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

[rvnli]

Same here on Raspberry 4, Raspbian GNU/Linux 10.

[cryptobradley]

Newbie questions...

I have 3 Apollo BTC miners up and running with no issues. Full node downloaded in 1.5 days. :-)

I have a controller and 2 standard units. I am running in turbo mode. Hash rate is ~3.1  I see all 3 in the dashboard.
Is there any way to increase the power on one of the standard units that is running with a 500W power supply? The other 2 are running the 200W PS. If they all need to be managed by the same rules, I will buy 2 more 500W power supplies if that allows me to increase the hash rate . If I do that, how do push all three to the 3.8TH/s limit? Do I need to adjust the power in "Custom Miner Mode"? If so, how high should I go?


Thank you in advance for your help/advice.

"*Our FutureBit 200W power supply is limited to ~ 3 TH/s, 3.8 TH/s is only achievable with an external > 300 watt power supply"

+1 for this question. What are recommended settings for 3.8 TH/s?

For now, I have been going as far as 85/55, resulting in approx. 3,4TH/s@0,07W/GHs (with a 0,9% error rate). Guess you have to push the freq up to 60 to get the full 3,8TH/s (provided you have a capable PSU ofc!) Each hardware has its own sweet spot, so you have to try out what works best for you.

I now running power 95% Freq 53 My total hash rate is 10.43 Th/s with 3 miners, I'll push the freq to 60 the next time I need to reboot.

HASHBOARD #0  3.78 Th/s 69°c    4043 rpm    277 W   8.93 v   0.7%   
Active
HASHBOARD #1 3.71 Th/s 68°c    3905 rpm    268 W   8.71 v   1.1%   
Active
HASHBOARD #2  3.62 Th/s 67°c    3756 rpm    271 W   8.75 v   0.9%   

Man these generate some heat!

[jbrow8]

I have a problem, I paid for two apollo-btc units , (batch one), and only one arrived. Since then I have sent all the documentation requested, received an apology, and assurance that the missing items were to mailed out, but after three weeks now nothing, not even a response to my recent inquiries about the status of my unfulfilled order. Its only about $350 in BTC but the reputation of the company is in my mind very bad. Its one thing to make a mistake and fix it, but to ignore my email inquiries into my paid order is not something a reputable establishment can or should survive. At best the over priced bug ridden device billed as an American company achievement is now starting to look like more of a disgrace. Just wondering who else has similar problems before I get banned from posting.

Have no idea who you are, but I do know all outstanding order issues were shipped last week. If your issue was not responded to in the last few days its because the team is out for 4th of July weekend. Simply send another email and youll be taken care of by Tuesday.

And to answer your question, no there is no one else with your issue, because we are not in the business of not shipping what our customers ordered. Mistakes happen and we resolve all of them as quickly as humanly possible.

Thanks for the kind words though  

Eight hours after posting the original post, I received a fedex tracking number, stating the product left the facility. I am glad, if true, that I am the only issue

[devincrypt]

Have a standard unit that wants to be stubborn. (ECO mode). I'm wondering if this is related to a problem mentioned earlier:

The USB connected hashboards is a known issue we are trying to figure out if its a firmware or general STM32 USB driver issue. Usually a power cycle on the standard unit will fix it if its taking a really long time to connect.  - jstefanop




SIDE QUESTION: Can these units (SHA-256) be used to mine from pools that use SHA-256D?

[jstefanop]

Have a standard unit that wants to be stubborn. (ECO mode). I'm wondering if this is related to a problem mentioned earlier:

The USB connected hashboards is a known issue we are trying to figure out if its a firmware or general STM32 USB driver issue. Usually a power cycle on the standard unit will fix it if its taking a really long time to connect.  - jstefanop




SIDE QUESTION: Can these units (SHA-256) be used to mine from pools that use SHA-256D?

Does it hash at all, or it is always 0? Could be a firmware issue we had with a small number of units (wrong firmware at factory). Shoot us an email either way.

[jstefanop]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this but I i do recall reading that you were working on different apps. Just wanted to try to throw an additional idea out there:

https://diff.cryptothis.com/

Does anyone know how we might be able to use our own node's statistic to make a local version for the above site? I feel like it could be a cool project but I'd have no idea how or where to get started.

Yes we will start releasing some apps after we are finished with the initial bugs. There is nothing stoping you from installing your own. Your node has an RPC connection that most of these projects use.

[gt_addict]

Is there a way how to check ssd drive on full package.

I don't see its available through web dashboard in system utilization anymore.

I can't start node. It was 100% sync and probably I did not shoot down properly.

What's the best way to troubleshoot? Is this hardware issue or I just need to re-mound drive.

