SUPPORTED DEVICES Currently supported devices include: - Avalon (including BitBurner and Klondike) - Butterfly Labs SC range - ASICMINER block erupters - BF1 (bitfury) USB (red and blue) - KnCminer Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter - BlackArrow Bitfury - BlackArrow Minion - Bi*fury USB - Onestring miner USB - Hexfury USB - Nanofury USB - Other bitfury USB devices - Hashfast Babyjet and Sierra - Antminer U1/U2/U2+ USB - Cointerra - Antminer S1 - BFx2 USB No COM ports on windows or TTY devices will be used by cgminer as it communicates directly with them via USB so it is normal for them to not exist or be disconnected when cgminer is running. The BFL devices should come up as one of the following: BAJ: BFL ASIC Jalapeño BAL: BFL ASIC Little Single BAS: BFL ASIC Single BAM: BFL ASIC Minirig BFL devices need the --enable-bflsc option when compiling cgminer yourself. Avalon will come up as AVA. Avalon devices need the --enable-avalon option when compiling cgminer. Klondike will come up as KLN. Klondike devices need the --enable-klondike option when compiling cgminer. ASICMINER block erupters will come up as AMU. ASICMINER devices need the --enable-icarus option when compiling cgminer. Also note that the AMU is managed by the Icarus driver which is detailed in the FPGA-README. Configuring them uses the same mechanism as outlined below for getting started with USB ASICs. BlackArrow Bitfury devices BlackArrow Bitfury devices need the --enable-bab option when compiling cgminer. The current BlackArrow Bitfury devices are similar to the Bitfury GPIO mining boards, with both V1 and V2 controllers, and come up as BaB. BlackArrow Minion devices BlackArrow Minion devices need the --enable-minion option when compiling cgminer. BlackArrow Minion devices are SPI/GPIO mining devices and come up as MBA BITFURY devices Bitfury devices need the --enable-bitfury option when compiling cgminer. Currently the BPMC/BGMC BF1 devices AKA redfury/bluefury are supported and come up as BF1, along with the Bi*fury USB devices which come up as BXF. Nanofury devices come up as NF1. BFx2 devices come up as BXM. Bitfury USB devices are also set up as per the USB ASICs below. COINTERRA devices Cointerra devices need the --enable-cointerra option when compiling cgminer. Cointerra devices come up as CTA devices and currently take no command line arguments. Cointerra USB devices are set up as per the USB ASIC instructions below. HASHFAST devices Hashfast devices need the --enable-hashfast option when compiling cgminer. All current HFA devices are supported and are recognised with the name HFA in the --usb commands. After initialisation, cgminer will determine what type they are and give them the following names: HFB: Hashfast Babyjet HFS: Hashfast Sierra HFA: Hashfast non standard (eg. a Babyjet with an added board) ANTMINER U1 devices Antminer devices need the --enable-icarus option when compiling cgminer. Currently the U1 USB sticks are supported and come up as ANU devices. They are also set up as per the USB ASICs below. They need no options to work well but will accept all the icarus options. ANTMINER S1 devices Antminer S1 devices need the --enable-ants1 option when compiling cgminer. They are custom OpenWRT linux devices They are recognised with the name ANT BITMINE A1 devices Bitmine A1 devices need the --enable-bitmine_A1 compile option set. --- GETTING STARTED WITH USB ASICS Unlike other software, cgminer uses direct USB communication instead of the ancient serial USB communication to be much faster, more reliable and use a lot less CPU. For this reason, setting up for mining with cgminer on these devices requires different drivers. WINDOWS: On windows, the direct USB support requires the installation of a WinUSB driver (NOT the ftdi_sio driver), and attach it to the chosen USB device. When configuring your device, plug it in and wait for windows to attempt to install a driver on its own. It may think it has succeeded or failed but wait for it to finish regardless. This is NOT the driver you want installed. At this point you need to associate your device with the WinUSB driver. The easiest way to do this is to use the zadig utility which you must right click on and run as administrator. Then once you plug in your device you can choose the "list all devices" from the "option" menu and you should be able to see the device as something like: "BitFORCE SHA256 SC". Choose the install or replace driver option and select WinUSB. You can either google for zadig or download it from the cgminer directory in the DOWNLOADS link above. When you first switch a device over to WinUSB with zadig and it shows that correctly on the left of the zadig window, but it still gives permission errors, you may need to unplug the USB miner and then plug it back in. Some users may need to reboot at this point. LINUX: On linux, the direct USB support requires no drivers at all. However due to permissions issues, you may not be able to mine directly on the devices as a regular user without giving the user access to the device or by mining as root (administrator). In order to give your regular user access, you can make him a member of the plugdev group with the following commands: sudo usermod -G plugdev -a `whoami` If your distribution does not have the plugdev group you can create it with: sudo groupadd plugdev In order for the BFL devices to instantly be owned by the plugdev group and accessible by anyone from the plugdev group you can copy the file "01-cgminer.rules" from the cgminer archive into the /etc/udev/rules.d directory with the following command: sudo cp 01-cgminer.