Cairnsmore1 - Quad XC6SLX150 Board

[Lethos]

If you are having stability and a lot of rejects, I have found hashvoodoo 175 to be really reliable. I am abit jealous of those who can get Mak's 220 to work.

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[ebereon]

My boards are in transit. So, I'm trying to get everything I can ready to go before they arrive.

Two questions:

1) What version of the controller is installed on the currently shipping boards? 1.5?

2) Is "spiprog", which is constrained to MS Windows, the only way to upgrade the controller?

In other words, am I going to have to dig up some Windows machine in order to upgrade the controller firmware?

I never tried it, but zefir said in the IRC channel:

Code:

[22:19] <zefir> thanks makomk, I figured out: WORKS! forget SPIProg.exe and Win completely...
[22:19] <zefir> just program with xc3sprog:
[22:19] <zefir> sudo ./xc3sprog -c pp -Ixc3s50an.bit CAIRNSMORE1_CONTROLLER_REV_1_3_V4.bit

I don't know if you need a JTAG cable or just the USB. Zefir had a JTAG cable as you see he used the cable option -c pp. Try it with just the USB with option -c cm1. Don't forget the switches and connect only one board to the PC.

eb

[ebereon]

To those with bigger brains than me....   

I have 2 *CM1s, in the 400 series range, that have been flashed with makoam's 220 bitstream. Overall the boards have performed very well with rejects being <1%. However....on both boards, FPGA 1, drops from U of ~6 to U ~3.5 and the orange data light becomes constant after a random time frame i.e. 10 minutes > 10hours. I have tried flashing these down to a makoam 210 and even a 200 MHs bitstream with the same results. So what I am asking from the group is, does anyone have further suggestions on how to get these last FPGAs stable at the same U rate as the other FPGAs?

My config is;
Win7
CM1 bitstreams; P0 = 220, P1 = 210, P2 = 220, P3 = 220 for both boards (mokoam latest bitstream)
CM1 controller: factory setting of 1.3
Power: 250W ATX using molar connections from 2 different lines
USB: 2 configurations tried. 1st: Gigabyte extra power USB ports (side by side). 2nd: Gigabyte extra power USB for 1 CM + standard front of case USB for other CM

With the high electricity costs in Australia, 22ckW/hr, I really need these babies going so I can shut down my 6770 arrays.

I shall chuck a sheckle or two of gratitude (0.5~1BTC) towards whom helps me achieve the desired stability.

Regards,

Cranky

you said you use the latest makomk bitstream, is it dcmwd4e? With that one the FPGA's shouldn't stop at all, but if it is to fast it will produce invalids and that happens also after some time when the FPGA's getting hot.

My worst FPGA(pair) run the dcmwd4e 200Mh bitstream and have 2-3% invalids and U= 5.3.

eb

[LazyOtto]

It is known that the BFL Single units don't do well with p2pool.

Do the CM1's have any issues with it?

[ebereon]

It is known that the BFL Single units don't do well with p2pool.

Do the CM1's have any issues with it?

Not AFAIK. I have tested p2pool with 50 CM1 and i got 0.8-1.2% DOA and an average of 105% Efficiency @ ~40GH . The test time was 18 hours. I will switch to Linux soon, then I will test  p2pool for longer time frame.

My 2 Win7 netbooks can't run p2pool fast enougth with the 50 CM1 connected. Booth have used 30%-70% CPU alone with the interupt handling (COM's/USB). When I run p2pool on them too I have up to 30% DOA.

The test was done with a I7 Worksation (Win7) as p2pool host.

eb

[LazyOtto]

Well, since I will have far fewer than 50, I won't have your problems.

ty, ebereon.

[Cranky4u]

It is known that the BFL Single units don't do well with p2pool.

Do the CM1's have any issues with it?

Not AFAIK. I have tested p2pool with 50 CM1 and i got 0.8-1.2% DOA and an average of 105% Efficiency @ ~40GH . The test time was 18 hours. I will switch to Linux soon, then I will test  p2pool for longer time frame.

My 2 Win7 netbooks can't run p2pool fast enougth with the 50 CM1 connected. Booth have used 30%-70% CPU alone with the interupt handling (COM's/USB). When I run p2pool on them too I have up to 30% DOA.

The test was done with a I7 Worksation (Win7) as p2pool host.

eb

How did you get such high efficencies? I run 2 CM1 with Mok's 220 bitstream under a win7 OS and I am lucky to get cgminer efficencny upto 60%...can you advise please as you appear to have a VERY BIG BRAIN for this sort of thing...

[ebereon]

How did you get such high efficencies? I run 2 CM1 with Mok's 220 bitstream under a win7 OS and I am lucky to get cgminer efficencny upto 60%...can you advise please as you appear to have a VERY BIG BRAIN for this sort of thing...

