Official FutureBit Apollo LTC Image and Support thread

[whiteogre]

I have a bit of a strange question. But is it possible to somehow display the hashing process onto an external display?

What sort of display did you have in mind?

The bfgminer api exposes most of the useful information so I suppose something like attaching an Arduino with a 7-segment display to the USB port and having a script to feed it for example the hashrate from the api could be one simple option. Replace that 7-segment display with some commonly used small OLED and you could fit a little bit more info there. Replace the Arduino with a ESP8266 or ESP32 and it could read the bfgminer api by itself without needing to be attached to the USB port.

[TopMiningMiner]

I have a bit of a strange question. But is it possible to somehow display the hashing process onto an external display?

What sort of display did you have in mind?

The bfgminer api exposes most of the useful information so I suppose something like attaching an Arduino with a 7-segment display to the USB port and having a script to feed it for example the hashrate from the api could be one simple option. Replace that 7-segment display with some commonly used small OLED and you could fit a little bit more info there. Replace the Arduino with a ESP8266 or ESP32 and it could read the bfgminer api by itself without needing to be attached to the USB port.

I’m not sure what sort of display. I’m researching different options now. - But I’m wanting something small, probably around 4x6 inches or so. But I believe ideally, I’m wanting to display the command line process?

Not for any functional reason. But rather last night I had an idea to make sort of an art piece out of an Apollo. And I think displaying the code/hashing on a external display a requirement to make it worth exploring this little side project further.

[whiteogre]

What sort of display did you have in mind?

The bfgminer api exposes most of the useful information so I suppose something like attaching an Arduino with a 7-segment display to the USB port and having a script to feed it for example the hashrate from the api could be one simple option. Replace that 7-segment display with some commonly used small OLED and you could fit a little bit more info there. Replace the Arduino with a ESP8266 or ESP32 and it could read the bfgminer api by itself without needing to be attached to the USB port.

I’m not sure what sort of display. I’m researching different options now. - But I’m wanting something small, probably around 4x6 inches or so. But I believe ideally, I’m wanting to display the command line process?

Not for any functional reason. But rather last night I had an idea to make sort of an art piece out of an Apollo. And I think displaying the code/hashing on a external display a requirement to make it worth exploring this little side project further.

If it had been a small status / monitoring display you were looking for then https://github.com/Qrome/printer-monitor is probably the closest that comes to mind that could be made Apollo compatible with some code changes (new output layout + bfgminer json parsing instead of octoprint json).

If with command line process you refer to the bfgminer console output then one possibility could be to modify the startup parameters a little bit and make it use a log file. Then you'd need some process to read that log and dump it to some display. As there's only a USB port available, you'd either need some USB->VGA converter (DisplayLink may be supported enough) + a small VGA display. Most likely the cheaper option would be to have an Arduino connected to the USB which would then become visible as a serial port. With some scripting, it would be possible to dump new lines from the log file to the serial port which would the be read by the Arduino and shown on some supported display (https://www.buydisplay.com/default/9-inch-arduino-touch-screen-shield-ssd1963-library-for-mega-due for example, the largest I could find). With the Arduino, you'd have full control on how to output the input text and that way make it as artistic as you'd want/can.

[TopMiningMiner]

What sort of display did you have in mind?

The bfgminer api exposes most of the useful information so I suppose something like attaching an Arduino with a 7-segment display to the USB port and having a script to feed it for example the hashrate from the api could be one simple option. Replace that 7-segment display with some commonly used small OLED and you could fit a little bit more info there. Replace the Arduino with a ESP8266 or ESP32 and it could read the bfgminer api by itself without needing to be attached to the USB port.

I’m not sure what sort of display. I’m researching different options now. - But I’m wanting something small, probably around 4x6 inches or so. But I believe ideally, I’m wanting to display the command line process?

Not for any functional reason. But rather last night I had an idea to make sort of an art piece out of an Apollo. And I think displaying the code/hashing on a external display a requirement to make it worth exploring this little side project further.

If it had been a small status / monitoring display you were looking for then https://github.com/Qrome/printer-monitor is probably the closest that comes to mind that could be made Apollo compatible with some code changes (new output layout + bfgminer json parsing instead of octoprint json).

