Avalon 8 official specs released

[fanatic26]

So this is what I should use for the 821? Assuming I can even get my hands on one...

https://www.parallelminer.com/product/platinum-94-1500-watt-power-supply-kit-for-2-a4-dominator-litecoin-miners-ltc-litecoin-100-240v/

Yea those would work fine. Just make sure if you go with a 2 psu setup for the avalon you only use one PSU per hashing board. If you mix the plugs you will fry the equipment.

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[tetradrachm]

So this is what I should use for the 821? Assuming I can even get my hands on one...

https://www.parallelminer.com/product/platinum-94-1500-watt-power-supply-kit-for-2-a4-dominator-litecoin-miners-ltc-litecoin-100-240v/

Yea those would work fine. Just make sure if you go with a 2 psu setup for the avalon you only use one PSU per hashing board. If you mix the plugs you will fry the equipment.

Ok, so since the 821 has 2 boards with 4 6 pin plugs each, each PSU will have only 4 PCI cables running out it into one board for a total of 8 PCI cables going into the miner, 4 from each PSU? And of the 4 6 pin connectors on each PSU, which do the PCIs go in?

Thanks

[IAmLoco]

im interested with these new avalon miner but I have a question
does the 7 (i guess the 8 will have the same logic) push or pull the air from the fan

I use currently duct shroud for my s7 and would like to keep using this for my next avalon miner

thanks

It pulls air from the single fan.

To clarify: it pulls air from the opposite side (across the boards). The air is exiting on the side with the fan.

great thanks

[Steamtyme]

Will the Controller for Avalon Miner 741 work with the 821 and Will you be able to hook up an A8 to an existing A7?

A while back Canaan said yes you can.
But...
Caveat: As I found by mixing A721's and A741's, yes they work just fine together on 1 controller. BUT be very aware that if/when you apply firmware updates the update is specific to a particular model of Avalon and identified as being for 721,741, etc. Thing is, an update is applied to ALL miners on the controller. In my case the 721's did not like being told they were now 741's... Fortunately, easy to back out again.

So, best to not mix models on 1 controller... Since RasPi's are cheap, painless to do.

I sent them an email to see if you can mix and match 741's and 821's on 1 controller.

The response was that they use different firmware.
I take that to mean you won't be able to set the machines up on the same controller.

Like Notfuzzy said you should just have a 2nd controller ready to go to avoid downtime.

[caxibrema]

The response was that they use different firmware.

Is there a review everywhere explaining how to setup a Avalon 8?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Is there a review everywhere explaining how to setup a Avalon 8?

The user does not interact with firmware. Setup should be exactly the same as the A7's.

[Steamtyme]

The only difference so far is that you will need a PSU  that has 8 - 6 pin connectors, and delivers more than 1200W. I think they are selling 1600W PSU's . Other than that it's the same setup as a 741

No reviews or how to guides yet. Best bet is to run your 821's on a new controller just for them.

[fanatic26]

You will want to run them on a separate controller anyway. If they are all on the same controller you can never update the MM firmware because it is miner specific and the update process happens to all miners on the RPi at once, there is no way to selectively update.

[CarrollFilms]

Now we wait 8 months for them to finish mining with them before they package them up and sell them to us

[DPoS2]

Is the 821 firmware available for the controllers yet?   I got a blokforge 741 controller but now getting an Avalon 821 miner instead so mineaswell get ready
 

[fanatic26]

Is the 821 firmware available for the controllers yet?   I got a blokforge 741 controller but now getting an Avalon 821 miner instead so mineaswell get ready
 

The current RPi software works for both the A6 and the A7, chances are it will work for the A8 as well. The big difference will be the internal mm firmware for the miners daughter card, that is what actually controls the boards.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Is the 821 firmware available for the controllers yet?   I got a blokforge 741 controller but now getting an Avalon 821 miner instead so mineaswell get ready

Firmware has NOTHING to do with the controllers. Firmware resides only inside the miners themselves. The 721/741/821 all run the same controller SOFTWARE which is based on OpenWRT & LUCI.

[frodocooper]

Is the 821 firmware available for the controllers yet?   I got a blokforge 741 controller but now getting an Avalon 821 miner instead so mineaswell get ready

Yes. You may find the software and firmware for the A821 here.

The current RPi software works for both the A6 and the A7, chances are it will work for the A8 as well. The big difference will be the internal mm firmware for the miners daughter card, that is what actually controls the boards.

No, all Controller (Raspberry Pi) software before version 20171216 are not compatible with the A8 series. Controller (Raspberry Pi) support for the A8s only began with the addition of commit 591b6a9 and the ones after it.

[fanatic26]

No, all Controller (Raspberry Pi) software before version 20171216 are not compatible with the A8 series. Controller (Raspberry Pi) support for the A8s only began with the addition of commit 591b6a9 and the ones after it.

thank you for the clarification

[Steamtyme]

Sorry to beat a dead horse, so to say. I'm not technically savy but I like to learn so let me know if I get this correct and definitely point out anything wrong.

