Official Avalon Technical Support Thread

[cypherdoc]

can someone recommend a robust motherboard that would be suitable for solo mining with 3 avalons? 

Avalon does not plug in to your motherboard.  You set it for a pool.  You can run your own pool and solo mine, with basically the same motherboard requirements as running bitcoind.

i understand that.  i'm trying to setup a solo mining server to point my avalons at as in here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=162788.0

Cheapest and most reliable way: VPS.

I recommend directspace.net, though they don't accept bitcoin. $15 a year is a bargain and it's rock solid.

and risk a Bitcoinica Linode event?  no thanks. 

[uhoh]

can someone recommend a robust motherboard that would be suitable for solo mining with 3 avalons? 

Avalon does not plug in to your motherboard.  You set it for a pool.  You can run your own pool and solo mine, with basically the same motherboard requirements as running bitcoind.

i understand that.  i'm trying to setup a solo mining server to point my avalons at as in here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=162788.0

Cheapest and most reliable way: VPS.

I recommend directspace.net, though they don't accept bitcoin. $15 a year is a bargain and it's rock solid.

and risk a Bitcoinica Linode event?  no thanks. 

Granted

I've got mine set up to mine to an external public key. Time is literally money with these units, I'd rather buy 2 VPS on two different sides of the earth than risk downtime. Though, admittedly, you'd be sensible to add a pool somewhere down the list in the config...just in case.

[kjj]

can someone recommend a robust motherboard that would be suitable for solo mining with 3 avalons?  

Avalon does not plug in to your motherboard.  You set it for a pool.  You can run your own pool and solo mine, with basically the same motherboard requirements as running bitcoind.

i understand that.  i'm trying to setup a solo mining server to point my avalons at as in here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=162788.0

Anything relatively current should work then.  CPU speed is important, don't buy a Celeron or otherwise crippled CPU.  Also, I can't recommend AMD at this time, but I was comparing a mid range Intel CPu to a mid range AMD CPU, with a decent price difference.  I use 3770Ts since they were reasonably cheap, low-ish power, and include the RDRAND opcode that you probably don't care about at all.

I run bitcoind, namecoind and p2pool on boxes with 16 GB RAM, using tmpfs for everything.  I also use pxeboot for everything, but that is a plug for a different thread.

[cypherdoc]

can someone recommend a robust motherboard that would be suitable for solo mining with 3 avalons? 

Avalon does not plug in to your motherboard.  You set it for a pool.  You can run your own pool and solo mine, with basically the same motherboard requirements as running bitcoind.

i understand that.  i'm trying to setup a solo mining server to point my avalons at as in here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=162788.0

Cheapest and most reliable way: VPS.

I recommend directspace.net, though they don't accept bitcoin. $15 a year is a bargain and it's rock solid.

and risk a Bitcoinica Linode event?  no thanks. 

Granted

I've got mine set up to mine to an external public key. Time is literally money with these units, I'd rather buy 2 VPS on two different sides of the earth than risk downtime. Though, admittedly, you'd be sensible to add a pool somewhere down the list in the config...just in case.

its a really interesting idea.  but with personal computing so cheap these days and onsite...

[JerimiahJohnson]

ok ok

So I have received 2/3 of my total avalon order.



the last batch of 5 units, two of them were basically mutilated.


all  the modules were broken off the backplane, the screw holes stripped, the wifi wire disconnected and the TPLINK completetly dead.

Of course this sucks in many many ways especially since I am still owed a number of units

At any rate I can set the units on their sides and use them if I have good TPLINKS
and I would like everyone's advise for using this as a replacement:

http://www.cutedigi.com/robotics/tl-wr703n-clone-with-openwrt-usb-camera-support-ttl-uart.html

I also ordered some regular TPLINK routers so I can rip the boards out and try to load openwrt onto them if I need to:

http://dx.com/p/tp-link-tl-wr703n-mini-3g-2-4ghz-802-11b-g-n-150mbps-wireless-router-blue-158552

it sucks to have 120gh/s sitting around doing nothing, but im doing the best I can, oh yeah and one of the modules was smashed so bad during shipping that two of the capacitors snapped off, so my plan is if I can get these tplink boards to work is to make a 4 module miner and a 1 module miner.


also noticed they are putting 750watt 80 plus gold PSU's in the units some japanese off brand instead of the 650watts antec as before
I will update my progress to this thread if I have any luck and any and all advice is appreciated.

