Experimenting with Jalapeno firmware...

[kano]

i use cgwatcher to find number of engines and speeds on powerup..

I use cgminer - way better coz it also mines.

[lightfoot]

CGMiner won't talk to my Jally; apparently the problem is some sort of timing error, it works fine with my erupters. So I'm back on BFG, and blind as to the details of my JP. Oh well.

FF: Sorry you blew up your JP, can you post what kinds of temps you were running and error rates? Every time I tried to move above 7 the unit would generate more heat, a lot more errors (5-10%), and not a lot more hashing. It's back to stock speed 7.4gh or so 43c, 2.6% error rate, and 335.7mh/s, 1.6/.91% error rate on the two erupters.

So an overall hashing rate of 8gh/s.  I can live with that although with the difficulty change I just dropped from .05btc/day to .03btc/day. Ah well.....

[peterepeat]

And it looks like my Jalapeno bit the dust. RIP.

Last night one of the ASICs seem to have stopped working, hash rate dropped down to ~4GH/s or so and only chip #7 was showing up when running java API stats. Then got home tonight and found the red status LED on the Jalapeno flashing quickly and cgminer unable to communicate with it.

Maybe I pushed the little guy too hard. Any ideas for reviving it or is it probably toast? Tried power cycling the unit but no luck. Going to leave it unplugged for a bit then try starting it up again and see if that does anything.

EDIT: Huh. Well that seemed to get it going again, at least for the time being. Still only recognizing processor 7, though, processor 3 no longer active and hashing.

I had this problem once after a firmware flash with a higher frequency setting (the red light rapidly flashing) and fixed it by reflashing with the released BFL firmware.

[alpha42_1]

I've also noticed at times my jally (flashed over a month ago) will fail something internally on power up, and I'll get the "Fast Flashing front LED of doom"... I'll have to power off and on a few times to get it to not do that.  I meant to take a look at the code I compiled on there last and see if I should scale something back, but to be honest, it's never stopped hashing on me (I only see this issue when I have to power it off and back on), and it's been solid at 7.5, with less than .6% HW errors (as reported by BFG), for that month solid, so part of me says why tinker with something that works.

[macromode]

My Jalapeno has stopped working with LED1 flashing quickly. When I try to interface with it using my Dragon, I am unable to reprogram it, as I get a message: Read voltage 0.3V is outside selected device's operating range: 3.0V to 3.6V.

Has anyone encountered this issue? Any solutions?

[bitpop]

Flip your cable my dude

[macromode]

Flip your cable my dude

It's been a few months since I tinkered with the code and flashed my Jalapeno so your suggestion was a good one, but flipping the cable did nothing as I had it plugged in properly. Has anybody else had a similar experience? It's maddening not being able to interface with the Jalapeno.

[goxed]

Flip your cable my dude

It's been a few months since I tinkered with the code and flashed my Jalapeno so your suggestion was a good one, but flipping the cable did nothing as I had it plugged in properly. Has anybody else had a similar experience? It's maddening not being able to interface with the Jalapeno.

I had this issue intermittently on one of my Jala. Happened after reflashing. Power cycling few times usually fixed it for that power on period.

[bitpop]

The voltage error means there's nothing attached aka atmel unresponsive

[peterepeat]

My Jalapeno has stopped working with LED1 flashing quickly. When I try to interface with it using my Dragon, I am unable to reprogram it, as I get a message: Read voltage 0.3V is outside selected device's operating range: 3.0V to 3.6V.

Has anyone encountered this issue? Any solutions?

Maybe your power supply is shot?

[frostedflakes]

CGMiner won't talk to my Jally; apparently the problem is some sort of timing error, it works fine with my erupters. So I'm back on BFG, and blind as to the details of my JP. Oh well.

FF: Sorry you blew up your JP, can you post what kinds of temps you were running and error rates? Every time I tried to move above 7 the unit would generate more heat, a lot more errors (5-10%), and not a lot more hashing. It's back to stock speed 7.4gh or so 43c, 2.6% error rate, and 335.7mh/s, 1.6/.91% error rate on the two erupters.

So an overall hashing rate of 8gh/s.  I can live with that although with the difficulty change I just dropped from .05btc/day to .03btc/day. Ah well.....

