Alchemist updated support added for RPI with a broke controler

[toptek]

here's the new support added i paid for it started from this thread the other day

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1452931.0

I want nothing in return if you feel the need to donate, donate to jstefanop he deserves it more.  

I paid and got what i wanted + i want to share it . Right now im stuck till i get the right dongles sent . mine that were sent have no rts pin even thu the add said it did sigh i made sure with my new ones coming, I  was kind of ass hole to the sellers for the miss info,

jstefanop:

Ok I added very rough support for the boards to be run with the USB->UART dongles with my bfgminer driver on a Rpi. I have not tested this as I don't have a spare board or dongle to test but this *should* work. Steps to get it running below

-Clone this branch off my repo: https://github.com/jstefanop/bfgminer/tree/alcheminer_USB-Dongle_Support
-Build on pi using same bfgminer build instructions in my alchminer thread (let me know if there are compilation errors)
-Connect the pins from the dongle to the alcheminer boards...you need to connect the reset pin from the board to the RTS pin on the dongle (also remember to reverse the TX-RX pins)
-Use the same command line options to start bfgminer and specify the -S /dev/ serial port your dongle is assigned too, and add the following option to turn on the USB dongle mode  --set ALC:mode=1

Let me know if it works!
'
toptek:
I Added this from his post on the ltc forums with some tweaks I use or what i call them : https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=27370.0

Code:

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool pkg-config libcurl4-gnutls-dev libjansson-dev uthash-dev libncurses5-dev libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libevent-dev

sudo git clone --branch alcheminer_USB-Dongle_Support https://github.com/jstefanop/bfgminer.git

Code:

cd .
cd bfgminer
./autogen.sh

you may need more library's as well depending on if you use ubuntu 16 standard server for the RPI 2and 3 for

Code:

./autogen.sh

to work right if there is a issue try this

Code:

sudo apt-get -y install git-core build-essential autoconf automake libtool pkg-config libcurl4-gnutls-dev libjansson-dev uthash-dev libncursesw5-dev libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libevent-dev libmicrohttpd-dev 

Code:

sudo chmod +x ./configure  
./configure CFLAGS=-O3 --enable-scrypt --enable-alchemist --disable-other-drivers --enable-broad-udevrules 

sudo make
sudo make install

Then plug all the cables etc into each board to the right dongle pins like this :UART connect on the hash boards is labeled 1-6 Pin 1 is RX, 2 TX, 5 GND, 6 Board Reset , on the dongle : reverse the TX-RX pins : so like this TX to RX and RX to TX on the dongle form the hash board , GND to GND , RTS to RTS then to your 8 to 10 port self powered hub and plug the hub in to one of the USB ports on your RPI, turn on the miner then type.

Code:

sudo ldconfig
lsusb

 That should list what USB port is being used .

 then run BFG with the right USB ports set up some thing like this:

Code:

cd .
cd bfgminer 
./bfgminer --scrypt -o stratum+tcp://   -u  -p x -S ALC:all --set ALC:clock=320 --set ALC:mode=1

Valid clock ranges are between 200-400 with multiples of 16 (so  320, 336, 352 etc)

[MarkAz]

Awesome info - thanks for sharing with the community!

[toptek]

got one board rolling .

Code:

  bfgminer 5.2.0-139-g644c3ad - [2016-05-14 17:51:31] - [  0 days 00:18:45]
 [M]anage devices [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options  [H]elp [Q]uit
 Pool 0: us.clevermining.co  Diff:57m  +Strtm  LU:[18:10:06]  User:13Xb4RvqoeRum
 Block: ...0f9efcdd64a6f26f  Diff:169 ( 1.21G)  Started: [18:09:41]  I:  127mBTC
 ST:3  F:0  NB:165  AS:0  BW:[134/ 21 B/s]  E:0.10  BS:124
 1            | 46.56/92.10/32.59Mh/s | A:159 R:4+0(3.1%) HW:3/1.5%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ALC 0:       | 72.77/91.78/32.69Mh/s | A:160 R:4+0(3.0%) HW:3/1.5%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [2016-05-14 18:09:27] Network difficulty changed to 53 (386.5M)
 [2016-05-14 18:09:27] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
 [2016-05-14 18:09:28] Accepted 000a193e ALC 0  Diff 99m/57m
 [2016-05-14 18:09:37] Network difficulty changed to 53 (386.3M)
 [2016-05-14 18:09:37] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
 [2016-05-14 18:09:38] Network difficulty changed to 117 (838.0M)
 [2016-05-14 18:09:38] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
 [2016-05-14 18:09:38] Accepted 000d7d06 ALC 0  Diff 74m/57m
 [2016-05-14 18:09:41] Network difficulty changed to 169 ( 1.21G)
 [2016-05-14 18:09:41] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
 [2016-05-14 18:09:48] Accepted 000ee576 ALC 0  Diff 67m/57m
 [2016-05-14 18:09:52] Accepted 000b0017 ALC 0  Diff 90m/57m
 [2016-05-14 18:09:57] Accepted 0008191e ALC 0  Diff 123m/57m
 [2016-05-14 18:10:11] Accepted 000d978c ALC 0  Diff 73m/57m
 [2016-05-14 18:10:13] Accepted 000d7684 ALC 0  Diff 74m/57m

