Author

Topic: Introducing Apollo II (Read 805 times)

hero member
Activity: 721
Merit: 504
May 05, 2024, 10:46:13 AM
#30
My setup is Apollov1 full node with Apollov2 standard piggybacked.


MRR only shows hash from Full node at 3TH. Gui show everything happily running at 8TH on eco mode for now. Gui also shows their are no pools accepting hashes nor is their a pool selected.
Their is a pool selected and the gui shows it happily mining. Where? Whats gui running at 8th for. Adding other pools seems to work as it should.

Also why can't you add a fallback pool, you said you were 5 years ago? Your 1st Gui was better simple and no fluff. The design of the second Apollo way beyond belief. Your inginuity is up their with The Dysons of the world.
hero member
Activity: 1162
Merit: 943
April 28, 2024, 09:48:54 AM
#29
One thing I've noticed (not sure if it's a bug) but if I'm using the Apollo II to solo mine and then stop mining on the machine itself, but keep the node running, then the solo mining page shows the solo mining as offline even if I have other devices pointed to that address.

Is this normal?
legendary
Activity: 2061
Merit: 1388
April 24, 2024, 08:06:44 PM
#28
Just want to make sure I understand correctly, if I buy a "Apollo II - Standard Version", I'll be able to use it to mine Bitcoin at pools? I don't have to own a "APOLLO II FULL NODE" right?

Correct, you just won't be able to solo mine using the device. You can solo mine on a pool like ckpool though or just mine normally through any pool you wish

To also clarify since we get the question a lot, the solo mining capability of the Apollo II Full Node device is just a an optional feature. You can choose to mine to any pool you want like all our previous devices.

Also the USB Standard unit is not as 'plug and play' friendly...you need your own computer or raspberry pi type SBC and need to download our miner software thats command line based to run it (its pretty easy to setup, you just edit the supplied .bat or .sh script file but some people have allergic reactions when they see bash scripts or command line based software).

hero member
Activity: 1162
Merit: 943
April 23, 2024, 07:41:37 AM
#27
Just want to make sure I understand correctly, if I buy a "Apollo II - Standard Version", I'll be able to use it to mine Bitcoin at pools? I don't have to own a "APOLLO II FULL NODE" right?

Correct, you just won't be able to solo mine using the device. You can solo mine on a pool like ckpool though or just mine normally through any pool you wish
legendary
Activity: 1806
Merit: 1003
April 22, 2024, 11:34:52 PM
#26
Just want to make sure I understand correctly, if I buy a "Apollo II - Standard Version", I'll be able to use it to mine Bitcoin at pools? I don't have to own a "APOLLO II FULL NODE" right?
jr. member
Activity: 55
Merit: 13
April 09, 2024, 04:15:32 AM
#25
update resolved it. Thank you!
legendary
Activity: 2061
Merit: 1388
April 06, 2024, 12:36:07 AM
#24
Hey hey!

So just got my FE today. Beautiful machine! Question though.... I am unable to access the machine via local IP the way I was able with the Gen1 Apollo BTC. Is there anything I need to do with the machine to enable monitoring via other local machines?

Hi there is no difference in terms of accessing the web UI from local network. Just make sure you have the right IP address, and the device you are using is on the same network.

We also just emailed everyone with a significant update to the OS (your unit shipped with an early beta with a bunch of bugs that have been fixed).
jr. member
Activity: 55
Merit: 13
April 05, 2024, 12:10:43 AM
#23
Hey hey!

So just got my FE today. Beautiful machine! Question though.... I am unable to access the machine via local IP the way I was able with the Gen1 Apollo BTC. Is there anything I need to do with the machine to enable monitoring via other local machines?
legendary
Activity: 2061
Merit: 1388
March 18, 2024, 01:07:38 PM
#22
Hope anyone can share the $150 coupon code via PM Grin. Here in India the custom duties are whopping 36%. With shipping and duties it is almost half of the amount.

What is this coupon code you speak of?  This is the only time I've seen it mentioned.  I did see that gift cards through Fold were available temporarily with a cash back % offer.

I preorder standard unit, releise date?

We are getting ready to start shipping this month. Tail end of pre-orders might slip into bigining of April but majority should go out by end of the month!

FYI follow the @futurebit account on X for more regular updates.

