Official FutureBit Apollo II/BTC Software/Image and Support thread

[jstefanop]

...
Problem of running turbo while syncing is not CPU bottleneck, its thermals. The CPU could overheat and shutdown if its running at 100% while syncing, and the hashboard is in turbo mode.

That's a serious problem with the device then. You are saying we can't run desktop computer in the device at 100% while Turbo mode is on in the miner part. What if YouTube is on for a few minutes and CPU spikes to 100%, or any other more CPU intensive task is running, not just bitcoin node but anything else, it means sudden shutdown?
...

Um, these are miners and a dedicated BTC node -- not a desktop computer! The computer part is designed to be just an embedded controller and as a BTC node which normally are rather light CPU usage operations but more to the point they are also to a good extent time-sensitive. It is not intended for streaming video, gaming, or anything else which can/will as you noted steal critical CPU cycles from the main operations... The miner & node work as intended and are not flawed in respect to what they are designed to do..

Sorry that's where you are wrong - they are advertised as such.

"FutureBit Apollo BTC is the world’s first vertically integrated platform brining the full power of Bitcoin and it’s mining infrastructure in a small, quiet, easy to use desktop device designed for everyday people."

"PRE-ORDER: Apollo BTC - A Bitcoin ASIC Miner and Desktop Class Computer running a Full Node and Much More!"

Desktop Class Computer. Looks pretty clear to me.

Also:

"We did this with our optimized PCB design that has carefully placed all 44 hash cores underneath our custom cold-forged aluminum induction heatsink, which draws up to 200 Watts of heat away from the device with our new nearly silent 25mm fan. This results in the Apollo BTC in Turbo Mode being just as quiet as the Apollo LTC in Eco Mode!"

"Can be used as a full Desktop computer with a monitor keyboard and mouse (not included), or through our Web UI"

Nowhere it says you can't run Apollo BTC in Turbo Mode and actually use that Desktop Class Computer at the same time because it will shutdown. Therefore, shutting entire device because you actually use it as advertised (Turbo Mode + Desktop use, or Turbo Mode + Bitcoin Node syncing) is a factory defect. I resolved defect in my unit myself (rewired small fan back to 5V supply), but I can imagine surprise of many less experienced enthusiasts who wake up to see their brand new miner, set to Turbo Mode, dead cold in the morning, because it has shutdown during normal as-advertised operation. Or even more disappointment when a customer would actually try to use that Desktop Class Computer for a minute and it would shutdown suddenly. And before you ask - Turbo Mode is one of advertised operation modes, nowhere it says it's overclocking, no warranty, or causes shutdown/overheating/do not use etc.. It's just listed there as one of the modes for people to use.
No offence to jstefanop and team - I love this device because I can workaround problems, but these are just facts.

Yes it is a full desktop, but that does not mean its designed to run crazy intensive desktop applications. Goal of the device is to run Bitcoin apps/wallets in an easy to use manner on top of the full node/miner. Even when we start offering things like Lightning Apps these won't take up all the CPU resources.

Your free to game on it if you want, but expecting it to work flawlessly while doing so and running the hashboard in turbo is definitely not what we advertise and way beyond the scope of the device. Ive also explained many times that you should not run in in turbo while doing the initial sync. While we have tested it and works fine in our test setups, there are environments (over 35C ambient) where the CPU could overheat. It only takes the device 24-48 hours to complete a full sync with a good internet connection so the downtime is not much if you really want to run turbo 25/7.

As with everything there are tradeoffs we have to make and for what the device is used for.

[crypto_curious]

Yes it is a full desktop, but that does not mean its designed to run crazy intensive desktop applications. Goal of the device is to run Bitcoin apps/wallets in an easy to use manner on top of the full node/miner. Even when we start offering things like Lightning Apps these won't take up all the CPU resources.

Your free to game on it if you want, but expecting it to work flawlessly while doing so and running the hashboard in turbo is definitely not what we advertise and way beyond the scope of the device. Ive also explained many times that you should not run in in turbo while doing the initial sync. While we have tested it and works fine in our test setups, there are environments (over 35C ambient) where the CPU could overheat. It only takes the device 24-48 hours to complete a full sync with a good internet connection so the downtime is not much if you really want to run turbo 25/7.

As with everything there are tradeoffs we have to make and for what the device is used for.

Thanks for your reply.
Any chance you ship miners with 5V on OrangePi fan? I see no reason why this has been slowed down to boil the SBC and cause this discussion. It's inaudible compared to top exhaust fan anyway.

