[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+.]

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:

Code:

DEVICE: BitFORCE SC0x0aFIRMWARE: 1.2.50x0aIAR Executed: NO0x0aCHIP PARALLELIZATION: YES @ 20x0aQUEUE DEPTH:400x0aPROCESSOR 3: 15 engines @ 267 MHz -- MAP: FFFE0x0aPROCESSOR 7: 15 engines @ 281 MHz -- MAP: FFFE0x0aTHEORETICAL MAX: 8220 MH/s0x0aENGINES: 300x0aFREQUENCY: 274 MHz0x0aXLINK MODE: MASTER0x0aCRITICAL TEMPERATURE: 00x0aXLINK PRESENT: YES0x0aDEVICES IN CHAIN: 10x0aCHAIN PRESENCE MASK: 000000010x0aOK0x0a0x00

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

Ive noticed a lot of singles running in the mid to high 50's C. apparently without throttling. but mine throttles around 45 C.

so here are my questions. anyone know where the temp is read on a single? an average of the 2 chips? one chip? somewhere else on the board? what triggers the throttle? hardware errors? an internal temp thats not reported?

background: ambient 70 F (my basement).  originally I ran the 832 bitstream with no problems @ 44 C, but the 864 would throttle withing minutes, even with the temp never getting above 46. so.. I redid the paste with AC MX4 (the stock paste job was horrible, almost lumpy on one chip, and not much coverage on the other) and got a 2-3 degree C drop. loaded the 864 bitstream and it would run about 15 minutes and throttle, with the temp never getting about 43-44 C.

so

upshot is I now run it with a 140 mm fan against it and no sides and it runs at 40-42 with the 864  880 bitstream and no issues.

just curious, mainly.

What size is the BFL single power supply plug? Im looking to hack an adapter up.

I know cablez makes some sweet adapters but I have everything I need except for the plug specs. Id like to just hit up a local radio shack for it and presto! Im done.

did a search here and google and perhaps my search foo sucks but I cant find anything on this. what exactly are the differences?

my single arrived. packing slip indicates "Rev 1".

on top, the unit has the gold and silver HSF with the heat pipes. the bottom has a small fan also. so isnt this a revision 3?  revision 1 (the originals) had a solid black HSF with no heat pipes on top didnt they?

auto tune settled on an 816 MH/s bitstream. cgminer says 800 average. @ 73 F ambient, this is withing spec, but Ill pull it apart and redo the heat sink compound with MX 2 later today and hopefully pull better performance.

simple enough poll.

I always shut down when thunderstorms loom, and easily have lost 10% (see edit below) of my mining and folding time to it. unpowered rigs sit around while we are at work because there is a chance of thunderstorms. they sometimes come, sometimes not. but if the chance is there..

not only that, I even unplug gear from the wall. this despite everything being on surge surpressors and two rigs being on their own UPS.. not that those would stop a lighting hit on a powerline.

EDIT: that 10% figure is the last few month during thunderstorm season. yearly average is about 1-2%

as a long time folder, starting with a coppermine p3 1.0 years back and now folding with 2 GTX 285s and a Q9650 @ 3.8, Ive always liked the hardware aspect.

so, what hardware did you folks start with back in the day?

as for me a couple month ago i saw bitcoins threads at various hardware sits and pretty much blew it off. like, riiiight.. money from video cards.. as time passed and more threads kept coming up, I started to seriously look into it. at that point I switched my HD4850 (which sucked a folding anyway, but hey science is science) and signed up at the various sites to get the money into a bank account to see if it actually worked. well of course it does.

so.. hardware..

started with the 4850 but soon upgraded to a 6870 in the day to day rig. then replace the HD3850 in the HTPC (it sucked at HTPC duties, no real 23.97 FPS support) with a 6770. HDMI 1.4a!  3D support! 23.97 support! yea!. those pull double duty in the respective rigs  where I can easily justified as legit hardware upgrades. but then..  then a 5830 in an old P4 prescott carcass as a dedicated rig in the basement.

guess the bug has bit. 800-850 M/Hash total. fun,  I know its not gonna make me rich but its more hardware to play with and I can fold with it later if I want.

anyone else want to tell their hardware story?