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

[TIRMINE]

This has been fixed on dev, finally got to the source of all the 32bit errors. Should push 2.0.6 soon.
[/quote]

Any update on 2.0.6?  I'm now getting this error too

[eekbert]

Hi, I recently received my Apollo II full node. I am mining solo. I noticed that the starting difficulty is very low, and increases very slowly. Also, seems the maximum difficulty does not go very high. Is there a way to set the mining difficulty or at least the starting difficulty?  Thanks.

[jstefanop]

Hey everyone.
Very happy with my Apollo 2 so far. Only thing I'm a bit struggling with is to get node to connect to more peers. Any workaround? I did add quite a few through addnode=x.x.x.x:8333 but still it doesn't seem to connect easily to more than 10 peers.

Any ideas how to get more peers to connect to the node?

Also I was wondering whether there shouldn't be field or some way to show when one finds block! Otherwise it could take long time before you realize you actually found one.

Thanks

Are you fully synced?  When I was syncing it would max at 10 for me but once fully synced I'm getting the 32

Yes. Fully synced and solo mining. Max connections set to 40, but only connected to 11.

Edit: Got this resolved. Last night when I added nodes I also changed max connections and now when I looks to bitcoin.conf in the node it didn't actually addnodes at all, even tho it was showing in the gui Ui so I have added them manually and now I have 20 connections at least.

Unfortunately it seems there is some kind of bug with my configuration. Every time I restart the miner it takes first addnode=x.x.x.x and populate with same ip address all other entries in my bitcoin.conf. When I manually change bitcoin.conf and only restart node it does work fine and connects to all ips, but as soon as whole miner get restarted it does again wipe all ips in .conf except the first one. Not really sure what is causing this.

This is a known issue with some custom node configs that will also be fixed in 2.0.6

[jstefanop]

Hi, I recently received my Apollo II full node. I am mining solo. I noticed that the starting difficulty is very low, and increases very slowly. Also, seems the maximum difficulty does not go very high. Is there a way to set the mining difficulty or at least the starting difficulty?  Thanks.

on the to-do list!

[MakerAZ]

Dear Support,

I want to ensure that my Solo mining configured correctly and really works.

How can I Solo mine to my local Full Node without being interrupted by newly mined blocks.

I mean I want to let Apollo II to take as much time as needed to find a valid block. I do understand that by the time the valid block is found there will be hundreds of new blocks and my block will not be accepted. How can I achive this?

[jstefanop]

Dear Support,

I want to ensure that my Solo mining configured correctly and really works.

How can I Solo mine to my local Full Node without being interrupted by newly mined blocks.

I mean I want to let Apollo II to take as much time as needed to find a valid block. I do understand that by the time the valid block is found there will be hundreds of new blocks and my block will not be accepted. How can I achive this?

Not sure what your asking, once a valid block is found it submitted to your local node within a couple hundred milliseconds and then your node broadcasts to the entire network (limited by your upload speed, but should still be less than a few seconds even in low end connections).

There wont be "hundreds of blocks" in between, there is a block every 10 minutes on average.

[MakerAZ]

Not sure what your asking, once a valid block is found it submitted to your local node within a couple hundred milliseconds and then your node broadcasts to the entire network (limited by your upload speed, but should still be less than a few seconds even in low end connections).

There wont be "hundreds of blocks" in between, there is a block every 10 minutes on average.

Let me try to explain that again.

I want to give my personal miner "unlimited" amount of time to mine a valid block, as if there are no other miners in the network, but me alone.
Even if it could take days for my miner to finally find a block, I want it to continue mining on that same block.

This means, that my node should be "offline" and remain "offline" from the entire network, so no new blocks are reported to it, but remain "online" within my home network so my miner can continue mining the SAME block header.

I do understand that by the time my miner finds a valid block, the entire network will be mining a block way higher and my valid block will not be accepted as most probably it will take days to find it.

I hope it is clear now.

