A4 Drop Card Issues - Jig Reflash Thread

[Longsnowsm]

i still dont understand

To fix the A4 the 2 hashing boards must be Re-Flashed with a special Jig that re-programs the hashing boards. These Jigs are very expensive so Inno has shipped one Jig to forum member Longsnowfm. But there is only one Jig that needs to fix all of the A4 miners. So the group here is deciding what is the best way to get all miners fixed with just one Jig.. Hope that helps

To add to that the jig appears to be pretty fragile so the idea of shipping it around the US to fix the miners is probably not a good idea.  I wasn't aware just how fragile this thing is until I saw some pictures posted of it.  So having the jig stay in one place is probably a good idea. 

I would offer to flash them here, but I know my full time job would get in the way of me being able to process these in a timely manner and getting these back to everyone quickly.  So finding someone the community trusts to handle their miners would be preferable.  This is a huge obligation that cannot be taken lightly. 

The good news is that after reviewing the customer list we are down to 34 miners in the US that were purchased directly through Innosilicon.  So maybe this won't be as big a problem to get everyone flashed as I initially feared.    Just as a recap this only affects Batch 1 and Batch 2 miners at this time.  If you have a Batch 3 miner you do not need to flash your firmware.  You are already running the most current firmware available.

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[Longsnowsm]

It has been suggested we should have a vote regarding the flashing.  So let the voting begin.

Ballot issue:
Should we ship the A4 jig to Prohashing and have them flash and upgrade the A4 miners to address the Batch 1 and Batch 2 issues?
1. Yes
2. No
3. Other: Write in votes here

Vote early, vote often, you cannot vote if you are dead... Sorry Chicago... LOL

[firehawk71]

It has been suggested we should have a vote regarding the flashing.  So let the voting begin.

Ballot issue:
Should we ship the A4 jig to Prohashing and have them flash and upgrade the A4 miners to address the Batch 1 and Batch 2 issues?
1. Yes
2. No
3. Other: Write in votes here

Vote early, vote often, you cannot vote if you are dead... Sorry Chicago... LOL

Yes

[mjgraham]

It has been suggested we should have a vote regarding the flashing.  So let the voting begin.

Ballot issue:
Should we ship the A4 jig to Prohashing and have them flash and upgrade the A4 miners to address the Batch 1 and Batch 2 issues?
1. Yes
2. No
3. Other: Write in votes here

Vote early, vote often, you cannot vote if you are dead... Sorry Chicago... LOL

Yes

Even though I wanted to take a look at the rig. I sure hope  they have done enough testing this round and this is the only round we need. I have only had my miners a week and am already tired of trying to invent a way to keep them going.

[Eyedol-X]

It has been suggested we should have a vote regarding the flashing.  So let the voting begin.

Ballot issue:
Should we ship the A4 jig to Prohashing and have them flash and upgrade the A4 miners to address the Batch 1 and Batch 2 issues?
1. Yes
2. No
3. Other: Write in votes here

Vote early, vote often, you cannot vote if you are dead... Sorry Chicago... LOL

Yes

Alternate picks for me is lightfoot or mjgraham if its determined we can reflash with an alternate method developed.

[usao]

It has been suggested we should have a vote regarding the flashing.  So let the voting begin.

Ballot issue:
Should we ship the A4 jig to Prohashing and have them flash and upgrade the A4 miners to address the Batch 1 and Batch 2 issues?
1. Yes
2. No
3. Other: Write in votes here

Vote early, vote often, you cannot vote if you are dead... Sorry Chicago... LOL

Yes, but I would like to know the costs...
1) Address (or at least ZIP) to compute shipping costs?
2) Cost from Prohashing per rig, cube or card?

[Longsnowsm]

I know Chris is listed as being in State College PA.  So you could probably use 16801 zipcode as a general idea of what shipping to Prohashing would cost.

I am trying to get some clarification from Inno about something right now regarding shipping.  I will keep you posted on that. 

[usao]

I know Chris is listed as being in State College PA.  So you could probably use 16801 zipcode as a general idea of what shipping to Prohashing would cost.

I am trying to get some clarification from Inno about something right now regarding shipping.  I will keep you posted on that. 

Do we need to contact Chris regarding scheduling so that he's not dumped on with dozens of machines all at once?
If so, can you PM me a contact for him? Thanks.

[Eyedol-X]

I know Chris is listed as being in State College PA.  So you could probably use 16801 zipcode as a general idea of what shipping to Prohashing would cost.

I am trying to get some clarification from Inno about something right now regarding shipping.  I will keep you posted on that.  