I was telling about p2pool stats, not cgminer stats.

cgminer shows me 63-68% efficency when connected to p2pool. I let 5 instances of cgminer running on 2 netbooks.

eb

[LazyOtto]

Is there a way to determine which version the controller is currently flashed with?

[ebereon]

Is there a way to determine which version the controller is currently flashed with?

1.3:
Only flashable with SWITCH6 off

1.5:
Only flashable with SWITCH3 off AND SWITCH6 off

Glasswalker:
You should see it on the different LED's

eb

[LazyOtto]

But this is still a situation where you only know which version is currently installed by flashing, or attempting to flash, it.

There is no other way? Such as via some query? Or some other response string/artifact?

[steamboat]

But this is still a situation where you only know which version is currently installed by flashing, or attempting to flash, it.

There is no other way? Such as via some query? Or some other response string/artifact?

according to yohan there isn't a way to tell currently. posted ~august 6 i believe in this thread.

edit: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78239.msg1076651#msg1076651

[kano]

It is known that the BFL Single units don't do well with p2pool.

Do the CM1's have any issues with it?

No, the Icarus code (which also runs the CM1) in cgminer handles LP's well.

In one respect it is better that GPU's, since you can abort work at any time you wish, but since it doesn't interrupt as soon as the LP arrives, rather some time in the 0.1s after it, that turns into a (very) small loss compared to GPU mining.

So basically on an LP with Icarus/CM1 you waste 1/2 of 0.1s i.e. 0.05s ... on a 10s LP that's 0.5% ... quite small.

The problem with BFL is that number on p2pool is something like ~25% ... quite large

[yohan]

But this is still a situation where you only know which version is currently installed by flashing, or attempting to flash, it.

There is no other way? Such as via some query? Or some other response string/artifact?

No direct simple way to tell at the moment but one difference to tell between 1.3 and 1.5 is if master/slave works. It's not in 1.3 but is in 1.5. I think on your boards there is a better chance you have 1.5 but otherwise it is 1.3.

[LazyOtto]

ty, yohan.

I'll do an initial test to see if the master/slave works. Should be pretty straight-forward to see that.

Expecting the boards today. DHL shows "Out for delivery".

[hm]

board #0017 did run very good with 190@p0+1 and 180@p2+3:

I turned it off when I installed two newly delivered boards. I haven't turned it on again, I'm one psu short ... When I've found a psu and turn the board on again, I hope I won't have to power it up ten times again as last run.

The new boards #0620 & #0621 are running just fine:


Can I ignore the invalids, them being below 1%?
What is the maximum input voltage? Can I use a 19V notebook psu that provides 3.95A?
Which bitstream is pre-flashed on boards #0600+? Judging by the stats it has between 180 to 190 MH/s per fpga.

[ebereon]

Can I ignore the invalids, them being below 1%?
What is the maximum input voltage? Can I use a 19V notebook psu that provides 3.95A?
Which bitstream is pre-flashed on boards #0600+? Judging by the stats it has between 180 to 190 MH/s per fpga.

You can ignore that, you will have invalids with makomk bitstreams faster then 177Mh/s, as they are "overclocked". I would go for the faster dcmwd4e and test them. As long as you are below 3% invalids you will benefit from it. Also the ambient temperature plays in. The same bitstreams on my boards have <3% invalids when ambient temps are below 30°C and go up to 6% invalids when ambient temperatur is >32°C. My temperature measure is 10cm away from my 50 boards.

The maximum voltage is 12 Volt discribed here -> http://www.enterpoint.co.uk/cairnsmore/cairnsmore1.html. But yohan will tell you.

My boards (>SN#550) were pre-flashed with dcmwd4c bitstreams(180,190,200) and this one still have dcm problems. When you flash the new dcmwd4e bitstreams, you will see faster results and more stable.

eb

[yohan]

What is the maximum input voltage? Can I use a 19V notebook psu that provides 3.95A?

I think the weakest component in the 12V input is rated 16V so that is the absolute technical maximum. However watch with power supplies for the tolerance range. 5-10% is not unusual so 15V PSU might be 16.5V and over the limit. There are plenty of 12V 5A supplies around for LCD monitors if you want a brick style at low cost. For efficiency an ATX supply is a good choice for even a smallish rig like yours. Even without our PDB to do the turn on they are fairly simple to force on even if you don't have a hosting motherboard already to power and provide the turn on switch.   

[yxt]

so <14V is safe?

How much power is needed for one board?

[hm]

Good question. I use an old 230W ATX psu which provides 102W on 12V and 115W on 5V and 3.3V combined.
Could the 5V and 3.3V lines be combined to 8.3V and used as a power source to tap into the unused 115W?