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Author Topic: FPGA Rig Photos  (Read 43750 times)
davidspitzer
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July 14, 2012, 06:23:57 AM
 #161

My first single is up I am waiting for 10 -12 more from various sources

I got the rack from Sam's Club for $49 and the Custom Cooling Fan Smiley on the left from Walmart for $12

I used the new auto tuner from BFL and it seems to be running well




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July 14, 2012, 12:19:02 PM
 #162

My first single is up I am waiting for 10 -12 more from various sources

I got the rack from Sam's Club for $49 and the Custom Cooling Fan Smiley on the left from Walmart for $12

I used the new auto tuner from BFL and it seems to be running well

Looks good. We can use every single on BitMinter Wink

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July 14, 2012, 07:13:09 PM
 #163

My first single is up I am waiting for 10 -12 more from various sources

I got the rack from Sam's Club for $49 and the Custom Cooling Fan Smiley on the left from Walmart for $12

I used the new auto tuner from BFL and it seems to be running well

Being so close to the wall, the airflow of the fan is greatly reduced. IMO.
davidspitzer
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July 14, 2012, 07:15:50 PM
 #164

My first single is up I am waiting for 10 -12 more from various sources

I got the rack from Sam's Club for $49 and the Custom Cooling Fan Smiley on the left from Walmart for $12

I used the new auto tuner from BFL and it seems to be running well

Being so close to the wall, the airflow of the fan is greatly reduced. IMO.

It works quite well there is an AC vent right above that blows down the wall. The single has averaged 853mh/s without one instance if throttling
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July 14, 2012, 07:32:40 PM
 #165

My first single is up I am waiting for 10 -12 more from various sources

I got the rack from Sam's Club for $49 and the Custom Cooling Fan Smiley on the left from Walmart for $12

I used the new auto tuner from BFL and it seems to be running well

Being so close to the wall, the airflow of the fan is greatly reduced. IMO.

It works quite well there is an AC vent right above that blows down the wall. The single has averaged 853mh/s without one instance if throttling
Sorry I couldn't see the vent from here. A vent definitely will make the air flow better, especially when A/C is running. 
I haven't used a FPGA -- does it really need a box fan at all?
davidspitzer
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July 14, 2012, 07:34:31 PM
 #166

My first single is up I am waiting for 10 -12 more from various sources

I got the rack from Sam's Club for $49 and the Custom Cooling Fan Smiley on the left from Walmart for $12

I used the new auto tuner from BFL and it seems to be running well

Being so close to the wall, the airflow of the fan is greatly reduced. IMO.

It works quite well there is an AC vent right above that blows down the wall. The single has averaged 853mh/s without one instance if throttling
Sorry I couldn't see the vent from here. A vent definitely will make the air flow better, especially when A/C is running. 
I haven't used a FPGA -- does it really need a box fan at all?

With one it does not seem so but perhaps when I put 10 more on that shelf
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July 14, 2012, 08:55:20 PM
 #167

That single looks pretty lonely... What a difference from the GPU rigs stretched out on coat-hangers and USPS boxes.

ASICMINERTUBE
   
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davidspitzer
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July 14, 2012, 08:56:23 PM
 #168

That single looks pretty lonely... What a difference from the GPU rigs stretched out on coat-hangers and USPS boxes.

It will have some friends soon
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July 16, 2012, 10:48:26 PM
Last edit: July 16, 2012, 11:04:36 PM by cablepair
 #169

210 Mhash FPGA Miner Hosted on a Raspberry Pi! Total Rig Electrical Usage 10.9 watts!



Mining Stats Here:

http://eligius.st/~artefact2/7/1NasVy9cRVT6nUekR2oPRP93xroGxdWZZZ

Web Site Coming Soon:
(also hosted on the RPI!)


