**US** BitFury Setup Guide

[klondike_bar]

I'm sick of starting over everytime an SD card gets confused. Could somebody give me a step by step procedure on how to make a new imaged SD card using the the Pi and the SD card it is running on? I have a USB SD card adapter that i can plug into the Pi. My goal is to have several backup SD cards that i can just replace the current one with should it get confused. SD cards are cheap.

Also, how do you set the time on these things, i'm tired of living in the past.

i made an sd card image using my desktop and some software. it *might* be easier then searching for the corretc linux scripts to handle the task if you are not well-versed in linux/RPi

[tom99]

  My sd FS dead again and I am using usb flash for FS + sd card for boot up.


ps: happened yesterday morning and I got it up less than 5 minutes.

[superduh]

I'm sick of starting over everytime an SD card gets confused. Could somebody give me a step by step procedure on how to make a new imaged SD card using the the Pi and the SD card it is running on? I have a USB SD card adapter that i can plug into the Pi. My goal is to have several backup SD cards that i can just replace the current one with should it get confused. SD cards are cheap.

Also, how do you set the time on these things, i'm tired of living in the past.

i made an sd card image using my desktop and some software. it *might* be easier then searching for the corretc linux scripts to handle the task if you are not well-versed in linux/RPi

win32 disk imager?

[goxed]

I have been abusing the SD on one of my PIs, I mean turn off power without shutdown, etc etc and it has never died since the day I got the M board (Sep).

 The SD on the second PI on the other hand just dies every other day.

I think it has something to do with the SD. I have re-imaged a third SD and will check if SD is indeed the issue.

[dacman61]

Just installed my 3 new H-Boards with pencil mod... They ran at 25Gh, 25Gh, and 31Gh out of the box. Now they are doing 32Gh, 35Gh, and 35Gh... All around 1.72-1.73k Ohm resistance on that R02F resistor.

So far, I'm very happy.

Pictures here:
http://imgur.com/a/45QmA#0

Well I woke up all three of my new boards not hashing anymore... I think I want to vomit. Any suggestions to try to with my multi-meter?

[juhakall]

Just installed my 3 new H-Boards with pencil mod... They ran at 25Gh, 25Gh, and 31Gh out of the box. Now they are doing 32Gh, 35Gh, and 35Gh... All around 1.72-1.73k Ohm resistance on that R02F resistor.

So far, I'm very happy.

Pictures here:
http://imgur.com/a/45QmA#0

Well I woke up all three of my new boards not hashing anymore... I think I want to vomit. Any suggestions to try to with my multi-meter?

Get an IR thermometer and make sure the regulators aren't running too hot. I've had boards go dark like that, and usually a full poweroff is required to fix the situation.

Also, this might be related: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=250249.msg3099676;topicseen#msg3099676

[klondike_bar]

Just installed my 3 new H-Boards with pencil mod... They ran at 25Gh, 25Gh, and 31Gh out of the box. Now they are doing 32Gh, 35Gh, and 35Gh... All around 1.72-1.73k Ohm resistance on that R02F resistor.

So far, I'm very happy.

Pictures here:
http://imgur.com/a/45QmA#0

Well I woke up all three of my new boards not hashing anymore... I think I want to vomit. Any suggestions to try to with my multi-meter?

at 35GH you need to have heatsinks and fans. IME:

25GH : no/minimal airflow needed, no heatsinks needed
30GH : airflow needed
35GH : airflow + some heatsinking required
40GH : airflow and decent heatsinking required (I use 4 * 35x35x6mm heatsinks, plus tiny heatsinks on the face of each chip [probably unneccessary to cool from the front], plus a few tiny heatsinks on the inductor and the backside of the regulator.
45GH : I would imagine you need a more intensive method such as copper heatsinks or liquid/immersion cooling

