Official FutureBit Apollo LTC Image and Support thread

[whiteogre]

Hi everybody

I have been mining non-stop 15+ days in a row with the following setup:
PSU corsair CS750M, powering up two Apollo units working in ballanced mode, all the other values set in auto (default) and via ethernet LAN.
I am very satisfied with their simple setup and robustness (restart and mine again in case of power off etc).
A few days ago my 3rd Apollo unit arrived, this one is not for me but it's a gift for a friend of mine who has an absolutely non-technical soul so it has to work unattended, forever
I bought a brand new PSU, this time a smaller 450 W corsair VS450 and prepared the initial setup as before but with only one unit attached.
To my surprise, afterwaiting a few seconds for the initial system load and get it reg/green blinking, the PSU shuts off.
I suspected a power surge or something coming from the 3rd Apollo.
The shut off happens after doing the full load and not before.
To start isolating the problem my workaround was using my former rig with the older, bigger PSU feeding all three boxes and let it run overnight. The whole system went on mining whitout any problems.
When I did further crossovers - e.g. using one of the older units with the new 450w PSU, the sudden shut off happens again so it seems that it is not something from a specific miner - unless I'm wrong of course.
I judged too unlucky that the corsair PSU could be responsible of the problem as it's a quality brand.
But the issue is driving me bonkers. I do not know how to go on.
Atm I was about to order a PSU replacement but I'd like to share with you here in case I'm missing something or there is a known incompatibility or other issues I may have oversighted before returning the 450w psu to the shop.

Your ideas will be much appreciated - Thanks in advance!

I recall older ATX power supplies required some load (something in the 1A range) also on the 5V rail in order to keep the 12V rail stable. That may still apply to cheaper power supply models.

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[jstefanop]

Hi everybody

I have been mining non-stop 15+ days in a row with the following setup:
PSU corsair CS750M, powering up two Apollo units working in ballanced mode, all the other values set in auto (default) and via ethernet LAN.
I am very satisfied with their simple setup and robustness (restart and mine again in case of power off etc).
A few days ago my 3rd Apollo unit arrived, this one is not for me but it's a gift for a friend of mine who has an absolutely non-technical soul so it has to work unattended, forever
I bought a brand new PSU, this time a smaller 450 W corsair VS450 and prepared the initial setup as before but with only one unit attached.
To my surprise, afterwaiting a few seconds for the initial system load and get it reg/green blinking, the PSU shuts off.
I suspected a power surge or something coming from the 3rd Apollo.
The shut off happens after doing the full load and not before.
To start isolating the problem my workaround was using my former rig with the older, bigger PSU feeding all three boxes and let it run overnight. The whole system went on mining whitout any problems.
When I did further crossovers - e.g. using one of the older units with the new 450w PSU, the sudden shut off happens again so it seems that it is not something from a specific miner - unless I'm wrong of course.
I judged too unlucky that the corsair PSU could be responsible of the problem as it's a quality brand.
But the issue is driving me bonkers. I do not know how to go on.
Atm I was about to order a PSU replacement but I'd like to share with you here in case I'm missing something or there is a known incompatibility or other issues I may have oversighted before returning the 450w psu to the shop.

Your ideas will be much appreciated - Thanks in advance!

Yea thats definitely a faulty PSU, especially if all Apollos are running fine with a bigger PSU, and the fault happens even when you switch different Apollo units.

450 W PSU should not be tripping with a 150W load.

[jstefanop]

7 hours do download the apolo_final.img.zip? any mirror available? just received 2 units and i don't want to wait, bruuu

Its hosted on a high speed AWS server....where are downloading from?

[philipma1957]