If with command line process you refer to the bfgminer console output then one possibility could be to modify the startup parameters a little bit and make it use a log file. Then you'd need some process to read that log and dump it to some display. As there's only a USB port available, you'd either need some USB->VGA converter (DisplayLink may be supported enough) + a small VGA display. Most likely the cheaper option would be to have an Arduino connected to the USB which would then become visible as a serial port. With some scripting, it would be possible to dump new lines from the log file to the serial port which would the be read by the Arduino and shown on some supported display (https://www.buydisplay.com/default/9-inch-arduino-touch-screen-shield-ssd1963-library-for-mega-due for example, the largest I could find). With the Arduino, you'd have full control on how to output the input text and that way make it as artistic as you'd want/can.

I haven't actually gotten my Apollos yet. They currently are scheduled for delivery next week. But I just went and looked around, and I think that the console output by bfgminer is exactly what I'm looking for. I found this sample output from their thread:

Sample output:

Code:

 bfgminer version 5.5.0 - Started: [2014-06-10 20:13:01] - [  0 days 06:15:32]
 [M]anage devices [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options  [H]elp [Q]uit
 Pool 0: ...ning.eligius.st  Diff:128  +Strtm  LU:[02:28:32]  User:1QATWksNFGeUJCWBrN4g6hGM178Lovm7Wh
 Block #305190: ...6e8ba4d9  Diff:11.8G (84.16P)  Started: [02:07:22]  I:1.04mBTC/hr
 ST:156  F:0  NB:31  AS:0  BW:[269/ 12 B/s]  E:1127.28  BS:21.8M
 5/24   63.0C | 94.10/98.68/95.60Gh/s | A:1974 R:2+2(.20%) HW:5729/2.6%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 BFL 0: 54.0C |  8.11/ 8.10/ 7.65Gh/s | A:  62 R:1+2(4.6%) HW: 273/1.3%
 HBR 0: 63.0C | 22.91/22.85/21.55Gh/s | A: 208 R:0+0(none) HW:3022/5.4%
 TBF 0: 28.0C |  5.13/ 5.10/ 4.89Gh/s | A:  49 R:0+0(none) HW: 331/4.5%
 PXY 0:       | 27.85/30.23/29.84Gh/s | A: 358 R:1+0(.28%) HW: 450/1.0%
 RKM 0: 40.0C | 30.10/32.40/31.67Gh/s | A:1297 R:0+0(none) HW:1653/.92%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [2014-06-11 02:28:10] Accepted 00c819ef HBR 0d Diff 327/255
 [2014-06-10 02:28:13] Accepted 012058dd PXY 0  Diff 227/128
 [2014-06-11 02:28:15] Accepted 01778be1 RKM 0b Diff 174/128

I think if I could somehow display that as it happened, that would be perfect. Especially if it can be easily done. Because as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not the most technically savvy person there is.

But really, my goal with this display isn't anything more than to show "the process" of mining. - When the average person hears of "crypto mining" and sees a miner, they just think its a thing that takes up a lot of space, makes heat, and wastes electricity. And I figure if there's a way of showing "what" the miner is doing, maybe they'll realize about the whole decentralization thing.

(Also, I just haven't seen any good art influenced by crypto. So I figured why not make it myself)

[Thesquealer]

Has anyone had a problem with your Apollo miner not coming online?? I can connect to the dashboard but cant get the miner to start. The miner powers up and then a solid red light. Mined for a day before this happened.

[MapleCircuit]

Is it possible to use a 3rd party monitoring tool with the Apollo? I use EthMonitoring for my other devices.

[methodshop]

Has anyone had a problem with your Apollo miner not coming online?? I can connect to the dashboard but cant get the miner to start. The miner powers up and then a solid red light. Mined for a day before this happened.

yes. we have 2 Apollos. one works great. the other likes to red light constantly. not sure why. it will randomly give up after 24-48 hours. to get the problem unit back online, we have to reconnect it to ethernet (disconnect from wifi) and reboot it several times. also, trying to access the miner via http://futurebit.local/ doesn't always work. scan your network for a device called "futurebit" and try connecting directly to the IP of the miner. If you see an unnamed device on the network, that might be your miner. ours doesn't always display its "futurebit" label. if that happens, try connecting to that mystery IP http://xxx.xxx.x.xxx and hopefully, you should be back in business.

