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101
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: Swedish ASIC miner company kncminer.com
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on: October 04, 2016, 12:53:03 AM
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A4 is indeed a load of horrible engineering (at least from a process node and effeciency standpoint). Innosilicon substantially dropped the specs 2x at least from what the intial goal was. Now, a stated above, the A4 sits barely more efficient than the Titan and most likely - much louder. The Titan is one of the only remaining, profitable home miners - no doubt about that.
The unfortunate part is, the A4 will release and sheeple miners will flock to it and hashrate will climb =(
The good news ... at least Titans will remain relevant for the foreseeable future ... as long as LTC price remains stagnate ... there wont be much demand for more development in the Scrypt ASIC arena.
So, for now ... Titan and A4 are end game for Scrypt(which is a good position for us Titan owners).
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102
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: Hacking KNC Neptune / Jupiter / Titan miners back to life. Why not?
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on: October 03, 2016, 02:22:25 PM
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Weird,Titans are NOT Bitcoin mining hardware so why is this thread in this section still??
Shouldn't it be in the ALTCOIN section??
Discussion re Titans is nopt nearly as lively in the altcoin section. I pretty much follow gentarkin wherever he goes...  Both threads are relevant here simply because KNC made BTC mining hardware as well, and both topics apply to their whole model lineup. It just so happens that Titans are currently their only model thats still relevant today =P I also post in both sections because I know people read both =) |
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103
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: Hacking KNC Neptune / Jupiter / Titan miners back to life. Why not?
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on: October 02, 2016, 06:02:17 PM
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Hey lightfoot sent you a pm on 3 cubes to send in and a such.....but no reply (just a nudge in case things are slow and you did not get to such) fun fun fun in titan land  No problem, just busy on a couple of other projects. And seriously hating trying to do diagnostics on neptunes (because they're kinda like titans without the value) using my Tektronix scope. It is a bitch on wheels trying to probe SOT type chips, I'm going to have to micro-solder wire wrap to the pins to get test points. Bitch on wheels. Hey, lightfoot.... Im wondering ... since these ASICs dont have on die thermistors ... we dont really know the running temp of the ASIC's. Im wondering, do you think it would makeany sort of sense to make an array of 4 thermistors mounted to the underside of the PCB in the center of each die? It wouldnt have to be permanently(could just be sticky pads) but we could at least use that as a metric to see temperature delta's between dies maybe? I dont know, its just a random idea. Its hella unfortunate we dont know the true temp of each die ugh.... |
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104
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Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Is Bitcoin Sound Money?
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on: September 30, 2016, 03:24:25 AM
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IMO, the jury is still out on if bitcoin can ever be considered "Sound Money" ... one of the definitions of money is a reliable "store of value"(in fact this is the one major difference between currency vs money).
Try telling bitcoin is a "store of value" to the folks who bought in at $1200
Although, its a much different response from the folks who bought at sub $10
Bitcoin would need to stabilize and prove itself a hedge against inflation of fiat currencies long before it could ever be considered a reliable "store of value".
Gold / precious metals are considered some of the most reliable stores' of value for thousands of years. Therefore they are prime examples of Sound Money.
IE, hoard gold for 75+ years and you know its going to be "worth more"(more accurately put, the fiat currency its compared too has lost purchasing power over those 75 years) ... whereas Bitcoin and cryptocoins, you could wake up tomorrow and it could be near worthless.
A price of $0 is still possible for Bitcoin, otoh for precious metals, they will never be $0 (unless the dollar is gone from circulation =P )
In short, Bitcoin has the potential to be Sound Money... but it still needs much much more time, potentially beyond our lifetime.
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105
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Economy / Computer hardware / Re: [WTS] G-Blade Gridseed 5.2-6Mh/s,Litecoin ASIC Miner,
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on: September 30, 2016, 02:57:12 AM
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Now that's a miner I've not seen in a while. I had some of these that I'd overvolted with a resistor mod and some extra heatsinks on the VRMs and was getting 7.2MH or so from them a long time ago. Good little miners.
I got 2 of them sitting around in their boxes somewhere =) ... yes very fine little miners! I may lottery mine w/ them someday. I did the same mods to mine =) |
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106
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: Does CPU 50% Long Term Usage Matter?
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on: September 26, 2016, 02:35:01 PM
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I know everyone says to keep the CPU processing long term at 100% does damage, but what about 50%?
Anyone have an explanation based on facts about electronics?
