Drillbit "Blackbit" Avalon gen2 Thumb v1.3

[OliRS]

I bought a couple of these new Drillbit Avalon Thumbs to try out.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321343641493

Arrived today but I can't for the life of me get them working on either my Mac or on my Raspberry Pi rig.

I have tried the latest Bfgminer and Cgminer (with drillbit enabled during configure) but neither will recognise them.

My config file is as follows:

Code:

{
"pools" : [
        {
                "url" : "stratum.bitcoin.cz:3333",
                "user" : "username",
                "pass" : "password"
        }
],

"expiry" : "120",
"failover-only" : true,
"log" : "5",
"scan-time" : "60",
"worktime" : true,
"shares" : "0",

"scan" : [ "drillbit:all" ],
"set-device" : [ "DRB:voltage=0.95","DRB:clock=230" ]

}

With the devices plugged in I can see them in /dev/ as /dev/tty.usbmodem* & /dev/cu.usbmodem* but no matter what options I run Bf or Cg with it won't find them, neither can I add them with the programs open. I have tried with "drillbit:all", "drillbit:/dev/tty.usb*" and "drill bit:cu.usb*" all with the same result.

My understanding was these should have worked the same as the previous Drillbit Thumbs?

Anybody else got these and made them work?

[1715257246]

1715257246

[Bee]

There are two types of Drillbit USB Thumbs. The old ones with BitFury ASIC. Those ones are supported in the main cgminer build.

A few days ago the DrillBit team released a new type of USB Thumbs, based on Avalon gen2 ASIC. Like these:
http://drillbitsystem.com/shop/uncategorized/avalon-thumb-by-drillbit/

The BlackBit are clones of that design.

The Avalon based ones are not supported in the main cgminer build yet, only in the DrillBit cgminer build, so you need to build from this git:
https://github.com/drillbitsystems/cgminer/tree/avalon_support

Regarding bfgminer support. Hardware have been sent to Luke-jr. So hopefully he will update the driver to support Avalon based DrillBit / BlackBit hardware

[Bee]

I made a short guide of how to compile cgminer on an RPi

First download the latest Raspbian image from http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads and install it on your RPi. There is lots of good guides on how to do that, so no need to make a worse one here

When you are done with the Raspbian setup, update your distribution and packages. SSH to the RPi and run:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y upgrade
sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade
sudo reboot

When it is done rebooting. SSH to it, and install the compile tools:

sudo apt-get install pkg-config libtool libcurl4-openssl-dev libncurses5-dev libudev-dev
sudo apt-get install autoconf automake gcc-4.7 g++-4.7
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.6 60 --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.6
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.7 40 --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.7

We need to use GCC 4.7 to compile, so run this and select the one for GCC 4.7:

sudo update-alternatives --config gcc


Download the source you want to compile, and unpack it:

wget https://github.com/drillbitsystems/cgminer/archive/avalon_support.tar.gz
tar -zxf avalon_support.tar.gz
cd cgminer-avalon_support/

On to compiling it:

./autogen.sh
CFLAGS="-O2 -Wall -march=native" ./configure --enable-drillbit
make

I like to run cgminer in screen, so I also install that:

sudo apt-get install screen

[OliRS]

Hi, thanks for your help.

I already have a good idea of what I am doing, I have a couple of BE cubes and a couple of Antminer U1 rigs. Trying these thumbs to see what they're like.

Followed your helpful guide and built the provided cgminer version on my Pi no problem, however when I run the newly compiled cgminer it does detect the thumbs and shows them as active, but they do not hash and instead I periodically get timeouts from them:

 [2014-03-16 22:29:31] DRB 1: Timing out unresponsive ASIC 0

I built the same version of cgminer from the git repo above on my Mac and it detects the thumbs, but not correctly, I get the same message as I was having before:

Drillbit detect (20:7) failed to initialise (incorrect device?)

Think I will just stick to the U1's and cubes for now until hopefully Bfgminer will be updated for proper support for these new thumbs.

I appreciate the input though, thanks.

[nybbler905]

Hi, thanks for your help.

I already have a good idea of what I am doing, I have a couple of BE cubes and a couple of Antminer U1 rigs. Trying these thumbs to see what they're like.

Followed your helpful guide and built the provided cgminer version on my Pi no problem, however when I run the newly compiled cgminer it does detect the thumbs and shows them as active, but they do not hash and instead I periodically get timeouts from them:

 [2014-03-16 22:29:31] DRB 1: Timing out unresponsive ASIC 0

I built the same version of cgminer from the git repo above on my Mac and it detects the thumbs, but not correctly, I get the same message as I was having before:

Drillbit detect (20:7) failed to initialise (incorrect device?)

Think I will just stick to the U1's and cubes for now until hopefully Bfgminer will be updated for proper support for these new thumbs.

I appreciate the input though, thanks.

I'm on Ubuntu on a dual Coppermine rig... and switched to BFGMiner to eliminate that kind of error then found out it's a power issue.  I will have to assume you are using one powered hub.  I've ' borrowed ' a wireless router's power brick for a steady 2.5A @ 5V and have also found out the power rails IN the hub won't let me have too much draw on either side of the 2nd hub ( 7 port hub, 3 ports from one end, 4th goes to the second IC letting the last 4 count as a different power rail too ).  Point being, check your power as I get that kind of error ( don't have any drills to test it on, from what I read, they use more than an Ant ) when I reorder what i've got plugged in.

Good luck.

[OliRS]

I am using an Orico 10 port hub with an uprated power supply giving 12V and 6A, power is fine. But thanks anyway.