[Globalminingcorp]

My Apollo was having a hard time, hardware errors between 15-25% but luckily fixed with some tips in this topic. Re-image the sd-card. Now running like sunshine again.

[jstefanop]

Has anyone had a problem with your Apollo miner not coming online?? I can connect to the dashboard but cant get the miner to start. The miner powers up and then a solid red light. Mined for a day before this happened.

Try setting fan speed to manual at around 25%. There is a known issue with some batch 2 units where the auto fan function will trigger a fan issue and shut down the miner. Setting this to manual fan speed in settings is a workaround until we issue the next firmware update.

[S.L.Caro]

Received my miner 8/5/19. Even though USPS beat the box up pretty bad and tape holding box closed was broken all was well inside. Set up and running in less than 30 min. Eco mode runs .5 HW errors. Balanced mode runs between 1.7 and 2.2 HW errors.
Would really like to experiment with custom mode ,but not knowing baseline voltage and frequency setting for balanced mode I am afraid of burning unit up.
Can we get standard values for balanced and turbo mode please?
Overall happy with miner except fact that included power supply will not run it in turbo mode.

[jstefanop]

Received my miner 8/5/19. Even though USPS beat the box up pretty bad and tape holding box closed was broken all was well inside. Set up and running in less than 30 min. Eco mode runs .5 HW errors. Balanced mode runs between 1.7 and 2.2 HW errors.
Would really like to experiment with custom mode ,but not knowing baseline voltage and frequency setting for balanced mode I am afraid of burning unit up.
Can we get standard values for balanced and turbo mode please?
Overall happy with miner except fact that included power supply will not run it in turbo mode.

FYI the power supply CAN run it in turbo, but due to regulatory requirements for the connector we used, we were forced to put that sticker on there. We have tested in in turbo, you just have to be careful and make sure you feel the power cable housing after running it in turbo for an hour or so...in some cases if the pin contacts are not secure the cable can heat up a lot, it should never feel more than warm to the touch.

[iaintkd]

MY device made it to the UK in perfect condition, batch 2 case is spot on, batch2 wifi seems to work a lot better than the batch1 miner.

Very pleased with it and looking forward to seeing what happens in the future.

[jstefanop]

MY device made it to the UK in perfect condition, batch 2 case is spot on, batch2 wifi seems to work a lot better than the batch1 miner.

Very pleased with it and looking forward to seeing what happens in the future.

Thanks!

[TopMiningMiner]

So uh… How do you setup multiple miners? I can't figure out how to add any from the dashboard.

Ok Never mind. I figured it out. My router was having issues and I had to restart it.

New problem… I clicked "shutdown" on the initial Apollo that popped up on futurebit.local, and now I can't figure out how to turn it back on. Because I don't know its IP Address...

Figured it out. The common fix for any issues in this thread has been to reimagine the SD, so that's what I did and was able to get it back online!

[almartins]

"
New problem… I clicked "shutdown" on the initial Apollo that popped up on futurebit.local, and now I can't figure out how to turn it back on. Because I don't know its IP Address...
"

You need turn it off wait 10s turn it on and will start mining.

[TopMiningMiner]

"
New problem… I clicked "shutdown" on the initial Apollo that popped up on futurebit.local, and now I can't figure out how to turn it back on. Because I don't know its IP Address...
"

You need turn it off wait 10s turn it on and will start mining.

Thank you thank you.

I tried that and it didn't work, so I just reimaged the card.

[jstefanop]

"
New problem… I clicked "shutdown" on the initial Apollo that popped up on futurebit.local, and now I can't figure out how to turn it back on. Because I don't know its IP Address...
"

You need turn it off wait 10s turn it on and will start mining.

Thank you thank you.

I tried that and it didn't work, so I just reimaged the card.

FutureBit.local is really only for people running one machine (the vast majority). If your running multiple just scan your network and write a list of IP addresses associated with each miner. That is way easier.

[bitcorning]

thanks for great product jstefanop. received Apollo last week with easy 123 setup. Joined the zerg apollo block party! 🔲🎉

[dsaerpe]

This is a cool idea. The other thing to do would be to read from the api of the pool - to display hash rate and balance. You could use an ardunino board to do this for $6.

What sort of display did you have in mind?

