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Topic: Antminer U1 - effective rate dropping off - any ideas? (Read 2601 times)

full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 101
No problem, glad to help.  Happy mining and good luck!
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
Update, in case anyone's having the same problems:

I tried building cgminer with all sorts of options on ./configure but never got rid of the segmentation faults.

I switched back to bfgminer and tried building that with different options on ./configure

I found that:
./configure --disable-other-drivers --enable-icarus --without-libusb
did the trick - perfect bfgminer 3.10.7 build.
Yep, I know the instructions say there is no --enable-icarus options but hey, it worked.

So I now have a rock-solid miner running my 8 Antminer U1s (2 USB hubs * 4 ASICs) at 2.0 Gh/s. It's so weird to see it just work... and work... and work. And not fall over or stall.

Thanks for the pointers, Noah!

Now, my gooseneck USB fans keep melting so I'm after a decent fan. Just ordered a couple of these (click). They're 99p and will run off the 5v from a regular mains USB adapter. I'll post a review when I've had one running for a while.


full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 101
The hub is this one:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-PORT-MAINS-USB-2-0-BUS-POWERED-HUB-AC-ADAPTER-PC-LAPTOP-BLACK-/140894692580?pt=UK_Computing_USB_Cables&hash=item20cdfa64e4

With this supply:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AC-ADAPTOR-5V-2-5A-REGULATED-Part-No-PSK315-05-By-POWERPAX-/351249465118?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item51c8197f1e

It's got a good 5v on it - I cut down a USB lead so I could get a voltmeter right onto the supply being put out by the hub and it's just over 5v.

I'm wondering if the compilation problem causing it to throw segmentation faults is also causing it to corrupt the ASIC connections...

For the last 11 hours it's been working perfectly...
That PSU should be able to handle 5 or 6 U1s.  How many are you using?  Hopefully the compilation problem is the problem, that shouldn't be too hard to fix at least.
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
The hub is this one:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-PORT-MAINS-USB-2-0-BUS-POWERED-HUB-AC-ADAPTER-PC-LAPTOP-BLACK-/140894692580?pt=UK_Computing_USB_Cables&hash=item20cdfa64e4

With this supply:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AC-ADAPTOR-5V-2-5A-REGULATED-Part-No-PSK315-05-By-POWERPAX-/351249465118?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item51c8197f1e

It's got a good 5v on it - I cut down a USB lead so I could get a voltmeter right onto the supply being put out by the hub and it's just over 5v.

I'm wondering if the compilation problem causing it to throw segmentation faults is also causing it to corrupt the ASIC connections...

For the last 11 hours it's been working perfectly...
full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 101
Hmmm. So I started it running at 21:00 last night and it was running at an average 8Gh/s.

At about 23:00 one of the ASICs switched from
ANU x : 250MHz
to
AU3 x : 225MHz 750mV
and the total rate fell from 8Gh/s to 6Gh/s.

Then, at about 2:30, cgminer threw a segmentation fault and died! It's been a while since I saw a segmentation fault. I guess I compiled it wrong - should be able to fix that by recompiling with the right flags and stuff...

Anyone know why the ASIC (Bitmain Antminer U1) would suddenly be seen as something else? I guess the USB connection is failing and cgminer is doing a reset on that port and detecting the wrong device. Actually, when I start cgminer up it often fails to detect one or two ANUs and sees them as AU3s instead - I have to do a manual reset on that device to get it properly recognised... hmmm, obviously dodgy connections to the ASICs... why the heck would that be... hub seems good and has a solid 5v...

Noah, you mentioned zadig... do you know if I have to run something similar on Linux? I just did the 01-cgminer.rules stuff from the README... maybe there's something else I need to do...
No, on Linux it should be plug-and-play with the right parameters.  Windows is the only platform that you need Zadig on.  Are you using a powered USB hub?  If so, what brand and model?
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
Hmmm. So I started it running at 21:00 last night and it was running at an average 8Gh/s.

At about 23:00 one of the ASICs switched from
ANU x : 250MHz
to
AU3 x : 225MHz 750mV
and the total rate fell from 8Gh/s to 6Gh/s.

Then, at about 2:30, cgminer threw a segmentation fault and died! It's been a while since I saw a segmentation fault. I guess I compiled it wrong - should be able to fix that by recompiling with the right flags and stuff...

Anyone know why the ASIC (Bitmain Antminer U1) would suddenly be seen as something else? I guess the USB connection is failing and cgminer is doing a reset on that port and detecting the wrong device. Actually, when I start cgminer up it often fails to detect one or two ANUs and sees them as AU3s instead - I have to do a manual reset on that device to get it properly recognised... hmmm, obviously dodgy connections to the ASICs... why the heck would that be... hub seems good and has a solid 5v...

Noah, you mentioned zadig... do you know if I have to run something similar on Linux? I just did the 01-cgminer.rules stuff from the README... maybe there's something else I need to do...
full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 101
Oh, I'm using cgminer 4.9.1

The UI is better with wide-screen enabled - it then shows the number of accepted, rejected and errors per AMU. I'm still looking for something that will explain what all the fields in the UI are though - in bfg you can press 'h' and it gives you a key...

