AlcheMiner/MAT New Firmware and BFGMiner port!

[jstefanop]

UPDATE: Finished bfgminer port for these....between this and fpga firmware update they run full speed on almost any scrypt pool! PM me for details

I have been working on a big update to the Alcheminer / MAT excalibur over on litecointalk (I won't repost the whole thing here but you can read up here : https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=27370.0

Long story short I found a huge flaw in the FPGA firmware that drives these machines, and updated the FPGA code as well as the python driver code to support the new logic. I have the machines running at full speed (around 250MH up from stock firmware/driver of around 210-220) at around 8W/MH.

There are also a lot more driver updates including the ability to change clock rate and tweaks to the stratum proxy.

Now that I have had a few users test out the firmware and upgrade process I'm posting it on here in case anyone with these machines has not seen the liitecointalk discussion and wants to get a bit more performance out of these.

Shoot me a PM on here or litecointalk for more info! (same username).

[jstefanop]

Finished bfgminer driver for these PM me for more details!

[googa]

Is this miner the same thing as the Hashcoins Ares 256MHS miner? I have one of these and can't seem to get more than about 180MHS out of it. Thanks in advance.

[jstefanop]

Is this miner the same thing as the Hashcoins Ares 256MHS miner? I have one of these and can't seem to get more than about 180MHS out of it. Thanks in advance.

The only reseller of the Alcheminers I know about is Mining Asics Technologies (MAT). If you have pics of the outside/hashboards ill let you know for sure.

[jstefanop]

Is this miner the same thing as the Hashcoins Ares 256MHS miner? I have one of these and can't seem to get more than about 180MHS out of it. Thanks in advance.

After a little searching I came across this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=951075

So yes this is an exact copy of an Alcheminer....I guess these guys had more resellers than I thought..

The updated firmware and bfgminer driver should run on that no issue.

[jstefanop]

Update: Driver has been added to main branch of bfgminer and is synced with bgminer 5.4! Just PM me for the flasher file needed to flash the firmware for these systems to work with the bfgminer driver.

[GSpgh]

Huge thanks to jstefanop. With the firmware upgrade and bfgminer I got my Alcheminer running at 240 MH/s instead of 180 MH/s. Still experimenting with settings, some boards might need to be under/over clocked for best efficiency.

[MarkAz]

I'll add my little bit to the Alcheminer community on this - I just went through the process of installing Minera and getting it going on the Alcheminer; here's the exact steps:

Code:

sudo service apache2 stop
sudo apt-get remove apache2
sudo apt-get autoremove

sudo apt-get install -y lighttpd php5-cgi
sudo lighty-enable-mod fastcgi
sudo lighty-enable-mod fastcgi-php
sudo service lighttpd force-reload

sudo apt-get install -y redis-server git screen php5-cli php5-curl

cd /var/www
sudo git clone https://github.com/michelem09/minera

cd minera
sudo chmod 777 conf

sudo ./install_minera.sh
sudo ./upgrade_minera.sh

sudo nano build_miner.sh

Replace the contents of BFGMINER_CONFIG with "CFLAGS=-O3 --enable-scrypt --enable-alchemist --disable-other-drivers --enable-broad-udevrules"

Code:

sudo ./build_miner.sh bfgminer

sudo nano /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

Go in and change the contents of server.document-root to "/var/www/minera"

Code:

sudo service lighttpd force-reload

Now the one tricky part, you need to replace JSON_PRETTY_PRINT with 128, you can search to find the files using this string:

Code:

grep -r --include \*.php "JSON_PRETTY_PRINT" .

As of right now, that's these files (ignore matches in the logs directory):

application/models/util_model.php
application/controllers/app.php
application/views/settings.php

-------

With that, you'll have an install of Minera that actually works well, and is running the latest BFGMiner as well.

