-asic directory from github's KNC project
Download the bfgminer code from github's KNC-asic
Download the spi-test directory from github's KNC-asic
Download the web code from github's knc-asic

do a make beaglebone in the knc-asic directory
do a make beaglebone in the bfgminer/knc-asic directory.

#!/bin/sh -xe
sudo ln -sf $PWD/raspi-blacklist.conf /etc/modprobe.d/raspi-blacklist.conf
sudo ln -sf $PWD/modules /etc/modules
sudo ln -sf $PWD/../program-fpga /usr/bin/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/../lcd-message /usr/bin/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/../asic /usr/bin/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/../waas/waas /usr/bin/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/../knc-serial /usr/bin
sudo ln -sf $PWD/../knc-led /usr/bin
sudo ln -sf $PWD/../io-pwr /usr/bin
sudo ln -sf $PWD/../../spi-test/spi-test /usr/bin/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/board-init.sh /usr/bin/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/factory_setup /usr/bin/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/default-config.sh /etc/init.d/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/ioboard.sh /etc/init.d/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/factory-setup.sh /etc/init.d/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/bfgminer.sh /etc/init.d/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/repartition.sh /etc/init.d/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/lcd-loop.sh /etc/init.d/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/lcd-loop /usr/bin/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/get_asic_stats.awk /usr/bin/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/monitordcdc.ericsson /sbin/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/../spimux-titan.rbf /etc/spimux.rbf
sudo ln -sf $PWD/i2c-loop /usr/bin/
sudo ln -sf $PWD/lcd-print_stopping.sh /etc/init.d/lcd-print_stopping.sh
sudo ln -sf $PWD/lcd-print_rebooting.sh /etc/init.d/lcd-print_rebooting.sh
sudo ln -sf $PWD/asic_data_cache.awk /usr/bin/

--I think all of these are done.


sudo cp inittab /etc/
sudo cp $PWD/monitordcdc.logrotate /etc/logrotate.d/monitordcdc

--Done as well

sudo update-rc.d default-config.sh start 11 S .
sudo update-rc.d ioboard.sh defaults
sudo update-rc.d factory-setup.sh defaults
sudo update-rc.d bfgminer.sh defaults
sudo update-rc.d repartition.sh start 11 S .
sudo update-rc.d lcd-loop.sh defaults
sudo update-rc.d lcd-print_stopping.sh stop 02 0
sudo update-rc.d lcd-print_rebooting.sh stop 02 6

Need to recompile bfgminer
Don't forget to compile it with --enable-script....
need to install uthash-dev
checking for JANSSON... no need jansson-dev, libi2c-dev

Ok to get apache going.
Link the www files to /var/www
Link the cgi-bin files to /usr/lib/cgi-bin

Only thing that doesn't work is seeing the cube. Something is still stuck there. Fuck it, use lighthttp--fixed


Ok, stats don't work. They are in /var/run
asic_stat_file=/var/run/stats.knc.$$
/home/pi/knc-asic/RPi_system/get_asic_stats.awk /var/run/.waas_cache >$asic_stat_file 2>/dev/null

./bfgminer --api-listen --api-allow="W:127.0.0.1/24" -c /config/cgminer.conf -Q 10 --scrypt -S titan:auto

Ok, now I see the /var/run/revision file is not updating at all. Manually putting it there fixes the web sort of but it's
supposed to be coming from waas

Hm. In Waas.c I see

#define DEFAULT_CONFIG_FILE     "/config/advanced.conf"
#define WAAS_CURRENT_FREQ       "/var/run/.waas_curfreq"--got this
#define WAAS_AUTOPLL_TIMESTAMP  "/var/run/.waas_t1"--not exist
#ifdef CONTROLLER_BOARD_RPI
#define EXPECTED_PERFORMANCE_FILE       "/var/run/expected_performance"--missing, exists on bb in /etc
#define REVISION_FILE                   "/var/run/revision"--missing
#else
#define EXPECTED_PERFORMANCE_FILE       "/etc/expected_performance"
#define REVISION_FILE                   "/etc/revision"--AH, it's looking here in /etc/revision.....
#endif

AH HA! THE FUCKING FILES ARE IN THE WRONG PLACE. Put links into /etc/expected_performance and /etc/revision to /var/run.
Dumbass system.


More annoying, it needs to be recompiled to fix this. Because the stupid links are not recreated.
Sigh.
Oh for fuck's SAKE! there is another KNC directory under the bfgminer that ALSO NEEDS TO BE RECOMPILED TO BEAGLEBONE!

Meantime you need to compile bfgminer with titan and kncasic. knc blows it out. But it still don't hash. Close...
 ln -s /etc/expected_performance /var/run/expected_performance
 ln -s /etc/revision /var/run/revision

WHAT A FUCKING JOKE!

