[Work in progess] Burnins Avalon Chip to mining board service

[robix]

I currently work with MinePeon, second link, and (sorry) can't recommend it for 24/7 unmonitored usage.
It might be fixed yet, but my config seems to be killed sometimes, the only way to fix the latest crash was
to stop the cgminer service and run it by hand with the config file on chmod 555. this prevents nightly restarts.

after the latest crash, even rewriting the config, cgminer refused to start all the way.
now it's running 24/7 without restart.

MinePeon was the easiest way for me to get used to RaspPi and mining with it, but I will reconfig to pure Raspbian soon I guess.
It's a very nice piece of software but I don't trust it anymore after these downtimes.

Did you use the latest rlease 0.2.2?

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[kano]

Didnt know there are such problems... regarding raspbian... someone wrote that it can make problems too and suggested arch linux with the first link i posted.

Yes Arch current seems to have a working libusb (well it does for me - with my test program in the link below)
The Raspbian fix is to use a different libusb as I describe here (switching libusb for me goes from 'fail' to 'working'):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.msg2817682#msg2817682

[tigerbit]

Didnt know there are such problems... regarding raspbian... someone wrote that it can make problems too and suggested arch linux with the first link i posted.

Yes Arch current seems to have a working libusb (well it does for me - with my test program in the link below)
The Raspbian fix is to use a different libusb as I describe here (switching libusb for me goes from 'fail' to 'working'):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.msg2817682#msg2817682

It seems there are and there aren't problems with Raspbian depending on what you're using.  I run stock Raspbian with a locally compiled latest version of BFGminer for my CM1s and it runs for weeks uninterrupted, and except maybe 1 time the interruption is me restarting it to test or tweak something.  However, importantly this doesn't use libusb.

So, given that extended support for BitBurner voltage control is likely to be built into cgminer on kano's advice & experience I'm definitely going to look at a Arch linux / libusb/ cgminer build as an alternate.  Arch linux gets a bad rep amongst Pi'ers as being less user friendly - but it's just linux.  Don't fear it!

From what I've read about MinePeon - although it's got a lot of clever things added into the distro, I'd rather a clean stable stock distro with ssh, screen, and a quick init script to wake up my boards and launch my miner of choice.  Rock solid.

[eraziel]

I guess now that we're about a week away from receiving the first Bitburners it's a good time to post a How-to tutorial about mining with them using either RasPi or an x86 device.

I for one am planning to use a laptop as a host device and was wondering if there is something else necessary apart from having cgminer's latest version up and running...

[krasnolud]

I'd rather a clean stable stock distro with ssh, screen, and a quick init script to wake up my boards and launch my miner of choice.  Rock solid.

Same here.

[eraziel]

*anxiously awaiting photos of tens of assembled  boards with heatsinks slapped on

[SebastianJu]

*anxiously awaiting photos of tens of assembled  boards with heatsinks slapped on

Or a video of the working assembly robot...

[kano]

...
Arch linux gets a bad rep amongst Pi'ers as being less user friendly - but it's just linux.  Don't fear it!
...

Unfortunately it deserves the bad rep ... for anyone doing it themselves.
e.g. http://www.kano-kun.net/?p=87
... even to just get apache2 and php up and running you have to setup/fix the config and enable the services.

[krasnolud]

Or a video of the working assembly robot...

[SebastianJu]

Or a video of the working assembly robot...

I think bender's name is program. He would produce such miners

[kano]

... and just to throw a bit more excitement out there
https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer/pull/467

[Micky25]

+ 1 

[alexuk]

... and just to throw a bit more excitement out there
https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer/pull/467

Thanks Kano!

[alexuk]

Hi Burnin

Couple of questions

1) how will you handle warranty returns - are overclocked devices covered in the limited warranty?

2) any sexy pictures of completed units hot off the press?

[Its About Sharing]

in preparation for the arrival of my bitburners, what would be the best OS for running a few of them using a RaspberryPi?

http://www.kano-kun.net/?p=87

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=137934.0

I currently work with MinePeon, second link, and (sorry) can't recommend it for 24/7 unmonitored usage.
It might be fixed yet, but my config seems to be killed sometimes, the only way to fix the latest crash was
to stop the cgminer service and run it by hand with the config file on chmod 555. this prevents nightly restarts.

after the latest crash, even rewriting the config, cgminer refused to start all the way.
now it's running 24/7 without restart.