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/ After this you can either manually restart udev and re-login, or more easily just reboot. OSX: On OSX, like Linux, no drivers need to be installed. However some devices like the bitfury USB sticks automatically load a driver thinking they're a modem and the driver needs to be unloaded for cgminer to work: sudo kextunload -b com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC sudo kextunload -b com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDCACMData There may be a limit to the number of USB devices that you are allowed to start. The following set of commands, followed by a reboot will increase that: sudo su touch /etc/sysctl.conf echo kern.sysv.semume=100 >> /etc/sysctl.conf chown root:wheel /etc/sysctl.conf chmod 0644 /etc/sysctl.conf Some devices need superuser access to mine on them so cgminer may need to be started with sudo i.e.: sudo cgminer --- ASIC SPECIFIC COMMANDS --anu-freq Set AntminerU1 frequency in MHz, range 150-500 (default: 200) --avalon-auto Adjust avalon overclock frequency dynamically for best hashrate --avalon-cutoff Set avalon overheat cut off temperature (default: 60) --avalon-fan Set fanspeed percentage for avalon, single value or range (default: 20-100) --avalon-freq Set frequency range for avalon-auto, single value or range --avalon-options Set avalon options baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq:tech --avalon-temp Set avalon target temperature (default: 50) --bab-options Set BaB options max:def:min:up:down:hz:delay:trf --bflsc-overheat Set overheat temperature where BFLSC devices throttle, 0 to disable (default: 90) --bitburner-fury-options Override avalon-options for BitBurner Fury boards baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq --bitburner-fury-voltage Set BitBurner Fury core voltage, in millivolts --bitburner-voltage Set BitBurner (Avalon) core voltage, in millivolts --bitmain-auto Adjust bitmain overclock frequency dynamically for best hashrate --bitmain-cutoff Set bitmain overheat cut off temperature --bitmain-fan Set fanspeed percentage for bitmain, single value or range (default: 20-100) --bitmain-freq Set frequency range for bitmain-auto, single value or range --bitmain-hwerror Set bitmain device detect hardware error --bitmain-options Set bitmain options baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq --bitmain-temp Set bitmain target temperature --bxf-bits Set max BXF/HXF bits for overclocking (default: 54) --bxf-temp-target Set target temperature for BXF/HXF devices (default: 82) --bxm-bits Set BXM bits for overclocking (default: 54) --hfa-hash-clock Set hashfast clock speed (default: 550) --hfa-fail-drop Set how many MHz to drop clockspeed each failure on an overlocked hashfast device (default: 10) --hfa-fan Set fanspeed percentage for hashfast, single value or range (default: 10-85) --hfa-name Set a unique name for a single hashfast device specified with --usb or the first device found --hfa-noshed Disable hashfast dynamic core disabling feature --hfa-options Set hashfast options name:clock (comma separated) --hfa-temp-overheat Set the hashfast overheat throttling temperature (default: 95) --hfa-temp-target Set the hashfast target temperature (0 to disable) (default: 88) --klondike-options Set klondike options clock:temptarget --minion-chipreport Seconds to report chip 5min hashrate, range 0-100 (default: 0=disabled) --minion-freq Set minion chip frequencies in MHz, single value or comma list, range 100-1400 (default: 1000) --minion-idlecount Report when IdleCount is >0 or changes --minion-overheat Enable directly halting any chip when the status exceeds 100C --minion-temp Set minion chip temperature threshold, single value or comma list, range 120-160 (default: 135C) --nfu-bits Set nanofury bits for overclocking, range 32-63 (default: 50) ANTMINER S1 DEVICES --bitmain-auto Adjust bitmain overclock frequency dynamically for best hashrate --bitmain-cutoff Set bitmain overheat cut off temperature --bitmain-fan Set fanspeed percentage for bitmain, single value or range (default: 20-100) --bitmain-freq Set frequency range for bitmain-auto, single value or range --bitmain-hwerror Set bitmain device detect hardware error --bitmain-options Set bitmain options baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq --bitmain-temp Set bitmain target temperature The Antminer S1 device comes with it's own operating system and a preinstalled version of cgminer as part of the flash firmware. No configuration should be necessary. ANTMINER U1 DEVICES --anu-freq Set AntminerU1 frequency in MHz, range 150-500 (default: 200) By default, Antminer U1 devices run at a clockspeed of 200. This command allows you to specify a chosen frequency to attempt