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

[oldman123]

Tootall68, my front led doesnt work either. The led has not been soldered properly or been knocked off. Its so small to try and solder on. Ive ordered new iron tips which are smaller and also messaged furturebit asking for the specs for the LED so I can try and replace it.

Did see a couple others mentioned same thing.

Having frustration fun.

The monitor issue was my biggest problem - nothing I have would work until I got the $150 portable 1080p.  Weird.

Also, others have reported being unable to "find" or "see" the ipaddress - outside of the dashboard where it shows plain as day.  Also Weird.

Yea its all Batch 1 fun. Hopefully a good software update will sort most things. I plugged it straight into my asus 27” monitor (only a year old) and worked fine. Will only come up as 1080p so looks kinda odd compared to my 1440p main pc but still it worked atraight away. IP scanner detected the unit aswell, although it came up as an HTTP address unlike anything else on my network. Once i expanded the option it was designated as futurebit.

EDIT:-

managed to file down a solder tip and resolder the Front LED. Turns out I had it on backwards the first time *facepalm*.

GT_Addict:  Did you have to disassemble the unit to do the soldering?   My Batch 1 Full also has the detached LED issue?

[Jota_US]

short versions of the log in chrome

 note: 208 dropouts

https://i.imgur.com/b4WuGLw.png


https://i.imgur.com/w9PUfon.png



sample of the log
and I highlighted the 30 second plus one that stopped the miner

https://i.imgur.com/TjXUNOs.png

Thanks I will try that. Internet is pretty good but if there are small drop outs I may not notice. The LTC miner does not stop though and the BTC node either.

Internet connection monitor shows 0 drops in connection since I last posted. The miner also never stopped during that time so it may have been some internet dropouts in the past that caused it indeed.

I guess I talked too soon.
The miner stopped mining about 4 times in the last 5 hours and the internet was 100%. Had to manually reboot each time. Hopefully update fixes it soon.

[heslo]

Tootall68, my front led doesnt work either. The led has not been soldered properly or been knocked off. Its so small to try and solder on. Ive ordered new iron tips which are smaller and also messaged furturebit asking for the specs for the LED so I can try and replace it.

Did see a couple others mentioned same thing.

Having frustration fun.

The monitor issue was my biggest problem - nothing I have would work until I got the $150 portable 1080p.  Weird.

Also, others have reported being unable to "find" or "see" the ipaddress - outside of the dashboard where it shows plain as day.  Also Weird.

Yea its all Batch 1 fun. Hopefully a good software update will sort most things. I plugged it straight into my asus 27” monitor (only a year old) and worked fine. Will only come up as 1080p so looks kinda odd compared to my 1440p main pc but still it worked atraight away. IP scanner detected the unit aswell, although it came up as an HTTP address unlike anything else on my network. Once i expanded the option it was designated as futurebit.

EDIT:-

managed to file down a solder tip and resolder the Front LED. Turns out I had it on backwards the first time *facepalm*.

Now unfortunately the CPU fan is making a terrible racket. Tightened it up as Phillipma1957 did with his but its made no difference. Would it be because its a sleeve bearing and being run upside down??

Now getting "internal stats error" even when connected to a monitor and keyboard. A reboot hasnt sorted it. Don't really want to flash the SD Card again if I can help it.

Yep it's the tiny fan on the SBC. I took mine out the other day and bathed it in WD40. Helped somewhat but it's back now albeit intermittent. Like you said; batch 1 issues

[gt_addict]

GT_Addict:  Did you have to disassemble the unit to do the soldering?   My Batch 1 Full also has the detached LED issue?

Yea. Its only a few screws. Just remember to take out the SBC and m.2 riser first. The rest is really self explanatory.

[Leon3D]

Hi, I'm new to the Apollo BTC miner and ubuntu in general. I've been reading through the thread and found some of the similar issues I was having like web ui not showing, random disconnects from pool, or rather "there is a problem fetching stats, internal error" and then it just stops mining.

In some cases there is being referred to an upcoming update or reinstalling the whole thing. For both I am not sure how this will work or how to do go about it.

- Will the update be a downloadable software update, and if so where can I do that? does it work like android and just be able to update straight from ubuntu and where can I check my current version?

- And is there a manual on how to reinstall the image. does it have to be downloaded from u buntu itself, or can i create a stick straight from my windows machine? It it even needed to reinstall completely?

