Topic: Official FutureBit Apollo BTC Software/Image and Support thread (Read 52508 times)

DO NOT DO THIS.

Figured this is also a contributing factor to failed power switches as well.

The unit is carefully designed to have balanced airflow coming from top and bottom of device (even the height of the rubber pads was painstakingly chosen for optimal flow). This is because the PSU is passively cooled via the main heatsink fan, if you put it on the side almost all the airflow goes through the bottom (with yes slightly reduced fan speeds which is why people are probably doing it), but means the PSU gets NO airflow and overheats.

Yes etcher is a mess right now very annoying...use latest version and decompress the image first

Thanks will look into fixing this for UX. Prob a local time bug instead of using UTC.

On the solo mining page where it shows users and workers.  I was doing some testing outside the network to see if I could get the Apollo to work as an off the internal network pool.  It did work 

Now for the question.

How long will it show the red X and user active 0/1.  Will it timeout and go away or is there a way to reset it since I don’t want to see this every time I check the pool.  I will be adding other mining devices later but not that one.  I just want it to display what's going on now.  Would be great to just to click the x and have it go away.

Thanks

J-

I have 1 node and 2 standard Apollo 1 units running well for a couple years.
Wanted to upgrade but the Apollo 2 is extremely overpriced compared to the Avallon.
I instead got 5 Avalon Nano 3 and thinking about the mini now.
Why would I buy American for twice or 3 times the cost when Trump is threatening Canada

I also have mine on its side with the large vent and switch pointed up, also sitting on top of a laptop cooler. I notice a few days ago the dust on the top vents and used my vacuum to suck it away. I am still using v.2.0.5 and I have set mine to 64 node connection without a problem. It will bounce between 63-64.  (Just checked and it's connected to 3 other Apollo nodes right now)

Cleaning dust off the APOLLO II.

It's been 3 months since I received my Apollo II.  I have mine turned sideways for better airflow through the bottom, which it does.  The top vents are clogged from dust accumulation.  I suspect that would get worse faster if I had the top vents pointed up. 

Shut down my node, got the Air compressor blower and blew the dust back out.  Lots of fine dust was blown out the top and bottom.  No noticeable cooling difference.  I thought there might be but the unit seems to be cooling well even with a small coating of dust.  Now good for another 3 months.

running a fresh flash of v2.0.6 does seem more stable than v2.0.6 as long as I don't load up a bunch of other stuff In the browser.   And don't try to restore saved settings as this wipes the settings installed in v.2.0.6.  When I did this my node became less stable with the settings I saved from v.2.0.5  includes reverting back to 32 node connections.  On v2.0.5 when I upped the nodes to 64 the system would crash.  Not under v2.0.6.

I figured out that using archive utility to unzip first then flashing with the latest etcher worked

I was trying to update one of my batch 1 apollo and now that the new version of etcher failed to flash the compressed img and my mac won't load etcher v1.18.11 I have a paperweight with no os how did you get around this?

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The only officially supported NVMe drives are Kingston NV2s and Curcial P2/P3s.

We have also noticed some newer Gen4 drives are not compatible and this is a hardware issue. Our custom SSD drive adapter for this board is only designed for 2x PCIe Gen 2 lanes.

There is no need to buy higher end NVMe drives for this system as its a waste, they will either fail because they draw to much power, or newer Gen4 pcie protocol is incompatible with our hardware.

We are currently sourcing Kingston NV3 drives, but only one type with a certain controller works with our system, they have two types with a different controller that does not work.

Also I know 660GB/1TB seems like the drive is almost full, but bitcoin is growing at about 100GB/Y even in its current maxed out full blocks state. 1TB drives have at least 2-3 years of life left, and 2TB drives will literally last the life of the system at over 10 years.

2TB is boarderline overkill, 1TB will last enough where you can get a 2TB for half the cost in 2 years.
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Does a Gen 3 drive work? Specifically a Crucial P3 Gen 3 x 4
model# CT2000P3SSD8

No, it's new, just bought. I did a "reindex" and for 3 days (I think I have 3 more days left to finish) the operation seems a bit "robust" to me. Many crashes, restarts, errors and blocks... so far more doubts than certainties.