[crypto_curious]

Device: Apollo II standard USB unit, first batch

Problem: device never stops mining (I can feel the heat coming out of the vent and fan is spinning quite loud), even when pool is down, or mining software apollo-miner-v2 executable is not running on connected (via USB) computer

Apollo I did not have this problem, and I can disable mining program and device will cool down quickly. I use it with a script and thermometer to turn on and off Apollo I when needed.
Apollo II never stops burning electricity for nothing, even when it supposed to be idle, I can't temperature-control it, it's just working non-stop.

Please tell me how can I tell it to stop burning electricity for nothing?

I am using latest available binary on Linux AMD64:

Code:

./apollo-miner-v2 --version
apollo-miner 2.0.2 2024-05-18, msp ver 0xd167
Use "--help" switch to print command line options.

ERROR: Invalid command line:
Unknown command line option: --version

[philipma1957]

Not sure what your asking, once a valid block is found it submitted to your local node within a couple hundred milliseconds and then your node broadcasts to the entire network (limited by your upload speed, but should still be less than a few seconds even in low end connections).

There wont be "hundreds of blocks" in between, there is a block every 10 minutes on average.

Let me try to explain that again.

I want to give my personal miner "unlimited" amount of time to mine a valid block, as if there are no other miners in the network, but me alone.
Even if it could take days for my miner to finally find a block, I want it to continue mining on that same block.

This means, that my node should be "offline" and remain "offline" from the entire network, so no new blocks are reported to it, but remain "online" within my home network so my miner can continue mining the SAME block header.

I do understand that by the time my miner finds a valid block, the entire network will be mining a block way higher and my valid block will not be accepted as most probably it will take days to find it.

I hope it is clear now.

First of all if you are mining with 100th and the current difficulty number of 90.6 t it will take over 1000 years to hit the block.


100 th would mine 0.000007 btc a day since a block is 3.25 btc divide by 0.000007 and get 464285 days or 1272 years to hit a block.

They is simply no reason to do what you are trying to do.

and if I am correct and you gear is more like 6th take that 1272 years and go 15x or 19080 years. Why would you want to do what you want to do?

[magicpete]

I'm curious if anyone has figured out a way to schedule their Apollo 2 to change modes based on time of day.  Would be helpful to switch off during peak hours and step up to turbo overnight.  I know it's not in the OS but my next step was to explore scripting something to do this. 

[MakerAZ]

First of all if you are mining with 100th and the current difficulty number of 90.6 t it will take over 1000 years to hit the block.

100 th would mine 0.000007 btc a day since a block is 3.25 btc divide by 0.000007 and get 464285 days or 1272 years to hit a block.

They is simply no reason to do what you are trying to do.

and if I am correct and you gear is more like 6th take that 1272 years and go 15x or 19080 years. Why would you want to do what you want to do?

Thank you very much for mind-opening explanation. I am so off with my perception of BTC mining.

So, unless I can manually reduce the difficulty level to 1, which I think is impossible, there is no point of mining "offline" to my node. Is it possible to make my node start from block 1, like the first one after the Genesis? With 5TH/s I think I can mine it prity fast

I don't want to mine with pools, there is no point of making a few hundred dollars or even thousands after 5 years. The reason I have purchased the Apollo is to support the network decentralization. However, I want to make sure my Apollo really does mine in solo. How can I look under the hood?

Thank you very much for your support!

[PennyBit]

@ Nobody in particular ...

Just wanted to say that I'm pretty happy with my Apollo II full node so far. I've had it for several weeks now and have been working out a few issues here and there, but nothing I'd call real deal breakers by any means. I should be receiving the "partner box" (Apollo II Standard) tomorrow at some point and am looking forward to the added challenge of more heat dispersal at my local - lol. No air conditioning here my friends. But so far, so good - have managed to keep the Apollo II full node between 65c-70c with external fans and open windows (ECO Mode). I also have some r909 pod miners pointing to the node via the local network as well as a laughable Bitcoin Merch MARS LANDER V2 (which I don't recommend for many reasons +10). But they all certainly add to the room temperature. So, it will be interesting with the Apollo II Standard in the nest.