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July 19, 2012, 01:25:41 AM
 #170

My first single is up I am waiting for 10 -12 more from various sources

I got the rack from Sam's Club for $49 and the Custom Cooling Fan Smiley on the left from Walmart for $12

I used the new auto tuner from BFL and it seems to be running well

I like your set up, this is exactly what I had in mind while I'm waiting for my singles, and SC's.
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July 19, 2012, 05:51:16 PM
 #171

With one it does not seem so but perhaps when I put 10 more on that shelf

I'd seriously consider moving to a bigger PSU that will support all of the units when you get them.  The stock power supplies are HOT.  Cablez on the forum makes custom PCIe to BFL cables that work great.  I am using a Corsair AX1200 that ran 10 BFLs just fine (I think it can handle up to 12).  It's more efficient as well, I saw my total power usage drop to about 75 watts per unit, as opposed to 85 each using the stock PSUs.
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July 19, 2012, 07:55:58 PM
 #172

With one it does not seem so but perhaps when I put 10 more on that shelf

I'd seriously consider moving to a bigger PSU that will support all of the units when you get them.  The stock power supplies are HOT.  Cablez on the forum makes custom PCIe to BFL cables that work great.  I am using a Corsair AX1200 that ran 10 BFLs just fine (I think it can handle up to 12).  It's more efficient as well, I saw my total power usage drop to about 75 watts per unit, as opposed to 85 each using the stock PSUs.


+1

The individual power supplies do get very hot and many have reported failures.  Going with an ATX PSU is up to you.  Easy enough to do if you have the parts/time/$180 and you can find someone on the forum, probably, to put it together entirely and send it to you.
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July 19, 2012, 11:46:54 PM
 #173

Cablez
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July 20, 2012, 12:03:29 AM
 #174

Wow, somebody has been busy!!  Shocked Shocked Shocked

Tired of substandard power distribution in your ASIC setup???   Chris' Custom Cablez will get you sorted out right!  No job too hard so PM me for a quote
Check my products or ask a question here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74397.0
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July 20, 2012, 12:18:21 AM
Last edit: July 20, 2012, 03:10:54 AM by rjk
 #175

Holy shit, now we know why BFL hasn't been delivering to everyone else.

I count 42, all on stock bricks (?!?!?!) - protip: Almost any standard power supply will be more efficient and require less cable clutter.

Mining Rig Extraordinaire - the Trenton BPX6806 18-slot PCIe backplane [PICS] Dead project is dead, all hail the coming of the mighty ASIC!
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July 20, 2012, 12:27:49 AM
 #176

DAMN! You gonna trade all those in?

Is it sad those still dont quite equal one of the SC Singles?

Tips? 1crazy8pMqgwJ7tX7ZPZmyPwFbc6xZKM9
Previous Trade History - Sale Thread
Beaflag VonRathburg
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July 20, 2012, 01:40:46 AM
 #177

Holy shit, now we know why BFL hasn't be delivering to everyone else.

I count 42, all on stock bricks (?!?!?!) - protip: Almost any standard power supply will be more efficient and require less cable clutter.

Eeek! I counted the same number. Should be close to 35GH depending on firmware. I was going to post a picture of my ten singles, but after seeing that I don't think it is worth it.

pieppiep
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July 20, 2012, 07:09:50 AM
 #178

The USB2.0 spec says that each hub supports 4 connections, so the reason why there are so many 7 port hubs (a weird number in computing, generally) is because they have two hub controllers ganged together inside. I've pulled enough cheap USB hubs apart (that wouldn't work with my FPGA setup) to find that this is the norm, and even the more expensive Belkin kit does the same thing, and uses the same controllers.
I can't find anything about a maximum of connections for a hub. IIRC there is no limit on this. Only limits I know about maximum connections are the 127 total connections and the maximum chain depth (IIRC somewhere around 6).
It is true most hubs use the same controller chip, so a 7 port hub is really 2 4 ports hubs connected together.
A quote from wikipedia :
Quote
Most support a four-port hub system, but hubs using 16-port hub controllers are also available in the industry. although some 16-port hub actually consist of four cascaded four-port controllers.
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July 20, 2012, 07:38:58 AM
Last edit: July 20, 2012, 07:51:47 AM by mrb
 #179

My 7-port USB switches use a single controller chip (Rosewill RHB-330, based on the Terminus-Tech FE 2.1 controller). I carefully selected them over switches using ganged controllers for better reliability.

catfish: I have 13 quad 1.15y boards on the same PC (52 FPGAs total), and the setup is very reliable. FPGAs are detected all the time. I have not measured current flow through my USB cables, but it is probably small. Note that I do power my boards via the pluggable terminal, not via the 5.5mm jack. The mechanical and electrical design of the pluggable terminal is superior to the jack which reduces resistance and probably helps reduce current flow in the USB cables. (Stefan recommends to connect 2 ground wires to the pluggable terminal, but I didn't even bother, as I have no reliability issue with 1 ground wire.)

