Hello,
Quick question, as of May 2013 -
- As of today what are the Cainsmore bitstreams of choice for max performance and/or stability?
- Where can we download them?
- Controller reflash or just bitstream?
Thanks.
Topic: Cairnsmore1 - Quad XC6SLX150 Board - page 9. (Read 286370 times)
A little update to my board problem..
(The Board did not work at all anymore.. even with a 160MHz bitstream it produced only invalid shares..)
It's working again.. ...."edited"
oc
(The Board did not work at all anymore.. even with a 160MHz bitstream it produced only invalid shares..)
It's working again.. ...."edited"
oc
The problem I had was similar with a ZTEX board but the board would operate at 25% after a month I applied a cheap variant thermal paste. I was wrong to use a cheap thermal paste. I got the arctic MX-4 thermal paste and I have noticed an increased performance, so it might be that they used a cheap thermal paste.
I had similar heat problems with a Ztex board. It changed after i applied good thermal paste (MX-4 i think) and controlled that the heatsink was placed well and was holding good. After that the quad Ztex board ran till today without issues!
Sometimes these broken it boards can be resurrected with the good old (serious!): "put it in the oven @50° C" Method. Worked with one GPU for me
I would love to own a crainsmore board btw
A little update to my board problem..
(The Board did not work at all anymore.. even with a 160MHz bitstream it produced only invalid shares..)
It's working again.. Dont laugh, but i put the board in the fridge, as I've always seen some valid shares, like 2 or 3 valid shares, before only HW errors occured so I always had the feeling it has something todo with temperatures overheating, but when touching the thermalblock or the bottomside of the board it was always handwarm..
Well.. I put it in the fridge, it runs smooth for about an hour with the 160 MHz stream.. I've now installed the 190 MHz bitstream and it is still running in my fridge with 3 degrees C ambient temperature.. As soon as I take it out it produces invalids only within seconds..
As I've mailed Enterpoint for service they replied basically that they have no time for service, it'll take about 12 weeks and I'd have to pay for it too as I've bought the board from a forum member I'll probably take apart the coolers myself and renew the thermal compound. Nice service for such a expensive board..
Very strange problem as temperatures feel totally normal...
oc
(The Board did not work at all anymore.. even with a 160MHz bitstream it produced only invalid shares..)
It's working again.. Dont laugh, but i put the board in the fridge, as I've always seen some valid shares, like 2 or 3 valid shares, before only HW errors occured so I always had the feeling it has something todo with temperatures overheating, but when touching the thermalblock or the bottomside of the board it was always handwarm..
Well.. I put it in the fridge, it runs smooth for about an hour with the 160 MHz stream.. I've now installed the 190 MHz bitstream and it is still running in my fridge with 3 degrees C ambient temperature.. As soon as I take it out it produces invalids only within seconds..
As I've mailed Enterpoint for service they replied basically that they have no time for service, it'll take about 12 weeks and I'd have to pay for it too as I've bought the board from a forum member I'll probably take apart the coolers myself and renew the thermal compound. Nice service for such a expensive board..
Very strange problem as temperatures feel totally normal...
oc
The problem I had was similar with a ZTEX board but the board would operate at 25% after a month I applied a cheap variant thermal paste. I was wrong to use a cheap thermal paste. I got the arctic MX-4 thermal paste and I have noticed an increased performance, so it might be that they used a cheap thermal paste.
I'd like to post a thankyou to the Enterpoint team, my Cairnsmore 1 has performed faultlessly since day 3 of ownership, day 1 and 2 were spent trying to get it to work on Mac OS, which I nearly managed, but had USB/tty issues. Since tethering it to my home network's winXP file-server instead it's been plain sailing, and I have mined ~35btc since September using the device. I knew it was a risky bet buying an FPGA after BFL's announcement, but my gamble paid off very nicely thankyou
Service from your company has been professional, and your product is very well made and maintenance free. Thanks also to the bitstream coders
(Now am I tempting fate by posting this? Will I wake up tomorrow to a frazzled board?)
Service from your company has been professional, and your product is very well made and maintenance free. Thanks also to the bitstream coders
(Now am I tempting fate by posting this? Will I wake up tomorrow to a frazzled board?)