[dwood443]

I see these NVMe Internal SSD on sale for prime day
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YFFX5MD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And I see an ever better deal at bestbuy
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/crucial-p2-1tb-internal-pcie-gen-3-x4-solid-state-drive-m-2/6432875.p?ref=8575135&loc=86b672fad2ae11eba8729ae98ab22c260INT&acampID=86b672fad2ae11eba8729ae98ab22c260INT&skuId=6432875

[jstefanop]

I see these NVMe Internal SSD on sale for prime day
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YFFX5MD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Yea we were looking at these WD drives or the crucial. These are great as well and thats a really good price. This is why we didn't want to buy the 1TB drives initially, these would have cost us (and you) 140 to buy back in January.

[jstefanop]

Tootall68, my front led doesnt work either. The led has not been soldered properly or been knocked off. Its so small to try and solder on. Ive ordered new iron tips which are smaller and also messaged furturebit asking for the specs for the LED so I can try and replace it.

Did see a couple others mentioned same thing.

Having frustration fun.

The monitor issue was my biggest problem - nothing I have would work until I got the $150 portable 1080p.  Weird.

Also, others have reported being unable to "find" or "see" the ipaddress - outside of the dashboard where it shows plain as day.  Also Weird.

Yea its all Batch 1 fun. Hopefully a good software update will sort most things. I plugged it straight into my asus 27” monitor (only a year old) and worked fine. Will only come up as 1080p so looks kinda odd compared to my 1440p main pc but still it worked atraight away. IP scanner detected the unit aswell, although it came up as an HTTP address unlike anything else on my network. Once i expanded the option it was designated as futurebit.

EDIT:-

managed to file down a solder tip and resolder the Front LED. Turns out I had it on backwards the first time *facepalm*.

Now unfortunately the CPU fan is making a terrible racket. Tightened it up as Phillipma1957 did with his but its made no difference. Would it be because its a sleeve bearing and being run upside down??

Now getting "internal stats error" even when connected to a monitor and keyboard. A reboot hasnt sorted it. Don't really want to flash the SD Card again if I can help it.

Yep it's the tiny fan on the SBC. I took mine out the other day and bathed it in WD40. Helped somewhat but it's back now albeit intermittent. Like you said; batch 1 issues

Anyone with the fan issue just send an email, we have plenty in stock and well send out replacements. Its just a hit or miss with these fans, some die right away and others last years.

[jstefanop]

Hey guys make sure if your connected to the system with the monitor you DO NOT do any system level updates (ie ubuntu asking you to update the kernel etc). Even though we tried to keep the system and 'app" as separate as possible the full node system is still really an embedded system with lots of system level tweaks to make it work. If you update the system lots of these will be will be wiped and youll be left with a bricked system until you reflash the SD card.

Well be issuing updates on the web UI remotely (there will be a yellow update button in the dashboard) you can install whenever they are available, but for system updates please wait until we issue updated SD card images.

[TheFlatline]

I cannot get the second miner to work.  (2x standard units, run by hackintosh running latest ubuntu)

Running start_all produces "Started" but my second miner does not begin to run.  Red light continues to flash.

Could this be a worker issue with the pool I'm connecting to?  Do I need to differentiate the workers somehow with regards to the pool?

Also, when I try to run "screen" the system tells me there are no screens to display.  None of the screen commands yield anything.

[gt_addict]

Anyone with the fan issue just send an email, we have plenty in stock and well send out replacements. Its just a hit or miss with these fans, some die right away and others last years.

Whats the support email address? I tried emailing through the website about the Front LED (which I've subsequently fixed now) but haven't had a reply yet.

I've taken the CPU fan off for now. Not that I'm happy about it but it runs passively at about 60-65c on Balanced mode with a room temp of 18c.

[a750gixr]

I just started my 2 FutureBit miners up. One was the full package the other is plugged in via usb. I got slushpool working then one of my nodes stopped. I’ve tried restarting the proper way and even rebooting the proper way. It’s very frustrating. Now both nodes are not wanting to mine. I am also being patient waiting 15-20mins until the system responds and puts me on the dashboard. I’m at a loss.
Could use some help or if there is a easy mode for updating the Bitcoin miners with out screwing up the proprietary software please let me know. If I don’t hear back, I’ll spend a few days going through the forums.

Update*
Okay I got ckpool Mining but I had to use the whole address. Got the miners cooled off and keeping the temp stable about 50-60. Would like a screenshot of where the web UI update button is. Anyone know if they released a new OS update?

[SterilLightUVC]

Does anyones dashboard on their apollo say this error:

There is a problem fetching system stats (Internal error)

[gt_addict]

Does anyones dashboard on their apollo say this error:

There is a problem fetching system stats (Internal error)

Yea I had that when it was connected to a monitor and keyboard. Re-flash the SD Card and set the miner up again. Should be fine after that.

Ive flashed mine three times to get it to be stable enough to stay in for more than a day.

