Official FutureBit Apollo LTC Image and Support thread

[sunpower_miner]

happy new year, hope everyone is healthy!

After 2 days and one night of trying to fix it on my own I am here now...
Because I got a serious problem with my apollo batch 2 and hope you can help me 

my unit is not booting anymore.
also ssh into is not working anymore.
sometimes I am fast enough when the putty connection window opens to type in the apollos login, but when it comes to the ssh password it gives me back a 'software caused a connection or network error'.

the unit shows periodically 4 times an orange light blinking an then fan comes on very slow and then nothing again.
after around 20 seconds again 4 times orange light blinking, little fan activity and so on... it feels to me like kind of caught in a boot-loop?

I already tried re-flashing 4 different 32 GB SD cards (2 of them were fresh out of amazon package, new) with same result, the unit is not booting.The original SD card that came with the unit also not working. For PSU I am using the futurebit original that came with the full package. Flashing an old image also not working, same problem.

it all started when I was using the new fullnode image that suddenly gave me a solid red light. it was the last time I was able to see the futurebit dashboard!

how can I fix my apollo? is there a workaround to connect the unit by usb or ethernet cable to a pc and somehow become it responsive again to  reflash it? Rebooting router, using different cables, all was done and nothing helped.

Been reading through every single page of this thread and what I found were dozens of comments with just 'reflash your SD card'.
well, that solved it for pretty much the most of you but unfortunately not for me...

I would be more than happy to see my unit mining again. Seriously no more need for the node functionality, because this started all my problems!

Thanks for your help

[1714231496]

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[1714231496]

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[alb97]

Hi friend I'm in the same situation the apollo starts briefly and shows the dashboard screen with 0.00 MH I flashed in many different tabs but nothing no solution, it restarts after a while, the light is yellow flashing fast, and then slowly flashing yellow you have found a solution to your thanks

[jstefanop]

happy new year, hope everyone is healthy!

After 2 days and one night of trying to fix it on my own I am here now...
Because I got a serious problem with my apollo batch 2 and hope you can help me 

my unit is not booting anymore.
also ssh into is not working anymore.
sometimes I am fast enough when the putty connection window opens to type in the apollos login, but when it comes to the ssh password it gives me back a 'software caused a connection or network error'.

the unit shows periodically 4 times an orange light blinking an then fan comes on very slow and then nothing again.
after around 20 seconds again 4 times orange light blinking, little fan activity and so on... it feels to me like kind of caught in a boot-loop?

I already tried re-flashing 4 different 32 GB SD cards (2 of them were fresh out of amazon package, new) with same result, the unit is not booting.The original SD card that came with the unit also not working. For PSU I am using the futurebit original that came with the full package. Flashing an old image also not working, same problem.

it all started when I was using the new fullnode image that suddenly gave me a solid red light. it was the last time I was able to see the futurebit dashboard!

how can I fix my apollo? is there a workaround to connect the unit by usb or ethernet cable to a pc and somehow become it responsive again to  reflash it? Rebooting router, using different cables, all was done and nothing helped.

Been reading through every single page of this thread and what I found were dozens of comments with just 'reflash your SD card'.
well, that solved it for pretty much the most of you but unfortunately not for me...

I would be more than happy to see my unit mining again. Seriously no more need for the node functionality, because this started all my problems!

Thanks for your help

Do you still have the full node drive plugged in? Make sure you remove it to be sure thats not causing the issue. That loop also sounds like it cant detect the hashboard. Make sure the controller is properly seated in its socket on the backside.