I recently received a pair of CM1s with "water damage", and I've not been able to get them to work.
Is there any kind of a repair/replacement program offered by Enterpoint (or by anyone else), or are they essentially worthless now?
http://i.imgur.com/Q3AyO6W.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BMvqbtK.jpg
Is there any kind of a repair/replacement program offered by Enterpoint (or by anyone else), or are they essentially worthless now?
http://i.imgur.com/Q3AyO6W.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BMvqbtK.jpg
We don't have a formal repair/replacement program as such. Outside of Bitcoin boards and something very similar I can count the number that have come back to us in one hand and that is in 10 years of making boards and hence we never had a reason to make a formal process. So anything that comes back will go into our normal rework process which is very queued at the moment. There are non-urgent things in that queue that have been there 3-6 months.
We will charge for any repairs outside of warranty but what we can do in a situation like this is have a 2 minute evaluation that we would not charge for. Carriage would be your only cost for that. Out of a 2 minute lookover we can usually tell if it is going to be a long expensive debug/repair (probably a write off board) or a short cheap one. As anyone can do the lookover we can usually do these 2 minute lookovers within 1-2 weeks of getting a board back so if you want to send back the board we will do that.
One comment is that you obviously had a short on the fan connector and have you checked that the board fuse isn't just blown. The grot on the board may cause you problems as well but cleaning can be done but only with the right materials/equipment. Outside of that there are nummerous possibilities so I would only be guessing.
I recently received a pair of CM1s with "water damage", and I've not been able to get them to work.
Is there any kind of a repair/replacement program offered by Enterpoint (or by anyone else), or are they essentially worthless now?
http://i.imgur.com/Q3AyO6W.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BMvqbtK.jpg
Is there any kind of a repair/replacement program offered by Enterpoint (or by anyone else), or are they essentially worthless now?
http://i.imgur.com/Q3AyO6W.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BMvqbtK.jpg
hola, don't mean to sidetrack the thread or anything, but if anyone should be looking to sell, i am more than interested. PM me please; thanks :^)
Sorry same, please pm me
hola, don't mean to sidetrack the thread or anything, but if anyone should be looking to sell, i am more than interested. PM me please; thanks :^)
Code:
[ 582.150000] ftdi_sio ttyUSB23: urb failed to clear flow control
[ 1283.930000] usb 1-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 12
[ 1283.930000] ftdi_sio ttyUSB20: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now disconnected from ttyUSB20
[ 1283.940000] ftdi_sio 1-1.1:1.0: device disconnected
[ 1283.950000] ftdi_sio ttyUSB21: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now disconnected from ttyUSB21
[ 1283.950000] ftdi_sio 1-1.1:1.1: device disconnected
[ 1283.960000] ftdi_sio ttyUSB22: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now disconnected from ttyUSB22
[ 1283.970000] ftdi_sio 1-1.1:1.2: device disconnected
[ 1283.970000] ftdi_sio ttyUSB23: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now disconnected from ttyUSB23
[ 1283.980000] ftdi_sio 1-1.1:1.3: device disconnected
do you have the top board set to slave mode?
Took some digging how to do that, but that definitely helped :-) Thanks!I got rid of one of the hubs and replaced some of the USB cables with shorter ones (1ft). Overall this seemed to have improved things with no more comms errors so far (24hrs).
Once you get the bugs beaten down, they run solid for months at a time. God help you if you have to power them down though.
You can use Bfgminer, Luke's version of Cgminer.
Does anyone know which is the latest stable version for ZTEX and CM1? I am running bfgminer 2.9.10 on a pi.
do you have the top board set to slave mode?
Took some digging how to do that, but that definitely helped :-) Thanks!I got rid of one of the hubs and replaced some of the USB cables with shorter ones (1ft). Overall this seemed to have improved things with no more comms errors so far (24hrs).
bfgminer is the only other one I know of which supports CM1 dynamic speed control if that's the firmware you have loaded.
And it will use less than a tenth of the cpu as mpbm. (Which really counts on a Raspberry Pi.)
My impression when taking it for a test drive was that it didn't get quite as much out of the CM1's as mpbm, however.
