HF - Tool to set voltages

[gateway]

A simplified version of my voltage adjustment was merged yesterday into cgminer. This version set same voltage for all cores/dies and use following new syntax for --hfa-options:

name:clock@voltage,name2:clock2@voltage1, ....

+1

[JakeTri]

Its proba a good idea to stick with the hf-tool for a bit until Jake can work on the part of the code, with the tool you just have to set it once so every time you restart cgminer or so you do not have to set this and we are not 100% sure if their is any fallout or issues doing it with cgminer writing to the flash all the time.

It is very easy to check if the updated settings are written to flash:

Set the value to something different that default (for Habanero default is 875MHz @ 930 mV) and power cycle the board by powering down the PSU and also disconnect the USB. After powering up the board start mining using --hfa-hash-clock 1 and see what settings are used.

If you get back to default values 875MHz @ 930 mV then you can safely assume that settings are not saved to flash.
If your custom settings are preserved than settings are saved to flash and you need to set them only once for the board.

I'll try to do this easy check later today.

I just check and I can confirm that voltage settings are written to flash so it is safer to set the voltage only once for the device.

I'll see if I can improve the logic from cgminer by reading first the current voltage settings and set the voltage only when is really usefull.

[JakeTri]

Its proba a good idea to stick with the hf-tool for a bit until Jake can work on the part of the code, with the tool you just have to set it once so every time you restart cgminer or so you do not have to set this and we are not 100% sure if their is any fallout or issues doing it with cgminer writing to the flash all the time.

It is very easy to check if the updated settings are written to flash:

Set the value to something different that default (for Habanero default is 875MHz @ 930 mV) and power cycle the board by powering down the PSU and also disconnect the USB. After powering up the board start mining using --hfa-hash-clock 1 and see what settings are used.

If you get back to default values 875MHz @ 930 mV then you can safely assume that settings are not saved to flash.
If your custom settings are preserved than settings are saved to flash and you need to set them only once for the board.

I'll try to do this easy check later today.

I just check and I can confirm that voltage settings are written to flash so it is safer to set the voltage only once for the device.

I'll see if I can improve the logic from cgminer by reading first the current voltage settings and set the voltage only when is really usefull.

I updated cgminer logic to first read current voltage settings and store the new voltage settings only when value are different.

New pull request was created for con with the updated logic.

[xjack]

I can confirm JakeTri method works fine with a two-board setup on latest cgminer 4.3.4 built from git. (Prior to the code being reverted).

I can't comment on the default hash rate jaketri notes above due to a preexisting issue.  For some reason on my Ubuntu 12.0.4 install, setting hfa-hash-clock to 1 forces all dies to the lowest speed configured per card.

I just want to make sure that everyone is aware that this would be a replacement (especially under Windows or say a rPi) for the Python script, and not something that you would run every time you start cgminer.

MrTeal, can you comment on why someone wouldn't want to run this every time they start cgminer?

When you say lowest speed, that would be the speed that was set with the hf-tool.. so if you set your volts to lets say 940, and freq to 900, --hfa-hash-clock 1 as *we* understand it would then run it at 900Mhz.. I could be wrong and I haven't had enough coffee yet to wake up my brain cells.

Its proba a good idea to stick with the hf-tool for a bit until Jake can work on the part of the code, with the tool you just have to set it once so every time you restart cgminer or so you do not have to set this and we are not 100% sure if their is any fallout or issues doing it with cgminer writing to the flash all the time.

When I say preexisting issue and lowest speed, I'm referring to per die tuning.  I get the same result whether I set the speeds with the jaketri method or hf-tool.  When I start cgminer with the hfa-hash-clock to 1, here's what I get with these settings.

.980@950/.980@950/.975@925/.975@925 = all dies hash at 925.
.970@925/.980@950/.950@900/.970@925 = all dies hash at 900.

I'm stumped, and taking the controller offline to upgrade ubuntu is a last resort for me.

