Topic: OLD: BFGMiner 3.10.0: modular ASIC+FPGA, GBT+Strtm, RPC, Mac/Lnx/W64, AntU1, DRB - page 35. (Read 1193227 times)

Getting approximately 2.9GH/s out of the Antminer U1's is pretty impressive.

Could you tell us more about what you mean by "modified antminers" please?

Thanks.

i got it.

It look like problems with the usb3 port of my mini pc i use know the usb2 one.

Cool deal.
 

I should have tried that.  Everything is safely over on Linux boxes now, and not going back (I don't think), but if it does, I'll give that a shot.

Try using MultiMiner it usually finds and sorts your equipment a bit easier and it is a GUI front end for BFGMiner.
You can add your custom arguments for your GPU's in the advanced settings under scrypt.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/multiminer-any-miner-any-where-on-any-device-free-open-source-cross-platform-248173
It might help you identify your problem a bit easier being a GUI.

Two followups from previously posted, unrelated, problems:

1)  The Radeon 5770 that worked for graphics, but I couldn't mine (bfgminer or cgminer - error about missing some registry file), works fine as a 3rd card in one of my Linux boxes.  Clueless what was wrong in Windows, but moving on...

2)  Recall how I partially lost temperature displays on 2 of my 3 mining machines?  On both the problem machines, only the first graphics card would display a temp, the 2nd one didn't.  Except on a 3rd machine (different mobos between them, but the same Gentoo Linux build), where both of the graphics cards displayed a temp.  Well... I put the 5770 in the "good" one, and it continues to display the temp - for the first 2 cards only!    Hardly a crisis, but I do hope this problem disappears on my machines someday.

@OleOle @freddyfarnsworth @djaychela @hurricandave others ...

Many many thanks for your input re: ASICminer and ANTminer. It's all very useful feedback.

1) ASIC seller in Canberra (AU) has agreed to replace ASIC with another he has. I'll post the ASIC back to him today. Again, it'll be a used ASIC, not new. I've asked for a standard (non-modified) ASIC. I don't think he understands too well because the emails I get from him are in broken English with very poor grammar.

2) I didn't know you can 'install' drivers (or whatever) onto the actual ASIC USB device? So therefore it's possible the used ASIC device I have purchased has (modified) drivers installed on it that put it into overclock mode? Hmmm, I'll have to try and read up on this and how to remove/reset back to factory these 'driver/s' (just in case). Thanks for the heads-up.

3) Yes, I have installed the Silabs COM drivers, did that day 1 before I plugged in my ASIC for the 1st time

4) MMQ showed up when I use bfgminer 3.8.0-win32 (I tried various versions of BFGminer when I first got the ASIC in an attempt to get it working). I had no idea what MMQ meant (and I couldn't find any info on it). I didn't even know what was supposed to show on-screen as all bfgminer/ASIC instructions I found online never showed any screenshots. I'm using bfgminer 3.10.0 these days - it detects the erupter (rightly or wrongly) as BES.

5) Externally powered hubs - my goodness, what a hit n miss exercise that seems to be. I can't find the specs on my (purchased brand new Dec 2009) Compaq Presario CQ61-314TU so I've no idea about my 3 built-in USB ports. My best guess is they are USB 2.0 spec. The external 4-port USB hub I purchased (from Harvey Norman) is a 12v system ($26). It had no specs on the packaging. After unwrapping the only clue I have is the 240v to 12v power pack adapter says 1A. I don't know if that means 1 USB hub port can draw a max of 1A, or it the 1A is equally split/fixed across all 4 ports (so the max any 1 of the 4 ports can pull is 0.25A). The only way for me to tell would be to build my own USB joiner cable and insert an Ammeter in the +ve line (hey, now that's a USB cable market opportunity  Others have provided a link to a thread dedicated to discussing/recommending external hubs - I'll go and order one from there.

For some reason they are afraid to post their workers name and password, I kinda hope they use my own to mine with. My 3.5gh could use some help

make sure it is lowcase -o           not -O

I've noticed many a person use the -u username -p password

flag combo where the -O username:password flag can be used to save some room and cut command clutter

Any tips or tricks to compile the Icarus support for V3.10.0? Every time I try to compile bfgminer with Icarus support in Debian it fails to build in with the default options. After when I run ./bfgminer Icarus errors out like it's missing or something. I was just wondering if I'm doing something wrong? I have read all the readme files.

Sure, no worries:


[file path] \bfgminer-3.10.0-win32\bfgminer.exe -S antminer:all --set-device antminer:clock=x0981 -o [pool] -u [username] -p [password]


There's plenty of Antminer U1 overclocking threads on this forum but all of them seem to have different information, so it took some time for me to settle on that string above. I used some basic information from here:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/antminer-u1-bfgminer-how-to-set-up-to-mine-bitcoin-437666

But the string suggestions on that thread didn't work well with my Win7 x32 eeePC which I run my miners on, so I hunted around and on this thread used some information provided by Mudbankkeith and nwoolls (thanks guys!) to streamline the string above.