All in all, I think Futurebit has done a bang-up job! And with a fix or two for some of the little interface bugs such as the GraphQL 32bit errors and the node connection limit issues coming in future releases I couldn't be happier with the money I've spent. I'm strictly in this for the fun of playing the lottery and supporting the network - nothing more. I wish you guys/gals all the luck in the world as well.

BTW, I did upgrade my 1TB NVMe drive (node) to a 2TB NVMe drive about two weeks after it was already synced up. Because it took forever to sync in the first place I decided to buy an upgrade and clone the 1TB to the 2TB with a bit of adjustment to the 2TB partition to spread out the 1TB information into the expanded partition. It only took about 1:45 hrs for the whole process (format/clone/etc) and now I have a backup starting point on the original 1TB drive if I ever need it for a starting point again. Yeehaw!

Cheers!

[heslo]

I'm curious if anyone has figured out a way to schedule their Apollo 2 to change modes based on time of day.  Would be helpful to switch off during peak hours and step up to turbo overnight.  I know it's not in the OS but my next step was to explore scripting something to do this. 

I too would like this functionality, would be great if it could be added to the UI

[MakerAZ]

I now know what I want to do with Futurebit Apollo II.
I want to run a regtest and mine at the lowest difficulty as described here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5268794.0

I just want to be sure that I won't mess with Futurebit's OS, Node and Mining Software.

[crypto_curious]

I'm curious if anyone has figured out a way to schedule their Apollo 2 to change modes based on time of day.  Would be helpful to switch off during peak hours and step up to turbo overnight.  I know it's not in the OS but my next step was to explore scripting something to do this. 

I scripted this functionality in bash, and currently using it for Apollo I, along with temperature control via external USB thermometer. It's been working like that for last two years. One miner is in a glass greenhouse, where it activates mostly at night/evening times. Another at home, also temperature controlled.

However, I am worried with current state of Apollo II - it does not stop burning power and mining even mining program is closed. I asked about this  a few posts up in the thread, as well as via customer support on Futurebit page. No reply yet. I hope they will be able to tell me how to stop Apollo II miner. If this is done, then I will be happy to share my scripts here with you and the community.

[TIRMINE]

May be a silly question but is with the solo mining feature, is there a way to confirm that you are actually mining (other than what the GUI shows you)? 

[MakerAZ]

May be a silly question but is with the solo mining feature, is there a way to confirm that you are actually mining (other than what the GUI shows you)? 

That is exactly my point! I also want to look under hood. I want to see valid blocks mined in solo with Apollo II, and this can be demonstrated using regtest.
I have no doubt Apollo II does mine into pools, but there is no validation for solo.

[heslo]

I'm curious if anyone has figured out a way to schedule their Apollo 2 to change modes based on time of day.  Would be helpful to switch off during peak hours and step up to turbo overnight.  I know it's not in the OS but my next step was to explore scripting something to do this. 

I scripted this functionality in bash, and currently using it for Apollo I, along with temperature control via external USB thermometer. It's been working like that for last two years. One miner is in a glass greenhouse, where it activates mostly at night/evening times. Another at home, also temperature controlled.

However, I am worried with current state of Apollo II - it does not stop burning power and mining even mining program is closed. I asked about this  a few posts up in the thread, as well as via customer support on Futurebit page. No reply yet. I hope they will be able to tell me how to stop Apollo II miner. If this is done, then I will be happy to share my scripts here with you and the community.

That would be awesome if you could. Even better would be that functionality baked into the UI 

[DoofyWops]

Hey jstefanop,

Since late June I've been emailing you guys back and forth about getting a replacement fan for my original Apollo. I gave your support my order #, address, etc. and your support said they would create an invoice for me to get a new fan. I've been ghosted for almost a month waiting for a reply. I literally had the Apollo 2 in my cart just waiting to pull the trigger, but since my fan on my original is nearly dead, I won't do it until I can get that ready to have the Apollo 2 hooked up to it.

I'll send out another reminder email today (this will be the 2nd follow up) so please keep an eye out.

[crypto_curious]

That would be awesome if you could. Even better would be that functionality baked into the UI 

So far, I have received no response from Futurebit team. I am still waiting for their reply how can I make Apollo II stop burning power and go idle.