High Efficiency FPGA & ASIC Bitcoin Mining Devices https://BTCFPGA.com

[Luke-Jr]

Quick update before I get ready for bed... I have made significant progress tonight, and now have a firmware that will successfully mine. Keep in mind this code is still at a fairly early stage of development, and probably still less reliable than stcupp's firmware. One bonus, however, is that it also has a command-line interface you can access with PuTTY (it supports serial terminals) or GNU Screen (sudo screen /dev/ttyACM0); you can use this interface to dump specs on your ModMiner and play around with the JTAG directly (other developers: please don't try to use this as an interface for implementing mining! it's not a stable protocol, and I'll be providing a new one just for that soon). Note that the CLI cannot be used at the same time as a miner. This does not support bitstream uploading, so to make it work for mining, you will need to at the very least use stcupp's firmware to upload the bitstream first (and not remove power afterward - use the reset button!).

Here is the binary firmware file
Here is the source code

Edit: Also note this doesn't have any support for the temp sensors

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[nandika]

Received all refunds.
Great, honest guys, I recommend them to everyone!

Thanks!

[cablepair]

Just want to give an update for those who don't hang out in the IRC channel.

Luke-JR is continuing to work on the firmware which has been released above in the basic version
he is currently working on perfecting mining in the firmware and it should be completed very soon


You may all be mining at full capacity very soon - so keep your fingers crossed!

I received the hardware shipment from stcupp, and I have spare backplanes and other misc parts for those who need them, in the morning I am shipping a few packages out to individuals who were waiting for specific parts - you know who you are.

At this point it looks very much like there is no hardware issue with the MMQ, and the new firmware will resolve all issues - however this has not been 100% confirmed yet, Luke-JR is able to probe all four slots on the board and send and receive JTAG commands, but mining still has to be finished in the firmware. When the mining portion of the firmware is released and it is confirmed 100% that there are absolutely no hardware problems, I will release my order with screaming circuits to have enough units made to fulfill all current orders.

The entire lead time for production of these units is 10 days, please add a few days for completion of firmware, shipment and other things and you can have a general idea of when your units will be arriving with you.

Things are looking good and I couldn't be happier! As always you can reach me usually between 11am and 11 PM - 7 days a week via email, IRC, or the forum here at Bitcointalk.org

[Luke-Jr]

We have a working firmware for testing.

It only works at up to 200 MHz, and doesn't support temperature sensors yet, but it should be able to get you guys up and mining on your ModMiner Quad immediately.

Download the firmware binary here
Interested programmers can see the source code here

Upgrade instructions (Linux):

• Install GNU mtools on your host system: sudo apt-get install mtools
• Hold BOTH the buttons (orient the board so these are facing you)
• Release the left/Reset button, while still holding the right/ISP button
• Release the right/ISP button (ISP)
• Unplug USB and plug it back in, the board will now show up as a mass storage device (note it may take a minute to show up!)
• Use mtools to delete the old firmware: mdel -i /dev/disk/by-id/usb-NXP_LPC134X_IFLASH_ISP000000000-0:0 ::/firmware.bin
• Use mtools to copy the new firmware: mcopy -i /dev/disk/by-id/usb-NXP_LPC134X_IFLASH_ISP000000000-0:0 modminer-20120709-50c63a3.bin ::/
• Ensure the data is flushed to the USB: sync
• Unplug USB, hit the Reset button, and plug USB back in

Upgrade instructions (Windows):

• Hold BOTH the buttons (orient the board so these are facing you)
• Release the left/Reset button, while still holding the right/ISP button
• Release the right/ISP button (ISP)
• Unplug USB and plug it back in, the board will now show up as a mass storage device (note it may take a minute to show up!)
• Open the MSD and you should see one file named firmware.bin
• Delete firmware.bin and copy the new firmware file to the device
• Unplug USB, hit the Reset button, and plug USB back in

[filharvey]

What version of cgminer works with the new firmware. I'm still using the mmq special version at the moment.

