The Chili – 30+GH/s BFL based Bitcoin Miner Assembly

[oldbushie]

Any new firmware mr teal
Please

Are yours having an issue of some kind?

One of mine is. It often goes into spew-errors mode, requiring a power cycle.

I get the same whenever I restart BFGMiner. It's just one of them but really annoying when it happens because it basically means I have to power down all my machines, power them back up, wait 5 minutes for them to cool down and reboot, and then start up BFGMiner again.

[MrTeal]

Any new firmware mr teal
Please

Are yours having an issue of some kind?

One of mine is. It often goes into spew-errors mode, requiring a power cycle.

I don't really want to do this since it's basically just thrown together with copy and paste code, but here is a utility to flash new firmware onto the Chilis, along with what was the latest FW (14c).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xpccbhfkbpinov8/ChiliFlash.exe
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sse7mif9l1y8o9f/ChiliFW14c.hex
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zn8gkojly2f87wx/ChiliFlash.rar

There's no performance benefits to upgrading, it's solely meant to fix those people who had early boards and would hang during the initial startup while flashing two lights.

[jelin1984]

These is new firmware?
How I install it?

[MrTeal]

These is new firmware?
How I install it?

No, it's the same firmware that shipped on the second half of the first batch.

Open ChiliFlash, and select the Chili that needs to be flashed from the drop down menu. Browse the the ChiliFW14c.hex hex file, and then hit program. The LEDs on the board should binary count quickly, and when it's done it will prompt to power cycle the unit and the LEDs should flash outer 4 then inner 4 until you do.

[jelin1984]

Must burn the miner for some hours for have correct speed.

[MrTeal]

Must burn the miner for some hours for have correct speed.

I'm not sure what you're asking here.
It does take a little while for the speed to ramp up once it's started as it adjusts voltage and current, but it shouldn't take more than a couple minutes. The average can take quite awhile to get up to speed though.

[jelin1984]

Also which is better more hashing speed
Cgminer or bfgminer?

[Keefe]

These is new firmware?
How I install it?

No, it's the same firmware that shipped on the second half of the first batch.

Open ChiliFlash, and select the Chili that needs to be flashed from the drop down menu. Browse the the ChiliFW14c.hex hex file, and then hit program. The LEDs on the board should binary count quickly, and when it's done it will prompt to power cycle the unit and the LEDs should flash outer 4 then inner 4 until you do.

Is there a way to determine a board's current firmware version with a serial console? I don't know if I already have 14c, and they're connected to a linux pc. I tried the ZCX command but the output doesn't appear to include the firmware version.

[MrTeal]

These is new firmware?
How I install it?

No, it's the same firmware that shipped on the second half of the first batch.

Open ChiliFlash, and select the Chili that needs to be flashed from the drop down menu. Browse the the ChiliFW14c.hex hex file, and then hit program. The LEDs on the board should binary count quickly, and when it's done it will prompt to power cycle the unit and the LEDs should flash outer 4 then inner 4 until you do.

Is there a way to determine a board's current firmware version with a serial console? I don't know if I already have 14c, and they're connected to a linux pc. I tried the ZCX command but the output doesn't appear to include the firmware version.

No, not right now. Unfortunately cgminer uses the FW version to determine if it should be using per chip or per board work queuing, so we need to keep 1.0.0. I've edited my personal copy to report back 1.0.14c and it works although cgminer throws a warning. I haven't tested it on Bitminter or bfg though so I don't want to do it until I have a chance to test it in case that breaks compatibility. It's definitely on the to do list though.

[winter]

? how does this board do jobs. i know on early firmware of bfl units it would only do 1 job per / later firmware they fixed it so it would do XX jobs per instead of just 1 job
to me it looks like the board is just doing 1 job at a time is this correct ?

if this this correct any plans on changing it to XX jobs instead ?

also can i say i have fw 1.0.0 as this is what the RW2-BFL-Commport-Scanner outputted for me before
DEVICE: BitFORCE SC
FIRMWARE: 1.0.0

* i ordered a cooler for the chili and will be installing it monday, once the cooler gets here.

also thank u for the new firmware

[MrTeal]

Updated firmware, that should solve the hang during startup.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8qhhoqmvtk6i6jj/Chili14d.hex

[MrTeal]

? how does this board do jobs. i know on early firmware of bfl units it would only do 1 job per / later firmware they fixed it so it would do XX jobs per instead of just 1 job
to me it looks like the board is just doing 1 job at a time is this correct ?

if this this correct any plans on changing it to XX jobs instead ?

Early BFL firmware did one job per device, but they had a hard time getting it to work efficiently. My understanding is that the problem they had is that the frequency of the chips varies between different chips even at the same frequency setting and voltage. They ended up with some chips finishing work early and idling while they were waiting for the last core to finish.
Because we actually measure the frequency of each chip independently, we can more efficiently divide work so that faster chips get a larger portion of the nonce range, and all the chips still finish at the same time. All things being equal, if you can get 100% efficiency using one job per device it's a better way to go, as you'll retire jobs 8x faster than one job per chip and you'll end up with lower stales every time there's a new block.

[jelin1984]

so we must updated at new firmware?

[MrTeal]

so we must updated at new firmware?

No, only if you have a unit that sits and flashes the two end LEDs during self test and doesn't stop.

[jelin1984]

why not is worst fimware from the earlier/?

[ericdc30]

Quick tip for people with people dealing with fans on the Chili. The Cooler Master Evo 212 using the LGA 2011 parts work great on the chili didn't need anything else than what was in the box.

I only used what came with the fan.

WARNING: You have to be careful not to tighten the nuts excessively.

https://i.imgur.com/XHardqy.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/IcaFzSa.jpg

[Keefe]

Quick tip for people with people dealing with fans on the Chili. The Cooler Master Evo 212 using the LGA 2011 parts work great on the chili didn't need anything else than what was in the box.

What holds the short standoffs to the board? If I remember correctly, the supplied nuts only fit the taller standoffs (i.e. for Socket 1155).

[agibby5]

so we must updated at new firmware?

So you beg for a new firmware and when it's released you ask if it's necessary to update?!

[MrTeal]

So here's a quick picture of what I've (on an unfortunate post-Halloween sugar bender) named my "Tower of Power" cooler.
Basic setup is two of the $10 Antec Kuhler Shelf coolers, with a 2" #8 screw connecting the two coolers. There's also two press on heatsinks on the VRMs.



The bottom heatsink just has some Kapton tape and a little thermal grease on it, while the top cooler is just using thermal grease. Using this setup there is no board flex at all. The thermal grease is just the Antec branded stuff that's inside the box.

The total cost of this cooling setup is about $26 including the two press-on heatsinks, though the space efficiency is terrible. I think you could get good numbers with just a simple backplate, as long as you are getting good contact with all the dies. My non-RevB (no engine 0) sample board with 7 ASICs mounted gets 32GH/s, and the other production (RevB) Chili I have configured like this is averaging 39.8GH/s, so I think there is a lot of benefit to looking at your cooling solution. Remember that you want your cooling solution to give good force pressing the ASICs to the heatsink (force is the red arrows, BTW) without doing so asymmetrically which will bend the PCB and give bad contact on the center ASICs.

[jelin1984]

why use cgminer version 3.4.0
and not the last cgminer 3.6.6.?