Here are my settings in Minera:

Select LTC/BTC as your Altcoin Price
Data tables set to 10 (shows all the blades)
Section panels, all off except Local Miner, Local Pools, Shares Chart, System Load and Hashrates chart
Pool Settings - add your pools
Local Miner - select BFGMiner
Set to Manual
Turn on "Append JSON conf"
In manual options, set it to this: "--scrypt -S ALC:all -S ALC:/dev/ttyO1 -S ALC:/dev/ttyO2 -S ALC:/dev/ttyO3 -S ALC:/dev/ttyO4 --set ALC:clock=336"
on API Allow, add "W:0/0"
Miner Autorecover on
Miner Superuser on
Set your system hostname to whatever
Set your timezone to whatever

-------

And now you have a nice and fancy updated interface to go with that spiffy firmware jstefanop did!

[Marvell1]

I'll add my little bit to the Alcheminer community on this - I just went through the process of installing Minera and getting it going on the Alcheminer; here's the exact steps:



Replace the contents of BFGMINER_CONFIG with "CFLAGS=-O3 --enable-scrypt --enable-alchemist --disable-other-drivers --enable-broad-udevrules"

Code:

sudo ./build_miner.sh bfgminer

sudo nano /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

Go in and change the contents of server.document-root to "/var/www/minera"

Code:

sudo service lighttpd force-reload

Now the one tricky part, you need to replace JSON_PRETTY_PRINT with 128, you can search to find the files using this string:

Code:

grep -r --include \*.php "JSON_PRETTY_PRINT" .

As of right now, that's these files (ignore matches in the logs directory):

application/models/util_model.php
application/controllers/app.php
application/views/settings.php

-------

With that, you'll have an install of Minera that actually works well, and is running the latest BFGMiner as well.

Here are my settings in Minera:

Select LTC/BTC as your Altcoin Price
Data tables set to 10 (shows all the blades)
Section panels, all off except Local Miner, Local Pools, Shares Chart, System Load and Hashrates chart
Pool Settings - add your pools
Local Miner - select BFGMiner
Set to Manual
Turn on "Append JSON conf"
In manual options, set it to this: "--scrypt -S ALC:all -S ALC:/dev/ttyO1 -S ALC:/dev/ttyO2 -S ALC:/dev/ttyO3 -S ALC:/dev/ttyO4 --set ALC:clock=336"
on API Allow, add "W:0/0"
Miner Autorecover on
Miner Superuser on
Set your system hostname to whatever
Set your timezone to whatever

-------

And now you have a nice and fancy updated interface to go with that spiffy firmware jstefanop did!

I'm stuck at the bolded step, got minera installed I cant find and BFGMINER_CONFIG file in the minera folder

and also

Code:

sudo ./build_miner.sh bfgminer

all that is done in the minera folder ? I already have BFGMIner instlled using jstephanop's instructions are we doing a brand new install of bfgminer here ?

[Marvell1]

NM if I missed the nano editor command , that's where the config details are at sorry skipped that line

I'll continue the process and let you know how it goes thanks !

p.s it does look like a new install of bfgminer is occurring on the next like where you do the install.

would it be possible to just change the miner source path and other settings in the config file instead of re-installing BFGminer from scratch ?

[MarkAz]

I'm stuck at the bolded step, got minera installed I cant find and BFGMINER_CONFIG file in the minera folder

and also

Code:

sudo ./build_miner.sh bfgminer

all that is done in the minera folder ? I already have BFGMIner instlled using jstephanop's instructions are we doing a brand new install of bfgminer here ?

It's not in the minera folder, it's inside the build_miner.sh, that's the nano command right before the bolded part.

As far as the build - that's correct - it builds all of this under the minera folder (as per their config).  It's using the latest release from the git repository, which has all of jstefanop changes in it.  One of the older writeups of getting Minera working had you copying the bfgminer from jstefanop steps into the custom miner folder - but I think this was done prior to him taking over scrypt support in bfgminer.

You could copy over and do the custom route if you don't want to build in that path - but I think that will be much more of a PIA to keep current - don't forget, this is integrated into the release of bfgminer now, and that change that you make to the build.miner.sh make it the same as his original build instructions.  On all of my devices, I don't install the older version anymore, just the latest git version.

