[Setup Guide] Blackarrow Bitfury 16 chip board support and tuning thread

[nbtcminer]

This thread is to help people with Blackarrow's Bitfury 16 chip board:

Preface:

I noticed that while there was a plethora of information on how to setup MegaBigPower / BFSB Bitfury equipment, I had some trouble finding info on the Blackarrow Bitfury hardware and software setup. So I decided to make my own support / tunning thread to help others benefit from my research and to further discussion on the topic:

Hardware Setup:

1.) Setup metal hex spacer bars; all advice / pictures of actual setups show two bars between the boards. This likely is to allow for maximum thermal dissipation and better airflow.
2.) Face the units with the heat sinks towards the ceiling and fasten all the hex spacers (two apart) until you have chain of 6 constructed (6 is the maximum allowable per SPI daisy chain). *Note; While orientation doesn't seem to matter; I have use the following configuration with success; left spi connector = chain up to the right spi, right spi on last board to the controller spi. Make sure the pin outs line up for (i.e. pin 1 on the connectors line up)
3.) Connect the controller to RPi with the 26p female to female cable (once again the pin out should line up, P1 to P1) and finish connecting power to all the units (either via barrel connectors or screw top).

Software Setup (Quick 15 minute setup):

1. Download the raspberry pi image from here: http://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/download/8gb%20pi%20-%20chainminer%20-%20v2.imgc
2. Write it with: HDD Raw Copy ver.1.02 portable: http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool/HDDRawCopy1.02Portable.exe
(*note: Booting will get a DHCP IP address; use your router to look up the address assigned by DHCP.)
3. Login with:
user: root
password: pi
4. Follow the instructions displayed on the screen.

4a. Please change the passwords for users pi and root.

   passwd pi
   passwd root

*Note: Write down your passwords!

4b. Edit the file /opt/bitfury/proxy_pools.conf to setup your pool details.
If you do not do this, your miner will produce bitcoins for someone else.

   nano /opt/bitfury/proxy_pools.conf

*Note: Ctrl-X; then hit y for yes and save your miner info.

4c. Your raspberry pi is configured to restart every 20 minutes.
The reason is to make sure if the miner hangs it will resume at some point.
To remove this feature, run this command:

  crontab -e

and erase this line

  */20 * * * *  killall -9 screen; screen -wipe; /etc/rc.local

*Note: Mine has been up for a few days and is working properly without the resets; ymmv

4d. Update stratum-proxy software found in here /opt/bitfury/stratum-mining-proxy:

cd /opt/bitfury/stratum-mining-proxy
mv mining_proxy.py mining_proxy.py_old
git pull
python setup.py build
cp -f build/lib.linux-armv6l-2.7/mining_libs/* mining_libs/
cp build/scripts-2.7/mining_proxy.py .

4e. then, edit /opt/bitfury/chainminer/jobconnect.cpp:
 
cd /opt/bitfury/chainminer/
nano jobconnect.cpp
 
change this:
 
hosts_t hosts[]={
                {"Basic cHBjb2lucnBjOkYxZm4xOXk4M01KdGtWRTN0aFN3YUtBTjY3Sk5FVlBkWktNZW5iNUQ3eFI0","http://192.168.0.5:9... stratum client
//              {"Basic dHl0dXMucGkyOnB1YmxpY3Bhc3M=","http://127.0.0.1:833... stratum client
//                      ,{"Basic dHl0dXMucGkyOnB1YmxpY3Bhc3M=","http://127.0.0.1:833... stratum client
//                              ,{"Basic dHl0dXMucGkyOnB1YmxpY3Bhc3M=","http://127.0.0.1:833... stratum client
                                        };
 
to this:
 
hosts_t hosts[]={
              {"Basic dHl0dXMucGkyOnB1YmxpY3Bhc3M=","http://127.0.0.1:833... stratum client
                      ,{"Basic dHl0dXMucGkyOnB1YmxpY3Bhc3M=","http://127.0.0.1:833... stratum client
                              ,{"Basic dHl0dXMucGkyOnB1YmxpY3Bhc3M=","http://127.0.0.1:833... stratum client
                                        };
 
Then type:
 
make     (*Note: may take a few minutes)
mstart




Now you should be up and running with your blackarrow bitfury 16 chip boards! Congrats! Post in this thread if you need help and I'll try to lend a hand where I can. If you found this thread useful, please send a tip to: 13Te98Jcyqg7BTCJKW9q8PiZme7S8LE31c


*Important Note: The RPI image black arrow gives you is set to overclocked already; it has been set to 900mhz (high).

[nbtcminer]

Reserved post for additional info / accessories to purchase for this board


Here's an alternative connectors to power your blackarrow bitfury devices:

2-pin Curved Screw terminal blocks:
http://www.dx.com/p/2-pin-curved-screw-terminal-block-connectors-green-20-piece-pack-146624#.U3kWnvldV8E

6-pin Male to Female Graphics Card Power Extension Cable:
http://www.dx.com/p/jiahui-6-pin-male-to-female-graphics-card-power-extension-cable-black-white-309827#.U3kXcPldV8E

Brass Threaded 30mm spacers / standoffs:
http://www.dx.com/p/brass-threaded-stand-off-hex-screw-pillars-w-nuts-m3-x-30mm-6-30-pcs-148712#.U4ZENvldVT4

[nbtcminer]

third reserved post for posting Kano's cgminer setup info with additions.

[dozerz]

my boards are running, happy to help anyone having problems.

[bobsag3]

Thanks for setting it up, may I link to it on our site (with credits to you obviously)

[nbtcminer]

Thanks for setting it up, may I link to it on our site (with credits to you obviously)

I've got no problem with that; go right ahead

[dozerz]

any one else getting a lot of duplicate shares? pool reports around 33k for 750gh, is this normal for these boards?

[nbtcminer]

any one else getting a lot of duplicate shares? pool reports around 33k for 750gh, is this normal for these boards?

I'm seeing some high dupe as well. going to take a look at how cgminer performs once I tweak it.

[dozerz]

are you powering the controller with a barrel lead or something else or does it get power from the pi?

[dozerz]

any one else getting a lot of duplicate shares? pool reports around 33k for 750gh, is this normal for these boards?

I'm seeing some high dupe as well. going to take a look at how cgminer performs once I tweak it.

please share your settings, i am using 4.3.3 on default which is supposed to auto tune but saw no improvement over 24 hours.