If we placed an order today for shipping in the United States, when could we realistically expect to receive a unit? 

I'm glad to see that you guys continue to roll out new units.  There aren't enough people building miners for 110v home users that don't want to sound like they live in an airplane hanger.

Should have most Dec/Jan pre-orders out by end of the month, later orders early April, and new orders end of April/early May...of course this is all tentative and contingent on production ramp going smoothly but first units being shipped now are showing high yield with no major issues!
hero member
Activity: 1162
Merit: 943
March 13, 2024, 07:55:53 AM
#21
The coupon was sent out to people who bought out the Apollo v1
donator
Activity: 4732
Merit: 4240
Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
March 13, 2024, 02:24:45 AM
#20
Hope anyone can share the $150 coupon code via PM Grin. Here in India the custom duties are whopping 36%. With shipping and duties it is almost half of the amount.

What is this coupon code you speak of?  This is the only time I've seen it mentioned.  I did see that gift cards through Fold were available temporarily with a cash back % offer.

I preorder standard unit, releise date?

We are getting ready to start shipping this month. Tail end of pre-orders might slip into bigining of April but majority should go out by end of the month!

FYI follow the @futurebit account on X for more regular updates.

If we placed an order today for shipping in the United States, when could we realistically expect to receive a unit? 

I'm glad to see that you guys continue to roll out new units.  There aren't enough people building miners for 110v home users that don't want to sound like they live in an airplane hanger.
legendary
Activity: 2061
Merit: 1388
March 04, 2024, 05:25:48 PM
#19
I preorder standard unit, releise date?

We are getting ready to start shipping this month. Tail end of pre-orders might slip into bigining of April but majority should go out by end of the month!

FYI follow the @futurebit account on X for more regular updates.
newbie
Activity: 32
Merit: 0
March 04, 2024, 12:25:57 PM
#18
I preorder standard unit, releise date?
newbie
Activity: 43
Merit: 0
February 29, 2024, 10:44:03 AM
#17
@jstefanop
The noise level for the ECO mode [less than 40 dba] is good for home miners, but I'm curious to know what the noise levels are on the TURBO mode [especially for using custom settings to get it up to 11 TH/s].

It's a 7k RPM fan and Turbo mode ~9-10TH sits at around 55dB @5-6kRPM depending on local environment. If you max it out you'll max out the RPMs and will prob be over 60db.

We left a lot overhead on the original Apollo BTC (and mostly limited by the 6 Pin power connectors). Now that we eliminated that with internal PSU and high gauge internal connections the limitation is cooling on the high end and noise levels are much louder but wanted to give everyone the option to take full advantage of the ASICs especially in winter/heating conditions.

In short turbo mode will live up to its name this time so dont expect to be able to run it in your bedroom. I would say up to 8TH or so is doable in most room settings based on my personal testing.

So when is the release date for this..
legendary
Activity: 2061
Merit: 1388
January 12, 2024, 03:41:21 PM
#16
@jstefanop
The noise level for the ECO mode [less than 40 dba] is good for home miners, but I'm curious to know what the noise levels are on the TURBO mode [especially for using custom settings to get it up to 11 TH/s].

It's a 7k RPM fan and Turbo mode ~9-10TH sits at around 55dB @5-6kRPM depending on local environment. If you max it out you'll max out the RPMs and will prob be over 60db.

We left a lot overhead on the original Apollo BTC (and mostly limited by the 6 Pin power connectors). Now that we eliminated that with internal PSU and high gauge internal connections the limitation is cooling on the high end and noise levels are much louder but wanted to give everyone the option to take full advantage of the ASICs especially in winter/heating conditions.

In short turbo mode will live up to its name this time so dont expect to be able to run it in your bedroom. I would say up to 8TH or so is doable in most room settings based on my personal testing.
legendary
Activity: 2061
Merit: 1388
January 12, 2024, 03:32:37 PM
#15
We have relationships with the major pools and will bootstrap all solo nodes directly to them. Any block found by a futurebit solo miner will propagate to the major pools first before the rest of the network.
So if you are only selling a total of 50 of these, that 'may' be possible.
If you are selling more than 100 of them, it's not possible.
Bitcoin wont allow 100's of connections by default since that would cause dramatic network performance issues.
No pool in their right mind would allow that either.

