Avalon ASIC users thread

[cypherdoc]

i have a basic question.  when you plug the avalon in does it automatically boot up or is there a separate on/off power switch?

reason i ask is b/c i was wondering if it makes sense to buy one of these for power outages or brownouts:
http://dataprobe.com/iboot-g2.php

[cedivad]

Not sure about your question (I don't see any external button). However, if you have more than 1, what you are looking for is a managed pdu. Maybe a scriptable one so that you don't have to interface with it externally

[tripper22]

I'm having a problem with my Avalon. It was mining without a restart for 16 hours and then it stopped. In the API log I get: Socket connect failed: Connection refused 4 times. I haven't changed anything and even after a few restarts it won't mine. I tried the latest firmware also. Any ideas?

Edit: I checked and reseated some of the cables and it's still the same.

[Aseras]

i have a basic question.  when you plug the avalon in does it automatically boot up or is there a separate on/off power switch?

reason i ask is b/c i was wondering if it makes sense to buy one of these for power outages or brownouts:
http://dataprobe.com/iboot-g2.php

It uses an atx power supply from a computer. It has an on off switch. You flip it on, it turns on.

[Aseras]

I'm having a problem with my Avalon. It was mining without a restart for 16 hours and then it stopped. In the API log I get: Socket connect failed: Connection refused 4 times. I haven't changed anything and even after a few restarts it won't mine. I tried the latest firmware also. Any ideas?

Edit: I checked and reseated some of the cables and it's still the same.

If you have yellow led, it means cgminer isn't running or there's a Fpga controller problem.

Check the USB hub, make sure it is all plugged in well. Try another port on the USB hub.

[tripper22]

I'm having a problem with my Avalon. It was mining without a restart for 16 hours and then it stopped. In the API log I get: Socket connect failed: Connection refused 4 times. I haven't changed anything and even after a few restarts it won't mine. I tried the latest firmware also. Any ideas?

Edit: I checked and reseated some of the cables and it's still the same.

If you have yellow led, it means cgminer isn't running or there's a Fpga controller problem.

Check the USB hub, make sure it is all plugged in well. Try another port on the USB hub.

Thanks Aseras and others. It seems fixed for now. Hopefully for good.

I was getting strange temp 3 readings yesterday. I bent the pins slightly on the p4 connector for the temp3 sensor because it felt loose in the socket even though it was plugged in fully. Now it's mining and i'm getting accurate temperature and fan speeds. I know that xempew had a similar problem, so that tipped me off. Maybe this will help someone else.

[cypherdoc]

i have a basic question.  when you plug the avalon in does it automatically boot up or is there a separate on/off power switch?

reason i ask is b/c i was wondering if it makes sense to buy one of these for power outages or brownouts:
http://dataprobe.com/iboot-g2.php

It uses an atx power supply from a computer. It has an on off switch. You flip it on, it turns on.

so if you had a power outage and the electricity came back on, sounds like the Avalon would just start back up on its own thus obviating the need for this unit?

http://dataprobe.com/iboot-g2.php

[opentoe]

Definitely have to have a UPS connected to protect the unit from surges and spikes. DO NOT trust a power strip. They will not protect your Avalon. A UPS will absorb surges and compensate to spikes...so your Avalon will constantly get clean unadulterated power.


http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1000G-JP&total_watts=600

[allinvain]

Definitely have to have a UPS connected to protect the unit from surges and spikes. DO NOT trust a power strip. They will not protect your Avalon. A UPS will absorb surges and compensate to spikes...so your Avalon will constantly get clean unadulterated power.


http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1000G-JP&total_watts=600

Careful there with UPSs that do not give sine wave output. APFC power supplies will trip their power protection circuitry and not work when fed with approximate sine wave (sawtooth) output.

I recommend the SmartUPS series or something that puts out pure sine wave.

Also in regards to the avalon unit coming back online from a power outage, sometimes that does not happen. Rarely what could happen is the unit will be left in a zombie like state because the control board did not initialize properly. For me this happened once when there was a brownout.

Oh, and for the record UPSs do NOT have stronger surge absorption capabilities than a good surge protector (varies of course on the quality of your surge protector). Hook the UPS up to a strong surge suppressor. Do NOT hook up a surge protector to a UPS.

[cypherdoc]

well, there's definitely a difference of opinion around here in regards to UPS.

both galambo and Death & Taxes have gone on record against UPS with these things.  you'd have to hunt about the details though in other threads.

[yxt]

think depends on where you live.
i am from EU, recent power outage was 5 or 10 years ago ...