Aluminum is basically the softness metal they could of conceivably used for the module heat sinks and thats why they are snapping off and stripping the screw holes during shipping - you could of saved a lot of trouble and made a much better product by using copper.

Just curious anyone experienced the same problems? Or have some advice?

-JJ

[loshia]

ok ok

So I have received 2/3 of my total avalon order.



the last batch of 5 units, two of them were basically mutilated.


all  the modules were broken off the backplane, the screw holes stripped, the wifi wire disconnected and the TPLINK completetly dead.

Of course this sucks in many many ways especially since I am still owed a number of units

At any rate I can set the units on their sides and use them if I have good TPLINKS
and I would like everyone's advise for using this as a replacement:

http://www.cutedigi.com/robotics/tl-wr703n-clone-with-openwrt-usb-camera-support-ttl-uart.html

I also ordered some regular TPLINK routers so I can rip the boards out and try to load openwrt onto them if I need to:

http://dx.com/p/tp-link-tl-wr703n-mini-3g-2-4ghz-802-11b-g-n-150mbps-wireless-router-blue-158552

it sucks to have 120gh/s sitting around doing nothing, but im doing the best I can, oh yeah and one of the modules was smashed so bad during shipping that two of the capacitors snapped off, so my plan is if I can get these tplink boards to work is to make a 4 module miner and a 1 module miner.


also noticed they are putting 750watt 80 plus gold PSU's in the units some japanese off brand instead of the 650watts antec as before
I will update my progress to this thread if I have any luck and any and all advice is appreciated.

Aluminum is basically the softness metal they could of conceivably used for the module heat sinks and thats why they are snapping off and stripping the screw holes during shipping - you could of saved a lot of trouble and made a much better product by using copper.

Just curious anyone experienced the same problems? Or have some advice?

-JJ

Dude,
If a were you, amusing that All is good except tplink-routers i would setup a linux pc immediately and plug all that is working in there without hesitation. The key point your Controller to be fine not smashed (even if it is smashed) i see you have a lot of units and you can find healthy ones and use all four ASIC boards on a single controller with appropriate PSU

[deepceleron]

Units and packaging need to be designed for the typical handling they will get on their trip around the globe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM3SRG7D21Y

[JerimiahJohnson]

ok ok

So I have received 2/3 of my total avalon order.



the last batch of 5 units, two of them were basically mutilated.


all  the modules were broken off the backplane, the screw holes stripped, the wifi wire disconnected and the TPLINK completetly dead.

Of course this sucks in many many ways especially since I am still owed a number of units

At any rate I can set the units on their sides and use them if I have good TPLINKS
and I would like everyone's advise for using this as a replacement:

http://www.cutedigi.com/robotics/tl-wr703n-clone-with-openwrt-usb-camera-support-ttl-uart.html

I also ordered some regular TPLINK routers so I can rip the boards out and try to load openwrt onto them if I need to:

http://dx.com/p/tp-link-tl-wr703n-mini-3g-2-4ghz-802-11b-g-n-150mbps-wireless-router-blue-158552

it sucks to have 120gh/s sitting around doing nothing, but im doing the best I can, oh yeah and one of the modules was smashed so bad during shipping that two of the capacitors snapped off, so my plan is if I can get these tplink boards to work is to make a 4 module miner and a 1 module miner.


also noticed they are putting 750watt 80 plus gold PSU's in the units some japanese off brand instead of the 650watts antec as before
I will update my progress to this thread if I have any luck and any and all advice is appreciated.

