Ultra Under-overclock image for A2 Innosilicon by Emdje - V5.0

[MarkAz]

As I said earlier I don't really have a good image for the new A2's. If my image for the new terminator mini (which also is for the large one than) does not work, that you should revert back to stock.

Only the 'old' A2's are fully functional with my image.

The image I'm using for both my 88's and 110's is this one, it seems to work fine on either the 88 or 110, it just doesn't show the hash rate correctly in the web interface (it shows it as if it were a 110):

http://zoomhash.com/pages/a2-and-mini-a2-software-setup

specifically:

http://p.lewd.es/ltc-a2-20140919-lg-01-100m.img.gz

What files would I need to copy from your current image onto my image - just cgminer?  Or are there other dependencies?

[Marvell1]

here are  the pictures of my extra boards

as you can see they are in like new conndtion have the even been used ?!



rest can be seen on imigur


http://imgur.com/a/AfjWW


ntice the 8 pin connector ? i did some further testing and i found that with an 8 pin connector (those yellow things you see in one of my images) the board powers up.  Ive not tested the remaining board but I assume it is the same deal.

If you want to pay shipping Emdje i can send you one of these boards so you could use it modify your image, these new boards seem to have a bit more overhead to run faster than the older ones with the proper cooling.

I'm also looking for a way to run more than six boards off one RPI, the issue is the controller board which only has six connectors for six asics.  Is there any cabling out there i could use to daisy chain more than six boards to one controller ?

[MarkAz]

If it will help Emdje get the A2 Mega's working again, I'll cover shipping to him - it would be the least I could do.  I'd love to run his image, but it doesn't work reliably with any of my machines.

[emdje]

I received a board here with the serialnumber: 20140614, and it shows 8 chips on one board.

If you take off the small heatsinc, how many chips are on the board? (and make photo please)
The new A2's should have 12 chips.

@Marvell1: I burned my chip with testing my overclocked card. The heatsinc was somehow not properly screwed back on the board. The software should stop the board from becomming overheated, but I guess it went to fast. There was smoke after about ten seconds I turned it on.

[GWilkiejr]

hey emdje I have a few new A2 terminators and am pulling my hair out.  The Pi boots up fine.  Lights on the boards blink then burn solid.  I go to my browser and pull them up.  They are hashing at a very low speed. I stop CGminer, and put in my settings.  I start CGminer.  The units do not respond, and they will not start.  WTH???  I bought them brand new from zoomhash. 

- Also I've been at this for 2 days now.... I've tried minereu and it works well on 3 machines.  The other boxes... well I've tried stock, tweaked, and everything else. All with no luck.  Any thoughts? Thanks.

[CartmanSPC]

hey emdje I have a few new A2 terminators and am pulling my hair out.  The Pi boots up fine.  Lights on the boards blink then burn solid.  I go to my browser and pull them up.  They are hashing at a very low speed. I stop CGminer, and put in my settings.  I start CGminer.  The units do not respond, and they will not start.  WTH???  I bought them brand new from zoomhash.  

- Also I've been at this for 2 days now.... I've tried minereu and it works well on 3 machines.  The other boxes... well I've tried stock, tweaked, and everything else. All with no luck.  Any thoughts? Thanks.

If they are brand new they are most likely A2 Mega Terminiators. Emdjes image does not work with them. I have an old A2 Terminator that works great and a new A2 Mega Terminator that it does not work with....saw the same thing you are seeing trying to use it.

[Marvell1]

Put them back to the stock firmware or try the new one by Antz

[emdje]

hey emdje I have a few new A2 terminators and am pulling my hair out.  The Pi boots up fine.  Lights on the boards blink then burn solid.  I go to my browser and pull them up.  They are hashing at a very low speed. I stop CGminer, and put in my settings.  I start CGminer.  The units do not respond, and they will not start.  WTH???  I bought them brand new from zoomhash. 

- Also I've been at this for 2 days now.... I've tried minereu and it works well on 3 machines.  The other boxes... well I've tried stock, tweaked, and everything else. All with no luck.  Any thoughts? Thanks.

Do you use them on wifi or cable? I have issues with the machines when on wifi.
What PSU are you using? Maybe that is underpowered.
Try a different pool, I have had pools that are veeerrrry slow responding, where it takes 2 hours before normal hash rate is reported.

[GWilkiejr]

Thanks guys.  I wound up using stock A2 Mega Terminator firmware - works good.  Of the 10 machines I have I replaced 8 PSU's.  Not cool.  They were cheap-o 1000W PSU's not even 80 PLUS rated..... BOOO!!! Replaced with 1300 W EVGA 80PLUS Brozne.    Everything is wonderful now.  Thanks again!