Do we need to contact Chris regarding scheduling so that he's not dumped on with dozens of machines all at once?
If so, can you PM me a contact for him? Thanks.

My thoughts on the order of operations for this reflash timeline:

• Longsnowsm receives Jig
• Longsnowsm takes high res pictures of requested areas made by Mjgraham
• Mjgraham determines if a DIY reflasher can built
• If Yes > Jig may need to go to MjGraham first > Then on to Chris@PH
• If No > Jig goes to Chris@PH
• Chris@PH sets up timeline and scheduling for members/customers needing reflashing
• Fees? Costs? - TBD

If Mjgraham can make a DIY reflasher, I'd opt to go that route before sending to Chris@PH just because it saves time and costs overall.

[firehawk71]

I know Chris is listed as being in State College PA.  So you could probably use 16801 zipcode as a general idea of what shipping to Prohashing would cost.

I am trying to get some clarification from Inno about something right now regarding shipping.  I will keep you posted on that.  

Do we need to contact Chris regarding scheduling so that he's not dumped on with dozens of machines all at once?
If so, can you PM me a contact for him? Thanks.

My thoughts on the order of operations for this reflash timeline:

• Longsnowsm receives Jig
• Longsnowsm takes high res pictures of requested areas made by Mjgraham
• Mjgraham determines if a DIY reflasher can built
• If Yes > Jig may need to go to MjGraham first > Then on to Chris@PH
• If No > Jig goes to Chris@PH
• Chris@PH sets up timeline and scheduling for members/customers needing reflashing
• Fees? Costs? - TBD

If Mjgraham can make a DIY reflasher, I'd opt to go that route before sending to Chris@PH just because it saves time and costs overall.

A DIY re-flash is a great idea if it can be done. But I do not see how it would save time and cost overall as sending to Chris is now and DIY kit will take time and money then the kits will need to be shipped if they can even do it which is no guarrentee. Meanwhile we are waiting when cards could be getting flashed... Every day that the jig is not working is time waisted. My personal felling is it is better to get everyone re-flashed first. Then once there is no more demand for Prohash service I am sure he would be happy to ship the jig back to whoever for the purpose of studing the Jig and making a DIY kit.. But I think its more practical to get everyone fixed asap.

[Eyedol-X]

I know Chris is listed as being in State College PA.  So you could probably use 16801 zipcode as a general idea of what shipping to Prohashing would cost.

I am trying to get some clarification from Inno about something right now regarding shipping.  I will keep you posted on that.  

Do we need to contact Chris regarding scheduling so that he's not dumped on with dozens of machines all at once?
If so, can you PM me a contact for him? Thanks.

My thoughts on the order of operations for this reflash timeline:

• Longsnowsm receives Jig
• Longsnowsm takes high res pictures of requested areas made by Mjgraham
• Mjgraham determines if a DIY reflasher can built
• If Yes > Jig may need to go to MjGraham first > Then on to Chris@PH
• If No > Jig goes to Chris@PH
• Chris@PH sets up timeline and scheduling for members/customers needing reflashing
• Fees? Costs? - TBD

If Mjgraham can make a DIY reflasher, I'd opt to go that route before sending to Chris@PH just because it saves time and costs overall.

A DIY re-flash is a great idea if it can be done. But I do not see how it would save time and cost overall as sending to Chris is now and DIY kit will take time and money then the kits will need to be shipped if they can even do it which is no guarrentee. Meanwhile we are waiting when cards could be getting flashed... Every day that the jig is not working is time waisted. My personal felling is it is better to get everyone re-flashed first. Then once there is no more demand for Prohash service I am sure he would be happy to ship the jig back to whoever for the purpose of studing the Jig and making a DIY kit.. But I think its more practical to get everyone fixed asap.

Well if what Mjgraham has said is an option, for ~$30 and a few minutes of your time, you can fix it yourself. Saves a lot of time taking your miner down, taking it apart, and then shipping it off to PH.

Mjgraham even said it may be possible to do without complete disassembly of the miner.

This is all speculation right now until the photos are taken that show where the jig connects/how it connects.

[usao]

A DIY re-flash is a great idea if it can be done. But I do not see how it would save time and cost overall as sending to Chris is now and DIY kit will take time and money then the kits will need to be shipped if they can even do it which is no guarrentee. Meanwhile we are waiting when cards could be getting flashed... Every day that the jig is not working is time waisted. My personal felling is it is better to get everyone re-flashed first. Then once there is no more demand for Prohash service I am sure he would be happy to ship the jig back to whoever for the purpose of studing the Jig and making a DIY kit.. But I think its more practical to get everyone fixed asap.

