[GUIDE] BitFury Miner Support/Tuning

[Slander]

My sd card got corrupted so I imaged it again not realizing I used an old version of the image file from megabigpower. Nothing but low hash rates and 0 hash rates for 2 days.

When I realized this I put a new image on the sd card from megabig, the one linked in their help file pdf.

Its been running rocksolid for 2 days at full hash rate, about 30-34 ghash per card on an 8 card setup.

so, make sure you are running the most current image file as it makes a huge difference

Make sure you are using the correct image.  On the M-Board it will say what version the board is.  You can fit the V1 and V2 image on a 4GB SD card, however you will need an 8GB SD card for the V3 image. 

V1 (3.64GB)
https://mega.co.nz/#!GZEwQRiJ!TqG52DBj07C_zGO38dhXuyeNhwZ42VB2qk2ErfsrUZ8
 

V2 (3.64GB)
https://mega.co.nz/#!iVEwFKpT!TqRndnWurfcQ0V2gJb2sQlNcSGoMF1B7YpUoGDvVebI​

V3  (3.69GB)
https://mega.co.nz/#!7AFVhLwQ!BmgAIx32aQQxyadT1WKdJzNOUGQAQcQgYemfSJ6kMNM

Mirror: https://www.dropbox.com/s/skr9vitueeyxwmw/miner-v3-image-11-15-2013-customer.img

[bobcaticus]

My sd card got corrupted so I imaged it again not realizing I used an old version of the image file from megabigpower. Nothing but low hash rates and 0 hash rates for 2 days.

When I realized this I put a new image on the sd card from megabig, the one linked in their help file pdf.

Its been running rocksolid for 2 days at full hash rate, about 30-34 ghash per card on an 8 card setup.

so, make sure you are running the most current image file as it makes a huge difference

Make sure you are using the correct image.  On the M-Board it will say what version the board is.  You can fit the V1 and V2 image on a 4GB SD card, however you will need an 8GB SD card for the V3 image. 

V1 (3.64GB)
https://mega.co.nz/#!GZEwQRiJ!TqG52DBj07C_zGO38dhXuyeNhwZ42VB2qk2ErfsrUZ8
 

V2 (3.64GB)
https://mega.co.nz/#!iVEwFKpT!TqRndnWurfcQ0V2gJb2sQlNcSGoMF1B7YpUoGDvVebI​

V3  (3.69GB)
https://mega.co.nz/#!7AFVhLwQ!BmgAIx32aQQxyadT1WKdJzNOUGQAQcQgYemfSJ6kMNM

Mirror: https://www.dropbox.com/s/skr9vitueeyxwmw/miner-v3-image-11-15-2013-customer.img

Hey, thanks for reading my PDF

Technically, i've been told that you can run the latest version on everything - but i'm pretty pessimistic on that still.  Putting in a new SD card does wonders, as it has been noted in here time and time again that they do putz out.

I know that kits say overclockable - but due to the different card types, I fear that many people will try to tweak their systems using the wrong autochip commands and so on.

V1 cards can go up to 57
V2 cards can go up to 55
V2.2 cards (with the metal backing) should stick around 53

I've spent so many hours fiddling with these units and in my opinion: keeping it simple seems to be the best solution. 

If you don't know what you are doing, just run with the basic setup.  I think a bunch of people are trying to squeeze blood out of a rock (so to say), and frying their cards in the process.  I know the difficulty is going up crazy, and yes - it bums me out - but that is the way bitcoin was setup from the start. 

Dave in Germany right now - then he's going to finally meet Putin in real life(!).  Those two are going to get something hashed out concerning next-gen rigs and I can't wait to see what happens.


-Jason

[klondike_bar]

^really hope it involves actual competitive pricing. For a more-stable, stackable/enclosed bitfury I would gladly add it to my growing collection of antminers - but only if they can get their shit together and
1) price in BTC - for the love of god.
2) price no higher then 10% above the antminer - those things are simple, elegant tanks that dont wobble, dont blow sd cards, and only require the single fan that they ship with. The only upside to the bitfury is saving ~1w/GH

[Keefe]

^really hope it involves actual competitive pricing. For a more-stable, stackable/enclosed bitfury I would gladly add it to my growing collection of antminers - but only if they can get their shit together and
1) price in BTC - for the love of god.
2) price no higher then 10% above the antminer - those things are simple, elegant tanks that dont wobble, dont blow sd cards, and only require the single fan that they ship with. The only upside to the bitfury is saving ~1w/GH

And saving 1W/GH only saves $0.88/GH per year at $0.10/kwh. Bitfury 55nm will be obsoleted by even more efficient tech within a year anyway, so it's not worth the huge premium Punin seems to think it is.

[daddyfatsax]

My sd card got corrupted so I imaged it again not realizing I used an old version of the image file from megabigpower. Nothing but low hash rates and 0 hash rates for 2 days.

When I realized this I put a new image on the sd card from megabig, the one linked in their help file pdf.

