[ANN][BLC] Blakecoin Blake-256 for GPU/FPGA With Merged Mined Pools Stable Net

[sidgrip]

Have a question on programming with a xilnx using impact.

How can I perminatly flash a Cairnsmore 1  with the blake bitstream

I have managed to flash 5 of them using xc3sprog but I have two more that will not flash using xc3sprog.

I am able to flash them with impact and they are hashing but am looking for a permanent solution so I can move my last 2 cm1's into the rack with the others. I have been reading through post's hoping to figure this out when I have free time for a few months now.


I have permanently flashed my Lancelot dual spartan6's with impact and they are hashing great.


Any help would be appreciated.


thanks

-Sid

 

[BlueDragon747]

Have a question on programming with a xilnx using impact.

How can I perminatly flash a Cairnsmore 1  with the blake bitstream

I have managed to flash 5 of them using xc3sprog but I have two more that will not flash using xc3sprog.

I am able to flash them with impact and they are hashing but am looking for a permanent solution so I can move my last 2 cm1's into the rack with the others. I have been reading through post's hoping to figure this out when I have free time for a few months now.


I have permanently flashed my Lancelot dual spartan6's with impact and they are hashing great.


Any help would be appreciated.


thanks

-Sid

 

Here is the mcs for programming into the flash on CM1 boards (right click save link as)
http://blakecoin.org/CM1-hv-v04a-175MHz-ucf-150-fmax-161.mcs

using iMpact

when you assign the file it will ask if you want to attach a SPI/BPI PROM select yes - then pick the mcs file above and click open - Select: SPI PROM, M25P128, 1 and click ok

just program the flash it does take awhile much longer than just programming the FPGA itself 5-10mins per flash * 4

now if you power cycle the CM1 the Blake bitstream will be loaded every time  

I dont use xc3sprog I just use the program cable and iMpact as that is what is easy for me

Hope that helps

[sidgrip]

Here is the mcs for programming into the flash on CM1 boards (right click save link as)
http://blakecoin.org/CM1-hv-v04a-175MHz-ucf-150-fmax-161.mcs

There's the mcs i was looking for     Thank you sir!

Sending some BLC your way!

-Sid

[BlueDragon747]

Here is the mcs for programming into the flash on CM1 boards (right click save link as)
http://blakecoin.org/CM1-hv-v04a-175MHz-ucf-150-fmax-161.mcs

There's the mcs i was looking for     Thank you sir!

Sending some BLC your way!

-Sid

Cool Thanks 

[mogrith]

PocketCrypto now supports Atomic Trade
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=660696.0

[CHAOSiTEC]

Here is the mcs for programming into the flash on CM1 boards (right click save link as)
http://blakecoin.org/CM1-hv-v04a-175MHz-ucf-150-fmax-161.mcs

There's the mcs i was looking for     Thank you sir!

Sending some BLC your way!

-Sid

Cool Thanks 

since im quite new to fpga's can someone point me in the right direction on a step by step of what i need to do to set my cairnsmore 1 up for blakecoin mining?

[MinermanNC]

Question, I am mining on blakecoin.com. I have found all the wallets for merged coins EXCEPT  blakecoin... is it the same wallet as blakebitcoin? or is the same wallet shared? When I download the blakecoinwallet from github, it appears to be the same as the blakebitcoin already installed...help me get clear on this one lol

THX

[BlueDragon747]

since im quite new to fpga's can someone point me in the right direction on a step by step of what i need to do to set my cairnsmore 1 up for blakecoin mining?

there are some basic notes for x3prog for cm1 in this thread but its a bit buried when I get some spare time will link it atm working on pool code to add UMO to merge

Question, I am mining on blakecoin.com. I have found all the wallets for merged coins EXCEPT  blakecoin... is it the same wallet as blakebitcoin? or is the same wallet shared? When I download the blakecoinwallet from github, it appears to be the same as the blakebitcoin already installed...help me get clear on this one lol

