Avalon ASIC users thread

[Polyatomic]

No such luck.  But as if on cue, Avalon got back to me and gave me some things to try opening up the box.  They want me to direct connect the FPGA hub to my laptop and see if I can get it to hash.  They are thinking the router is flawed.

Can you please post the procedure if you are successful.

[1714105279]

1714105279

[1714105279]

1714105279

[driksson]

I mean seriously, more than two units of avalon mini's is impossible in one room. They are like hot stones!
These chips cannot be over 375mhz for sure..

I was thinking of leading the hot air from the units with one of these aluminium "tubes" anyone have experience doing this? I have a window slightly open, but the room is still heating up, and the units default at 350mhz running on 50dgrs.. (i dont really care about the heat, its more the noise and the power draw i care about, and by releasing hot air, keeping them cool, should increase speed and lower heat..).

something like this maybe?
http://www.directindustry.com/prod/yang-chiuan-industrial-co-ltd/aluminum-coated-galvanised-steel-fabric-hoses-88137-894785.html

Aluminium coated galvanised steel fabric hose. 130dgr+ ok.

[waterboi92]

one of my mini's has died!

i woke up to find it had 0gh/s on the pool so i logged in to try to reboot from the interface. rebooting didnt help so i just turned off the device, waited 10 mins and tried to turn on again.

when i turned on the fans went on for a bit as usual when you turn on, but then i smelled strong scent of something being burnt. i then switched off and waited about an hr to try again, this time the fan doesnt even turn and then i see some gray smoke coming out from the air exit area, i have shut it off and pulled the plug right now, anyone have this happen to them before? what are the possibilities?

do you guys think i can fix this and have it run again?

please help me troubleshoot!

i was running 0821 firmware at 400mhz.

[allinvain]

one of my mini's has died!

i woke up to find it had 0gh/s on the pool so i logged in to try to reboot from the interface. rebooting didnt help so i just turned off the device, waited 10 mins and tried to turn on again.

when i turned on the fans went on for a bit as usual when you turn on, but then i smelled strong scent of something being burnt. i then switched off and waited about an hr to try again, this time the fan doesnt even turn and then i see some gray smoke coming out from the air exit area, i have shut it off and pulled the plug right now, anyone have this happen to them before? what are the possibilities?

do you guys think i can fix this and have it run again?

please help me troubleshoot!

i was running 0821 firmware at 400mhz.

I had the same thing happen with two of my batch 3 units. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to fix this unless you can isolate specifically what part on the PCB died and replace it. This would require some skills that not everyone posses. If it's a blown capacitor it might be a lot easier to fix.

I am hoping that the Avalon team would introduce Avalon modules with their new 55nm chips so I can just swap the old cards with new ones, but who knows if and when this will happen.

 

[waterboi92]

one of my mini's has died!

i woke up to find it had 0gh/s on the pool so i logged in to try to reboot from the interface. rebooting didnt help so i just turned off the device, waited 10 mins and tried to turn on again.

when i turned on the fans went on for a bit as usual when you turn on, but then i smelled strong scent of something being burnt. i then switched off and waited about an hr to try again, this time the fan doesnt even turn and then i see some gray smoke coming out from the air exit area, i have shut it off and pulled the plug right now, anyone have this happen to them before? what are the possibilities?

do you guys think i can fix this and have it run again?

please help me troubleshoot!

i was running 0821 firmware at 400mhz.

I had the same thing happen with two of my batch 3 units. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to fix this unless you can isolate specifically what part on the PCB died and replace it. This would require some skills that not everyone posses. If it's a blown capacitor it might be a lot easier to fix.

I am hoping that the Avalon team would introduce Avalon modules with their new 55nm chips so I can just swap the old cards with new ones, but who knows if and when this will happen.

 

so should we refrain from running on 400mhz then? my mini is only 2 weeks old, if even that.

is 400mhz unsafe for mini to be running?

