Official FutureBit Apollo LTC Image and Support thread

[philipma1957]

Hello,
I've been using Apollo for few days now and I have one suggestion.

Fan in auto mode is not really stable. It's following sinusoidal curve. It spins fast so chip gets cooled down. Then fans slows down. And down. To the point where fan is inaudible and way to slow to be sustainable. Then temperature creeps up and fan starts spinning faster and faster. And cycle repeats, again, again, and again. (my ambient temperature is 18 C)

This could be solved in one easy way: Let user use Auto fan mode and set minimum fan speed for this Auto mode. That way, fan slows down automatically, but not too much (slows to set minimum value, not slower), so sinusoidal curve of fan RPM is not that drastic.

I could set fan to manual but then I need to monitor it, I don't have any overheat protection at all.

Ideal behaviour is claymore dual miner fan control for GPUs. You can set min and max speed of fan and temperature target. Also critical temperature where mining slows down, and super critical temperature when mining stops. Then it's all automatic and you don't ever need to worry about it anymore. But I guess for first step, Auto mode with set min speed (instead of Auto mode and 0-100 speed) will be enough. Thanks.

I set my fan to 37%

he has a thermal shut down if there is an issue.
my garage is 32c if that is 90f. As I am  running 5kwatts of other mining gear in it for heat.
the apollo is 63c which should be okay.


I got the replacement panels they look good.

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[AltScope]

...



Thanks for this....were trying to find bugs on our end but need feedback from you guys for stuff we missed (I guess the lack of issues is a good thing other than a few minor shipping damage).

-The fan should shutoff on shutdown, might have to check our logic on the fan pin...Does it do this every time because were not seeing this on our end
-If you shutdown the unit wont restart until you unplug/replug power. Use the "reboot" command for this in the system options.
-Pool changes should show you a "Miner needs to restart" button on the top...you should not need a full reboot though...ill do some more digging on this one.

the fan running at full speed on shutdown only happened the once after my initial setup I needed to shutdown to plug the second unit into the psu, then after testing I shutdown again to move the units and there were no issues.
it was after moving from a cold boot one of the units failed to start and connect to the network, the reboot command works quite well but in this instance my only choice was to cut the power
the pool order change issue was really odd after setting up a pool for testing I decided to use that as the failover but one of the units wouldn't allow an order change until reboot the other was fine and just restarted the miner.

its all minor weird glitches that don't have much impact and are intermittent and possibly singular, the only real concern for me was when the fan went nuts but as it hasn't happened again I figure there was just an error on shutdown

[psycodad]

I received two units last Monday, both in perfect shape and no broken panels.

So far working nicely on a profit switching pool. I got the same problems shuffling pool order around that were described by AltScope, simply didn't work until I had three pools configured, then it started working. That's not a biggie really.

But I also found that switching back from secondary pool when primary pool is back up doesn't work and needs a manual restart of the miner to go back to primary.

Otherwise it is a really nice piece of well-thought work, great job I'd say and absolutely worth the money.

Oh, one last wish: It would be great to be able to see the current stratum difficulty in the interface, I am running on a vardiff port and like to see what it gets assigned from the pool.

Btw: I metered power consumption of my two units connected to one Corsair CS850M (gold) and got ~240W @230VAC input. I'd assume running of a platin PS could get that figure down to 210-220W for two units.

[philipma1957]

I received two units last Monday, both in perfect shape and no broken panels.

So far working nicely on a profit switching pool. I got the same problems shuffling pool order around that were described by AltScope, simply didn't work until I had three pools configured, then it started working. That's not a biggie really.

But I also found that switching back from secondary pool when primary pool is back up doesn't work and needs a manual restart of the miner to go back to primary.

Otherwise it is a really nice piece of well-thought work, great job I'd say and absolutely worth the money.

Oh, one last wish: It would be great to be able to see the current stratum difficulty in the interface, I am running on a vardiff port and like to see what it gets assigned from the pool.

Btw: I metered power consumption of my two units connected to one Corsair CS850M (gold) and got ~240W @230VAC input. I'd assume running of a platin PS could get that figure down to 210-220W for two units.

I will meter test it on a titanium very soon

[waschbecken1394]

btw: I bought such PSU meanwhile, https://seasonic.com/focus-plus-platinum# (850W). :-)

[DaveF]

Mine came in yesterday, I set it up and it was working fine.

