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

[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