[Marvell1]

Thanks guys.  I wound up using stock A2 Mega Terminator firmware - works good.  Of the 10 machines I have I replaced 8 PSU's.  Not cool.  They were cheap-o 1000W PSU's not even 80 PLUS rated..... BOOO!!! Replaced with 1300 W EVGA 80PLUS Brozne.    Everything is wonderful now.  Thanks again!

bronze PSU's really ?  so you are probbaly wasting  (1200*1.15) = 1380 drawn from the wall ( which is even more terribe since you gain nothing from using a more 240v efficient power source.)

vs a 80 gold or PSU  (1200*1.08) = 1296

thats a difference of 84 watts per hour/per UNIT.

remeber these boxes are not a typcial applicaint they run 24/7  so thats 1920 watts daily wastesed per unit per day multiply that by 10

you are throwing away 19200 watts a day .  Not much on a daliy basis but it will add up .

I would suggest you put those PSUs up for sale and slowly replace them with 80 plus gold units as soon as you make each sale.

[MarkAz]

bronze PSU's really ?  so you are probbaly wasting  (1200*1.15) = 1380 drawn from the wall ( which is even more terribe since you gain nothing from using a more 240v efficient power source.)

vs a 80 gold or PSU  (1200*1.08) = 1296

thats a difference of 84 watts per hour/per UNIT.

remeber these boxes are not a typcial applicaint they run 24/7  so thats 1920 watts daily wastesed per unit per day multiply that by 10

you are throwing away 19200 watts a day .  Not much on a daliy basis but it will add up .

I would suggest you put those PSUs up for sale and slowly replace them with 80 plus gold units as soon as you make each sale.

Marvell1 makes some great points - especially in Bronze vs Gold, which in many cases these days don't have a major price difference.  With lots of the lower watt PSU's, there can be a big price difference between bronze and gold - I use Corsair CX750M's on my S5's, which are $80/each vs the RM750 which is $130 - so it's hard to justify the $50 delta for the 5% savings, especially at ~600w.  But set up to 850w, and the price difference between the gold and bronze is only $23 - and assuming you're consuming more power, now we're talking some savings.

I've wondered about the specifics of 110v vs 240v, I know it's supposed to be 2-3% more efficient, but it's hard to find concrete info.  I actually picked up the Bronze, Gold and Platinum versions of the 850w Corsairs to do some power tests with the S5, and I specifically bought a realtime logging power meter that can monitor both 110v and 240v, so once I do the tests, I'll post some info.

The other thing to consider if noise isn't an issue is the server-class PSU's... I have a bunch of the IBM 2880W with breakouts, which you can get for ~$200.  It's an outstanding PSU, platinum rated, and could run two Mega 110's without breaking a sweat.

[Marvell1]

bronze PSU's really ?  so you are probbaly wasting  (1200*1.15) = 1380 drawn from the wall ( which is even more terribe since you gain nothing from using a more 240v efficient power source.)

vs a 80 gold or PSU  (1200*1.08) = 1296

thats a difference of 84 watts per hour/per UNIT.

remeber these boxes are not a typcial applicaint they run 24/7  so thats 1920 watts daily wastesed per unit per day multiply that by 10

you are throwing away 19200 watts a day .  Not much on a daliy basis but it will add up .

I would suggest you put those PSUs up for sale and slowly replace them with 80 plus gold units as soon as you make each sale.

Marvell1 makes some great points - especially in Bronze vs Gold, which in many cases these days don't have a major price difference.  With lots of the lower watt PSU's, there can be a big price difference between bronze and gold - I use Corsair CX750M's on my S5's, which are $80/each vs the RM750 which is $130 - so it's hard to justify the $50 delta for the 5% savings, especially at ~600w.  But set up to 850w, and the price difference between the gold and bronze is only $23 - and assuming you're consuming more power, now we're talking some savings.

I've wondered about the specifics of 110v vs 240v, I know it's supposed to be 2-3% more efficient, but it's hard to find concrete info.  I actually picked up the Bronze, Gold and Platinum versions of the 850w Corsairs to do some power tests with the S5, and I specifically bought a realtime logging power meter that can monitor both 110v and 240v, so once I do the tests, I'll post some info.

