Official FutureBit Apollo LTC Image and Support thread

[hnelson01]

Apollo arrived by Fed Ex two days earlier than expected.  Is up and running fine so far, but I have one question.
I am using a Seasonic Focus 550W PSU.  There are 2 6-pin PCI-E connectors on the cable that plugs into the PSU and there are 2 sockets on the Apollo, but when I first started it up I wasn't sure if both should be connected so used only one of them and it worked fine.  I now have both plugged in and it still works fine.  Question is, does it need both connected and if not why are there two sockets?
Thanks for the prompt shipping and Apollo looks great!

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[jstefanop]

Apollo arrived by Fed Ex two days earlier than expected.  Is up and running fine so far, but I have one question.
I am using a Seasonic Focus 550W PSU.  There are 2 6-pin PCI-E connectors on the cable that plugs into the PSU and there are 2 sockets on the Apollo, but when I first started it up I wasn't sure if both should be connected so used only one of them and it worked fine.  I now have both plugged in and it still works fine.  Question is, does it need both connected and if not why are there two sockets?
Thanks for the prompt shipping and Apollo looks great!

I’ll have full instructions up soon, but you only need one for eco, and two for any higher hashrate. It’s always safe two have both plug in regardless.

[jstefanop]

Two week update:
It's been 14 full days since last apollo reboot. In the attached pic is the Apollo dashboard and the stats from litecoinpool including my seven moonlanders. The moonlander stats were reset in May or June. In the last two weeks, the Apollo Mined 0.1384 LTC in eco mode. Discarded/stale shares don't mean anything as stated above.

This thing is rock solid and quiet. Only need one of the six pin connectors for eco. I'm running it off an HP server 90%+ PSU w/ breakout board. I have a kill-a-watt coming and will report the power usage later on.

apollo dashboard/litecoinpool screenshots:

That’s impressive, don’t think I have run one for more than a week straight. At least I know there are no bad memory leaks or crash bugs!

[in2tactics]

...

Ive been using the Microcenter cards for a few weeks now so don't think its that. Could be a bad controller then. Just let me know when you can send it over and ill figure out what it is.

Micro Center SD cards are notoriously bad for this type of application. I tried on several occasions to use them for different Raspberry Pi projects, but I always had weird unexplained errors.

For example, I recently built a mining controller using a Micro Center 32gb SD card with a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B for my Moonlander 2 devices and the Raspberry Pi would have random kernel panics about once every 12 hours. I eliminated those issues by swapping out for a SanDisk card.

[redzep]

Hi

been running for 2 hrs at pool roughly the same 43Mhz


did get it working at nichash at about 85Mhz, but for some reason stopped last night and still showing status unknown ...? so repointed at Coinpool again
may change again to litecoinpool see if it runs stable for a few day's

changed it to litecoinpool and running as expected

[crypto_curious]

I've built Apollo security camera system. My apollo now watches over my front door. All motion is recorded to AVI files.
I've expanded original filesystem and now I've got 15GB of storage space free for recordings. I am using USB Logitech camera plugged in to Apollo.

Mining is not affected, in fact, putting my miners there in this space above front porch (accessible only via hole in ceiling and ladder) made temperatures lower.

Cost of IP camera with recorder + storage in retail sale could go to hundreds of pounds
I've built my setup here for free, excluding Apollo I already had, and USB webcam I've been given for free. Later on I will add e-mail notifications and Dropbox uploads, also cycling through old footage so I don't ever run out of space, and AC power relay so it turns light outside on automatically when movement is detected and turns it off 60s after no movement.

Jstefanop, does Orange Pi Zero have any GPIO pins like raspberry pi? To control power relay? I haven't opened the case of Apollo yet so I don't know what is on the other side of the board

Happy days!

https://imgur.com/a/m1uWQex

Second miner is sitting there waiting for ideas. Maybe Litecoin full-node + Lightning? Or Bitcoin LN node with extra storage for full blockchain?

[jstefanop]

I've built Apollo security camera system. My apollo now watches over my front door. All motion is recorded to AVI files.
I've expanded original filesystem and now I've got 15GB of storage space free for recordings. I am using USB Logitech camera plugged in to Apollo.

Mining is not affected, in fact, putting my miners there in this space above front porch (accessible only via hole in ceiling and ladder) made temperatures lower.

