So... my Terraminer IV from the December batch finally arrived today. This is the original version that was priced at $14,400. I was really pumped, so I snapped some pics. You can check them out in my imgur album or scroll down to see them here.
Getting it set up was a bit of a hassle. First off, there were no instructions included in the box, so I went straight to Cointerra's website, expecting some guidance since they said they'd have it ready before shipping. But guess what? No instructions there either. No biggie, I turned to the forums, connected my networking cable, and powered up both PSUs, and the fans started running. However, my Terraminer wasn't showing up in the router's DHCP tables.
After a call to Cointerra to troubleshoot, I found out that there’s a specific order to power it up:
1) Connect the ethernet cable to a router you can control.
2) Plug in the power cables to both PSUs, and you *have* to do this within 3 seconds of each other.
3) You should see an orange LED light up on the front where it says CTR1. This LED might turn off after a few seconds, so keep an eye on it right after powering up.
4) Wait for about a minute, then check your DHCP tables. If everything's good, you should see the unit there.
5) Open a browser and enter the IP address you found to access the control panel for Terraminer.
6) Log in using 'admin' as the default username, and there’s no password.
There is a USB port on the unit but when I called up it didn't sound like we were supposed to do that, I'll have to see if this is an option given how they're hooked up-I know on a lot of Bitfury boards there was no way to bypass problematic raspberry pi's.
On a side note it honestly doesn't seem too much like it's the beaglebone at fault, one of the boards is basically hashing at only 600Ghps (and that's the local number, I'm sure it'd be like 500gh/s on the server) whereas the other one runs much faster.
I ran mine for about a half hour on the lower PSU only (the other one doesn't power the internal controller) while I looked for an extension cord to reach another outlet on the other leg of my power. Hashrate doubled after plugging it in, no fiddling or rebooting required.
What I did waste a bunch of time was on the fact that it's dhcp only, I was assuming it would have a default IP and wasted a long time looking.
Well constructed box... it's also AWESOME on p2pool, lowest stale rate I've seen from any mining hardware.
So, when CTA0 shuts down and CTA1 is still mining how do I reboot the miner? Just reboot CGMiner in the web interface? Have you figured this out yet?
The fans really blow the heat a long way don't they?
Very, very, very loud and I wouldn't replace anything, it needs these super high flow delta fans to keep the chips cool-it's basically server grade equipment.
I'm not sure when you would ever encounter this scenario, they basically mine as one unit, you don't direct one board to one pool or anything like that, all the hashrate is directed at whatever pool you point it at. You can SSH in and reboot it that way and it seems to reboot everything.
Yeah, I was panicking too because I couldn't even see it in DHCP and I had rebooted it several times and swapped out the ethernet cables left and right. Turns out all my ethernet cable swapping was the issue-if the ethernet cable isn't plugged in when you power the unit on it doesn't bother to try the DHCP again so it never shows up anywhere.
To run this thing you really have to have access to the DHCP data on your router or else you'll have to scan every single local IP to try and find it. There is a way to set a fixed IP in the control panel but of course you can't connect to it until you have the IP...
I'll try to take a video later if I can, but if you're planning out where to put it I would strongly recommend a dedicated room that has good airflow. I can actually hear the TerraMiner from outside the front door of my home because it's sitting on my dining table. It's more or less equivalent to my blow dryer just with a lower pitch.
Luckily my girlfriend is used to dealing with my insanity since I used to run the Single SCs...but to be honest this is louder by far than even several single SCs.
Hey testerx... I'm seeing the same thing with mine.... local cgminer reads 1.5 to 1.6 but only seeing 1.3 on the pool. Did you "fiddling" get things working better? Can you expand a bit on what you "fiddled" with? Thanks man!
http://houston.craigslist.org/sys/4332495180.html
Came across this and saw the laptop/cointerra on the desk and instantly remembered this thread.
50/50 it's a scam but the number is local. But ROFL'ed at the 20k or 25btc then really rofl'ed when I was like wait those aren't his pictures!
To be clear: This is a point of contention at all times with what others seem to want and what I end up putting into the cgminer git master. I try wherever possible to make the on-screen hashrate match what you are actually producing in shares whereas other implementations of drivers like to display what the device thinks it's hashing. In the case of the distributed binary from cointerra, you are seeing the latter. I am planning on making the cgminer master code to do what all the other drivers do, although it appears no one has been brave enough to open up their machine and plug their device in via USB to a regular PC to try it out yet. For the time being, the code in cgminer git master is almost identical to what cointerra are releasing as binaries within their BBB firmware, only newer.
From the Cointerra user guide.
"To boot up the TerraMiner IV connect the power cords within 3 seconds of each other. If they are not both powered up within this time it is possible that the BeagleBone controller card will not recognize both GoldStrike boards inside the TerraMiner."
There is a ton of detailed status information that can be seen in the Advanced/Stats page. You can see the performance of each of the 8 cores on each ASIC including, hardware errors, voltage and temp. I have seen issues with one core on each ASIC that have shown as low voltages and hardware errors. Right now seeing no issues on any cores. Not sure if these were intermittent issues or perhaps some temp related issues on the first day of operations.
I am managing a Cointerra for the first month of its life. I have the two plugs running off of two separate 110v circuits, which they recommend as well. You can try unplugging and replugging as a restart. (I have done a few of those type of restarts) You also have have the small hardware reset button on the front panel that you can press with the end of a paperclip. (I have done a couple of those restarts)
Due to Eligius stats collection and reporting issues, I couldn't get a new payout address on Friday. So for the first 3 days I had the Cointerra paired up with an Antminer to the same payout address on Eligus so I could get at least some reporting from Eligius. The actual hash rate gain from the Cointerra was about 100 to 200 GH less on Eligius than the 1.6 TH what I was getting reported locally. I finally switched the Cointerra over to a separate address on Eligius a few hours ago and the Eligius stats are now looking better. 1.56 TH reported on Eligius and 1.62 TH locally. Need to build up more long term stats on Eligius of the unit by itself before I can say anything conclusive.