[nbtcminer]

are you powering the controller with a barrel lead or something else or does it get power from the pi?

I'm currently using PCI-E to 3 barrel connectors for all my power needs at the moment one word of caution and the reason for why I am replacing my cables; one of the pairs for the PCI-E to barrel connectors frayed every so slightly and caused a brief short. Not sure how it occurred but I've order screw connectors for all of my units and intend to replace all the power connectors (better safer than sorry).  I recommend giving your PCI-E connectors a once over to make sure none of the power (red) or ground (black) are frayed and if they are you should at the very least isolate the damaged cables with small stripe of electrical tape or re solder / re-shrink wrap the cable.

[nbtcminer]

any one else getting a lot of duplicate shares? pool reports around 33k for 750gh, is this normal for these boards?

I'm seeing some high dupe as well. going to take a look at how cgminer performs once I tweak it.

please share your settings, i am using 4.3.3 on default which is supposed to auto tune but saw no improvement over 24 hours.

I tried:

./cgminer -o  -u  -p  --api-listen

after following most of Kano instructions without much success. I also tried:

./cgminer -o  -u -p --api-listen --bab-options 57:54:50:6:6:10000:0:0

but seemed to get some errors with the delay portion of the options (--bab-options max:def:min:up:down:hz:delay:trf). I've since gone back to chainminer as it's proven to be a bit more stable over a 24 hour period and that I've had more success with tuning it over the week that I've had it.

[dozerz]

are you powering the controller with a barrel lead or something else or does it get power from the pi?

I'm currently using PCI-E to 3 barrel connectors for all my power needs at the moment one word of caution and the reason for why I am replacing my cables; one of the pairs for the PCI-E to barrel connectors frayed every so slightly and caused a brief short. Not sure how it occurred but I've order screw connectors for all of my units and intend to replace all the power connectors (better safer than sorry).  I recommend giving your PCI-E connectors a once over to make sure none of the power (red) or ground (black) are frayed and if they are you should at the very least isolate the damaged cables with small stripe of electrical tape or re solder / re-shrink wrap the cable.

thanks i will check it out my power connections.

seems a dodgy board has killed my controller. im wondering if you have power plugged into your 4x controller or if its just powered by the pi? previously i only had power plugged into the controller and this was also powering the pi, maybe that also contributed.

[nbtcminer]

thanks i will check it out my power connections.

seems a dodgy board has killed my controller. im wondering if you have power plugged into your 4x controller or if its just powered by the pi? previously i only had power plugged into the controller and this was also powering the pi, maybe that also contributed.

Try pulling one of your barrel connectors directly into the controller board; the controller should be supplying power to the pi via the 26 pin ribbon cable.

[dozerz]

thanks i will check it out my power connections.

seems a dodgy board has killed my controller. im wondering if you have power plugged into your 4x controller or if its just powered by the pi? previously i only had power plugged into the controller and this was also powering the pi, maybe that also contributed.

Try pulling one of your barrel connectors directly into the controller board; the controller should be supplying power to the pi via the 26 pin ribbon cable.

ok thanks, thats how it was setup until i connected a bad board and fried it. waiting on a replacement board to get hashing again

[chadtn]

Is there some more support documentation out there on how to set these things up?  I'd like to know a little bit more about how the controller interfaces with the Pi.  I'd prefer to start with a stock Rasbian Wheezy image.  I've got cgminer 4.3.3 building now, but I'm assuming some kind of configuration is required for the Pi to communicate with the controller.

Thanks!

Chad

[dozerz]

Is there some more support documentation out there on how to set these things up?  I'd like to know a little bit more about how the controller interfaces with the Pi.  I'd prefer to start with a stock Rasbian Wheezy image.  I've got cgminer 4.3.3 building now, but I'm assuming some kind of configuration is required for the Pi to communicate with the controller.

Thanks!

Chad

BlackArrow Bitfury devices need the --enable-bab option when compiling cgminer.

just include this when compiling and the boards and chips will be detected on startup of cgminer.

[nbtcminer]

Is there some more support documentation out there on how to set these things up?  I'd like to know a little bit more about how the controller interfaces with the Pi.  I'd prefer to start with a stock Rasbian Wheezy image.  I've got cgminer 4.3.3 building now, but I'm assuming some kind of configuration is required for the Pi to communicate with the controller.

Thanks!

Chad

Here's Kano's guide on how to get it working (he uses Arch linux in the guide tho):

http://www.kano-kun.net/?p=87

[chadtn]

Is there no other documentation available for these things?  I hooked up one board/controller and a trace on the controller burned up right away.  I hooked a second board/controller up and a trace on that controller burned up in a different spot.  I hooked a third board/controller up and it detected 96 chips on that one board, but wouldn't hash.  I plugged in a fourth board to that controller and no chips are detected.

Chad

[chadtn]

The third and last controller burned up too.  Are these boards known to be troublesome?

Chad

[dozerz]

The third and last controller burned up too.  Are these boards known to be troublesome?

Chad

i had exactly the same problem, i did have everything working fine and hashing but when i moved everything to my server room and reconnected the controller also burned up. i ordered a new one from black arrow and will try again once it arrives.

[chadtn]

What is causing them to burn up?  I never got anything hashing.

Chad

[dozerz]

i suspect its a power leak from a faulty board. i dont really have time to fully test until next week, but you can order replacement controllers from black arrow.

[chadtn]

I just had the first three individual boards I pulled out of the box burn up three controllers.  Is there some way to test them?  Otherwise I'm going to need a few dozen controllers to get any of these things running.

Chad

[btljuice]

Has anyone had luck getting the blue boards with the pins facing down hashing? All the green ones I hook up no problem, but haven't gotten a single blue board working no matter how I try and hook up the SPI cable.

[btljuice]

*sigh* Fried part of my controller... I suspect because the blue boards pins aren't labeled/done correctly. SPI3/4 don't work now. 1 & 2 still do. Going to steer clear of these blue boards until I can get some clarification on how to connect them properly.

[dozerz]

*sigh* Fried my controller... I suspect because the blue boards pins aren't labeled/done correctly.

i also had the same problem. word of warning that i also noticed this with some green boards so be careful. you can normally tell if a board will fry the controller by holding the ribbon cable which will heat up immediately after connecting it to the controller.

