Hacking a BFL Jalapeno to 32GH and beyond....(???)

[lightfoot]

By the way, just put a Noctura fan in my Jally because I broke a fan blade on the stock unit.

Man is it quiet.

Man is it HOT AS HELL!

Went from 60 with a working fan to 70 with two blades broken (balance, sort of) to 80 with the noctura. Not good, I have my throttle at 85. With the copper heat sink on the bottom of the case and thermal grease I'm back down to 65-70 but boo!

Note these are with the unit closed up, a good heat sink.

Anyone want to send me their old fan? Or I can run till I get my two jallies from BFL and do something with it.

C

I'm sorry to hear of your heat issues, I just got 4 chips in 4 jalas one with only a little FPGA heat sink thermal pasted to the bottom at 60C. I don't see the real appeal to the case. It collects dust, you can't see all the cute LED's as easy. I like free flow of air, and no static.

I like the case; it's kind of cube-like and keeps my kids from screwing with the fans. Yes with it off heat is not a problem. Oddly enough perching the unit on the heat sink has it at a nice 60-65, so I'm good.

C

[Drug5bitz]

ok I have a question for you I'm running in BFGminer and I get some kind of tunnel or pipe error, like the one that deals with the work feed. Restart the miner and one of my devices doesn't come up, so I power cycle it a few times. Now I've reflashed it, and it still just comes up as a unknown USB device, WTF. All chips are recognized the FW was readable and all device info in Atmel........ not really sure right now maybe let it sit while I sleep.

[lightfoot]

ok I have a question for you I'm running in BFGminer and I get some kind of tunnel or pipe error, like the one that deals with the work feed. Restart the miner and one of my devices doesn't come up, so I power cycle it a few times. Now I've reflashed it, and it still just comes up as a unknown USB device, WTF. All chips are recognized the FW was readable and all device info in Atmel........ not really sure right now maybe let it sit while I sleep.

*Really*

Hm. That sounds exactly like the FTDI error everyone keeps complaining about. It's not due to heat or reflashing, we seem to have that under control and my unit is not dead. I've been offering a bounty of .15btc for one so I could fiddle with it. But now we have someone with a clue that has it, so fix if you can.

Questions:

Examine the USB jack. It's not secured well, any chance one of the 4 wires is broken? Use a loupe/tester. If you're running sans lid there is no support, but even with the back plate a good shot on the cable will damage it IMO.

If not, let's look into the next thing up the line which seems to be the FTDI chip. It's programmed when the system boots so swapping it may work.

C

[Photon939]

WARNING: THIS IS IMPORTANT:

Big big stopping point here. I think this is important:

I know people are flashing these things with all sorts of firmware. We know that the newer jallies with the 256mb flash chips need to be defined specifically in order to flash them. And we know that 1.2.5 and 1.2.9 work on the 256mb chips.

HOWEVER Has anyone successfully flashed 1.2.9 onto a jalapeno that has only 128mb chips?

Here is the reason: I got a Jally in for a chip upgrade. No I am not doing this for money, person asked really nicely and agreed to take all risks. Ok.

As is my protocol I change only one thing at a time. First I unboxed their unit and ran it last night. Says it's 1.2.6, kind of weird firmware but it hashes at 7.6gh overnight without overheating or anything.

Then I flashed it to 1.2.9. Failed flash with the ATMEL set to 256mb chip. Reset to 128mb chip, erased and flashed. However the Jally was *DEAD*. Totally, and completely dead. Power light, no front flashing LED, looked like a serial port. Nothing else, game over.

Flashed two more times, verified code, all good. Fails.

Flasked CK's 1.2.5 code release, Jally comes up happy with 15 cores. Now letting it run for another day to verify stable operation.

WHAT THIS MEANS!

If you have a 128mb Jally, I am not sure if you can load 1.2.8 or 1.2.9 code. Given that this code is needed for running the newer chips, it means YOU CANNOT LOAD NEWER CHIPS ON YOUR JALLY.

So, has anyone verified you can load 1.2.9 compiled code on a 128mb Jally?

C

Well after bricking my new Jalapeno I have figured out the problem. Getting 1.2.9 onto a Jalapeno with the Atmel AT32UC31128 with 128kb of flash memory (not mb lol) IS POSSIBLE.