[allinvain]

well, there's definitely a difference of opinion around here in regards to UPS.

both galambo and Death & Taxes have gone on record against UPS with these things.  you'd have to hunt about the details though in other threads.

Well I think the main problem with putting a UPS behind these things is that they're absolute power consumption monsters and it takes one beefy ass UPS to feed them for a reasonable amount of time - enough to last the average blackout.

I was thinking of getting some 1440 or 1500VA units. Haven't pulled the trigger yet though. Where did galambo and Death & Taxes discuss this?

[allinvain]

think depends on where you live.
i am from EU, recent power outage was 5 or 10 years ago ...

True, but more than often it's not about just the power going out but the quality of the power coming in. You can get some pretty shitty current sometimes, but a good power supply should compensate for this most of the times. As always, don't cheap out on the PSU (if you intend to replace the stock units).

[cypherdoc]

well, there's definitely a difference of opinion around here in regards to UPS.

both galambo and Death & Taxes have gone on record against UPS with these things.  you'd have to hunt about the details though in other threads.

Well I think the main problem with putting a UPS behind these things is that they're absolute power consumption monsters and it takes one beefy ass UPS to feed them for a reasonable amount of time - enough to last the average blackout.

I was thinking of getting some 1440 or 1500VA units. Haven't pulled the trigger yet though. Where did galambo and Death & Taxes discuss this?

here's D&T's response when i asked him this in a pm:

"Getting a UPS capable of handling that kind of wattage is going to be expensive plus all UPS add load and inefficiency.  If it were me I wouldn't be considering a UPS. "

[cypherdoc]

here's galambo:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=141880.msg1536863#msg1536863

[cypherdoc]

Also in regards to the avalon unit coming back online from a power outage, sometimes that does not happen. Rarely what could happen is the unit will be left in a zombie like state because the control board did not initialize properly. For me this happened once when there was a brownout.

would the control board respond to a ping in that situation from this device?  http://dataprobe.com/iboot-g2.php

[irritant]

Also in regards to the avalon unit coming back online from a power outage, sometimes that does not happen. Rarely what could happen is the unit will be left in a zombie like state because the control board did not initialize properly. For me this happened once when there was a brownout.

did you find a solution to fix when it gets in zombie like state? just reboot again?

[zero-asic]

Also in regards to the avalon unit coming back online from a power outage, sometimes that does not happen. Rarely what could happen is the unit will be left in a zombie like state because the control board did not initialize properly. For me this happened once when there was a brownout.

did you find a solution to fix when it gets in zombie like state? just reboot again?

I've had this problem a few times and had lots of trouble getting it to come back.  Restarting cgminer seemed to help, but sometimes I've had to restart it several times before it comes back to life.  The 4/10 NEXT firmware seems to be better about the zombie state.

[allinvain]

In my instance the zombie state was caused by a power outage - essentially a brownout. Power cycling the machine fixed that issue. I haven't ran into the zombie state being caused by firmware issues. However I am now running 4-10 which supposedly fixed this issue. So far I'm really happy with 4-10. I'm keeping a close eye on the HW errors and rejected shares to see if it has improved relative to previous firmware, but just by a quick glance (without doing any calculations) it seem that it has.

[allinvain]

Also in regards to the avalon unit coming back online from a power outage, sometimes that does not happen. Rarely what could happen is the unit will be left in a zombie like state because the control board did not initialize properly. For me this happened once when there was a brownout.

would the control board respond to a ping in that situation from this device?  http://dataprobe.com/iboot-g2.php

Bear in mind that router board (which runs the cgminer software and management front end) is NOT the control board. What I mean by the control board is the Spart6 FPGA board that takes the instructions from the cgminer software running on the router board and coverts that to work batches for the ASICS. The control board is the one with all the "IDE like" cables running out of it and to the individual hashing modules. The control board does not respond to ping requests because it is not accessible via any network protocols as it's attached to the router board via USB. The router board responds to ping request and I'd imagine it would also respond to ping request even if the mining software is not running or in some sort of locked up or crashed state. If the router's OS was completely down or broken then yes it would not respond to ping requests. The power control devices - dataprobe - are of limited use in this scenario. They are still useful for when you want to quickly power cycle the machine for whatever reason.

It would be neat if they made a 2 socket version of the iBoot-G2. The reason for 2 is that ideally you'd want 2 Avalon units per 15 Amp circuit. The one with multiple power sockets has only 1 power in cable.

Edit: Ooops..seems there is a iBoot-G2+ which allows you to control up to 3 power outlets. Neat!