FutureBit Apollo III - Next Gen Home Mining

[heslo]

It arrived!

Currently cloning the nvme from my Apollo II so I don't need to do IBD again then I'll fire her up!

[heslo]

The cloning worked now up and running! Mining great so far and have the full 16GB on the controller. Thanks to everyone at FutureBit, the RMA went pretty smoothly!

[philipma1957]

The cloning worked now up and running! Mining great so far and have the full 16GB on the controller. Thanks to everyone at FutureBit, the RMA went pretty smoothly!

good news as there is 'no crying in bitcoin'



a reference to this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_League_of_Their_Own

[sticky]

anyone know why the node is set to run bitcoin 28.1 by default?

[philipma1957]

anyone know why the node is set to run bitcoin 28.1 by default?

pre knots

its a choice.

he does allow you to switch.

my core nodes at home are 28.1 and 29.1

and now this is 28.1

I do not run 30 or any one newer like 30.1 or 30.2 if it comes out.

[heslo]

Well it's been 24 hours and running absolutely no issues at all! Great bit of kit!!! Noticeably quieter in eco mode than the Apollo II was as well. Haven't tried pushing any higher, maybe I'll tinker tonight

[jstefanop]

anyone know why the node is set to run bitcoin 28.1 by default?

It's just the most tested core version for our OS, and where most futurebit blocks have been found on.

We are pretty conservative when it comes to solo mining, and our default is a few version behind. Will probably start testing 3x version for next default but that requires months of validation and testing on testnet.

[philipma1957]

So I cloned my 2tb ssd to a second 2tb ssd and I now have 2 pretty much up to date 800gb blockchain nodes.


questions are  where do I store the slightly up to date backup?

If I put it in the Apollo  will that confuse the unit or does it prioritize one drive over the other?

next question is my node has 11/64 connections how to max or make more than that?

also all connections are out

none are in.  so what must I tell my router to let incoming happen

[heslo]

So I cloned my 2tb ssd to a second 2tb ssd and I now have 2 pretty much up to date 800gb blockchain nodes.


questions are  where do I store the slightly up to date backup?

If I put it in the Apollo  will that confuse the unit or does it prioritize one drive over the other?

next question is my node has 11/64 connections how to max or make more than that?

also all connections are out

none are in.  so what must I tell my router to let incoming happen

Port forward 8333 and 3333

[jstefanop]

So I cloned my 2tb ssd to a second 2tb ssd and I now have 2 pretty much up to date 800gb blockchain nodes.


questions are  where do I store the slightly up to date backup?

If I put it in the Apollo  will that confuse the unit or does it prioritize one drive over the other?

next question is my node has 11/64 connections how to max or make more than that?

also all connections are out

none are in.  so what must I tell my router to let incoming happen

RAID mode is being worked on for 2.2 release for both Solo Node and Apollo III. You dont need to "clone" the drives, you'll be able to select which RAID mode you want and it will either automatically "clone" the drives for backup/redudancy in RAID 1, or "double" your drive space and read/write throughput in RAID 0.

[crypto_curious]

Hi friends,

Question:
SATSCARD included in Futurebit preorder, is completely empty, not even 1 sat on it preloaded?

[philipma1957]

Hi friends,

Question:
SATSCARD included in Futurebit preorder, is completely empty, not even 1 sat on it preloaded?

yes they come empty.

also check around to see if they did not get hacked as I think they may be okay.



https://satscard.com/

[heslo]

Hi friends,

Question:
SATSCARD included in Futurebit preorder, is completely empty, not even 1 sat on it preloaded?

yes they come empty.

also check around to see if they did not get hacked as I think they may be okay.



https://satscard.com/

I think for some lucky people who did preorders there were a few cards preloaded with some BTC

[crypto_curious]

I think for some lucky people who did preorders there were a few cards preloaded with some BTC

Thanks for the info. I wasn't in that group, so my card is completely empty.
If I were handling marketing for Coldcard, I'd preload every card I gave away or sold through a partnership with $1, or even $0.10. That would give people a reason to install the app and explore the product.
Instead, I have a plastic card with zero Bitcoin on it. With nothing on the card, there isn't really any incentive to install the app or look into it further. I'll just discard it.

