Hacking KNC Titan / Jupiter / Neptune miners back to life. Why not?

[lightfoot]

Meantime I've dragged out the scope from the basement and have verified that the Qberty boards with the trace cut so they don't short still do not put out any signal regardless of crystal frequency. Getting closer though, will figure this out.

C

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[lightfoot]

Oh for fuck's sake, it just hit me: It's not a crystal alone, it's a crystal oscillator! That's why the 3.3v supply goes into it and the ground is there on both pins, it's a whole oscillator circuit.

Now to buy some stuff at Digikey. I got it now.

C

[Searing]

compiling bfgminer should probably look something like this:

Code:

./configure --enable-scrypt --disable-sha256d --enable-titan --disable-other-drivers

So this BBB stuff is going no place I gather? (so sad)

Oh for fuck's sake, it just hit me: It's not a crystal alone, it's a crystal oscillator! That's why the 3.3v supply goes into it and the ground is there on both pins, it's a whole oscillator circuit.

Now to buy some stuff at Digikey. I got it now.

C

yea.....(thou why I would need 3 now is debatable) but...muted...yea! anyway (grumble..frigging titans..frigging ltc price ..frigging titans hate prohashing....kicks cat (ceramic) )

[lightfoot]

compiling bfgminer should probably look something like this:

Code:

./configure --enable-scrypt --disable-sha256d --enable-titan --disable-other-drivers

So this BBB stuff is going no place I gather? (so sad)

Been too busy working on other things to work on the BBB code. Part of the reason I posted my notes here, someone else can work on it in parallel.

This is a lot of work to do here to try and figure this stuff out.

[LongAndShort]

compiling bfgminer should probably look something like this:

Code:

./configure --enable-scrypt --disable-sha256d --enable-titan --disable-other-drivers

So this BBB stuff is going no place I gather? (so sad)

I'm working on it mate.

[lightfoot]

Yeah, just takes some prodding. BBB set up again code doesn't work, mailed the guy who might be able to help. We'll see.

C

[lightfoot]

Found it. The problem with Qberty's boards was that they had crystals mounted on them instead of oscillators. Using the Digi-Key 300-8253-1-nd 24.576mhz oscillator I'm able to fix a Qberty board, see Titans, and hash happily.

This was one of the harder ways to make .1btc, took a good bit to get it figured out. Wish Qberty had just said what was wrong, but that wouldn't be as much fun.

So if you have a 2.0 berty board and need it working drop me a line.

Still no reply to questions on getting the BeagleBones working with Titans, but this will help keep em running.

C

[LongAndShort]

Found it. The problem with Qberty's boards was that they had crystals mounted on them instead of oscillators. Using the Digi-Key 300-8253-1-nd 24.576mhz oscillator I'm able to fix a Qberty board, see Titans, and hash happily.

This was one of the harder ways to make .1btc, took a good bit to get it figured out. Wish Qberty had just said what was wrong, but that wouldn't be as much fun.

So if you have a 2.0 berty board and need it working drop me a line.

Still no reply to questions on getting the BeagleBones working with Titans, but this will help keep em running.

C

Wow good on you. Its good to see you get a win!

[lightfoot]

Yes, I am a LIVING GOD! Titan works on BB.....

[LongAndShort]

Oh, wow this is exciting!!! You are amazing, the picture of that board is sexy!

Two wins in feburary, go you lightfoot.

[lightfoot]

Yeah it's been a good time this month, and thanks for banging on me to make it work.

Here is what I needed to do:

The key was in talking to a developer who said "I don't think you're using the right spimux.rbf". Well, I was, I had spimux.rbf in /etc linked to the spimux-titan.rbf over in home/pi/knc-asic/  However digging through the files I found that program-fpga was picking up from /home/pi, NOT /etc. Thus it was picking up the neptune code. So I deleted it, linked the titan code to spimux.rbf in /home/pi/knc-asic and WAAS finally worked.

Still no cube, went to bed. Next morning I fired up putty, turned on full logging and found this in the error logs.

[2017-02-28 16:41:37] KnC transport: Can not open SPI device /dev/spidev0.0: No such file or directory
 [2017-02-28 16:41:37] KnC transport: Can not open SPI device /dev/spidev0.0: No such file or directory
 [2017-02-28 16:41:37] KnC transport: Can not open SPI device /dev/spidev0.0: No such file or directory
 [2017-02-28 16:41:37] KnC transport: Can not open SPI device /dev/spidev0.0: No such file or directory

Of course. Once again the code is hard wired to use the Rpi numbering scheme which goes from spidev0 even though the bbb starts at spidev1.0. So another ln....

ln -s /dev/spidev1.0 /dev/spidev0.0

Fire up bfgminer and up it comes.....

