A4 Dominator - Pre-Order Group Buy - 280mh, roughly 1000w, $1800 + shipping

[Longsnowsm]

If you aren't prepared to do some "bleeding" on the edge, then wait for a bit... 

I mean i understand that its new so there is going to be problems, but i think i see why they only take wire. They dont want people to request refunds on their miners since they arent performing to what they said they would be achieving. It would be better if they took paypal/credit card and actually stated "Hey! this is new technology! You may have problems and/or get less mh/s than we advertised" AND if they made the software open source so people could edit it. It also didnt seem right when i asked them "What if it has a problem with the software when it arrives" and they responded by saying "It wont have a problem". Also when you said that the boards died do you mean that they broke, or that you just have to restart the miner?

So far you just have to restart the miner and it starts hashing again.  The guys over at Prohashing have some ideas on setting difficulty and tweaking restarts.  We will see how much can be done from the pool side also.  But I think Inno needs to release some updates to get these more stable and keep the hash rates where they should be.

[Longsnowsm]

I mean, I still would love to buy one of these, but i dont like wire transfers. I would happily buy one if they took paypal. I cant imagine how many customers got turned away because of them only taking wire transfer. The main thing that is there is no security as a buyer. how do i know that the miner wont die on the 46th day after i receive it! If someone here knows a way i can wire transfer with credit card/debit card (No, im not going to pay someone random or spend $2400-$2600 to buy one unit on a reseller site) please tell me.

We should see some resellers starting to offer the A4's with the next batch which we hear is next month.  So you will probably be able to get one from a reseller with a better warranty, and you will likely be able to use Credit Card or Paypal.  I would say just hang tight for a short while and see what develops over the next 30 days.  Hopefully we will have some updates on the firmware, and resellers will be part of the picture.

[nicky1088]

inno just told me that it automatically restarts itself when a board dies. is that true? and also have you been able to edit the software? They seem like nice people, its just ya know, they are $2000

[Longsnowsm]

inno just told me that it automatically restarts itself when a board dies. is that true? and also have you been able to edit the software?

The boards are disappearing completely in the console.  Once it gets to that point I had to restart the miner.  I had one case last night where I am working with the Prohashing folks I setup the miner there and a board stopped hashing, but it didn't disappear.  So I waited for several hours and it eventually picked up work and started hashing again.  The pool operator has some ideas on how to tweak things so we will see.  If the card vanishes however I have not seen it come back. 

[nicky1088]

inno just told me that it automatically restarts itself when a board dies. is that true? and also have you been able to edit the software?

The boards are disappearing completely in the console.  Once it gets to that point I had to restart the miner.  I had one case last night where I am working with the Prohashing folks I setup the miner there and a board stopped hashing, but it didn't disappear.  So I waited for several hours and it eventually picked up work and started hashing again.  The pool operator has some ideas on how to tweak things so we will see.  If the card vanishes however I have not seen it come back. 

Intersting. Have you been getting 270mhs? I saw you were talking about 250 but is that pool side or miner side?

[usao]

Im still trying to get into the pi. If I can get in there, I can add a job to check for dropped boards and restart automatically.

[nicky1088]

Im still trying to get into the pi. If I can get in there, I can add a job to check for dropped boards and restart automatically.

Try taking the sd card out and put it into you computer and see if you can edit stuff that way

[nicky1088]

Also maybe check inside the software (if you can access it on the sd card on your computer) if it has the user and pass for it

[usao]

My PC just sees it as an ISO file. I don't know of any way to examine the contents of an ISO file. I think you have to get into the pi and then edit the files there.

[Longsnowsm]

inno just told me that it automatically restarts itself when a board dies. is that true? and also have you been able to edit the software?

The boards are disappearing completely in the console.  Once it gets to that point I had to restart the miner.  I had one case last night where I am working with the Prohashing folks I setup the miner there and a board stopped hashing, but it didn't disappear.  So I waited for several hours and it eventually picked up work and started hashing again.  The pool operator has some ideas on how to tweak things so we will see.  If the card vanishes however I have not seen it come back. 

Intersting. Have you been getting 270mhs? I saw you were talking about 250 but is that pool side or miner side?

On litecoinpool what the miner reports is much higher than what the pool reports.  And it is fairly consistent on litecoinpool on the pool side hashing.  The hash rate settles in at 240-250ish.  So really not that impressive at the moment.  On Prohashing it is impossible to tell what you are hashing at because it is constantly switching coins and the hash rate is all over the place.  So the baseline is litecoinpool to see what the miner hashes at over time.  So the miner side on litecoinpool is 260-270mh range and on the pool we are seeing 240-250.  So about a 20mh difference from the rated specs.  The miner may start up hashing at an even higher rate than the specs, but it quickly starts to sink and keeps dropping.  So there is some tweaking needed both on the pool side and on firmware it appears.