Temps were 47-50C, 4-5% error rate with 1.2.5 and __ASIC_FREQUENCY_ACTUAL_INDEX=7. Keep in mind that I was getting roughly 2% error rate with the default 1.0.0 firmware straight from BFL, though (my stock Jalapeno was also hashing pretty high, 5.8GH/s so wasn't too concerned about the slightly high HW error rate). This was before I replaced the fan, added heatsinks, flashed the firmware, or did any other mods.

Maybe I had some dud chips and the firmware flash/higher frequency just accelerated their failure?

Leaving it unplugged for a little bit can get it going again (still only initializes with one ASIC, processor 7). After running for a little while (20-30 min or so), though, HW errors start increasing a bunch and eventually it stops accepting shares. If I do a java API stats when this happens it shows the ASIC frequency as 0MHz.

Almost seems like it's overheating, but temps reported in cgminer seem fine (40-41C). Might try removing the case and pointing a box fan at it just to rule overheating out.

[lightfoot]

Leaving it unplugged for a little bit can get it going again (still only initializes with one ASIC, processor 7). After running for a little while (20-30 min or so), though, HW errors start increasing a bunch and eventually it stops accepting shares. If I do a java API stats when this happens it shows the ASIC frequency as 0MHz.

Almost seems like it's overheating, but temps reported in cgminer seem fine (40-41C). Might try removing the case and pointing a box fan at it just to rule overheating out.

Hm. Did you ever take off the heat sink? Is the sink loose? Can you try backing the speed back down to 0?

C

[frostedflakes]

Yeah I did remove the heatsink and replace the thermal pad with IC Diamond 7 (seemed like a good choice to replace the pad due to the thickness of the paste and it being advertised as less prone to bleeding/separating than other pastes). Shouldn't be loose, snugged the heatsink down pretty good but was careful about overtightening as well, have worked with old AthlonXP CPUs and other bare die chips before and didn't want to chip or crack a die or anything.

And as mentioned reported temps always seemed great. Was getting like 40-41C stock I think, 43-44C after replacing the pad and stock fan with a lower RPM model, then up to 47-50C after flashing to 1.2.5 and running at a higher hash rate.

When I get around to taking the case off I'll check everything out and make sure it looks OK. So far it's been hashing away at 4GH/s or so (looks like it only initialized with 13 engines on processor 7 this time I started it up, seems like when it initializes with 14-15 is when it stops working after running for a bit).

[SLok]

I recognize a lot of your story from my 7GH jalap flash with the standard 1.2.5 FW, then I tried ckolivas' 1.2.5 and all was well again. Let the case front/sides and back plate off though, as the top plate, and have the fan blowing down getting 8.25GH average at 30-31C.

[macromode]

My Jalapeno has stopped working with LED1 flashing quickly. When I try to interface with it using my Dragon, I am unable to reprogram it, as I get a message: Read voltage 0.3V is outside selected device's operating range: 3.0V to 3.6V.

Has anyone encountered this issue? Any solutions?

Maybe your power supply is shot?

Thanks for suggesting inspecting the power adapter. Took a multimeter to it. Got 121.8V from the wall and 13.48V from the barrel connector so all seems good with the power adapter.

Power cycling the Jalapeno a few times has done nothing. All I get is the blinking red light from LED1 indicating a short circuit. I think my Jalapeno is dead.

[lightfoot]

My Jalapeno has stopped working with LED1 flashing quickly. When I try to interface with it using my Dragon, I am unable to reprogram it, as I get a message: Read voltage 0.3V is outside selected device's operating range: 3.0V to 3.6V.

Has anyone encountered this issue? Any solutions?

Maybe your power supply is shot?

Thanks for suggesting inspecting the power adapter. Took a multimeter to it. Got 121.8V from the wall and 13.48V from the barrel connector so all seems good with the power adapter.

Power cycling the Jalapeno a few times has done nothing. All I get is the blinking red light from LED1 indicating a short circuit. I think my Jalapeno is dead.

Crud. Want to sell it? I'd offer $150 for playing with it.