If instead you said you setup a transaction/block distribution network like bluematt used to run, for all these apollos, then yes that would be possible.
However, without that, it's not possible what you said.

Quote
Our CPU is pretty fast as well and block creation is not a bottle neck.
It is a bottleneck on every CPU.
The question that matters is how long it takes.
e.g. does it include the CPU instructions to dramatically speed it up? (no it doesn't)
Can it average block template generation well under 100ms? (no)

Quote
Also a valid block is a valid block, even if it shows up seconds late as long as no other block is found within those few seconds it will be included. 10 min block times were created for reasons like this where even small miners running regular computers can still participate at base layer...
Um, nope, seconds late is too late.
It dramatically increases the chances of an orphan.
Orphans still happen with the large pools every so often, they just don't tell anyone.
Since I have a world wide distribution of nodes and I track/report the block submissions/reorgs that happen in my monitoring, I can see them when they happen.

If the blocks generated by these nodes all say they are solo futurebit nodes, then that will be interesting to see what actually happens ...

Yes we are in the process of creating a few regional supernodes that are all connected to major pools, and those nodes are connected to our backend infrastructure that will send a block notify to every single solo miner that is opted in within milliseconds of a valid block detected. Backend is a propriety network that bypasses the p2p bitcoin network similar to what all major pools use among themselves.

Regardless you are still exaggerating the chances of an orphaned block even on the normal p2p network. There are 600 seconds within a block, lets say you are on a slow network and broadcast hits the major pools 6 seconds late, thats just a 1% chance someone will find another block before you (ie if EVERYONE solo mining has a slow connection, for ever 100 solo blocks found one will be extremely unlucky and get their block orphaned).

If you really want to get into the meat of the matter and the type of research I do to come up with the systems we do you can read these research publications for a deep dive on the topic:

https://sites.cs.ucsb.edu/~rich/class/cs293b-cloud/papers/bitcoin-delay#:~:text=The%20median%20time%20until%20a,not%20yet%20received%20the%20block.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363879722_Analysis_of_segregated_witness_implementation_for_increasing_efficiency_and_security_of_the_Bitcoin_cryptocurrency

Mean block propagation times were on the order of 6 seconds in the early days (2013 when the first article was published), due to more efficient core upgrades/computational increase/network bandwidth increases the mean has come down to around 2 seconds.

For everyday users trying to secure the network a .333% chance of orphaning a block compared to lets say major pools of .1% wont matter at the end of the day (and im not discounting the fact that it will matter HORRIBLY for that one person that will find a solo block after mining solo for years and it ends up orphaning but that is the nature of the bitcoin network and the risk solo miners take).


legendary
Activity: 2968
Merit: 3406
Crypto Swap Exchange
January 09, 2024, 07:25:33 AM
#14
do you have any reseller package or local reseller by country or region ?
Apart from the North American region, the closest thing to a local reseller is a couple of retailers in the European [bitshopper] and African [bitmart] regions.
Note: I prefer not to vouch (DYOR)!
full member
Activity: 582
Merit: 149
December 22, 2023, 05:18:48 PM
#13
Just ordered a Founder's edition to help support Futurebit and home miner growth.

Although I won't be utilizing the local solo mining option I do look forward to adding this to my other Apollo BTC's Smiley

Edit: Actually maybe I will give the local solo mining a shot. Hopefully either the Apollo UI or integrated pool clearly shows best share!
member
Activity: 107
Merit: 50
December 18, 2023, 09:57:18 AM
#12
Hope anyone can share the $150 coupon code via PM Grin. Here in India the custom duties are whopping 36%. With shipping and duties it is almost half of the amount.
legendary
Activity: 4466
Merit: 1798
Linux since 1997 RedHat 4
December 10, 2023, 07:10:12 AM
#11
with a fast CPU to do fast bitcoin block work changes
What do you consider to be a fast cpu for that?

Wondering if I get the full node from futurebit or just the miner addon and build my own full node.
Some high end 4+GHz CPU with lotsa cores.

