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

[PennyBit]

I just pushed my headless Apollo II over 2 PH/s with a few remote rentals along with my local miners while solo mining. All of these are low and medium difficulty miners. Has anyone tried using high-difficulty miners on their headless rig? And if so, please relate your experience in doing so. Thanks.

Cheers!


Image Link:
https://i.imgur.com/54WGZlq.jpeg

[sopsy8t]

Hi, I bought the FutureBit Apollo 2 miner and have the node fully synced but I'm unable to mine to a non-solo mining pool.
Solo mining works perfectly though.
Can anyone please advise on how to troubleshoot?

My node is fully synced.
My network connections are about 62/64.
HDD remaining space is about 24% (am using a 1TB ssd).
On the miner page, the hashboard is active status and showing normal hashrate (6+TH/s). But the pools though is active status but is showing 0 TH/s, with connection of 1024.
In the pool settings, neither the preconfigured Braiins nor the Ocean.xyz pools seem to work. My bitcoin wallet address starts with bc1 and password set to x.

Have checked my mining status on both Braiins and Ocean but does not show my btc wallet address.

Thanks for your help

As another person has stated - when you mine using Braiins, you need to set up an account with them first. Then their pool address would be entered into the apollo - with your braiins account name as the user id. password is most likely 'x'
Just look up their mining help / support page - it's pretty good. 

[sopsy8t]

Was sitting at 6.7B for best share from my 2 Apollo IIs for the longest time.  Just hit 112B best share from my USB Apollo II.

Only 962x short of network difficulty, LOL.

Just short of my best share 132,337,685,248

Has anyone with an Apollo II hit a best share in the trillions yet?

Closest I've come in about five months of hashing = 55,748,041,309

I managed to pop a 335B best share back in Sept or maybe Aug 2024. Nothing better or close to that since. Yet.

Cheers!

my best ever share 256,887,704,896   

[Wolf_schiesst]

Was sitting at 6.7B for best share from my 2 Apollo IIs for the longest time.  Just hit 112B best share from my USB Apollo II.

Only 962x short of network difficulty, LOL.

Just short of my best share 132,337,685,248

Has anyone with an Apollo II hit a best share in the trillions yet?

Closest I've come in about five months of hashing = 55,748,041,309

I managed to pop a 335B best share back in Sept or maybe Aug 2024. Nothing better or close to that since. Yet.

Cheers!

my best ever share 256,887,704,896   

Where do you see that in the Web-IF?

[bubbAJoe]

Was sitting at 6.7B for best share from my 2 Apollo IIs for the longest time.  Just hit 112B best share from my USB Apollo II.

Only 962x short of network difficulty, LOL.

Just short of my best share 132,337,685,248

Has anyone with an Apollo II hit a best share in the trillions yet?

Closest I've come in about five months of hashing = 55,748,041,309

I managed to pop a 335B best share back in Sept or maybe Aug 2024. Nothing better or close to that since. Yet.

Cheers!

my best ever share 256,887,704,896   

looks like the new Avalon Mini 3 is going to be an Apollo II killer...

[PennyBit]

Was sitting at 6.7B for best share from my 2 Apollo IIs for the longest time.  Just hit 112B best share from my USB Apollo II.

Only 962x short of network difficulty, LOL.

Just short of my best share 132,337,685,248

Has anyone with an Apollo II hit a best share in the trillions yet?

Closest I've come in about five months of hashing = 55,748,041,309

I managed to pop a 335B best share back in Sept or maybe Aug 2024. Nothing better or close to that since. Yet.

Cheers!

my best ever share 256,887,704,896  

looks like the new Avalon Mini 3 is going to be an Apollo II killer...

Although it offers decent hashrate at reasonable wattage, it's not really competing with the Apollo II. For one thing, it's just a miner - it might be a decent miner to point to the Apollo II node, though. Secondly, this thing is huge and hot with an emphasis on being a large floor heater. The obvious placement would be on the floor where all the dirt and dust likes to gather for a friendly get-together. And because the air intake is on the bottom it's gonna work like a vacuum and suck up all that crud. Thirdly, there doesn't appear to be an Ethernet port which forces you to use the included USB WiFi adapter which attaches to the underside of the unit. And I haven't seen many units that get good WiFi connections while sitting on the floor, especially one with a USB WiFi adapter that points to the floor and located underneath the actual hardware. Aside from the obvious issues, the miner does offer some good hashrate but it's not gonna kill the Apollo II as it stands today. In the future if they make it so that it works as an air-conditioner instead of a heater, then I might get one myself - lol.

