[GUIDE] BitFury Miner Support/Tuning

[klondike_bar]

That is odd.  I use the SD card formatter 4.0 for mine. It takes two passes to get the whole 4G card with overwrite but I can then re-image it just fine.

I was having 'semaphore timeout' errors with win32diskimager in my Win7 64bit installation with 2 different (wrecked by the bitfury) SD cards and neither would format with SD CARD FORMATTER 4.0.

I loaded up my secondary Win7 32bit OS on the laptop (a Thinkpad T510) and was able to format and then image 1 SDS card. However, the second card would freeze up the formatting program around 90-100% and I got the same 'semaphore timeout' from Win32diskimager. I imagine this SD may be corrupt or damaged

[bobcaticus]

I switched to imageUSB and it works quite well.  We've noticed that there might have been a 'bad batch' of SanDisk SD cards.  If you are writing a V3 image, also make sure to use an 8GB card as the 4GB ones will not write out fully.

[spegelius]

I implemented the pool switching using API and it seems to work very well, been running @159GH/s for a few hours now.

I also tried to use BFGMiner as getwork proxy for chainminer, but for some reason BFGMiner sees most of the shares as HW errors, only few get accepted. Dunno what's with that...

I tried to tune the scan delay multiplier and shift value, but they seems to be optimal already. When i set the shift value to 0x200000 (from default 0x1200000), speed sank about 5% or so... Currently running with all chips on speed 55, which seems to be 8GH/s better than the settings i use with chainminer.

[KNK]

Thanks for the feedback.
With these values i still lose about 2% in wh errors (which are in fact software), but for me too any change makes it worse.
The problem (on my opinion) is that the driver is single thread and tries to guess when to send a new job to the chip (based on these values), which is not optimal as it also depends on the cpu load and varies with each cycle.

[GandalfG]

I am looking for an alternative to chainminer and its proxy.
Whats software are best for BFSB hardware ?  BFGminer or CGMiner, other alternatives

Do CGMiner has been running stably Bitfury?
Is formed instruction on how to run CGminer on RasperryPi?

[juhakall]

I am looking for an alternative to chainminer and its proxy.
Whats software are best for BFSB hardware ?  BFGminer or CGMiner, other alternatives

Do CGMiner has been running stably Bitfury?
Is formed instruction on how to run CGminer on RasperryPi?

BFGMiner works perfectly, I'm not sure if cgminer even has support yet.

You can use set-device to change chip clock speeds:

"set-device" : ["BSB:osc6_bits=55"] sets all chips to speed 55.

"set-device" : ["BSB:osc6_bits=55","BSB2:osc6_bits=54"] sets all chips to speed 55 and all chips in slot 2 to speed 54.

"set-device" : ["BSB:osc6_bits=55","BSB2:osc6_bits=54","BSB2aa:osc6_bits=53"] sets all chips to speed 55, all chips in slot 2 to speed 54 and a certain chip in slot 2 to speed 53.

You can mix these common/slot/chip settings arbitrarily, though it might result in a very long config line.

[GandalfG]

I am looking for an alternative to chainminer and its proxy.
Whats software are best for BFSB hardware ?  BFGminer or CGMiner, other alternatives

Do CGMiner has been running stably Bitfury?
Is formed instruction on how to run CGminer on RasperryPi?

BFGMiner works perfectly, I'm not sure if cgminer even has support yet.

You can use set-device to change chip clock speeds:

"set-device" : ["BSB:osc6_bits=55"] sets all chips to speed 55.

"set-device" : ["BSB:osc6_bits=55","BSB2:osc6_bits=54"] sets all chips to speed 55 and all chips in slot 2 to speed 54.

"set-device" : ["BSB:osc6_bits=55","BSB2:osc6_bits=54","BSB2aa:osc6_bits=53"] sets all chips to speed 55, all chips in slot 2 to speed 54 and a certain chip in slot 2 to speed 53.

You can mix these common/slot/chip settings arbitrarily, though it might result in a very long config line.

Thx for tip. Have next question

1 - BFG have failover function in pool settings ?
2 - What difference in performance between Chainminer and BFG
3 - Confirmed stability on different pool. For example chminer work unstable on Eligius for me.
4 - Where I find  complete instruction  how run BFGminer on RasperryPi ?

[kano]

I am looking for an alternative to chainminer and its proxy.
Whats software are best for BFSB hardware ?  BFGminer or CGMiner, other alternatives

Do CGMiner has been running stably Bitfury?
Is formed instruction on how to run CGminer on RasperryPi?