Its been running rocksolid for 2 days at full hash rate, about 30-34 ghash per card on an 8 card setup.

so, make sure you are running the most current image file as it makes a huge difference

Make sure you are using the correct image.  On the M-Board it will say what version the board is.  You can fit the V1 and V2 image on a 4GB SD card, however you will need an 8GB SD card for the V3 image.  

V1 (3.64GB)
https://mega.co.nz/#!GZEwQRiJ!TqG52DBj07C_zGO38dhXuyeNhwZ42VB2qk2ErfsrUZ8
 

V2 (3.64GB)
https://mega.co.nz/#!iVEwFKpT!TqRndnWurfcQ0V2gJb2sQlNcSGoMF1B7YpUoGDvVebI​

V3  (3.69GB)
https://mega.co.nz/#!7AFVhLwQ!BmgAIx32aQQxyadT1WKdJzNOUGQAQcQgYemfSJ6kMNM

Mirror: https://www.dropbox.com/s/skr9vitueeyxwmw/miner-v3-image-11-15-2013-customer.img

Hey, thanks for reading my PDF

Technically, i've been told that you can run the latest version on everything - but i'm pretty pessimistic on that still.  Putting in a new SD card does wonders, as it has been noted in here time and time again that they do putz out.

I know that kits say overclockable - but due to the different card types, I fear that many people will try to tweak their systems using the wrong autochip commands and so on.

V1 cards can go up to 57
V2 cards can go up to 55
V2.2 cards (with the metal backing) should stick around 53

I've spent so many hours fiddling with these units and in my opinion: keeping it simple seems to be the best solution.  

If you don't know what you are doing, just run with the basic setup.  I think a bunch of people are trying to squeeze blood out of a rock (so to say), and frying their cards in the process.  I know the difficulty is going up crazy, and yes - it bums me out - but that is the way bitcoin was setup from the start.  

Dave in Germany right now - then he's going to finally meet Putin in real life(!).  Those two are going to get something hashed out concerning next-gen rigs and I can't wait to see what happens.


-Jason

The V3 image works just fine on a V1 board. I bought goxed's 10 card V1 unit and it is working perfectly. My idiot self corrupted his card, that I know he spent a lot of time tuning, after a week.

[adib]

My 2 cents, thought i should post here as well, given the unavailability of M-boards.

After turning this: into this: and this: into this: ,
because there were no 0603 220k resistors in stock.


The result: , ,

P.S. Thanks intron for the help and support

4 boards fixed and accepting chips

Schematic:
TOP VIEW


BOTTOM VIEW


NOTES:
- ONLY USE V2 CHAINMINER SOFTWARE AS THE SCHEMATIC IS BASED ON THAT, its actually a bank of the v2 m-board
- tried to keep air wires to a minimum (8 to be exact)
- LM2596 power module should be placed exactly where it is placed on the layout, otherwise youll have trouble in placing the H-cards, youll have some tolerance if you use flexible wires.
- Scale is 1:1 so i did not bother to place dimensions
- full resolution images here:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yl0fov35cmv3r7p/gR4W5vdL6W
- pins on the slots are a bit tighter then they should be so youll have to bend the first 4 pins on each side inwards a bit (made them from the hip)

I have decided to stop making other version... aka the 8,12 or 16 slot versions although you can adapt as you see fit.
You can also connect 4 m-boards with 4 slots toghether like so:

full image here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yl0fov35cmv3r7p/gR4W5vdL6W
 

[daddyfatsax]

Is there anyway to use a different stratum proxy with chain miner? Resetting it every 10 or 60 min still leads to issues after several days. Anyway to put slush's proxy in it, or is that what it is using?

[tarmi]

m board filled with 16 cards here and my configuration is very untsable.

some h-boards occasionally just go to 0.

[adib]

Are you pencil modded? if yes, seems like the power bucks dont like it very much.

[tarmi]

Are you pencil modded? if yes, seems like the power bucks dont like it very much.

nope.

but I bought additional h-boards, to fill the missing slots. now with all slots populated tthe whole setup is very unstable.

[adib]

Try removing one from each lane(you should have 4 lanes), leave only 3card/lane and add them one by one testing stability, see how it does, also cleaning the oxidation from tha card pads helps.
If it works with 3 cards/lane you should consider another m-board.

[tarmi]

Try removing one from each lane(you should have 4 lanes), leave only 3card/lane and add them one by one testing stability, see how it does, also cleaning the oxidation from tha card pads helps.
If it works with 3 cards/lane you should consider another m-board.

already did that.

how can I order another m-board? older version of m-board (2.3) is unavailable in europe and us store...

[adib]

Check above posts, i can make you one of those, they are not pretty but they work, also youll need another Rpi.
Pm if interested.

[Swimmer63]

Check above posts, i can make you one of those, they are not pretty but they work, also youll need another Rpi.
Pm if interested.

I may like to try one.  I have some very finicky h boards.  What do you charge?