Overnight it stopped hashing. A reboot brought it back. Was working fine for a little while (no idea how long) and I got an offline message from litecoin pool again.
Changed pools, added pools did some other things. Now I am getting massive HW errors after the last reboot.
Made no changes to any of the settings just the pools.
Power supply has more then enough power to run it so I know that is not it:
(I cut the pool URLs out of the image but they are there)


Any thoughts on what to check?

Thanks,
Dave

[jstefanop]

Mine came in yesterday, I set it up and it was working fine.

Overnight it stopped hashing. A reboot brought it back. Was working fine for a little while (no idea how long) and I got an offline message from litecoin pool again.
Changed pools, added pools did some other things. Now I am getting massive HW errors after the last reboot.
Made no changes to any of the settings just the pools.
Power supply has more then enough power to run it so I know that is not it:
(I cut the pool URLs out of the image but they are there)

Any thoughts on what to check?

Thanks,
Dave

Are you getting 25% error rate each time on reboot?

What pool are you running at? Try litecoinpool and see if you get the same issue.

If you do check the back of the miner where the PCB is, you'll see 5 spring heatsink screws. Make sure none of those springs have shifted turing shipment and are touching any components on the board (there should be a washer in between the spring and PCB to prevent that but the spring can still move).

It could also be that you just got bad silicon lottery and need to bump up your voltage a bit (ill let you know how to do that after you check the above).

[DaveF]

Are you getting 25% error rate each time on reboot?

3 full reboots, between 15 to 30 every time.

What pool are you running at? Try litecoinpool and see if you get the same issue.

I was running on litecoinpool. I tried both US servers, then I moved to defcoin.secdsm.com and got about the same.

If you do check the back of the miner where the PCB is, you'll see 5 spring heatsink screws. Make sure none of those springs have shifted turing shipment and are touching any components on the board (there should be a washer in between the spring and PCB to prevent that but the spring can still move).

Washer / spring looks good.

Going to move it to the workbench so I can look at a few other things.
Also, going to re-burn the sd card.

Thanks,
Dave

[jstefanop]

Are you getting 25% error rate each time on reboot?

3 full reboots, between 15 to 30 every time.

What pool are you running at? Try litecoinpool and see if you get the same issue.

I was running on litecoinpool. I tried both US servers, then I moved to defcoin.secdsm.com and got about the same.

If you do check the back of the miner where the PCB is, you'll see 5 spring heatsink screws. Make sure none of those springs have shifted turing shipment and are touching any components on the board (there should be a washer in between the spring and PCB to prevent that but the spring can still move).

Washer / spring looks good.

Going to move it to the workbench so I can look at a few other things.
Also, going to re-burn the sd card.

Thanks,
Dave

Ok before you do all that try this.

Go to settings, set to custom miner mode.

Set voltage to 777mv, and keep frequency at 598 (eco).

[DaveF]

Ok before you do all that try this.

Go to settings, set to custom miner mode.

Set voltage to 777mv, and keep frequency at 598 (eco).

Because this movie quote just says it all....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl8e9i6YiA8&feature=youtu.be&t=21

New issue, massive discards, 95%+ HW error.
Once again, on both secdsm pool and litecoin pool.



-Dave

[jstefanop]

Ok before you do all that try this.

Go to settings, set to custom miner mode.

Set voltage to 777mv, and keep frequency at 598 (eco).

Because this movie quote just says it all....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl8e9i6YiA8&feature=youtu.be&t=21

New issue, massive discards, 95%+ HW error.
Once again, on both secdsm pool and litecoin pool.


-Dave

Hmmm very weird. Keep these settings, and do a full system shutdown, unplug from power, then start it up again.

[crypto_curious]

jstefanop,

What is login and password to ssh?
Also, how to "forget" wifi credentials? Disconnect button does nothing.

[jstefanop]

jstefanop,

What is login and password to ssh?
Also, how to "forget" wifi credentials? Disconnect button does nothing.

It’s futurebit/futurebit

Disconnect button should clear WiFi connections.

[DaveF]

Ok before you do all that try this.

Go to settings, set to custom miner mode.