Cheers!

[oneeighteen]

It has been almost a month since I got my Apollo 2 and I still cannot get it to function properly.
I have not been able to get the node to fully sync. I have even started a node on a PC which only took 1 day, then pointed the Futurebit to it on the local LAN. After 3 days I'm only at 76%. The system still locks up a couple of times a day requiring a power cycle.

I have already tried every step that I have found on reddit and other forums.
I have: replaced the microsd and reinstalled the software, reseated the nvme drive, I do NOT run the miner when trying to start the node. I have lost count of how many times I have reformatted the drive and started over, with all the various node commands for memory and re-indexing.

I also tried just running the miner alone for a day on eco mode and the system still freezes up.

At this point I think that there has to be something wrong with the hardware.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

[Hamster123]

It has been almost a month since I got my Apollo 2 and I still cannot get it to function properly.
I have not been able to get the node to fully sync. I have even started a node on a PC which only took 1 day, then pointed the Futurebit to it on the local LAN. After 3 days I'm only at 76%. The system still locks up a couple of times a day requiring a power cycle.

I have already tried every step that I have found on reddit and other forums.
I have: replaced the microsd and reinstalled the software, reseated the nvme drive, I do NOT run the miner when trying to start the node. I have lost count of how many times I have reformatted the drive and started over, with all the various node commands for memory and re-indexing.

I also tried just running the miner alone for a day on eco mode and the system still freezes up.

At this point I think that there has to be something wrong with the hardware.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Are you hardwired or using WIFI? I had issues with using it on WIFI similar to what you've described, zero issues with the units hardwired.

[oneeighteen]

[/quote]

Are you hardwired or using WIFI? I had issues with using it on WIFI similar to what you've described, zero issues with the units hardwired.
[/quote]

Yes, all hardwired. Sorry I should have mentioned that.

[oneeighteen]

[/quote]

No, it's new, just bought. I did a "reindex" and for 3 days (I think I have 3 more days left to finish) the operation seems a bit "robust" to me. Many crashes, restarts, errors and blocks... so far more doubts than certainties.
[/quote]


Did you ever get yours to work?

[Opazzno]

It has been almost a month since I got my Apollo 2 and I still cannot get it to function properly.
I have not been able to get the node to fully sync. I have even started a node on a PC which only took 1 day, then pointed the Futurebit to it on the local LAN. After 3 days I'm only at 76%. The system still locks up a couple of times a day requiring a power cycle.

I have already tried every step that I have found on reddit and other forums.
I have: replaced the microsd and reinstalled the software, reseated the nvme drive, I do NOT run the miner when trying to start the node. I have lost count of how many times I have reformatted the drive and started over, with all the various node commands for memory and re-indexing.

I also tried just running the miner alone for a day on eco mode and the system still freezes up.

At this point I think that there has to be something wrong with the hardware.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

I had similar problems only my node lost synchronization 1-2 times a day and the miner disappeared from the network every 2 days and had to reload it hard, I opened RMA and sent it to replace 10 days, but so far there was no answer.

[Hamster123]

No, it's new, just bought. I did a "reindex" and for 3 days (I think I have 3 more days left to finish) the operation seems a bit "robust" to me. Many crashes, restarts, errors and blocks... so far more doubts than certainties.
[/quote]


Did you ever get yours to work?
[/quote]

Honestly, I've had only the issue I mentioned with using the units on the "new" software version on WIFI. I prefer hardwired anyway but had one unit in my "back hall" with no ethernet cable access (I set up an older WIFI router as an "extender" on my network, hardwired the Apollo 1 Node unit to it, zero issues since). I also had to re-install the software once (Apollo 1 unit, early on) so replaced the original sim card with a newer one I had on hand with no issues since. I have one original Apollo Node Unit with two Apollo Miners running on it as well as 2 Apollo 2 Node units each with one Apollo Miner connected. I heat my small home with them and again, have had no issues other than what I've mentioned already. I did follow all of the set-up instructions to the letter, have very good internet service with my own high quality modem and router, and all my electronics plugged into APC Line-R Voltage Regulator units. Wish I could provide more help but would suggest:

*Replace the original sim card with a same size higher quality one (cheap) and re-install official software
*Consider buying a cheapish voltage regulator and use that to protect/ensure the Node Miner is getting clean voltage (and the one's I use act as a surge protectors too; we suffer spikes/minor outages here in the East Tennessee Valley due to storms at times)
*Review and be sure to follow directions for set-up to the letter
*Don't run the miner while downloading the chain

I realize this is all pretty basic but I honestly have had a great experience with these miners and can only suggest what has worked for me. I hope this helps even if just a little. Good luck!