We have relationships with the major pools and will bootstrap all solo nodes directly to them. Any block found by a futurebit solo miner will propagate to the major pools first before the rest of the network.
This would only be true for the full node package right? Or could also do that if we run the addon miner off a non futurebit full node?
As I mentioned above, this isn't possible.
Even if they did setup a distribution network in the future, you talk to that first, not the major pools.
If not, then only a very few of the futurebit's will ever be able to talk directly to a major pool.
newbie
Activity: 6
Merit: 2
December 09, 2023, 02:23:36 PM
#10
with a fast CPU to do fast bitcoin block work changes
What do you consider to be a fast cpu for that?

Wondering if I get the full node from futurebit or just the miner addon and build my own full node.


We have relationships with the major pools and will bootstrap all solo nodes directly to them. Any block found by a futurebit solo miner will propagate to the major pools first before the rest of the network.
This would only be true for the full node package right? Or could also do that if we run the addon miner off a non futurebit full node?
legendary
Activity: 2968
Merit: 3406
Crypto Swap Exchange
December 08, 2023, 09:10:05 AM
#9
@jstefanop
The noise level for the ECO mode [less than 40 dba] is good for home miners, but I'm curious to know what the noise levels are on the TURBO mode [especially for using custom settings to get it up to 11 TH/s].
legendary
Activity: 4466
Merit: 1798
Linux since 1997 RedHat 4
December 08, 2023, 06:58:23 AM
#8
We have relationships with the major pools and will bootstrap all solo nodes directly to them. Any block found by a futurebit solo miner will propagate to the major pools first before the rest of the network.
So if you are only selling a total of 50 of these, that 'may' be possible.
If you are selling more than 100 of them, it's not possible.
Bitcoin wont allow 100's of connections by default since that would cause dramatic network performance issues.
No pool in their right mind would allow that either.

If instead you said you setup a transaction/block distribution network like bluematt used to run, for all these apollos, then yes that would be possible.
However, without that, it's not possible what you said.

Quote
Our CPU is pretty fast as well and block creation is not a bottle neck.
It is a bottleneck on every CPU.
The question that matters is how long it takes.
e.g. does it include the CPU instructions to dramatically speed it up? (no it doesn't)
Can it average block template generation well under 100ms? (no)

Quote
Also a valid block is a valid block, even if it shows up seconds late as long as no other block is found within those few seconds it will be included. 10 min block times were created for reasons like this where even small miners running regular computers can still participate at base layer...
Um, nope, seconds late is too late.
It dramatically increases the chances of an orphan.
Orphans still happen with the large pools every so often, they just don't tell anyone.
Since I have a world wide distribution of nodes and I track/report the block submissions/reorgs that happen in my monitoring, I can see them when they happen.

If the blocks generated by these nodes all say they are solo futurebit nodes, then that will be interesting to see what actually happens ...
legendary
Activity: 2061
Merit: 1388
December 02, 2023, 02:47:06 PM
#7
@jstefanop how 'off the shelf' are the fans?

From the USB sticks you used to sell and the LTC Apollo and the BTC Apollo I have wound up replacing just about every fan over the years.
Probably just bad luck on my end, I don't think the office is THAT dusty, but are the fan(s) in these user replaceable and easily sourceable?

-Dave

It's a custom 80x35mm 7k RPM PWM fan. Its a much more beefier fan that the original Apollo BTC and should last a pretty long time if your running in Eco/Balanced mode...fan runs at about 5-6k RPM in turbo but no where near max.
legendary
Activity: 2061
Merit: 1388
December 02, 2023, 02:44:49 PM
#6
Great, giving everyone the chance to lose blocks with ck's solo code, like he does.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.61755036

5 so far, though if anyone found a block during his most recent problem where the solo ckpool kept going for a while, while bitcoin had stopped updating, that would have been another ck block lost ...

At least be sure to point out to your buyers, that you are selling something with a much higher chance of losing a block due to being an orphan, unless they replace the tiny hardware in it with a fast CPU to do fast bitcoin block work changes, and add a distribution of high performance nodes around the world so their blocks are actually seen and not show up seconds late and thus ignored by ALL the pools.

Went to extra lengths to discourage anyone from solo mining directly on the device unless they understand the limitations and risks, they can't enable it without pressing a big red button.

With that being said con has fixed all the bugs you mentioned and we have ensured solo miners have risks mitigated as much as possible compared to the big guys. We have relationships with the major pools and will bootstrap all solo nodes directly to them. Any block found by a futurebit solo miner will propagate to the major pools first before the rest of the network. Our CPU is pretty fast as well and block creation is not a bottle neck.