In your setup i cannot imagine pushing more than 32-35GH per card without problems.Its also worth noting that when a pencil mod is in use, it tends to creep a little bit as the board gets warm or ambient temps rise. I often see a pencil mod board start up at xxGH, after an hour its xx+1GH, after 6hrs its xx+3GH, and at the warm points in the day is can be up to xx+4GH

needless to say, this means that the pencil mod sometimes nees to be repeted a few times, with 3-12hr sampling time to see what sort of speed you get. if the components get hot, the hashrate can get wonky or the chips/regulator will switch off.

btw, wasnt dave supposed to roll out some v2 m-boards to those still using the v1? by being able to put cards in each bank it gives much more space in an unfilled unit to get heatsinks or airflow. I actually found that the gap between slots 1 and 5 is perfect for leaning an 80mm fan at a 45degree angle against the card in slot 5, so that the slot1 card has sufficient airflow

ps: if you have another fan or case fan, aim it directly at the backside of card #4. it will cool it much better then the fan at the side is currently doing, since its airflow is making little/no contact with the backside of the board, which is the hottest region to cool

[dacman61]

OK I'm back up and running again, but one H-board I think needs to be looked at. I checked each of the new H-board individually, and one of them doesn't want to play anymore... Every time I use it either in a group with other cards or by itself, it seems to trip up my PSU and everything goes dead.

What can I check with my multi-meter to see if anything is damaged? I checked the big thing with the word "Pulse" on it, since I heard it was a fuse. I do get a little bit of a reading with my multi-meter, so I assume that isn't blown.

I wish MBP would have sent an identical board like what was sent in August. Those seem to be a little more robust.

[klondike_bar]

OK I'm back up and running again, but one H-board I think needs to be looked at. I checked each of the new H-board individually, and one of them doesn't want to play anymore... Every time I use it either in a group with other cards or by itself, it seems to trip up my PSU and everything goes dead.

What can I check with my multi-meter to see if anything is damaged? I checked the big thing with the word "Pulse" on it, since I heard it was a fuse. I do get a little bit of a reading with my multi-meter, so I assume that isn't blown.

I wish MBP would have sent an identical board like what was sent in August. Those seem to be a little more robust.

the 'pulse' cube is an inductor if im correct. i put a tiny heatsink on mine to cool it but its probably unneccessary. the fuse is actually a 'polyfuse' and is the big flat resistor-like item marked F300L or something similar. it is resettable and will work again after a failure if the power is turned off. (intron has a post about it somewhere in the forums)

if its tripping the psu, thats not good, and is quite strange. it would indicate that either the psu is having far too much load taken across its connection (what brand/capacity is yours, and how is it wired to the m-board?) or that there is some sort of backfeed from the board. (less likely)

I would suggest looking at the small chip located near the inductor/pulse cube. it is the regulator and gets very hot during operation over 0.8V or 32GH. it should be unable to blow or fail (presumably), but from your issue it seems like a potential place to check first for any discolouration or damage. youll know the component by its ~12 pins and the thermal vias on the backside of the board

[dacman61]

OK I'm back up and running again, but one H-board I think needs to be looked at. I checked each of the new H-board individually, and one of them doesn't want to play anymore... Every time I use it either in a group with other cards or by itself, it seems to trip up my PSU and everything goes dead.

What can I check with my multi-meter to see if anything is damaged? I checked the big thing with the word "Pulse" on it, since I heard it was a fuse. I do get a little bit of a reading with my multi-meter, so I assume that isn't blown.

