Hi

longtime happy cgminer user here.

been running under win xp/vista/7 with great results on GPU and now ASICs.

now Im going to use a laptop I got from work so I can retire the old power hog P4/XP rig running the ASICs currently. the laptop has an intel t6600 CPU (dual core 2.2 Ghz) with 2 gigs RAM, 500 gig HD. huge overkill but it was free

HD was wiped and Im going to install *nix. just not sure which flavor.

currently have a bfl single, bfl jalapeño, and it will have a block erupter on it soon as well. it will mine BTC 24/7.

Im thinking of ubuntu 13.04 as Im somewhat familiar with it, although Ive never run cgminer on it. might even go with dual boot if its easier, ubuntu 13.04 off the HD for occasional non mining and something else via USB flash drive for mining.

any suggestions?

bfl has stated there are several grade chips.. see here:

https://products.butterflylabs.com/65nm-asic-bitcoin-mining-chip.html

my 5 ghs jala has 2 grade "a" or "b" chips.. 15 engines OK each chip (only 15 out of the chips 16 engines are ever used in jala chips), 8.3 ghs with stock 1.25 firmware.

bfl only guarantees 5 ghs for a 5 ghs jala and can use any combo of chips that will reach that speed.

seems early 5 ghs jalas had mostly grade a or b chips. later ones seem to have lower grade chips.

luck of the draw.

this is the best read ever here. only other one that comes close is the "pictures of your mining rigs" thread. Kudos!

wonder how easy it would be to just whip another simple board up with the power and freq generator and wire it to a stick (or possibly multiple sticks).

ie, something external to the stick (with its own power supply and signal generator), with leads that you just solder to the stick(s). just need to cut some traces on the stick(s), solder some leads, pull some parts and off you go. something you could do fairly easily to a stock stick with no mad scientist skills needed. Im thinking 555 timer , LM317/mosfet skill level. (not those exact chips maybe but you get the idea)

course, need some cooling mods but thats easy compared to the work youve done.

its 220 volt, 20 amp.

google NEMA 6-20R

you could buy a NEMA 6-20P plug at a hardware store and just cut the end of the power supply cord and put it on. ONLY if you are SURE youll do it correctly of course. no sense dying over it..

where are you? Ive never hear of a whole house hot water heater with a plug. all that Ive seen (hundreds in my prev job in construction) were hard wired 220 volt.

I run a Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H mobo with cgminer and a 6870 with no problems. been running 24/7 since last december. its my daily driver PC.

I do have the latest drivers/BIOS from gigabyte on it.

the black antistatic pads were not in the box for this, and many people cut the side of the box so the USB cable can come out the side and just run it in the box good point though, Ill update the OP for those who dont know how antistatic pads work (ie by being a mild conductor).

I did try to compile it, it compiled with no errors but did not run after flashing it.. the front LED on the jally just did a fast blink. did you change the source code at all? (I didnt)

if it works out let me know, Ill put the link (with a thanks) into the OP as a "known OK" solution.

I should grab some myself, right now mine has pieces of the original tape with artic cooling MX2 filling in the gaps

yes

not sure, my tape fell apart as soon as I removed the heatsink 

dont think it makes a difference as it doesnt need to match the height to anything. FWIW the tape was pretty thin, thinner than the heat tape on the VRM s on my GTX285's (used for folding @ home, not mining).

mine was a 5, danattackers was a 7 I think.

before flash: 30C, ~3.1v
after flash: 37C, ~3.1v

ambient 23C

been running caseless with a side fan pretty much since day 1.

from what I saw playing around, the higher the temp, the higher the voltage.

try running caseless, with the fan blowing down. see what the temps and voltage is.

added temps to the OP

danattacker was 1st, I updated the OP with a thanks.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=236875.0

I just followed his lead and figured the rest out as I stumbled along.

almost certainly not.

1st thing atmel studio did was flash my dragon so atmel is pretty fussy.

Ill try to get pics of the mosfets, but AFAIK if they are the same size, its a "hot" mosfet one, 2 different sizes are "good" mosfets.

oh yeah.

Im in the middle of house remodeling so Im kinda rushed in this howto thing but Ill add to it as time permits.

one thing to add is a q&a section.. 1st one will be:

Question: is it possible to destroy my jally?
Answer: yup!

Jalapeno Flash howto.

This howto will walk you through flashing your BFL Jalapeno.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS WORKS FOR ME. HOWEVER I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU BRICK YOUR JALLY. MY JALLY IS A "HOT" MOSFET UNIT AND I HAVE EXTRA COOLING. EVEN "GOOD" MOSFET JALLYS SHOULD USE EXTRA COOLING AS STOCK JALLYS ONLY GO TO 7 GHS, THIS CAN TAKE YOU TO 8+.

not all jallys will reach this, depends on the chip grades you have. my 5 ghs has two good chips, 15 engines each. YMMV.

