Official Avalon Technical Support Thread

[JerimiahJohnson]

Q) What is this thread for?


A) This thread is for answering TECHNICAL questions only about the Avalon ASIC Bitcoin Miner

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[JerimiahJohnson]

One of my TP-Link routers is dead, is there anything I can or do I need to buy a new TP-Link router?

[Dalkore]

Let me help you:

This thread is for answering TECHNICAL questions only about the Avalon ASIC Bitcoin Miner (Gen 1)

[vvic]

is it possible to connect avalon directly to a computer via USB and mine that way? In case that little board/host thingy dies

[BitSyncom]

One of my TP-Link routers is dead, is there anything I can or do I need to buy a new TP-Link router?

it sounds like you have multiple units, what you can do is un-plug the USB hub connected to the router and connect it to another unit's hub, and the other units cgminer will pick up the slack. To better illustrate the units are connected as such.

Power supply => Power Distributor Board => FPGA Controller => USB Hub => OpenWRT router.
the modules are connected to the FPGA Controller.

So if the tplink is broken, you can hook the FPGA controller or the USB Hub directly into another working unit's USB Hub, and once you restart cgminer from the webGUI it should pick up the second avalon unit. We have tested this configuration before and it works.

Try this and report back.

[Vicus]

is it possible to connect avalon directly to a computer via USB and mine that way? In case that little board/host thingy dies

Yes, but you need to remove P5 jumper on controller board.

Official Avalon Documentation is here: http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Avalon

[rudrigorc2]

Power supply => Power Distributor Board => FPGA Controller => USB Hub => OpenWRT router.
the modules are connected to the FPGA Controller.

as

[libertybuck]

One of my TP-Link routers is dead, is there anything I can or do I need to buy a new TP-Link router?

Usually reset WR703N could save it. You could try it in this way:

1, Power off Avalon.

2, Press reset button of WR703N and hold on it.

3, Power on Avalon.

4, After 5 seconds release that reset button.


If you are lucky enough your WR703N will be alive again

Note: No guarantee this will work for your WR703N.

[rudrigorc2]

One of my TP-Link routers is dead, is there anything I can or do I need to buy a new TP-Link router?

Usually reset WR703N could save it. You could try it in this way:

1, Power off Avalon.

2, Press reset button of WR703N and hold on it.

3, Power on Avalon.

4, After 5 seconds release that reset button.


If you are lucky enough your WR703N will be alive again

Note: No guarantee this will work for your WR703N.

have you tried this yet?

[JerimiahJohnson]

One of my TP-Link routers is dead, is there anything I can or do I need to buy a new TP-Link router?

Usually reset WR703N could save it. You could try it in this way:

1, Power off Avalon.

2, Press reset button of WR703N and hold on it.

3, Power on Avalon.

4, After 5 seconds release that reset button.


If you are lucky enough your WR703N will be alive again

Note: No guarantee this will work for your WR703N.

have you tried this yet?

Naaa the TP-Link is completely dead - I went to plug in the lan cable and the connector broke right off

[libertybuck]

have you tried this yet?

Yes.

[libertybuck]

Naaa the TP-Link is completely dead - I went to plug in the lan cable and the connector broke right off

Seems the data inside your WR703N flash chip is messed.  Do not worry, you could fix it with a flash programmer.

1, Unmount flash chip from WR703N. It is a 8 pin chip which could be found on bottom side of WR703N PCB.

2, Put the chip to flash programmer. Erase it's data and write firmware to it.

3, Mount the flash chip back to it's original position.


If you do not have necessary tools you might need to ask other person to help you do it.

[loshia]

And ask for boot and art partitions also

[vvic]

ok, so all this got me wondering. Avalon says that their WR703N  has custom modifications. So it it dies, is it possible to replace that little host board with Raspberry Pi? Since it is possible to run it on some linux PC

[invader]

is it possible to replace that little host board with Raspberry Pi?

This should be fairly easy - just compile avalon specific cgminer and write autorun & monitoring scripts.
Also i know that you need to remove jumper on avalon controller, as it gives power to TPLINK over usb.
I was thinking about that before receiving the unit, but now i think i'll just keep raspi for my experiments
rather than leaving it mining and loose this valuable & fun instrument from everyday use. (i have only one)

[Bowjob]

Is there any video of Avalon mining tutorial out there? I don't understand the instructions for someone mining for the first time. :/

[Dhomochevsky]

All units seem to work fine so far. But I've run across something strange. This morning when I checked their status temperatures were fine, they were keeping at a steady 48-50 degrees, but they shown a max temperature of 102-107 degrees C. How in the hell could they have reached such a temperature? Is it some kind of misreporting or did the fans stop working for a moment? Won't such a temperature fry some chips?

[loshia]

All units seem to work fine so far. But I've run across something strange. This morning when I checked their status temperatures were fine, they were keeping at a steady 48-50 degrees, but they shown a max temperature of 102-107 degrees C. How in the hell could they have reached such a temperature? Is it some kind of misreporting or did the fans stop working for a moment? Won't such a temperature fry some chips?

FW bug dude. Upgrade to latest Avalon FW

[vvic]

is it possible to replace that little host board with Raspberry Pi?

This should be fairly easy - just compile avalon specific cgminer and write autorun & monitoring scripts.
Also i know that you need to remove jumper on avalon controller, as it gives power to TPLINK over usb.
I was thinking about that before receiving the unit, but now i think i'll just keep raspi for my experiments
rather than leaving it mining and loose this valuable & fun instrument from everyday use. (i have only one)

Well, my principle if it works, do not touch it. I would put raspberry pi only if original host board died

[allinvain]

Is there any way to force the fans to spin at a constant RPM (say max). I noticed that they spool up and down. I realize there is a valid reason for using PWM control but might it not be bad for the motors to constantly change their rotation? (wear out the bearings?)