Until we know the costs for either option it's hard to say.
However, if the turnaround time is 2 weeks (2-way shipping + flash time on site, lost mining) as well as multiple rigs (multiple shipping), then it could possibly be cheaper/faster with a DYI rig.
Additionally, if I had my own DYI rig, I would feel much more comfortable about buying extra rigs going forward as I know I would have a quick/easy way to flash them.
That said, if the Inno rig is so expensive, why do we think we could build a DYI rig for cheaper? Wouldn't they have done that already?

[Chris Sokolowski]

If I can get the jig, I can turn around miners on the same day.  Prohashing is my full-time job and I have nothing else that would delay me.  I know the lost revenue of having these miners offline, and I won't take any longer than necessary.

I am working on creating an online order form so I can track everyone sending miners and provide individualized status updates to each person.  Shipping would be to State College, PA 16803.  However, I don't want to have anyone send me a miner until I have the jig.  After I receive the jig, I initially want only one person to send a miner because I will need to learn to use the jig and I don't want others' miners sitting idle while I learn to use it.

After we have confirmed that all the miners have been flashed, I would be happy to pass the jig onto the next person.

[mjgraham]

I know Chris is listed as being in State College PA.  So you could probably use 16801 zipcode as a general idea of what shipping to Prohashing would cost.

I am trying to get some clarification from Inno about something right now regarding shipping.  I will keep you posted on that.  

Do we need to contact Chris regarding scheduling so that he's not dumped on with dozens of machines all at once?
If so, can you PM me a contact for him? Thanks.

My thoughts on the order of operations for this reflash timeline:

• Longsnowsm receives Jig
• Longsnowsm takes high res pictures of requested areas made by Mjgraham
• Mjgraham determines if a DIY reflasher can built
• If Yes > Jig may need to go to MjGraham first > Then on to Chris@PH
• If No > Jig goes to Chris@PH
• Chris@PH sets up timeline and scheduling for members/customers needing reflashing
• Fees? Costs? - TBD

If Mjgraham can make a DIY reflasher, I'd opt to go that route before sending to Chris@PH just because it saves time and costs overall.

I think it is OK to send it to Chris, they can at least start, maybe when the first wave of updates die down I could take a look at it. I would like to have all the associated software, does anyone have any idea what were getting? We know the jig but a laptop? software to install on something? I can make my jig pretty easily, I have already taken apart one module so I can get my measurements off that, plus I have access to a circuit board mill so I can make it pretty easily.  Of course were talking far more crude but hopefully effective.


I hope and I think I'll ask if they are going to let us have any lower level access to the drivers or firmware, I do a lot of command line use of things and this new cgminer has a lot of strange things associated with it that are undocumented, plus I think it was a bare bones get it going attempt.

Until we know the costs for either option it's hard to say.
However, if the turnaround time is 2 weeks (2-way shipping + flash time on site, lost mining) as well as multiple rigs (multiple shipping), then it could possibly be cheaper/faster with a DYI rig.
Additionally, if I had my own DYI rig, I would feel much more comfortable about buying extra rigs going forward as I know I would have a quick/easy way to flash them.
That said, if the Inno rig is so expensive, why do we think we could build a DYI rig for cheaper? Wouldn't they have done that already?

My guess is this is something they use, just set it in push the contacts in and press go, may have advanced diagnostics on the boards and be able to do more than just flash, I can't really imagine what would make it cost more than $1000 but who knows , I wonder what is in the bottom of the box.

At the least getting one board upgraded to B3 with the jig  should be able to pull the firmware off and use that.

It would be nice to know if there are any , it didn't make the shipping, firmware update smoked it , this think doesn't work at all kind of replacement from someone, I don't have any reason not to trust anyone but sometimes things just don't upgrade happily or survive the trip.

[Longsnowsm]

The jig arrived very late this afternoon.  It is even more flimsy in real life than in the pics.  I was frankly surprised it made it from China in one piece given it's construction.  It didn't come with instructions, but I was able to figure it out from previous posts.  Inno just emailed me the instructions, but I already had the miners flashed by the time I noticed they had already replied to my question about instructions.

The process to flash the boards themselves is very fast. Maybe 45 seconds per board.  Sometimes the board will give you an error rapid flashing from your board.  Don't freak out just repeat the process until the board checks out.  It took me more time to disconnect everything, find a place to work on them, download the latest v2.0.2, and disassemble the cubes than it did anything else.  I think if we get a bunch of these in at one time you could setup an assembly line and flash them all in a day or two pretty easy. 