The other thing to consider if noise isn't an issue is the server-class PSU's... I have a bunch of the IBM 2880W with breakouts, which you can get for ~$200.  It's an outstanding PSU, platinum rated, and could run two Mega 110's without breaking a sweat.

the problem with using those 2880w psu's to run the A2's is the A2 controller board requires a 24 pin PSU connection so those would be a no go.

the problem with bronze is it gets no efficiency from 240 V unlike gold and platinum , yes bronze is cheaper up front but remember you are running miners like servers which is why server hardware requires 90+ platinum ratings since they are running 24-7 at maximum output unlike a regular pc/desktop.

look at the chart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus

[MarkAz]

the problem with using those 2880w psu's to run the A2's is the A2 controller board requires a 24 pin PSU connection so those would be a no go.

the problem with bronze is it gets no efficiency from 240 V unlike gold and platinum , yes bronze is cheaper up front but remember you are running miners like servers which is why server hardware requires 90+ platinum ratings since they are running 24-7 at maximum output unlike a regular pc/desktop.

Have you looked in detail at their power distribution board?  I haven't but I suspect they're not doing anything too fancy with it, so if they're only pulling the 12V lines from the PSU and jumpering the PWR ON, then you could just hack together an adapter to do it.  Then again, they could also be using the 5V for driving the Pi, in which case I don't think there's a 5v line on the IBM's.

If you haven't, I'm planning on pulling it apart in the next few weeks to add a connector for PWR ON, so I can hook it up to the same ethernet relays I used on my S5's to do remote rebooting.  The damn PDU's I ended up buying a bunch of (Tripplite) only shut off 1/2 of the 240v circuit, so sometimes the PSU's shut down, and sometimes they just dynamically switch to 110v and continue on like nothing happened - pretty annoying.

I love this stuff though, that's half the fun of fiddling with these miners - tweaking with the config, writing apps to run them, building hardware, etc.  Although I'm not making enough mining to cover my hourly rate...

look at the chart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80_Plus

Great link, I hadn't seen that chart before - so even at Titanium you're only looking at a 1-2% gain to 240v...  I'll be interested to see if in practice that's what I'm also seeing with the supplies.

[Marvell1]

I'm interested to see your findings as well

[wolf_miner]

Hi, my A2 Mini (2 x 8 Chip blade) is running image 2.0, can I replace only the executable file of CGMiner (Cgminer3.9.0-A2-V3.1.rar) or I have to use the new full image 3.1?

Thanks in advance W_M

[emdje]

Hi, my A2 Mini (2 x 8 Chip blade) is running image 2.0, can I replace only the executable file of CGMiner (Cgminer3.9.0-A2-V3.1.rar) or I have to use the new full image 3.1?

Thanks in advance W_M

You can just replace the executable, that would be enough.

[Prelude]

Figuring out how to run the controller from a server PSU would be great. Many server PSUs can output a dozen or so watts of 5v power.

[MarkAz]

I've ordered up some parts to build remote rebooters for all of my A2's, so when I start tearing them apart for that, I'll take a detailed look at what the power distribution board is doing.  At worse it's simple enough to get a 12VDC -> 5VDC stepdown converter to power the Pi, regardless of whether the server PSU provides it or not (for instance with the breakout for the IBM 2880W supply, I think all it breaks out at 12V lines).  They're coming from China, so a couple weeks, but I'll more than likely post build instructions also for anyone else interested in having a remote reboot option for the A2.

[Hazcat]

Hi just wondering if anyone can help me.  I have 7 A2 Mini Terminators all running about 35Mh/s according to the UI by innosilicon.  My issue is that one of the miners on ANY pool is hashing at a much lower rate

I have hooked it through CGRemote to see what it says its reporting at and MRR, ran the boards seperatly and everything seems normal (in line with all other miners).

Last night i flashed the card (to the image from Zoomhash) and that destroyed it, started hashing at 80kh/s so i copied the image from another A2 card and its started working again but still the same issue.

My A2's have 2 boards and 12 chips on each

Just wondering if anyone has an idea about what just may be going on?

(All temps, stales, rejected etc are very simular to all the others)

Also i have 1 dead board here, its looks perfect but is not getting any power for some reason...is there a place you can ship them too for repair?

Cheers
Haz

[Marvell1]

I've ordered up some parts to build remote rebooters for all of my A2's, so when I start tearing them apart for that, I'll take a detailed look at what the power distribution board is doing.  At worse it's simple enough to get a 12VDC -> 5VDC stepdown converter to power the Pi, regardless of whether the server PSU provides it or not (for instance with the breakout for the IBM 2880W supply, I think all it breaks out at 12V lines).  They're coming from China, so a couple weeks, but I'll more than likely post build instructions also for anyone else interested in having a remote reboot option for the A2.

man that would be cool, one thing on that though with my A2's i have never had to reboot them in the month or so i have had them, if they do have issues i just vpn into the network and reboot them via the UI why do you need the remote rebooters ?

as for hooking them up to server PSU's that would save folks alot of money since you can buy refurb ibm 2880 watt PSU's cheaper than platinum desktop PSUs by a mile.