to run all ANU devices at. Cgminer will try to find the nearest frequency the device supports and will report if the frequency is not exactly as requested. Note that cgminer reports hashrate ONLY FROM VALID HASHES so if you increase the frequency but your hashrate does not increase or it decreases and hardware errors start showing up, you have overclocked it too much. In the worst case scenario it will fail to start at too high a speed. Most will run happily up to 250. AVALON AND BITBURNER DEVICES Currently all known Avalon devices come with their own operating system and a preinstalled version of cgminer as part of the flash firmware, based on the most current cgminer version so no configuration should be necessary. It is possible to plug a USB cable from a PC into the Avalon device and mine using cgminer as per any other device. It will autodetect and hotplug using default options. You can customise the avalon behaviour by using the avalon-options command, and adjust its fan control-temperature relationship with avalon-temp. By default the avalon will also cut off when its temperature reaches 60 degrees. All current BitBurner devices (BitBurner X, BitBurner XX and BitBurner Fury) emulate Avalon devices, whether or not they use Avalon chips. Avalon commands: --avalon-auto Adjust avalon overclock frequency dynamically for best hashrate --avalon-cutoff Set avalon overheat cut off temperature (default: 60) --avalon-fan Set fanspeed percentage for avalon, single value or range (default: 20-100) --avalon-freq Set frequency range for avalon-auto, single value or range --avalon-options Set avalon options baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq:tech --avalon-temp Set avalon target temperature (default: 50) --bitburner-fury-options Override avalon-options for BitBurner Fury boards baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq --bitburner-fury-voltage Set BitBurner Fury core voltage, in millivolts --bitburner-voltage Set BitBurner (Avalon) core voltage, in millivolts Avalon auto will enable dynamic overclocking gradually increasing and decreasing the frequency till the highest hashrate that keeps hardware errors under 2% is achieved. This WILL run your avalon beyond its normal specification so the usual warnings apply. When avalon-auto is enabled, the avalon-options for frequency and timeout are used as the starting point only. eg: --avalon-fan 50 --avalon-fan 40-80 By default the avalon fans will be adjusted to maintain a target temperature over a range from 20 to 100% fanspeed. avalon-fan allows you to limit the range of fanspeeds to a single value or a range of values. eg: --avalon-freq 300-350 In combination with the avalon-auto command, the avalon-freq command allows you to limit the range of frequencies which auto will adjust to. eg: --avalon-temp 55 This will adjust fanspeed to keep the temperature at or slightly below 55. If you wish the fans to run at maximum speed, setting the target temperature very low such as 0 will achieve this. This option can be added to the "More options" entry in the web interface if you do not have a direct way of setting it. eg: --avalon-cutoff 65 This will cut off the avalon should it get up to 65 degrees and will then re-enable it when it gets to the target temperature as specified by avalon-temp. eg: --avalon-options 115200:24:10:D:1500:55 The values are baud : miners : asic count : timeout : frequency : technology. Baud: The device is pretty much hard coded to emulate 115200 baud so you shouldn't change this. Miners: Most Avalons are 3 module devices, which come to 24 miners. 4 module devices would use 32 here. For BitBurner X and BitBurner XX devices you should use twice the number of boards in the stack. e.g. for a two-board stack you would use 4. For BitBurner Fury devices you should use the total number of BitFury chips in the stack (i.e. 16 times the number of boards). e.g. for a two-board stack you would use 32. Asic count: Virtually all have 10, so don't change this. BitBurner devices use 10 here even if the boards have some other number of ASICs. Timeout: This is how long the device will work on a work item before accepting new work to replace it. It should be changed according to the frequency (last setting). It is possible to set this a little lower if you are trying to tune for short block mining (eg p2pool) but much lower and the device will start creating duplicate shares. A value of 'd' means cgminer will calculate it for you based on the frequency and is highly recommended. Sample settings for valid different frequencies (last 3 values) for 110nm AVAs: 34:375:110 * 36:350:110 * 43:300:110 45:282:110 (default) 50:256:110 Note that setting a value with an asterisk next to it will be using your avalon outside its spec and you do so at your own risk. For 55nm AVAs, the usual values are 8:1500 Frequency: This is the clock speed of the devices. For Avalon 110nm devices, values from 256 upwards are valid with the default being 282 and the maximum practical being approximately 350. For 55nm devices values from 1000-2000 are valid with 1500 being the default. Technology: What sized technology ASICs are in use in the avalon, choices are 55 