Will post details in a bit

[Photon939]

Okay, to get 1.2.9 on a new Jalapeno with the AT32UC3A1128 here's what you need to do:

1) Open the 1.2.9 firmware in Atmel Studio

2) Make sure #DEFINE_PRODUCT_LITTLE_SINGLE in std_defs.h is the one active, the single firmware will not fit in 128kb


3) Go to project properties, change the device type to the AT32UC3A1128



4) Recompile the solution


5) Download to the Jalapeno flash memory

[lightfoot]

Ahhhhhhhhhh.... Thus a 128kb code will fit in the 256kb space, but you have to explicitly define for 128kb chips.

Thank you for posting this. You should post it in the parent thread for firmware updates, on forums.butterfly and take full credit.

This solves the problem of adding chips to 128kb devices. Nicely done, you saved a lot of jally owners problems.

C

[lightfoot]

Other stuff: I bought an extension cable for my jally, hoping to hook it up to my atx power supply. Learned something: That ain't going to work :-)

The problem is the wire gauges are like 18g, and the cable was getting warm from the power supply. Oh, and the voltage drop was down to 11.0 volts from 12.2 at the supply leads. So I think I am going to need to custom build my own cable as a 20gh jally draws a *lot* more current than a 5gh jally.

Back to the drawing board. I did order an ATX-3jp cable from BFL, but I don't know when all that is going to ship. And since I'm concerned about these power supplies and ground loops blowing the FTDI chips I would be happy to get off it...

C

[Drug5bitz]

......Guys very sad day..... Come home another one is dark.... WTF power supply go bad? So I grab my spare power supply plug it in and the fucker shot a pretty spark. Yes I know this was stupid but ehh found out it blew a hole in an 8 pin chip right behind the USB port. Guys I'm about to start swapping board components. WTF Is suddenly going on with these things I don't care as long as I can replacement chips but the only one I have confirmed are the mosfets on ebay...... Starting to freak out know my hashing is down bros.........

[Brassguy]

Just an update to my above post... The crazy flashing light for one of my chips was caused by the chip not making good contact as I've been trying to use the minimal amount of heat to solder them on. Was fixed by reflowing. Good news is based on pictures and my own experience I now know which light corresponds with each chip spot. If anyone is interested I'll post a diagram.

Just a side-note... it appears that most of the components found on this board can be found online... so that's a plus!

I'm ordering 6 more chips and going for broke... I have a 600 watt psu and I'm thinking about removing the barrel jack all together and soldering the power lines directly to the board... I have the original power supplies sitting on a laptop cooler with 3 fans which seems to be doing the trick for now.

Currently 3 jalapenos @ ~44gh... and about 1.43% HW errors

[lightfoot]

Just an update to my above post... The crazy flashing light for one of my chips was caused by the chip not making good contact as I've been trying to use the minimal amount of heat to solder them on. Was fixed by reflowing. Good news is based on pictures and my own experience I now know which light corresponds with each chip spot. If anyone is interested I'll post a diagram.

Just a side-note... it appears that most of the components found on this board can be found online... so that's a plus!

I'm ordering 6 more chips and going for broke... I have a 600 watt psu and I'm thinking about removing the barrel jack all together and soldering the power lines directly to the board... I have the original power supplies sitting on a laptop cooler with 3 fans which seems to be doing the trick for now.

Currently 3 jalapenos @ ~44gh... and about 1.43% HW errors

If you could post the lights to sockets, I would appreciate. It would tell me which of my chips is hogging the bus. :-)

Waiting on 2 jallies and a few chips myself. BFL should ship them soon...

[Brassguy]

Here you go lightfoot...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37765158/image_01.png

I'm pretty sure this is exact... please let me know if you find any discrepancy!

I just ordered these from newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708009 for cooling the vrms...

[lightfoot]

Well now....

I think I see my problem. Chip light 2 is lit and should be the middle one, but it's the corner one #3 which is occupied. Which means that 3 is shorting out 2 and 1, which kind of makes sense.

So there we go. I could pull 3, then resolder it and 2,1 but things are so screwed up that I dare not. 8 is still open, but I put so much heat on that slot when I was trying to set a chip that I blew off some caps. I think I'm at the limit for now. Just need another jally sometime.