It's runs amazingly well, and with the Minera interface is really an exceptional miner.

[Searing]

Don't have an alcheminer but used to like to watch the 'hack' and firmware thread over there at www.litecointalk.org

But now that it is GONE...litecointalk I mean..is there an area here on bitcointalk that has replaced this?

[Searing]

 Everything is on litecointalk.org BUT the actual firmware for the boards that you used ot PM to folk

can you get us a link to such..got a buddy wants to flash the works after slog'ing thru the old litecointalk org thread archive

(or anybody got a copy for that manner that did same..can you post such?)

[cisA]

Hello,

i followed the instruction on the ltc-talk and all works fine, but the file "Alche_FPGA_v2_flasher.svf" is missed. Kann anyone please sent or upload? I tryied few times to connect to jstefanop, but he dont want me rewrite.

Thank you!

[MarkAz]

i followed the instruction on the ltc-talk and all works fine, but the file "Alche_FPGA_v2_flasher.svf" is missed. Kann anyone please sent or upload? I tryied few times to connect to jstefanop, but he dont want me rewrite.

You need to buy it from him - he's the one who wrote the mod, etc.  I can't remember how much exactly it was, but he was responsive when I bought it a while back and it makes the machine run infinitely better, well worth the money.

[Searing]

i followed the instruction on the ltc-talk and all works fine, but the file "Alche_FPGA_v2_flasher.svf" is missed. Kann anyone please sent or upload? I tryied few times to connect to jstefanop, but he dont want me rewrite.

You need to buy it from him - he's the one who wrote the mod, etc.  I can't remember how much exactly it was, but he was responsive when I bought it a while back and it makes the machine run infinitely better, well worth the money.

yeah no joy....i know he is on litecointalk.io but he is not responding there ...got a buddy who also needs it bad..last step in the upgrade he is caught up on thread
with all the rest anyway for what it is worth you can try there ....if you find out anything let me know we planned to tip him anyway.....but buying works..
www.litecointalk.io

[cisA]

Hello, after "grep -r --include \*.php "JSON_PRETTY_PRINT" ."  Minera goes dead.

I got this to run... and i think minera is trash for slowly processors. Very laggy, needs over 10min to save.
Commandline use is the best miningsoftware.

[jstefanop]

Hey sorry have been pretty busy lately....just pm me on here and ill get up to date to all the PMs I got. Bfgminer port is open source and is included in luke's official repo so its just a matter of downloading it. Like others said you do need to flash the boards with new firmware, and ill PM you the flash file you need for that. The instructions for it are detailed in the litecointalk thread.

[cisA]

Jstefanop, did you know about PWM Fancontrol with the Stockcontroler? Or try anything in this way? The Fans needed only 2 extra cables.  
An flat Temperaturesensor can easy put on... But can bfgminer driver read this signal?

[toptek]

i use minera every day with no lag btw jat i sent him a copy of the firmware free if he had paid me any thing i would given it to you i told him not to , i hope that was ok.


I'm using the new beta version  of Minera with the old version of minera as the software controller  right now with no issue sense the beta only supports network miners with API access not just CGMINER but will  do it all soon im told  .  with two script miners and bfg one is a AlcheMiner/MAT miner.  I'm even trying to get eth mining working with minera and windows that a lot of joy just getting the new minera to install on a windows box but poss if it's win 10 .



 i would post some SS of it in the new minera but not sure if the DEV wants me to yet, i asked .

with these settings

Code:

--scrypt -S ALC:all --set ALC:clock=320 --set ALC:mode=1 

and setting the difficulty to 8192 all the time ( i found anything lower or higher it doesn't like ) and hashes bad .

that's with all five boards flashed on a usb 3.0 hub with custom made cables and power cables from each board to the PSU, i had to many issue with the patch cables it had , it works great on any pool i use with minera.