I’ve seen plenty of pages on the forums and personal websites troubleshooting and giving instructions on how to mine bitcoins with the AntMiner u1 on CGMiner and BFGminer, but had little success getting it to work until after plenty of hours of troubleshooting, searching, and head-scratching. Here I’m going to compile a bunch of information on getting your AntMiner to work with BFGminer. I’m not a coder or anything like that so I left this simple so it’s accessible to those who also aren’t familiar (also since I couldn’t have made it more complicated even if I would have wanted to!).
***First, here’s a link to BFGminer 3.10, the version I am currently using my AntMiner with(32 bit) (or go to
http://bfgminer.org to find the latest version):
http://luke.dashjr.org/programs/bitcoin/files/bfgminer/3.10.0/bfgminer-3.10.0-win64.zip-All you need to do is extract the bfgminer-3.10.0-win32.zip folder and the BFGminer is basically ready, aside from the steps below.
Also, here is a link to a PDF of the Antminer’s user guide which can be helpful:
https://raw2.github.com/AntMiner/AntGen1/master/manual/AntMiner-U1%20user%20guide.pdf***You will need special drivers to get your AntMiner to be recognized by BFGMiner. Here is the VCG driver that worked for me with BFGMiner 3.10:
http://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/Software/CP210x_VCP_Windows.zip-For 32 bit Windows, all you have to do is extract the folder then click on the CP210xVCPInstaller_x86.exe and install it and it’s good to go.
***The BFGMiner folder does not contain a .bat (Batch) file (what you need to launch BFGminer and input your mining pool info, as well as information so AntMiner will be recognized by BFGminer), so we will need to create one; it’s very simple.
How to create a .bat (Batch) File for Bitcoin mining:
-First, have open the folder in which you have the .exe file located in (this works for either CGminer or BFGminer).
-Then, in the folder options, make sure ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ is unchecked.
Hide Extension
-Next, create a new text (notepad) file and name it AntMiner or whatever you might want to name your batch file. You should then see AntMiner.txt (or whatever-you-named-the-file.txt).
New Text Document
-Rename the file AntMiner.bat (or whatever.bat). It will tell you changing the file extension may make a file not work, etc. Just click OK.
Are you sure
-Next, right click the file and select ‘edit’ to edit it in NotePad. Here you will type out or cut and paste the command to mine using BFGMiner. Generally, you will need to know your pool’s username, password, mining http, and desired Mh/s or Gh/s you want you AntMiner to run at.
Antminer
Here is the specific .bat command I used to finally get my AntMiner to be recognized and work in BFGminer:
bfgminer.exe –set-device antminer:clock=x0781 -o
http://mint.bitminter.com:8332 -u USERNAME_WORKER -p PASSWORD -S antminer:all
(
http://minter.bitminter.com:8332 is the particular mining pool I use which mines for both Namecoins and Bitcoins)
This is the general format you want to have for a .bat file. You want to have the .exe file at the beginning, then the device speed you want, the mining pool (the http) and port you’re using (:8332, or others) which the pool’s website should tell you, the username and worker number (if using multiple workers), the password, and the end command which I’m not sure exactly what it accomplishes but seems to help.
*I’ve seen others have used a bsmc-freq argument to regulate the speed of and overclock their device (in their .bat file), but that didn’t work for me with BFGminer, you may have better success than me (ex.: –bmsc-freq 0981). Not sure what the difference is but, again, this did not work for me.
Here is a guide to setting the speed you want your AntMiner to mine at (1.6 gh/s is the standard; higher is overclocking which may cause overheating. All you have to do is edit the .bat file and change the numbers):
0581 =1.2
0681 =1.4
0781 =1.6
0881 =1.8
0981 =2.0
0A81 =2.2
You now just have to click on the batch file whenever you want to start mining and it works pretty much autonomously. Just pay attention to how hot your AntMiner gets because you don’t want to have to buy a new one.
Command Screen
A couple notes on some of the problems I ran into during my quest to get AntMiner to work with BFGminer:
-After a long time of tinkering with the commands in the .bat file, I figured out the drivers I was using weren’t correct (obtained using zadig) and once I downloaded the correct driver it began to work for BFGminer.
Thus, it is VERY IMPORTANT if you want your AntMiner and batch file to work to have the correct drivers. If the miners don’t recognize or pick up ‘no device’ (in BFGminer), chances are it’s a problem with the driver, and you may have to try different ones and see which one works with the miner you are using.