[jstefanop]

Yes it is a full desktop, but that does not mean its designed to run crazy intensive desktop applications. Goal of the device is to run Bitcoin apps/wallets in an easy to use manner on top of the full node/miner. Even when we start offering things like Lightning Apps these won't take up all the CPU resources.

Your free to game on it if you want, but expecting it to work flawlessly while doing so and running the hashboard in turbo is definitely not what we advertise and way beyond the scope of the device. Ive also explained many times that you should not run in in turbo while doing the initial sync. While we have tested it and works fine in our test setups, there are environments (over 35C ambient) where the CPU could overheat. It only takes the device 24-48 hours to complete a full sync with a good internet connection so the downtime is not much if you really want to run turbo 25/7.

As with everything there are tradeoffs we have to make and for what the device is used for.

Thanks for your reply.
Any chance you ship miners with 5V on OrangePi fan? I see no reason why this has been slowed down to boil the SBC and cause this discussion. It's inaudible compared to top exhaust fan anyway.

Its actually pretty loud @5v. That fan runs ~ 12k RPM at that voltage, and its way louder than the main fan in ECO mode. You have to remember most of our customers run our devices on their desks/small rooms in ECO mode. Near silent operation is top design decision.

[Tempestblack]

Hiya @jstefanop...good to see you posting here on the forum...wanted to let you know that I upgraded the NVMe SSD to a 1TB and reflashed the sd card and restarted the node and let it resync and both node and miner are doing just fine...looking forward to the two additional miners I ordered arriving towards the end of the year...I hope you and the staff are doing great and well Happy Halloween...

[amanz360]

Hello, I got a full node unit a while ago and it was working well for me so I picked up 2 standard units as well. For the most part things run smoothly, though on occasion I'll notice my hashrate loses 3 TH/it seems like one of the units stops hashing randomly but the other two keep going fine. This has happened pretty consistently for a while and generally I have to reboot the unit from the interface to get things working again. Does anyone know if there's a reason this might be happening or any way to increase the reliability of the units when they're linked together?

Also, it's awesome to see such active support in here. Excited about future updates!

[jstefanop]

Hiya @jstefanop...good to see you posting here on the forum...wanted to let you know that I upgraded the NVMe SSD to a 1TB and reflashed the sd card and restarted the node and let it resync and both node and miner are doing just fine...looking forward to the two additional miners I ordered arriving towards the end of the year...I hope you and the staff are doing great and well Happy Halloween...

Thanks! Yea any 1-4TB NVMe drive should work fine on these.

FYI to anyone that Pre-Ordered a Batch 3 full unit order your in for a treat! We were able to score 1TB drives for a good price so we will be upgrading everyones order to a 1TB version for free!

Hello, I got a full node unit a while ago and it was working well for me so I picked up 2 standard units as well. For the most part things run smoothly, though on occasion I'll notice my hashrate loses 3 TH/it seems like one of the units stops hashing randomly but the other two keep going fine. This has happened pretty consistently for a while and generally I have to reboot the unit from the interface to get things working again. Does anyone know if there's a reason this might be happening or any way to increase the reliability of the units when they're linked together?

Also, it's awesome to see such active support in here. Excited about future updates!

This is a known issue on the standard units, if you have an unstable internet connection they will drop if your internet does not come back online fast enough. There will be a fix pushed soon, but in the meantime id either check your wifi connection and bring it closer to your router and/or switch to ethernet, or check your ISP on why its dropping its internet connection.

[amanz360]

Thanks for the reply! Hmm, so I do have them connected via ethernet. I suppose it might be possible my ISP could be dropping my connection temporarily while I'm asleep, I'll give them a call and see if I can get any more info.

Another reason I came by to post on here for help is very recently, within the past couple days or so, I've become unable to get into the miner dashboard via IP. I've confirmed I have the right IP, see it on advanced IP scanner, but the dashboard doesn't load when I try to get into it via my desktop. It's a windows machine, and I tried chrome, brave, firefox, edge, IE and none of them loaded. My laptop has linux on it with chrome and the same IP loaded up the dashboard there, but it doesn't have complete info/it doesn't show any hashing info and how many boards are attached even if they're currently hashing.

I'm not too sure on why the dashboard suddenly stopped working on my windows desktop, it had been working fine for me for the past few months. Is there possibly some setting I might have flipped or some config that I need to change on my desktop? I'm having difficulty getting all 3 units to come online stably these past few days as well, the broken dashboard seems like it can send miner restart or reboot requests but I'm not too sure if they're working right. Power cycling seems to work temporarily until one or two of the units goes offline again. Do you think I should just try resetting all 3 units to factory config/I saw mention of reflashing the SD to do something like that, would you recommend trying that or waiting for a potential update?

