Avalon Miner 841- A Deep Dive

Avalon Miner 841 is a Bitcoin miner which uses 16nm ASIC chip technology. Manufactured by Canaan Creative, it is second 8th generation AvalonMiner model.

Pros

• It has excellent power efficiency.
• It has a solid and stable design.

Cons

• Costlier than other miners.

Avalon Miner 841 weighs 4.7 kg and outer dimensions are 370mm x 150mm x 136mm. Avalon Miner 841 lacks an in-built controller and requires a separate controller.

Other items needed are-

• One server grade 12 VDC power supply with at least 8x PCI-E 6-pin connectors.
• A connector with a dedicated cable and at least 18 AWG wire gauge.
• C13 power cord.
• Avalon Miner Controller or Raspberry Pi single-board computer.
• 5 VDC 2.4 A USB wall wart for the controller unit.
• USB Type-A -> Micro USB cable between the controller unit and the 5 VDC 2.4 A USB wall wart.
• Ethernet cable to go from the controller unit to your router/switch device.
• Computer to set initial pool and configuration settings.

With Avalon Miner Controller kit the user gets the following items-

The user can also use his own Raspberry Pi single-board computer as the controller unit. One can also use the Avalon Miner Controller.

The user can also build one controller by using a Raspberry Pi single-board computer and other supplies.

How to Setup the Controller for Avalon Miner 841?

Avalon Miner Controller’s OpenWrt based firmware supports the following types of Raspberry Pi single-board computer:

• Avalon Miner Controller
• Pi 1 Model B
• Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
• Pi 3 Model

1. Setting up the controller requires an SD card.  Ensure that the SD card comes with an SD card adapter.

2. Put the memory card in the SD card reader.

3. Select and download the firmware version according to the Raspberry Pi model. Open the tool software and select your SD card reader device letter.

4. Click on the folder icon. Locate and select “ OpenWrt firmware” downloaded earlier.

4. Click on the folder icon. Locate and select “ OpenWrt firmware” downloaded earlier.

6. Wait until the process is complete.

7. Click “OK” and exit.

A working controller unit is setup.

Physical Setup for the Avalon Miner 841 and Controller

Setup for one Miner and one Controller Unit.

1. Connect the 5VDC wall wart to the controller unit.

2. Connect an Ethernet cable to the controller unit.

3. Connect the USB Type-A -> Micro USB cable and 5-pin AUC3 cable to the AUC3 I2C-USB communication converter unit.

4. Connect that USB Type-A -> Micro USB cable’s other end to the controller unit.

5. Now, connect the other end of the 5-pin AUC3 cable to the miner unit.

6. Connect the eight pieces 6-pin PCI-E power cables with individual cables to the miner.

7. Plug in the 5 VDC wall wart to power on the controller unit. Connect a C13 power cord first to the power supply unit and then to the wall socket.

How to Setup for Twenty Miners and One Controller Unit for Avalon Miner 841 ?

One can connect five miners  per one AUC3 converter and a maximum of four AUC3 converters to one controller unit.

Controller configuration instructions for Avalon Miner 841:

1. Connect the power to the controller, and ensure that the controller and computer are connected to the same local area network.

2. The default IP for the controller is 192.168.0.100. Adjust the IP address of the computer to access the controller. After adjusting click “OK”.

3. First access “192.168.0.100”, and then the following screen appears.

4. Initially, there is no password, so you can enter the Dashboard after you click “Login”.

5. You can click “Configuration” to configure your miners and see the pool information.

6. If in case 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.

7. After the configuration, you can change your computer back to the automatic IP address acquisition. If the controller is properly connected to the Internet, you can access different sections in the miner web configuration page.

Power Consumption Measurements for AvalonMiner 841

Two separate test runs were made for measuring power efficiency.

Conditions under which testing was done are as follows-

• The miner was set with default settings.
• Hash board frequency was controlled automatically to make each hash board perform best as possible.
• The default value for Voltage Offset was set at 0.

The result for the power consumption (at wall) was 1350 W when the average hash rate was 13.575 Th/s.

Power Efficiency is :

1350 / 13575 = 0.0994 J  per Gh/s.

Second Test Run for Avalon Miner 841

The result for the power consumption (at wall) was 1400 W when the average hash rate was  13.515 Th/s.

Power effficiency is –

1400 / 13515 = 0.1036 J  per Gh/s.

Tuning the Equipment for Avalon Miner 841

Just like with the previous AvalonMiner generation, it is possible to choose a value from -2 to +1 for the voltage offset. Instead of changing the hash board frequency setting, AvalonMiner performance can only be controlled by changing the voltage offset value.

The AvalonMiners are voltage sensitive, so use the “Voltage Offset” option for tweaking the AvalonMiner’s voltage.

As the lower voltage offset, the lower power. So if the miner works well with -2, it just means the miner has greater efficiency.

Cgminer status page view when the voltage offset value is -2.

Page view when the voltage offset value is -1.

Cgminer status page view when the voltage offset value is 0.

When the voltage offset value is +1.

Voltage offset value is +1.

Power consumption measurement, when the voltage offset value is -2.

Measurement when the voltage offset value is -1.

PC measurement when the voltage offset value is 0.

Measurement when the voltage offset value is +1.

The Avalon Miner was tested and was found to be working efficiently. According to Steven Mosher, the expected failure rate in the field for Avalon Miners is close 1%. The higher price is an adequate compensation for reduced downtime, reduced need for repair and reduced repair costs. It is most likely to reduce the total costs during the miner lifetime.

Avalon Miner 841 can be purchased at https://canaan.io/shop/.

If you want to buy 60 units or more, you can buy them directly from the manufacturer Canaan Creative.

Less than 60 (1 – 59) units:

If you want to buy less than 60 units, you will need to order from your local official Canaan hardware distributor.

Rating: 9.1/10