Aluminum is basically the softness metal they could of conceivably used for the module heat sinks and thats why they are snapping off and stripping the screw holes during shipping - you could of saved a lot of trouble and made a much better product by using copper.

Just curious anyone experienced the same problems? Or have some advice?

-JJ

Dude,
If a were you, amusing that All is good except tplink-routers i would setup a linux pc immediately and plug all that is working in there without hesitation. The key point your Controller to be fine not smashed (even if it is smashed) i see you have a lot of units and you can find healthy ones and use all four ASIC boards on a single controller with appropriate PSU

i will pay $200 bounty to the first person that gives me detailed instructions that work.

I plugged the avalon into a linux box - configured it to --enable-avalon and then compiled and installed bfgminer

bfgminer does not detect the avalon

"all devices disabled"

Please help!

you will get $200 from me and do a great service to the community!
thank you
-JJ

[John Self]

ok ok

So I have received 2/3 of my total avalon order.



the last batch of 5 units, two of them were basically mutilated.


all  the modules were broken off the backplane, the screw holes stripped, the wifi wire disconnected and the TPLINK completetly dead.

Of course this sucks in many many ways especially since I am still owed a number of units

At any rate I can set the units on their sides and use them if I have good TPLINKS
and I would like everyone's advise for using this as a replacement:

http://www.cutedigi.com/robotics/tl-wr703n-clone-with-openwrt-usb-camera-support-ttl-uart.html

I also ordered some regular TPLINK routers so I can rip the boards out and try to load openwrt onto them if I need to:

http://dx.com/p/tp-link-tl-wr703n-mini-3g-2-4ghz-802-11b-g-n-150mbps-wireless-router-blue-158552

it sucks to have 120gh/s sitting around doing nothing, but im doing the best I can, oh yeah and one of the modules was smashed so bad during shipping that two of the capacitors snapped off, so my plan is if I can get these tplink boards to work is to make a 4 module miner and a 1 module miner.


also noticed they are putting 750watt 80 plus gold PSU's in the units some japanese off brand instead of the 650watts antec as before
I will update my progress to this thread if I have any luck and any and all advice is appreciated.

Aluminum is basically the softness metal they could of conceivably used for the module heat sinks and thats why they are snapping off and stripping the screw holes during shipping - you could of saved a lot of trouble and made a much better product by using copper.

Just curious anyone experienced the same problems? Or have some advice?

-JJ

Dude,
If a were you, amusing that All is good except tplink-routers i would setup a linux pc immediately and plug all that is working in there without hesitation. The key point your Controller to be fine not smashed (even if it is smashed) i see you have a lot of units and you can find healthy ones and use all four ASIC boards on a single controller with appropriate PSU

i will pay $200 bounty to the first person that gives me detailed instructions that work.

I plugged the avalon into a linux box - configured it to --enable-avalon and then compiled and installed bfgminer

bfgminer does not detect the avalon

"all devices disabled"

Please help!

you will get $200 from me and do a great service to the community!
thank you
-JJ

Followed the basic guide? https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Avalon#User_Guide

Got the latest firmware? https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Avalon#Firmware

If so you can try to update ubuntu (if using it) using the following command: sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade

And finally try running the following, I can't tell you what it does though: sudo usermod -a -G dialout USERNAME

[JerimiahJohnson]

yes im using ubuntu and im running it as root which should give it access to dialout group

where im confused is how to update the firmware - isnt the firmware loaded on the tplink?

[cypherdoc]

bummer, i knew this would be a problem.

[JerimiahJohnson]

well i gave up on trying to run it on a straight linux machine,

I purchased a few of these

http://www.cutedigi.com/wireless/wifi/tl-wr703n-clone-with-openwrt-usb-camera-support-ttl-uart.html

they are clones of the TPLINK

I was able to load the latest firmware and set everything up - but somethings still wrong, I can log into the avalon web gui, set everything up properly but the damn things just dont mine.

connection refused in the cgminer api log,

I get the blue light with the green led in the middle, damn it feels like im so close....