EDIT:
Apparently it was just waiting for me to finally make an account and ask this question, suddenly able to get back into the dashboard on my main computer

[vintag386]

Back to my earlier question, which got lost in the shuffle:

Any updated to when LN will be available?

[crypto_curious]

Back to my earlier question, which got lost in the shuffle:

Any updated to when LN will be available?

There wasn't even a single update to miner binary software since initial release in May 2021, and you are talking about LN?!  miner binary crashes almost everyday, no Raspberry Pi releases as promised... I wouldn't count on LN this year. I understand jstefanop and team are busy, so I wait - but just replying realistically to you - leave it running for a few months, maybe something (hopefully) will be released then.

[heslo]

Back to my earlier question, which got lost in the shuffle:

Any updated to when LN will be available?

There wasn't even a single update to miner binary software since initial release in May 2021, and you are talking about LN?!  miner binary crashes almost everyday, no Raspberry Pi releases as promised... I wouldn't count on LN this year. I understand jstefanop and team are busy, so I wait - but just replying realistically to you - leave it running for a few months, maybe something (hopefully) will be released then.

I'm seriously thinking of just installing Umbrel myself and giving it a shot. Sure it won't be fully integrated into the Apollo GUI but at least I can fiddle with LN in the meantime. If I fuck it up, I can always just reflash the SD and away I go again

[crypto_curious]

Back to my earlier question, which got lost in the shuffle:

Any updated to when LN will be available?

There wasn't even a single update to miner binary software since initial release in May 2021, and you are talking about LN?!   miner binary crashes almost everyday, no Raspberry Pi releases as promised... I wouldn't count on LN this year. I understand jstefanop and team are busy, so I wait - but just replying realistically to you - leave it running for a few months, maybe something (hopefully) will be released then.

I'm seriously thinking of just installing Umbrel myself and giving it a shot. Sure it won't be fully integrated into the Apollo GUI but at least I can fiddle with LN in the meantime. If I fuck it up, I can always just reflash the SD and away I go again

Great idea. I'd try some LN solutions too, but no time to experiment lately. But if you succeed I will be happy to follow

[MLOMBANA]

With so many of us now using an Apollo for mining BTC and the fact that the box has its own node, has anyone taken the time to do a write up for us "slower" old guys that might want to take full advantage of the functions of the box as in use the node and the box together to solo mine?

Is it even possible to set up the Apollo BTC and Node to mine into itself in solo mode?

I'm mining to CKPool but wondering if I have the ability to use the Apollo to mine in my old world and not have to go to a pool.

A write-up or cheat sheet would be really welcome!

ml

[lord_icon]

Hi there,

I use version: 0.3.1
3 devices.
1 x master and 2 slave

The problem is the following.
In TURBO mode, I can not get all 3 devices online

Does anyone still have such problems?
How can I solve them?

https://i.ibb.co/cwXsmzP/Screenshot-2021-11-01-Apollo-miner-web-dashboard.png
So it looks when I start normally.
Hasboard#1 + #2 are the slaves.


https://i.ibb.co/zfvrDN1/Screenshot-2021-11-01-Apollo-miner-web-dashboard-1.png
When I click "Miner => Restart" both slaves and Hasboard # 0 (Master) does not work anymore.

Can you ever run 3 devices at the same time?
When will the next update come? 0.3.1 is already over 1/2 year old.
Does anything happen?

ECO-Modus => runs longer than one day stable
https://i.ibb.co/NFRg4v3/Screenshot-2021-11-01-Apollo-miner-web-dashboard-2.png

BALANCED  => Mostly no 24h. Then one falls out. Restart of all 3 devices => then it runs again for 1/2 - 3/4 day
https://i.ibb.co/HPBKRS8/Screenshot-2021-11-01-Apollo-miner-web-dashboard-3.png

P.s. Has someone gave TeamViewer to install?

P.p.s. Per LAN directly to the Fritzbox via 500MBIT/s connection

[jstefanop]

Hi there,

I use version: 0.3.1
3 devices.
1 x master and 2 slave

The problem is the following.
In TURBO mode, I can not get all 3 devices online

Does anyone still have such problems?
How can I solve them?


So it looks when I start normally.
Hasboard#1 + #2 are the slaves.



When I click "Miner => Restart" both slaves and Hasboard # 0 (Master) does not work anymore.

Can you ever run 3 devices at the same time?
When will the next update come? 0.3.1 is already over 1/2 year old.
Does anything happen?

ECO-Modus => runs longer than one day stable


BALANCED  => Mostly no 24h. Then one falls out. Restart of all 3 devices => then it runs again for 1/2 - 3/4 day


P.s. Has someone gave TeamViewer to install?

