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

[heslo]

I see futurebit is coming out with the Apolo II , soon there will no help...for this one  https://twitter.com/FutureBit/status/1728986544898277693

They plan on releasing the new software for Apollo v1 users so I don't see them dropping support

[Frisco415]

I see futurebit is coming out with the Apolo II , soon there will no help...for this one  https://twitter.com/FutureBit/status/1728986544898277693

They plan on releasing the new software for Apollo v1 users so I don't see them dropping support

That is great news..

[unicornmangle]

I have finally an apollo btc that started throwing random temps -100 +110 hash on hash off will this be a problem with temp sensing chip or the asics? want to know if i should solder a component on before i rip the heatsink off and man handle this thing with hot air and rubbing alcohol. was running for 2 days sucking 250w an not hashing my fault for not monitoring but haven't needed to really with these they usually just run hard/soft whatever. i still cant get better than 58w/th with a good hash rate if i want in the gh i can get real low like 29w/th @ 900gh

where is everyone?

[jeyzeus]

I have finally an apollo btc that started throwing random temps -100 +110 hash on hash off will this be a problem with temp sensing chip or the asics? want to know if i should solder a component on before i rip the heatsink off and man handle this thing with hot air and rubbing alcohol. was running for 2 days sucking 250w an not hashing my fault for not monitoring but haven't needed to really with these they usually just run hard/soft whatever. i still cant get better than 58w/th with a good hash rate if i want in the gh i can get real low like 29w/th @ 900gh

where is everyone?

wait, you were able to clock the Apollo BTC gen 1 to 29W/TH @ 900 GH/s? that's pretty wild if so IMO, can you share what settings you were using?

I didn't have temp reporting issues like that on any of my units.

[efriminiz]

Hi so I need some help. Just receieved the Apollo 1 full node, excited to get mining. I pulled it out and followed the installation instructions (on the 7 page document). However my Apollo keeps freezing up on me. From what I have been able to read I thought it may have been a hardware issue, so I went to Walmart and bought a corded mouse, laptop, and new HDMI only screen. I woke up this morning and the screen was frozen.

Each time I do a hard reboot, turning the PSU off. This is my first time really on bitcointalk, so I'm glad to finally be here and running Bitcoin. Can anyone help me troubleshoot or point me in the direction of how I can search this thread for my issue?

[Cornyjokester]

Hi,  I have a full node with 2 standards.  They all seemed to boot up correctly and I even am able to log in fora moment and I get a spike in brains but the the fall  node will reboot.  Not enough time to explore what is happening.   Samme behavior even if full node is by itself.  Any thoughts?

[n0nce]

Hi so I need some help. Just receieved the Apollo 1 full node, excited to get mining. I pulled it out and followed the installation instructions (on the 7 page document). However my Apollo keeps freezing up on me. From what I have been able to read I thought it may have been a hardware issue, so I went to Walmart and bought a corded mouse, laptop, and new HDMI only screen. I woke up this morning and the screen was frozen.

Each time I do a hard reboot, turning the PSU off. This is my first time really on bitcointalk, so I'm glad to finally be here and running Bitcoin. Can anyone help me troubleshoot or point me in the direction of how I can search this thread for my issue?

I don't think I had this issue on my unit, but Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi and similar single-board computers tend to come with slightly undersized cooling solutions.

Especially when your Apollo is first syncing up, you might try just not mining at the same time, as that could overload the CPU.

Another thing worth checking out is simply whether there is enough airflow underneath your unit. It sucks up air to cool the controller with the tiny fan shown in the picture above, so you could try putting it on some feet of sorts to improve ventilation.

[reubadoob]

Apologies if these questions have been asked before:

1. Is it possible to have my Apollo BTC change it's mining configuration from ECO to Balanced and/or Turbo Mode at night each night without any input from me? I'm thinking a kind of chron job/automation given this is a Linux box.

2. Is there a FutureBit Discord server? If not, will there be one in the with the release of the Apollo II?

[pro_bono]

Greetings,

I recently moved to a new apartment and switched from Spectrum to AT&T (Modem/Router BGW320-505). I remembered that I need to configure my port forwarding but I am having difficulty activating a wired connection. WiFi seems to work, albeit slowly. Can someone please advise?

I get the following message: "Connection failed. Activation of network connection failed."

I've tried manually entering the MAC Address of the modem/router into a New Profile after clicking the "+" symbol under Wired Network. The page closes, I get the same message as above and the blue toggle switch is in the OFF (left) position.