Im 99% no, based off my experience w/ countless computer systems ... the CPU is often times the longest lasting component in a system. 2 things you can do to make sure it lasts its designed lifetime: 1. Make sure heat is under control(temperatures are within spec). 2. More importantly, make sure the voltages are within spec. Even overclocking will not diminish a CPU's lifespan if its done properly. Example would be undervolting & overclocking. Furthermore, running a CPU @ 100% usage 24/7 ... make sure its temps are definitely within spec during that time ... most CPU's dont run 24/7 so its easy to not pay attention to their 100% usage temperature. While 100% usage will not wear on a CPU ... the power delivery section on the motherboard will be under substantial stress the entire time and this is what sees the most wear. Proper cooling is usually an afterthought on these areas on many budget/mainstream consumer motherboards. |
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107
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: Swedish ASIC miner company kncminer.com
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on: September 21, 2016, 01:00:25 AM
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Well, either way ... even more hashrate is coming online now it seems =( diff keeps climbing , maybe A4's are finally here. I sure hope the Titan can hang in there for a while!
You need to get a Dominator A4 to play firmware games. All initial ASIC firmware seems to be crap at launch fyi Meh, unless its anything like Titan(which uses a lot of linux stuff for monitoring etc etc) then probably wont be able to, but who knows. The best firmware out of the box Ive seen to date is spondoolies in terms of functionality and operating condition tracking / adjusting and webgui. The only other firmware Ive really messed w/ was BFL single's back in the day ... that was fun =) |
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109
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: Swedish ASIC miner company kncminer.com
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on: September 20, 2016, 03:20:27 AM
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My understanding is that they closed up shop and sold the hardware in a "private" auction. The hardware was then bought back by KNC at said auction, i assume under a different company name or something. A few forum members found out and managed to get some for themselves. Id assume the hardware is still mining for KNC but in a private pool or solo somewhere.
Shoot, it looks like you are correct. I am not seeing any drop in the hashrate, and it looks like they might be mining with simply a new and unidentified address as there is a big jump in the blocks by "Unknown": https://blockchain.info/blocks/UnknownUm... even if they werent sold to KNC(or repurchased by KNC) then whomever purchased them would undoubtedly be hashing w/ them as well. So, hashrate wouldnt change either way. |
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111
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: Hacking KNC Neptune / Jupiter / Titan miners back to life. Why not?
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on: September 03, 2016, 05:13:09 PM
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I dont think the dies themselves even have the hardware(thermistor) to even read die temps. Ive never received factual evidence of this and obviously KNC hasnt coded for it so... I doubt such mechanism exist ... in reality we dont know the actual die temps under that heatsink.
Meaning ... a heatsink could be not mounted correctly and we would never know it outside of stability issues / burning spots on the PCB for certain dies.
It really sucks ... if someone wants to poke n prod and knows more low level code than myself .. go for it =) ... maybe something can be discovered and there may be a thermistor for each die, but at this point I highly doubt it.
I think this must be my problem. It makes no sense in my brain that all 4 dies can run at 250mh but if I put them at 300mh they shutoff. In my brain either something is broken or not. So if they are not 100% broken, then why can they not run at 300mh. The only logical explanation is something is getting too hot that isn't being monitored by the software. And it shuts off dies when they get too hot, even though the Temps in the software are really low. Either that or something is short circuiting when they get too hot. I felt the copper heatsink tubes and they are all pretty cool. Right now my temps are at 47C and 65C DCDC average temp. And 42C and 54 DCDC average temp on the cube running at 250mh. The last thing I may try is to see if the cover plate for the heatsink that goes over the copper tubes is too tall. Ideally you have an aluminum plate that goes over the copper section that makes contact with the CPU. And this should be the same height as the copper tubes. Something like this # = Aluminum plate | O = Copper heatsink tubes ###### #OOOO# But if this plate is too high or the copper is too short, then maybe the copper isn't touching the CPU properly. ###### #OOOO# # # <with a gap at the bottom, if that makes sense> If you touch the actual heatpipes on the heatsink near the base and they feel COOL..... then heat is DEFINITELY NOT being transferred to them from the ASIC ... meaning the ASIC could be EASILY OVERHEATING. You want the pipes to feel warm / hot ... thats evidence of good heat transfer away from the ASIC. |
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112
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: CUSTOM KNC TITAN FIRMWARE! based off KNC's v2.00
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on: September 03, 2016, 04:53:13 PM
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after i tried couple things i was able to run 5 cubes on one titan. I flashed sd with factory 2.0 then i upgraded to 1.0.4tarkin and restored to factory settings if i remember correctly otherwise it had problems with starting all die's and fell in the restart loop. Upgrading bfgminer occured some problems so i didnt do it this time. I was wrong when i thought that 5.4.2 fixes the asic temp missing.