P.p.s. Per LAN directly to the Fritzbox via 500MBIT/s connection

Id wait a little longer than a few minutes for all hashboards to come online. It sometimes takes them a bit to show up on the dashboard. Are you running them on the FutureBit PSUs or do you have your own?

[jstefanop]

Back to my earlier question, which got lost in the shuffle:

Any updated to when LN will be available?

There wasn't even a single update to miner binary software since initial release in May 2021, and you are talking about LN?!  miner binary crashes almost everyday, no Raspberry Pi releases as promised... I wouldn't count on LN this year. I understand jstefanop and team are busy, so I wait - but just replying realistically to you - leave it running for a few months, maybe something (hopefully) will be released then.

Lots of work going on in the background. Unfortunately were still focused on scaling production, but that will shift to software once we start shipping Batch 3 in the next few months.

That being said 0.3.2 will be released in the next few weeks with updated miner binaries, lots of GUI fixes, 32 and 64bit RPi binaries etc.

[crypto_curious]

Hi there,

I use version: 0.3.1
3 devices.
1 x master and 2 slave

The problem is the following.
In TURBO mode, I can not get all 3 devices online

Does anyone still have such problems?
How can I solve them?


So it looks when I start normally.
Hasboard#1 + #2 are the slaves.



When I click "Miner => Restart" both slaves and Hasboard # 0 (Master) does not work anymore.

Can you ever run 3 devices at the same time?
When will the next update come? 0.3.1 is already over 1/2 year old.
Does anything happen?

ECO-Modus => runs longer than one day stable


BALANCED  => Mostly no 24h. Then one falls out. Restart of all 3 devices => then it runs again for 1/2 - 3/4 day


P.s. Has someone gave TeamViewer to install?

P.p.s. Per LAN directly to the Fritzbox via 500MBIT/s connection

Looks like power issues. What PSU you have?

[crypto_curious]

Back to my earlier question, which got lost in the shuffle:

Any updated to when LN will be available?

There wasn't even a single update to miner binary software since initial release in May 2021, and you are talking about LN?!  miner binary crashes almost everyday, no Raspberry Pi releases as promised... I wouldn't count on LN this year. I understand jstefanop and team are busy, so I wait - but just replying realistically to you - leave it running for a few months, maybe something (hopefully) will be released then.

Lots of work going on in the background. Unfortunately were still focused on scaling production, but that will shift to software once we start shipping Batch 3 in the next few months.

That being said 0.3.2 will be released in the next few weeks with updated miner binaries, lots of GUI fixes, 32 and 64bit RPi binaries etc.

Thanks, I appreciate your work, as always. Can't wait!

[Max1965]

Back to my earlier question, which got lost in the shuffle:

Any updated to when LN will be available?

There wasn't even a single update to miner binary software since initial release in May 2021, and you are talking about LN?!  miner binary crashes almost everyday, no Raspberry Pi releases as promised... I wouldn't count on LN this year. I understand jstefanop and team are busy, so I wait - but just replying realistically to you - leave it running for a few months, maybe something (hopefully) will be released then.

Lots of work going on in the background. Unfortunately were still focused on scaling production, but that will shift to software once we start shipping Batch 3 in the next few months.

That being said 0.3.2 will be released in the next few weeks with updated miner binaries, lots of GUI fixes, 32 and 64bit RPi binaries etc.

Yes! Production first!

[n0nce]

Lots of work going on in the background. Unfortunately were still focused on scaling production, but that will shift to software once we start shipping Batch 3 in the next few months.

That being said 0.3.2 will be released in the next few weeks with updated miner binaries, lots of GUI fixes, 32 and 64bit RPi binaries etc.

Great to hear! I need a space heater or an Apollo quickly; it's getting cold here!

[VictorGT]

There wasn't even a single update to miner binary software since initial release in May 2021, and you are talking about LN?!   miner binary crashes almost everyday, no Raspberry Pi releases as promised... I wouldn't count on LN this year. I understand jstefanop and team are busy, so I wait - but just replying realistically to you - leave it running for a few months, maybe something (hopefully) will be released then.

Lots of work going on in the background. Unfortunately were still focused on scaling production, but that will shift to software once we start shipping Batch 3 in the next few months.

That being said 0.3.2 will be released in the next few weeks with updated miner binaries, lots of GUI fixes, 32 and 64bit RPi binaries etc.

Please dont forget IDLE mode when internet conection is lost. A few days ago, another 20 hours "full mining" without internet. 4 Apollo LTC + 1 Apollo BTC. Came on... this is not difficult to add. Both Apollo NEED this. Its a "must have" for small miners.