 bfgminer 5.4.2-titan-2.02 - Start: [2017-02-28 22:27:44] - [  0 days 00:26:21]
 [M]anage devices [P]ool management Settings [D]isplay options  [H]elp [Q]uit
 Pool 0: us.litecoinpool.or  Diff:125m  +Strtm  LU:[22:54:04]  User: 111.1
 Block: ...73be070473a1fe38  Diff:99k (708.9G)  Started: [22:54:04]  I:?
 ST:21  F:0  NB:17  AS:0  BW:[ 26/ 14 B/s]  E:0.67  BS:104
 1/4          | 50.44/54.90/54.80Mh/s | A:168 R:1+0(.59%) HW:20/.39%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 KNC 0:       | 48.93/55.01/54.90Mh/s | A:170 R:1+0(.58%) HW:21/.40%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [2017-02-28 22:52:02] Accepted 0007e16f KNC 0b Diff 126m/125m
 [2017-02-28 22:52:03] Pool 0 stale share detected, submitting as user requested

 [2017-02-28 22:52:03] Accepted 00030374 KNC 0d Diff 331m/125m
 [2017-02-28 22:52:05] Accepted 0007f539 KNC 0a Diff 125m/125m
 [2017-02-28 22:52:08] Accepted 0003abfc KNC 0b Diff 272m/125m
 [2017-02-28 22:52:13] Accepted 0007a089 KNC 0b Diff 131m/12

So that's how you do it. Do the steps I outlined in the first post, make sure spimux.rbf in /home/pi/knc-asic is titan code, fix the links and you are off to the races. Note the /dev/ links and the /var/run links have to be recreated every reboot so stick them in i2c-loop or something.

Cost for this? If you find this valuable, drop me a tip at: 16spS7JmUUKuuQxK84tA4NRWbVaG877Ci9  . It was a good bit of work to figure this out, but I'm glad Titan owners now have an alternative when the Pi's start to blow up.

C

[Searing]

Anyone on here want to 'compile' this or anything linux wise you need to do to get me a copy (or on here) that is simple to set up?

Me ..the last thing I coded was applesoft BASIC in 1979 I think it was...I got as far as the LOOP command and quit and never looked back

IF someone can get me something to try..WITH lightfoots qberty bridge board fix..I'll have 5 controllers (pi) then and enough beagle bones

and jupiters left to play with an install

then perhaps...once the above is done...I can then link the file on here I used from above (making it idiot proof for me)

and then I can further make instructions on how to use that file and/or my results

(yes I am that lame...the .bin file install from KNC had me confused for days back in 2013 on the first update)

we also serve who have no coding skills.....but I can play minon and put the stuff on a couple cards and test

reply here and/or pm me if anyone hacks together something a novice can get up on an SD card

brad


edit: gen tarkin you on? in on this action? ....setup a a donation page for lightfoot and then do your own magic on the GUI and or your other tweaks for a bit of $$$ on your page
for this version ....I myself think lightfoot should get some compensation for this but he seems firm on the pm it is not needed..still giving him a donation link and a jump off
point to port your tarky titan stuff to a BBB would be kinda keen....thou having a mess of 1 cube units using BBB's  whirlying about the house may be a bit of overkill

When it rains it pours

[lightfoot]

Note to all: If you're sending me equipment please drop me a PM with the tracking number so I can know what to expect and when. I use the tracking numbers to keep track of the various work I'm doing here.

Never dull....

[kncler]

Hi, got some titans as well, and one of them is a black sheep, since 2 summers ago I left my miners in the summer for 3 weeks while I was on vacation in the attic at 60°C (of course where I went was bad weather and @ home the best clear sky sun all day  )

They survived lucky me, but two cubes of them got some issues, regading the asics.

Whenever a block is found or credited I'm loosing 2 DC/DC Units and the miner starts generating false shares. Then I have to take power away let it sit for a minute and power back on and all of a sudden all DC/DC units are back.
Also I can not activate one singe pair of DC/DC Units in one cube at all so I shut it off, so no false shares are generated.

What do you think what I can do? I did not open my cubes at all yes

all the best
kncler

[lightfoot]

Hi, got some titans as well, and one of them is a black sheep, since 2 summers ago I left my miners in the summer for 3 weeks while I was on vacation in the attic at 60°C (of course where I went was bad weather and @ home the best clear sky sun all day  )

They survived lucky me, but two cubes of them got some issues, regading the asics.

Whenever a block is found or credited I'm loosing 2 DC/DC Units and the miner starts generating false shares. Then I have to take power away let it sit for a minute and power back on and all of a sudden all DC/DC units are back.
Also I can not activate one singe pair of DC/DC Units in one cube at all so I shut it off, so no false shares are generated.

