Avalonminer 821 / 841 / 861 / 7xx Setup Tutorial and Troubleshooting Guide

Avalon 8xx / 7xx Setup Tutorial and Troubleshooting Guide

This guide explains on how to setup your Avalonminer Set from Cryptouniverse. This guide was written for the Avalon 8xx Series but also applies to previous generations of avalonminers except that you need a different firmware on your controller. Please make sure to read this guide completely before opening a support ticket regarding technical questions or setup instructions.

Inside of the package which you receive from us you should find:

1 Avalonminer + 1 Avalonminer-Controller + 1 Power supply

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To setup your miner you will need the following additional items:

1 Powercord for the powersupply to connect it to your wall-plug

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Micro usb power supply for the Controller. Make sure it’s atleast a 5V 2A or 5V 2.5A Powersupply, otherwise your controller may not boot ! We recommend this product:  Power Supply 5V

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Setup – Getting the Controller Ready

 

1. Getting the controller ready

Our Controller comes pre-installed with the latest firmware (Software). Please note, you can not run  different generations of Avalonminers with the same controller since it requires different software on the controller. For instance, you can not connect a Avalon 8xx and a Avalon 7xx to the same controller. Each generation needs a controller with the correct firmware.

If you have purchased a set with the correct controller from us, then you can now start to configure your controller.

1.1 Connect the controller to Power and Network

Before you connect the controller to power and ethernet, make sure that your computers network (Ethernet adapter) is configured to a 192.168.0.XXX IP-Range. The standard ip of the controller is 192.168.0.100 – That means if your computer’s ip network is different, you won’t be able to connect to the controller.

On windows all you need to do is go to Control panel – Network and Sharing Center – change adapter settings – Ethernet adapter – Change ipV4 settings

and set the ip to any 192.168.0.xxx  ( I did chose 192.168.0.24)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please click pictures for bigger versions.

You can also connect the controller directly to your router, but many routers don’t operate on the 192.168.0.xxx network by default. Please make sure to check your routers ip settings before you try this method. The method above should ALWAYS work, when you have configure your ethernet adapter correctly. If you don’t know which ip-range is used on your home network, you can run CMD and type the command ipconfig/all  this will list you your routers/homenetwork ip range under “gateway”. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.2 Connect to your Controller

Now your controller should be either connected directly to your pc with an ethernet cable or to your router. In both cases make sure your computer / Network is operating on the 192.168.0.xxx subnet. Also make sure your controller is powered by a power supply that has atleast 2A output at 5V.

Open your favourite web browser  and enter the ip :  192.168.0.100 

 

You should be welcomed by the Avalonproject Screen.  There is initially no password, so you can enter after click Login Overview screen.

 

 

1.3 The Dashboard

What you see now is the dashboard and this gives you an overview over your miner. The current speed it’s running at, temperature, fanspeed and much more. Before you can start mining, you need to enter your pool details.  You can click Configuration to configure your miners and see your pool information. In the context of cryptocurrency mining, a mining pool is the pooling of resources by miners, who share their processing power over a network, to split the reward equally, according to the amount of work they contributed to the probability of finding a block. A “share” is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid partial proof-of-work. Mining in pools began when the difficulty for mining increased to the point where it could take years for slower miners to generate a block. The solution to this problem was for miners to pool their resources so they could generate blocks more quickly and therefore receive a portion of the block reward on a consistent basis, rather than randomly once every few years.

If you don’t have a pool yet, we can recommend slushpool : Slushpool

1.4 Pool configuration

Get the pool details from your pool of choice. Usually you will find it in the dashboard of the pool (website). You will need the Pools IP-Adress, the worker name and the password. Usually the password is x or anything you want like 123 (mostly not blank). Make sure you click at custom in the dropdown and enter your pool details. You can add up to 3 pools (backup if #1 is down). Make sure to hit save and apply after you are done.

 

1.5 Network configuration

If you need to change the network settings for the controller, click on Network to configure, click Save & Apply, and then power down your unit, and manually restart the controller. We recommend to keep it on the default settings, but this depends on your network. Sometimes for some networks we have seen that people have issues with the network if they set it to a static ip. If your home network supports DHCP, It can be a solution to set your controller to DHCP. However then it will get the IP-Adress from your router and you can’t connect anymore using the 192.168.0.XXX IP. Please change these settings with care and think before you touch anything here.

 

After the configuration, change your computer back to the automatic IP address acquisition and make sure all ip settings are correct. If the ip settings are correct, the controller should be able to connect to the internet without a problem.