If you have BitFury boards, with a V1 or V2 controller, I've updated the driver in my git and it should work with either now.
https://github.com/kanoi/cgminer

I've tested it on BlackArrow hardware.
One V2 controller with 1 board, the other V2 controller with 6 boards: 3onSPI1, 2onSPI2, 1onSPI3.

Both work fine.

I, however, use Arch coz I find it more reliable on the RPi.

Getting cgminer on an RPi
http://www.kano-kun.net/?p=87

[darkfriend77]

I am looking for an alternative to chainminer and its proxy.
Whats software are best for BFSB hardware ?  BFGminer or CGMiner, other alternatives

Do CGMiner has been running stably Bitfury?
Is formed instruction on how to run CGminer on RasperryPi?

If you have BitFury boards, with a V1 or V2 controller, I've updated the driver in my git and it should work with either now.
https://github.com/kanoi/cgminer

I've tested it on BlackArrow hardware.
One V2 controller with 1 board, the other V2 controller with 6 boards: 3onSPI1, 2onSPI2, 1onSPI3.

Both work fine.

I, however, use Arch coz I find it more reliable on the RPi.

Getting cgminer on an RPi
http://www.kano-kun.net/?p=87

tempting ... is it possible to clock each chip separately?

[juhakall]

I am looking for an alternative to chainminer and its proxy.
Whats software are best for BFSB hardware ?  BFGminer or CGMiner, other alternatives

Do CGMiner has been running stably Bitfury?
Is formed instruction on how to run CGminer on RasperryPi?

BFGMiner works perfectly, I'm not sure if cgminer even has support yet.

You can use set-device to change chip clock speeds:

"set-device" : ["BSB:osc6_bits=55"] sets all chips to speed 55.

"set-device" : ["BSB:osc6_bits=55","BSB2:osc6_bits=54"] sets all chips to speed 55 and all chips in slot 2 to speed 54.

"set-device" : ["BSB:osc6_bits=55","BSB2:osc6_bits=54","BSB2aa:osc6_bits=53"] sets all chips to speed 55, all chips in slot 2 to speed 54 and a certain chip in slot 2 to speed 53.

You can mix these common/slot/chip settings arbitrarily, though it might result in a very long config line.

Thx for tip. Have next question

1 - BFG have failover function in pool settings ?
2 - What difference in performance between Chainminer and BFG
3 - Confirmed stability on different pool. For example chminer work unstable on Eligius for me.
4 - Where I find  complete instruction  how run BFGminer on RasperryPi ?

Failover support and correct behavior on all pools are the reasons you should switch from chainminer to BFGMiner. Performance should be equal. There should be compilation instructions on the README files.

[GandalfG]

I am looking for an alternative to chainminer and its proxy.
Whats software are best for BFSB hardware ?  BFGminer or CGMiner, other alternatives

Do CGMiner has been running stably Bitfury?
Is formed instruction on how to run CGminer on RasperryPi?

If you have BitFury boards, with a V1 or V2 controller, I've updated the driver in my git and it should work with either now.
https://github.com/kanoi/cgminer

I've tested it on BlackArrow hardware.
One V2 controller with 1 board, the other V2 controller with 6 boards: 3onSPI1, 2onSPI2, 1onSPI3.

Both work fine.

I, however, use Arch coz I find it more reliable on the RPi.

Getting cgminer on an RPi
http://www.kano-kun.net/?p=87

Thx Kano for link to detailed instruction. But its want work with standard Bitfury hardware. I mean M-Board and H-board from Bitfury shops.
If compile with BlackArrow support report "BlackArrowBitFuryGPIO failed to open spidev (2)"
I test it with scope today evening.

[zurg]

Anyone has an SD image for V1/V1.2 boards with something other then chainminer?

(I can host it for others.)

Kind of getting sick of hashrate drop on certain pools even after setting proxy to restart every 10min.

Thanks

[mdbssm]

Anyone has an SD image for V1/V1.2 boards with something other then chainminer?

(I can host it for others.)

Kind of getting sick of hashrate drop on certain pools even after setting proxy to restart every 10min.

Thanks

Instead of restarting the proxy, try restarting the miner every 3-4 hrs.

This has fixed weird dropouts on BTCGuild that would occur randomly once every 24-36hrs, despite proxy restarts.