Phil

[Luke-Jr]

What version of cgminer works with the new firmware. I'm still using the mmq special version at the moment.

I recommend BFGMiner 2.4.4 at the moment, though CGMiner 2.4.4 should also work and depending on the circumstances 2.5.0 of either might work.

[filharvey]

Did not work with cgminer 2.5.0, but did work with the mmq version which was posted. Also seemed to program the card a lot fast than before.

Phil

[n4l3hp]

Any news when these start shipping again? It's been over 4 weeks since I ordered.

[Luke-Jr]

Custom bfgminer 2.4.4 build to start at 200 MHz: http://luke.dashjr.org/programs/bitcoin/files/bfgminer/2.4.4mmq/

[Plazzman]

Any news when these start shipping again? It's been over 4 weeks since I ordered.

I have the same question although my order is not as old as yours. Any updates on shipping? 

[cablepair]

Any news when these start shipping again? It's been over 4 weeks since I ordered.

your order is shipping tomorrow as we have already discussed over email

if anyone else has questions about shipping times this is not the appropriate place to ask that question

you can get a very quick response to your question by sending an email to tom@btcfpga.com

thank you!

[filharvey]

Any news on the builds of the miners, and the new bitstream working on the device?

[Luke-Jr]

Any news on the builds of the miners, and the new bitstream working on the device?

BFGMiner 2.5.1 should be good to go with the latest alpha firmware. I'll hopefully have a new firmware soon, but that one should work.

[AmDD]

Earlier in this thread there was talk of these possibly running at 1ghs. How likely is this to happen? Im new to bitcoins and all this, however I am pretty interested and if each Quad can do 1ghs I would be much much more interested.

[cablepair]

Earlier in this thread there was talk of these possibly running at 1ghs. How likely is this to happen? Im new to bitcoins and all this, however I am pretty interested and if each Quad can do 1ghs I would be much much more interested.

Actually, Luke-JR is currently working on a new release of the firmware which would allow you to use other bitstreams, like the tri-cone mining firmware and get to speeds over 1g/hash

[AmDD]

Earlier in this thread there was talk of these possibly running at 1ghs. How likely is this to happen? Im new to bitcoins and all this, however I am pretty interested and if each Quad can do 1ghs I would be much much more interested.

Actually, Luke-JR is currently working on a new release of the firmware which would allow you to use other bitstreams, like the tri-cone mining firmware and get to speeds over 1g/hash

Over 1ghs? Cool! I actually just put an order in for a 2 backplanes and 5 plugin cards. I have plans to order a few more too.

[cablepair]

NEWS UPDATE 07/30

Batches of professionally assembled ModMiner Quads are starting to trickle in and I am going to begin shipping them again today!

for more information please catch up with me on IRC later this afternoon, and also check your email later this afternoon for tracking numbers


due to a pcb snafu the first batch to go out do not have the reset/isp buttons for firmware upgrade however it can be done just as easily by touching wires to the contact points on the boards
and also the boards will already have the latest firmware loaded and will come ready to mine.

If anyone does not mind waiting an extra day or two for me to manually solder on the buttons please let me know

[filharvey]

With the last firmware for the original board, is the 4th slot working? As I'm looking at getting a 4th child board.

Also what is the latest with the current firmware, And miners?

Phil

[Luke-Jr]

With the last firmware for the original board, is the 4th slot working? As I'm looking at getting a 4th child board.

It should be, but I only have 3 working FPGA boards, so I haven't been able to test all 4 at once (slots 1,2, and 4 together do work). Cablepair was just testing the new boards before shipping them out, so he probably can expand on that.

Also what is the latest with the current firmware, And miners?

We're working on a new protocol to work more efficiently (no polling) and can adapt to other bitstreams (like Tricone).

[matthewh3]

My tracking code has updated    Is this the full 840MH/s version.  Also does the new ET Bitstream work with this board.