Bitmain AntMiner U1 Tips & Tricks

[JakeC]

Has anyone tried the 4gh overclock?

[eroxors]

Has anyone tried the 4gh overclock?

How do you do it?


Ohhh... that was just listed on the documentation. I thought there was some sort of trick. I doubt 4GH is obtainable without sub zero temps and very high volts.

[eroxors]

Has anyone volt-modded to 1.2? 1.0 isn't really doing anything to improve the speed or HW error rate for me.

[Xbits]

Update to BFGminer 3.10.0

I am using 3.10.0, that's why I'm confused as to why it won't read any devices. I know they all work because cgminer is working.

[Mudbankkeith]

Update to BFGminer 3.10.0

I am using 3.10.0, that's why I'm confused as to why it won't read any devices. I know they all work because cgminer is working.

You need to uninstall the CG drivers that came from zadig

have a look at the BFG readme files

[Walking Glitch]

Has anyone tried the 4gh overclock?

How do you do it?


Ohhh... that was just listed on the documentation. I thought there was some sort of trick. I doubt 4GH is obtainable without sub zero temps and very high volts.

No reason it would be impossible to do if the chip was designed with it in mind. It still might be a bitch to cool though. I have 3 on the way, and I'm going to measure them for water cooling, and order the resistors to take them to 1.3/1.4V.


EDIT: I have a question, has anyone tried removing the solder mask on these? Does it help with cooling as much as it does with the block eruptors?

[wwwin]

Update to BFGminer 3.10.0

I am using 3.10.0, that's why I'm confused as to why it won't read any devices. I know they all work because cgminer is working.

You need to uninstall the CG drivers that came from zadig

have a look at the BFG readme files

I uninstalled the Zadic  drivers, and rebooted and Win 7 took me to Si Labs for the driver for the U1 device and I installed that without doing the Zadig part and still BFG 3.10 would not load hangs and does not work. If you don't install the Si Labs driver Win 7 would not even recognize the U1 so that has to be installed, at least in Win7

[Mudbankkeith]

Update to BFGminer 3.10.0

I am using 3.10.0, that's why I'm confused as to why it won't read any devices. I know they all work because cgminer is working.

You need to uninstall the CG drivers that came from zadig

have a look at the BFG readme files

I uninstalled the Zadic  drivers, and rebooted and Win 7 took me to Si Labs for the driver for the U1 device and I installed that without doing the Zadig part and still BFG 3.10 would not load hangs and does not work. If you don't install the Si Labs driver Win 7 would not even recognize the U1 so that has to be installed, at least in Win7

This is all I use in my bat file:-

bfgminer.exe  --set-device antminer:clock=x0981 -o http://stratum.bitcoin.cz:3333 -O miner:password -S antminer:all

21.5Gh at the pool steady as a rock.

My drivers auto installed, but I did have erupters already installed.

[bitcoiner49er]

Running BFGminer 3.9.0 from here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z29x4n6ng510joi/bfgminer-npw-antminer.7z

My bat file is:

Code:

bfgminer.exe -o http://stratum.bitcoin.cz:3333 -O worker:pass -S erupter:all -S antminer:all --set-device antminer:clock=x0981 --icarus-options 115200:2:2 --icarus-timing 2.5=90 

2 BE's and 5 ANT U1's.

Power went off earlier today, otherwise been running 24/7 since 1-15.

[Korxax]

Hey everyone, I just finished reading the whole thread.  I got my ants working in cgminer just fine and wanted to give a few tips to newbies like me.  I have 6 of them.  I've never compiled anything. I'm not a programmer.  I have always liked to tinker with hardware though.  I just downloaded the version of cgminer linked early in the thread and followed instructions.

The number 1 issue I had was power!  My first attempt to get them running I just plugged them into the USB ports on the back of my motherboard, that worked for a little bit at low speeds, but then they stopped.

I then stole a powered usb3 hub from my wife's PC.  I couldn't get any ant to recognize in a usb3 port, so I just plugged the hub into a USB2 port.  I was able to fit 4 in it (ports are crowded), and it seemed to work OK for a while.  Then found an extension and got a 5th in it...  Bad idea.  Started having major problems.  so I stole a little 4 port powered USB3 hub off of my PC and put 2 in it and 4 in the other... It worked for a short period of time but I kept getting  a zombie and was still having speed issues.   Ultimately I discovered that the little 4 port I pulled off of my machine can only handle 1 ant without causing problems over time.  The one I pulled off of my wife's is a 7 port hub but can only handle 4 ants, and is happier with 3.  I know I have another hub like my wife's around here somewhere, but I can't find it, so I ordered an Anker 9 port +1 charging port hub.  It should be here today.  I did find 1 USB2 port on my PC that seems to be able to handle an ant, so I have the 6th there.  I have it plugged into one of the motherboard headers down on the bottom edge of the motherboard with a heavy duty 2 port cable attached.  All seems to be working OK now.  Here are a few other tips:

• Don't plug your ant directly into a motherboard USB port, the built in kind on your I/O panel.  While it may support enough power, the heat of the ant and the motherboard will feed off of each other in that location.  Use an extension cable if you must do this to isolate the ant's heat from the motherboard's heat.  I could get them to work for a while there, but even with a fan on them they eventually zombied.  I wouldn't do it long term anyway, but as a stop gap until you can get a good powered hub it might be Ok.
  