[bubbAJoe]

Although it offers decent hashrate at reasonable wattage, it's not really competing with the Apollo II. For one thing, it's just a miner - it might be a decent miner to point to the Apollo II node, though. Secondly, this thing is huge and hot with an emphasis on being a large floor heater. The obvious placement would be on the floor where all the dirt and dust likes to gather for a friendly get-together. And because the air intake is on the bottom it's gonna work like a vacuum and suck up all that crud. Thirdly, there doesn't appear to be an Ethernet port which forces you to use the included USB WiFi adapter which attaches to the underside of the unit. And I haven't seen many units that get good WiFi connections while sitting on the floor, especially one with a USB WiFi adapter that points to the floor and located underneath the actual hardware. Aside from the obvious issues, the miner does offer some good hashrate but it's not gonna kill the Apollo II as it stands today. In the future if they make it so that it works as an air-conditioner instead of a heater, then I might get one myself - lol.

Cheers!

I see it a bit differently:

Decent hashrate?  It's 4x the hashrate of an Apollo II for a couple hundred dollars more.

Regarding heat, that's what comes with that level of hashrate.  Any miner putting out 37 TH is going to generate a lot of heat.

The floor heater idea is novel, but I'm guessing really impractical for most users.  No one is going to use this to heat an occupied room due to the noise, just like no one would put an Apollo II in an occupied room.  It'll go in my basement, just like my other miners.

As far as ingesting dust/particles, it does have a washable filter FWIW.

[oneeighteen]

[/quote]

I had similar problems only my node lost synchronization 1-2 times a day and the miner disappeared from the network every 2 days and had to reload it hard, I opened RMA and sent it to replace 10 days, but so far there was no answer.
[/quote]


That's exactly what's happening to mine. I haven't heard anything back from futurebit yet.
Keep us updated if you get it back and it works better.

[PennyBit]

Although it offers decent hashrate at reasonable wattage, it's not really competing with the Apollo II. For one thing, it's just a miner - it might be a decent miner to point to the Apollo II node, though. Secondly, this thing is huge and hot with an emphasis on being a large floor heater. The obvious placement would be on the floor where all the dirt and dust likes to gather for a friendly get-together. And because the air intake is on the bottom it's gonna work like a vacuum and suck up all that crud. Thirdly, there doesn't appear to be an Ethernet port which forces you to use the included USB WiFi adapter which attaches to the underside of the unit. And I haven't seen many units that get good WiFi connections while sitting on the floor, especially one with a USB WiFi adapter that points to the floor and located underneath the actual hardware. Aside from the obvious issues, the miner does offer some good hashrate but it's not gonna kill the Apollo II as it stands today. In the future if they make it so that it works as an air-conditioner instead of a heater, then I might get one myself - lol.

Cheers!

I see it a bit differently:

Decent hashrate?  It's 4x the hashrate of an Apollo II for a couple hundred dollars more.

Regarding heat, that's what comes with that level of hashrate.  Any miner putting out 37 TH is going to generate a lot of heat.

The floor heater idea is novel, but I'm guessing really impractical for most users.  No one is going to use this to heat an occupied room due to the noise, just like no one would put an Apollo II in an occupied room.  It'll go in my basement, just like my other miners.

As far as ingesting dust/particles, it does have a washable filter FWIW.