I've installed a new 13.10 ubuntu and set my card with hf-tool to 980@950, 980@950, 980@925, 980@925.  So I want two dies to run at 950, and two at 925.

When I run cgminer with hfa-hash-clock 1, all the dies are running at 925? 

Am I misunderstanding how --hfa-hash-clock 1 works? 

[gateway]

I've installed a new 13.10 ubuntu and set my card with hf-tool to 980@950, 980@950, 980@925, 980@925.  So I want two dies to run at 950, and two at 925.

When I run cgminer with hfa-hash-clock 1, all the dies are running at 925? 

Am I misunderstanding how --hfa-hash-clock 1 works? 

No, and this could just be a bug in cgm.. just to be clear nobody has released the stuff we have so this is still new, and with multi die settings their are bound to be things that cgm isn't accounting for.

[xjack]

I've installed a new 13.10 ubuntu and set my card with hf-tool to 980@950, 980@950, 980@925, 980@925.  So I want two dies to run at 950, and two at 925.

When I run cgminer with hfa-hash-clock 1, all the dies are running at 925? 

Am I misunderstanding how --hfa-hash-clock 1 works? 

No, and this could just be a bug in cgm.. just to be clear nobody has released the stuff we have so this is still new, and with multi die settings their are bound to be things that cgm isn't accounting for.

OK.  I thought I had read that die-level tuning was possible, just making sure I'm not the only one who has tried unsuccessfully.

Understood about the unreleased stuff, I'm very appreciative of all that has been done, and is being worked on.  I jumped on the habaneros in batch one because I could see the development and participation on the Chili.  You guys are definitely not disappointing on the Habaneros!

[QuiveringGibbage]

so.. do we have to raise a bounty to get this going? what sized bounty?

I can only think of 2 people who could do this, conman or gateway. oh and JakeTri maybe..

What would it take to sway you guys to look into look at the code to do voltage and clock control over individual dies?

Just thinking out loud here...
QG

[padrino]

A simplified version of my voltage adjustment was merged yesterday into cgminer. This version set same voltage for all cores/dies and use following new syntax for --hfa-options:

name:clock@voltage,name2:clock2@voltage1, ....

I noticed it was pulled back out because it doesn't support stock hashfast devices. I am going to grab it in any case and give it a shot..

Running 4 Habaneros here, I may have missed the earlier commentary but does it support multiple devices? I assume so due to naming, I didn't have much luck setting multiple devices names at once in cgminer so I think I need to sort that out.

[JakeTri]

A simplified version of my voltage adjustment was merged yesterday into cgminer. This version set same voltage for all cores/dies and use following new syntax for --hfa-options:

name:clock@voltage,name2:clock2@voltage1, ....

I noticed it was pulled back out because it doesn't support stock hashfast devices. I am going to grab it in any case and give it a shot..

Running 4 Habaneros here, I may have missed the earlier commentary but does it support multiple devices? I assume so due to naming, I didn't have much luck setting multiple devices names at once in cgminer so I think I need to sort that out.

All the voltage changes were reverted from cgminer because they have issues with chained Hashfast devices like Sierras.
The scope of my change was to support single ASIC Hashfast devices like Habanero (Yoli Evo or standard Baby Jet boards) because I do to have access to any Sierras or other chained Hashfast devices.

It works with multiple devices connected to one system using one cgminer instance. I used 2 Habanero boards on one system and I have different settings for each board. The key part is to use the device name to identify each device.

[xjack]

JakeTri, does your fork of cgminer still contain this functionality?

[JakeTri]

JakeTri, does your fork of cgminer still contain this functionality?

Yes, my fork still have the changes to set same voltage value for all ASIC cores.

The syntax is

Code:

name:clock@voltage,name2:clock2@voltage1, ....

The latest code first read current device voltage settings and set voltage to device only if voltage is not matching to avoid flash writing when it is not needed.

[xjack]

JakeTri, does your fork of cgminer still contain this functionality?

Yes, my fork still have the changes to set same voltage value for all ASIC cores.