I've also gone into my NAT/Gaming Firewall settings to open 8333 port to no avail. The same issue persists.

https://i.ibb.co/yf78rWt/Screenshot-2023-07-25-191512-Redacted.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/WWYxDS9/thumbnail.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/QDkDgrD/Screenshot-2024-01-02-021745.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/8gXHwxR/Screenshot-2024-01-02-021856.jpg

Thank you for your help!

-A

[Cornyjokester]

Hi,  I have a full node with 2 standards.  They all seemed to boot up correctly and I even am able to log in fora moment and I get a spike in brains but the the fall  node will reboot.  Not enough time to explore what is happening.   Samme behavior even if full node is by itself.  Any thoughts?

The fan on my main cpu doesn't work.  Can I get a replacement JDL2507S fan?

[mr_eee]

After 2 years of running my Apollo BTC full node, I had my first major issue. Today I noticed it had turned off. So I restarted the PSU. The Apollo will do its usual start up routines, but will not start mining and the dashboard when I try to connect to the IP will not display. Also I cannot get a connection from the monitor using the HMDI connection. Red light on the front flashes and then stays solid. Green status light on the bottom is on. Ethernet lights are on yellow is solid and green is flashing. But I’m unable to connect to the apollo. Tried restarting a couple times with no luck. Any suggestions on how I should proceed? Could it be an issue with SD card needing to be reflashed? Thanks for your help.

[n0nce]

Hi,  I have a full node with 2 standards.  They all seemed to boot up correctly and I even am able to log in fora moment and I get a spike in brains but the the fall  node will reboot.  Not enough time to explore what is happening.   Samme behavior even if full node is by itself.  Any thoughts?

The fan on my main cpu doesn't work.  Can I get a replacement JDL2507S fan?

I'd recommend you to contact the support team of Futurebit or reseller where you bought your device through E-Mail.

Could it be an issue with SD card needing to be reflashed?

It is very possible that you have a microSD wear issue. I'd even just go get a new microSD after 2 years, to be honest. Look for high endurance models like Samsung Pro Endurance or an equivalent by SanDisk. Normal microSD cards are often made for just a few 100,000 write cycles, which can be exceeded quickly when they're used as a single board computer's main drive, where you might get a lot of writes in some areas of the memory.

Re-flashing can be a good temporary fix, but you'll run into similar issues much sooner than if you were to just get a new card.

You could still use the old / worn microSD for less 'mission-critical' stuff.

[mr_eee]

Could it be an issue with SD card needing to be reflashed?

It is very possible that you have a microSD wear issue. I'd even just go get a new microSD after 2 years, to be honest. Look for high endurance models like Samsung Pro Endurance or an equivalent by SanDisk. Normal microSD cards are often made for just a few 100,000 write cycles, which can be exceeded quickly when they're used as a single board computer's main drive, where you might get a lot of writes in some areas of the memory.

Re-flashing can be a good temporary fix, but you'll run into similar issues much sooner than if you were to just get a new card.

You could still use the old / worn microSD for less 'mission-critical' stuff.

Hello,
Just reporting back that I bought a new high endurance microSD card and flashed and installed it on the node/miner and all is well. Back to mining and syncing blockchain. Thanks for the help.

[crypto_curious]

Apologies if these questions have been asked before:

1. Is it possible to have my Apollo BTC change it's mining configuration from ECO to Balanced and/or Turbo Mode at night each night without any input from me? I'm thinking a kind of chron job/automation given this is a Linux box.

Yes, I did that. I configured Apollo so it's turned off/eco mode/balanced mode, depending on temperature read from external source.
You can easily program different speeds by time schedule, by using Standard Apollo via USB, connected to any controller like Raspberry Pi. In Pi, make a script for killing apollo-miner process and launching apollo-miner in desired mode again. Finally, add scripts to crontab, so they launch when you need them.
Scripting Apollo speed according to external temperature sensor is more tricky but it serve me very well.

[nullama]

~snip~
I like the product. Bring mining back to small people, decentralized, quiet etc. Would be happy to support the project and preorder.
But for sure I will not buy a closed source miner, which has never shown that it can find blocks.
Especially not if it is to be used for solomining. (Whether this is right for the target group "are first time miners" is another question.)

I really don't see any understandable reason not to publish the code.

If I could I would. The backend software runs Exahashes worth of hashrate, and finds BTC blocks everyday. Of course you have to take my word for it, and I wish you didn't but I think I have built enough reputation around here that im not some bad actor. Unfortunately to be able to provide a product like this I had to make some compromises I did not want, but we weighed those to be worth being able to get a product like this out to market.

Of course the more successful this product is, the less compromises we have to make...would love to port the firmware over to cgminer and hopefully we can get there soon.

We are now in 2024, almost three years after this statement was made. Apollos have been sold successfully over these years, and a new Apollo II has been recently announced.