Thank you

The web dashboard dowsnt work well. Hook up a monitor to the apollo direct. That will show all info. If it still doesnt show then report back and im sure someone will be able to suggest something to try.

[AlexDe]

My SSD plate for node after restarting the miner is no longer recognized. And Node can no longer be started. It comes all the time message no matter what I do: Node is offline
Double-check your USB node drive is plugged in the USB port in the back of your Apollo, properly formatted with the folder name "Bitcoin" in the root directory, and press the Start button below
How can I reinstall SSD on Miner?
Or how can I bring Miner to factory settings?
Please Help..
Thank you

[Max1965]

Is there a way how to check ssd drive on full package.

I don't see its available through web dashboard in system utilization anymore.

I can't start node. It was 100% sync and probably I did not shoot down properly.

What's the best way to troubleshoot? Is this hardware issue or I just need to re-mound drive.

Thank you

The web dashboard dowsnt work well. Hook up a monitor to the apollo direct. That will show all info. If it still doesnt show then report back and im sure someone will be able to suggest something to try.

I did with monitor but could not find ssd drive.

[Max1965]

My SSD plate for node after restarting the miner is no longer recognized. And Node can no longer be started. It comes all the time message no matter what I do: Node is offline
Double-check your USB node drive is plugged in the USB port in the back of your Apollo, properly formatted with the folder name "Bitcoin" in the root directory, and press the Start button below
How can I reinstall SSD on Miner?
Or how can I bring Miner to factory settings?
Please Help..
Thank you

Hi looks like you are not alone.
I have full package and looks like after restarting my node behave the same.
Hope help on the way!

By the way miner is OK. Only node issue.

[dwood443]

My SSD plate for node after restarting the miner is no longer recognized. And Node can no longer be started. It comes all the time message no matter what I do: Node is offline
Double-check your USB node drive is plugged in the USB port in the back of your Apollo, properly formatted with the folder name "Bitcoin" in the root directory, and press the Start button below
How can I reinstall SSD on Miner?
Or how can I bring Miner to factory settings?
Please Help..
Thank you

if you reflash the micro sd card the miner will reset to defaults and SSD drive will resync itself. Image is in first thread I think

[Max1965]

My SSD plate for node after restarting the miner is no longer recognized. And Node can no longer be started. It comes all the time message no matter what I do: Node is offline
Double-check your USB node drive is plugged in the USB port in the back of your Apollo, properly formatted with the folder name "Bitcoin" in the root directory, and press the Start button below
How can I reinstall SSD on Miner?
Or how can I bring Miner to factory settings?
Please Help..
Thank you

if you reflash the micro sd card the miner will reset to defaults and SSD drive will resync itself. Image is in first thread I think

Your are right. Just tested It works

Thanks

[jstefanop]

My SSD plate for node after restarting the miner is no longer recognized. And Node can no longer be started. It comes all the time message no matter what I do: Node is offline
Double-check your USB node drive is plugged in the USB port in the back of your Apollo, properly formatted with the folder name "Bitcoin" in the root directory, and press the Start button below
How can I reinstall SSD on Miner?
Or how can I bring Miner to factory settings?
Please Help..
Thank you

if you reflash the micro sd card the miner will reset to defaults and SSD drive will resync itself. Image is in first thread I think

Your are right. Just tested It works

Thanks

Yea make sure you are powering down the unit though a monitor using the built in system shutdown ( I know it sucks right now with the WebUI shutdown function not working), otherwise there is a high chance your SSD with the node will get corrupted. Most of the support cases so far with this issue is because of hard shutdowns. Or at the very least you can shutdown the node manually through the webui, then power off the device if you dont want to hook up a monitor. At least the node will properly shutdown and save its state that way and should minimize any corruption issues.

Hopefully well have the update out in the next few days.

[gt_addict]

My SSD plate for node after restarting the miner is no longer recognized. And Node can no longer be started. It comes all the time message no matter what I do: Node is offline
Double-check your USB node drive is plugged in the USB port in the back of your Apollo, properly formatted with the folder name "Bitcoin" in the root directory, and press the Start button below
How can I reinstall SSD on Miner?
Or how can I bring Miner to factory settings?
Please Help..
Thank you

if you reflash the micro sd card the miner will reset to defaults and SSD drive will resync itself. Image is in first thread I think

Your are right. Just tested It works

Thanks

Yea make sure you are powering down the unit though a monitor using the built in system shutdown ( I know it sucks right now with the WebUI shutdown function not working), otherwise there is a high chance your SSD with the node will get corrupted. Most of the support cases so far with this issue is because of hard shutdowns. Or at the very least you can shutdown the node manually through the webui, then power off the device if you dont want to hook up a monitor. At least the node will properly shutdown and save its state that way and should minimize any corruption issues.