[pjcltd]

one of my mini's has died!

i woke up to find it had 0gh/s on the pool so i logged in to try to reboot from the interface. rebooting didnt help so i just turned off the device, waited 10 mins and tried to turn on again.

when i turned on the fans went on for a bit as usual when you turn on, but then i smelled strong scent of something being burnt. i then switched off and waited about an hr to try again, this time the fan doesnt even turn and then i see some gray smoke coming out from the air exit area, i have shut it off and pulled the plug right now, anyone have this happen to them before? what are the possibilities?

do you guys think i can fix this and have it run again?

please help me troubleshoot!

i was running 0821 firmware at 400mhz.

I had the same thing happen with two of my batch 3 units. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to fix this unless you can isolate specifically what part on the PCB died and replace it. This would require some skills that not everyone posses. If it's a blown capacitor it might be a lot easier to fix.

I am hoping that the Avalon team would introduce Avalon modules with their new 55nm chips so I can just swap the old cards with new ones, but who knows if and when this will happen.

 

so should we refrain from running on 400mhz then? my mini is only 2 weeks old, if even that.

is 400mhz unsafe for mini to be running?

I would not recommend running them over 375
i have 6 running at 375 and they all work fine no problems at all
and I'm still getting 56 Ghz on each

[smoothrunnings]

one of my mini's has died!

i woke up to find it had 0gh/s on the pool so i logged in to try to reboot from the interface. rebooting didnt help so i just turned off the device, waited 10 mins and tried to turn on again.

when i turned on the fans went on for a bit as usual when you turn on, but then i smelled strong scent of something being burnt. i then switched off and waited about an hr to try again, this time the fan doesnt even turn and then i see some gray smoke coming out from the air exit area, i have shut it off and pulled the plug right now, anyone have this happen to them before? what are the possibilities?

do you guys think i can fix this and have it run again?

please help me troubleshoot!

i was running 0821 firmware at 400mhz.

I had the same thing happen with two of my batch 3 units. Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to fix this unless you can isolate specifically what part on the PCB died and replace it. This would require some skills that not everyone posses. If it's a blown capacitor it might be a lot easier to fix.

I am hoping that the Avalon team would introduce Avalon modules with their new 55nm chips so I can just swap the old cards with new ones, but who knows if and when this will happen.

 

so should we refrain from running on 400mhz then? my mini is only 2 weeks old, if even that.

is 400mhz unsafe for mini to be running?

I would not recommend running them over 375
i have 6 running at 375 and they all work fine no problems at all
and I'm still getting 56 Ghz on each

You should really do the following if you plan to go over 375Mhz on these minis.

1. confirm they were shipped with 850W Gold PSU's
2. stick them in a cold place, like a cold room or your attic if you live in a city that gets snow this time of the year.

My mini's temps are: 16/47/39

[driksson]

yes, and stick to --avalon-auto, that will keep it focusing on NOT overheating..
I lowered mine to 360 yesterday as room was way to hot and chips running hot aswell.
Cool ambient and dont stress your chips.
400mhz worked for those with extreme watercooling.
Remeber ,these chips are stock 280.. so even 375 is stretching them, the old avalons cannot run easily on 375, the new blades in the mini, can overclock "more stable" based on added/bettered covering heatsink.

[driksson]

Thanks I just did that rite before you answered and it seems to have picked up a little speed and stabilized some. Ill run it all night like this and see what happens. I think I may be pulling to much power off this breaker and that may be causing errors. I keep seeing the lights dim   Im going to move to another room.

while it's not very safe, it should not matter too much as most switched power supplies will adjust for a big swing in input voltage

After moving to another breaker and running for a few hours today Im still seeing crazy HW errors. I opened up the case and checked all my connections everything is nice and snug.

Avalon mini batch 2

Firmware 20130821
--avalon-auto
1h 20m 6s
60-53GH/s
2617 accepted    85 rejects  HW 850
Frequency 375 Fan1 4080     temps 27 49 47

32% HW errors is crazy high. Any suggestions?

Don't use --avalon-auto on your mini.