[btljuice]

*sigh* Fried my controller... I suspect because the blue boards pins aren't labeled/done correctly.

i also had the same problem. word of warning that i also noticed this with some green boards so be careful. you can normally tell if a board will fry the controller by holding the ribbon cable which will heat up immediately after connecting it to the controller.

I believe the controllers are getting fried by hooking up the SPI cables incorrectly. I'm guessing this because a lot of v1 H-cards got fried (or was it the m-boards? I forget) when people didn't insert the cards facing the correct way. That's why the v2.2 cards are PCI style slots, so people couldn't get it wrong. So I'm guessing it's the same deal here, if you don't connect pin 1 on the cable to pin 1 on a board.

[helipotte]

Hi,

Figured I would post my findings with one of the 17 board "kits" in this thread.

First off, it took me about a week of tinkering to get these things humming at 40Gh per board with all 17 connected to one pi/controller.

My reject/error rate is below 1%.  First thing you need to do to get rid of the rejects/dupes/error is OVERCLOCK your Pi to 900mhz.

The little Raspberry pi can't handle more than about 12 of these boards if you use Cgminer.

Next thing to do is edit the file driver-bab.c before you compile. Edit line 2124  from:

#define BAB_STD_WORK_DELAY_uS 900000

to:

#define BAB_STD_WORK_DELAY_uS 800000

Increasing the SPI bus from 96000 to about 165000 helped with the waiting for work messages. That is line 42.

This plus overclocking made CGminer run perfect with the 17 board kit.

Also for you electronic types, installing some tantalum caps on the 1.8V regulator helped a lot with SPI errors.  Grounding between the boards and controller is VERY important!

Hope this helps those who have these boards and are struggling with error/dupes/rejects.

Edit: Don't use the barrel connector/PCI express adapters that came with the kit.  Make your own out of 14 gauge or better wire. I had one catch on fire!  Estimate that each

board requires about 50W.  Safety first.

[nbtcminer]

Thanks helipotte for the info! I'm actually going to OC my pi and see how things work out; I'm finding that chain miner has worked way better for me than cgminer but I may try the mod you suggest and give it another try.


One of the things I'm finding that seems to be common about the frying of boards; this may be because of the SPI connector itself and plugging it in the wrong way (i.e.plugging it in the wrong way). Can you take a pic of the 1.8v regulator / where to put the cap you were talking about?

[helipotte]

I will post a picture next time I take it down for maintenance. But basically I soldered a SMD cap between pin 10 (1.8V) and the ground ring next to it.  Did this on two

SPI connectors.  This reduced the ripple measured considerably.

[chadtn]

There are only two ways the cable can be plugged in...right?  I'm certain that every board I plugged up had the same color wire on the side facing the number one pin.  Are the boards labeled incorrectly?  It won't do me any good to order a stack of controllers if they just burn up every time I hook a board up.

Chad

[helipotte]

There are only two ways the cable can be plugged in...right?  I'm certain that every board I plugged up had the same color wire on the side facing the number one pin.  Are the boards labeled incorrectly?  It won't do me any good to order a stack of controllers if they just burn up every time I hook a board up.

Chad

Check for shorts on your boards between ground (corner rings) and pin 10 on SPI connector.

[dozerz]

There are only two ways the cable can be plugged in...right?  I'm certain that every board I plugged up had the same color wire on the side facing the number one pin.  Are the boards labeled incorrectly?  It won't do me any good to order a stack of controllers if they just burn up every time I hook a board up.

Chad

Check for shorts on your boards between ground (corner rings) and pin 10 on SPI connector.

great info, thanks! look forward to your pictures.

[dozerz]

I will post a picture next time I take it down for maintenance. But basically I soldered a SMD cap between pin 10 (1.8V) and the ground ring next to it.  Did this on two

SPI connectors.  This reduced the ripple measured considerably.

what value cap did you use?

[helipotte]

2x 220 uF tantalum.  Might need more though.  It is important to use low esr caps.  The caps aren't required, but do reduce the errors somewhat.

Example: http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/AVX/TPSC227M006R0125/?qs=nuh5PIvfcbyhUuXGL20cAA==

[dozerz]

2x 220 uF tantalum.  Might need more though.  It is important to use low esr caps.  The caps aren't required, but do reduce the errors somewhat.

Example: http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/AVX/TPSC227M006R0125/?qs=nuh5PIvfcbyhUuXGL20cAA==

thanks, would love to see some pics and how you wired up the power/plugs.

[helipotte]

Well since these did not come with the outer 4-pin connector, I improvised!

I soldered 14 gauge wire directly to the tinned side of the board, then linked to other two pins to the next board.  Limited the chain to 5 boards.

Then I installed high current automotive type spade connectors on the first board in the chain.  These connected to terminals on a modified 750 watt

Dell XPS power supply.  Each power supply has 10 boards attached to it using 4 14 gauge wires.  All the wires are cold and I get ~12V at the board

connector.  17 boards Use about 700W supplied with 240V and hash at 678Gh.  Almost 1W per Gh!

[Polyatomic]

Can the cubieboard2 or cubietruck be used as the host instead of a pi?

[helipotte]

Can the cubieboard2 or cubietruck be used as the host instead of a pi?

My thinking on this is no.  But I am no coder.  I have been trying to get these to work on a BeagleBone black with no luck.  I think the driver in cgminer

(driver-bab.c) is written only for the spi interface on the pi.  Kano did a lot of work on this driver, maybe he can add support for non raspberry pi devices.

When I run CGminer compiled with this driver it states that it cannot access the SPI interface.  As far as the original chainminer, I have no idea.

[Machinery]

Ahm, useful guide.
I seem to be having trouble while logging in, that password doesn't work for me.

[nbtcminer]

Ahm, useful guide.
I seem to be having trouble while logging in, that password doesn't work for me.

Are you talking about the original Blackarrow Pi image? And I'm fairly certain that the username/password root/pi is the right combo for default settings. If you changed the password via the passwd change for the root account then it will be whatever you set it to. If you've lost the password your best option is to start from scratch by re-imaging your SD card. ((The other possibility is that you aren't sshing to the right device)). Try using a client like PuTTY to connect to the PI.