The bfgminer api exposes most of the useful information so I suppose something like attaching an Arduino with a 7-segment display to the USB port and having a script to feed it for example the hashrate from the api could be one simple option. Replace that 7-segment display with some commonly used small OLED and you could fit a little bit more info there. Replace the Arduino with a ESP8266 or ESP32 and it could read the bfgminer api by itself without needing to be attached to the USB port.

I’m not sure what sort of display. I’m researching different options now. - But I’m wanting something small, probably around 4x6 inches or so. But I believe ideally, I’m wanting to display the command line process?

Not for any functional reason. But rather last night I had an idea to make sort of an art piece out of an Apollo. And I think displaying the code/hashing on a external display a requirement to make it worth exploring this little side project further.

If it had been a small status / monitoring display you were looking for then https://github.com/Qrome/printer-monitor is probably the closest that comes to mind that could be made Apollo compatible with some code changes (new output layout + bfgminer json parsing instead of octoprint json).

If with command line process you refer to the bfgminer console output then one possibility could be to modify the startup parameters a little bit and make it use a log file. Then you'd need some process to read that log and dump it to some display. As there's only a USB port available, you'd either need some USB->VGA converter (DisplayLink may be supported enough) + a small VGA display. Most likely the cheaper option would be to have an Arduino connected to the USB which would then become visible as a serial port. With some scripting, it would be possible to dump new lines from the log file to the serial port which would the be read by the Arduino and shown on some supported display (https://www.buydisplay.com/default/9-inch-arduino-touch-screen-shield-ssd1963-library-for-mega-due for example, the largest I could find). With the Arduino, you'd have full control on how to output the input text and that way make it as artistic as you'd want/can.

I haven't actually gotten my Apollos yet. They currently are scheduled for delivery next week. But I just went and looked around, and I think that the console output by bfgminer is exactly what I'm looking for. I found this sample output from their thread:

Sample output:

Code:

 bfgminer version 5.5.0 - Started: [2014-06-10 20:13:01] - [  0 days 06:15:32]
 [M]anage devices [P]ool management [S]ettings [D]isplay options  [H]elp [Q]uit
 Pool 0: ...ning.eligius.st  Diff:128  +Strtm  LU:[02:28:32]  User:1QATWksNFGeUJCWBrN4g6hGM178Lovm7Wh
 Block #305190: ...6e8ba4d9  Diff:11.8G (84.16P)  Started: [02:07:22]  I:1.04mBTC/hr
 ST:156  F:0  NB:31  AS:0  BW:[269/ 12 B/s]  E:1127.28  BS:21.8M
 5/24   63.0C | 94.10/98.68/95.60Gh/s | A:1974 R:2+2(.20%) HW:5729/2.6%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 BFL 0: 54.0C |  8.11/ 8.10/ 7.65Gh/s | A:  62 R:1+2(4.6%) HW: 273/1.3%
 HBR 0: 63.0C | 22.91/22.85/21.55Gh/s | A: 208 R:0+0(none) HW:3022/5.4%
 TBF 0: 28.0C |  5.13/ 5.10/ 4.89Gh/s | A:  49 R:0+0(none) HW: 331/4.5%
 PXY 0:       | 27.85/30.23/29.84Gh/s | A: 358 R:1+0(.28%) HW: 450/1.0%
 RKM 0: 40.0C | 30.10/32.40/31.67Gh/s | A:1297 R:0+0(none) HW:1653/.92%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [2014-06-11 02:28:10] Accepted 00c819ef HBR 0d Diff 327/255
 [2014-06-10 02:28:13] Accepted 012058dd PXY 0  Diff 227/128
 [2014-06-11 02:28:15] Accepted 01778be1 RKM 0b Diff 174/128

I think if I could somehow display that as it happened, that would be perfect. Especially if it can be easily done. Because as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not the most technically savvy person there is.

But really, my goal with this display isn't anything more than to show "the process" of mining. - When the average person hears of "crypto mining" and sees a miner, they just think its a thing that takes up a lot of space, makes heat, and wastes electricity. And I figure if there's a way of showing "what" the miner is doing, maybe they'll realize about the whole decentralization thing.

(Also, I just haven't seen any good art influenced by crypto. So I figured why not make it myself)

[DeauxJoe]

So random thought but has anyone tried water cooling these yet? I'm thinking about setting up an external radiator set up for my two at the office. The goal would be to get them to run on turbo very quietly lol.