Firmware has NOTHING to do with the controllers. Firmware resides only inside the miners themselves. The 721/741/821 all run the same controller SOFTWARE which is based on OpenWRT & LUCI.

Thanks for the information, I do appreciate it.

So in the example of setting up a controller off a Rasp PI, I would load the suggested Firmware following the instructions on the Canaan site.

Is the "SOFTWARE which is based on OpenWRT & LUCI" just part of this package that I would be flashing to the SD card? I get hung up on the terms

Is the 821 firmware available for the controllers yet?   I got a blokforge 741 controller but now getting an Avalon 821 miner instead so mineaswell get ready

Yes. You may find the software and firmware for the A821 here.

The current RPi software works for both the A6 and the A7, chances are it will work for the A8 as well. The big difference will be the internal mm firmware for the miners daughter card, that is what actually controls the boards.

No, all Controller (Raspberry Pi) software before version 20171216 are not compatible with the A8 series. Controller (Raspberry Pi) support for the A8s only began with the addition of commit 591b6a9 and the ones after it.

Thanks for the links, and clarification.

So if I get this right, anyone with a version of the Software for their controller older than the one you point out, would need to reflash the SD card with new version marked as "Controller Firmware" for the 821.

In doing this in theory anyone with Avalon 6, 721, 741, and 821 could run off the same controller? Or at least they could go with 741's and 821's

If they do run a mix on this controller down the road if they upgrade MM firmware for Miners they just have to diconnect say the 821's to update the 741's and vice versa.

[frodocooper]

Is the "SOFTWARE which is based on OpenWRT & LUCI" just part of this package that I would be flashing to the SD card? I get hung up on the terms.

More accurately, you would be flashing a Canaan-customized OpenWrt image to the SD card. This OpenWrt software is the "Controller Firmware" that runs on the Controller/Pi, and it contains everything needed to run AvalonMiners. LuCI is a package within OpenWrt that provides you with the web user interface.

So if I get this right, anyone with a version of the Software for their controller older than the one you point out, would need to reflash the SD card with new version marked as "Controller Firmware" for the 821.

Yes. This is because all Controller software before version 20171216 does not have any code that recognizes the A8 series.

In doing this in theory anyone with Avalon 6, 721, 741, and 821 could run off the same controller? Or at least they could go with 741's and 821's.

It should be possible, in theory. This is because the Controller software for the A821 (version 20171216 and later) still contains code that recognizes the earlier AvalonMiner models.

However, I'm not sure whether the Controller software for the A821 is fully backward-compatible in practice — i.e., I'm not sure whether the A8s can co-exist peacefully alongside earlier models on the same Controller. This is because the A821 seems to be using new A8-specific cgminer parameters — e.g., voltage_offset has been changed to voltage_level_offset in cgminer/files/cgminer.avalon8.config, and this change is reflected in cgminer/files/cgminer.avalon8.init.

I'm therefore not sure whether or how the "CGMiner Configuration" page in OpenWrt would be able to distinguish between the A6- and A7-specific voltage_offset setting and the A8-specific voltage_level_offset setting, and whether or how the "CGMiner Configuration" page would be able to distinguish between other changes that I may have missed. For example, this may break the "Voltage Offset" option in the "CGMiner Configuration" page when A8s are mixed with earlier AvalonMiner models on the same Controller.

It may therefore be better at this point to run your A8s on a separate Controller/Pi, at least until Canaan sheds more light on this.

If they do run a mix on this controller down the road if they upgrade MM firmware for Miners they just have to diconnect say the 821's to update the 741's and vice versa.

Yes. Never update the MM firmware when having a mix of different AvalonMiner models on the same Controller. This seems to be even more crucial when having the A8s on the same Controller, as the A8s seem to be using a different flash layout.

[DPoS2]

Thanks for the rundown..  as far as grabbing the new versions, shouldn't there be a zip file instead of all the files on the repository? 

Is there an easy way of downloading them and putting them on the card?   It seemed I only was able to navigate through the path directories and download one by one

[Steamtyme]

Thanks for clarifications @frodocooper

[bl1nd]

In november i bought a nice 741 for 900$ they really went crazy with the prices, i dont know who the heck is buying these 821. ROI is AWFUL 3800$ for 11th/s. I dont know what is ppl thinking, bitcoin is barely over 11k difficulty is A LOT harder since november and they wanna charge 3 times more for the same amount of hash power? A 741 at 900$ was 128$ per 1 TH/S a 820 at 3800$ is 345 per 1TH/s all while 1 th/s pays less now than in november

Bitmain changed their prices but it wasnt so crazy from 1400 to 2300

[Logan4el]

821 price predicition for distributors

For 821  you can consider that the price could be anywhere between 3000 and 4000  per machine.

Avalon  841 release:

The 841  should start shipping in the March April time frame. Performance should range around 13TH and 12 Watts.