C

[lightfoot]

......Guys very sad day..... Come home another one is dark.... WTF power supply go bad? So I grab my spare power supply plug it in and the fucker shot a pretty spark. Yes I know this was stupid but ehh found out it blew a hole in an 8 pin chip right behind the USB port. Guys I'm about to start swapping board components. WTF Is suddenly going on with these things I don't care as long as I can replacement chips but the only one I have confirmed are the mosfets on ebay...... Starting to freak out know my hashing is down bros.........

FUCK ME.

Are you in Euorpe?

The FETs should not have overloaded on two chips. How big was your spare power supply, capacity? Picture of the board?

Want to send it to me to review? You're good, and it's out of warranty, but I'd like to see this fail mode.

C

[lightfoot]

Actually that makes sense: One of the outboard fets failed, it's companion blew shorted when you used the big power supply. Pull them and replace them then try with a supply with a 7 amp fuse.

Watch the temps on those FETs. I can't stress enough; that is the weak point. I put little copper sinks on mine.

C

[lightfoot]

By the way, if you have a jally outside the US you might want to look at this thread about ground loops blowing out jallies.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=365800.new#new

I'll be updating it. If you find it valuable, please drop me a bitpenny or something.

C

[Drug5bitz]

I'll have to read into that, I'm inn the US however. Just ordered off of mouser FT232HQ Which is the USB controller chip, and ST1S10 which appears to be the voltage reg I blew up. Lightfoot have you had no problems with your power block? I'm pretty convinced they're complete garbage. If I have luck changing out a few components I will let you'll know. Prolly start buying bad jalas then. I'm off to cry I believe my processor died in my main rig as well. Apparently 2 years at 4.7 Ghz can do that, now to get a 9590.

I think there may be another place we might want little sinks, I'll report back as I just got a new IR thermometer.

P.S. if anyone has a AM3+ CPU I could borrow to test my MOBO that would be cool. Not expecting anything but worth a try.

[lightfoot]

I'll have to read into that, I'm inn the US however. Just ordered off of mouser FT232HQ Which is the USB controller chip, and ST1S10 which appears to be the voltage reg I blew up. Lightfoot have you had no problems with your power block? I'm pretty convinced they're complete garbage. If I have luck changing out a few components I will let you'll know. Prolly start buying bad jalas then. I'm off to cry I believe my processor died in my main rig as well. Apparently 2 years at 4.7 Ghz can do that, now to get a 9590.

I think there may be another place we might want little sinks, I'll report back as I just got a new IR thermometer.

P.S. if anyone has a AM3+ CPU I could borrow to test my MOBO that would be cool. Not expecting anything but worth a try.

No problems yet but it's hot. I have a fan pointing at it, but I think I might be cutting it's cord tonight and hard-wiring it into the ATX. ATX had flimsy wires though, and I am concerned about voltage drop.

Try swapping the USB chip. Unfortunately the problem with buying bad jallies is that people seem to think they are like little golden nuggets.

Hey, do you see 120 volts on the ring to ground on your power supply?

C

[Drug5bitz]

You're referring to the barrel plug correct? I've got 4 power blocks just opened the dead one........ smells horrible, covered in soot and the 2 caps are blown. One of them has a sizable hole in it....... I'm so beyond pissed right not it's not funny..... I void my warranty so BFL can shock me to death after blowing up my miners with shitty hardware. Or the idea that 120V traveled up my usb onto my MOBO. So the point I'm at BFL may have caused my miner and PC take down with chinese power blocks. 3 greatest fears in one, dead PC, chinese products, power blocks. That order, I'm prolly venting at this point but I also have one power block that causes just the power LED to flash slowly.... I don't even understand anymore....

[arekm]

Any (EU or to EU) chips sellers available? Want to try adding 4 chips to  jaly (or fry them ;-)

[lightfoot]

You're referring to the barrel plug correct? I've got 4 power blocks just opened the dead one........ smells horrible, covered in soot and the 2 caps are blown. One of them has a sizable hole in it....... I'm so beyond pissed right not it's not funny..... I void my warranty so BFL can shock me to death after blowing up my miners with shitty hardware. Or the idea that 120V traveled up my usb onto my MOBO. So the point I'm at BFL may have caused my miner and PC take down with chinese power blocks. 3 greatest fears in one, dead PC, chinese products, power blocks. That order, I'm prolly venting at this point but I also have one power block that causes just the power LED to flash slowly.... I don't even understand anymore....

Can you post a pic? I'm sorry it went foom.

Does the slow flasher work with a good supply?

C