Hopefully well have the update out in the next few days.

Hows the update going to be implemented? Simple update button in the UI or will it require a reflash of the SD Card?

[Yojimbo74]

Happily running my new Apollo, I was wondering a few things, forgive any ignorance, not very knowledgeable with code level stuff.
Even though it’s a full computer, but since it’s running the miner, is it’s possible to run additional miner software on the full unit?
Or, will there, could there, ever be drivers released so to recognize plugging in a usb miner(s) for some additional hash? Antminer, Gekko, etc?
Maybe even recognize a Moonlander, or two? lol

[Zaphodsghost]

Thanks for the great Poduct, these have exceeded all of my expectations!


I have a couple questions, that although they have been mentioned on here, no definitive answers were given.

How many Slave/USB ASICS can the main unit control?  

Right now I have 2 Full node/controls units with SBC and 6 Slave/USB ASICS.  

Can I remove or disable the SBC to use the second contoller as a slave/USB ASIC?  Possibly just plug into first control unit?

The second question will be a tricky one..  

I am upgrading power supplies on all ASICs and I want to maximize the hashrate but definitely don't want to blow them up.  SOO, each ASIC will have 375w available, I want to maximize Hashrate without killing the hardware.  FYI I am using HP Titanium(up to 96% effiecient) server power supplies w/PCIe breakout boards.

In the Custom Miner mode can I put the power all the way to max as I have 375w availbale to each unit?

 I guess Frequency will be a try and see..  Inch it up until things start acting odd?

Last thing I want to do is melt the  hardware down, but I want to utilize the extra wattage in the most efficeint way possible.

Third thing, I have a linux box(Mint Mate) running full nodes for Digibyte, Decred, and soon Unibright.  Would I be better served using that as my controller for the Futurebit ASICs?

Thanks again for an amazing product!!

$DGB

[cryptobradley]

Thanks for the great Poduct, these have exceeded all of my expectations!


I have a couple questions, that although they have been mentioned on here, no definitive answers were given.

How many Slave/USB ASICS can the main unit control?  

Right now I have 2 Full node/controls units with SBC and 6 Slave/USB ASICS.  

Can I remove or disable the SBC to use the second contoller as a slave/USB ASIC?  Possibly just plug into first control unit?

The second question will be a tricky one..  

I am upgrading power supplies on all ASICs and I want to maximize the hashrate but definitely don't want to blow them up.  SOO, each ASIC will have 375w available, I want to maximize Hashrate without killing the hardware.  FYI I am using HP Titanium(up to 96% effiecient) server power supplies w/PCIe breakout boards.

In the Custom Miner mode can I put the power all the way to max as I have 375w availbale to each unit?

 I guess Frequency will be a try and see..  Inch it up until things start acting odd?

Last thing I want to do is melt the  hardware down, but I want to utilize the extra wattage in the most efficeint way possible.

Third thing, I have a linux box(Mint Mate) running full nodes for Digibyte, Decred, and soon Unibright.  Would I be better served using that as my controller for the Futurebit ASICs?

Thanks again for an amazing product!!

$DGB

I can answer part of your question.

I have 1 full node and 2 standard units and I have each one running on a it's own 500watt power supply.
I have power set to MAX (95%) and frequency set to MAX (60).
Max power usage is 277, 270 & 268.
I'm getting ~3.8 Th/s on all three.
Total hashrate on the mining pool is 11-12Th/s


I've had them running for 1 week and so far they have not caught fire.  :-)

I have 3 more standard units coming from the 2nd batch and I assume they will run fine plugged in to the powered USB hub.

[jstefanop]

My SSD plate for node after restarting the miner is no longer recognized. And Node can no longer be started. It comes all the time message no matter what I do: Node is offline
Double-check your USB node drive is plugged in the USB port in the back of your Apollo, properly formatted with the folder name "Bitcoin" in the root directory, and press the Start button below
How can I reinstall SSD on Miner?
Or how can I bring Miner to factory settings?
Please Help..
Thank you

if you reflash the micro sd card the miner will reset to defaults and SSD drive will resync itself. Image is in first thread I think

Your are right. Just tested It works

Thanks

Yea make sure you are powering down the unit though a monitor using the built in system shutdown ( I know it sucks right now with the WebUI shutdown function not working), otherwise there is a high chance your SSD with the node will get corrupted. Most of the support cases so far with this issue is because of hard shutdowns. Or at the very least you can shutdown the node manually through the webui, then power off the device if you dont want to hook up a monitor. At least the node will properly shutdown and save its state that way and should minimize any corruption issues.