You could argue that the product has been very successful. Given that you now can make less compromises, will it be possible to have an open source version of the Apollo miner?

Apollo BTC Standard Software/Instructions


If your purchased an Apollo BTC Standard USB controlled version please find the software binaries for your system and instructions below:

https://github.com/jstefanop/Apollo-Miner-Binaries/releases/

This is the ONLY place you should download these binaries from. If that changes this post will be updated.

Detailed instructions are on the GitHub and inside the start scripts. As noted in the pre-order this is command-line based software and only intended for more advanced users. Support for the software is limited and initial binaries are for Windows and 64 Bit x86 and ARM based Linux systems.


This software is only for users that do not have a Full Package/Node version. Please follow the instructions above in the first post on how to hook up your standard unit to your Apollo Full Package unit for a plug and play experience.

The last official binaries were published in 2021 (Apollo-Miner v1.1)

It would be really handy to have an open source version of this, or at a minimum have a new binary after all these years.

[macpilot]

I've been searching the thread with ninja search but haven't been able to find the answer so here it goes:

I already have  a dedicated machine running a full node so I'm only using the Apollo1 for the miner functionality. Can I simply turn off bitcoind or do I need to change the configuration of the Apollo to point to my dedicated full node?

Thanks

[Sledge0001]

I've been searching the thread with ninja search but haven't been able to find the answer so here it goes:

I already have  a dedicated machine running a full node so I'm only using the Apollo1 for the miner functionality. Can I simply turn off bitcoind or do I need to change the configuration of the Apollo to point to my dedicated full node?

Thanks

Just shutdown the device and uninstall the NVME drive. It's 1 long screw to loosen on the bottom of the unit and gently slide the drive out.  

Reboot and your node will not start but your miner will be chugging away on whatever pool you have configured.

[jstefanop]

~snip~
I like the product. Bring mining back to small people, decentralized, quiet etc. Would be happy to support the project and preorder.
But for sure I will not buy a closed source miner, which has never shown that it can find blocks.
Especially not if it is to be used for solomining. (Whether this is right for the target group "are first time miners" is another question.)

I really don't see any understandable reason not to publish the code.

If I could I would. The backend software runs Exahashes worth of hashrate, and finds BTC blocks everyday. Of course you have to take my word for it, and I wish you didn't but I think I have built enough reputation around here that im not some bad actor. Unfortunately to be able to provide a product like this I had to make some compromises I did not want, but we weighed those to be worth being able to get a product like this out to market.

Of course the more successful this product is, the less compromises we have to make...would love to port the firmware over to cgminer and hopefully we can get there soon.

We are now in 2024, almost three years after this statement was made. Apollos have been sold successfully over these years, and a new Apollo II has been recently announced.

You could argue that the product has been very successful. Given that you now can make less compromises, will it be possible to have an open source version of the Apollo miner?

Apollo BTC Standard Software/Instructions


If your purchased an Apollo BTC Standard USB controlled version please find the software binaries for your system and instructions below:

https://github.com/jstefanop/Apollo-Miner-Binaries/releases/

This is the ONLY place you should download these binaries from. If that changes this post will be updated.

Detailed instructions are on the GitHub and inside the start scripts. As noted in the pre-order this is command-line based software and only intended for more advanced users. Support for the software is limited and initial binaries are for Windows and 64 Bit x86 and ARM based Linux systems.


This software is only for users that do not have a Full Package/Node version. Please follow the instructions above in the first post on how to hook up your standard unit to your Apollo Full Package unit for a plug and play experience.

The last official binaries were published in 2021 (Apollo-Miner v1.1)

It would be really handy to have an open source version of this, or at a minimum have a new binary after all these years.

Been trying to fight this, but it's a shared codebase we co-maintain and we are still under NDA. The 14nm IC is essentially "EOL" so hopefully we will be able to push to open source the firmware.


Updated Apollo-Miner binaries are in the works for the Apollo 2 release in the coming weeks.

[luckyroll4]

Does anyone know what new features and apps may be release with the new software version? Specifically I am interested in lightning support as that was hinted at in the past. I'm excited about the new hardware. My current unit has been running great for the past year and a half.

[nullama]

Been trying to fight this, but it's a shared codebase we co-maintain and we are still under NDA. The 14nm IC is essentially "EOL" so hopefully we will be able to push to open source the firmware.

The 14nm IC is the one in the original Apollo? That would be ideal. Looking forward to your update regarding this.

Updated Apollo-Miner binaries are in the works for the Apollo 2 release in the coming weeks.

Are there going to be any new miner binaries updates for the original Apollo or just for the Apollo 2?