April 4th, 2019 Canaan Low Power Mode

[ccgllc]

Wanted to share my early experience with this new Pi firmware and matching MMC update.

FYI:  Download from https://canaan.io/downloads/software/avalon841/

Right order appears to be to upgrade your Raspberry Pi first using system->flash firmware and specifying the .img image downloaded.

After that, use status->cgminer configuration and select LowPower mode

Then use status->mmupgrade to load the .mcs file downloaded.

Based on a single test, prior to using this firmware one of my 841s used 1285Ws to perform at 13.3TH/s for an efficiency of 96.4 J/TH.
After upgrading and selecting LowPower Mode, the same 841 is using 750Ws to perform at an average of 9TH/s for an efficiency of 83.3 J/TH.

This brings the 841 into alignment with Bitmain S9s running their 2019 firmware in terms of efficiency.

I'm guessing the 841 is NOT using ASIC Boost.  If it could, the numbers would presumably improve more.

Has anyone else seen different results or tweaked beyond this?

[1715694780]

1715694780

[1715694780]

1715694780

[kano]

Asciboost requires a chip designed with asciboost in it.
None of the Canaan chips before the A10 have this.

[PassThePopcorn]

The best I was able to do on the 851 is 102, I was able to get 94 a few firmware versions ago.

I might be able to get better as I haven't gone to the lower limits of the frequencies yet.

[ccgllc]

The best I was able to do on the 851 is 102, I was able to get 94 a few firmware versions ago.

I might be able to get better as I haven't gone to the lower limits of the frequencies yet.

Make sure your running the new April 04th 2019 firmware in LowPower mode.

[PassThePopcorn]

Make sure your running the new April 04th 2019 firmware in LowPower mode.

I'm running the April version with custom settings, all the mode does is alter the same settings with the exception that you don't need to manually enter them. The best I was able to get efficiency wise on the April version was 102j/ths, in a previous version I believe it was February or January I was able to get 94j/ths on the same miners.

Now this is on the 851 which have been a bit less efficient then our 841's from the beginning.