Hi friends,

Question:
SATSCARD included in Futurebit preorder, is completely empty, not even 1 sat on it preloaded?

yes they come empty.
also check around to see if they did not get hacked as I think they may be okay.
https://satscard.com/

Thanks. According to Futurebit e-mail, these products are safe. From recent e-mail:

WHAT IS NOT AFFECTED
FUTUREBIT HARDWARE + SATSCARD
This is a COLDCARD firmware issue and not an issue with FutureBit hardware or firmware. SATSCARDs included with some FutureBit products use a separate codebase and are not affected. We are proactivly emailing our entire customer and subscription email base to spread awarness. If you know somone with a coldcard wallet please reach out to them.

But still - I would not trust it. Not my keys, not my coins. I have not generated seed or private key to an address on that card, so it's not mine. Adding hexdump of genesis block on the back of the card is not going to help. 

[jstefanop]

I think for some lucky people who did preorders there were a few cards preloaded with some BTC

Thanks for the info. I wasn't in that group, so my card is completely empty.
If I were handling marketing for Coldcard, I'd preload every card I gave away or sold through a partnership with $1, or even $0.10. That would give people a reason to install the app and explore the product.
Instead, I have a plastic card with zero Bitcoin on it. With nothing on the card, there isn't really any incentive to install the app or look into it further. I'll just discard it.

Hi friends,

Question:
SATSCARD included in Futurebit preorder, is completely empty, not even 1 sat on it preloaded?

yes they come empty.
also check around to see if they did not get hacked as I think they may be okay.
https://satscard.com/

Thanks. According to Futurebit e-mail, these products are safe. From recent e-mail:

WHAT IS NOT AFFECTED
FUTUREBIT HARDWARE + SATSCARD
This is a COLDCARD firmware issue and not an issue with FutureBit hardware or firmware. SATSCARDs included with some FutureBit products use a separate codebase and are not affected. We are proactivly emailing our entire customer and subscription email base to spread awarness. If you know somone with a coldcard wallet please reach out to them.

But still - I would not trust it. Not my keys, not my coins. I have not generated seed or private key to an address on that card, so it's not mine. Adding hexdump of genesis block on the back of the card is not going to help. 

The point of the satscard is for a plug and play zero config bitcoin wallet/address for solo mining.

You setup the Apollo, tap the card on your iPhone, copy the address and paste it into the solo mining payout address. No messing with new wallets, seeds etc.

Obviously this does not apply to most people on here, but 90% of our customers are new customers that have never mind before (and some never used bitcoin). Our goal has always been to make the transition into bitcoin as easy as possible for them.

It is a really cool product, and for people new to bitcoin it's a great way to get a payout address fast.

Yes we have verified with coldcard and checked the source and OS the wallet uses. It actually uses an OS called Java Card OS, which is the same firmware used for all Visa/Mastercard NFC cards etc. They use the onboard RNG that the banks use so definitely no coldcard class of bug is present on these cards.

[crypto_curious]

Just wanted to say thank you to @jstefanop and the FutureBit team.

I've had my Apollo III running non-stop for the last 11 days and I'm very happy with how it's performing. I configured it for 6 TH/s and that's exactly what it has been running at, drawing around 69 W, with all 21 chips running, zero restarts and no faults. Temperatures have also been very good, sitting around 51°C.

I've also put together a small script to extract the JSON stats from the Apollo III, so I can monitor the detailed stats and keep track of everything over time.

Code:

Apollo III:
External temperature: 20.5°C
Miner temperature: 51°C
Chip temps: 49-53°C (avg 51, 21 sensors)
Fan: 1280 RPM

Hashrate: 6031.1 GH/s (solutions, 1h)
Pool rate: 6165.1 GH/s (credited, 1h)
Board rate: 6067.5 GH/s (live)

Power draw: 69 W
Power efficiency: 12 W/TH/s
PSU: master 13.07A, slave 0.81A, total 13.9A

Chips: 21/21 (restarts 0, stopped none)
Error rate: 0.6% (1h) / 0.0% (board)

Faults: none 
Shares: 281572 Accepted / 177 Rejected
Bad shares: none 
Pool reconnects: 0 
Pool diff: 6051 

Uptime: 11d:8h:56m 
Process memory: 67.6 MiB
Firmware: 3.0.1-b9bf8f5

Overall, I'm a very happy customer. It's been running quietly and reliably 24/7, exactly as expected. I hope it will continue to do so, despite new design change.