You got it, it's here, and I fixed one of his Titan boards. Now I need something:

Does ANYONE have a Qberty 1.0 batch board that works? If so take the highest rev picture you can of the crystal and post it here. Got a theory.....

C

Another solution to removing SMD chips with an iron is to try chipquik. It lowers the melting point of the solder to where you can remove most components (not QFN IIRC) with a simple iron, then clean off the stuff, tin with solder, and put the new component on.


Trying to move heat. However thermal pads are kind of useless but if you have no airflow over the chips I guess it's better than nothing.

Yeah I can fix that, it requires patience, epoxy glue, 24 gauge wire wrap wire, and .10tc to fix :-)

But I will say if someone can figure out the beaglebone thing that is the right way. I spent a weekend whacking away on it, and got 99% of the way there. Just seems to be a problem in how fucking bfgminer is built because there is knc code, knc-auto code, and knc-titan code and the options just don't seem to work right. I have gotten it to at least see the titan dies, but it flunks loading them which drove me up a c wall.

I know the spi lines and everything else is good (and the new spimux on titans can run neptunes) because I have bfgminer running compiled with neptunes. Something's fucked in the titan code though or one library is stepping on another..

The rest of it is mostly some symbolic links to get waas and the web site to work, but that's not a big deal and I can post my raw notes.

The bridgeboard is also nuts, there are three components on the damn thing and the issue is the crystals I can get just. don't. work. I have no idea in my head why, but I am going to take apart one guy's board to find out. Because another guy managed to kill his bb somehow and we need to fix this.

Want to take a crack at it?

C

Hot air tools and preheat. Specifically an Aoyue 951 and an 853 pre-heater. You really always should pre-heat the board, otherwise you risk lifting pins and overheating components.

And I just pulled a few parts to clear around the destruction. You can see the FET I pulled upside down on one of the inductors, even though they sanded off the part numbers we can see it's basically the same FET design and concept. Still doesn't change the fact that the topone vaporized though, my guess is the FET shorted and the power supply graciously destroyed it rather than trip out.



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



Never dull, but getting annoying spending money for very blown up boards.

So back to the GPUs. Got an R9 sapphire that was dead.



Didn't take long to figure out why it was shorting the power supply:



This board also has FETs that include the high and low sides together on one chip die. There are seven phases, with seven FET chips and seven chokes. However it looks like FET #7 shorted and literally *exploded*. Probably had a very large power supply. Not sure if this one can be fixed, but at least we know what is wrong with it....

Got some more Titans in so working on those this weekend, then an R4 that seems to be out. However this would shut the system down pretty hard.

C

Sure. I have had to totally rebuild alternate power planes on blown Titans. What a mess that was.

And speaking of mess, pictures of my latest $30 Ebay special coming up.

It seems to be going up more slowly and evenly. Hm. Maybe pump and dumpers weren't too good of an idea....

Thanks. First question is what are the symptoms of a problem? Will start looking that up while I wait for some close-up pics of the board.

C

Reserved for technical summaries

Ok, new project: In addition to the Titans and GPUs, I was asked to take a look at an Antminer L3 that  appears to be dead on arrival. As is my custom I'll post my findings here and hopefully we will find a way to get them working without having to send them to China or wherever.

I'll post summaries of findings here, technical details below. Feel free to contribute thoughts, pictures, or comments.

C

I'll vouch for Og and Nastypool; we did some business together in the past and he is a square dude.

C

Likewise if they are torturing you for information and you don't have it but they think you do then you will be in for what one could call a "really long night". Better to use steg and a variation of rubber hose to double encrypt keys to two wallets, one with some money to satisfy the torturers, the other with the real money.

Of course torturers could torture everyone further to look for a "second key" but at some point they have to go home for dinner and a good game of Splatoon, so that's kind of self-limiting.

C
(BTDT)

Likewise my full node here is running fine (I have a token amount of hash running, enough to keep the house warm)

Ok I have run into a wall and need some help:

I got a Titan controller in from a guy in England, he bought the controller and cubes, and apparently the Pi was making "fizzing" sounds and the controller/cubes didn't work. Review here found the FPGA blown and the TPS power chip literally *fused* to the board. Likewise his bridgeboard is blown out as well, looks like the crystal is bad.

Since we do not know what the crystal is for these (and I have tried half a dozen different possibilities) I need to find a bridgeboard for this guy. If you have one that shorted out, I can fix it for him and sell him my spare board for the cost of a normal repair. However without a bridgeboard he's up a creek.

Anyone have a dead one that they replaced with a Qberty 1.0 board? I'll do a free repair for one because I want to help this miner out.

C