I run the same CK firmware version
--quiet
1d 6h 42m 38s
63GH/s
47954 accepted 116 rejects HW 13643
Frequency 400 Fan1 2400 / temps 20 49 42
HW% 0.8251

Stick the mini in a cool place, in your basement or a cold room (if you have one), or if you are like me and you live in Canada or Alaska put near a open window or door with the fan facing forward so it can pull the cool air through it.

why not --avalon-auto? works good for me. i want freq to drop if it overheats or hw increase..

[ste0024]

found module dead and unplug it and you can run again with only one module

my 4 mini work fine at 400 and little more 403mhz. only one at 398 because at 400 alot of hw.

[driksson]

found module dead and unplug it and you can run again with only one module

my 4 mini work fine at 400 and little more 403mhz. only one at 398 because at 400 alot of hw.

very very cool enviroment? you are not on --avalon-auto?
i'd say its stretching it unless its very cool..

[smoothrunnings]

found module dead and unplug it and you can run again with only one module

my 4 mini work fine at 400 and little more 403mhz. only one at 398 because at 400 alot of hw.

very very cool enviroment? you are not on --avalon-auto?
i'd say its stretching it unless its very cool..

Yes you need a cold environment to pull off 400Mhz and above, so why not get yourself one of those big freezers that DQ uses and stick your Avalon's in there? They deep freeze ice cream without its becoming stale, if you live in warm/hot place.

[ste0024]

found module dead and unplug it and you can run again with only one module

my 4 mini work fine at 400 and little more 403mhz. only one at 398 because at 400 alot of hw.

very very cool enviroment? you are not on --avalon-auto?
i'd say its stretching it unless its very cool..

in an uninsulated attic with wide open for 2 mini  and 2 -4 modules -- all 4 in wifi

and same setup in another an uninsulated attic with wide open -- all 4 with ethernet cable

all front window in the airstream

the temperature depends attics outdoor temperature

i can do a picture if you want and check temperature.

the better mini i have i set at 404mhz with 1.5% hw and rarely restard alone or by me. 2 other at 403mhz with 1.5% hw and one at 398mhz and 1.5hw

i prefer my mini 2 modules instead 4 modules for sure. better performance for sure and more stable. rarely restart alone.

i not use --avalon auto

[terrapinflyer]

System
Scheduled Tasks
Add these two:
0  */3 *   *   *     /etc/init.d/cgminer restart
0  20  *   *   *     /sbin/reboot

first one, will restart cgminer every three hours.
second will restart entire miner every 20 hours..
This way i have realised to keep some of my miners online better (those on wifi tend to lock and go m.i.a after a while).

Thanks, this has been working great for me. Its been keeping me ~1% HW and 65-70gh/s. I have the unit half out my window here in NorCal keeping it nice and cool. I think the auto restarts are helping keep the machine stable. Thanks again.

[Polyatomic]

Does anyone run 1 or more Avalon units with just the USB interface? I have 2 REDHASH clones and have had multiple problems with the TP-Link Adapters. I have changed them both already and still having issues with dropped connections and/or low packets.

I have removed the USB jumper, installed WinUSB, and have cgminer 3.5 configured for the following: "cgminer.exe --avalon-options 115200:32:10:45:328 -o http://pool:port -u username -p password"

Has anyone else tried this? If so, do you have better results that using the TP-Link adapter? I haven't made up my mind which way I want to continue to run my rigs. Would appreciate any input. Thanks

 zerocode: Did you get your machines working through direct USB ?. Can you please post a reply with details of the process ?. Did you use Zadig to install WinUSB ?(was it the latest version).

[smoothrunnings]

found module dead and unplug it and you can run again with only one module

my 4 mini work fine at 400 and little more 403mhz. only one at 398 because at 400 alot of hw.

very very cool enviroment? you are not on --avalon-auto?
i'd say its stretching it unless its very cool..

in an uninsulated attic with wide open for 2 mini  and 2 -4 modules -- all 4 in wifi

and same setup in another an uninsulated attic with wide open -- all 4 with ethernet cable

all front window in the airstream

the temperature depends attics outdoor temperature

i can do a picture if you want and check temperature.

the better mini i have i set at 404mhz with 1.5% hw and rarely restard alone or by me. 2 other at 403mhz with 1.5% hw and one at 398mhz and 1.5hw

i prefer my mini 2 modules instead 4 modules for sure. better performance for sure and more stable. rarely restart alone.

i not use --avalon auto

And your using the CK firmware? The 1.5% HW seems a bit high for 400Mhz, I get 0.8% on my Mini at 400Mhz.