THX

check my github or see the OP Blakecoin is not same as Blakebitcoin

Blakecoin Github
https://github.com/BlueDragon747/Blakecoin

BlakeBitcoin Github
https://github.com/BlakeBitcoin/BlakeBitcoin

[MinermanNC]

since im quite new to fpga's can someone point me in the right direction on a step by step of what i need to do to set my cairnsmore 1 up for blakecoin mining?

there are some basic notes for x3prog for cm1 in this thread but its a bit buried when I get some spare time will link it atm working on pool code to add UMO to merge

Question, I am mining on blakecoin.com. I have found all the wallets for merged coins EXCEPT  blakecoin... is it the same wallet as blakebitcoin? or is the same wallet shared? When I download the blakecoinwallet from github, it appears to be the same as the blakebitcoin already installed...help me get clear on this one lol

THX

check my github or see the OP Blakecoin is not same as Blakebitcoin

Blakecoin Github
https://github.com/BlueDragon747/Blakecoin



BlakeBitcoin Github
https://github.com/BlakeBitcoin/BlakeBitcoin
Thanks, checking it out now. I just DL the blakebitcoin master which I don't have. How do you launch wallet, don't see an .exe file in folder. Where am I going wrong lol

[MinermanNC]

 have this wallet up and running v0.8.9.1-g8c5e74e-beta .... set to receive BTC+ is this right for that coin?

[CHAOSiTEC]

since im quite new to fpga's can someone point me in the right direction on a step by step of what i need to do to set my cairnsmore 1 up for blakecoin mining?

there are some basic notes for x3prog for cm1 in this thread but its a bit buried when I get some spare time will link it atm working on pool code to add UMO to merge

ok, i found the following,

Good progress today, Glasswalker

The boards stayed stable over night, they had a few issues with hardware errors according to cgminer, which during all my testing will often appear in small amounts in the first few minutes with atleast 1 error, usually on the last (ica 2/3) ones on the board. However it was stable and still mining at a steady rate of around 9.5u a board.

I choose this time to restart them and look over the manual for Xc3sprog, to confirm what I knew it could do and that was just a quick erase. Hoping this would help me, perma flash them. It worked in the end, fully erasing them all, then restarting and going for a completely clean perma flash got them past verification and mining.
Also no more hardware errors after 2 hours of mining today.

Here was my methods incase it helps others;
I run xc3sprog natively from Ubuntu 12.04, instead of via virtualbox.
I also mine using Cgminer 2.65, with Kano's executable (will upgrade to 2.7 soon).
I use the verbose output in my commands to understand why they fail now, so it is abit different than before.

** Cold shutoff (all power and usb removed)
** Set switches 3 and 6 to off
** Plug in power.
** Wait a minute for it settle and connected usb.

Entered the follow, to confirm they were detected, then wipe them all individually (not sure), then do a all wipe.

Code:

sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -j
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -p0 -e
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -p1 -e
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -p2 -e
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -p3 -e
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -e

** Cold Restart ( Disconnect USB and Power )
** Plug in power.
** Wait a minute for it settle and connected usb.

Then perma-flash it, with verbose out to see where it fails if it does.
* I've shorten the names on all the files for ease of typing them in

Code:

sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -j
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -p3 -Ix150.bit hv175oc.bit
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -p2 -Ix150.bit hv175oc.bit
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -p1 -Ix150.bit hv175oc.bit
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -p0 -Ix150.bit hv175oc.bit

*x150.bit was originally xc6lx150.bit (if I remember right)
*hv175oc.bit is the name of the new hashvoodoo bitstream.

** Cold Restart ( Disconnect USB and Power )
** Return all switches to on (move 3 and 6 back)
** Plug in power.
** Wait a minute for it settle and connected usb.

Everyone mines a little different in cgminer, however I've found the icarus setting useful to add when starting up cgminer via the terminal are:

Code:

--icarus-options :1:1
--icarus-timing long

The first one is useful to properly calculate work division and the number of them per port. For Glasswalkers bitsteam this is different than Makomk's, ie it uses all 4 ports for 4 chips, instead of 2 ports for 4 chips. I find the timing set to long rather than short is better, since it hash rate changes all the time in small amounts I figure it's safer to do long.

[Edit:updated the correct options settings]

So in short, taking the extra step to fully erase a board, does fix some issues at the least, if flashing your board is problematic.