Hopefully well have the update out in the next few days.

Hows the update going to be implemented? Simple update button in the UI or will it require a reflash of the SD Card?

Update button will show up on the top bar of the UI.

[jeyzeus]

Is there an easy way to get the Bitcoin Core GUI installed? or use electrum? I want to try to use the node to broadcast a transaction. ideally it would be cool to be able to use it with a hardware wallet that already has bitcoin in it.

I installed bitcoin core using the "snap" program listed on the bitcoin.org website but there doesn't seem to be any program actually installed after I did this, nor any instructions on how to run bitcoin core after its installed.

Sorry I've never actually used a node and I am a complete Linux/Ubuntu noob.

edit:

I rebooted and the Bitcoin core icon showed up but now when I start it up i tried selecting "/media/nvme/Bitcoin" as the directory but that did not appear selectable on the Bitcoin core installer. I typed it in manually hoping it would find it because the folder is definitely there if I look locally but the Bitcoin core program doesn't seem to find it and now just says "Error initializing settings: failed saving settings file: unable to open settings file: /media/nvme/Bitcoin settings.json.tmp for writing"

I tried editing the permissions but it says that I am not the owner so not sure what to do now.

[jeyzeus]

Thanks for the great Poduct, these have exceeded all of my expectations!


I have a couple questions, that although they have been mentioned on here, no definitive answers were given.

How many Slave/USB ASICS can the main unit control?  

Right now I have 2 Full node/controls units with SBC and 6 Slave/USB ASICS.  

Can I remove or disable the SBC to use the second contoller as a slave/USB ASIC?  Possibly just plug into first control unit?

The second question will be a tricky one..  

I am upgrading power supplies on all ASICs and I want to maximize the hashrate but definitely don't want to blow them up.  SOO, each ASIC will have 375w available, I want to maximize Hashrate without killing the hardware.  FYI I am using HP Titanium(up to 96% effiecient) server power supplies w/PCIe breakout boards.

In the Custom Miner mode can I put the power all the way to max as I have 375w availbale to each unit?

 I guess Frequency will be a try and see..  Inch it up until things start acting odd?

Last thing I want to do is melt the  hardware down, but I want to utilize the extra wattage in the most efficeint way possible.

Third thing, I have a linux box(Mint Mate) running full nodes for Digibyte, Decred, and soon Unibright.  Would I be better served using that as my controller for the Futurebit ASICs?

Thanks again for an amazing product!!

$DGB

I can answer part of your question.

I have 1 full node and 2 standard units and I have each one running on a it's own 500watt power supply.
I have power set to MAX (95%) and frequency set to MAX (60).
Max power usage is 277, 270 & 268.
I'm getting ~3.8 Th/s on all three.
Total hashrate on the mining pool is 11-12Th/s


I've had them running for 1 week and so far they have not caught fire.  :-)

I have 3 more standard units coming from the 2nd batch and I assume they will run fine plugged in to the powered USB hub.

Adding to this a bit.

I am running this on 95% with the frequency at 54 and was getting around 3.5-3.6 TH/s on the pool. I tried it at 60 but the TH's rate fell to 2 TH range for a bit so I bumped it down. I've also been messing around with the Newpac USB miners and one of the things I've noticed while overclocking those is that it seems each chip had its own ideal frequency range. Some chips run faster at 485 MHz than at 515 MHz for example. I suspect these might be similar. Gonna try 55,56, 57 next and see which level it runs best at. Afterwards I think I will decrease the power range a bit, I just tested it at 90% and saw the same or similar TH/s results. Note - I added 2 fans that I connected through USB and currently get temps of ~55° C to 65° C. Normally the temps were 65° C - 73° C so I think they easily drop the temps by 5-10° or so. I felt adding it would make the stock fan work less hard over time and operate more efficiently.

PSA for anyone that wants to get a cheaper PSU that I can confirm works with these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/173879120490 -  Dell 03MJJP ~$20 (after tax/shipping)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/304058899205 - Breakout board ~$20 (after tax/shipping)

According to my calculations, this can actually host the full package + 2 standard units all overclocked to the max by itself for less than $40-$50 after cables. It seems these pull about 270W maxed out so if you used this PSU to run 3 units you should be under the 900W this puts out on a standard plug. As always DYOR but just wanted to put it on people's radar.

I am currently running this + 2 gekkoscience usb mining hubs with no issues. I was initially worried the PSU might be too loud since its from a server but it seems the entire set up is surprisingly quiet.  When I move it to balanced the PSU slows down the fan speed as well and gets even quieter so that's pretty cool & unexpected. You can't hear it at all over the AC.