I repeat - ALUMINUM WAS THE ABSOLUTE WORST METAL TO USE TO SECURE THESE MODULES TO THE BACKPLANE TO BE SHIPPED ALL OVER THE WORLD
its basically the softest metal in existence.

We will certainly see a lot more of these problems.... as more avalons come into the wild.

No one interested in collecting the $200 bounty?

-JJ

[cypherdoc]

well i gave up on trying to run it on a straight linux machine,

I purchased a few of these

http://www.cutedigi.com/wireless/wifi/tl-wr703n-clone-with-openwrt-usb-camera-support-ttl-uart.html

they are clones of the TPLINK

I was able to load the latest firmware and set everything up - but somethings still wrong, I can log into the avalon web gui, set everything up properly but the damn things just dont mine.

connection refused in the cgminer api log,

I get the blue light with the green led in the middle, damn it feels like im so close....

I repeat - ALUMINUM WAS THE ABSOLUTE WORST METAL TO USE TO SECURE THESE MODULES TO THE BACKPLANE TO BE SHIPPED ALL OVER THE WORLD
its basically the softest metal in existence.

We will certainly see a lot more of these problems.... as more avalons come into the wild.

No one interested in collecting the $200 bounty?

-JJ

yifu stated that they had to solder a different connection on the tplink so you can't expect a replacement to work.

[JerimiahJohnson]

So basically...

Count on getting 3 out of 5 units that are not destroyed by the time it comes to the US,  thats what I am averaging right now.

There must be a way to run it directly from a linux machine I will await until someone comes up with it.

-JJ

[fpgaminer]

Back to the Linux machine option, did you try running cgminer instead of bfgminer?

Also, from the wiki:

About P5 jumper: close this jumper will supply 5V to the USB-B port. in this system, the controller board power the HUB and the HUB power the 703N. but if you connect the controller itself to a PC, you must remove the jumper.

Emphasis mine.  When you connected the controller (not the hub) directly to your PC, did you remove jumper P5?

If cgminer barfs, remember to run it in debug mode to get more details:

If your avalon does not mine properly, please run Cgminer in debug mode with -D --verbose option. For example:

[JerimiahJohnson]

Back to the Linux machine option, did you try running cgminer instead of bfgminer?

Also, from the wiki:

About P5 jumper: close this jumper will supply 5V to the USB-B port. in this system, the controller board power the HUB and the HUB power the 703N. but if you connect the controller itself to a PC, you must remove the jumper.

Emphasis mine.  When you connected the controller (not the hub) directly to your PC, did you remove jumper P5?

If cgminer barfs, remember to run it in debug mode to get more details:

If your avalon does not mine properly, please run Cgminer in debug mode with -D --verbose option. For example:

I will try this - thank you! btw I just upped the bounty to $500 USD.

[John Self]

Back to the Linux machine option, did you try running cgminer instead of bfgminer?

Also, from the wiki:

About P5 jumper: close this jumper will supply 5V to the USB-B port. in this system, the controller board power the HUB and the HUB power the 703N. but if you connect the controller itself to a PC, you must remove the jumper.

Emphasis mine.  When you connected the controller (not the hub) directly to your PC, did you remove jumper P5?

If cgminer barfs, remember to run it in debug mode to get more details:

If your avalon does not mine properly, please run Cgminer in debug mode with -D --verbose option. For example:

I will try this - thank you! btw I just upped the bounty to $500 USD.

What's your debugging info?

Make sure to run as root user, with su or sudo

[JerimiahJohnson]

where is the p5 jumper trying to find this on the wiki right now....

[John Self]

where is the p5 jumper trying to find this on the wiki right now....

the jumper's label is P5, next to the USB port

[JerimiahJohnson]

where is the p5 jumper trying to find this on the wiki right now....

on the fpga board?