• Most motherboard ports won't supply enough power.  I have a very high end ASUS Crosshair motherboard and an 850 Watt power supply and even it didn't supply enough to all ports.
  
• Most cheap USB hubs don't supply enough power for more than a few ants. Even my 4 port powered USB3 hub would only let 1 ant work properly.
  
• if you have several ants and 1 goes zombie on you, you can figure out which one is the zombie by touching the heatsink.  After it's gone zombie for a bit it will be much cooler than the ones that are working.  (helps if there is a fan blowing on them)
  
• If it isn't working... unplug it and plug it back in.  That solves most issues... at least for the short term.
  
• Don't have all of them plugged in when you start cgminer.  I usally start up with 1 plugged in, and my hub with 4 turned off/unplugged.  Then plug in the hub after cgminer is going with 1 working.  Cgminer then recognizes all 4 that are in that hub.
  
• Don't give up, keep reading.  lol, you'll figure it out eventually, if not ask.  There are plenty of great guys here willing to help.
  

The cgminer start script that worked for me is:
cgminer.exe --bmsc-options 115200:20 -o stratum+tcp://mint.bitminter.com:3333 -u korxax_ant -p 123 --bmsc-freq 0981

The "korxax_ant"  is:  account_worker    

So be sure to change that and the pool address unless you want to mine for me.  Not that I'd mind!  Mine for me all you want!   Donations are always welcome too.

Also wanted to thank all those in the forums helping people.

I hope this helps some people.

Korxax

1NtV1q29FtRAYAkMJHMYbASZLiLur2FQe

[Cheshyr]

Just exit cgminer for the first time in over 2 weeks.  Figured I'd post a log; this is one of the red units from the initial batch shipped to iluvpcs.



Pretty happy with the device.  Default settings.

[chadgroover]

@korxax
These things can certainly cause a few headaches at first!!!!
Strange that you're having power issues like that - I've had no issues plugging three of them at a time into my PC's front USB 2 and 3 ports. (Asus P8Z68-V mobo and a Fractal Design R4 case)
I've also had no issues running five of them at once on a powered D-Link hub with a 4a power supply... Maybe check the rating on your hub's power supply.

I'd advise strongly against using cgminer... The driver support is horrible!
I'm using BFG at the moment and have a batch file set up to start mining when the PC is turned on - no intervention needed, it just works!!!

[sauliusbig]

Has anyone volt-modded to 1.2? 1.0 isn't really doing anything to improve the speed or HW error rate for me.

Did you are switched from cgminer to bfgminer?

[Xbits]

Update to BFGminer 3.10.0

I am using 3.10.0, that's why I'm confused as to why it won't read any devices. I know they all work because cgminer is working.

You need to uninstall the CG drivers that came from zadig

have a look at the BFG readme files

Thank you! Though it still didn't work the first couple times. When I uninstalled the drives from device manager I had to check a box for deleting the driver after uninstall, I then reinstalled the Silab drivers. At this point still nothing, I threw the

Code:

-S all

  back in the batch file and this time it worked!! No "extra command argument", U1s and BEs together at last!

[MansenP]

Has anyone volt-modded to 1.2? 1.0 isn't really doing anything to improve the speed or HW error rate for me.

I've got ~330MHz@1V(HW 0,01%), some ANT's could more. But one of mine isn't so good as the others... I must increase the CoreVoltage to get him on the same level.

[Korxax]

@korxax
These things can certainly cause a few headaches at first!!!!
Strange that you're having power issues like that - I've had no issues plugging three of them at a time into my PC's front USB 2 and 3 ports. (Asus P8Z68-V mobo and a Fractal Design R4 case)
I've also had no issues running five of them at once on a powered D-Link hub with a 4a power supply... Maybe check the rating on your hub's power supply.

I'd advise strongly against using cgminer... The driver support is horrible!
I'm using BFG at the moment and have a batch file set up to start mining when the PC is turned on - no intervention needed, it just works!!!

Yeah, they were driving me nuts for a bit.  With that and having to learn how to use cgminer at the same time I had some learning to do.  I was able to get some of them to work OK on the front USB port on my PC, and another on a cable off of a motherboard header.  The ones I had trouble with were the USB ports built into the motherboard I/O panel.  I think that was more of a heat issue though.  I did have a fan outside my case blowing on them, but the motherboard is pretty warm with 2 video cards also mining in it.  The I/O panel itself is pretty warm to the touch, so adding an ant or 3 into that area did drive up the heat levels since they are all connected by metal.  I ran a couple of them on 3 foot USB3 extension cables and they seemed to work OK that way, but not with the direct contact with the motherboard.  I didn't run them for long that way though since I decided to steal some powered hubs from other PCs at that point.  The hubs I was using were cheap, and kinda old.  I got them right after I got my first USB 3 capable pc. I don't think they push much amperage.  I got my new hub yesterday evening, and it doesn't seem to have a problem running them all, though the ports are a little closer together than I'd like.  I ordered 2 more ants so we'll see if it can handle 8.  I may put them on extension cables and mount them to old cpu heatsinks.  I might even get brave and see if I can solder on a resistor and overclock them more.   