[wlefever]

inno just told me that it automatically restarts itself when a board dies. is that true? and also have you been able to edit the software?

The boards are disappearing completely in the console.  Once it gets to that point I had to restart the miner.  I had one case last night where I am working with the Prohashing folks I setup the miner there and a board stopped hashing, but it didn't disappear.  So I waited for several hours and it eventually picked up work and started hashing again.  The pool operator has some ideas on how to tweak things so we will see.  If the card vanishes however I have not seen it come back. 

Intersting. Have you been getting 270mhs? I saw you were talking about 250 but is that pool side or miner side?

On litecoinpool what the miner reports is much higher than what the pool reports.  And it is fairly consistent on litecoinpool on the pool side hashing.  The hash rate settles in at 240-250ish.  So really not that impressive at the moment.  On Prohashing it is impossible to tell what you are hashing at because it is constantly switching coins and the hash rate is all over the place.  So the baseline is litecoinpool to see what the miner hashes at over time.  So the miner side on litecoinpool is 260-270mh range and on the pool we are seeing 240-250.  So about a 20mh difference from the rated specs.  The miner may start up hashing at an even higher rate than the specs, but it quickly starts to sink and keeps dropping.  So there is some tweaking needed both on the pool side and on firmware it appears.

Now that they are getting miners out I am confident we will see tweaks to the firmware to maximze the potential of these machines.

[nicky1088]

inno just told me that it automatically restarts itself when a board dies. is that true? and also have you been able to edit the software?

The boards are disappearing completely in the console.  Once it gets to that point I had to restart the miner.  I had one case last night where I am working with the Prohashing folks I setup the miner there and a board stopped hashing, but it didn't disappear.  So I waited for several hours and it eventually picked up work and started hashing again.  The pool operator has some ideas on how to tweak things so we will see.  If the card vanishes however I have not seen it come back. 

Intersting. Have you been getting 270mhs? I saw you were talking about 250 but is that pool side or miner side?

On litecoinpool what the miner reports is much higher than what the pool reports.  And it is fairly consistent on litecoinpool on the pool side hashing.  The hash rate settles in at 240-250ish.  So really not that impressive at the moment.  On Prohashing it is impossible to tell what you are hashing at because it is constantly switching coins and the hash rate is all over the place.  So the baseline is litecoinpool to see what the miner hashes at over time.  So the miner side on litecoinpool is 260-270mh range and on the pool we are seeing 240-250.  So about a 20mh difference from the rated specs.  The miner may start up hashing at an even higher rate than the specs, but it quickly starts to sink and keeps dropping.  So there is some tweaking needed both on the pool side and on firmware it appears.

Now that they are getting miners out I am confident we will see tweaks to the firmware to maximze the potential of these machines.

as nice as that seems, i asked inno about when they will update the current software. They said that its "stable" and there wont be very many updates :/

[nicky1088]

My PC just sees it as an ISO file. I don't know of any way to examine the contents of an ISO file. I think you have to get into the pi and then edit the files there.

try opening the iso with winrar. if its not illegal, maybe "accidently" upload the software and let people figure it out

[nicky1088]

My PC just sees it as an ISO file. I don't know of any way to examine the contents of an ISO file. I think you have to get into the pi and then edit the files there.

try opening the iso with winrar. if its not illegal, maybe "accidently" upload the software and let people figure it out

I dont have an a4 so this may not work, but i think it will.

when you open it, try this *****MAKE A BACKUP OF THE SD CARD FIRST!!!!!********

Open the iso with WinRAR

go to cmdline.txt on sd card

add this to the end of the line "init=/bin/sh" (without quotes)

save it, save the iso

put the sd card back in the pi

(I dont have an a4, but im guessing its a normal pi so you can just plug a monitor into it)

login user is "su"

no password

now make a new user and enable ssh and give it root  privileges

turn off the pi and put the sd card back into the computer

open the iso, then go to cmdline.txt

remove the "init=/bin/sh"

save it

put sd card back into the pi


now try to ssh or login with that new user



BTW if you want to setup file access through ssh, use filezilla and use "SFTP". Then just put your ssh details and you should be able to access the filesystem in filezilla


if it worked pls tell me

(If it wont let you change anything, run this command "mount -o remount,rw /" without quotes)

[firehawk71]

I mean, I still would love to buy one of these, but i dont like wire transfers. I would happily buy one if they took paypal. I cant imagine how many customers got turned away because of them only taking wire transfer. The main thing that is there is no security as a buyer. how do i know that the miner wont die on the 46th day after i receive it! If someone here knows a way i can wire transfer with credit card/debit card (No, im not going to pay someone random or spend $2400-$2600 to buy one unit on a reseller site) please tell me.