Now for the bad news on the re-engineering this jig.  i don't think you can do it.  The bottom box that you see in the pictures actually contains an A4 hashing board.  It appears they copying the image from another board they already upgraded.  I took some pics that I hope will be close enough that you can see how it is connected.  I have my doubts that a cheaper alternative can be built based on what I can see.  But then again I am no electronics expert so I will let you guys be the judge. 

So my A4's have been flashed and they are up and pointed at Prohashing.  So far so good.  I have been in touch with Inno and Chris at Prohashing and we are getting things lined up for the jig and flashing.  We will keep you guys posted as more of this story develops. 

[mjgraham]

The jig arrived very late this afternoon.  It is even more flimsy in real life than in the pics.  I was frankly surprised it made it from China in one piece given it's construction.  It didn't come with instructions, but I was able to figure it out from previous posts.  Inno just emailed me the instructions, but I already had the miners flashed by the time I noticed they had already replied to my question about instructions.

The process to flash the boards themselves is very fast. Maybe 45 seconds per board.  Sometimes the board will give you an error rapid flashing from your board.  Don't freak out just repeat the process until the board checks out.  It took me more time to disconnect everything, find a place to work on them, download the latest v2.0.2, and disassemble the cubes than it did anything else.  I think if we get a bunch of these in at one time you could setup an assembly line and flash them all in a day or two pretty easy. 

Now for the bad news on the re-engineering this jig.  i don't think you can do it.  The bottom box that you see in the pictures actually contains an A4 hashing board.  It appears they copying the image from another board they already upgraded.  I took some pics that I hope will be close enough that you can see how it is connected.  I have my doubts that a cheaper alternative can be built based on what I can see.  But then again I am no electronics expert so I will let you guys be the judge. 

So my A4's have been flashed and they are up and pointed at Prohashing.  So far so good.  I have been in touch with Inno and Chris at Prohashing and we are getting things lined up for the jig and flashing.  We will keep you guys posted as more of this story develops. 

Well at least it made it and it worked, I am guessing it is a stand a lone rig, turn it on and put the card in and go? if so must just clone the memory from one board to the other, still might be doable for a cheaper model but will have to have a v3 board to copy from. May have one of mine upgraded then try from there. I main problem has been out of the 6 modules I have about 1/3 of the hash boards don't want to work , power it up and get a red LED blip then there off , software detects the board but there is only like 4 chips that report back out of 20 so who knows on that.

Good job looking forward to the pics at least.

[Longsnowsm]

I just received an email from Inno asking me to hold off shipping the jig pending instructions from them.  They didn't state why or provide any details at the moment.  So I am in a holding pattern at the moment awaiting their instructions.   

[Eyedol-X]

Interested to see the pics here too.

I'm wondering if the issue Mjgraham described where the boards aren't working is because they failed to properly flash them in the first place, it seems like their flashing process is a little wonky.

On one hand, good news is we have a jig stateside that works

...on the other hand, there are questions and concerns why Inno would put the brakes on us reshipping it unless they are going to be releasing another update.

[firehawk71]

I just received an email from Inno asking me to hold off shipping the jig pending instructions from them.  They didn't state why or provide any details at the moment.  So I am in a holding pattern at the moment awaiting their instructions.   

Just curious after you have used it and seen it. Is it that delicate in your mind that it should not be shipped around? Man you made it sound so easy and fast.. Is it very heavy and what size is the box?

[Longsnowsm]

The box isn't huge, and it isn't heavy.  But the way this is setup you have all the wires exposed, pins are just hot glued and core components are exposed.  They protected the hashing board that comes with it in the box below which is good.  They really were just trying to get something out to us as quickly as possible from the looks of this.  

Here is what Inno had to say:

Just want to inform you please keep the jig on your site now. Because we need some time to figure out what is the best solution for this upgrade with prohashing.

There is so many details during the upgrade.
But since we want to make it a easier for customers, just give us some time.

We will let you know the progress soon.

So it sounds like they may be working on a better solution.  It really does look like they are going out of their way to get this fixed.

Here are some pics of the jig:
https://i.imgur.com/eSwGKGm.jpg
http://imgur.com/eSwGKGm.jpg
http://imgur.com/yPIRn8s.jpg
http://imgur.com/xuw7ANA.jpg
http://imgur.com/2n8YQS5.jpg
http://imgur.com/rsEZllP.jpg
http://imgur.com/UyByY94.jpg
http://imgur.com/AgwvpZx.jpg