I recommend backing up the following files for a quick restore if you ever need to reimage the SD card(winscp is free and work great):

/opt/bitfury/best.cnf
/opt/bitfury/proxy_pools.conf
/opt/bitfury/chainminer/jobconnect.cpp
/run/shm/.stat.log

As for other devices interfacing with the controller; afaik the pi GPIO is the only way to interface with the controller board and I'm assuming all the existing code is written specifically for it.

[terrapinflyer]

Ahm, useful guide.
I seem to be having trouble while logging in, that password doesn't work for me.

Yea root/pi does not work on my pi either. Im waiting for a response from bobsag about what else it could be.

[btljuice]

Can anyone please explain how to connect the cables to the boards with the pins facing down? Can only line up the arrow on the cable to pin 2 or 9.

EDIT: Also, is anybody going to order a controller? Wondering if anyone wants to go in on an order since shipping is $60.

[brettsimons]

Hey guys,
I've been trying for hours to get my boards working but no matter what I try, the hash rate stays at 0 and I've been trying to just connect to ghash until I can get it working. I've read that you can set up the miners through the web interface but when I go to the ip address of the rPi, I just get the generic "It works! This is the default web page for this server. The web server software is running but no content has been added, yet." Also, when I run "sudo /opt/bitfury/start-miner.sh" I get an error of "cp: cannot stat '/opt/bitfury/empty_stat.json': No such file or directory". Finally, I posted what I see in "screen -r" since it looks like it is connecting and receiving jobs but mstat is showing nothing and neither is ghash.  

I just can't seem to get anything to work!!

https://i.imgur.com/m48oLR6.png



//-----EDIT-----//
It won't let me create a new post on this thread so here we go:

Ahm, useful guide.
I seem to be having trouble while logging in, that password doesn't work for me.

Yea root/pi does not work on my pi either. Im waiting for a response from bobsag about what else it could be.

Try username: pi and password: raspberry

[btljuice]

Also, when I run "sudo /opt/bitfury/start-miner.sh" I get an error of "cp: cannot stat '/opt/bitfury/empty_stat.json': No such file or directory".

Run this: "touch /opt/bitfury/empty_stat.json". Then try "sudo /opt/bitfury/start-miner.sh" again. After running that, wait about 30 seconds or a minute and "cat /run/shm/.stat.json", that will show a summary of what your boards are (or aren't) doing.

[brettsimons]

Also, when I run "sudo /opt/bitfury/start-miner.sh" I get an error of "cp: cannot stat '/opt/bitfury/empty_stat.json': No such file or directory".

Run this: "touch /opt/bitfury/empty_stat.json". Then try "sudo /opt/bitfury/start-miner.sh" again. After running that, wait about 30 seconds or a minute and "cat /run/shm/.stat.json", that will show a summary of what your boards are (or aren't) doing.

Now start-miner.sh executes but when I run "cat /run/shm/.stat.json", I get "cat: /run/shm/.stat.json: No such file or directory"

Can you try uploading your working raspberry pi's sd card contents? It just seems like nothing is working with the image from black arrow's website...

[nbtcminer]

Ahm, useful guide.
I seem to be having trouble while logging in, that password doesn't work for me.

Yea root/pi does not work on my pi either. Im waiting for a response from bobsag about what else it could be.

Very weird. I'll upload my imagec file on monday when I get to a place with solid internet.

[sidehack]

Is it possible to interface these to a real computer instead of a devboard computer?

[terrapinflyer]

Also, when I run "sudo /opt/bitfury/start-miner.sh" I get an error of "cp: cannot stat '/opt/bitfury/empty_stat.json': No such file or directory".

Run this: "touch /opt/bitfury/empty_stat.json". Then try "sudo /opt/bitfury/start-miner.sh" again. After running that, wait about 30 seconds or a minute and "cat /run/shm/.stat.json", that will show a summary of what your boards are (or aren't) doing.

Now start-miner.sh executes but when I run "cat /run/shm/.stat.json", I get "cat: /run/shm/.stat.json: No such file or directory"

Same issue here.

[helipotte]

Do these boards run slower in larger setups?  I have had a problem with boards running much slower when 15+ are connected to one controller.

I am using raspbian/Cgminer4.3.4.  I tested ALL of the boards individually and have 20 of them that do 40Gh+ by themselves.  This is 2.5Gh per

chip.  When they are chained 5 boards to a bank, some them only manage 1.0-1.2Gh.  The errors look good, rejects look good but speed is way

low.  They are cooled by 120MM fans running at full speed and 1500W of clean power(wired together by 14 gauge wire).  Seems that it is a bus

issue.  Maybe a CGminer issue?  I posted earlier some suggestions, these worked to cut errors/rejects but now speed issues.  I am starting to think

these boards are POSSESED!

Thanks for any advice/feedback.

[dozerz]

Do these boards run slower in larger setups?  I have had a problem with boards running much slower when 15+ are connected to one controller.

I am using raspbian/Cgminer4.3.4.  I tested ALL of the boards individually and have 20 of them that do 40Gh+ by themselves.  This is 2.5Gh per

chip.  When they are chained 5 boards to a bank, some them only manage 1.0-1.2Gh.  The errors look good, rejects look good but speed is way

low.  They are cooled by 120MM fans running at full speed and 1500W of clean power(wired together by 14 gauge wire).  Seems that it is a bus

issue.  Maybe a CGminer issue?  I posted earlier some suggestions, these worked to cut errors/rejects but now speed issues.  I am starting to think

these boards are POSSESED!

Thanks for any advice/feedback.

can you show a pic of the caps soldered and your power setup? i thought you switched back to chainminer?

[helipotte]

I did use chainminer, briefly to compare against Cgminer.  I prefer Cgminer because I monitor it's API remotely.  I will try to post pics of my modifications

to the control board, when my second Raspberry Pi gets here.

[dozerz]

I did use chainminer, briefly to compare against Cgminer.  I prefer Cgminer because I monitor it's API remotely.  I will try to post pics of my modifications

to the control board, when my second Raspberry Pi gets here.

thanks would appreciate some pics. also im confused, did you add the cap to the controller board or some of the chip boards that were leaking? or both?

[warrensgun]

I'm only trying to get a chain of six to work - i get 100% HW errors.  I tried chainminer - couldn't figure that out - so I installed cgminer using the kanos directions. 

It recognizes the boards - sometimes up to 93 chips - never all of them of course. 