1.6 Advanced Configuration

The controller also allows changing advanced configurations which are supported by the openWRT image. However we do NOT RECOMMEND to change any of these settings. Here you can restart the CGminer app, check the CGminer log, configure WIFI (not recommended) and change network routings (not recommended)

 

The Setup – Connecting the Miner

After you have successfully configured the controller, you can start to hookup your miner to you controller. Make sure you have your Miner, the powersupply, a powercord and the controller with Internet connection ready.

2.1  Connect the Controller to AUC3 Adapter

Inside of the box of your controller you should find a micro usb cable. Use it to connect the regular sized usb port of your controller to the micro usb port of the AUC3 Adapter which should be in the box of your controller as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.2  Connect the AUC3 Adapter to the Miner

Use the AUC3 Cable to connect the AUC3 Adapter to the left port located on the backside of your miner. One controller can control up to 20 miners (5 with each single AUC3 Adapter). You can chain the miners by connecting the first miner which is connected to the AUC3 to the next miner. Then you connect the second miner with an AUC3 cable to the third and that continues until you have 5 miners in a row. Make sure you connect always the right port of the previous miner to the left port of the next miner using an AUC3 cable.

 

Remember You do not need 1 AUC3 for each miner.  The maximum miners per controller are 20. You can not mix generations. Maximum 5 Miners per AUC3 Adapter.

 

 

2.2  Connect the Miner to the Powersupply

We recommend using an original Canaan.io Power supply. However sometimes they are out of stock. If we do not have them in stock, you can also purchase our compatible HP-Power Supply Kits which contain 2 750W PSU’s.

The AvalonMiner 721 needs 1000-1200 watts of power to operate. The AvalonMiner 821 needs 1200W+ And, that could all come from one power supply unit, or be split into a left power supply unit and a right separate power supply unit of equal wattage ideally. So if you have a two 600+ watt power supplies (keep in mind you should have headroom), you could connect it’s four 6-pin power connectors to the left four AvalonMiner four 6-pin power connectors and the second power supplies’s four 6-pin power connectors to the right four AvalonMiner four 6-pin power connectors and the AvalonMiner  should operate effectively.

Connecting the Powersupply to the miner is simple. The avalon 6 needs 4 6pin cables, the Avalon 7 series needs 6 6-Pin cables and the new Avalon 8 series needs 8 6pin cables. Please make sure your powersupply has enough 6-Pin connectors for your miner. All our Avalon PSU’s or Kits come with 8 6-Pin Cables, so no worries.

Simply connect the 6-Pin cables to the power ports located on the backside of the Avalonminer. They should snap-in and only fit one way.

 

Connect a C13 power cord first to the power supply unit and then to the wall socket. Make sure that the power switch in the power supply unit is turned on.

2.3  Starting up the Miner

Turn on the Powersupply (extra switch) and plug in the Controller. Make sure Everything is connected as explained above. Now the miner should first light up in green / yellow and do a fantest (You will hear the fan spinning). If it doesn’t spin up, check the psu switch and all connections.  The miner should now start mining if the pool details are correct and the controller has a working internet connection.  The AUC3 Adapter should go from a red/blue state into a green state which indicated everything is working. Also the LED on the back of the miner should turn blue (means it is working).

When operating your AvalonMiner 741 (or A721), you need to connect your AvalonMiner Controller to your AvalonMiner 741 (or 721) from micro-USB cable to AUC3, and then plug in an I2C cable from the AUC3 to your AvalonMiner 741 (or 721). There is a different colored LED light that shows different status of the AUC3. The blue LED means the AUC3 is working normally. When AUC3 receives power, the LED becomes green. Later when the machine is operating at a normal state, the LED turns blue.

 

Videoguide / Tutorial for Avalon 8xx Series

Also make sure to have a look at our videoguide if you are stuck using this written guide.

 

Troubleshooting – LED Colors & Error Codes

If anything isn’t working as it should, please have a look at the LED’s and error codes shown here. They give you an indication on what could be wrong with your setup.

Avalonminer LED Colors

 
LED Status MEMO
White Power on
Blue Working normally
Yellow Idle normally
Green Detect fan and mcu
White blinking Turn on LED manually
Red blinking Toohot/Loopback failed/PG failed/Coretest failed/Voltage error/Temperature sensor error/No fan

AUC3 Adapter LED Colors

 
LED Status MEMO
Blue Initializing or Idle normally
Green Working normally
Red Communication failed

 

ERROR CODES (Logfile advanced settings)

 