Hi everybody

I have been mining non-stop 15+ days in a row with the following setup:
PSU corsair CS750M, powering up two Apollo units working in ballanced mode, all the other values set in auto (default) and via ethernet LAN.
I am very satisfied with their simple setup and robustness (restart and mine again in case of power off etc).
A few days ago my 3rd Apollo unit arrived, this one is not for me but it's a gift for a friend of mine who has an absolutely non-technical soul so it has to work unattended, forever
I bought a brand new PSU, this time a smaller 450 W corsair VS450 and prepared the initial setup as before but with only one unit attached.
To my surprise, afterwaiting a few seconds for the initial system load and get it reg/green blinking, the PSU shuts off.
I suspected a power surge or something coming from the 3rd Apollo.
The shut off happens after doing the full load and not before.
To start isolating the problem my workaround was using my former rig with the older, bigger PSU feeding all three boxes and let it run overnight. The whole system went on mining whitout any problems.
When I did further crossovers - e.g. using one of the older units with the new 450w PSU, the sudden shut off happens again so it seems that it is not something from a specific miner - unless I'm wrong of course.
I judged too unlucky that the corsair PSU could be responsible of the problem as it's a quality brand.
But the issue is driving me bonkers. I do not know how to go on.
Atm I was about to order a PSU replacement but I'd like to share with you here in case I'm missing something or there is a known incompatibility or other issues I may have oversighted before returning the 450w psu to the shop.

Your ideas will be much appreciated - Thanks in advance!

garbage psu.  return it and buy something better.

what country do you live in?

I will give you some  links for a good psu

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Certified-Refurbished/Power-Supplies/CS-Series%E2%84%A2-Modular-CS550M-%E2%80%94-550-Watt-80-PLUS%C2%AE-Gold-Certified-PSU-%28Refurbished%29/p/CP-9020076-NA/RF

or keep this one and give him your one that works
https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=220-G2-0650-Y1

[Fu Ren]

[/quote]

Yea thats definitely a faulty PSU, especially if all Apollos are running fine with a bigger PSU, and the fault happens even when you switch different Apollo units.

450 W PSU should not be tripping with a 150W load.
[/quote]

I think the chances were 99:1 that I had bought a faulty PSU due to its behaviour after swapping all the boxes from the suspicious PSU to the bigger one I had, yes.

...BUT

[/quote]
I recall older ATX power supplies required some load (something in the 1A range) also on the 5V rail in order to keep the 12V rail stable. That may still apply to cheaper power supply models.
[/quote]

...I plugged to the SATA line the only thing I had at hand, i.e. a small SSD drive,  that pulls exactly  5V 1A.
And it worked!! AWESOME, the 3rd Apollo has been mining and stable for one odd hour (vs. shutting off power after a few seconds or just one minute) and I think that this smart little trick solves the issue very nicely.

The bottom line - beware of cheap non-modular PSUs but if you use one keep it "alive" by plugging something to the 5V rail.
Now I am thinking  what can I add to this set (I need to keep my SSD) for my friend so to make the whole thing work. Maybe a fancy USB gadget like a mini-vacuum cleaner or a few USB fans would do, plus a SATA to USB adapter cable of course - any ideas?

Ah, @philipma1957, thanks for the links to better PSUs, the modular ones around 500-650w are my personal bet for powering up bundles of 2-3 Apollos if I buy a few more of them.

Again , thanks to everybody for your very helpful insight.
 

[Turocik]

7 hours do download the apolo_final.img.zip? any mirror available? just received 2 units and i don't want to wait, bruuu

Its hosted on a high speed AWS server....where are downloading from?

on 20 mbs line, but already downloaded ...

[philipma1957]

...
Now I am thinking  what can I add to this set (I need to keep my SSD) for my friend so to make the whole thing work. Maybe a fancy USB gadget like a mini-vacuum cleaner or a few USB fans would do, plus a SATA to USB adapter cable of course - any ideas?

Ah, @philipma1957, thanks for the links to better PSUs, the modular ones around 500-650w are my personal bet for powering up bundles of 2-3 Apollos if I buy a few more of them.

Again , thanks to everybody for your very helpful insight.
 

Get a usb fan

[jstefanop]

...I plugged to the SATA line the only thing I had at hand, i.e. a small SSD drive,  that pulls exactly  5V 1A.
And it worked!! AWESOME, the 3rd Apollo has been mining and stable for one odd hour (vs. shutting off power after a few seconds or just one minute) and I think that this smart little trick solves the issue very nicely.

The bottom line - beware of cheap non-modular PSUs but if you use one keep it "alive" by plugging something to the 5V rail.
Now I am thinking   what can I add to this set (I need to keep my SSD) for my friend so to make the whole thing work. Maybe a fancy USB gadget like a mini-vacuum cleaner or a few USB fans would do, plus a SATA to USB adapter cable of course - any ideas?

