ANTMINER U3 Discussion and Support Thread

[dogie]

I've made the first official cgminer release with support for these now (version 4.8.0). It is the same as the last binary I updated in performance but has some cosmetic improvements.

Note that these PSUs are VERY easy to destroy and I highly recommend people do not overvolt them with the provided PSU. Damaging the PSU will likely destroy the U3 as well. I'm not really sure where the fault lies but I suspect the PSUs are dodgy and if you have another power source, use that instead until bitmain can confirm whether there is an issue with the PSU. It wouldn't be the first device they've sold with a dodgy PSU.

I can only seem to get either my U3 or new R-box running at a time, and have Zadig'ed many a time. Is there no way to get these running together? I've tried multiple USB hubs, powered and unpowered.

[bitsolutions]

I've made the first official cgminer release with support for these now (version 4.8.0). It is the same as the last binary I updated in performance but has some cosmetic improvements.

Note that these PSUs are VERY easy to destroy and I highly recommend people do not overvolt them with the provided PSU. Damaging the PSU will likely destroy the U3 as well. I'm not really sure where the fault lies but I suspect the PSUs are dodgy and if you have another power source, use that instead until bitmain can confirm whether there is an issue with the PSU. It wouldn't be the first device they've sold with a dodgy PSU.

I can only seem to get either my U3 or new R-box running at a time, and have Zadig'ed many a time. Is there no way to get these running together? I've tried multiple USB hubs, powered and unpowered.

Try putting just the U3 behind a hub and the r-box on a completely separate USB port(the hub should filter out interference or whatever is causing problems with the r-box).

[-ck]

I can only seem to get either my U3 or new R-box running at a time, and have Zadig'ed many a time. Is there no way to get these running together? I've tried multiple USB hubs, powered and unpowered.

In your own words

Engineering > all.

The designers of both of these devices gave them identical (crap cheap) usb communication chips and have set no identity for manufacturer or product so now about a dozen different devices look identical on the bus. The best cgminer can do is poke it with a stick a few times till it goes ouch in different ways to say "hmm, looks like a frog" and then gives it the rockminer driver. This reliability of this is variable and works in my testing on linux. Perhaps it might work better if you start cgminer with one connected and plug the other one in after since hotplug works slightly differently. Sometimes they dont like to let go of the same USB bus ID so need cold power cycling. I can no longer do any more testing since bitmain sent me 2 U3s and it appears I've fried both of them (hence my warnings earlier on).

[Phosphorous]

Thanks for the update CK. I tried it and it works great with my Ant U2's. However, running at default settings I started at midnight went to bed and by 8am it went Zombie. I reset the U3 (USB unplug & replug) and it has been running over 24h at about 54Gh.

I'm still pissed that I've had the device for 3 weeks before it was really usable. This could have been completely avoided.

This time I made it about 2 days before it went Zombie...

[-ck]

Thanks for the update CK. I tried it and it works great with my Ant U2's. However, running at default settings I started at midnight went to bed and by 8am it went Zombie. I reset the U3 (USB unplug & replug) and it has been running over 24h at about 54Gh.

I'm still pissed that I've had the device for 3 weeks before it was really usable. This could have been completely avoided.

This time I made it about 2 days before it went Zombie...

Right, I call hardware instability. Both of my U3s are now dead, as in completely dead unusable.

[Phosphorous]

And as a side note. I bought my unit at MinerSource and I left a review for this item there. I thought I wrote an objective review where I detailed all of the problems I had with the unit, along with compliments for the packaging. It's now clear that MinerSource has no intent or interest in publishing honest reviews, which is disappointing.

[dogie]

I can only seem to get either my U3 or new R-box running at a time, and have Zadig'ed many a time. Is there no way to get these running together? I've tried multiple USB hubs, powered and unpowered.

In your own words

Engineering > all.

The designers of both of these devices gave them identical (crap cheap) usb communication chips and have set no identity for manufacturer or product so now about a dozen different devices look identical on the bus. The best cgminer can do is poke it with a stick a few times till it goes ouch in different ways to say "hmm, looks like a frog" and then gives it the rockminer driver. This reliability of this is variable and works in my testing on linux. Perhaps it might work better if you start cgminer with one connected and plug the other one in after since hotplug works slightly differently. Sometimes they dont like to let go of the same USB bus ID so need cold power cycling. I can no longer do any more testing since bitmain sent me 2 U3s and it appears I've fried both of them (hence my warnings earlier on).

I meant engineering department > all, they call the shots - in response that sales and marketing were making engineering do things.

Makes sense on the indentification. I've tried different ports, different hubs and hot plugging, but it seems every time I replug one in it loses Zadig'age.

[heslo]

And as a side note. I bought my unit at MinerSource and I left a review for this item there. I thought I wrote an objective review where I detailed all of the problems I had with the unit, along with compliments for the packaging. It's now clear that MinerSource has no intent or interest in publishing honest reviews, which is disappointing.