[driksson]

found module dead and unplug it and you can run again with only one module

my 4 mini work fine at 400 and little more 403mhz. only one at 398 because at 400 alot of hw.

very very cool enviroment? you are not on --avalon-auto?
i'd say its stretching it unless its very cool..

in an uninsulated attic with wide open for 2 mini  and 2 -4 modules -- all 4 in wifi

and same setup in another an uninsulated attic with wide open -- all 4 with ethernet cable

all front window in the airstream

the temperature depends attics outdoor temperature

i can do a picture if you want and check temperature.

the better mini i have i set at 404mhz with 1.5% hw and rarely restard alone or by me. 2 other at 403mhz with 1.5% hw and one at 398mhz and 1.5hw

i prefer my mini 2 modules instead 4 modules for sure. better performance for sure and more stable. rarely restart alone.

i not use --avalon auto

what does the temp say?

[ste0024]

[Device Hardware%] => 1.2546


[Device Hardware%] => 1.5117


[Device Hardware%] => 1.5826


[Device Hardware%] => 1.8470

yes CK firmware i only use --quiet

[Xian01]

zerocode: Did you get your machines working through direct USB ?. Can you please post a reply with details of the process ?. Did you use Zadig to install WinUSB ?(was it the latest version).

 FWIW, I tried driving my Redhash unit over USB/Zadig with CGMiner, and it produced an undesirable amount of duplicate shares compared to running off the TP-Link's firmware. Not sure what I was doing wrong

[Odi]

I mean seriously, more than two units of avalon mini's is impossible in one room. They are like hot stones!
These chips cannot be over 375mhz for sure..

I was thinking of leading the hot air from the units with one of these aluminium "tubes" anyone have experience doing this? I have a window slightly open, but the room is still heating up, and the units default at 350mhz running on 50dgrs.. (i dont really care about the heat, its more the noise and the power draw i care about, and by releasing hot air, keeping them cool, should increase speed and lower heat..).

something like this maybe?
http://www.directindustry.com/prod/yang-chiuan-industrial-co-ltd/aluminum-coated-galvanised-steel-fabric-hoses-88137-894785.html

Aluminium coated galvanised steel fabric hose. 130dgr+ ok.

For a batch 3 avalon, I used the following parts:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Flow-14-in-x-6-in-to-8-in-Universal-Register-Box-with-Flange-RBF14X6X8/100154377

Obviously, find a register box that would fit your needs.  This 14x6 barely fit the batch 3 after I straightened out the flanges (tear apart welds and unfold) to act as an air funnel that the avalon sits in.

http://www.ehydroponics.com/ecoplus-inline-duct-booster.html

Choose the correct size booster to fit the other side of the register.  I connected the register box directly to the booster, and used duct tape to seal it.  I didn't seal the register box to the avalon, so I figured a booster would help the exhaust go the right way, instead of out the unsealed part.

http://www.ehydroponics.com/deflecto-metallic-duct-4-x-25.html

Choose the correct size duct to match the booster.  I simply used duct tape and some bungee cords to exhaust the hot air outside.  I chose this instead of the insulated kind because it would be easier to work with (insulation needs respirators and special washing of clothing after).

These are the parts I used because they were all available in B&M stores, as opposed to having to order online and wait.  I had just gotten my avalon 1.5 days before and the uninsulated room I had put it in was already 10F warmer than outside and still rising.  After this, the room is at most 2F hotter than outside.  I debated using it as intake, but I worried about taking outside air directly without a filter / water drain.  As an exhaust, the walls act as a big filter.