Cost of IP camera with recorder + storage in retail sale could go to hundreds of pounds
I've built my setup here for free, excluding Apollo I already had, and USB webcam I've been given for free. Later on I will add e-mail notifications and Dropbox uploads, also cycling through old footage so I don't ever run out of space, and AC power relay so it turns light outside on automatically when movement is detected and turns it off 60s after no movement.

Jstefanop, does Orange Pi Zero have any GPIO pins like raspberry pi? To control power relay? I haven't opened the case of Apollo yet so I don't know what is on the other side of the board

Happy days!

https://imgur.com/a/m1uWQex

Second miner is sitting there waiting for ideas. Maybe Litecoin full-node + Lightning? Or Bitcoin LN node with extra storage for full blockchain?

haha awesome, yes it does but all the pins are used for miner control.

[jstefanop]

Hi

been running for 2 hrs at pool roughly the same 43Mhz


did get it working at nichash at about 85Mhz, but for some reason stopped last night and still showing status unknown ...? so repointed at Coinpool again
may change again to litecoinpool see if it runs stable for a few day's

changed it to litecoinpool and running as expected

yea that pool is doing something non-standard, I would contact their support. Ill have more time to look at pool issues myself after the holidays.

[DaveF]

...

Ive been using the Microcenter cards for a few weeks now so don't think its that. Could be a bad controller then. Just let me know when you can send it over and ill figure out what it is.

Micro Center SD cards are notoriously bad for this type of application. I tried on several occasions to use them for different Raspberry Pi projects, but I always had weird unexplained errors.

For example, I recently built a mining controller using a Micro Center 32gb SD card with a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B for my Moonlander 2 devices and the Raspberry Pi would have random kernel panics about once every 12 hours. I eliminated those issues by swapping out for a SanDisk card.

The PNY card is now just under 22 hours and still going strong.
Moral of the story....If you buy a $250+ miner don't use the free SD cards.

-Dave

[wttbs]

hi

sorted images out, how do you get pic's on this site cant remember






odd the site is reporting 110.28 MH hash rate, also got 3 x moonlanders pointed there, which is normally about 14MH

Did this work?

Mining Gulden at multipool.us works fine with the Apollo
https://www.multipool.us/dashboard/pool/nlg

[jstefanop]

...

Ive been using the Microcenter cards for a few weeks now so don't think its that. Could be a bad controller then. Just let me know when you can send it over and ill figure out what it is.

Micro Center SD cards are notoriously bad for this type of application. I tried on several occasions to use them for different Raspberry Pi projects, but I always had weird unexplained errors.

For example, I recently built a mining controller using a Micro Center 32gb SD card with a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B for my Moonlander 2 devices and the Raspberry Pi would have random kernel panics about once every 12 hours. I eliminated those issues by swapping out for a SanDisk card.

The PNY card is now just under 22 hours and still going strong.
Moral of the story....If you buy a $250+ miner don't use the free SD cards.

-Dave

Good to know it was just an SD card issue.

Probably a good idea to post the model and size of SD cards you guys are using. Ill eventually add a working Micro SD card list when I get my full guide up.

Has anyone got a 128GB card to work yet?

[philipma1957]

...

Ive been using the Microcenter cards for a few weeks now so don't think its that. Could be a bad controller then. Just let me know when you can send it over and ill figure out what it is.

Micro Center SD cards are notoriously bad for this type of application. I tried on several occasions to use them for different Raspberry Pi projects, but I always had weird unexplained errors.

For example, I recently built a mining controller using a Micro Center 32gb SD card with a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B for my Moonlander 2 devices and the Raspberry Pi would have random kernel panics about once every 12 hours. I eliminated those issues by swapping out for a SanDisk card.

The PNY card is now just under 22 hours and still going strong.
Moral of the story....If you buy a $250+ miner don't use the free SD cards.

-Dave

Good to know it was just an SD card issue.

Probably a good idea to post the model and size of SD cards you guys are using. Ill eventually add a working Micro SD card list when I get my full guide up.

Has anyone got a 128GB card to work yet?

no my samsung 128gb is now running my rasp pi for my avalon a921

I am using a samsung 32gb card

[almartins]

About micro SD cards. I'm using, by 6 days miner uptime and zero problems:

- 16 GB Kingston HC I 1 Class 10

- 32 GB TEAMGROUP HC I 1 Class 10 

[wttbs]

- 32 GB Kingston HC I 1 class 10 (80mb/s [R])

works for 2 days now without problems

[r00tdude]

Got another one -

I use AwesomeMiner to monitor my rigs - how about making a slider in the UI that will enable API access?