[jstefanop]

Just wanted to say thank you to @jstefanop and the FutureBit team.

I've had my Apollo III running non-stop for the last 11 days and I'm very happy with how it's performing. I configured it for 6 TH/s and that's exactly what it has been running at, drawing around 69 W, with all 21 chips running, zero restarts and no faults. Temperatures have also been very good, sitting around 51°C.

I've also put together a small script to extract the JSON stats from the Apollo III, so I can monitor the detailed stats and keep track of everything over time.

Code:

Apollo III:
External temperature: 20.5°C
Miner temperature: 51°C
Chip temps: 49-53°C (avg 51, 21 sensors)
Fan: 1280 RPM

Hashrate: 6031.1 GH/s (solutions, 1h)
Pool rate: 6165.1 GH/s (credited, 1h)
Board rate: 6067.5 GH/s (live)

Power draw: 69 W
Power efficiency: 12 W/TH/s
PSU: master 13.07A, slave 0.81A, total 13.9A

Chips: 21/21 (restarts 0, stopped none)
Error rate: 0.6% (1h) / 0.0% (board)

Faults: none 
Shares: 281572 Accepted / 177 Rejected
Bad shares: none 
Pool reconnects: 0 
Pool diff: 6051 

Uptime: 11d:8h:56m 
Process memory: 67.6 MiB
Firmware: 3.0.1-b9bf8f5

Overall, I'm a very happy customer. It's been running quietly and reliably 24/7, exactly as expected. I hope it will continue to do so, despite new design change.

Awesome thats an extreme under clock...suprised it's stable at only 13A....good to see our firmware is pretty stable even outside tested ranges.

Why not run it at 8-10 TH thats the sweet spot if you want minimal power draw, and only consume 30 watts more power.

[crypto_curious]

Thanks for your reply.
So you say 24/7 stable (and tested by your team) bottom hashrate speed would be 8 TH/s, rather than 5 TH/s?

[jstefanop]

Thanks for your reply.
So you say 24/7 stable (and tested by your team) bottom hashrate speed would be 8 TH/s, rather than 5 TH/s?

Yes 8TH was the lowest we could get efficiency, you can go lower but efficiency remains flat or even slightly worse due to dimension returns.

[tibiniou]

(Edit : added logs)

Hi

New Apollo III owner here from France  
My unit arrived two days ago and node is now fully synced and operationnal.
Unfortunately, the miner part is not working at all    When clicking the start button, it is spinning an spinning until it stops saying the miner is offline (see images below).
Besides, it is showing a "N/A" in the overview panel in hardware errors.

The fan has also a strange behavior as it launches for one second only every minute. Plus, I can regularly hear a "clicking" sound, as if the miner was trying to switch on but couldn't.
I've just flashed the sd card with the firmware and complete the setup process again. Didn't do anything.
Do you have any idea on how to solve that ?

Thank you

(please excuse my poor english)


https://i.postimg.cc/GhLgjKxp/miner-1.png

https://i.postimg.cc/Qx8YqmJd/miner-2.png

https://i.postimg.cc/7YHtN9nY/miner-3.png


Here are some logs if it helps :

2026-09-30T06:43:18.117929-04:00 futurebit-apollo-3 node[1610]: Error getting miner screen output: Command failed: sudo screen -ls | grep "miner"
2026-09-30T06:43:31.315092-04:00 futurebit-apollo-3 miner_start.sh[91318]: Started
2026-09-30T06:43:31.393437-04:00 futurebit-apollo-3 miner_stop.sh[92336]: Stopped
2026-09-30T06:43:31.394644-04:00 futurebit-apollo-3 systemd[1]: apollo-miner.service: Deactivated successfully.
2026-09-30T06:43:31.394900-04:00 futurebit-apollo-3 systemd[1]: Started apollo-miner.service - apollo-miner.
2026-09-30T06:44:01.528059-04:00 futurebit-apollo-3 systemd[1]: apollo-miner.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 38.
2026-09-30T06:44:01.537357-04:00 futurebit-apollo-3 systemd[1]: Starting apollo-miner.service - apollo-miner...