Avalon 8 official specs released

[NotFuzzyWarm]

And each A8 has an optimal diff far lower than 65k. The single 841's I have running in various locations have a diff of between 7.5k and 8k. What the pool cares about is shares-per-minute and they want to keep the I/O bandwidth low as possible. At Kanopool the target is 18SPM. Sending many more (lower value) SPM than is needed just uses more resources at the pool end while giving the same end result.

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[PassThePopcorn]

And each A8 has an optimal diff far lower than 65k. The single 841's I have running in various locations have a diff of between 7.5k and 8k. What the pool cares about is shares-per-minute and they want to keep the I/O bandwidth low as possible. At Kanopool the target is 18SPM. Sending many more (lower value) SPM than is needed just uses more resources at the pool end while giving the same end result.

That's true, however when monitoring multiple PH seeing a drop of 500+TH when the pool changes blocks and you get all the current work/shares dropped and they are at a difficulty of 300k, the smooth line is better. Our reject rate has dropped substantially after lowering the difficulty and setting it on a per miner rather than per controller basis.

[notabeliever]

The Diff is their to help when renting.

To clarify my post above I have one 841 that likes to run on a 1200watt psu however my second 841 does not like it has it needs more power so I have confirmed
MM 2019-04-30 is working.  I ran one side on the psu and works.
My next task will be to operate a RPI- controller using the new firmware for that

[bg17aw]

@minefarmbuy
Yup, that's the way I do it.

Is there a reason why? I am trying to understand how to update my 841.

I see here https://download.canaan-creative.com/ there are 3 different types of firmware

- MM - how to update this?
- OpenWRT - this is just a matter of writing a new microSD card, right?
- PMU - what is this one? it is from 2020 so fairly recent

Also there is one called Nicehash, what is that all about?

I am already mining on Nicehash pool and working, although I did not update ever.

However, I know there is a new algo called AsicBoost, and if I select AsicBoost pool on nicehash, my 841 miners will not work anymore. Would this update solve the AsicBoost problem?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

MM is the actual miner firmware.
OpenWRT is the miner controller software.
PMU is for the power managment unit (where the PCIe plugs are)

Just make sure the MM and OpenWRT are from the same release dates, they are matched pairs.

For OpenWRT open GUI and go to System > Backup/flash firmware to start things. By doing the upgrade from here you have the option to retain your pool & users settings. Um, if you have not done it yet, this would be a good time to backup the miner settings...

For the MM, after doing the OpenWRT and rebooting controller, open GUI and go to Status > MM upgrade and again do the obvious.
Can't say I've needed or used the PMU update, read the README for what it is about and how to apply if you want to use it.

AB is *not* a new algorithm, it is a hardware-based way to generate additional work for the miner to process and requires the miner chips to support it. AFAIK the 841 only supports AB when in Performance mode.

[bg17aw]

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer.

How to switch them to Performance mode? They are now doing 13,5Gh on the original firmware.

[Firmware version] => Avalon Firmware - 20180305

I was hoping that someone who already updated to Nicehas firmware would share the results. I guess I will try for myself, and report back. I realize there might not be a lot of interest in this model anymore, but hey, it might help someone.

Right now, on the original firmware, when using an AsicBoost pool, the miners behave very strange, and basically do not work. They keep on turning the fans down for a second and restarting (sorry, not sure if they are actually rebooting).

[NotFuzzyWarm]

1. Nicehash or any other mining rental service is a terrible idea to use. Sure they pay you but it is a fraction of what they earn from your gear. Join a PPS pool - you will earn more.

2. I assume you are talking about Nicehash's AB pool? It sux big time to the point of needing the special driver that Canaan made to run their miners there along with NH having a dedicated AB connection address. The Avalons all work fine on non-rental pools and all pools these days will run AB if the miner can do it - no special driver or connection required.

[bg17aw]

1. Nicehash or any other mining rental service is a terrible idea to use. Sure they pay you but it is a fraction of what they earn from your gear. Join a PPS pool - you will earn more.

I am new to ASIC mining, so any help would be appreciated.

What pool would you recomend? viaBTC takes a very large commission on withdrawals.

Minerstats says Nicehash is one of the most profitable (sometimes the most profitable of all!): https://minerstat.com/hardware/aisen-a1-24t.

2. I assume you are talking about Nicehash's AB pool? It sux big time to the point of needing the special driver that Canaan made to run their miners there along with NH having a dedicated AB connection address. The Avalons all work fine on non-rental pools and all pools these days will run AB if the miner can do it - no special driver or connection required.

Yes, Nicehash's AB pool, when changing pool to stratum+tcp://sha256asicboost.eu.nicehash.com:3368, the miners just stop. Strangely, I tried to mine on Nicehash pool using an Asien A1 miner, well, this one refused to start on Nicehash normal pool, but works just fine on Nicehash AsicBoost pool!

Just make sure the MM and OpenWRT are from the same release dates, they are matched pairs.

They are not all from the same release dates, there are some OpenWRT images that do not have a correspondent in the MM directory.

Also, there is a folder called Nicehash in OpenWRT but no MM nicehash folder: https://download.canaan-creative.com/avalon841/openwrt/

EDIT:

Success, I updated the miners to [Firmware Version] => Avalon Firmware for avalon8 - 20190711.

OpenWRT version is called Nicehash, this seems to work very well. MM updated to latest as well.

Not sure how to update PMU, if anyone has any idea about this, I would be grateful.

After the upgrade, miners do seem to consume about 100w less and the hashing speed seems a bit higher.

For 4 miners, it used to be about 54,xx, now it is 55,15.

Overall happy.