Topic: Official FutureBit Apollo BTC Software/Image and Support thread - page 65. (Read 48940 times)

Good point! I'll add this to my list of things to test and try out. I'm not sure I will get the internal connection going with the custom Linux install, so in that case a short micro-USB cable will have to be used and might present the same issue. I'll definitely make sure to still test both options if internal connection does work, though.

They use different software, so there's no api-allow option as far as I know in the Apollo BTC.

But if you're interested in reading the data from the miner, you can get that from a text file that gets written in the same folder of where the miner is. After you run the miner, a file with a name like this is created: apollo-miner.4A122E121471674B52383109. If you open it you'll see json encoded data in clear text. The "official" web UI uses that file to present it in a nice way in the browser. You can just read that file and you'll get similar data that the api in Apollo LTC sent.

Hi FutureBit gang,

I have a Full BTC Node running fantastically, mostly unattended except for the few times I got it dusted off. I noticed that disk is almost full with space remaining at 3.31%. I am wondering if there is a recommended upgrade path and instructions I should follow. Thanks for your help!!

Fidel Vanegas


PS: Seems like phiplipma1957 has already cloned the original 500GB into a 1TB NVMe disk using a replicator. I did not see any more updates on this issue so I can just assume it did work just fine. Here the BOM for the gig from Philip ...

this ssd
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089DNM8LR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?

this cloner
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LPDTZGQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?

Interesting. Note that if you have a full package the miner is connected directly through the IOs of the board, not through USB. This potentially could be the reason why it keeps working for you, but not for me. Maybe they do manage some kind of reset in the direct connection, or something to that effect, that is not done with USB.

That's interesting; I'm still running the provided OS on my 'full package' and I do have short internet dropouts from time to time (one very recently, just a few days ago). My uptime is spotless and in the pool's dashboard everything looks alright. But in theory it should be the same binary, is it not?
I'll install custom OpenSUSE on it fairly soon, with this binary and will keep an eye on this issue to see if it happens on my system, too.

OK, I've found something not ideal with the Apollo that might be fixed with an updated software.

If you're mining, and then suddenly your connection to the internet stops working (for example you need to restart your router, etc), the connection to the pool is lost forever, it's never reconnected.

Even after the internet comes back, the miner will show the blinking lights as normal and everything would look like it's working, but there's no actual activity in the pool. This is not great since you can lose basically hours, days, or more worth of mining if you're not monitoring the pool itself.

I tried stopping the miner software, and restarting it, but still there was no activity in the pool.

Only after I restarted the host, which is a Raspberry Pi by the way, and the miner was disconnected by the reset, eventually it came back online.

I am baffled by one thing and would love to hear feedback on this.

Even though I am adding additional units (As of this morning I now have 1 full and 3 standards hashing away perfectly and effortlessly on Turbo) I noticed the pool difficulty seems to stay the same as with just one unit.

The CPU usage on the full node is amazingly low as it is appears to only be at 4% while running the full node as well as 3 standards. Which means the full node as more than enough processing power based on what I can see to run and expand on.

Is there a way to configure these so that the hashing power is combined or used together in such a way that improve the share difficulty from the pool?

For instance with my 12 x Compac F's I have total hashpower on one machine of 4.6T. Using Kano's cgminer that roughly receives a difficulty from CK's solopool is 4917.  They all show up as 1 worker.

The 4 Apollo's are pushing 12.2T but the difficulty seems to show only 2660 which I assume is just the result of a single hashboard? Could this not be combined in the gui to include the others if so?

The pool does see each unit as its own worker however it combines the hashpower under 1 name see here:
   "workername": "xxxxx.xxx",
   "hashrate1m": "13.8T",
   "hashrate5m": "12.2T",
   "hashrate1hr": "7.37T",
   "hashrate1d": "5.62T",
   "hashrate7d": "2.6T",
   "lastshare": 1653444284,
   "shares": 515238645,
   "bestshare": 272288676.814902,
   "bestever": 272288676

So my question is is the 2660 difficulty just being reported for the full board or are all boards running at a total of 2660? Or is this really getting a difficulty of 2660 x 4?

Ideas?

The power outage may be the issue here. These miners want to be shut down properly so it may be that you'll need to re-flash the SD card. There are instructions and links to image files back at the beginning of this topic.

Regarding number 2, I think if the Apollo loses connection it doesn't seem to reconnect by itself but it keeps mining locally. I remember having an issue like that one time, and just restarting the miner software solved it.