I'm powering the Pi using a usb cable.  I am not powering the controller board as there is no way to do so - it has an odd 4 pin connector on it that looks close to a molex - but the molex from the power supply wouldn't fit into it.  Not to sound like a n00b but I'm stumped on that one.

Some one referenced overclocking the pi itself to 900mhz - is there a quick and easy way to do that?

[dozerz]

I'm only trying to get a chain of six to work - i get 100% HW errors.  I tried chainminer - couldn't figure that out - so I installed cgminer using the kanos directions. 

It recognizes the boards - sometimes up to 93 chips - never all of them of course. 

I'm powering the Pi using a usb cable.  I am not powering the controller board as there is no way to do so - it has an odd 4 pin connector on it that looks close to a molex - but the molex from the power supply wouldn't fit into it.  Not to sound like a n00b but I'm stumped on that one.

Some one referenced overclocking the pi itself to 900mhz - is there a quick and easy way to do that?

you need to power the controller. controllers from black arrow dont have the barrel connector. you cna eitehr solder one on or just connect up to a molex with red + to left and black -ve to the right side ground. a light will come on once you turn on the switch.

[warrensgun]

ok I'll give that a shot.  So I can just pull the female connectors out of the molex plug and hook them up. 

[dozerz]

ok I'll give that a shot.  So I can just pull the female connectors out of the molex plug and hook them up. 

would be better to use these http://www.dx.com/p/2-pin-curved-screw-terminal-block-connectors-green-20-piece-pack-146624#.U3kWnvldV8E

but the female plugs out of a molex will also work fine. make sure you note the +ve and -gnd on the controller board.

[helipotte]

I'm only trying to get a chain of six to work - i get 100% HW errors.  I tried chainminer - couldn't figure that out - so I installed cgminer using the kanos directions. 

It recognizes the boards - sometimes up to 93 chips - never all of them of course. 

I'm powering the Pi using a usb cable.  I am not powering the controller board as there is no way to do so - it has an odd 4 pin connector on it that looks close to a molex - but the molex from the power supply wouldn't fit into it.  Not to sound like a n00b but I'm stumped on that one.

Some one referenced overclocking the pi itself to 900mhz - is there a quick and easy way to do that?

As far as overclocking to Pi, the easy way to do it is to connect the SD card to another computer and edit config.txt. Or do it from the shell.

Example: http://elinux.org/R-Pi_ConfigurationFile

[warrensgun]

ok I'll give that a shot.  So I can just pull the female connectors out of the molex plug and hook them up. 

would be better to use these http://www.dx.com/p/2-pin-curved-screw-terminal-block-connectors-green-20-piece-pack-146624#.U3kWnvldV8E

but the female plugs out of a molex will also work fine. make sure you note the +ve and -gnd on the controller board.

The pins are labeled GND and VCC.  do I need to hook up 4 pins or just two

[warrensgun]

Ok got the power hooked up - still getting 100% hw errors from cgminer -- compiled with bab options

in chainminer - running mstat shows

96      AIfDSo  54      0.000   0.000   0       0       0       0       0       [:F]    756     0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0     0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
speed:5184 noncerate[GH/s]:0.000 (0.000/chip) hashrate[GH/s]:0.000 good:0 errors:0 spi-errors:0 miso-errors:0 jobs:0 (record[GH/s]:0.000)
C:      864     0.000   0.000   0       0       0       0
D:      864     0.000   0.000   0       0       0       0
E:      864     0.000   0.000   0       0       0       0
F:      864     0.000   0.000   0       0       0       0
:       864     0.000   0.000   0       0       0       0
:       864     0.000   0.000   0       0       0       0


Anything else to test - right now this is just one bank of boards hooked up to the controller.

[terrapinflyer]

Can anyone please explain how to connect the cables to the boards with the pins facing down? Can only line up the arrow on the cable to pin 2 or 9.

Did you find a solution?

[warrensgun]

Mine aren't working yet - so perhaps my solution wasn't correct.  I just hooked up the cables so the arrow pointed to the side that had 1 on it.  I couldn't figure out any other way to do it

[terrapinflyer]

Has anyone got the blue boards to run yet?
I cant get any of them up.

[firejuan]

Has anyone got the blue boards to run yet?
I cant get any of them up.

I hope I don't have the same problems as you because I got mine from the same source.  Did you ever get the password for the RPi?  I will let you know if I have any luck getting mine to work.  I am waiting on freaking USPS to deliver my PSUs!

[warrensgun]

my Rpi had a version of Scripta on it - so I just downloaded the image file in the first post on this thread and went from there. 

[dozerz]

is it worth making available a arch linux image with compiled cgminer for these?

[helipotte]

Has anyone got the blue boards to run yet?
I cant get any of them up.

Most of my boards are blue.  They all run OK.  Just check your controller. Blue cards need the SPI connector to be on the underside for the pins to match.

If in doubt, check with a multimeter in continuity mode.  Be sure to check pin 10, this is the 1.8V bus feed.  If you connect it backwards, you risk burning

up the controller card!  I am not where the documentation I made is but I figured out the pinout. I think it is:

1  MISO
2  ground
3  MOSI
4  ground
5  SCLK
6  ground
7  NC/external clock
8  ground
9  ground
10 1.8Vdd bus

This is from memory, will verify later, but I am sure about 9 and 10.

[helipotte]

is it worth making available a arch linux image with compiled cgminer for these?

Raspbian is working well for me.  Just imaged it to a class 10 SD card and complied cgminer on it.  Getting about 785Gh out of 20 cards.  They do seem

to glitch up sometimes and chips get set to bad status.  A Cgminer restart clears them. Working on fixing this. I tried Minepeon with updated cgminer but

it seemed to require a lot more of the CPU.   It would always max it out and slow down Cgminer.

[warrensgun]

Got some of the boards working - the ones with the pins facing down - hooked to the controller with pins facing down.  Couldn't get chainminer to work for a darn - so I'm using cgminer for now.  More HW errors than I'd like but I'm hoping that can be configured away.

I have 11 of the 18 boards hooked up now.  Based on space, power and the lack of standoffs - I have to get some more parts in to get the rest working

[helipotte]

Got some of the boards working - the ones with the pins facing down - hooked to the controller with pins facing down.  Couldn't get chainminer to work for a darn - so I'm using cgminer for now.  More HW errors than I'd like but I'm hoping that can be configured away.