[sunpower_miner]

Do you still have the full node drive plugged in? Make sure you remove it to be sure thats not causing the issue. That loop also sounds like it cant detect the hashboard. Make sure the controller is properly seated in its socket on the backside.

usb drive is disconnected and hasboard sitting rock solid in it's socket.

still the same behaviour. orange light comes on 4 times together with the fan and that's it.

after like 20 times trying I was lucky and managed to establish a ssh connection.

the unit reset connection on it's own. afterwards froze again and I am not able to re-connect d/t connection timed out

Code:

C:\Users\admin>ssh futurebit@192.168.1.222
ssh: connect to host 192.168.1.222 port 22: Connection timed out

C:\Users\admin>ssh futurebit@192.168.1.222 -l futurebit
futurebit@192.168.1.222's password:
 _____      _                  ____  _ _        _                _ _
|  ___|   _| |_ _   _ _ __ ___| __ )(_) |_     / \   _ __   ___ | | | ___
| |_ | | | | __| | | | '__/ _ \  _ \| | __|   / _ \ | '_ \ / _ \| | |/ _ \
|  _|| |_| | |_| |_| | | |  __/ |_) | | |_   / ___ \| |_) | (_) | | | (_) |
|_|   \__,_|\__|\__,_|_|  \___|____/|_|\__| /_/   \_\ .__/ \___/|_|_|\___/
                                                    |_|

Welcome to ARMBIAN 5.70 stable Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS 4.19.13-sunxi
System load:   1.42 0.34 0.11   Up time:       0 min
Memory usage:  12 % of 493MB    IP:            192.168.1.222
CPU temp:      47°C
Usage of /:    6% of 29G

Last login: Tue Jan 29 18:11:44 2019 from 192.168.0.102

Connection reset by 192.168.1.222 port 22

C:\Users\admin>ssh futurebit@192.168.1.222 -l futurebit
futurebit@192.168.1.222's password:

Code:

C:\Users\admin>ssh futurebit@192.168.1.122 -l futurebit
ssh: connect to host 192.168.1.122 port 22: Connection timed out

what else you suggest?
been quite a painful new year so far watching LTC performance with the apollo disconnected from litecoinpool... 
thankful for any help

[fyoung55]

OH NO!

My apollo now reboots itself every 2 minutes.  The led stopped working also.  I am not sure if tat is related to the issue or not.  Please help, I love this little dude and have been running it for years!

I have re-flashed the image several times.  Tried node version and without node version same result.   Any ideas?

[fyoung55]

UPDATE:
I installed a new fan which seems to have caused the issue.  The new fan is not reporting rpm for some reason, and when I put the old fan back on, it runs fine!  There must be a failsafe if rpms are not reported?

[sunpower_miner]

@jstefanop
please review and advise my last post!
the unit is still unresponsible!

[HagssFIN]

@sunpower_miner
The first code field in your post shows the ip address 192.168.1.222 but the second code field shows ip address 192.168.1.122 .  Was there maybe some simple typo error?

[sunpower_miner]

The futurebit apollo batch 2 has become a doorstopper worth $400 USD...

developer not interested in providing support, ignoring messages.

everbody be warned, learn from my mistake!

@sunpower_miner
The first code field in your post shows the ip address 192.168.1.222 but the second code field shows ip address 192.168.1.122 .  Was there maybe some simple typo error?

good catch HagssFIN , classic typo. thanks anyway.

[Lighthousesat]

Hello Everyone,

I bought an Apollo back in Dec. from a guy in another country. took it a few weeks to get here but it finally did. Was supposed to be in good working order.... Well when I connect it all I get is solid green and yellow lights on the RJ45 port. No other lights and no fan turning. I tried downloading new firmware with no luck, I then tried a new 32gb sd card still no luck. There never seems to be anything going on with it. The lights on my netgear switch never light up so I does not seem to do much of anything.
Not sure if this thing was previously broken or maybe something happened in shipping? Or am I just doing something totally wrong?
I have plenty of practice with mining devices, 4 years ago I had those usb gizzmos, a dozen of those 5 chip orbs, currently a few gpu mining rigs and some antminers. Just wanted to get a small Scrypt miner that was low power use.
Let me know if any of you have any thoughts on this that would be great! Otherwise in a few days will have to do a return....
Thanks

[devincrypt]

The futurebit apollo batch 2 has become a doorstopper worth $400 USD...

developer not interested in providing support, ignoring messages.

everbody be warned, learn from my mistake!