CODE NAME TYPE MEMO What to do
1 CODE_IDLE WARN Idle Check if the network is ok or AUC work normally
2 CODE_MMCRCFAILED WARN IIC rx irc mismatch was found Ignore it please, If CGMiner is restart, It will be ok.
4 CODE_NOFAN FATAL Fan cann’t be found Check the fan connection
8 CODE_LOCK WARN Reserved Ask for unlock service
16 CODE_APIFIFOOVERFLOW WARN API fifo overflow flag It’s just a notice on api fifo
32 CODE_RBOVERFLOW WARN Nonce ringbuffer overflow Ignore it please, If CGMiner is restart, It will be ok.
64 CODE_TOOHOT FATAL The modular or mm board is too hot Check the fan or replace the too hot module
128 CODE_HOTBEFORE WARN Toohot was found on MM It’s just a notice for too hot modular
256 CODE_LOOPFAILED FATAL loopback test failed The led will turn to red. Ignore it if hashrate is not so bad.
512 CODE_CORETESTFAILED WARN Core test failed Ignore it if hashrate is not so bad
1024 CODE_INVALIDPMU FATAL Invalid pmu firmware version or pmu is broken Replace a new pmu
2048 CODE_PGFAILED FATAL Power not good Check the PMU
4096 CODE_NTC_ERR FATAL Temperature sensor check failed Replace the module which the code was found on.
8192 CODE_VOL_ERR FATAL Voltage input sensor check failed Replace the module which the code was found on.
16384 CODE_VCORE_ERR FATAL Voltage output sensor check failed Replace the module which the code was found on.
32768 CODE_PMUCRCFAILED WARN It’s just a notice Ignore it please
65536 CODE_INVALID_PLL_VALUE WARN PLL configration check failed Reboot the modular, if not good then try to replace the module.
131072 CODE_HUFAILED WARN HU configration check failed Reboot the modular, if not good then try to replace the HU.

 

Troubleshooting – Common Problems

This list of problems will be updated from time to time as we receive tickets with common issues.

The Controller doesn’t save the settings.

In order to save the settings you need to set a password and hit save and apply and save. If you didn’t set a password, it’s probably not saving anything and loses data upon reboot. Also make sure you have the latest firmware on your controller since older firmwares had issues with saving data.

The Miner stays idle.

Make sure to double check your pool settings and connections. If the miner stays yellow and the AUC3 blue then everything from the hardware side is fine. That indicates wrong network configuration or wrong pool settings. Check your ip settings and try to switch your controller to DHCP.

There is only 1 AUC3 included.

We only include 1 AUC3 per Miner. If you need more you can order them from our shop.

Can i use my own powersupply ?

Yes you can, but make sure it delivers enough power, has good efficiency and also enough 6-Pin connectors !

Can i build my own controller ?

Yes you can, but we don’t recommend it since we got alot of support requests from people with selfmade controllers and broken settings or controllers.

My Controller is not working.

Make sure that you are using a 5V powersupply with atleast 2A. We recommend using the original 2.5A power supply.  If you have flashed the controller on your own, make sure you have flashed the correct image for your raspberry pi controller model. A Rpi 2 image will not work on the Rpi 3.

I can’t connect to my controller.

Make sure you have set the ip to a 192.168.0.xxx range on your computers ethernet adapter.  If your controller is connected to your router, make sure that your home network uses 192.168.0.xxx.

My AUC3 adapter flashes Red sometimes.

That’s completely normal and indicates a bad share. If it doesn’t happen all the time, it’s okay. Make sure your internet connection is stable !

How do i update the miner’s firmware ?

Updating the miners firmware is not needed. It won’t improve your hashrate and is only recommended if there is a special update released. However if you feel that you need to update your firmware, here is a guide: https://canaan.io/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Upgrade-Guide.pdf

But remember, no warranty for broken firmware updates ! Use with care !

In the Controller Dashboard, what does the Voltage Offset option do?

We added a Voltage Offset option for users because each AvalonMiner is different with each other because of the inclusion of so many high performance chips. The AvalonMiners are very sensitive with voltage, so the “Voltage Offset” option is used for tweaking the AvalonMiner’s voltage. If the miner works well, we suggest to not change the voltage.
And, the lower voltage offset, the lower power. So if the miner works well with -2, it just means the miner has better health. +2 usually doesn’t improve hashrate, it will mostly just slightly increase hashrate and increase power consumption alot.

It seems like my miner is running hot ?

No worries if you see temperatures up to 90° celsius. The miners can get really hot, that’s why they have those huge fans in the front.  To keep your miners healthy you should make sure to keep your miner within the optimum temperature region. The optimum air inktake for an AvalonMiner 721 is -5C ~ 40C. That means that if you run many AvalonMiner 721 together or in a room, the air temperature should be between this limit. Ideally, your datacenter’s goal is to run your AvalonMiner in parallel as cool as possible. That means, when running a datacenter you need to pay special attention to running your datacenter as cool as possible.

 

Reflashing the Controller (by HagssFIN)

*Disclaimer* Always make sure to flash the correct image for your raspberry and miner , we are not responsible for broken controllers */Disclaimer*

You can build one yourself by using a Raspberry Pi 3 and other supplies.