I wish MBP would have sent an identical board like what was sent in August. Those seem to be a little more robust.

the 'pulse' cube is an inductor if im correct. i put a tiny heatsink on mine to cool it but its probably unneccessary. the fuse is actually a 'polyfuse' and is the big flat resistor-like item marked F300L or something similar. it is resettable and will work again after a failure if the power is turned off. (intron has a post about it somewhere in the forums)

if its tripping the psu, thats not good, and is quite strange. it would indicate that either the psu is having far too much load taken across its connection (what brand/capacity is yours, and how is it wired to the m-board?) or that there is some sort of backfeed from the board. (less likely)

I would suggest looking at the small chip located near the inductor/pulse cube. it is the regulator and gets very hot during operation over 0.8V or 32GH. it should be unable to blow or fail (presumably), but from your issue it seems like a potential place to check first for any discolouration or damage. youll know the component by its ~12 pins and the thermal vias on the backside of the board

I can't really see or smell anything wrong. I used my multi-meter to test the continuity of components but everything is at least coming back with some sort of reading. The C04 spot may look a little different but it's too difficult to tell. I'm not an expert in this area to begin with...

Here are some pictures of what I see. http://imgur.com/a/1ozpu#4

I almost rather just sell the card as is for $300 with free US shipping or $20 international. I don't have much free time to deal with it right now.

[tom99]

OK I'm back up and running again, but one H-board I think needs to be looked at. I checked each of the new H-board individually, and one of them doesn't want to play anymore... Every time I use it either in a group with other cards or by itself, it seems to trip up my PSU and everything goes dead.

What can I check with my multi-meter to see if anything is damaged? I checked the big thing with the word "Pulse" on it, since I heard it was a fuse. I do get a little bit of a reading with my multi-meter, so I assume that isn't blown.

I wish MBP would have sent an identical board like what was sent in August. Those seem to be a little more robust.

the 'pulse' cube is an inductor if im correct. i put a tiny heatsink on mine to cool it but its probably unneccessary. the fuse is actually a 'polyfuse' and is the big flat resistor-like item marked F300L or something similar. it is resettable and will work again after a failure if the power is turned off. (intron has a post about it somewhere in the forums)

if its tripping the psu, thats not good, and is quite strange. it would indicate that either the psu is having far too much load taken across its connection (what brand/capacity is yours, and how is it wired to the m-board?) or that there is some sort of backfeed from the board. (less likely)

I would suggest looking at the small chip located near the inductor/pulse cube. it is the regulator and gets very hot during operation over 0.8V or 32GH. it should be unable to blow or fail (presumably), but from your issue it seems like a potential place to check first for any discolouration or damage. youll know the component by its ~12 pins and the thermal vias on the backside of the board

I can't really see or smell anything wrong. I used my multi-meter to test the continuity of components but everything is at least coming back with some sort of reading. The C04 spot may look a little different but it's too difficult to tell. I'm not an expert in this area to begin with...

Here are some pictures of what I see. http://imgur.com/a/1ozpu#4

I almost rather just sell the card as is for $300 with free US shipping or $20 international. I don't have much free time to deal with it right now.

  Why dont you do RMA for exchange hboard?

[Swimmer63]

I restarted my miner for the first time in 2-3 weeks and can't get it going again.  I have a starter kit plus another h - card and two on the way. V1.0.
Here are some screen shots.  Can anyone diagnose what's up?  I am thinking the SD card went bad?  I have never had a problem with it but everyone else seems to be writing about it.
https://i.imgur.com/6GtLrDY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Zke9YYV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/dZsOaBn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hhO5Bw1.jpg

[bkpduke]

I restarted my miner for the first time in 2-3 weeks and can't get it going again.  I have a starter kit plus another h - card and two on the way. V1.0.
Here are some screen shots.  Can anyone diagnose what's up?  I am thinking the SD card went bad?  I have never had a problem with it but everyone else seems to be writing about it.
https://i.imgur.com/6GtLrDY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Zke9YYV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/dZsOaBn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hhO5Bw1.jpg

SD Card went bad.  Had the same issue on 2 of 3 of mine.  The SD cards these were shipped with appear to be of low quality.

Go out and buy a new SD card and then image it from the V1 image in this thread.  That solved my problem.

[Swimmer63]

Thanks!  Can I reimage the new card on my laptop or does it all have to be done on the pi?
Also, what's the difference between the image file and the chainminer files?

EDIT: Anyone?