I have 11 of the 18 boards hooked up now.  Based on space, power and the lack of standoffs - I have to get some more parts in to get the rest working

Regarding lack of standoffs, I have found laying the boards down and using two on the bottom to connect them works well.  For me, most of the dinky

40mm fans where toast anyway so I removed them and use three 120mm fans per bank of 10 boards.  I reversed the cables and run them under

each board and the fans blow in from the cable side. This allowed me to use half the standoffs AND get better cooling.  They take up slighty more

space but I have plenty of that.  I will post a pic soon. Works really well actually.

Edit: Finally got the errors under control.  Seems more than four boards drops the SPI bus voltage too much.  Back fed this into the last board on pin 10 and no more errors!

I noticed that with 5 boards, the voltage was only 1.55 at the last one. some chips apparently don't like it this low and send out a lot of bad data even though they are hashing

with low errors.

[terrapinflyer]

Im getting some of the blue boards showing in cgminer now but they get nothing but HW errors

[firejuan]

Who got their boards from the fire sale on minersourse? I also didn't get the stand off's so I am trying to figure something out.  I got my Dell 750 server PSUs in Friday so I hope to have the rest of my supplies gathered and hashing soon.  It is bothering with 72 boards just sitting in a box not doing anything.   

[chadtn]

I returned mine.  Too much damage.  Waiting for my refund now.  Did no one get the stand offs?

Chad

[warrensgun]

You can order standoffs from some of the dx and aliexpress type sites - or several sellers on amazon have them.  search for 3mm standoff or something like that and pick the ones you want.

I've gotten about 11 boards up and running anywhere between 400 - 500 ghash on cgminer.

I'm going to play around with some reconfiguring of the stand offs - as suggested by helipotte.  As well as try to reduce the number of boards per chain. 

I'm not sure what was meant by the back feeding on pin 10  so I likely won't be doing that.

It's clear that one of my first mishaps was to connect boards with the pins down and boards with the pins up - as well as then not worrying about whether the pins were up or down on the controller card.

[helipotte]

You can order standoffs from some of the dx and aliexpress type sites - or several sellers on amazon have them.  search for 3mm standoff or something like that and pick the ones you want.

I've gotten about 11 boards up and running anywhere between 400 - 500 ghash on cgminer.

I'm going to play around with some reconfiguring of the stand offs - as suggested by helipotte.  As well as try to reduce the number of boards per chain.  

I'm not sure what was meant by the back feeding on pin 10  so I likely won't be doing that.

It's clear that one of my first mishaps was to connect boards with the pins down and boards with the pins up - as well as then not worrying about whether the pins were up or down on the controller card.

Pin 10 is the SPI bus voltage.  What I did was run a wire from the control board 1.8Vdd to the empty connector (spi out) on the last board in the chain.  I

noticed the voltage drop was the greatest on the last board.  What connecting a wire does is basically a pull-up of this voltage.  The gauge of wire used in

the 10 pin cables is, in my opinion, to small for the current required by more than 48 chips.  This leads to SPI errors and chips being marked as bad/slow

by Cgminer.

[warrensgun]

Regarding lack of standoffs, I have found laying the boards down and using two on the bottom to connect them works well.  For me, most of the dinky

40mm fans where toast anyway so I removed them and use three 120mm fans per bank of 10 boards.  I reversed the cables and run them under

each board and the fans blow in from the cable side. This allowed me to use half the standoffs AND get better cooling.  They take up slighty more

I tried this - and the boards that i removed the fans from - seem now to get way too hot.  I pointed 4 120mm case fans at the bank of 5 boards to see if it helps

[helipotte]

Regarding lack of standoffs, I have found laying the boards down and using two on the bottom to connect them works well.  For me, most of the dinky

40mm fans where toast anyway so I removed them and use three 120mm fans per bank of 10 boards.  I reversed the cables and run them under

each board and the fans blow in from the cable side. This allowed me to use half the standoffs AND get better cooling.  They take up slighty more

I tried this - and the boards that i removed the fans from - seem now to get way too hot.  I pointed 4 120mm case fans at the bank of 5 boards to see if it helps

How much air do your fans move.  I am using fans that move about 60-70C cfm. Three per 10 boards.  Most of the heatsinks are just warm to the touch.

The fans aren't quiet but where they are this doesn't matter.  Don't worry though these boards are not very heat sensitive.

[dozerz]

Got some of the boards working - the ones with the pins facing down - hooked to the controller with pins facing down.  Couldn't get chainminer to work for a darn - so I'm using cgminer for now.  More HW errors than I'd like but I'm hoping that can be configured away.

I have 11 of the 18 boards hooked up now.  Based on space, power and the lack of standoffs - I have to get some more parts in to get the rest working

Regarding lack of standoffs, I have found laying the boards down and using two on the bottom to connect them works well.  For me, most of the dinky

40mm fans where toast anyway so I removed them and use three 120mm fans per bank of 10 boards.  I reversed the cables and run them under

each board and the fans blow in from the cable side. This allowed me to use half the standoffs AND get better cooling.  They take up slighty more

space but I have plenty of that.  I will post a pic soon. Works really well actually.

Edit: Finally got the errors under control.  Seems more than four boards drops the SPI bus voltage too much.  Back fed this into the last board on pin 10 and no more errors!

I noticed that with 5 boards, the voltage was only 1.55 at the last one. some chips apparently don't like it this low and send out a lot of bad data even though they are hashing

with low errors.

please post some pics including your mods to the boards and cooling setup. i have some time this week to start experimenting and would love to see how yours is setup.

[warrensgun]

I'll post some pictures later - finally got 18 boards hooked up - in 4 chains.  HW error rate seems high.

Went to a computer recycler and bought some server fans that push 100CFM from an 80MM fan - stacked three high on the one side - the output was so powerful the fans blew themselves away from the cards - so I had to rig them  up with zip ties.

Ended up using a pack of these B00GWF65GK (well it was similar) and 2 packs of some that were 26 or 28mm  from amazon.  Then i grabbed some small plastic ones to use as spacers.

This thing isn't pretty by any means.

It is drawing power from a Dell server PSU with breakout board from Minersource - the Barrel connector adapaters are getting warm - so I plan on running new wires with the 2 screw adapaters from amazon straight to the dell PSU.  For 12 boards Kill-a-watt says about 475 watts from the wall. 