[toptek]

 I think it safe to say this works , after three hours no major issue other then normal mining issue's we all deal with :

 

Code:

bfgminer 5.2.0-139-g644c3ad - [2016-05-15 02:23:06] - [  0 days 03:07:08]
 [M]anage devices [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options  [H]elp [Q]uit
 Pool 0: us.clevermining.co  Diff:62m  +Strtm  LU:[05:30:07]  User:13Xb4RvqoeRum
 Block: ...bdc1d42f7b74cc6e  Diff:110 (791.5M)  Started: [05:29:59]  I: 5.75mBTC
 ST:3  F:0  NB:1169  AS:0  BW:[121/ 17 B/s]  E:0.11  BS:746
 1            | 34.45/81.04/31.04Mh/s | A:1266 R:8+0(.64%) HW:14/.97%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ALC 0:       | 47.24/80.91/31.08Mh/s | A:1270 R:8+0(.64%) HW:14/.97%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [2016-05-15 05:29:44] Network difficulty changed to 69 (498.9M)
 [2016-05-15 05:29:44] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
 [2016-05-15 05:29:46] Accepted 000bb5f4 ALC 0  Diff 85m/62m
 [2016-05-15 05:29:47] Accepted 00063865 ALC 0  Diff 160m/62m
 [2016-05-15 05:29:49] Accepted 00001f78 ALC 0  Diff 8/62m
 [2016-05-15 05:29:51] Accepted 000eb98d ALC 0  Diff 67m/62m
 [2016-05-15 05:29:51] Accepted 000b7c96 ALC 0  Diff 87m/62m
 [2016-05-15 05:29:53] Network difficulty changed to 112 (807.9M)
 [2016-05-15 05:29:53] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
 [2016-05-15 05:29:57] Accepted 0007f626 ALC 0  Diff 125m/62m
 [2016-05-15 05:29:59] Accepted 000a3c18 ALC 0  Diff 97m/62m
 [2016-05-15 05:29:59] Network difficulty changed to 110 (791.5M)
 [2016-05-15 05:29:59] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
 [2016-05-15 05:30:05] Accepted 000b2815 ALC 0  Diff 89m/62m
 [2016-05-15 05:30:09] Accepted 0006af6c ALC 0  Diff 149m/62m

[carlosmnk]

Well, TODAY i have the first board hashing!! NOW i'm very happy.  

Now i found my problem: this setup do NOT WORK with the RASPBERRY PI B+. You need to use the Raspberry Pi 2 instead...  
And finally, the pins are:

1 is RX
2 is TX
5 is GND  <-- This is the correct.  NOT THE 4 pin
6 is Board Reset

Thank you very much for all your work; with my free-time i did not could install the rpi2 adapter propelly.

[jstefanop]

Thanks for the plug toptek!

FYI Some CP210X dongles come with the RTS or DTR pins. I ended up writing support for both those pins in the driver, so you can buy either dongle and it will work if you connect pin 6 on the hash board to either of those. And yes my old guide is wrong on the pinouts, pin #5 is the GND pin not 4.

[toptek]

Just discovered all you need setting wise is

Code:

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

and fix it above !!!! .

[toptek]

right now this is what minera is doing on a cubieboard 1 PI with 5 Alchemist 256 miner blades on Ubuntu 14 with a 7 port usb 3 hub and a 2 k server PSU with six pin PCEI plugs with no heat from them yet been running about week off and on that way.

I can upgrade to Ubuntu 16 and have but minera has issue with PhP 7.0 sense 16 no longer supports php5 .....im a ware you can share php 5 with 16  but it's not the same.

Minera is Showing the right totals but most of the time it doesn't. hash it does  all ways and the temps you see is the cubieboard not the miner .



Just made exact same post in the minera thread !!!!...

[Rabinovitch]

Could you please also post here a link to correct USB-UART dongles model(s)?

[toptek]

 i had to use these

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CP2102-USB-2-0-to-TTL-UART-Module-6Pin-Serial-Converter-STC-Replace-FT232-Module/381374541932?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D37798%26meid%3Dd3725e6e62ee4952b95cb7f2024ae891%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D141976891775

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009T2ZR6W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

those are the exact ones i use i ordered one or 2 off  amazon to get started then 10 or so off ebay cheaper for the same thing just longer to get .

