Official FutureBit Apollo BTC Software/Image and Support thread

[jstefanop]

I’ve had a full unit since august and it’s worked great without any issues. Recently I got a standard unit (batch 3) to connect to my full unit. I can get the standard unit mining for about 10 minutes and then it goes to inactive status. Then I have to power it off and on then restart mining to get it to start again. But it only will mine for a few minutes again before going inactive. The full unit continues mining without any issues. The red light on the standard unit has the slow red blinking light like it’s mining but it’s showing inactive in the dashboard. I’m running apollo web v0.3.2

Any ideas what the problem could be?

Hmm, yeah I've been having the same exact problem for a while. I was hoping this most recent update would fix it, but looks like I'm still having the same issue. I have 1 full unit and 2 standard units, for some reason all 3 of them wont stay hashing at the same time and one of them will drop off after a while. It's always just one that drops off and they all keep blinking the slow pattern.

Do the yellow lights on the bottom continue to flash? The mean the board is still hashing but something is up with the USB connection. You can also try connecting the standard units to a USB hub and trying different USB ports. If a power reset/SD card re-flash does not solve it with latest firmware you can alway contact support and well take care of you.

[gt_addict]

Noticed today that my Full Node keeps mining after the internet connection is lost. Was this not resolved on the latest update?

[heslo]

Noticed today that my Full Node keeps mining after the internet connection is lost. Was this not resolved on the latest update?

Can confirm mine still does this too

[mr_eee]

I’ve had a full unit since august and it’s worked great without any issues. Recently I got a standard unit (batch 3) to connect to my full unit. I can get the standard unit mining for about 10 minutes and then it goes to inactive status. Then I have to power it off and on then restart mining to get it to start again. But it only will mine for a few minutes again before going inactive. The full unit continues mining without any issues. The red light on the standard unit has the slow red blinking light like it’s mining but it’s showing inactive in the dashboard. I’m running apollo web v0.3.2

Any ideas what the problem could be?

Hmm, yeah I've been having the same exact problem for a while. I was hoping this most recent update would fix it, but looks like I'm still having the same issue. I have 1 full unit and 2 standard units, for some reason all 3 of them wont stay hashing at the same time and one of them will drop off after a while. It's always just one that drops off and they all keep blinking the slow pattern.

Do the yellow lights on the bottom continue to flash? The mean the board is still hashing but something is up with the USB connection. You can also try connecting the standard units to a USB hub and trying different USB ports. If a power reset/SD card re-flash does not solve it with latest firmware you can alway contact support and well take care of you.

No the yellow lights are not flashing. After my post above I was able to get my standard unit to hash for 48 hours until it stopped again. Had to do a reboot to get it hashing again.

[AloTheMax]

Noticed today that my Full Node keeps mining after the internet connection is lost. Was this not resolved on the latest update?

Can confirm mine still does this too

Hi everyone I can confirm that my unit also has the same problem. I started it yesterday afternoon and tonight it went into lockdown, the ip disappeared from not being able to access but the unit kept flashing the red led as if it were undermining instead it was in lockout. Now I try to download the whole blockchain first and then start mining ... let's see how it goes. I hope this problem is solved because from what I see I'm not the only one....

[jstefanop]

Noticed today that my Full Node keeps mining after the internet connection is lost. Was this not resolved on the latest update?

Can confirm mine still does this too

Correct there is no built in functionality to determine whether your network connection is stable. We fixed the issue where the miner would not start up after your connection goes down and comes back up. Its on the do-to list to shutdown the miner if a long internet outage is detected.

[itskeule]

In case my Internet connectivity goes down, I created a script that is called via crontab every minute or so.
It simply checks if Google DNS is reachable. If not, it shuts down the miner process:

Code:

# /usr/bin/bash
#
# Check if Google DNS (8.8.8.8) is reachable.
# if down, kill process futurebit-miner
#
ping -w 5 8.8.8.8 > /dev/null 2>&1
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
    # Google is UP, do nothing
else
    # Google is DOWN, kill miner process
    kill -9 $(pidof futurebit-miner)
fi

[azereki]

I’ve had a full unit since august and it’s worked great without any issues. Recently I got a standard unit (batch 3) to connect to my full unit. I can get the standard unit mining for about 10 minutes and then it goes to inactive status. Then I have to power it off and on then restart mining to get it to start again. But it only will mine for a few minutes again before going inactive. The full unit continues mining without any issues. The red light on the standard unit has the slow red blinking light like it’s mining but it’s showing inactive in the dashboard. I’m running apollo web v0.3.2

Any ideas what the problem could be?