@sunpower_miner
The first code field in your post shows the ip address 192.168.1.222 but the second code field shows ip address 192.168.1.122 .  Was there maybe some simple typo error?

good catch HagssFIN , classic typo. thanks anyway.

Yep. Fortunately mine are still working. From his website he's given up on LTC and now hocking BTC with a miner that might get the owner 0.000001 BTC in a year? After he sells all of those wonder which coin he'll move to next?

[MoparMiningLLC]

Yep. Fortunately mine are still working. From his website he's given up on LTC and now hocking BTC with a miner that might get the owner 0.000001 BTC in a year? After he sells all of those wonder which coin he'll move to next?

actually in turbo mode at 3.8 TH and 200 watts with 5 cent electricity it will mine profit about 55 cents per day mining 2,277 sats per day --- of course that changes with each difficulty change --- and depends on whether the user is mining pps, pplns, solo or some other variation of payout, the pools fees of course as well play a factor.

but to say it will only make .00000100 sats per year is a bit off.

that being said the price is a bit high - at the turbo speed and if profitability held even, it would be nearly 3 years to ROI

[devincrypt]

Yep. Fortunately mine are still working. From his website he's given up on LTC and now hocking BTC with a miner that might get the owner 0.000001 BTC in a year? After he sells all of those wonder which coin he'll move to next?

actually in turbo mode at 3.8 TH and 200 watts with 5 cent electricity it will mine profit about 55 cents per day mining 2,277 sats per day --- of course that changes with each difficulty change --- and depends on whether the user is mining pps, pplns, solo or some other variation of payout, the pools fees of course as well play a factor.

but to say it will only make .00000100 sats per year is a bit off.

that being said the price is a bit high - at the turbo speed and if profitability held even, it would be nearly 3 years to ROI

Try re-reading my post. I wasn't pricing out the LTC miners but his upcoming BTC miner:

"...and now hocking BTC with a miner that might get the owner 0.000001 BTC in a year?"

"BTC" means Bitcoin.

[MoparMiningLLC]

Yep. Fortunately mine are still working. From his website he's given up on LTC and now hocking BTC with a miner that might get the owner 0.000001 BTC in a year? After he sells all of those wonder which coin he'll move to next?

actually in turbo mode at 3.8 TH and 200 watts with 5 cent electricity it will mine profit about 55 cents per day mining 2,277 sats per day --- of course that changes with each difficulty change --- and depends on whether the user is mining pps, pplns, solo or some other variation of payout, the pools fees of course as well play a factor.

but to say it will only make .00000100 sats per year is a bit off.

that being said the price is a bit high - at the turbo speed and if profitability held even, it would be nearly 3 years to ROI

Try re-reading my post. I wasn't pricing out the LTC miners but his upcoming BTC miner:

"...and now hocking BTC with a miner that might get the owner 0.000001 BTC in a year?"

"BTC" means Bitcoin.

i know you meant BTC and so did I - the specs on the BTC miner - on turbo - will earn about 55 cents a day --- at current diff and price.

[philipma1957]

I have always supported the op and builder of the ltc miner I still have two of them.

And since I hit a pair of blocks of doge about 20,000 doge. I decided to hodl doge.

On Jan 1  2021 I had 1,000,000 doge. mostly because of these two little miners purchased years ago.

I purchased 10gh of l3+ miners and the op gave free firmware that lowers the watts used on L3+ gear saving me a lot of watts since 2018.

of the 1,000,000 doge i had this jan 1 i sold 300000 at 5100 and I sold 450000 at 18000

a grand total of 23000 usd.

I mined about 260000 doge with his gear and the L3+

I converted some of the ltc that the l3+ mined. to get that 1,000,000 doge.

So 23,000 usd and still 250,000 doge coins in hand all sparked by his moonlander then his apollo.