The syntax is

Code:

name:clock@voltage,name2:clock2@voltage1, ....

The latest code first read current device voltage settings and set voltage to device only if voltage is not matching to avoid flash writing when it is not needed.

Thanks!

[Batshark]

Does anyone have a windows build for this? 4.4.1 didn't include the voltage options for --hfa-options

[Taugeran]

Got it working on 12.04 LTS...

Code:

sudo apt-get install build-essential libncursesw5-dev libssl-dev libgdbm-dev libc6-dev libsqlite3-dev tk-dev

Then install the python3 from source code:

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.4.0/Python-3.4.0.tar.xz
tar xvf Python-3.4.0.tar.xz
cd Python-3.4.0
./configure
make
make test
sudo make install

sudo pip3.4 install --pre pyusb
(or sudo pip3.4 install pyusb I can't remember now)

python3.4 hftool.py -r

followed this and worked perfect

debian 7.5.0 on BBB

[Newar]

Sorry for the Xpost (Habanero thread), but the latest cgminer supports:

- Hashfast voltage support for Yoli/Habanero/Bitcrane etc. boards (see ASIC-README)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.msg9431142#msg9431142

Built it and it's looking good so far!

[FrancisEDumas]

Hey everyone we are able to release a tool that allows you to adjust your voltage settings for your Evo and Habanero boards.  

HF has provided us with a python 3 script that we are allowed to distribute.

Basically in a nutshell this is good to use ONLY if your trying to push your boards past 900Mhz because you will need to increase the voltage on the board in order to give the chip more power.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, please read the LICENSE FILE first before using this tool.

This only works with one miner plugged in at a time!

The hftool.py utility is used to query and manipulate hashfast module settings.

Requirements:
 Python 3.x
 pip for Python 3.x
 Pyusb

Installing pip for python 3 on most unix systems (command for ubuntu below)
 sudo apt-get install python3-pip

hftool requires pyusb. To install it:
 pip3 install --pre pyusb

Put these into a file /etc/udev/rules.d/01-hashfast.rules:

You will need root access to create this file and also when done its recommended you reboot in order for these rules to take effect.

Code:

ATTRS{idVendor}=="297c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0001", SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ACTION=="add", MODE="0660", GROUP="plugdev”, ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"
ATTRS{idVendor}=="297c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="8001", SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ACTION=="add", MODE="0660", GROUP="plugdev", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"
ATTRS{idVendor}=="03eb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2ff6", SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ACTION=="add", MODE="0660", GROUP="plugdev", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"

RUNNING

Start the tool by with:

Code:

$ ./hftool.py -h

Read die frequencies and voltages:

Code:

$ ./hftool.py -r

Write die frequencies and settings:

Code:

$ ./hftool.py -w 0:VLT@FRQ,1:VLT@FRQ,2:VLT@FRQ,3:VLT@FRQ

example would be setting all dies to .930 volts at 875Mhz

Code:

$ ./hftool.py -w 0:930@875,1:930@875,2:930@875,3:930@875

You can grab it from Bitbucket Git depo here https://bitbucket.org/gateway69/hf-tool

AND no I dont work for HF, we pushed them to get a tool released so our customers of our Habanero boards could tweak and push their boards.

Order your Habanero from Batch 2 today for $850 here

Thanks for sharing this informative post...building it and doing it great!

[numnutz2009]

This lowered my yoli evo power usage by alot! Im about .93w per gig after setting it to 550/830.

Since im having issues with the firmware compiling i wanted to ask if anyone else has or can build the later firmware updated from hashfast?? My cards are running 0.6.0 and the latest is 0.8.0 but i cant compile the firmware or bootloader. I installed all the packages and built the hashfast tools folder without issues on ubuntu and only found some steps not mentioned in the read me listed in the comments of the source code which allowed me to finish compiling the tools to flash the firmware but i hit a brick wall when it comes to the firmware.

If someone can make the updates i will pay $25 for each one.