Hmm, yeah I've been having the same exact problem for a while. I was hoping this most recent update would fix it, but looks like I'm still having the same issue. I have 1 full unit and 2 standard units, for some reason all 3 of them wont stay hashing at the same time and one of them will drop off after a while. It's always just one that drops off and they all keep blinking the slow pattern.

Do the yellow lights on the bottom continue to flash? The mean the board is still hashing but something is up with the USB connection. You can also try connecting the standard units to a USB hub and trying different USB ports. If a power reset/SD card re-flash does not solve it with latest firmware you can alway contact support and well take care of you.

I experienced the same issue, except that my standard unit doesn't go active at all anymore. Solid red light, no blinking yellow underneath, while connected via USB. Full unit will continue hashing as normal. Sent an email through the contact form on the futurebit site.

[crypto_curious]

In case my Internet connectivity goes down, I created a script that is called via crontab every minute or so.
It simply checks if Google DNS is reachable. If not, it shuts down the miner process:

Code:

# /usr/bin/bash
#
# Check if Google DNS (8.8.8.8) is reachable.
# if down, kill process futurebit-miner
#
ping -w 5 8.8.8.8 > /dev/null 2>&1
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
    # Google is UP, do nothing
else
    # Google is DOWN, kill miner process
    kill -9 $(pidof futurebit-miner)
fi

Have you verified, that closing down mining process, stops miner physically and it goes cold after a minute or two?

[itskeule]

Have you verified, that closing down mining process, stops miner physically and it goes cold after a minute or two?

You see in the Web GUI that the Miner is offline. Can't tell if the temperature drops, but I'll do a test with my FLIR cam to check if the temperature goes down.

[emilio932]

just got my used unit home. it booted up fine first startup, but i couldnt login so i tried the reflash-method. and now it seems it wont boot at all. the ethernet-connection lights up and flashes, but i cant seem to get any ip-address to sign in to the miner.
what am i doing wrong and what can i do to fix it?  unit has been loading for 10 minutes now.

i even tried reflashing it again, with the newest firmware available.
its a full-node package and im using my own 1600W EVGA T1 power supply.


help PLS!

//edit//

Red light on front is lighting up solid, a small green light is lights up on the blue controlboard, a red LED is lighting up right next to the SSD, and it looks like a red light is lighting up below the controlboard towards the hashboard?

[jstefanop]

In case my Internet connectivity goes down, I created a script that is called via crontab every minute or so.
It simply checks if Google DNS is reachable. If not, it shuts down the miner process:

Code:

# /usr/bin/bash
#
# Check if Google DNS (8.8.8.8) is reachable.
# if down, kill process futurebit-miner
#
ping -w 5 8.8.8.8 > /dev/null 2>&1
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
    # Google is UP, do nothing
else
    # Google is DOWN, kill miner process
    kill -9 $(pidof futurebit-miner)
fi

Everything on the backend is controlled by systemd. You can do a cleaner shutdown by calling

Code:

systemctl stop apollo-miner

and to restart

Code:

systemctl start apollo-miner

If we don't implement this directly in the miner will probably setup a similar script for the next update. Reason we have not implemented it currently is because unstable internet connections have outages that last a few seconds and can happen several times a day. The way these ASICs operate can cause lots of stress if you're restarting them hundreds of times a day that can significantly reduce the lifetime of the device. Better to contact your ISP and figure out why your connection is not stable.

[jstefanop]

just got my used unit home. it booted up fine first startup, but i couldnt login so i tried the reflash-method. and now it seems it wont boot at all. the ethernet-connection lights up and flashes, but i cant seem to get any ip-address to sign in to the miner.
what am i doing wrong and what can i do to fix it?  unit has been loading for 10 minutes now.

i even tried reflashing it again, with the newest firmware available.
its a full-node package and im using my own 1600W EVGA T1 power supply.


help PLS!