That string in the order in which it is written should in theory overclock your Antminer U1 to 2 GH/s per usb miner. There's been some issues with people trying to overclock at 2.2 GH/s however for some reason either miners cease to get recognised or hash at very low rates. I tried different strings to overcome that but it gets old fast and I really wanted to get my miners mining, so decided to settle for the 2 GH/s overclock and it's been working well for about the past week.

If for whatever reason you wanted to experiment with different hashing clock speeds, then you simply change the number after the antminer:clock= portion of the string to dial up or down the clock rate to vary the GH/s:

0581 =1.2
0681 =1.4
0781 =1.6
0881 =1.8
0981 =2.0
0A81 =2.2

I'm pretty sure that over time there will be people who discover other information about how to squeeze more hashing out of the U1's, or at least figure out how to get the 2.2 GH/s using the BFGMiner, so keep an eye on this and other Antminer overclock threads.

Oh and lastly, I mentioned earlier that the Block Erupter driver you have already works fine with the Antminer U1, so if you've downloaded from here you should be all good to go:

http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx

Hope this helps.

My two cents mfread- drivers, drivers, drivers. the very first screen shot you sent identified the miner as mmq which usually indicates an overclocked miner running Mod Miner. Nothing wrong with that, if you have the rest of the software to go along with that  ie. manually adding the bitsteams info to that folder. I prefer near default settings myself. You seem to be on the right track at getting it to mine but it is a used piece of equipment and you don't know what was installed on it. the bfgminer thread has a lot of comments in it which recommend reinstalling drivers and a few that point out more effective ways of removing straggler code of old drivers. Even the README.txt of bfgminer- FAQ- stresses Drivers ,Drivers ,Drivers when first getting started.

IIRC some people were overclocking these by using a pencil to deposit carbon/pencil lead on one of the resistors to alter its value.  It's possible it's been done by replacing a resistor using the proper tools, and then it would look no different.

My first ASICs were BE, and they 'just worked' - once I had the driver in them, they worked without issue at the stock 333MHz speed, with 0 HW errors.  As stated above, they don't need extra cooling to work (and mine ran without for months), so you shouldn't have a problem with them.

The U1s work well - again, once the driver is installed (with the standard Silicon Labs driver, not using the Zadig nightmare), they work well.  If I were you, I would use nwools' excellent MultiMiner to control bfgminer as it makes life a lot easier; you can add your scanning command line to find the miners, and then do all your setup from there.  Much easier (to my mind) than using lots of config files.

bfgminer.exe -o stratum+tcp://mint.bitminter.com:3333 -u freddyfarnsworth_1 -p x -S antminer:all --set-device antminer:clock=x0881

with cheapo USB 2.0 powered hub by itself x0981 will give a steady 2gh but cannot use anything else on the cheapo 2a p/s it comes with.

x0881 will run with one erupter along side, with no speed setting specified two usb asic miners and a ant will getalong on the 8 dollar 10port hub.

No more than three at stock settings for the cheapo hub.

Good USB 2.0 hubs.. skys the limit, with tweaking the P/S you can do much more.

Since USB miners do not use any watts, 40 of em = a 100watt lightbulb, biggest user of power is the P/S itself.

So use amps to figure out the needed p/s give each device 1a to be sure you have enuf.

5v 5a p/s would do 5 miners at any clock speed the device can handle. These do not really adhere to USB specs they go over and is why so many people have issues.

USB miners also communicate with the USB 1.1 and 2.0 spec.. usb 30 does not all comply and is why some have issues and some do not.

The 3.0 hub is the "easy" way out as the p/s are bigger, USB was never designed to pull 5a on a hub so good ones usb 20 are very hard to find.
12v 5a are dime a dozen but usb 2.0 hubs cannot use them.

Is also why older computers have less issues with these, newer computers do not even have full usb 2.0 compliance anymore, all the ports are 3.0 cept high end MB's.

good luck, a lot to learn.

@OleOle - Have requested a replacement (one that hasn't been used in an overclocked setup) or refund from eBay seller (klugdogg).

I have no idea how an ASIC is overclocked. With regard to your comment about resisters, I see no solder joints or extra resisters etc on my ASIC. Like you I am quite happy to run at out-of-the-box speed.

I have ordered an ANTminer U1 (A$63 inc postage). Would you mind sharing your ANTminer BFGminer 3.10.0 setup string with me? That might save me some time when I get mine.

