looking for old R4 Firmware.

[CochnocherCrypto]

Hey there fellow Bitcoiners,

So I recently acquired a storage unit, at auction, that while unpacking I found to contain a brand new, or VERY gently used Antminer R4. I've gotten it up and running but was wondering if anyone had any old versions of the R4 Firmware that were prior to the releases that have the Auto-Frequency only settings (Firmware currently on the machine is from 11/2018 and lacks the advanced settings tab). Friend of mine has several R4's that all have older firmware that allows the user to select the chip frequency from a drop-down list.

I know after doing some research that these were known to have a high failure rate (reasons stemming from what I assume to be heat-related looking at the specifics of lots of documented failures) so my hope is to find someone who has the gzip archive as it is no longer available from Bitmain - I want to run this miner at the slowest possible core clocks and really use it as a space heater as the colder months are right around the corner here in the northeastern USA!.

If anyone has that FW, or - if anyone knows how to enable the "Advanced Settings" tab in the newer R4 firmwares, any help would be greatly appreciated!.

Little more info in case it helps - controller is a XILINX Zynq board (Bitmain's site had a couple of possible boards listed).

Thanks in advance, cheers!

[paid2]

My favorite "hobby" ASIC  

No unfortunately, it seems very difficult to find it. I am using the Braiinos version designed for the S9 for my Antminer R4 (I still have dozens of them), it works perfectly.

I know after doing some research that these were known to have a high failure rate (reasons stemming from what I assume to be heat-related looking at the specifics of lots of documented failures) so my hope is to find someone who has the gzip archive as it is no longer available from Bitmain - I want to run this miner at the slowest possible core clocks and really use it as a space heater as the colder months are right around the corner here in the northeastern USA!.

Btw, if you own a R4, you might me interested:

I was tired of having my 6pin connectors burned every 2 weeks (this is a CURSE with Antminer R4, 6pins connectors are burning very very very often), so I added a fan, like that:



I never had any issue again, they run h24 and are very stable. The fan does the job (I tried with latest Bitmain firmware + braiinos = both are working fine)

(FYI the Control Board is exactly the same as S9 control board)

EDIT : I remember I still have all kind of control boards laying around, some still with the first firmware, if you want, I could check if I can extract the firmware

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Out of a total of 4 R4's I've had only 1 that burned the PCI connectors and I place the blame for that on the modular PSU cables I was using - they were thin 18ga ones plus that PSU had been used for several S1-S5 miners so the connector was no doubt worn out. FYI PCIe connectors are only rated for 10-25 plug/unplug cycles before the plating is gone and they start to go down hill quickly from there. 2 had the infamous chip chain break where the long boards result in flexure and breaking the coms between chips. I still run my 'Lucky' 1 that has found 3 blocks over the years.

re: firmware, the one from Bitmain to have would be an early version that has an Advanced Config tab that lets you choose from a long list of speeds vs the later versions that were all auto-tune.

[Artemis3]

Its not a long list of speeds (that's modded fw), its a field where you type the speed value, default in the 8T model was 600mhz and you could change it for example to 550mhz by actually typing that number. The firmware would adjust the voltage on the fly. With the auto-tune, on mine the 2018 fw would take 15 real minutes before starting to hash btw....

Its pretty much the same as the one seen in the earliest S9s before the auto tune and asicboost of 2018, oldest for R4 was from 2017 but oldest for S9 2016. Lets not forget that it was Braiins that forced the hand of Bitmain to release asicboost firmware, consider the chips were in the market since 2016 and they kept quiet about it for two years. Losing asicboost is throwing at least 20% efficiency away, so i would not switch to the older firmware.

The other nice fact of the old firmware is that it shows temperatures as the sensors see it, exactly like Braiins OS does, later fw did -15 and all mods based on it creating endless confusion.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Its not a long list of speeds (that's modded fw), its a field where you type the speed value, default in the 8T model was 600mhz and you could change it for example to 550mhz by actually typing that number.

Incorrect. On mine dated Aug 2016 it's a pull down list spanning from 100MHz to 1000MHz
https://i.imgur.com/m1BTD2f.png

[tux1975]

Its not a long list of speeds (that's modded fw), its a field where you type the speed value, default in the 8T model was 600mhz and you could change it for example to 550mhz by actually typing that number.

Incorrect. On mine dated Aug 2016 it's a pull down list spanning from 100MHz to 1000MHz
https://i.imgur.com/m1BTD2f.png

is displayed but below 200 mhz and above 650 mhz does not work with the stock firmware 

regards Jens

[thierry4wd]

Hey there fellow Bitcoiners,

So I recently acquired a storage unit, at auction, that while unpacking I found to contain a brand new, or VERY gently used Antminer R4. I've gotten it up and running but was wondering if anyone had any old versions of the R4 Firmware that were prior to the releases that have the Auto-Frequency only settings (Firmware currently on the machine is from 11/2018 and lacks the advanced settings tab). Friend of mine has several R4's that all have older firmware that allows the user to select the chip frequency from a drop-down list.

I know after doing some research that these were known to have a high failure rate (reasons stemming from what I assume to be heat-related looking at the specifics of lots of documented failures) so my hope is to find someone who has the gzip archive as it is no longer available from Bitmain - I want to run this miner at the slowest possible core clocks and really use it as a space heater as the colder months are right around the corner here in the northeastern USA!.

If anyone has that FW, or - if anyone knows how to enable the "Advanced Settings" tab in the newer R4 firmwares, any help would be greatly appreciated!.

Little more info in case it helps - controller is a XILINX Zynq board (Bitmain's site had a couple of possible boards listed).

Thanks in advance, cheers!

Hello, i have all you need, install this firmware : https://file12.bitmain.com/shop-product/firmware/Antminer%20R4/Firmware/0072018111915190019606xL1e6L0640/Antminer-R4-xilinx-201811121649-autofreq-user-UBI-NF.tar.gz (epear you already run with it)

When its ok, apply the patch by upgrade again (full free and open, possible just open it for see under) available on my website, and... leave your comment