You can purchase one with a credit card through aliexpress. But they are re-sellers so they are only responsible for getting the machine to you. If you have problems I am sure they will prob just refer you to innosilicon

[Longsnowsm]

Well here is a new issue... I happened to look over at my miner to see if I had lost any boards and the miner crashed while I was watching it.  It was hashing at 262mh on the miner side at the time of the crash.  Suddenly the screen goes blank and indicates it cannot connect:

Here is the error:
Error getting version for 127.0.0.1:4028 ERR: socket connect(127.0.0.1:4028) failed

It tried to auto restart and it came up with only 1 board hashing.  So I tried to stop it in the web interface and restart it.  So far that didn't work.  Looks like I will need to go power cycle it.  I just saw an email from tbly13 he recieved his with a cut power cord to the fan on one of his.  He is reaching out to Chloe now.  I need to open by second A4 to make sure everything is OK there.

[Eyedol-X]

Well here is a new issue... I happened to look over at my miner to see if I had lost any boards and the miner crashed while I was watching it.  It was hashing at 262mh on the miner side at the time of the crash.  Suddenly the screen goes blank and indicates it cannot connect:

Here is the error:
Error getting version for 127.0.0.1:4028 ERR: socket connect(127.0.0.1:4028) failed

It tried to auto restart and it came up with only 1 board hashing.  So I tried to stop it in the web interface and restart it.  So far that didn't work.  Looks like I will need to go power cycle it.  I just saw an email from tbly13 he recieved his with a cut power cord to the fan on one of his.  He is reaching out to Chloe now.  I need to open by second A4 to make sure everything is OK there.

I did a thorough inspection of mine when I received it... While I appreciate efficient packaging methods, they could definitely do a better job packing these things IMO.

if the cord is just cut, he should be able to resolder/heatshrink it.

[Longsnowsm]

Yes, if he is in a hurry he could just solder and heat shrink it.  He is asking Inno for help at the moment.  So we will see how this goes.

To hear comments that Inno thinks these things are stable and we won't see many updates is a little frustrating.  They are not stable, and they are going to need some help.  So I hope they are listening here and paying attention.  I would be glad to give them feedback and any info they need.  I will point the miner at a pool of their choosing just so they can watch what happens.  So I will be glad to be the "test" subject if it will help them gather the details the need to correct these issues.

I just looked at my second A4 and it visually looks OK.  Won't know the operational for another day or two until I get cables for my PSU.

[excelerator]

Well here is a new issue... I happened to look over at my miner to see if I had lost any boards and the miner crashed while I was watching it.  It was hashing at 262mh on the miner side at the time of the crash.  Suddenly the screen goes blank and indicates it cannot connect:

Here is the error:
Error getting version for 127.0.0.1:4028 ERR: socket connect(127.0.0.1:4028) failed

It tried to auto restart and it came up with only 1 board hashing.  So I tried to stop it in the web interface and restart it.  So far that didn't work.  Looks like I will need to go power cycle it.  I just saw an email from tbly13 he recieved his with a cut power cord to the fan on one of his.  He is reaching out to Chloe now.  I need to open by second A4 to make sure everything is OK there.

Interesting - exactly the same error recently sighted when an A2 crashed (reported at Prohashing).
https://forums.prohashing.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=988

[Eyedol-X]

Well here is a new issue... I happened to look over at my miner to see if I had lost any boards and the miner crashed while I was watching it.  It was hashing at 262mh on the miner side at the time of the crash.  Suddenly the screen goes blank and indicates it cannot connect:

Here is the error:
Error getting version for 127.0.0.1:4028 ERR: socket connect(127.0.0.1:4028) failed

It tried to auto restart and it came up with only 1 board hashing.  So I tried to stop it in the web interface and restart it.  So far that didn't work.  Looks like I will need to go power cycle it.  I just saw an email from tbly13 he recieved his with a cut power cord to the fan on one of his.  He is reaching out to Chloe now.  I need to open by second A4 to make sure everything is OK there.

Interesting - exactly the same error recently sighted when an A2 crashed (reported at Prohashing).
https://forums.prohashing.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=988

I read about this one, my A2's never had an issue at PH but they both have ANX Firmware.

I really hope someone out there can get a modded one out soon. I know Emdje posted about wanting one to modify... I doubt he can do much more than fix up the GUI without actually having an A4 in his possession.