You're obviously sold on it, although I'd think twice about a first release model on something like this. But I suppose somebody has to dive in first, eh. In any case, you didn't address the WiFi issues, or the enormous footprint, or just how often that "washable filter" will need to be washed . . . or, that it offers no built-in node options. And yes, I do have my Apollo's scattered throughout the dwelling in occupied spaces along with other miners, but not on the floors. However, I do have to pay closer attention to routine cleaning but the noise is not something I find to be a problem. And it's not just me either, a lot of guys are doing the same thing. Either way, everyday that goes by is going to see a "new & improved & faster" rig for the masses. So, the only real task is to keep our last year's models running at reasonable costs and effort for the longer term until it's not. Then sell it or put it on something like Willi's small home miner pool. But I can't see just buying something with obvious design flaws simply because it's faster for a few hundred dollars more. And in my opinion if that was the only reason, then renting hashrate is by far more economical without the routine maintenance and upfront costs involved. Besides, most of the stuff coming out now causes more problems than in meeting expectations or promises. The forum is full of guys that are finding that out. So, I'll be interested in your 90-day review on the rig after you invest your money and how you overcame the shortcomings.

Cheers!

[eagleye]

No, it's new, just bought. I did a "reindex" and for 3 days (I think I have 3 more days left to finish) the operation seems a bit "robust" to me. Many crashes, restarts, errors and blocks... so far more doubts than certainties.

Did you ever get yours to work?
[/quote]

Honestly, I've had only the issue I mentioned with using the units on the "new" software version on WIFI. I prefer hardwired anyway but had one unit in my "back hall" with no ethernet cable access (I set up an older WIFI router as an "extender" on my network, hardwired the Apollo 1 Node unit to it, zero issues since). I also had to re-install the software once (Apollo 1 unit, early on) so replaced the original sim card with a newer one I had on hand with no issues since. I have one original Apollo Node Unit with two Apollo Miners running on it as well as 2 Apollo 2 Node units each with one Apollo Miner connected. I heat my small home with them and again, have had no issues other than what I've mentioned already. I did follow all of the set-up instructions to the letter, have very good internet service with my own high quality modem and router, and all my electronics plugged into APC Line-R Voltage Regulator units. Wish I could provide more help but would suggest:

*Replace the original sim card with a same size higher quality one (cheap) and re-install official software
*Consider buying a cheapish voltage regulator and use that to protect/ensure the Node Miner is getting clean voltage (and the one's I use act as a surge protectors too; we suffer spikes/minor outages here in the East Tennessee Valley due to storms at times)
*Review and be sure to follow directions for set-up to the letter
*Don't run the miner while downloading the chain

I realize this is all pretty basic but I honestly have had a great experience with these miners and can only suggest what has worked for me. I hope this helps even if just a little. Good luck!
[/quote]

I tried the reindex.  It really doesn't work like you think.  Better to start over.  
Things to consider.  Have you monitored the bitcoin log.  Theres a command a few pages back explaining how to open a window and watch the bitcoin log live.  Sometimes you get errors that points you in the direction of the problems.  It will also show you the program is running when you think nothing is going on.  

Also check the bitcoind program in the system monitor and watch that run.  If it disappears you know the program crashed.   Sometimes its better to reboot the system and allowing the node to restart or restarting the node after a reboot.  Just restarting the node after a crash may mean strange things might be happening with memory or something and I've seen more problems just restarting the node.

I found that the bitcoind program would crash I reboot the system and it picks up where it left off.  A chainstate error does not get fixed by reindexing.  A restart and fresh run of bitcoind would usually fix this.  This is the database bitcoind writes from the blockchain database as a reference.  This chainstate is already rewritten on every reboot and over time with new block data.

One other thing I did was get another pcie memory stick and backup the blockchain during successful downloads after getting to a specific point.  As you get later in the download after i think around year 2020 the blockchain data changed, got bigger and each new block took longer to process so the first 3/4 could take 2 days and the last 1/4 takes another 2 days.
Don't use the apollo to do anything else but download the blockchain.  no surfing or browsing.  I even close the browser windows and monitor remotely.  Uses less memory and processing power.

Once you get the IBD, my system is running very well in all modes.  ECO, normal and TURBO.  Right now I'm in ECO for quiet and running very stable.
A good surge suppressor/noise conditioner is important for the power to the apollo II along with a backup power supply.   Crashes have the chance of corrupting the bitcoin database.  

[Lungresin]

My Apollo II has been fully syncced and is mining but with only 10/64 connections. I enabled the port forwarding as instructed in the futurebit FAQ and nothing has changed. Any idea what could be preventing the full number of connections?