Two Issues:

1: I can't load the pool settings from the UI. The page just has a spinner.
2: Pools are inactive. The Apollo BTC is blinking red, but the pool status is inactive with no hash rate.

Background: Recently had a power outage. Seems that this behavior occurred afterwards.
Background: All other functionality seems to work with the Apollo BTC besides changing the pool and actually mining.

Any help would be appreciated!

I used this setup: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/guides/how-to-use-futurebit-apollo-bitcoin-node-miner

@Jstefanop

I am trying to install a UPS monitoring software from CyberPower, they have linux versions but I am geetting an error about architecture. Could somneone please guide me on how to install it ? Here is the link to the software download page. Thank you in advance.

https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/product/software/power-panel-personal/powerpanel-for-linux/

UPDATE 5/21/2022:
My first Standard unit came in (flawless transaction from Ognasty btw.) which was installed in under 5 minutes after a safe shutdown of the node and miner. Fired it back up and it was hashing away! So simple its almost unbelievable.

CPU use is at 4% while hashing away and running the node so there's room for more units!

I do have 3 more standards on the way and will report back on the CPU utilization when the other 3 are connected.

I'm still hopeful that we will be able to mine directly from the miners to the node which leads me to this request to be considered.


Now....

In addition to adding the "blocks found" I would like this request to also be considered.

Would love to see the ability to add / remove and block a node similar to that in Bitcoin Core. I believe this would help allow the end user to setup a distribution network (Ahem.. we have all heard about how critical this is) on the blockchain which should in fact help with fast block propagation in the event one was found.

Would also like the ability to open up and allow more connections to the full node to help with said above.

Would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this!

 ...Dr.J!!!!...my man...how are you brother and the crew there at Futurebit...keeping busy I imagine and hope...I have been basically offline and tending to other outstanding issues in real-time and well I had the 3 princes as I have come to see them shut down since early March...I needed to gauge the increase and cost of power consumption that the 3 princes were incurring for me and well yea it basically doubled my monthly bill...not surprising due to our of control inflation at this time and well therefore the cost of electricity is being passed onto the consumer...so I have a good idea of what to expect from hence on what my monthly cost in electricity charges will be....needless to say the ROI is way in the red for now and well the truth is that the plan is that what one does get to mine with the miners that in turn at some future date those mined coins will appreciate in value once Bitcoin resumes its bull run and well whatever mined coins one has in their possession will likewise appreciate in value and well that is where one will see the ROI go into the black to the moon...the point is yea right now we are all running in the red big time with well the cost of electricity, the depressed value of bitcoin, and inflation just eating away at our economies.  Well folks this is where one has to just bear out the storm or winter at this time...if you can afford the hit well then take it and actively mine at this time for what you can even if on the books it showing as a running ROI loss...remember this storm will pass and when things turn around it is when those red ROI losses will turn into ROI gains...so yea stay the course and hold onto your mined coins...Diamond Hand Style!!!... Dr. J bro...you be the leader of this very special project you have brought forth and with it an incredible team...and now well followers of yours here on this forum...yea there be the haters of course but then there be a lot of fans and yes supporters of Futurebit and yes supporters who sometimes seem to be critical but hey sometimes they are able to see something that you do not see so bear them out and see what the motivation behind what they say might be coming from...Guys yea sometimes it feels as though the store is open but nobody is minding the store...guess what someone is minding the store and yes that minder will respond to you...have faith...ok Dr. J...I know I am rambling now......let me just say thank you for the work you do and yes my 3 princes are back up and running and humming away and may they do so for a longggg time...hehehehe...a loyal fan....Tempestblack...

What's the coinbase tag used by the apollos? or is that completely set by the pool?

We are working on it, especially now that there are enough apollos mining out there should be cool to show a global stat page plus how many blocks have been found by Apollos!

@jstefanop

Good morning,

On Futurebit Apollo LTC, there is a switch in settings which give access to Api. ("api-allow"). Is there a similar feature on the interface of the Futurebit Apollo BTC?

Thanks in advance.

The 'Block Found' flag is a part of the near universally used cgminer API that Kano wrote. Now as to how much of that API is recognized by the software that the Apollo uses (not cgminer nor directly based on it) is another story. One would would think that an equivalent command exists  for it...

Actually the antminers show this information so its possible. I believe they maybe using the share size submitted and match it up to see if it exceeds the network difficulty to confirm a block was transmitted.

I don't think that's possible, unless your specific miner actually finds a block, which is really really really rare. The only useful notification would be if the pool you're mining for found a block, but your local miners won't know this.