Cheers,
Mark

PS/ I'll update everyone with regard to eBay seller klugdogg when I hear back from him. He just may be someone you want to avoid re: ASICs

Hi Mark,

Yeah, I'd be insisting on a replacement or a refund, for sure and if you don't get any satisfaction, then contact Ebay or even Paypal if you used them, it doesn't do new miners any good if people are selling substandard products as it can be tricky enough getting everything set up initially so the last thing you need is grief from the ASICS.

I've never tried to overclock a Block Erupter although there are threads I have seen on this forum where people discuss the matter and some people, allegedly, seem to have had success. I can't comment on that but I do recall reading that some people were of the belief that new resistors needed to be soldered in to increase the hashing above the 334 MH/s stock speed.

All that seems too hit-or-miss for me, so I've never bothered with that figuring that if you buy three standard Erupters they will run far safer at 1 GH/s and I'd assume, more efficiently than one overclocked one at 433 MH/s, but rather than buying a few Erupters for $100, consider buying an Antminer U1. I use BFGMiner 3.10.0 and the same driver you use for the Erupter and mine are chirping away at 1.8 GH/s each. Stock hashing is 1.6 GH/s and they can be software overclocked (no soldering or messing around!) to supposedly 2.2 GH/s although I find they tend to 'settle down' to 1.8 GH/s each.  

I bought ten from a guy in WA on Ebay from $60 each but I think you can buy singles from around $75 from Australian based sellers. You can buy them for a little less from Chinese based sellers but I'd really caution you against doing that as they take an eternity to get here, it's the 'slow boat from China' and if they don't arrive and you ask for a refund or replacement, they kindly ask you to wait another week or ten days just to see if they show up, so it's well worth the extra few dollars getting them promptly from Oz.

Anyway, good luck with it all!

Cheers!

Thanks @OleOle

1) I have tried with a powered USB 2.0 4-port hub. Makes no difference.

2) I did buy from a reputable seller on eBay. He lives in Canberra. Cost was A$40 (inc postage).

3) The seller said he has dozens of these units and has been running them overclocked. I will send it back to him and insist on another one.

4) I was also under the impression that a fan wasn't necessary (unless you want to overclock these puppies). Glad you have confirmed this for me.

5) Yep, I've wasted hours on this friggin' thing. Doesn't help when your relatively new to mining, and ASIC's in particular. I didn't know what I was looking for specifically.

Cheers mate.
Mark

Hi mate, if you look along the line where your miner is identified beginning with "BES 0 ......." right to the end, the last part is "HW:603/ 83%" - that's the Hard Ware error rate at 83%, insanely high for the usually well-manufactured Block Erupters.

I have a friend who threw a Block Erupter into the back of his ancient desktop and after uploading the driver the Erupter runs fine at the stock speed of about 334MH/s and the reason I'm saying that is, like others who've commented above, I think your "overclocked" Erupter is "verydamaged" and if it was me I'd take hammer to it as I'd suspect you're wasting your time with it.

There's plenty of good Aussie sellers on ebay.com.au and I'm sure you could pick up an Erupter for about thirty bucks. So don't waste any more time with it, get a couple of miners from different sellers and test them out on your pc as I think you'll find that you don't need the fan as although the Erupters run hot, they do so without many hardware errors. I've bought 22 Erupters from around the world, they travel well are usually very well-manufactured and run with exceedingly low hardware error rates. And among other miners, I'm running ten Erupters without any cooling near a west facing window in Sydney and my highest HW error rate of an Erupter is 0.75%, less than 1% and it's been running under these pretty harsh Sydney summer conditions for over five months. So save yourself the grief, buy from someone with a good reputation on ebay, buy from Oz to keep postage down and get your hammer ready for that "verydamaged" Erupter that's giving you the hassle.

If you don't want to do that, then like folks have said, you need to try to give it more power so buy a powered hub checking on this list first:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/which-usb-hub-to-use-with-block-erupters-nanofury-nf1-bpmc-red-fury-ant-u1-253749

My other comment would be to try a different pool, try BTC Guild or another larger pool that you know is definitely working at full efficiency as if you've got any weird latency with your pool or even your ISP, that's not going to help either.

That's my two cents anyway.

Good luck with it.

It looks like you need a powered hub.
The ports on those systems are not the most robust power wise.
That should take care of your hardware errors if the ASIC is ok.

@Cassey, not sure what you mean. I'm relatively new to mining - and this is my first ASIC install.

I'm using bfgminer-3.10.0-win32 with these params:

rem As of bfgminer 3.8.X you no longer need to specify the –icarus-options or the –icarus-timing
bfgminer -o stratum+tcp://de1.miningpool.co:10701 -u mfread.asic1 -p x -S erupter:all