Ok, i managed to dig this up on bitcointalk, took a while, so now i just need to figure out which bitstream files to use, thats where i get confused... 

[BlueDragon747]

have this wallet up and running v0.8.9.1-g8c5e74e-beta .... set to receive BTC+ is this right for that coin?

Blakecoin is BLC

Blakebitcoin is Ƀ+ (BBTC on exchange)

[BlueDragon747]

since im quite new to fpga's can someone point me in the right direction on a step by step of what i need to do to set my cairnsmore 1 up for blakecoin mining?

there are some basic notes for x3prog for cm1 in this thread but its a bit buried when I get some spare time will link it atm working on pool code to add UMO to merge

ok, i found the following,

Good progress today, Glasswalker

The boards stayed stable over night, they had a few issues with hardware errors according to cgminer, which during all my testing will often appear in small amounts in the first few minutes with atleast 1 error, usually on the last (ica 2/3) ones on the board. However it was stable and still mining at a steady rate of around 9.5u a board.

I choose this time to restart them and look over the manual for Xc3sprog, to confirm what I knew it could do and that was just a quick erase. Hoping this would help me, perma flash them. It worked in the end, fully erasing them all, then restarting and going for a completely clean perma flash got them past verification and mining.
Also no more hardware errors after 2 hours of mining today.

Here was my methods incase it helps others;
I run xc3sprog natively from Ubuntu 12.04, instead of via virtualbox.
I also mine using Cgminer 2.65, with Kano's executable (will upgrade to 2.7 soon).
I use the verbose output in my commands to understand why they fail now, so it is abit different than before.

** Cold shutoff (all power and usb removed)
** Set switches 3 and 6 to off
** Plug in power.
** Wait a minute for it settle and connected usb.

Entered the follow, to confirm they were detected, then wipe them all individually (not sure), then do a all wipe.

Code:

sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -j
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -p0 -e
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -p1 -e
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -p2 -e
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -p3 -e
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -e

** Cold Restart ( Disconnect USB and Power )
** Plug in power.
** Wait a minute for it settle and connected usb.

Then perma-flash it, with verbose out to see where it fails if it does.
* I've shorten the names on all the files for ease of typing them in

Code:

sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -v -j
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -p3 -Ix150.bit hv175oc.bit
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -p2 -Ix150.bit hv175oc.bit
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -p1 -Ix150.bit hv175oc.bit
sudo ./xc3sprog -c cm1 -p0 -Ix150.bit hv175oc.bit

*x150.bit was originally xc6lx150.bit (if I remember right)
*hv175oc.bit is the name of the new hashvoodoo bitstream.

** Cold Restart ( Disconnect USB and Power )
** Return all switches to on (move 3 and 6 back)
** Plug in power.
** Wait a minute for it settle and connected usb.

Everyone mines a little different in cgminer, however I've found the icarus setting useful to add when starting up cgminer via the terminal are:

Code:

--icarus-options :1:1
--icarus-timing long

The first one is useful to properly calculate work division and the number of them per port. For Glasswalkers bitsteam this is different than Makomk's, ie it uses all 4 ports for 4 chips, instead of 2 ports for 4 chips. I find the timing set to long rather than short is better, since it hash rate changes all the time in small amounts I figure it's safer to do long.

[Edit:updated the correct options settings]

So in short, taking the extra step to fully erase a board, does fix some issues at the least, if flashing your board is problematic.

Ok, i managed to dig this up on bitcointalk, took a while, so now i just need to figure out which bitstream files to use, thats where i get confused...  

work by Kramble
https://github.com/kramble/FPGA-Blakecoin-Miner/tree/master/experimental/CM1

and if you want to permanently flash the cm1 to blake bitstream use:
http://blakecoin.org/CM1-hv-v04a-175MHz-ucf-150-fmax-161.mcs

I dont use xc3sprog so cant really offer much assistance try reading some of this here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=306894.msg5853700#msg5853700

[MinermanNC]

have this wallet up and running v0.8.9.1-g8c5e74e-beta .... set to receive BTC+ is this right for that coin?