Code:

0    */3       *       *       *       sudo /opt/bitfury/start-miner.sh

[klondike_bar]

anyone have the most recent image for v1.2 M-board (PCI power)? Mine is a saved image with custom speeds and its a bit outdated. I would make and save a new one but my SD card is corrupted the second i turn off or power off the unit

[jlsminingcorp]

anyone have the most recent image for v1.2 M-board (PCI power)? Mine is a saved image with custom speeds and its a bit outdated. I would make and save a new one but my SD card is corrupted the second i turn off or power off the unit

I find it a little odd that so many people get corrupted memory cards when shutting down. I''ve not seen this with any of the pis that I've used for different projects (just luck?) Do you shut down the pi by connecting via ssh and running "sudo shutdown -h now" or just switch off the power?

[kano]

I am looking for an alternative to chainminer and its proxy.
Whats software are best for BFSB hardware ?  BFGminer or CGMiner, other alternatives

Do CGMiner has been running stably Bitfury?
Is formed instruction on how to run CGminer on RasperryPi?

If you have BitFury boards, with a V1 or V2 controller, I've updated the driver in my git and it should work with either now.
https://github.com/kanoi/cgminer

I've tested it on BlackArrow hardware.
One V2 controller with 1 board, the other V2 controller with 6 boards: 3onSPI1, 2onSPI2, 1onSPI3.

Both work fine.

I, however, use Arch coz I find it more reliable on the RPi.

Getting cgminer on an RPi
http://www.kano-kun.net/?p=87

Thx Kano for link to detailed instruction. But its want work with standard Bitfury hardware. I mean M-Board and H-board from Bitfury shops.
If compile with BlackArrow support report "BlackArrowBitFuryGPIO failed to open spidev (2)"
I test it with scope today evening.

Well, device setup  and detection is done pretty much the same as chainminer.
So no idea why you'd get that error.
2 means the spi device doesn't exit - so probably modprobe failed.
Though (like chainminer) I require root privs to setup the device.

[zurg]

Anyone has an SD image for V1/V1.2 boards with something other then chainminer?

(I can host it for others.)

Kind of getting sick of hashrate drop on certain pools even after setting proxy to restart every 10min.

Thanks

Instead of restarting the proxy, try restarting the miner every 3-4 hrs.

This has fixed weird dropouts on BTCGuild that would occur randomly once every 24-36hrs, despite proxy restarts.

Code:

0    */3       *       *       *       sudo /opt/bitfury/start-miner.sh

I don't think it's a miner issue.. but on some level it could be.
The ONLY pool I haven't had this issue is Bitminter. All other pools when I set the hashrate takes a nosedive about 20-30min after I let it run.
At first I was able to run about a month on bitcoin.cz before it started doing it regularly, then switched to Bitminter.
Now I was trying to split my workload 1/2 , so 1/2 was at Bitminter still and 1/2 went to CoinEX for whatever currency.
Sometimes it works fine with no issues.. like right now.., it's been up for about 14 hours with just Proxy restart (I implemented that 2-3 days ago) at other times I check the pool and it's mining at like 3Gh/s vs. 20Gh/s+ that it should be.
Restarting the whole setup sometimes makes it stable.., but I haven't really found the spot that makes it tick.
Really hope I wont have to toy this much with my X-3's, lol.

Thanks

[Swimmer63]

I just got my new kit.  Kit #2 for me.  Have it all hooked up.
Tried to bring it up on my browser but it's not showing up.
I ssh into it to make sure the ip address is correct.  Which it is.  Also ran Advanced IP Scanner and that ip shows up as active with pi.
Rebooted a number of times.  Still won't show up.  Any thoughts?

[Slander]

I just got my new kit.  Kit #2 for me.  Have it all hooked up.
Tried to bring it up on my browser but it's not showing up.
I ssh into it to make sure the ip address is correct.  Which it is.  Also ran Advanced IP Scanner and that ip shows up as active with pi.
Rebooted a number of times.  Still won't show up.  Any thoughts?

did you set your nameserver to same as your gateway

ie

gateway 192.168.1.254
dns-nameserver 192.168.1.245

[CCCrypto]

Please help.

I bought a used Bitfury rig (original M-board) that ran without problems for the last few weeks, mining bitcoin through BTC Guild.

Tonight, while the rig was running, I changed the pool configuration to the D7 mining pool (Peercoin) to see if it would work. Instead, the noncerate immediately went to 0. I restarted the Pi, changed the pool configuration back to BTC Guild, started the miner...and nothing happened. Noncerate is 0, Bank 1 is at 0, and BTC Guild is showing 0 for my worker. Stats.log is showing 0's all the way across, except for speed (all set at 55)

Did I somehow break the rig? Did I fry the board?

Please let me know what I can do. Thanks very much.