I couldn't get it working with the dongles that have RTS the ones with DTR work great for me and still are, i tried a few with RTS.

and these plugs fit the hash broad end

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322106053473?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT



you have to make sure the hub can run all 8 eight boards or how ever many boards you plan to run off one hub, i found out if the hub can't supply the right power for how ever many boards the miner shuts off with a strange high number of hard ware errors and some thing about a floating point limit was reached , so i bought a GOOD usb 3 hub, that fixed it.

the only pins you end up using are rx tx dtr and gnd the rest don't seem to  matter . and you can use any PI type it's not limited to rasp berry pi's .

[toptek]

tip: I discovered something new to nite that didn't start till now if the power cables start getting warm or hot to the touch plug the cables directly into the boards don't use the patch cables in between, mine were starting to heat up due to the weather changes i think because all winter long there was never a hot or warm cable and i used the in the between cable or patch cable now I'm plugged into the boards from the PSU and the cables seem to stay cool or normal. + i have one of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000065DK8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 blowing on it so i could remove all the load fans and put in quieter ones .

[Ortek]

tip: I discovered something new to nite that didn't start till now if the power cables start getting warm or hot to the touch plug the cables directly into the boards don't use the patch cables in between, mine were starting to heat up due to the weather changes i think because all winter long there was never a hot or warm cable and i used the in the between cable or patch cable now I'm plugged into the boards from the PSU and the cables seem to stay cool or normal. + i have one of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000065DK8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 blowing on it so i could remove all the load fans and put in quieter ones .

Yes those miners can get VERY hot, its a must to keep them cool as it can kill some of your hashing boards.

I have about 10-12 controller boards (complete with the black cables that connect to the boards) i can sell for a reasonable price. All working, i can even show it. I also have some yellow black 12v power cables which are connected from the hashing boards to the case
Also lcd displays.
I even have defective boards if anyone needs a heatsink or i dont know what.

[toptek]

tip: I discovered something new to nite that didn't start till now if the power cables start getting warm or hot to the touch plug the cables directly into the boards don't use the patch cables in between, mine were starting to heat up due to the weather changes i think because all winter long there was never a hot or warm cable and i used the in the between cable or patch cable now I'm plugged into the boards from the PSU and the cables seem to stay cool or normal. + i have one of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000065DK8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 blowing on it so i could remove all the load fans and put in quieter ones .

Yes those miners can get VERY hot, its a must to keep them cool as it can kill some of your hashing boards.

I have about 10-12 controller boards (complete with the black cables that connect to the boards) i can sell for a reasonable price. All working, i can even show it. I also have some yellow black 12v power cables which are connected from the hashing boards to the case
Also lcd displays.
I even have defective boards if anyone needs a heatsink or i dont know what.

how much for one board with no heat sink or with i have a flashed bad board i think may be fix able i can't fine any to look at it or i can use the heat sink and replace it, I have  no burnt out boards but i all so make sure i have tons of air blowing on what i have  from  time to time I unplug one or two boards and run three they are still worth it, the company went under that made them and  i don't mean Mat . they were scams the company that did it all from what i saw went bankrupt  ... was honest .


never mind misunderstand  you have controllers all i need is hash broads one without a heat sink and maybe one more with a heat sink that works , i can flash them to use to use BFG with any PI type . not just the Watered  down rasp pi inside the miner. no offense intended but not using those 12v power cables is good , i would plug in the hash boards direct to the PSU No heated cables you still  need fans blowing on the cable to be safe and they stay warm if not cool to the touch not hot like there about to melt  and all most burnt out a board using them . again no offense i won't use them .

[Ortek]

tip: I discovered something new to nite that didn't start till now if the power cables start getting warm or hot to the touch plug the cables directly into the boards don't use the patch cables in between, mine were starting to heat up due to the weather changes i think because all winter long there was never a hot or warm cable and i used the in the between cable or patch cable now I'm plugged into the boards from the PSU and the cables seem to stay cool or normal. + i have one of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000065DK8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 blowing on it so i could remove all the load fans and put in quieter ones .

Yes those miners can get VERY hot, its a must to keep them cool as it can kill some of your hashing boards.

I have about 10-12 controller boards (complete with the black cables that connect to the boards) i can sell for a reasonable price. All working, i can even show it. I also have some yellow black 12v power cables which are connected from the hashing boards to the case
Also lcd displays.
I even have defective boards if anyone needs a heatsink or i dont know what.

how much for one board with no heat sink or with i have a flashed bad board no one can fix and i can use the heat sink and replace, I have  no burnt out boards but i all so make sure i have tons of air blowing on what i have  and  price for one with a heat sink i do all most the same run one two board off it's own PI make my own usb cables and use power hubs . from  time to time  unplug one or two boards and run three they are still worth it the company went under that made them and  i don't mean Mat . they were scams the company that did it all from what i saw went bankrupt  ... was honest .


never mind misunderstand  you have controllers all i need is hash broads one without a heat sink and maybe one more with a heat sink that works , i can flash them to use to use BFG with any PI type . not just the Watered  down rasp pi inside the miner. no offense intended but not using those 12v power cables is good , i would plug in the hash boards direct to the PSU No heated cables you still  need fans blowing on the cable to be safe and they stay warm if not cool to the touch not hot like there about to melt  and all most burnt out a board using them . again no offense i won't use them .