Anyway, now running at 9.391 Gh/s...
Awesome, glad you got it running.  I didn't know that wide-screen was a thing, I'll have to start using it.  Thanks!  Oh, and here's a thread that explains the CGMiner values:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/official-cgminer-mining-software-thread-for-linuxwinosxmipsarmr-pi-4110-28402  The explanations are more towards the bottom.
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
Oh, I'm using cgminer 4.9.1

The UI is better with wide-screen enabled - it then shows the number of accepted, rejected and errors per AMU. I'm still looking for something that will explain what all the fields in the UI are though - in bfg you can press 'h' and it gives you a key...

Anyway, now running at 9.391 Gh/s...
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
Noah, thanks for the help and encouragement, mate.

I cleaned out and rebuilt. It didn't recognise the --anu-freq option unless I ran ./configure with --enable-icarus. And I'm running on a Raspberry Pi so I can't run zadig but did the Linux equivalent.

But anyway, the --anu-freq option did the trick and the rig is now running at a variable 7 - 9 Gh/s rate - I'll let it run overnight and see how it does. It's looking good so far, though. The UI isn't quite as pretty as bfg but it's OK. Can't believe I just said the bfg UI is pretty...

Anyway, thanks for the help.

full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 101
Ew, not impressed with cgminer. When I first installed it and ran it, it did nothing, just returned command line prompt immediately. Then realised I had to configure with --enable-icarus. Then when I ran it, it failed to pick up one of my ASICs correctly. The three it did find, it ran at about 500Mh/s. The output was a bit messy compared to bfg too. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow with a fresh build.

I looked at Minepeon but you have to turn the RPi into an appliance (image the whole SD card) and I don't really want to do that as I have other stuff installed on the RPi (VNC, network drive mounts, etc.).

While installing cgminer I realised that when I changed the machine's hostname in /etc/hostname I didn't change it in /etc/hosts so that could have caused some problems, maybe. So I'm running bfg again overnight to see if it's any more stable.

Noah, did you use cgminer with U1s? Is there something I'm missing in compiling/running it to get it to run them right? Cheers.


Yes, I do.  Here's my configuration file for cgminer:

cgminer -o stratum+tcp://us1.ghash.io:3333 -u MyUsername.MyWorker -p MyPassword --anu-freq 275

And, the overclock frequencies for the --anu-freq option:
200: 1.6 Gh/s
225: 1.8 Gh/s
250: 2.0 Gh/s
275: 2.2 Gh/s (Don't use this unless you modify the R1 and R2 resistors or if you have a U2 or U2+)
Make sure to have adequate cooling when overclocking!

Also, have you run Zadig on each of the miners?  I know, cgminer is a bit of a hassle and it isn't as pretty, but it sure does work better than bfgminer for some reason.

EDIT: You shouldn't have to run with icarus enabled.  What CGMiner version are you using?  I'm using 4.5.0.
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
Ew, not impressed with cgminer. When I first installed it and ran it, it did nothing, just returned command line prompt immediately. Then realised I had to configure with --enable-icarus. Then when I ran it, it failed to pick up one of my ASICs correctly. The three it did find, it ran at about 500Mh/s. The output was a bit messy compared to bfg too. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow with a fresh build.

I looked at Minepeon but you have to turn the RPi into an appliance (image the whole SD card) and I don't really want to do that as I have other stuff installed on the RPi (VNC, network drive mounts, etc.).

While installing cgminer I realised that when I changed the machine's hostname in /etc/hostname I didn't change it in /etc/hosts so that could have caused some problems, maybe. So I'm running bfg again overnight to see if it's any more stable.

Noah, did you use cgminer with U1s? Is there something I'm missing in compiling/running it to get it to run them right? Cheers.

newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
Cheers Noah, you got me convinced! CGMiner it is... will post the results here.
full member
Activity: 173
Merit: 101
I've always had problems with BFGMiner.  It always, always has reported a very low hashrate for any device I throw at it.  The 36ghs R-Box, U1s, U2s, anything.  All very slow, usually only about 1/4 of the rate I should be getting.  However, CGminer works a lot better.  I end up getting much faster hashrates.  I would suggest trying out CGMiner.
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
Oh, so there's a question - why does bfg say the ASICs are running 2/2/x when I've set them to run at 1.6Gh/s - should bfg say they're running at 1.6/1.6/x??

Have I set it up wrong?

If I set them to run at 2, bfg reports 2/2/2 but if I set them to run at 1.6, it reports 2/2/1.6.

So - why is bfg reporting 5s/average hashrates of 2Gh/s if the ASIC is running at 1.6Gh/s?

Cheers!
newbie
Activity: 19
Merit: 0
Hi,

I have four Bitmain Antminer U1 running in a hub off a Raspberry Pi worker running bfgminer on Slush's pool.
The ASICs generally run up at 2/2/2 and all looks good - 8Gh/s.
But they always degrade within a few hours so they end up running 2/2/0+ (e.g. 2/2/0.5).
So my reward, along with my effective has rate, bombs.

So I tried swapping the miners out - I have a few spare. Makes no difference.
So I checked the network - all good: high quality, low noise.
So I checked the voltage in the USB hub via an adapted USB lead - a good strong 5v (actually, just over 5v).
They're cooled and never feel even warm, let alone hot.
So I started reducing the hash rate down from 2.0 to 1.8 and then 1.6. Makes no difference.
The rejections and errors are very, very low.

Anyone have any more ideas why my rig is dropping off like this??

Thanks!
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