So to say his Btc miner won’t do well is kind of short sighted.

at jstefanop  thank you 🙏

[MoparMiningLLC]

I agree with Phil on that one - mine has hit several doge blocks but never a ltc block but it has hit dgb blocks, xvg blocks, pyrk blocks and a myriad of other alt coin blocks.

I only dont like the price for a full unit and will prolly just go with the miner without the controller and run it on the same pi my R606's run on.

[huntingthesnark]

I have always supported the op and builder of the ltc miner I still have two of them.

And since I hit a pair of blocks of doge about 20,000 doge. I decided to hodl doge.

On Jan 1  2021 I had 1,000,000 doge. mostly because of these two little miners purchased years ago.

I purchased 10gh of l3+ miners and the op gave free firmware that lowers the watts used on L3+ gear saving me a lot of watts since 2018.

of the 1,000,000 doge i had this jan 1 i sold 300000 at 5100 and I sold 450000 at 18000

a grand total of 23000 usd.

I mined about 260000 doge with his gear and the L3+

I converted some of the ltc that the l3+ mined. to get that 1,000,000 doge.

So 23,000 usd and still 250,000 doge coins in hand all sparked by his moonlander then his apollo.

So to say his Btc miner won’t do well is kind of short sighted.

at jstefanop  thank you 🙏

Yes, thanks to jstephanop seconded. I have had moonlanders and Apollos, they ran smoothly as advertised. I didn't make much from them (probably ROIed tho) but that's down to me. The new BTC version looks fun, and yeah, a 2-ish yr ROI at current diff/price is...what it is. I might buy one anyway just for fun.

[sunpower_miner]

Well, as long as they are up with blinky leds, his units make a solid job.

Fun part begins once you've got problems and re-flashing your SD won't fix it anymore.

Honestly? I am really pissed. And nope, it's not about ROI because that's not what folks using futurebit devices are after I'd say.

It's about the couldn't care less mentality of a US based one man show, I thought it's worth backing.

My Apollo batch 2 with original PSU and SD card is now for sale! Drop me a PM it you're interested. You can read above about the problems this unit shows.

[jstefanop]

The futurebit apollo batch 2 has become a doorstopper worth $400 USD...

developer not interested in providing support, ignoring messages.

everbody be warned, learn from my mistake!

@sunpower_miner
The first code field in your post shows the ip address 192.168.1.222 but the second code field shows ip address 192.168.1.122 .  Was there maybe some simple typo error?

good catch HagssFIN , classic typo. thanks anyway.

Im not on here every day, we have email support and thats the best way to get quick responses. Shoot an email to hello at futurebit dot io and im sure well get you back up and running.

[jstefanop]

As most of you know by now we are finally launching our BTC version. Pre-order starts friday and thread has been started here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5314398

All the info is on our site as well at futurebit.io


To some of the comments from newer users on here that we abandoning LTC thats pure BS. I started off with the LTC community and you guys I think are the best group of people in all of crypto. We still have some cool updates scheduled for the Apollo LTC and will always support it, and have another product in dev for LTC as well.

As for the Apollo BTC that has always been a goal, and is a good thing. We have a great opportunity with an awesome ASIC partner that cares about our vision and is not charging us $10 and ASIC which is the current going rate (this product would be 1000USD + if we partnered with anyone else). We hope the larger BTC market will be able to drive even more sales so we can hire more devs to do the cool work we want to get done faster.

So yea were here to stay and always have. Im not here to chase the next coin for some profits (FutureBit has operated as a non-profit for the past 3 years and have made just enough to pay my rent and my team). Bitcoin has always been part of the plan, and Litecoin and Bitcoin have always had a symbiotic relationship (even if some Bitcoiners refuse to acknowledge that). Our success in the Bitcoin market will only drive even more innovation for LTC in the hardware space from Futurebit.

If you'd rather support some chinese company that does nothing but feed farms all day that dump BTC and LTC for USD be my guest.