Blakecoin is BLC

Blakebitcoin is Ƀ+ (BBTC on exchange)

Thank you

[sidgrip]

since im quite new to fpga's can someone point me in the right direction on a step by step of what i need to do to set my cairnsmore 1 up for blakecoin mining?

http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/cairnsmore/cairnsmore.ova  <---- Virtual Box Programming Tools - (Very large - 500MB. Allows configuration of array FPGAs and associate SPI Flash)

Anyway, to program ... power off the board, set the switches

x
x
x
x

x
    x  (three = program)
x      (two = fan override, switch this if not using the fans)
x

Wait for it to initialise, sequentially first blue, then red/yellow.

Start up your VirtualBox, login root/password

After that follow this for flashing https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/CM1Quickstart


Use  the  hashvoodoo_controller_25.bit for the spiprog   and    the CM1-hv-v04a-175MHz-ucf-150-fmax-161.bit for xc3sprog

you can rename the bit files to something shorter so its easier to type.

If your CM1 is not flashing properly and your getting errors when using xc3sprog  you will have to flash using impact with a xilinx cable

 

-Sid

[kramble]

since im quite new to fpga's can someone point me in the right direction on a step by step of what i need to do to set my cairnsmore 1 up for blakecoin mining?

There is not much I can add to what has been said by BlueDragon and sidgrip. Just be sure to load the hashvoodo firmware via spiprog (or impact) before flashing the blake bitstream. I'll add those notes to the CM1 github README as it's a bit terse at the moment. EDIT: OK, that's done. Let me know if I can improve it or if there are any errors.

I didn't find the CM1 to be very reliable (at least the one I was testing on, borrowed from BlueDragon) as it kept dropping off the USB every few hours, needing a complete power cycle (including disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable) to reset it. While the CM1 appears to be of really good build quality, there were some design issues with the USB, the clock distribution and the broken serial chaining of the FPGA devices. Later devices were apparently slightly better (serial number 0051 onwards, see here), but I don't know if Enterpoint ever got it properly up to production quality (and I'm not reading all the way through that thread to find out). There is also some useful background information on the Hashvoodo thread.

[CHAOSiTEC]

since im quite new to fpga's can someone point me in the right direction on a step by step of what i need to do to set my cairnsmore 1 up for blakecoin mining?

There is not much I can add to what has been said by BlueDragon and sidgrip. Just be sure to load the hashvoodo firmware via spiprog (or impact) before flashing the blake bitstream. I'll add those notes to the CM1 github README as it's a bit terse at the moment. EDIT: OK, that's done. Let me know if I can improve it or if there are any errors.

I didn't find the CM1 to be very reliable (at least the one I was testing on, borrowed from BlueDragon) as it kept dropping off the USB every few hours, needing a complete power cycle (including disconnecting and reconnecting the USB cable) to reset it. While the CM1 appears to be of really good build quality, there were some design issues with the USB, the clock distribution and the broken serial chaining of the FPGA devices. Later devices were apparently slightly better (serial number 0051 onwards, see here), but I don't know if Enterpoint ever got it properly up to production quality (and I'm not reading all the way through that thread to find out). There is also some useful background information on the Hashvoodo thread.

well, my cm1 has the serial number 11 so im guessing i have one of the "bad" ones...

i cant seem to get spiprog to load, but i have a feeling its allready on, since when i flashed the bitstreams info where trown at me about made with top.(someting) and another with voodoo something dynamic... it counted and stuff, but im still trying to get it tostart mining.. so far py miner gives me errors about the hash...

[kramble]

well, my cm1 has the serial number 11 so im guessing i have one of the "bad" ones...

I think the problem with the early boards was that only three of the four fpgas would work reliably (the clock signal was poorly routed and picked up noise), so you may still be mostly OK.

i cant seem to get spiprog to load, but i have a feeling its allready on, since when i flashed the bitstreams info where trown at me about made with top.(someting) and another with voodoo something dynamic... it counted and stuff, but im still trying to get it tostart mining.. so far py miner gives me errors about the hash...

It's a long time ago since I worked with this, and the board's since been returned to BlueDragon so I don't think I'm going to be able to help much, but here goes anyway (from memory)...