They are not responding to my emails about this problem and I have not been able to find any information on this. If there are any links to threads which discuss this it would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Hamster123]

My Apollo II has been fully syncced and is mining but with only 10/64 connections. I enabled the port forwarding as instructed in the futurebit FAQ and nothing has changed. Any idea what could be preventing the full number of connections?

They are not responding to my emails about this problem and I have not been able to find any information on this. If there are any links to threads which discuss this it would be appreciated. Thanks.

Did you go to the Settings-->Node-->Number of Connections field and change max connections to 64 then reboot the unit? After making the change on my Node Miner I had to reboot the unit before it took effect.

[oneeighteen]

Honestly, I've had only the issue I mentioned with using the units on the "new" software version on WIFI. I prefer hardwired anyway but had one unit in my "back hall" with no ethernet cable access (I set up an older WIFI router as an "extender" on my network, hardwired the Apollo 1 Node unit to it, zero issues since). I also had to re-install the software once (Apollo 1 unit, early on) so replaced the original sim card with a newer one I had on hand with no issues since. I have one original Apollo Node Unit with two Apollo Miners running on it as well as 2 Apollo 2 Node units each with one Apollo Miner connected. I heat my small home with them and again, have had no issues other than what I've mentioned already. I did follow all of the set-up instructions to the letter, have very good internet service with my own high quality modem and router, and all my electronics plugged into APC Line-R Voltage Regulator units. Wish I could provide more help but would suggest:

*Replace the original sim card with a same size higher quality one (cheap) and re-install official software
*Consider buying a cheapish voltage regulator and use that to protect/ensure the Node Miner is getting clean voltage (and the one's I use act as a surge protectors too; we suffer spikes/minor outages here in the East Tennessee Valley due to storms at times)
*Review and be sure to follow directions for set-up to the letter
*Don't run the miner while downloading the chain

I realize this is all pretty basic but I honestly have had a great experience with these miners and can only suggest what has worked for me. I hope this helps even if just a little. Good luck!
[/quote]

I tried the reindex.  It really doesn't work like you think.  Better to start over.  
Things to consider.  Have you monitored the bitcoin log.  Theres a command a few pages back explaining how to open a window and watch the bitcoin log live.  Sometimes you get errors that points you in the direction of the problems.  It will also show you the program is running when you think nothing is going on.  

Also check the bitcoind program in the system monitor and watch that run.  If it disappears you know the program crashed.   Sometimes its better to reboot the system and allowing the node to restart or restarting the node after a reboot.  Just restarting the node after a crash may mean strange things might be happening with memory or something and I've seen more problems just restarting the node.

I found that the bitcoind program would crash I reboot the system and it picks up where it left off.  A chainstate error does not get fixed by reindexing.  A restart and fresh run of bitcoind would usually fix this.  This is the database bitcoind writes from the blockchain database as a reference.  This chainstate is already rewritten on every reboot and over time with new block data.

One other thing I did was get another pcie memory stick and backup the blockchain during successful downloads after getting to a specific point.  As you get later in the download after i think around year 2020 the blockchain data changed, got bigger and each new block took longer to process so the first 3/4 could take 2 days and the last 1/4 takes another 2 days.
Don't use the apollo to do anything else but download the blockchain.  no surfing or browsing.  I even close the browser windows and monitor remotely.  Uses less memory and processing power.

Once you get the IBD, my system is running very well in all modes.  ECO, normal and TURBO.  Right now I'm in ECO for quiet and running very stable.
A good surge suppressor/noise conditioner is important for the power to the apollo II along with a backup power supply.   Crashes have the chance of corrupting the bitcoin database.  
[/quote]


Thanks everyone for the help. I have tried most of those things, including having a UPS on the system and trying different NVME drives that people listed here that would work. I finally heard back from futurebit and they said I have the "rare" controller hardware issue and are issuing me a RMA... we'll see how long this takes.

[PennyBit]

I just pushed my headless Apollo II over 2 PH/s with a few remote rentals along with my local miners while solo mining. All of these are low and medium difficulty miners. Has anyone tried using high-difficulty miners on their headless rig? And if so, please relate your experience in doing so. Thanks.

Cheers!


Image Link:
https://i.imgur.com/54WGZlq.jpeg

Can anybody answer this question? Thanks.

Cheers!