IMO: This system is not designed to run a lightning node.  From what I've read to run a lightning node you need multiple open channels.  You need an efficient and online system 24/7 with quick response.  You need backup servers in case a server crashes.  Your dedicating 1 BTC or more to your lightning network to make it attractive to use.

The apollo II can barely handle a node and mining.  Anything else I think will just overload the small CPU in the system and a bitcoin node will conflict with a lightning node.

Many seem to choose an AWS service, or similar,  as being more reliable to run a lightning node  capacity and speed of server network connections.

I think the designers mentioned they designed this apollo system to do just one thing host a node and mine.  That's it, KISS.  Theres not a lot more you can add.  I've seen system performance deteriorate quickly when you try to run multiple programs above what's provided.  What is more impressive is your apollo II can pool multiple bitcoin miners within your network.

+1 (when finish the updating)

Software Bug Found:  Changing system time zone will cause miner data to reset to 0 while miner and node programs are running.  Stopping and restarting the miner did not fix the problem.
v2.0.6  apollo II

I changed the time zone on the Apollo II.  This caused all miner data to reset to 0 and not report any data.  I waited an hour and no update.  It did not affect node data and solo mining data.  Miner operated as normal and fan speed is working.  But you can't see temp data for the miner nor fan speed.

A reboot after setting the time zone did fix the problem.

Have you reflashed the microsd system card?  Replaced the Microsd system card and flashed a new card.  Also checked the issues with placement of the microsd card in the slot?  There was tape on mine to secure the card in transportation, which makes sense, but I think it could cause issues with card operation.

My system had a defective microsd card.  These cards seem old.  The new card worked fine and many problems I had went away.
I've had a 128GB microsd running v2.0.5 for several months without issue.  This card is new and ran 180MB/sec read  pretty well.
I felt it would take too long to claim a warranty and these cards are so cheap it would be faster to just get one to try out.

I just picked up a cheap ONN 32GB microsd at a cheap worldwide supermarket.  IT's speed is slower.  100 MBsec read / 11MBsec write.  flashed v2.0.6.  It's up and running.

The difference between the new fast 128GB card and 32GB card is there.  Here's the report: booting 128GB card and the system boots within 15 seconds main screen is up in 60 seconds.  The 32GB card took longer to boot   30 seconds boot and 90 seconds main screen.  As system is running no noticeable difference.
  Maybe slightly slower response when you click on a program.

Hi guys,
Just bought a full node. It's updating pretty quickly...almost done in 3 days. As soon as it's 100%, I'll start mining solo.
I'd like to also run a Lighnting node and provide liquidity. Any solution you recommend?

Thanks,
Franck

Another one with a similar problem. I bought it new and it gives an error when synchronizing the node. It always stays on the same block. It fails on wifi and lan. The error always occurs in the same place, regardless of whether the miner is on or not. Does anyone who has solved it already have a way to solve this problem?

As described earlier, you can copy the bitcoin database to a USB connected nvme drive interface.  Takes under 1 hour these days on my Apollo II.  Make sure your node is stopped and your miner is stopped.  You all should do this every 2 to 4 weeks anyway so you have a bitcoin backup.  any sort of power outage can corrupt the memory.

You could also purchase a nvme clone device that will copy the data NVME to NVME pretty fast.

The format command in apollo wipes the drive.  

jstefanop has answered the question about what nvme 2TB is compatible with these systems.  Hardware compatibility. These cards will be cheaper than the newer faster cards.  read write speeds are only in the 100-200MB / sec range. USB 3.0 speed.  This is a simple system designed for running a node and a miner.  nothing fancy.

Look around the system monitor.  Watch the activity of the bitcoind program and the node program and the ckpool program if mining.  You can see read/write activity of the bitcoind being the most active.

Regarding the nvme running out of space, what does the system monitor say is left on the nvme?  Do you get an error message?  the system monitor will tell you space used vs space available.  So you say at 80% complete, you have 0% nvme disk space remaining?

how much space used is reported by apollo on the bitcoin database?  percentage is a relative number.  What is the actual GB number used vs free

Not an option in the Apollo BTS Settings..Extra..Format

I always remove and recreate, all disk partitions, prior to reformatting any storage devices.