MinePeon was the easiest way for me to get used to RaspPi and mining with it, but I will reconfig to pure Raspbian soon I guess.
It's a very nice piece of software but I don't trust it anymore after these downtimes.

I've been running MinePeon for a month and a half now (using the default CG Miner) and it has mostly been great. (Just running one errupter)
The ONLY problem I had was when I was running the 2.2 version on an SD card rated at 4 (2 days of sporadic, maybe 2, freezes). When I reburned the image on a 10 speed card it has been up solid. Also was up solid on a 10 card before the upgrade. (But since it took like 30-45 minutes to burn the image I bought another card to swap things out for upgrades. The new version will support upgrades though!)

Will the Burnin Mining rigs plug and play with MinePeon and the stock CG Miner or do we need a special version?

Also, is it better to place orders sooner rather than later to reserve the board or does it not work like that? (I'm in SebastianJu's Batch 6 order, very helpful guy btw.)

Thanks,
IAS

[itod]

Will the Burnin Mining rigs plug and play with MinePeon and the stock CG Miner or do we need a special version?

Yes, plug & play. There is additional option (voltage regulation) not yet supported by stock CG Miner, but you probably won't need to touch it at all.

Also, is it better to place orders sooner rather than later to reserve the board or does it not work like that? (I'm in SebastianJu's Batch 6 order, very helpful guy btw.)

You have the answer to this question in the OP.

[SebastianJu]

Will the Burnin Mining rigs plug and play with MinePeon and the stock CG Miner or do we need a special version?

Yes, plug & play. There is additional option (voltage regulation) not yet supported by stock CG Miner, but you probably won't need to touch it at all.

Im pretty sure nearly all will need this feature because nearly all want to overclock. Its only possible to achieve high hashrates with overvolting...

[burnin]

Will the Burnin Mining rigs plug and play with MinePeon and the stock CG Miner or do we need a special version?

Yes, plug & play. There is additional option (voltage regulation) not yet supported by stock CG Miner, but you probably won't need to touch it at all.

Im pretty sure nearly all will need this feature because nearly all want to overclock. Its only possible to achieve high hashrates with overvolting...

The needed changes are already being commited into the cgminer.
Hopefully all that will be reasonable stable by next week.

I am currently at my contractor to supervise the production.
We making good progress even though there were a few delays here and there, which is to be expected when going from prototype to production.
No pretty photos this time since the first batch is done at my second contractor that doesn't allow photos to be taken in their production facility.
But there will be when i am back.

[Its About Sharing]

Will the Burnin Mining rigs plug and play with MinePeon and the stock CG Miner or do we need a special version?

Yes, plug & play. There is additional option (voltage regulation) not yet supported by stock CG Miner, but you probably won't need to touch it at all.

Also, is it better to place orders sooner rather than later to reserve the board or does it not work like that? (I'm in SebastianJu's Batch 6 order, very helpful guy btw.)

You have the answer to this question in the OP.

Thanks for the info Itod. As Sebastian said, many of us (including me), want to overclock the units. With chip shipments being behind and the hash rate /difficulty rising so much, the best chance to break even with smaller units is by overclocking (unless you got your hands on a 400Gh unit). Has anyone heard when voltage regulation will be available in CG miner (or rather is it already but not in the stock MinePeon version? Ahhh, thanks for the answer Burnin).

Regarding my last question - I meant it in more a gray area sort of way. I read the OP and what I thought was that it doesn't matter when you order, it is when the chips arrive. But what I really is, is there a danger of waiting too long (and then maybe getting your chips) but then the boards are sold out, where as if I ordered a board now, it would be held for me? Perhaps I'm making it more complicated than it is. My first buy so excuse my ignorance. ;-)

Thanks again,

IAS

[kano]

Will the Burnin Mining rigs plug and play with MinePeon and the stock CG Miner or do we need a special version?

Yes, plug & play. There is additional option (voltage regulation) not yet supported by stock CG Miner, but you probably won't need to touch it at all.

Im pretty sure nearly all will need this feature because nearly all want to overclock. Its only possible to achieve high hashrates with overvolting...

The needed changes are already being commited into the cgminer.
Hopefully all that will be reasonable stable by next week.
...

... and I'll certainly be adding more API access to the voltage control as soon as I get a chance to play with one.
Also, no doubt, once we understand it better, and if it's possible, possibly add auto control of the voltage - like ckolivas has done with the chip frequency.

Looking forward to seeing "BTB" on cgminer screens all over the world soon