[klondike_bar]

Thanks!  Can I reimage the new card on my laptop or does it all have to be done on the pi?
Also, what's the difference between the image file and the chainminer files?

EDIT: Anyone?

the sd card image file should have the newest chainminer on it. (if you, you update later once the rig is running)

SD card can be imaged from whatever your daily deaktop/laptop is

[Swimmer63]

Success!  Thank you all. 

[greaterninja]

Just installed my 3 new H-Boards with pencil mod... They ran at 25Gh, 25Gh, and 31Gh out of the box. Now they are doing 32Gh, 35Gh, and 35Gh... All around 1.72-1.73k Ohm resistance on that R02F resistor.

So far, I'm very happy.

Pictures here:
http://imgur.com/a/45QmA#0

Well I woke up all three of my new boards not hashing anymore... I think I want to vomit. Any suggestions to try to with my multi-meter?

at 35GH you need to have heatsinks and fans. IME:

25GH : no/minimal airflow needed, no heatsinks needed
30GH : airflow needed
35GH : airflow + some heatsinking required
40GH : airflow and decent heatsinking required (I use 4 * 35x35x6mm heatsinks, plus tiny heatsinks on the face of each chip [probably unneccessary to cool from the front], plus a few tiny heatsinks on the inductor and the backside of the regulator.
45GH : I would imagine you need a more intensive method such as copper heatsinks or liquid/immersion cooling

In your setup i cannot imagine pushing more than 32-35GH per card without problems.Its also worth noting that when a pencil mod is in use, it tends to creep a little bit as the board gets warm or ambient temps rise. I often see a pencil mod board start up at xxGH, after an hour its xx+1GH, after 6hrs its xx+3GH, and at the warm points in the day is can be up to xx+4GH

needless to say, this means that the pencil mod sometimes nees to be repeted a few times, with 3-12hr sampling time to see what sort of speed you get. if the components get hot, the hashrate can get wonky or the chips/regulator will switch off.

btw, wasnt dave supposed to roll out some v2 m-boards to those still using the v1? by being able to put cards in each bank it gives much more space in an unfilled unit to get heatsinks or airflow. I actually found that the gap between slots 1 and 5 is perfect for leaning an 80mm fan at a 45degree angle against the card in slot 5, so that the slot1 card has sufficient airflow

ps: if you have another fan or case fan, aim it directly at the backside of card #4. it will cool it much better then the fan at the side is currently doing, since its airflow is making little/no contact with the backside of the board, which is the hottest region to cool

I have 5 cards running  34.53 Gh/s average each.  Only cooling is a $16 box fan from walmart, and they are stacked on top of a 4 module Avalon unit which gets pretty warm.  So yes, good airflow is all you need to reach 34-38gh/s.  I had one doing 43+gh/s, but that was when I put the voltage up significantly.

[tom99]

I restarted my miner for the first time in 2-3 weeks and can't get it going again.  I have a starter kit plus another h - card and two on the way. V1.0.
Here are some screen shots.  Can anyone diagnose what's up?  I am thinking the SD card went bad?  I have never had a problem with it but everyone else seems to be writing about it.
https://i.imgur.com/6GtLrDY.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Zke9YYV.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/dZsOaBn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hhO5Bw1.jpg

  Your sd FS bust it.

[BenTuras]

I have V2 M-boards from Punin. I have been fiddling with board placement a lot and have noticed that the 4th bank is not very useful for me. I get the best result when I am running the 2 M-boards with an empty 4th bank(2+2+2 and 3+2+2 cards). The difference was over 30GH/s between using and not  using the 4th bank.

YMMV, but give it a try if you have boards in the 4th bank doing 15GH/s or less.

[zenminer]

Hello BFS friends,

I recieved the BFS rig today. v2 m-board and 3 x h-boards . The problem is I cannot see anything running.
I tried lot of things. Boot screen says something like "miner: no process found"
the /run/shm/ is quite empty (no logs)
can somebody help me, please thx