If you try bfgminer, on linux, please let me know your experience after a few days of usage / comparison against mpbm.
-- edit
If you are using a reasonably fast computer, however, say one where the mpbm average cpu utilization is less than 10%, I would suggest it isn't worth your hassle / downtime to make the switch.
And it will use less than a tenth of the cpu as mpbm. (Which really counts on a Raspberry Pi.)
My impression when taking it for a test drive was that it didn't get quite as much out of the CM1's as mpbm, however.
If you try bfgminer, on linux, please let me know your experience after a few days of usage / comparison against mpbm.
-- edit
If you are using a reasonably fast computer, however, say one where the mpbm average cpu utilization is less than 10%, I would suggest it isn't worth your hassle / downtime to make the switch.
You can use Bfgminer, Luke's version of Cgminer.
I would like to switch out of my current mining software mpbm with my cairnsmores, what's recomended these days ?
I'm getting errors like these on all my boards. They are connected via USB cables on two powered (1A) USB hubs by Belkin. How can I test / investigate this further?
Also, I got these flat ribbon cables, but they do not seem to work? I.e. only the board with the USB starts hashing.
Code:
[2013-03-31 00:27:56] ICA0: Comms error
[2013-03-31 00:27:56] Failed to open Icarus on /dev/ttyUSB2
[2013-03-31 00:27:56] ICA0: Comms error
[2013-03-31 00:27:56] ICA1: Comms error
[2013-03-31 00:27:56] ICA 0 failure, disabling!
Also, I got these flat ribbon cables, but they do not seem to work? I.e. only the board with the USB starts hashing.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/CM1Quickstart
... from my quick start guide
You should see a set of 4 new USB comms ports in device manager as shown in the Wiki image.
The 2 highest numbered com ports (Com25, Com26 in the wiki example) are the bottom board FPGAs. In single board mode these are the com ports you start up in CGMiner. If you have paired boards the first 2 com ports (COM23, COM24) in the wiki example address the top board pair. Note what COM port maps to what board.
---
it sounds to me like you are addressing com ports that aren't active. With the paired bitstream and no up/down, only the 3rd and 4th com ports are called to operate the boards.
I'm sorry, I forgot to mention that everything runs fine for a few hours. Also, this is on Linux,
If I connect the up/down the board that does not have the USB cable connected (only the ribbon) does nothing (LEDs stay orange).
I'm getting errors like these on all my boards. They are connected via USB cables on two powered (1A) USB hubs by Belkin. How can I test / investigate this further?
Also, I got these flat ribbon cables, but they do not seem to work? I.e. only the board with the USB starts hashing.
Code:
[2013-03-31 00:27:56] ICA0: Comms error
[2013-03-31 00:27:56] Failed to open Icarus on /dev/ttyUSB2
[2013-03-31 00:27:56] ICA0: Comms error
[2013-03-31 00:27:56] ICA1: Comms error
[2013-03-31 00:27:56] ICA 0 failure, disabling!
Also, I got these flat ribbon cables, but they do not seem to work? I.e. only the board with the USB starts hashing.
I'm selling my boards also -> https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/selling-quad-fpga-board-mining-rig-50-units-157859
sorry, Arvicco. I hope I'm not in the way for you now, I just send only to EU, this should keep us a bit different =o)
Greets,
eb
sorry, Arvicco. I hope I'm not in the way for you now, I just send only to EU, this should keep us a bit different =o)
Greets,
eb
what hash rate do these FPGAs produce ?
Yes could be.. I'll try to contact Enterpoint, maybe they have an idea where, as I have a hot air smd station where I could reflow (part of) the board without big problems, but I dont want to bring "the heat on" now ;-)
If everything is stock on the CM1 (i.e. Fan, Heatsinks) I would try removing the heatsinks to see what kind of thermal compound is on the units. Even reseating the heatsinks with a proper re-application of thermal grease (i.e. arctic silver) may help with your problem as it sounds like something is overheating if it works in a cooler environment. If your heatsinks are attached with push springs I would check to the tension on them to see if they are actually forcing the heatsinks to make proper contact with the spartan chips. If this was a reflow problem you would not be able to run the units in your fridge / freezer.
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