What do you think what I can do? I did not open my cubes at all yes

all the best
kncler

What is the temps on the cube that throws the errors. If the CPU temps are shooting up quickly past 40-45c, you might have an issue with the thermal interface between die and heat sink. Removing the heat sink, cleaning off all the old compound, putting a thin layer of new HS compound on, then putting back on the sink could fix things.

Another possibility is the chip got hot enough underneath to de-flow the solder a bit. Solution there would be a reflow but that is hard to do.

Another possibility: Have you tried running that die at a slightly higher voltage and lower (like 100mhz) clock speed? You might be able to pick up a few MH that way without fixing anything else, probably the most economical option.

Meantime run your cubes at 60-70mh and not full bore at 80. Helps them to last longer.

C

[kncler]

Hi, thanks for info.

1) I took a look with a torchlight and found that a lot of dust will come to my attention if I will open them up
2) Some cables went brown and have decent temperature, also some plugs are melted together iiiiiiihhhh.
3) They are in such a bad, dark and spidery location that I do not want to touch them (but I have to)

Actions for me to take:

1) I will take one by one off grid, dismantle them and redo a couple of things like:
        a) clean/wash the boards and all components included heatsinks
        b) New thermal compound
        c) Maybe new MC14 BGA Memory Heatsinks for the DC/DC converters

2) Think about:
       a) another cooling solution: silent and all covered: got something in my mind -> NOVEC 649
       b) another power solution: PC Power supplies suck the hell out of my patience. One On/Off cycle takes 2min to depower them totally to get my DCDC's back -> possible a Meanwell 12V 1200W or such ...
           wondering if such a PSU will do? https://de.aliexpress.com/item/Best-quality-output-12V-125A-1500W-Switching-Power-Supply-Driver-for-LED-Strip-AC-110v-or/32689983532.html?spm=2114.010208.8.18.KgfAb7 since I don't know how great the tolerance on KNC's Miner Cubes are?
       c) Solder golden connectors (MOLEX) to the boards to reduce conducting resistance (something I need to know before I do it?) http://www.mouser.at/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=172064-0006virtualkey53850000virtualkey538-172064-0006 Will do?
      
Btw: here is the evidence of what I have, just in case if I did not explain myself.
https://image.ibb.co/mca15a/KNCAdvanced.png

Another thing: What voltage do you want me to try to set? and which direction less/more now I have -0.0366. More less or more more, please specify the value ! Thx


All the best
KNCLER
Tried to bind in the image but couldn't do it. Also hyperlinks some short descriptions?

[lightfoot]

That temp in the pics is not bad. Try running die 0 with slightly more voltage (-.02something) and 50mhz. Then try 100.

Or shut down that die and run the other three at full speed (325). Reason is the weak point is the power connector; it melts and burns at over 60-65mh. But you can run three dies at full speed if the fourth is dead. I don't recommend running all 4 dies at full speed, all 4 at 250-275 is more than enough for long and happy lives.

Clean out the units. I recommend using isopropyl alcohol in a little sprayer (95%) with Q-tips to clean the crap out. Someone once sent me miners that were running in a barn, I cleaned those in my shed as I didn't want European horse crap in my house :-)

I like Corsair 750 watt supplies myself, one per cube. You can run 2 cubes on a supply, but that's it.

Replace burned plugs. If the plug burns the resistance goes up and eventually it goes open circuit. If the neutral opens before the positive side does then the miner will pull full power from your control lines and the signal ground on the 10 pin connector. This will ruin your miner, controller, and possibly other miners on the same power supply. Very bad, big hellacious mess.

The Molex plugs are a bitch to replace, the trick is you must pre-heat the board, then tin the solder with lead, then remove the pins, suck out the solder, and put new plugs in. I kind of like the gold plated plugs, that's an interesting idea. I can swap them for .12 btc each. Note if you just use an iron you risk de-laminating the interconnects on the board and wrecking the miner.

C

[zimbo123]

Hello lightfoot,

i have a Special Job for you, i hope you can help me. I have a Titan Miner with at the Moment 2 connected cubes.
The first Cube is dead, in the second cube are 2 Dies "flapping".
I already set it to factory Default, i started with 50 MHz, but no success.
The boards are clean, no burning, nothing. I also replaced the thermal compound and i wasn't chintzy with it 

Here are the screenshots
http://imgur.com/XgKW210


Best regards

Zimbo

[lightfoot]

Hello lightfoot,

i have a Special Job for you, i hope you can help me. I have a Titan Miner with at the Moment 2 connected cubes.
The first Cube is dead, in the second cube are 2 Dies "flapping".
I already set it to factory Default, i started with 50 MHz, but no success.
The boards are clean, no burning, nothing. I also replaced the thermal compound and i wasn't chintzy with it 

Here are the screenshots
http://imgur.com/XgKW210


Best regards

Zimbo

Might be able to fix the first cube and stabilize the second die. Send the boards on over, I'll take a look.

C

[zimbo123]

What should i Do?