I've been thinking about trying bfgminer, I still get a lot of fluctuation in my speeds, and everything drops to 0s for longer than I'd like when I get a new work request from the pool.  But now that it's all working I'm not sure I want to go through all that again, I have other stuff I need to do.  lol  I'm sure it would be easier the second time though.  I'll start looking into it. I concentrated all my research on cgminer since that's what people were talking about early in the thread.  Would you happen to have a link to a good working version of BFGminer I wouldn't have to compile? Or some good instructions on how to compile specific versions of it?  I wouldn't mind learning how to do it, but most of what I've found so far about it is pretty cryptic.  As I said, I'm not a programmer.  I haven't written any of this kind of stuff since DOS autoexec.bats and config.sys. Maybe when I get the 2 new ones I'll experiment with them on another PC.   I'm really hoping Bitminter will add support for them soon.  If you have any computer challenged friends that want to mine, send them to Bitminter.  Bitminter's client is stupid easy and very fast.  But Ant support is still on the to do list.

As to causing headaches... I get Cluster Headaches... (imagine a day long migraine packed into 30-120 minutes and repeat up to 10 times a day.)  So any headache caused by hardware problems I can deal with...  It's the clusters that scare me.  In fact I was just learning about bitcoin and starting to set up to mine 3 years ago when the headaches came back on me (they go into remission from time to time, I've had them since I was 8 years old) and crushed that idea (and every other thought) out of my head.  They've finally slowed down so I'm trying to get back into it, unfortunately I lost 3+ years when I could have made a real profit.     Oh well... that's life.  Nothing to do about it now but mine.  I can't work a real job so I have to do something or I'll go nuts.

Thanks for the info.  I'll look into BFGminer.  Have had a few more issues while typing this.  I now know it isn't heat or power so mining software and drivers are next on the list.  But it may have to wait until Monday.  Too many other things to do today, and football playoffs tomorrow.  I'm a long time Broncos fan living 100 miles north of Seattle.  Seahawks would be my 2nd favorite team so it should be an interesting day tomorrow!

Korxax



1NtV1q29FtRAYAkMJHMYbASZLiLur2FQe

[chadgroover]

Man, that sounds like a horrible thing to have to live with... Kudos for picking yourself back up and just getting on with things!

I was using v3 of nwools' bfgminer build, but have just switched over to v3.10.0 of the official build which seems to be working equally well (get it here)

Before using it you need to go into device manager and uninstall the drivers for each antminer (make sure you tick the box to delete the drivers when you do it), then install the VCP driver again. When you've done that, unplug the hub and plug it back in and it should detect the antminers again.
You don't need to mess around with that zadig nonsense now... It should be ready to rock if you just run bfgminer with a command line like the following;

Code:

bfgminer.exe -o stratum+tcp://sha-256.megamultipool.com:5000 -u myusername.myworkername -p mypassword -S antminer:all -S all --set-device antminer:clock=x0981

Enjoy the playoffs!

[dmpotter]

Seems to me 0981 is the optimal run number, any higher there is issues. Any lower and I'm just doing myself a disservice. They are quite picky about being crowded on cheaper powered hubs. Though right now for me it's an illusion to be running at 2ghs each and I don't understand. Maybe just how I read bfgminer.




I guess I really don't understand the numbers in the middle column. First 2 show about 2ghs then the 3rd shows what I guess is the average. But it's the 3rd one that the pools see. I should be at 10gh/s but it's more like 7.5gh/s in reality.

[chadgroover]

Seems to me 0981 is the optimal run number, any higher there is issues. Any lower and I'm just doing myself a disservice. They are quite picky about being crowded on cheaper powered hubs. Though right now for me it's an illusion to be running at 2ghs each and I don't understand. Maybe just how I read bfgminer.


https://i.imgur.com/2ezT7mx.png

I guess I really don't understand the numbers in the middle column. First 2 show about 2ghs then the 3rd shows what I guess is the average. But it's the 3rd one that the pools see. I should be at 10gh/s but it's more like 7.5gh/s in reality.

How long have you left them running? It can take hours for it to even out on mine...
I managed to find the following explanation of the three columns on google, which helped me understand things a bit better (still getting my head around it all though!);

"5 second exponentially decaying average hash rate / An all time average hash rate / An all time average hash rate based on actual nonces found, adjusted for pool reject and stale rate"

[Mudbankkeith]

10 ants after 2 days running

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ns1utmitm7st9sg/Untitled%201.odt

PDF is better

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mjd03y0l8u4kcyi/Untitled%201.pdf