I couldn't get chainminer to work for a darn - so I ended up the cgminer route. 

Several chips still get too hot - or are just bad - cause cgminer tries to increase their rate and then drops it later on.
 BaB0: chip 59 disabled!
 [2014-06-11 00:16:11] BaB0: Chip 106 BAD - speed down from 52 to 51
 [2014-06-11 00:16:12] BaB0: Chip 122 High errors 94.30% - speed down 52 to 51
 

[helipotte]

I am still fighting hardware/spi errors.  Rebuilding all of the cables that link the boards together.  Seems some of them are miscrimped and have opens!  This can cause crazy

high errors.  I like to keep errors below 2%.  If you don't want to torture yourself and rebuild these things I would suggest buying new ones.

[brettsimons]

So I finally decided to try CGMiner with no success . I plugged only 1 board in (it somehow detected 3) and tried to run it and besides connecting to the pool and getting new blocks, all I see are hardware errors and bad chip messages where it slows down the chips until it eventually disables it... Any ideas on what is happening??

https://i.imgur.com/VV8mPyM.jpg
Posted from Bitcointa.lk - #2aVwgKCBcWYKbC3T

[dozerz]

just ordered some replacement cables, would explain errors and random burning of the controller.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8535

[btljuice]

For the people who posted that they got the blue boards working. Am I correct in reading that you have a controller with the pins facing down (for at least 1 of the SPI connectors)? Because my controller has all of the pins facing up. That's been my problem getting them going, is I can't get the pins to match.

[warrensgun]

For the people who posted that they got the blue boards working. Am I correct in reading that you have a controller with the pins facing down (for at least 1 of the SPI connectors)? Because my controller has all of the pins facing up. That's been my problem getting them going, is I can't get the pins to match.

My blue boards all have pins down - and 2 of the green ones.  I had to hook them up to the pins down on the controller.  The pins that were down on the controller appeared to have been added after - or the pins that were up were.  Either way - it looked like someone soldered the pins on themselves.

[warrensgun]

just ordered some replacement cables, would explain errors and random burning of the controller.

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8535

good call - worth a shot at this point.  

I'm also thinking setting up the pi to kill cgminer and restart it every hour or something.

I've been using difficulty 256 - anyone have better or worse experience with others?

[brettsimons]

Well ends up today I have the blue cards working with cgminer! Ends up that instead of being intuitive and hooking up the controllers to the cards from the controller to the data out pins, you're supposed to connect the spi cables so they go from data in to the controller...  But now that I switched the cables, with 12 boards, were working at about 370 Gh/s which is a heck of a lot better than 0! But now that it's finally working, I can work on getting the hashing rate up

[numnutz2009]

Well ends up today I have the blue cards working with cgminer! Ends up that instead of being intuitive and hooking up the controllers to the cards from the controller to the data out pins, you're supposed to connect the spi cables so they go from data in to the controller...  But now that I switched the cables, with 12 boards, were working at about 370 Gh/s which is a heck of a lot better than 0! But now that it's finally working, I can work on getting the hashing rate up

i noticed that too.

I also unsoldered the blue boards pins and flipped them around so they can be connected to the gen 1 controlers since thats all i have at this point.

also how do you replace miner proxy with cgminer in the chainminer image? I compiled cgminer and all that but i want to try it out but im not too handy with linux i guess because i cant figure out half this shizz. these miners are the only ones i have ever seen with such crappy support (from the maker that is. community support is amazing and is why i got as far as i have) so i cant figure out why im getting so many spi errors and errors in general. this is what i get:

speed:17010 noncerate[GH/s]:10.609 (0.034/chip) hashrate[GH/s]:176.407 good:741 errors:63253 spi-errors:5038 miso-errors:5396 jobs:336 (record[GH/s]:0.000)

ne ideas would be greatly appreciated. I made the changes to the bus speed like sugested but i cant make sure the chip speed is 900 because i have no idea where the settings are to set the clock speed for the chips or what the settings should be to provide the proper speed and voltage or if im even able to change the voltage period lol. thanks in advance guys and i hope this account doesnt get hacked like my numnutz2005 account did……cant even recover the damn thing……some chineese dude startin postin with it lol but i didnt see the change your password message for heartbleed until it was too late i suppose.

[warrensgun]

I setup Cgminer following the directions from Kanos - http://www.kano-kun.net/?p=87

Then I did this

Code:

cd /opt/
mv bitfury/ bitfury-old/

That then moved all of the chainminer files into a new folder - so I could move them back if i needed to

Then

Code:

screen

Then

cd to the cgminer directory (/opt/cgminer for me)

Code:

./cgminer

I'd make it sure was all running - then press Ctrl+a then D (that tells it to disattach from the screen) -- screen allows stuff to stay running on linux after you end your SSH session.


Once you get everything working -- check the crontab that was default in the image -- Don't bother doing this till you are done tweaking.

Code:

crontab -e

see the command about killing the screen -- and it references a file something like /etc/local/rc.d  -- I'm writing this from memory

Open up that file

Code:

nano /directory/somefile

     then you can edit which command it is running - by default it will be trying to run a command to open up chainminer and the stratum proxy.  You can replace this with the command you need to run cgminer.

Hope that helps -- mine still aren't stable - nor are they performing very well - and I'm having to reboot cgminer every 20 minutes to get much out of them other than a metric ton of hardware errors.

[dozerz]

i think i will sell mine as dont have the time required to tweak these.

if anyone in eu wants 20 boards with all accessories including some spare controller boards let me know.

[numnutz2009]

i think i will sell mine as dont have the time required to tweak these.

if anyone in eu wants 20 boards with all accessories including some spare controller boards let me know.

how much for the controllers and which version r they?? same for the boards but mainly the controllers cause i have a ton of boards right now lol.

[dozerz]

i think i will sell mine as dont have the time required to tweak these.

if anyone in eu wants 20 boards with all accessories including some spare controller boards let me know.

how much for the controllers and which version r they?? same for the boards but mainly the controllers cause i have a ton of boards right now lol.

everything has been now sold. maybe the buyer will be able to help out with some of the controllers.

[numnutz2009]

i think i will sell mine as dont have the time required to tweak these.

if anyone in eu wants 20 boards with all accessories including some spare controller boards let me know.

how much for the controllers and which version r they?? same for the boards but mainly the controllers cause i have a ton of boards right now lol.

everything has been now sold. maybe the buyer will be able to help out with some of the controllers.