Thanks!

[baileys2611]

Kudos @jstefanop for the great work here from Australia.  Got mine in good order, 32gb SD card flashed, plugged in and mining away in ECO mode with no hassles at all.  Good on yer mate 

[peetee]

I just got my Apollo unboxed and set up, and am running into an error after configuring the miner, it says its unable to connect to port 4028 (which I gather is the stats API port for bfgminer). The dashboard is blank except for the ECONNREFUSED error. The bfgminer process does appear to be running, however.

Here’s some syslog output:

Dec 22 01:41:52 futurebit systemd[1]: serial-getty@ttyS0.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Dec 22 01:41:52 futurebit systemd[1]: Stopped Serial Getty on ttyS0.
Dec 22 01:41:52 futurebit systemd[1]: Started Serial Getty on ttyS0.
Dec 22 01:41:53 futurebit node[1334]: {"name":"app","hostname":"futurebit","pid":1334,"cid":"d67a259f-e1e1-47e6-8c11-414e8e339260","seq":0,"method":"api/miner/online","stack":[{"cid":"d67a259f-e1e1-47e6-8c11-414e8e339260","seq":0,"method":"api/miner/online"}],"level":30,"user":{"iat":1545442681,"aud":"auth","sub":"apollouser"},"source":"auto","when":"before","msg":"before_api/miner/online","time":"2018-12-22T01:41:53.740Z","v":0}
Dec 22 01:41:53 futurebit node[1334]: {"name":"app","hostname":"futurebit","pid":1334,"cid":"f1878d82-d81e-4542-b3a6-956078948c12","seq":0,"method":"api/miner/stats","stack":[{"cid":"f1878d82-d81e-4542-b3a6-956078948c12","seq":0,"method":"api/miner/stats"}],"level":30,"user":{"iat":1545442681,"aud":"auth","sub":"apollouser"},"source":"auto","when":"before","msg":"before_api/miner/stats","time":"2018-12-22T01:41:53.790Z","v":0}
Dec 22 01:41:53 futurebit node[1334]: {"name":"app","hostname":"futurebit","pid":1334,"cid":"f1878d82-d81e-4542-b3a6-956078948c12","seq":0,"method":"api/miner/stats","stack":[{"cid":"f1878d82-d81e-4542-b3a6-956078948c12","seq":0,"method":"api/miner/stats"}],"level":50,"user":{"iat":1545442681,"aud":"auth","sub":"apollouser"},"source":"auto","when":"after","err":{"message":"Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:4028","name":"InternalError","stack":"InternalError: Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:4028\n    at Socket.client.socket.on (/opt/apolloapi/src/store/api/miner/minerStats.js:70:7)\n    at Socket.emit (events.js:180:13)\n    at emitErrorNT (internal/streams/destroy.js:64:\n    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:114:19)"},"ms":7,"originalErr":null,"errInfo":{"type":"internal","severity":"error","message":"Error: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:4028","reasons":[{"path":"stats","message":"ECONNREFUSED"}],"data":null},"msg":"after_api/miner/stats (7ms)","time":"2018-12-22T01:41:53.798Z","v":0}

[jstefanop]

I just got my Apollo unboxed and set up, and am running into an error after configuring the miner, it says its unable to connect to port 4028 (which I gather is the stats API port for bfgminer). The dashboard is blank except for the ECONNREFUSED error. The bfgminer process does appear to be running, however.

That usually happens when there is no internet connection to miner. Is the yellow LED flashing? If your already Poking around Syslog do “sudo screen -dr miner” that will bring up Bfgminer.

[jstefanop]

Kudos @jstefanop for the great work here from Australia.  Got mine in good order, 32gb SD card flashed, plugged in and mining away in ECO mode with no hassles at all.  Good on yer mate 

Thanks!

[peetee]

That usually happens when there is no internet connection to miner. Is the yellow LED flashing? If your already Poking around Syslog do “sudo screen -dr miner” that will bring up Bfgminer.

Nailed it. I had it on a subnet that allowed it access to other devices on my LAN, but no route to the internet. It's mining away happily now, thanks!!!