//edit//

Red light on front is lighting up solid, a small green light is lights up on the blue controlboard, a red LED is lighting up right next to the SSD, and it looks like a red light is lighting up below the controlboard towards the hashboard?

Sounds like you might have incorrectly flashed your SD card. Easiest is to just use etcher, and select the downloaded file (even in compressed form), and your SD card and let it do its thing.

[AloTheMax]

just got my used unit home. it booted up fine first startup, but i couldnt login so i tried the reflash-method. and now it seems it wont boot at all. the ethernet-connection lights up and flashes, but i cant seem to get any ip-address to sign in to the miner.
what am i doing wrong and what can i do to fix it?  unit has been loading for 10 minutes now.

i even tried reflashing it again, with the newest firmware available.
its a full-node package and im using my own 1600W EVGA T1 power supply.


help PLS!

//edit//

Red light on front is lighting up solid, a small green light is lights up on the blue controlboard, a red LED is lighting up right next to the SSD, and it looks like a red light is lighting up below the controlboard towards the hashboard?

Ciao Emilio1992, I also have the same problem as you for days and days and I almost went crazy trying to solve it, maybe I succeeded. Last night I wrote to Futurebit support and they replied that most likely my Apollo BTC Miner goes into temperature overheating and therefore to deactivate the mining process until the node is fully synchronized. Probably the mining process together with the download of the blockchain and the synchronization of the node in addition to an environment that is not cold but at ambient temperature (about 21 ° C) overheats our Apollo BTC too much and disconnects from the network to avoid damage from temperature or operation . In fact, when this happens I turn off the miner for about ten minutes and when I turn it back on the IP reappears and I can access it from the web dashboard. Now I have turned off the mining process and I am only synchronizing the node (I have reached 98%) when everything is synchronized I will start the mining process and see the results. However, I have already ordered two 120mm fans on amazon to be placed on the sides to cool it even more. I hope to solve bye...

[crypto_curious]

just got my used unit home. it booted up fine first startup, but i couldnt login so i tried the reflash-method. and now it seems it wont boot at all. the ethernet-connection lights up and flashes, but i cant seem to get any ip-address to sign in to the miner.
what am i doing wrong and what can i do to fix it?  unit has been loading for 10 minutes now.

i even tried reflashing it again, with the newest firmware available.
its a full-node package and im using my own 1600W EVGA T1 power supply.


help PLS!

//edit//

Red light on front is lighting up solid, a small green light is lights up on the blue controlboard, a red LED is lighting up right next to the SSD, and it looks like a red light is lighting up below the controlboard towards the hashboard?

Ciao Emilio1992, I also have the same problem as you for days and days and I almost went crazy trying to solve it, maybe I succeeded. Last night I wrote to Futurebit support and they replied that most likely my Apollo BTC Miner goes into temperature overheating and therefore to deactivate the mining process until the node is fully synchronized. Probably the mining process together with the download of the blockchain and the synchronization of the node in addition to an environment that is not cold but at ambient temperature (about 21 ° C) overheats our Apollo BTC too much and disconnects from the network to avoid damage from temperature or operation . In fact, when this happens I turn off the miner for about ten minutes and when I turn it back on the IP reappears and I can access it from the web dashboard. Now I have turned off the mining process and I am only synchronizing the node (I have reached 98%) when everything is synchronized I will start the mining process and see the results. However, I have already ordered two 120mm fans on amazon to be placed on the sides to cool it even more. I hope to solve bye...

This happens because small (40mm?) fan underneath Orange Pi 4 controller has been artificially slowed down by using 3.3V instead of default 5V. This causes overheat of the controller. It's a design flaw and should be fixed by manufacturer.
Adding two 120mm fans to cool down tiny controller is total overkill, what you should do, is to fix this small 40mm fan, not adding more fans.

[LeftLane10Under]

just got my used unit home. it booted up fine first startup, but i couldnt login so i tried the reflash-method. and now it seems it wont boot at all. the ethernet-connection lights up and flashes, but i cant seem to get any ip-address to sign in to the miner.
what am i doing wrong and what can i do to fix it?  unit has been loading for 10 minutes now.

i even tried reflashing it again, with the newest firmware available.
its a full-node package and im using my own 1600W EVGA T1 power supply.


help PLS!