I will try further with other units. Meanwhile probably one of my 2000BB burned/overheated while running 5 cubes.
So, I was wondering ... is there any chance you can try loading an SD card w/ KNC2.00 -> KNC2.02 -> my firmware 1.0.4 and see if it works? I dont have a Titan physically, so its very difficult to test the version combinations =/ Im confused as to what you said doesnt work... did KNC2.02 come loaded on the miner when you received it and u flashed my 1.0.4 ... then it did not work? Or did you mix my bfgminer5.4.2 installer in there as well? Cuz, KNC2.02 -> GenTarkin 1.0.4 should not cause any problems ... even if it did , it should be clearable w/ the factory defaults options. I would like to just figure out what all happened. Or ... maybe its just bad luck and all variability / coincidence ... that would seem to be Searings experience =P |
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113
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: CUSTOM KNC TITAN FIRMWARE! based off KNC's v2.00
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on: September 03, 2016, 05:37:17 AM
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I see KNC actually posted a .bin upgrade file now. After comparing differences between 2.00 and 2.02, looks like the changes are accurate against their github source ... so Im confused as to why its not working for you guys. My firmware 1.0.4 doesnt overwrite any files which are different from 2.00 to 2.02 so everything should work exactly the same. Let me ask, did you guys use my bfgminer5.4.2 upgrade patch?  BECAUSE that *could* cause issues ... bfgminer 5.4.2 is already part of 2.02 so, u wouldnt need to install my patch for bfgminer5.4.2/v2.02 changes If indeed you did install my patch, I would say ... try the 5.4.2 uninstaller(not sure what affect this will have on 2.02 firmware) so... if that doesnt work correctly, then reimage back to knc 2.02 from another pi which as the image on it OR if you dont have the original knc2.02 handy then.... You can flash full 2.00 image to sd card, then knc2.02, then my firmware(but not my bfg542 patch) ... see if it works then. If not, then the last step would be to flash full 2.00 image, install my firmware, then install my bfgminer542 patch(which brings it up to knc2.02 as well) ... that should work .. 98% certain =) |
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114
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: Hacking KNC Neptune / Jupiter / Titan miners back to life. Why not?
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on: September 01, 2016, 02:19:05 AM
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I noticed in PUTTY that Die Temps dont show up in there. It has a section for it called "hottest temperature", but its blank. I heard that KNC didn't program WAAS drivers or something to retrieve the die temps.
I dont think the dies themselves even have the hardware(thermistor) to even read die temps. Ive never received factual evidence of this and obviously KNC hasnt coded for it so... I doubt such mechanism exist ... in reality we dont know the actual die temps under that heatsink. Meaning ... a heatsink could be not mounted correctly and we would never know it outside of stability issues / burning spots on the PCB for certain dies. It really sucks ... if someone wants to poke n prod and knows more low level code than myself .. go for it =) ... maybe something can be discovered and there may be a thermistor for each die, but at this point I highly doubt it. hey tarkin where you been hiding? the stability issues of an improperly mounted heatsink, are pretty flagrant -- The usual culprit is the alignment pins not in the holes, but if you catch it quick you'll be ok. I imagine the fan failure code will shut the dies off, but I haven't tried it and I double check before closing a cube up, it's an easy mistake if you're in a hurry The fan failure trip is all circumstantial. It uses the TEMP difference of the DCDC's as a determination factor in a possibly dead fan. Theres nothing that Ive seen to detect actual fan failure. Keep in mind this is completely seperate from the temp of the dies(since we have no way of reading the die temp). As for where Ive been lately, lotsa life stuff going on. Was laid off few months back due to business closure then couple weeks later notified I had to move out in 90 days because owner wanted to sell where I was living, so the past couple months has been all about finding a new job and place to live. Luckily it all worked out. Just finished moving into my new place.... now time to unpack which will take a while as well. LOL! |
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115
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: Hacking KNC Neptune / Jupiter / Titan miners back to life. Why not?
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on: August 31, 2016, 02:34:27 PM
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I noticed in PUTTY that Die Temps dont show up in there. It has a section for it called "hottest temperature", but its blank. I heard that KNC didn't program WAAS drivers or something to retrieve the die temps.