Thats cool. mind if i ask how much u got for your boards?? and whos the buyer?? or can you send the buyer my way?? idk who purchased them so i cant contact him/her about the controllers.

if anyone else has any controllers they want to unload both v1 and v2 let me know.

[helipotte]

I purchased dozers boards.  I will post in this thread when I receive them.  I hope I will have some extra controllers for sale.

[numnutz2009]

Still looking for some controllers if anyone has any they cant use or just dont want anymore. might want some more hashing boards too if i can get some extra controllers.

[terrapinflyer]

Im looking to unload my 17 boards, controllers and cables. If you are interested in taking the whole lot and are in the USA just shoot me a PM.

[lightlord]

"I am looking for bitfuries 40GH boards that you couldn't get to work, or is non functional, optionally I'd be willing to take
good working ones as well. Let me know your price.

Conditions, there must be no visual missing components, or burned out parts on the board, must look visually good.
You haven't tried any soldering, or anything to fix the board, and it still doesn't work, no soldering must of been attempted.
If all these are met I will be interested."

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=681257.msg7727382#msg7727382

[lightlord]

"Anyone here that can ship me a GPIO cable over night, shipping? To Canada BC?

Also if anyone has bitfury spacers, and stands, and can ship 100 or so off em.
Basically these http://www.dx.com/p/brass-threaded-stand-off-hex-screw-pillars-w-nuts-m3-x-30mm-6-30-pcs-148712#.U4ZENvldVT4.

Also looking for some raspberry pis. Like 2 or so.

I also need some Bitfury controllers that is pointed downwards and not upwards."

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=681367.msg7727928#msg7727928

[dozerz]

i have about 100 spacers, rpi gpio cable and about 50 of the 8 pin connector cables if anyone is interested in the set?

[helipotte]

"Anyone here that can ship me a GPIO cable over night, shipping? To Canada BC?

Also if anyone has bitfury spacers, and stands, and can ship 100 or so off em.
Basically these http://www.dx.com/p/brass-threaded-stand-off-hex-screw-pillars-w-nuts-m3-x-30mm-6-30-pcs-148712#.U4ZENvldVT4.

Also looking for some raspberry pis. Like 2 or so.

I also need some Bitfury controllers that is pointed downwards and not upwards."

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=681367.msg7727928#msg7727928

You can get the Raspberry pi/s from Newegg or Newark.   As for the GPIO cable just make one out of a 40 pin IDE cable!  I know it is not the most

graceful approach but in a pinch it works.  Just tone out the 5V feed first to keep from smoking your Pi!  You can half the number of brass risers you

need by lying the boards down on their side with the power connectors pointed up.  If you do this and use 120MM fans you only need 2 per board.

As for the controllers you can redo the ends of the 10 pin cable to act as a sort of "crossover" cable and make you downward facing board connectors

work with the upward facing controllers.  Can't find a stock picture of this so I will try to take one tonight.  You basically cut the end of the 10 pin

cable off, slice it every 2 conducters, twist them 180 degrees and recrimp.

[numnutz2009]

1. Sooooooo i had a few questions about these miners…..i finally got them workin a while ago but when lookin online for controllers i saw  where blackarrow says 1 v1 controller can handle 6 mining boards each but when i try 6 i get nothing but "bab0 delay getting work reply" errors allond with a few "accepted" messages but mostly the delay errors. when i remove the 6th board the errors go away. when i use a good board from another group of good miners to make sure the board i added the first time was working fine suddenly the delay errors come back lol….i just dont get it.

I soldered the wire to bring the last boards spi voltage up to 1.7-1.8v and even without doing that it happens so with or without the wire it gives the same errors. when 5 are hooked together in a chain they dont get the error but no matter which chain i use to add the board to the same thing happens in cgminer. I made the changes sugested in this thread too and those didnt help stop them. my pi is at 900mhz so its overclocked and not runnin at stock speed but even then it happens. I cant find any support for these damn things except what this thread has and like before im very grateful that some folks took time to post their experiences about setting these up.

black arrow does NOT reply except for one email that looked more like a sales email for their prospero x-3 and not a reply to actually help a buyer out. ontop of that they wont give the files needed so we can make our own effin controllers cause clearly they didnt make enough to handle the amount of users that fried their controller traces due to hooking them up backwards but with the small amount of support they provided im not suprised so many fried :/.

2. what is the switch on the controller for?? i flipped it on one miner and no matter which way i had it the controller powered up and powered the pi and i havent seen anyone else say anything about it so what does it actually fricken do?!?! its weird….its not labeled at all lol.

3. ne one have any v2 controllers they want to sell??

[btljuice]

1. Sooooooo i had a few questions about these miners…..i finally got them workin a while ago but when lookin online for controllers i saw  where blackarrow says 1 v1 controller can handle 6 mining boards each but when i try 6 i get nothing but "bab0 delay getting work reply" errors allond with a few "accepted" messages but mostly the delay errors. when i remove the 6th board the errors go away. when i use a good board from another group of good miners to make sure the board i added the first time was working fine suddenly the delay errors come back lol….i just dont get it.

My guess here is increase the timeout setting for cgminer so that it waits a tiny bit longer for work replies? Not sure if you can set that on the fly or would have to recompile.

[IoIooIIoIo]

I to need a v2 controller. shame we cant get the pcb files and just get bulk produced cause like you said black arrow dont respond to emails and all controllers out of stock

[numnutz2009]

I to need a v2 controller. shame we cant get the pcb files and just get bulk produced cause like you said black arrow dont respond to emails and all controllers out of stock

ok so i was arguin with BA back and forth for a while now and mostly getting no replies or replies that were late but a couple of days ago i finally got things movin in the right direction.

https://github.com/blackarrowsoftware/

the link above has the controller board files if you want to give them a quick download and check them out. this will help people like me make these boards and repair them without having to figure out what each component rating is and so on blahh blahh but ya hopefully others can benefit from these files. idk what app opens this format but i also havent tried finding out yet because im busy repairin cointerra miners but i saw the email on my phone and wanted to post the info so others know too. the files were justtttt uploaded so they are fresh fresh fresh. enjoy .

[IoIooIIoIo]

Well boards are made and ready for orders check my previous post https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=748406.0