Also, my FPGAs are powered by the same PSU that powers the host PC. I imagine that using 2 different power supplies for the PC and the FPGAs might increase the risk of current flow in the USB cables.
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July 20, 2012, 08:49:02 AM
 #180

Anyone else here with over 4 Ztex single boards finding that they leak a HELL of a lot of power back into the USB connection?

All my Ztex FPGAs connect to pukka powered USB hubs. Each USB hub has a separate 5V 1A power cable. The USB2.0 spec says that each hub supports 4 connections, so the reason why there are so many 7 port hubs (a weird number in computing, generally) is because they have two hub controllers ganged together inside. I've pulled enough cheap USB hubs apart (that wouldn't work with my FPGA setup) to find that this is the norm, and even the more expensive Belkin kit does the same thing, and uses the same controllers.

My 20 unit FPGA board has a very low power integrated AMD logic board underneath and an 800W ATX PSU. The separate power rails use PCIe power leads from the PSU. This should be *massively* overprovisioned for power, and I've soldered up the power rails and 2.1/5.5 barrel plugs using 18AWG cable, which should be adequate at 12V to supply only 5 of the Ztex 1.15x boards. Fans are powered from a separate circuit.

This should be over-engineered... but the amount of trouble I had getting USB hubs to work surprised the hell out of me.

Using a passive hub and 5 FPGAs (two 4-port hubs, one with three FPGAs connected, the other with two FPGAs and the input from the first hub) took hours of trial and error to get all the FPGAs recognised. Stefan mentions repeatedly in his online documentation that multiple ground cables are required, and the problems I saw appear to be due to current returning from the FPGA board via the USB cable ground. These are tiny wires and can't carry much current.

I think this may be a very simple question so I've put it here... if it's more complicated then it ought to have its own thread.


I like the quality, proven performance, warranty and support that Ztex gives... but even following his 'cluster power supply' advice re: ground cables vs. power cables, I ended up taking a few days and various USB hubs to get all the units working. The logic board had plenty of powered USB sockets and I had to use most of them. I really want to use my Raspberry Pi to control a huge FPGA assembly, but the strict current limits on the Raspberry Pi USB socket seems to make this impossible.


Anyone know what's going on, from an electronic engineering perspective? Are ALL the competing boards going to have similar issues - i.e. am I doing something obviously wrong? Is there any way to sling a resistor into the USB ground return wire (or some other solution - I'm not an EE) to discourage the FPGA current from returning via the USB cable, and instead following the low-resistance multiple-ground-wire route like it should?

My 20 unit assembly ended up using 6 USB hubs, two of them powered, thus a snakepit of cables below the tidy top level and lots of power points required.

I know the total power draw is low and the system is incredibly efficient. But if I wanted to build a 100 unit assembly? I'd need 30 USB hubs, which is bloody ridiculous.

Big backplanes are the way to go but only if the data, as well as the power, is aggregated on the backplane.

I'd really appreciate feedback from those with first-hand experience of the kit I'm most likely to buy (Ztex, Enterpoint, BTCFPGA.com, any others competitively priced in EU?)...

Hi catfish,

I've been running mine with a deal-extreme-sourced-el-cheapo-pink-hub á la https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=84656.msg953674#msg953674. The hub needs to be powered to run over 6-7 1.15x boards unless connected to an ATX mobo with sufficiently powered USB port (IIRC ztex each 1.15x draws ~100mA). My cluster's power supply is built just as ztex has instructed, 5 boards to +12V, max 3 boards to GND of PCIe power cables.

NOTE: RPi will not be able to deliver enough current to USB to run a big cluster with passive hubs. Also, RPi tends to draw current from powered hubs through the USB ports, which makes it behave erratically, so make sure you tape the USB plugs' +5V lead before connecting your powered HUB into RPi's USB port. I used a thin strip of black electric tape, works fine now, uptime over a week using my friend's ARM-port of BTCMiner http://blog.villekangas.com/?p=23

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