or 110, corresponding to the nm technology chips in use. The default frequency for BitBurner X and BitBurner XX boards is 282. The default frequency for BitBurner Fury boards is 256. Overclocking is possible - please consult the product documentation and/or manufacturer for information on safe values. Values outside this range are used at your own risk. Underclocking is also possible, at least with the X and XX boards. eg: --bitburner-fury-options Override avalon-options for BitBurner Fury boards baud:miners:asic:timeout:freq This option takes the same format as --avalon-options. When specified, it will be used for BitBurner Fury boards in preference to the values specified in --avalon-options. (If not specified, BitBurner Fury boards will be controlled by the values used in --avalon options.) See --avalon-options for a detailed description of the fields. This option is particularly useful when using a mixture of different BitBurner devices as BitBurner Fury devices generally require significantly different clock frequencies from Avalon-based devices. This option is only available for boards with recent firmware that are recognized by cgminer as BBF. eg: --bitburner-fury-voltage Set BitBurner Fury core voltage, in millivolts Sets the core voltage for the BitBurner Fury boards. The default value is 900. Overvolting is possible - please consult the product documentation and/or manufaturer about the safe range of values. Values outside this range are used at your own risk. This option is only available for boards with recent firmware that are recognized by cgminer as BBF. For boards recognized as BTB, see --bitburner-voltage eg: --bitburner-voltage Set BitBurner (Avalon) core voltage, in millivolts Sets the core voltage for the Avalon-based BitBurner X and BitBurner XX boards. The default value is 1200. Overvolting and undervolting is possible - please consult the product documentation and/or the manufacturer for information about the safe range. Values outside this range are used at your own risk. Older BitBurner Fury firmware emulates a BitBurner XX board and is identified by cgminer as BTB. On these devices, --bitburner-voltage is used to control the voltage of the BitBurner Fury board. The actual core voltage will be 300mV less than the requested voltage, so to run a BitBurner Fury board at 950mV use --bitburner-voltage 1250. The default value of 1200 therefore corresponds to the default core voltage of 900mV. If you use the full curses based interface with Avalons you will get this information: AVA 0: 22/ 46C 2400R The values are: ambient temp / highest device temp lowest detected ASIC cooling fan RPM. Use the API for more detailed information than this. BFLSC Devices --bflsc-overheat Set overheat temperature where BFLSC devices throttle, 0 to disable (default: 90) This will allow you to change or disable the default temperature where cgminer throttles BFLSC devices by allowing them to temporarily go idle. BITFURY Devices --bxf-bits Set max BXF/HXF bits for overclocking (default: 54) In combination with the dynamic clocking on Bi*fury devices, this sets the highest bit target that cgminer will aim for. --bxf-temp-target Set target temperature for BXF/HXF devices (default: 82) Cgminer uses dynamic clocking on Bi*fury devices to try and maintain the temperature just below an optimal target. This option allows you to change the target temperature. When actively cooled below this, the devices will run at maximum speed. --bxm-bits Set BXM bits for overclocking (default: 54) Choose the overclocking bits for BFx2 devices. --nfu-bits Set nanofury bits for overclocking range 32-63 (default: 50) Cgminer by default sets the clockspeed on nanofury devices to the highest that is still within USB2 spec. This value allows you to alter the clockspeed, with ~54 being the optimal but requiring a higher power or USB3 port. Drillbit Systems Devices --drillbit-options Set drillbit options :clock[:clock_divider][:voltage] * int/ext defines the clock source - default int. Not all boards support ext. * clock_divider must be 1 or 2 with a default of 1. Bitfury only, ignored on Avalon. * clock is in MHz, on Drillbit range 80-250 with a default of 200, recommended maximum 230. On Avalon range 500-1000 with a recommended maximum of 800. * voltage is ASIC core voltage in millivolts, available values vary per board but default is 850 and the recommended maximum is 950 (Bitfury) and 1000 (Avalon.) --drillbit-auto :[::] If supported by firmware and device, this feature allows cgminer to automatically tweak each ASIC's clock rate up and down in to achieve optimal performance. * every - only required param, check each ASIC after each block of this many work units. Recommended value 100. * gooderr - the "Good" threshold is when less hardware errors than this per "every" work units, the clock rate will be increased. Default value 1. * baderr - the "Bad" threshold is when more hardware errors than this per "every" work units, the clock rate will be decreased. Default value 3. * maxerr - the "Max" threshold is when more hardware errors than this per "every" work units (including pre-empting before "every" work units is up), the clock rate will