[adib]

Check above posts, i can make you one of those, they are not pretty but they work, also youll need another Rpi.
Pm if interested.

I may like to try one.  I have some very finicky h boards.  What do you charge?

Well you are not going to like pricing ) ... one asked through pm and i said the following:
- As it is 1/4th of a full m-board it should be 1/4th of the price meaning 50 euros(as a full v2.3 m-board is 200 euros)
- and i could to a full one for 150 euros

... before judging the price please consider that i built them in my spare time and i have a job, the manual labor on these is not easy,
they are not massed produced even if the BOM on this is about half of the total cost.(takes 2 days to make one from 0, if the only thing youll be working on is the m-board)

also consider that they are not in stock, look what happened to DDR Ram pricing, as ddr3 came out, ddr2 became more expensive because it became more rare.
i am not trying to explain myself, i just want people to take in consideration some facts before saying ... ohh it too expensive... or things like that

I am building a second one, but i cant seem to find how the hell are those ISA 10 contact slots are named, so i dont have to cut actual ISA slots in pieces... desoldering them from motherboards is F...ing time consuming.

If you like to try my second one(aka test it) i could send it to you, if you like, you keep it at a price, if not, you send it back.
This offer is also for tarmi as he asked for one as well through pm.

[Swimmer63]

Check above posts, i can make you one of those, they are not pretty but they work, also youll need another Rpi.
Pm if interested.

I may like to try one.  I have some very finicky h boards.  What do you charge?

Well you are not going to like pricing ) ... one asked through pm and i said the following:
- As it is 1/4th of a full m-board it should be 1/4th of the price meaning 50 euros(as a full v2.3 m-board is 200 euros)
- and i could to a full one for 150 euros

... before judging the price please consider that i built them in my spare time and i have a job, the manual labor on these is not easy,
they are not massed produced even if the BOM on this is about half of the total cost.(takes 2 days to make one from 0, if the only thing youll be working on is the m-board)

also consider that they are not in stock, look what happened to DDR Ram pricing, as ddr3 came out, ddr2 became more expensive because it became more rare.
i am not trying to explain myself, i just want people to take in consideration some facts before saying ... ohh it too expensive... or things like that

I am building a second one, but i cant seem to find how the hell are those ISA 10 contact slots are named, so i dont have to cut actual ISA slots in pieces... desoldering them from motherboards is F...ing time consuming.

If you like to try my second one(aka test it) i could send it to you, if you like, you keep it at a price, if not, you send it back.
This offer is also for tarmi as he asked for one as well through pm.

I'm game. Pm me the price and we can discuss details. Thx!

[darkfriend77]

Is there already some one with ... some rev2 test boards ?

I got the 32 dev. chips today ... :-)

sent them straight to wasp ee's

[BTClobsta]

hi all,

i am running the v2.2 h-cards and one of them are only hashing at 9gh/s. i'm guessing its due to the voltage being low.

can someone help me with a step by step instructions on how to increase the voltage on my h-cards?
what tools do i need and what size?
what direction should i turn the voltage adjustment trim potentiometer?

if you have pictures. that would be the best. I'm more of a visual learner.

thanks all

[adib]

I would try one h-card at a time in chainminer to see what chips are working and which are not doing so well.
Check for oxidation on the pads, clean them with sand paper or put a thin film of solder on them(not the best solution but works for a while, then you have to sandpapaer again).

I have a home made m-board and found this to be a problem, i will solder the pads with wires once the setup is complete... so no more oxidation problem.

Also i have found that lowering the iovdd to 1.6...1.5v makes the "50% drop in freqency detected, reinitialising" error in BFGminer and the miso errors in chainminer go away. I dont know why... so dont ask.
as i been told by intron, the mAmps required by each chip decreases with voltage and the lm2596(3A) or the lm317t(1A) can take it... or i have o source of noise in the iovdd line(no osciloscope to check) ...who knows... lowering it just worked for me.

I know its not an option on the retail m-board, im just sharing my findings.

[jddebug]

I would try one h-card at a time in chainminer to see what chips are working and which are not doing so well.
Check for oxidation on the pads, clean them with sand paper or put a thin film of solder on them(not the best solution but works for a while, then you have to sandpapaer again).

I have a home made m-board and found this to be a problem, i will solder the pads with wires once the setup is complete... so no more oxidation problem.

Also i have found that lowering the iovdd to 1.6...1.5v makes the "50% drop in freqency detected, reinitialising" error in BFGminer and the miso errors in chainminer go away. I dont know why... so dont ask.
as i been told by intron, the mAmps required by each chip decreases with voltage and the lm2596(3A) or the lm317t(1A) can take it... or i have o source of noise in the iovdd line(no osciloscope to check) ...who knows... lowering it just worked for me.

I know its not an option on the retail m-board, im just sharing my findings.

I'd suggest using a pencil eraser instead of sand paper. Will get the job done really good but only remove the oxidation not the metal.