Ah, @philipma1957, thanks for the links to better PSUs, the modular ones around 500-650w are my personal bet for powering up bundles of 2-3 Apollos if I buy a few more of them.

Again , thanks to everybody for your very helpful insight.
 

Haha wow learn something new every day. I guess they must use the 5v rail to power the 12v mosfets....thats a dirty and cheap trick but would explain why the 12v rail fails on higher loads.

If you have to power the 5v rail with something anyway would be cool to retrofit a 5v USB hub and hook up some moonlanders to it

[stef942]

Going and try to get the image update out tomorrow or tuesday so there is a least a built in protection for rare edge cases like this.

when will we have the next release?

thks.

[jstefanop]

Going and try to get the image update out tomorrow or tuesday so there is a least a built in protection for rare edge cases like this.

when will we have the next release?

thks.

Sorry we had to do a kernel upgrade to the base system get some things we needed, which broke other stuff and this took way longer than planned. Image is currently done, just doing testing over the weekend and should be out on monday.

[r00tdude]

Going and try to get the image update out tomorrow or tuesday so there is a least a built in protection for rare edge cases like this.

when will we have the next release?

thks.

Sorry we had to do a kernel upgrade to the base system get some things we needed, which broke other stuff and this took way longer than planned. Image is currently done, just doing testing over the weekend and should be out on monday.

Hey JStef - do you have a changelog available so we can appreciate the work you've done beforehand?

[jstefanop]

Going and try to get the image update out tomorrow or tuesday so there is a least a built in protection for rare edge cases like this.

when will we have the next release?

thks.

Sorry we had to do a kernel upgrade to the base system get some things we needed, which broke other stuff and this took way longer than planned. Image is currently done, just doing testing over the weekend and should be out on monday.

Hey JStef - do you have a changelog available so we can appreciate the work you've done beforehand?

tentative changelog below:

ChangeLog

-system kernel updated to 4.19 for fixes and reliability
-lowered CPU aggressiveness to keep MCU cooler for better reliability
-enabled low level hardware watchdog, this fixes the very rare issue some people were reporting and any system failure or hardware monitor failure will now cause a system reboot and prevent unit from overheating
-reduced SD card writes from hardware monitor to increase SD card life
-you can now manually set fan to a minimum of 5%
-you can now edit pools directly instead of deleting and re-adding
-added settings option to enable local bfgminer API access
-stratum pool difficulty is now displayed in dashboard instead of discarded shares
-OS will now automatically expand SD card to maximum size on first boot
-multiple dashboard visual fixes
-lots of hardware monitor bug fixes

[stef942]

nice 

the image in the first post is the new one?

[whiteogre]

nice 

the image in the first post is the new one?

No, 906bbdb9b9a195edea5fd3302b258ae28e6049c04a610698d253132f5dee50eb is the checksum for the first release ("apollo_final.img.zip").

[jstefanop]

Sorry guys trying get this release out, but each round of testing we uncover more bugs. I think I have it down to the last major bug so release should be out tomorrow.

[philipma1957]

Sorry guys trying get this release out, but each round of testing we uncover more bugs. I think I have it down to the last major bug so release should be out tomorrow.

waiting  ever so patiently


I have had no issues  just setting fan to 50% and running medium speed  about 121 mh  and I even hit a block of doge with it.

[jstefanop]

Ok image is complete...I need about 5-10 testers that are at your apollos tonight and have time to do an update and let it run over night just in case I missed something. Shoot me a PM and ill send download link.

[Turocik]

guys, is there any PSU available on the market that doesn't require mobo? i have 2 Apollo units and basically i don't need the whole setup if i find a PSU like that

[AltScope]

guys, is there any PSU available on the market that doesn't require mobo? i have 2 Apollo units and basically i don't need the whole setup if i find a PSU like that

just bridge the 2 pins on the 24 pin connector and the psu will power


https://bit-tech.net/guides/modding/how-to-jump-a-psu/1/

[Turocik]

guys, is there any PSU available on the market that doesn't require mobo? i have 2 Apollo units and basically i don't need the whole setup if i find a PSU like that

just bridge the 2 pins on the 24 pin connector and the psu will power


https://bit-tech.net/guides/modding/how-to-jump-a-psu/1/

thx, i know about that option, but was just hoping there is some other ...