...but not unsurprising, they're a bunch of con artists anyway

[CCW]

hi guys,

after reading the whole thread, I decided a few days ego to buy an U3. After starting with U2+ I was thinking it would be time to continue with U3. But unfortunately the setup is not as easy as for the U2. I won't recommend the U3 for beginners.

I use my U3 with the Raspberry pi + cgminer from ckolivas

here a link how to compile the cgminer for raspberry: https://dominustemporis.com/2013/06/compiling-cgminer-for-the-raspberry-pi-and-butterflylabs-jalapeno/

Comment:
I often get errors like https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=854958.0
I solved it with auto-restarting (regular)

[kcal63]

I can only seem to get either my U3 or new R-box running at a time, and have Zadig'ed many a time. Is there no way to get these running together? I've tried multiple USB hubs, powered and unpowered.

In your own words

Engineering > all.

The designers of both of these devices gave them identical (crap cheap) usb communication chips and have set no identity for manufacturer or product so now about a dozen different devices look identical on the bus. The best cgminer can do is poke it with a stick a few times till it goes ouch in different ways to say "hmm, looks like a frog" and then gives it the rockminer driver. This reliability of this is variable and works in my testing on linux. Perhaps it might work better if you start cgminer with one connected and plug the other one in after since hotplug works slightly differently. Sometimes they dont like to let go of the same USB bus ID so need cold power cycling. I can no longer do any more testing since bitmain sent me 2 U3s and it appears I've fried both of them (hence my warnings earlier on).

I meant engineering department > all, they call the shots - in response that sales and marketing were making engineering do things.

Makes sense on the indentification. I've tried different ports, different hubs and hot plugging, but it seems every time I replug one in it loses Zadig'age.

Yeah Dogie, I have found that Bitmain and Rockminer products simply do not play well together. I have never been able to run any form of R-boxes on same computer as a bitmain device, the drivers just are not compatible somehow (even though the controller appears to be identical, go figure).

[CCW]

It is strange.... after trying the antminer u3 with the cgminer for a few hours. the cgminer always crash or the miner became a zombie.

Anyone know how to get rid of the following errors:
GetResults usb read err:(-1) LIBUSB_ERROR_IO
attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

The longer the device runs the more it appears until the u3 becomes the zombie

[GrrOucH]

I'm sure I'll get yelled at but could someone put the steps up here to install 4.80 on an rpi running minepeon please. Minepeon is not maintained any more for some reason and there was never a walk through done for CGMiner. Thanks.

[Speedster1978]

What would everyone suggest as a good backup power supply to replace the crap one that the Antminer U3 came with? Amazon links if they carry it preferred...

[hawkfish007]

What would everyone suggest as a good backup power supply to replace the crap one that the Antminer U3 came with? Amazon links if they carry it preferred...

Use an ATX PSU with PCIe to barrel plug adapters (5.5X2.5 mm), 5.5x2.1mm (Blizzard/Fury) works but needs a hard push.

[Zich]

What would everyone suggest as a good backup power supply to replace the crap one that the Antminer U3 came with? Amazon links if they carry it preferred...

If you are using pc, you can get power from your pc ATX PSU  

[Speedster1978]

All the ones I am seeing are like $20-30... I'll just have to wire my own up with spare PCI-e plugs I guess

[Phosphorous]

Yeah Dogie, I have found that Bitmain and Rockminer products simply do not play well together. I have never been able to run any form of R-boxes on same computer as a bitmain device, the drivers just are not compatible somehow (even though the controller appears to be identical, go figure).

I actually had an R-Box and 2 Ant U2's running on the same machine for several months. Don't ask me how I did it. I messed with it forever and almost gave up and then it just started working. Again, don't know what I did... I uninstalled and re-installed drivers and Zadig'd and it just started working somehow. Unfortunately it stopped working when I messed with things trying to get the U3 working.

[dogie]

What would everyone suggest as a good backup power supply to replace the crap one that the Antminer U3 came with? Amazon links if they carry it preferred...

6A one from my rockminer guide.

[dogie]

It is strange.... after trying the antminer u3 with the cgminer for a few hours. the cgminer always crash or the miner became a zombie.

Anyone know how to get rid of the following errors:
GetResults usb read err:(-1) LIBUSB_ERROR_IO
attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

The longer the device runs the more it appears until the u3 becomes the zombie

I was getting this before I put it on a powered hub.

[CCW]

It is strange.... after trying the antminer u3 with the cgminer for a few hours. the cgminer always crash or the miner became a zombie.

Anyone know how to get rid of the following errors:
GetResults usb read err:(-1) LIBUSB_ERROR_IO
attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

The longer the device runs the more it appears until the u3 becomes the zombie

I was getting this before I put it on a powered hub.

Thanks for the idea. After removing the USB hub the problem is gone. now I only need to figure out why the cgminer suddenly stops mining after a while