be decreased and will not be increased again past this point. Default value 10. BlackArrow Bitfury devices --bab-options Set BaB options Max:Def:Min:Up:Down:Hz:Delay:Trf Any option left blank or starting with 'd' will use the default setting If there are not enough options, then the remaining will be left at their default value Max:Def:Min are the chip speed limits to allow, ranging from 52 to 57 Up:Down are the HW error % used to tune the chip speed Up means if the HW error % is less than up, over a 5 minute period, then increase the chip speed Down means if the HW error % is greater than down, over 5 minutes, then decrease the chip speed Hz is the SPI clock speed to use Delay is the us delay used between bytes for the SPI I/O - default 0 Trf is the us delay used between sends for the SPI I/O - default 0 Hashfast devices --hfa-hash-clock Set hashfast clock speed (default: 550) This will change the initialisation clock speed on all attached hfa devices. Note that if instability is detected by cgminer and the device has to undergo a reset, cgminer will lower the clockspeed on resetting it each time till the value returns to the default of 550. --hfa-fail-drop Set how many MHz to drop clockspeed each failure on an overlocked hashfast device (default: 10) If you overclock your hashfast device with --hfa-hash-clock and cgminer detects it failing to return hashes, it will restart it at a lower clock speed if possible. Changing this value will allow you to choose how much it will lower the clock speed or to disable this function entirely. --hfa-fan Set fanspeed percentage for hashfast, single value or range (default: 10-85) This changes the range of fanspeeds used on hashfast devices with firmware that supports it. Note that the fanspeed will dynamically change to try and maintain a target temperature with --hfa-temp-target but if the target temperature is disabled, the fanspeed will remain static. eg: --hfa-fan 25-100 --hfa-temp-overheat Set the hashfast overheat throttling temperature (default: 95) Cgminer will temporarily stop sending hashfast devices work once this temperature is reached. Note that with the water cooling in these devices, temperature recovery is likely to be very quick and the device will start hashing again after only a very brief period. --hfa-temp-target Set the hashfast target temperature (0 to disable) (default: 88) On hashfast devices with firmware that supports dynamic fanspeed and die speeds, cgminer will try to maintain temperature according to this target by adjusting fanspeed and then if need be, throttle speeds on a die-by-die basis. Disabling this feature will leave a constant fanspeed and die speed but will not disable the temp-overheat feature. --hfa-name Set a unique name for a single hashfast device specified with --usb or the first device found This command allows you to specify the unique name stored in nvram on a single hashfast device. This name can be queried from the API stats command and comes up as "op name". Discrete names are used by cgminer to try to maintain settings across restarts, unplugs/hotplugs and so on. If this command is used by itself, the name will be given to the first hashfast device it encounters and then cgminer will proceed to go back to regular mining. If you have multiple devices, it is best to discretely choose the device you wish to use with the --usb command. For example 'lsusb' on linux shows the following devices (297c:0001 is a hfa device): Bus 001 Device 079: ID 297c:0001 Bus 004 Device 042: ID 297c:0001 If you wished to name the second device Slug you would add the commands: --hfa-name Slug --usb 4:42 --hfa-noshed Disable hashfast dynamic core disabling feature Newer firmwares on hashfast devices dynamically disable cores that generate invalid data. This command will disable this feature where possible. --hfa-options Set hashfast options name:clock (comma separated) This command allows you to set options for each discrete hashfast device by its name (if the firmware has naming support, i.e. version 0.3+). Currently this takes only one option, the clock speed, although future options may be added. e.g.: --hfa-options "rabbit:650,turtle:550" Would set a device named rabbit to clock speed 650 and the one named turtle to 550. Starting the device at a speed where it is most stable will give more reliable hashrates long term and prevent it interacting with other devices, rather than depending on the clockdown feature in cgminer. Other undocumented hashfast command line options are for development purposes only at this stage and serve no useful purpose to end users. Bitmine A1 Devices --bitmine-a1-options ::: ref_clk: reference clock in kHz (default: 16000) sys_clk: target system clock in kHz to be set in PLL (default: 250000) spi_clk: SPI clock in kHz (default: 800) max_chip: [debug/testing] limit chip chain Set 0 for fields you want to keep untouched to default, e.g. --bitmine-a1-options 0:0:400 to only set SPI clock to 400kHz --- This code is provided entirely free of charge by the programmer in his spare time so donations would be greatly appreciated. Please consider donating to the address below. Con Kolivas 15qSxP1SQcUX3o4nhkfdbgyoWEFMomJ4rZ