Alternately I flashed my JP with CK's code and I think I'm going to stick with it. Same speed as my code tweaks, but with < 1% errors (I was getting 2.5% or so) and several degrees less heat. I think his code turns off cores that are shot (I have several) and clocks up the remaining ones (to compensate).

As a side note, if anyone in the Baltimore/Laurel MD area wants to bring their jally over for a flash I'll do it for free/tips/whatever with my Dragon and atmel. I think ck's code is good, will drop him/her a tip if I can find her btc wallet.

C

[frostedflakes]

I recognize a lot of your story from my 7GH jalap flash with the standard 1.2.5 FW, then I tried ckolivas' 1.2.5 and all was well again. Let the case front/sides and back plate off though, as the top plate, and have the fan blowing down getting 8.25GH average at 30-31C.

Thanks for the tip, I did end up trying ckolivas 1.2.5 and it improved the HW error rate quite a bit on the one working ASIC lol. Should have flashed that version right from the get-go. Other ASIC still doesn't even seem to be recognized, though.

Heatsink was snugged down tight and everything looked good when I had the case off. Only potential problem I can think of is one of the ASICs isn't entirely covered by the aluminum heatsink, actually a thread on the BFL forums about this. I didn't think too much of it when I first got it and opened it up since I didn't figure BFL would ship them out like this if it could cause problems, but almost wonder now if maybe that created hotspots on the ASIC or caused it to get hot enough to go belly up. Of course quieter/lower RPM fan and overclocking probably didn't help either, but for all I know it would have gone out sooner rather than later because of this even running it stock.

[lightfoot]

Thanks for the tip, I did end up trying ckolivas 1.2.5 and it improved the HW error rate quite a bit on the one working ASIC lol. Should have flashed that version right from the get-go. Other ASIC still doesn't even seem to be recognized, though.

You too? Interesting, now I'm really wondering what that does. Might be time to crack out the threading disassembler :-)

Heatsink was snugged down tight and everything looked good when I had the case off. Only potential problem I can think of is one of the ASICs isn't entirely covered by the aluminum heatsink, actually a thread on the BFL forums about this. I didn't think too much of it when I first got it and opened it up since I didn't figure BFL would ship them out like this if it could cause problems, but almost wonder now if maybe that created hotspots on the ASIC or caused it to get hot enough to go belly up. Of course quieter/lower RPM fan and overclocking probably didn't help either, but for all I know it would have gone out sooner rather than later because of this even running it stock.

Mm. How tight was tight? I've been snugging the bolts down using a t8 torx bit by hand without handle or anything, pressing down on the sink and plate and snugging it down just enough to take out the slack. Finger tight, counting on the artic pad to do the work of transferring the heat. When I first took off the plate it was easy to remove with fingers on the torx bit, so I used that as the measurement of torque to snug it down.

Maybe one of the chips broke a bga connection or something. Do you have air tools to try and refloat it?

C

[-ck]

Alternately I flashed my JP with CK's code and I think I'm going to stick with it. Same speed as my code tweaks, but with < 1% errors (I was getting 2.5% or so) and several degrees less heat. I think his code turns off cores that are shot (I have several) and clocks up the remaining ones (to compensate).

As a side note, if anyone in the Baltimore/Laurel MD area wants to bring their jally over for a flash I'll do it for free/tips/whatever with my Dragon and atmel. I think ck's code is good, will drop him/her a tip if I can find her btc wallet.

Thanks, but only my avatar pic is female

[xstr8guy]

Lol, you OCers are a different breed of cat!  You wait 9 months for your Jalapeños and proceed to blow them up.

I'm just giving you some good-natured grief and I feel bad for the few who've lost or damaged their Jallys.  But for us less daring individuals it can difficult for us to understand why you'd even take the risk in the first place.

With difficulty rising so quickly, wouldn't it be wiser just to mine with it straight out of the box instead of modding and experimenting with firmware hour after hour, day after day?  I start to freak out if my ASICs have any downtime.  For example, I just setup 6 ASICMiner Blades a few days ago and during the first night, the PC that was running Stratum Proxy had a Windows update and restarted.  I about cried when I saw my stats.  Hell, I get mad if one of my USB Erupters goes offline for 5 minutes, lol.