Also a valid block is a valid block, even if it shows up seconds late as long as no other block is found within those few seconds it will be included. 10 min block times were created for reasons like this where even small miners running regular computers can still participate at base layer...
legendary
Activity: 3458
Merit: 6231
Crypto Swap Exchange
December 02, 2023, 10:26:49 AM
#5
@jstefanop how 'off the shelf' are the fans?

From the USB sticks you used to sell and the LTC Apollo and the BTC Apollo I have wound up replacing just about every fan over the years.
Probably just bad luck on my end, I don't think the office is THAT dusty, but are the fan(s) in these user replaceable and easily sourceable?

-Dave
jr. member
Activity: 49
Merit: 11
December 02, 2023, 09:47:14 AM
#4
Kano always a crab apple but i guess i do prefer consistency <3

nice work john looks great if this was the first one man oh man what a sight to see. i have considered modifying the 3 v1s using server heatsinks but just cant justify the cost vs hash. im tapped but look forward to watching this progress in this crazy space. i still have futurebit btcs running and an ltc apollo running. i can say these miners just run almost no issues beyond no easy api access perhaps ive overlooked the javascript i dont understand npm and refuse to.
legendary
Activity: 4466
Merit: 1798
Linux since 1997 RedHat 4
December 01, 2023, 10:05:55 PM
#3
Great, giving everyone the chance to lose blocks with ck's solo code, like he does.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.61755036

5 so far, though if anyone found a block during his most recent problem where the solo ckpool kept going for a while, while bitcoin had stopped updating, that would have been another ck block lost ...

At least be sure to point out to your buyers, that you are selling something with a much higher chance of losing a block due to being an orphan, unless they replace the tiny hardware in it with a fast CPU to do fast bitcoin block work changes, and add a distribution of high performance nodes around the world so their blocks are actually seen and not show up seconds late and thus ignored by ALL the pools.
hero member
Activity: 1162
Merit: 943
November 30, 2023, 01:21:46 AM
#2
Simply awesome! Can not wait to order this!
legendary
Activity: 2061
Merit: 1388
November 29, 2023, 05:18:09 PM
#1


Keeping up with tradition I have to make an announcement post here even though im sure most of you have already heard the news!

www.futurebit.io

Product #5 and the one I have been trying to build since the start. This one probably took a few years off my life, and is about 6 months late due to needing to redesign it not once but 3 times.

5nm ASICs are no joke.

As with everything we do we dont announce or ship until we know we can make them and they are ready. This is a first of many for Futurebit, first time we have nearly caught up to the latest node, first time we have integrated a PSU directly in the box for a completely plug and play and seamless experience, first time we have created a completely in house thermal system capable of cooling 400 watts in nearly the same volume as Gen 1, and a first for creating a modern mass producible aluminum case and injection molded parts.

One of the biggest bottlenecks with the Apollo BTC design was the sheet metal case that took forever to make, and with these have already produced thousands of cases and are just waiting on our thermal system and PCBs.


Should have everything in by end of December and start shipping the Founders Edition in January.

One of the biggest announcements is our revamped OS thats finally releasing the Solo mining feature everyone has been waiting for, and the OS will be released on the original Apollo BTC first in hopefully about a month.

We hope the Apollo II launch finally gives us an opportunity to really focus on software this time around, which we never really had the resources for after the Apollo BTC launch.

The hardware has finally caught up to where it needs to be, but software needs a lot of work to make it a seamless experience for people outside of this forum.

We will also be partnering with Lukes pool and offering a one click BTC address setup, and working with them to finally enable lightning payouts for small miners like the Apollo and others, that will finally end the nearly year long payouts on some other pools (FYI we also got braiins pool to reduce their minimum no fee payout to .005 BTC which is half of what it was).

Im sure many of you have noticed but our efforts and others in the small miner space are finally paying off and people are taking notice. People are starting to understand the importance of self-mining no matter how small, and as censorship attacks mount on the Bitcoin network this will be more important than ever.

Can't wait for the first solo block to be mined directly on an Apollo device after we launch the new OS, it will truly be a dawn of a new era for Bitcoin.
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