I dont think the dies themselves even have the hardware(thermistor) to even read die temps. Ive never received factual evidence of this and obviously KNC hasnt coded for it so... I doubt such mechanism exist ... in reality we dont know the actual die temps under that heatsink. Meaning ... a heatsink could be not mounted correctly and we would never know it outside of stability issues / burning spots on the PCB for certain dies. It really sucks ... if someone wants to poke n prod and knows more low level code than myself .. go for it =) ... maybe something can be discovered and there may be a thermistor for each die, but at this point I highly doubt it. |
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116
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: CUSTOM KNC TITAN FIRMWARE! based off KNC's v2.00
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on: August 30, 2016, 09:18:58 PM
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One thing you guys could try is setting the Titan to factory defaults on SYSTEM TAB and ADVANCED TAB after upgrading to my firmware when using more than 4 cubes on the controllers. Perhaps theres some configuration bug somewhere. But my firmware works fine w/ pre 2.02 builds and more than 4 cubes so not sure what the cause of the issue is.
Like I stated, its likely theres something far different in KNC's stock 2.02 firmware thats not on their github version of it and my firmware is overwriting it. If thats the case and everyone upgrades (meaning theres no stock image left) then I cant start anywhere w/ fixing it.
Have you guys looked at controller or bridge boards and see if they have different versions between the old Titans and new(old stock) ones you guys got??
Also, their knc2.02 linux version may be different and that adds another variable as well.
I still have yet to receive log files from anyone.
Got so little time as im working dayshift, i will try to do as much as i can today, and send You logs. If You want i can make img of this stock 2.02 and put it somewhere for You. what u could do is start w/ making an archive of the /home/pi folder. And i can do a code compare. Then u can make a complete .bin image of the stock 2.02 and send it to me via btsync(ill pm u info) later when i get a chance. May be a day or so. |
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117
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: CUSTOM KNC TITAN FIRMWARE! based off KNC's v2.00
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on: August 30, 2016, 09:16:23 PM
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POLL:
Based off of ... I believe lightfoot's recommendation ...
For my next release, who would find a "cable / connector life saver" option valuable?
Basically it would be an algorithm to guestimate how much power is being drawn through each PSU cable assuming the Y connector & 2 PSU cables are present, per cube.
The algo would then take into account current draw per DCDC & overall watts & possibly even temps guestimated by the cube and then drop the clocks down until the power usage would be below 140-150w per cable coming off the cube.
This would of course make the Titan slower but far less risk of burning cables.
I really dont know how valuable such an option will ultimately be, because I know most miners just want to push these things as hard as they will go and when stuff does burn up, just replace and move on.
So, may be a lot of work for nothing really. But its an interesting idea =P
Very interesting indeed I would find this "cable / connector life saver" option valuable. Is this planned in your next release? I never did code this up because of way to many variables that can cause cable burn that i cant account for in code. Also, no matter how u dice it up, the single pcie connector on cube board is responsible for way to much current, it could burn under any circumstance where heat is high enough. To keep that within spec these titans would have to run at near half speed and noone wants that. |
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118
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: CUSTOM KNC TITAN FIRMWARE! based off KNC's v2.00
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on: August 30, 2016, 02:33:31 PM
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One thing you guys could try is setting the Titan to factory defaults on SYSTEM TAB and ADVANCED TAB after upgrading to my firmware when using more than 4 cubes on the controllers. Perhaps theres some configuration bug somewhere. But my firmware works fine w/ pre 2.02 builds and more than 4 cubes so not sure what the cause of the issue is.
Like I stated, its likely theres something far different in KNC's stock 2.02 firmware thats not on their github version of it and my firmware is overwriting it. If thats the case and everyone upgrades (meaning theres no stock image left) then I cant start anywhere w/ fixing it.
Have you guys looked at controller or bridge boards and see if they have different versions between the old Titans and new(old stock) ones you guys got??
Also, their knc2.02 linux version may be different and that adds another variable as well.
I still have yet to receive log files from anyone.
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120
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Alternate cryptocurrencies / Mining (Altcoins) / Re: CUSTOM KNC TITAN FIRMWARE! based off KNC's v2.00
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on: August 29, 2016, 02:41:04 PM
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For anyone having issues w/ KNC 2.02 packaged Titans received from KNC lately. Please email me the logs using the save log button on ADVANCED page. Use the links on my website http://gentarkincustomtitan.pcriot.com to email them to me. Also, it seems to be a pattern of unplugging one cube makes it magically work?? If thats the case, how many cubes are you guys using per controller? Also, what version of my firmware are you trying to use on your Titans. My older copy of v99e most likely wont work, because it overwrites a lot of stuff thats in knc2.02 w/ older files. The newer version of my firmware 1.0.4 should work as shown by Searings experience. So, if you are using my older firmware ... it will be time to upgrade or stay stuck on stock KNC 2.02 |
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