AFAIK all jallys with aluminum heatsinks are "good" mosfet jallys. look at Q1-12, if you have 2 different sizes [6 one size, 6 another] this is a unit with "good" mosfets - you should be good to go. mine is a "hot" mosfet jally (all mosfets same size) and with LOTS of additional airflow Im OK. but HEATSINKS ON YOUR MOSFETS (AND 1850 CHIP IF YOU CAN GET TO IT) ARE A GOOD IDEA.

seems at least some 7 ghs jallys (and 7s only?) come with heatsinks on the mosfets now. see warhark187s post here.

temps @ 23 C ambient, caseless, top fan blowing down, with 120v 22 watt "muffin" side fan:

before flash  30C 3.1v
after flash 37C 3.1v

WHAT YOU NEED:

source code from BFL
https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/3282-bitforce-sc-firmware-version-1-2-5-a.html

and/or

the .hex file from BFL, just in case you have trouble compiling it (I did initially).
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=235312.0

atmel studio 6.1 - I grabbed the Full installer (806 MB)
http://www.atmel.com/tools/ATMELSTUDIO.aspx

AVRDragon:
http://www.atmel.com/tools/AVRDRAGON.aspx

digikey seems to have the dragon also.. I had already ordered from atmel though.. DOH
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/ATAVRDRAGON/ATAVRDRAGON-ND/1124251

USB AB cable for the Dragon
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=usb+ab+cable&N=100006519&isNodeId=1

10 pin JTAG cable.
something like this . its just the 1st link I found
http://compare.ebay.com/like/190681930364?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

I just cut down a 40 conductor IDE cable. (mine is cut to 2x6 as i was sloppy)



thermal tape or paste if you disassemble your jally. the chips are bare silicon so I recommend you reuse the tape and just add some paste to fill on the voids if the tape falls apart. or just use new thermal tape. using paste alone is a good way to crack the chips if you are not VERY careful. the tape helps cushion the heatsink.

cgminer 3.3.1 - its the earliest version that will properly handle the 1.2.5 firmware jally. my picture below shows 3.2.2 but I compiled from git just before 3.3.1 was released.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0

my heatpipe jally had plenty of clearance for the middle (now end) IDE connector to slip on without removing the heatsink.

aluminum heatsinks probably will require you to remove it to get the cable on the jtag connector. if you cant get the heatsink back on with the cable attached you will need to find a way to keep the chips cool while you program them. right after programming they will be tested so will generate some heat. danattacker used the metal backplate pressed down on the top of the chips after he masked off the surrounding areas with masking tape.

SEE DANATTACKERS POST BELOW ON ALUMINUM HEATSINK JALAPENOS. DO NOT RUN YOUR JALLY WITH NO HEATSINK!!



ATTACH THE CABLE: (IMPORTANT: REMOVE THE BLACK ANTISTATIC PADS FROM THE DRAGON BOX BEFORE POWERING IT UP IF YOU RUN IT IN THE BOX AS I DID)

power off the dragon and jally. connect one end to JTAG on the dragon, the other to JTAG 1 on the jally. MAKE SURE PIN 1 GOES TO PIN 1! plug the dragons USB and the jallys USB cable into the computer (the dragon did not recognize my jally until I had the jallys USB cable plugged into the computer). the dragon draws power from USB so it will come right up. then plug the jallys power cable in.



CLEAR THE JALLY.

my 1.0.0 firmware 5 ghs jally had the security bit set.. which means you cant program it or read the firmware. so to clear it you need to erase the chip. THIS MEANS THIS IS A ONE WAY TICKET.

[THIS SECTION I WILL FILL IN MORE A BIT LATER WITH SCREENSHOTS AND STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS. I DONT HAVE THE JALLY IN FRONT OF ME AND HOOKED UP SO I CANT DO INCLUDE ANYTHING ATM - JUST GOING FROM MEMORY BUT ITS EASY]

fire up Atmel Studio 6.1. hit Tools, Device Programming. under Tool, chose "Dragon" under Device, choose "AT32UC3A1256" at this point it will probably want to flash your dragon to the latest version. let it, it will take a few minutes. when its done, hit "apply", it should read your device signature. then click "read" and all sorts of info should be displayed. youre ready to go. hit "erase" NO TURNING BACK NOW!

PROGRAM IN THE .HEX file

chose .hex image you grabbed before and chose "program" - thats pretty much it. dont even need to compile anything, or even unplug the JTAG cable.. just fire up cgminer and watch it go. cgminer had several false starts initializing it but after a minute or so it dug in and was mining.



stats output after flash:


more later but I wanted to get something up to show how easy it is.

THANKS TO:
danattacker, for leading the way here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=236875.0

whoops, thanks for that. forgot my basic math

but its difficulty 4 (4 shares average by the asic for every 1 submitted), and hardware errors are 1 to 1. so divide by 4 = 0.157% error rate.

the security bit was set. 1st thing I tried was to read the original 5 ghs 1.0.0 firmware out. nope.

the only way to clear the security bit and program it is to erase the whole chip. so, unless bfl releases a 1.0.0 *.hex file or the original 1.0.0 source, flashing these things is a one way ticket.

reduce speed?? NEVER!! heh

9.5 hours, 16241 accepted @ difficultly 4, 102 hardware errors = 0.0016 % errors. thats OK in my book as others with stock jallys have had way more that that.

there the stats output for the interested:


both chips 15 engines, one @ 281, one @ 267

yes, Ill have a howto in a day or two.

Im comfortable with building and modifying electronics and computers but never with stuff like this.

its easy enough but I did have a couple "uh oh" moments.

nope no cable included. I did use a 40 conductor IDE cable cut down to 10 (2x5).

the cable you linked to should be fine. any 2x5 cable with 0.1 inch pin spacing will work.

after 7 hours its average is 8285.56 ghs, 81 hardware errors.