//edit//

Red light on front is lighting up solid, a small green light is lights up on the blue controlboard, a red LED is lighting up right next to the SSD, and it looks like a red light is lighting up below the controlboard towards the hashboard?

Ciao Emilio1992, I also have the same problem as you for days and days and I almost went crazy trying to solve it, maybe I succeeded. Last night I wrote to Futurebit support and they replied that most likely my Apollo BTC Miner goes into temperature overheating and therefore to deactivate the mining process until the node is fully synchronized. Probably the mining process together with the download of the blockchain and the synchronization of the node in addition to an environment that is not cold but at ambient temperature (about 21 ° C) overheats our Apollo BTC too much and disconnects from the network to avoid damage from temperature or operation . In fact, when this happens I turn off the miner for about ten minutes and when I turn it back on the IP reappears and I can access it from the web dashboard. Now I have turned off the mining process and I am only synchronizing the node (I have reached 98%) when everything is synchronized I will start the mining process and see the results. However, I have already ordered two 120mm fans on amazon to be placed on the sides to cool it even more. I hope to solve bye...

This happens because small (40mm?) fan underneath Orange Pi 4 controller has been artificially slowed down by using 3.3V instead of default 5V. This causes overheat of the controller. It's a design flaw and should be fixed by manufacturer.
Adding two 120mm fans to cool down tiny controller is total overkill, what you should do, is to fix this small 40mm fan, not adding more fans.

How did you fix this? By buying a 5v fan?

Also according to this, going with 5v fans add about 10 decibles to noise but I didn't see a huge cooling improvement:
https://www.martinrowan.co.uk/2019/09/raspberry-pi-4-40mm-fan-comparison/

[heslo]

It's already a 5v fan, it's just being fed a 3.3v input instead of the 5v it's rated for. This slows it down and makes it a lot quieter

[gt_addict]

Once the sync is done its not a problem. As its only a short space of time to update the sync per block. Running at 3.3v is fine for 99% of the time.

[crypto_curious]

Once the sync is done its not a problem. As its only a short space of time to update the sync per block. Running at 3.3v is fine for 99% of the time.

It is a problem if you want to use your device as intended. Website states:

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

"At the heart of the new Apollo BTC product is a revamped SBC (Single Board Computer), that is as powerful as any consumer grade desktop system and can run almost any Bitcoin Application natively on the device 24/7. Take it out of the Box, plug it in, power it on, and you are already running a full Bitcoin node without needing to do anything."

Well that's not true. Any application which pins CPU for a bit will cause massive overheat, slowdown or damage.

It's already a 5v fan, it's just being fed a 3.3v input instead of the 5v it's rated for. This slows it down and makes it a lot quieter

As @heslo said, 5V fan is already there, but is has been slowed down. Ask Futurebit to fix it for you, send you a new fan, new wire harness, I don't know. Or re-wire fan back to 5V but that's on you if something goes wrong.
I rewired fan back to 5V but you must know what you are doing before attempting this.

PS. Orange Pi 4 still overheats when CPU pinned down 100%, even with 5V fan. It's just bad design. I wish there were 20mm extra space underneath the board to let it breathe and/or install better cooling solution. But at least it's stable.

[gt_addict]

Once the sync is done its not a problem. As its only a short space of time to update the sync per block. Running at 3.3v is fine for 99% of the time.

It is a problem if you want to use your device as intended. Website states:

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

"At the heart of the new Apollo BTC product is a revamped SBC (Single Board Computer), that is as powerful as any consumer grade desktop system and can run almost any Bitcoin Application natively on the device 24/7. Take it out of the Box, plug it in, power it on, and you are already running a full Bitcoin node without needing to do anything."

Well that's not true. Any application which pins CPU for a bit will cause massive overheat, slowdown or damage.

Fair point. But most people wont be using it as a "Desktop PC".

As crypto_curious said, ideally it would have a bit more space between the SBC and hashboard, at least that way you could install a slightly thicker fan for better cooling. I found it difficult to source a replacement fan in the thickness thats required (6mm) most were 10mm, which IMO wouldve been the better choice for cooling and noise levels.