So in this next part I’m gonna show you how to build a controller by myself,
using a Raspberry Pi 3 single-board computer and some other supplies.

 

Here are the instructions for doing the controller setup from scratch.

Instructions:

1.
AvalonMiner Controller’s firmware supports the following types of Raspberry Pi single-board computer:
– AvalonMiner Controller (Canaan Creative)
– Raspberry Pi 1 Model B
– Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+
– Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
– Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

2.
A minimum capacity of 4GB memory card is required.
There is no requirement for brands, speed rating is recommended for Class 10.
(Please be select type of memory card based upon your selected Raspberry Pi model)

-Raspberry Pi 1 Model B and Model B+ using a SD card
-Raspberry Pi 2 Model B using a Micro SD card
-Raspberry Pi 3 Model B using a Micro SD card
-AvalonMiner Controller using a Micro SD card

3.
We need a SD card reader.
When you buy a Micro SD card, you want to make sure it comes with a SD card adapter.

Micro SD card with a SD card adapter. Click for a bigger version. Picture taken by HagssFIN.

Put your memory card to the SD card reader.

Integrated SD card reader in my PC case front panel. Click for a bigger version. Picture taken by HagssFIN.

4.
Depending on your Raspberry Pi model, select and download the firmware version.
Raspberry Pi 1 Model B Firmware:
https://canaan.io/downloads/software/avalon821/openwrt/latest/rpi1-modelb/openwrt-brcm2708-bcm2708-rpi-ext4-sdcard.img
Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Firmware:
https://canaan.io/downloads/software/avalon821/openwrt/latest/rpi2-modelb/openwrt-brcm2708-bcm2709-rpi-2-ext4-sdcard.img
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Firmware:
https://canaan.io/downloads/software/avalon821/openwrt/latest/rpi3-modelb/openwrt-brcm2708-bcm2710-rpi-3-ext4-sdcard.img

5.
Install a tool for writing a image to SD card, if you don’t have one installed already.
Win32 Disk Imager: https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

It’s may needed to FORMAT your SD before you can use it. You can do that in the disk imaging tool of windows.

6.
Open the tool software and select your SD card reader device letter.

Click for a bigger version.

7.
First click the folder icon.
Then locate and select your downloaded Openwrt firmware for the Raspberry Pi.

Click for a bigger version.

8.
Click Write, and then click Yes, to start writing your image.

Click for a bigger version.

9.
Wait for the process to complete.

Click for a bigger version.

10.
When the following message is displayed, your program was successfully written.

Click for a bigger version.

Click ok and exit.

If you followed these steps successfully, your controller is initially completed.

Full Guide here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2937129

 

We will keep this guide updated from time to time, if anything is missing, please contact us.

15 COMMENTS

    Thank you this guide is simple and very helpful. Before reaching this page i could not set up my miner and I made mistakes ind settings.

    Thank you its so simple and easy. But before reaching this page I made mistakes in setting my miner. Iam first time miner and while setting controller i made mistake of selecting DHCP in network settings as you said know iam not able to open 192.168.0.100 what to do know and i want to reset all my settings and start newly.

    Have a question. I believe i have a faulty PMU board for a 741. Will the PMU from 621 work? I have several 621 laying around

    one question, are USB Miner GekkoScience 2Pac new or used?

      They are new 🙂

    I bought an avalon miner and controller from you guys recently. However I’m not able to launch the avalonproject screen when typing 192.168.0.100 in the browser

    I connected the raspberry pi to the 5v adapter which you provided, and connected the device with my laptop via an ethernet cable. I changed my ethernet ip settings as you described but it doesn’t seem to be working.

    Any help please?

    Thanks

      Hi, If it was a refurbished controller its possible that the standard IP is different.

      Please reflash the controller firmware to reset it 🙂

    I wold like to buy Avalon miner and controller from you guys? How long will the controllers be out of stock?

      We have refurbished controllers in Stock. Working like new ones 🙂

    Hi
    I have avalon 920 p(19th) if possible tel me why frequently (every 3 -5 minutes) Avalonminer LED Color turns red and after 1 minute turns blue.

      Could be an overhead problem – whats temsp do you get?

        yes I check it and it over heated, that I made a place cooler but main probem is over minig, in normal condition TH go to 20800GH, If poosible tell me how can I make limit for TH?
        thanks

    HI
    I flash rasberry and after 2 hours rasberry dont boot and I cannot coonnect to it, please help, how can I restart rosberry, thanks

    I have a Avalon 921 20 th . It keeps loosing t0 and t2 line of chips then I turn it off move the wires around it comes up to 20th then drops back down to 10500 what is the problem please

      You could try another power supply, sound like your power supply is probably too weak for the miner. For this machine you should at least use a 2500Watt+ PSU. regards

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