[Leon3D]

Hey guys make sure if your connected to the system with the monitor you DO NOT do any system level updates (ie ubuntu asking you to update the kernel etc). Even though we tried to keep the system and 'app" as separate as possible the full node system is still really an embedded system with lots of system level tweaks to make it work. If you update the system lots of these will be will be wiped and youll be left with a bricked system until you reflash the SD card.

Well be issuing updates on the web UI remotely (there will be a yellow update button in the dashboard) you can install whenever they are available, but for system updates please wait until we issue updated SD card images.

uh ok.. is there a step-by-step guide on how to re-flash? mine is not bricked, but it keeps disconnecting from the pool giving me the "There is a problem fetching system stats (Internal error)" error.

[jstefanop]

Hey guys make sure if your connected to the system with the monitor you DO NOT do any system level updates (ie ubuntu asking you to update the kernel etc). Even though we tried to keep the system and 'app" as separate as possible the full node system is still really an embedded system with lots of system level tweaks to make it work. If you update the system lots of these will be will be wiped and youll be left with a bricked system until you reflash the SD card.

Well be issuing updates on the web UI remotely (there will be a yellow update button in the dashboard) you can install whenever they are available, but for system updates please wait until we issue updated SD card images.

uh ok.. is there a step-by-step guide on how to re-flash? mine is not bricked, but it keeps disconnecting from the pool giving me the "There is a problem fetching system stats (Internal error)" error.

That error is displayed when there is no internet, so you unit is most likely losing wifi or your network is going down.

[gt_addict]

Hey guys make sure if your connected to the system with the monitor you DO NOT do any system level updates (ie ubuntu asking you to update the kernel etc). Even though we tried to keep the system and 'app" as separate as possible the full node system is still really an embedded system with lots of system level tweaks to make it work. If you update the system lots of these will be will be wiped and youll be left with a bricked system until you reflash the SD card.

Well be issuing updates on the web UI remotely (there will be a yellow update button in the dashboard) you can install whenever they are available, but for system updates please wait until we issue updated SD card images.

uh ok.. is there a step-by-step guide on how to re-flash? mine is not bricked, but it keeps disconnecting from the pool giving me the "There is a problem fetching system stats (Internal error)" error.

That error is displayed when there is no internet, so you unit is most likely losing wifi or your network is going down.

That's different to my experience. My internet and pool connection was stable and I still got the same error. Re-flash sorted it though and its been stable and running for 24 hours now. Just need a replacement fan now though which I'm in talks with support to get hopefully.

Speaking of which. Seeing as the fan is only 2pin, is it running at full 5v all the time, as I see its connected to the proprietary connector on the SBC. Would it be possible to connect a different fan to different 5v/GND GPIO pins?

[SterilLightUVC]

I am getting a scoring hash rate on slush pools dash board. So are you sure I'm not getting internet?

[whiteogre]

Hey guys make sure if your connected to the system with the monitor you DO NOT do any system level updates (ie ubuntu asking you to update the kernel etc). Even though we tried to keep the system and 'app" as separate as possible the full node system is still really an embedded system with lots of system level tweaks to make it work. If you update the system lots of these will be will be wiped and youll be left with a bricked system until you reflash the SD card.

Mainly a suggestion for a future release:
Package the "app" as a container (Docker for example) and map the necessary i/o connections directly to it. That way all the dependencies and changes needed by your own implementation can stay as you want without a risk of a system update making modifications and on the Ubuntu side the system updates and package installs (which may also pull updates as dependencies) can be used without having to worry of something getting unintentionally modified. That could also make reseting the setup back to defaults easier since it would just be a matter of discarding the container and starting a clean one.

[jstefanop]

Hey guys make sure if your connected to the system with the monitor you DO NOT do any system level updates (ie ubuntu asking you to update the kernel etc). Even though we tried to keep the system and 'app" as separate as possible the full node system is still really an embedded system with lots of system level tweaks to make it work. If you update the system lots of these will be will be wiped and youll be left with a bricked system until you reflash the SD card.

Mainly a suggestion for a future release:
Package the "app" as a container (Docker for example) and map the necessary i/o connections directly to it. That way all the dependencies and changes needed by your own implementation can stay as you want without a risk of a system update making modifications and on the Ubuntu side the system updates and package installs (which may also pull updates as dependencies) can be used without having to worry of something getting unintentionally modified. That could also make reseting the setup back to defaults easier since it would just be a matter of discarding the container and starting a clean one.

Yes, this was the original plan, unfortunately to containerize the app was too much work to make it in time for release. This will also make it easy to install the web app on any other system so the standard units can have a nice UI as well.