Spiprog.exe is in http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/cairnsmore/CAIRNSMORE1_CONTROLLER_SHARING_V1_5.zip and you'll need to copy hashvoodoo_controller_25.bit into the same folder (get it from https://github.com/downloads/pmumby/hashvoodoo-fpga-bitcoin-miner/hashvoodoo_release_09_23_2012.zip), then open a DOS command prompt and navigate down to the right place (shift-rightclick on the folder then open command prompt is a useful shortcut under more recent versions of windows).

As for mining, best to post your cgminer command string (and config file if you're using one). You need to use my custom version from https://github.com/kramble/FPGA-Blakecoin-Miner/tree/master/cgminer/cgminer-3.1.1 (and I assume you're running on windows?). Run it with the -T and -D switches and redirect the output to a log file with 2>log.txt then post that up.

[CHAOSiTEC]

well, my cm1 has the serial number 11 so im guessing i have one of the "bad" ones...

I think the problem with the early boards was that only three of the four fpgas would work reliably (the clock signal was poorly routed and picked up noise), so you may still be mostly OK.

i cant seem to get spiprog to load, but i have a feeling its allready on, since when i flashed the bitstreams info where trown at me about made with top.(someting) and another with voodoo something dynamic... it counted and stuff, but im still trying to get it tostart mining.. so far py miner gives me errors about the hash...

It's a long time ago since I worked with this, and the board's since been returned to BlueDragon so I don't think I'm going to be able to help much, but here goes anyway (from memory)...

Spiprog.exe is in http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/cairnsmore/CAIRNSMORE1_CONTROLLER_SHARING_V1_5.zip and you'll need to copy hashvoodoo_controller_25.bit into the same folder (get it from https://github.com/downloads/pmumby/hashvoodoo-fpga-bitcoin-miner/hashvoodoo_release_09_23_2012.zip), then open a DOS command prompt and navigate down to the right place (shift-rightclick on the folder then open command prompt is a useful shortcut under more recent versions of windows).

As for mining, best to post your cgminer command string (and config file if you're using one). You need to use my custom version from https://github.com/kramble/FPGA-Blakecoin-Miner/tree/master/cgminer/cgminer-3.1.1 (and I assume you're running on windows?). Run it with the -T and -D switches and redirect the output to a log file with 2>log.txt then post that up.

yeah got all that and patched up cgminer, i think its running now though with the following command line (im running linux) :-) yuhu got 3 shares, over the last 6 minutes :-p

sudo ./cgminer --icarus-timing long -S /dev/ttyUSB0 -S /dev/ttyUSB1 -S /dev/ttyUSB2 -S /dev/ttyUSB3 --url stratum+tcp://eu3.blakecoin.com:3334 --userpass FireWalkerX.1:x --cainsmore-clock 200,200,190,180

edit:
Kramble, i think you have done an awesome job, everywhere i went to try and figure this out, your name came up :-p, could you by any chance point me in a direction of learning about programming fpgas? books or websites?

[kramble]

yeah got all that and patched up cgminer, i think its running now though with the following command line (im running linux) :-) yuhu got 3 shares, over the last 6 minutes :-p

sudo ./cgminer --icarus-timing long -S /dev/ttyUSB0 -S /dev/ttyUSB1 -S /dev/ttyUSB2 -S /dev/ttyUSB3 --url stratum+tcp://eu3.blakecoin.com:3334 --userpass FireWalkerX.1:x --cainsmore-clock 200,200,190,180

Yep, that looks good. As long as all four devices are giving accepted hashes at the right sort of rate (WU around 5.6 per fpga 13 I think off the top of my head, I run my lancelot in background I don't see the interactive display, I'll need to check back through the thread to see what others are getting with the CM1). If you run it with the --verbose switch you'll see the difficulty=1 shares being reported in the log (the pool accepts at diff=32 so most of them will be above-targets, but it will show that it's working).

Use "--icarus-timing 1.0=20" instead of long as this gives better control of the work (20 is one work refresh every 2 seconds). You don't want the nonce wrapping and the devices going idle (yellow led).