I have a few boards that need to be looked at, im sending them to J4bberwock and hope he can fix some....if he can repair some of them i can sell you 1 board.

I ordered 2 cp2102 usb-uart modules and made cables for them.....installed latest bfgminer and the 2 boards get recognized but they dont hash at all....the usb hub im using has a 1200ma max so it might be the problem but im not sure untill i try later on.

[cisA]

im sending them to J4bberwock

Where is he? Can you please give contact or homepage for his repair shop? Or is this an forummember?
Thanks you :-)

[toptek]

cool i got a board that needs to be looked at to, it gets warm can't be flashed or the PI doesn't see it, if i try to flash it, no go doesn't see it ;. id ask him but i think i may have broke all tries between me and him, Pissed him off the other day in a post he made i said something i shouldn't have, I'm not sorry i said it either . owell my lose .

let me know on the board i may buy it if the price is right they are still good miner even after the A4 came out so i won't give up my five working boards and a while back,  i missed out on one board on Ebay it sold on a bid for 25 bucks or some really low price. . i didn't bid or watch the bid because i thought for sure it would go shy high .


I end up using this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013OK10YM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 any thing i tried wouldn't work  with four or more boards this fired up 6 boards easy i also dropped one board for sure mess it up beyond  repair and donated one to a school in ZA . the miner came with one bad board  or may not be bad  but was bricked and a bad non working controller that was the selling point no one would buy it,  why i got it so cheap at the time ,  the owner told me he flashed some of the boards so i flashed them all . it had 7 working boards but due to above I'm left with 5 that work and possible  one more that may work if i can find some one to look at it .

oyea one other thing don't take off  any boards from the heat sink unless you really really need to there must be 7 inch or more of T paste on them, i see why but wow that's a lot of paste. and one big mess if you take off a board .

Quote from: Ortek on Today at 04:41:18 PM
im sending them to J4bberwock

Where is he? Can you please give contact or homepage for his repair shop? Or is this an forummember?
Thanks you :-)

anyone that posts on the forums is a member, active or not, is another question .

[cisA]

Working fine with Rasp2B+ and Debian (Raspbian).

With the cheapest 7 USB Hub and the cheapest USB-UART Dongles 



https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01IQOC7AC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


www.ebay.de/itm/272371091280

[toptek]

found some one here on the forums that lives ten miles a way form me that will look at my dead board and see if he can fix It, i can drop it off at his place of business and save on shipping may have 6 boards running soon I'm rebuilding my mining farm this year and gonna go kind of hard core home mining etc but with GPU's and script miners and may even try Hard drive mining and once side hack starts making his upgrade board for S1 to 5 heat sink i ll have a fun farm again . lol ...this year is starting to look but i know that all go down hill fast. nice hobby that's gonna cost but wtf  why not.

Btw great to hear you tried with a custom controller to me they work a lot better if the support is there ....

thanks top .

[cisA]

I had 3 boards with SMD resistors, which are no more full soldered, 2 i have fixed, one is lost... Look an any resistor and make the board clean,
too much silicon oil...



Work well too with Rasp3B (Raspbian, Jessie) and with two 4xUSB2.0 (1,5A powered) hub.
 
I have 7 Boards, so i powered the Rasp3 from Hub... No power problems. I think the USB-Hub dont must have been overpowered,
If i get power on hashboard, so light up the LED from USB-UART Dongle without the USB-Hub. I think we can calc with 5V 200mA for
each Dongle to be on the safe side.




Jstefanop and toptek are the Heros of Scrypt

[toptek]

 all credit should goes to Jstefanop  


with out him it couldn't have been done , all such credit belongs to Jstefanop, all i did was ask and push it some ...


That's why i used one 7 port usb3 hub for all five of my boards if i don't or tried to use all five boards with one USB2 hub,the most boards, i could power with one USB2 hub was 4 .so i had issues, so i had to buy a nice USB 3 hub with at least 7 ports self powered .. for all five .

I consider

you and Jatefanop  the real heroes of script, i know nothing or what im doing,I'm just a Advanced user with some know how with using hardware  and editing  code to some extent ,,, or just enough knowledge to fix my own stuff and give some tips . but don't get me wrong wish i could own up to the plug not being UN grateful either... thanks ...


Cya top . ...