Set voltage to 777mv, and keep frequency at 598 (eco).

Because this movie quote just says it all....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl8e9i6YiA8&feature=youtu.be&t=21

New issue, massive discards, 95%+ HW error.
Once again, on both secdsm pool and litecoin pool.


-Dave

Hmmm very weird. Keep these settings, and do a full system shutdown, unplug from power, then start it up again.

More or less the same.
Different PS & different network location (tech bench)

I can take it apart and try a reflow in the morning.
 
-Dave

[jstefanop]

Ok before you do all that try this.

Go to settings, set to custom miner mode.

Set voltage to 777mv, and keep frequency at 598 (eco).

Because this movie quote just says it all....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl8e9i6YiA8&feature=youtu.be&t=21

New issue, massive discards, 95%+ HW error.
Once again, on both secdsm pool and litecoin pool.


-Dave

Hmmm very weird. Keep these settings, and do a full system shutdown, unplug from power, then start it up again.

More or less the same.
Different PS & different network location (tech bench)

I can take it apart and try a reflow in the morning.
 
-Dave

umm definitely don't do that. Shoot me a PM, will most likely need you to send it back.

[DaveF]

Ok before you do all that try this.

Go to settings, set to custom miner mode.

Set voltage to 777mv, and keep frequency at 598 (eco).

Because this movie quote just says it all....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl8e9i6YiA8&feature=youtu.be&t=21

New issue, massive discards, 95%+ HW error.
Once again, on both secdsm pool and litecoin pool.


-Dave

Hmmm very weird. Keep these settings, and do a full system shutdown, unplug from power, then start it up again.

More or less the same.
Different PS & different network location (tech bench)

I can take it apart and try a reflow in the morning.
 
-Dave

umm definitely don't do that. Shoot me a PM, will most likely need you to send it back.

But I like taking things apart and trying to fix them :-)

Because it worked for hours before going funky I am thinking either SD card is having issues or something that was not attached to it's solder pads well and it separated.
It is a new SD card, but it's a Microcenter one so I'll try that tomorrow.

If not I'll get back to you after Christmas about shipping it back.


Thanks,
Dave

[lepouletfrit]

Apollo miner won't power on for me.

I've tried two different power supplies: 1) Corsair 450W and a 2) Powerspec 420W

Any suggestions?

[jstefanop]

Apollo miner won't power on for me.

I've tried two different power supplies: 1) Corsair 450W and a 2) Powerspec 420W

Any suggestions?

I know this sounds stupid, but did you short the enable pin if you are using an ATX PSU without a PC attached to it?

I’ve already had a few emails like this because of that issue

Need to build a stand alone PSU for this ASAP!

[jstefanop]

Ok before you do all that try this.

Go to settings, set to custom miner mode.

Set voltage to 777mv, and keep frequency at 598 (eco).

Because this movie quote just says it all....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl8e9i6YiA8&feature=youtu.be&t=21

New issue, massive discards, 95%+ HW error.
Once again, on both secdsm pool and litecoin pool.


-Dave

Hmmm very weird. Keep these settings, and do a full system shutdown, unplug from power, then start it up again.

More or less the same.
Different PS & different network location (tech bench)

I can take it apart and try a reflow in the morning.
 
-Dave

umm definitely don't do that. Shoot me a PM, will most likely need you to send it back.

But I like taking things apart and trying to fix them :-)

Because it worked for hours before going funky I am thinking either SD card is having issues or something that was not attached to it's solder pads well and it separated.
It is a new SD card, but it's a Microcenter one so I'll try that tomorrow.

If not I'll get back to you after Christmas about shipping it back.


Thanks,
Dave

It wouldn’t be a solder issue, it would not work at all even if one chip had a problem. You didn’t overvolt or run it in turbo did you because this type of error sounds like heat or voltage damage.

Either way would like it back in its current state so we can diagnose it properly.

[lepouletfrit]

Apollo miner won't power on for me.

I've tried two different power supplies: 1) Corsair 450W and a 2) Powerspec 420W

Any suggestions?

I know this sounds stupid, but did you short the enable pin if you are using an ATX PSU without a PC attached to it?

I’ve already had a few emails like this because of that issue

Need to build a stand alone PSU for this ASAP!

This did the trick! Thank you!