datsuns

I see in the download notes that there is a MAC address issue and I have also experienced it with my testing. Is this a hardware issue or is it on the OS side of things? I also had something similar with the aml-s905x-cc and I seem to remember I partially fixed it by hard-defining a MAC address. If it's on the Armbian side of things I will just wait for the stable build to release but otherwise I would like to fix it if I can. Also, does anybody have a recommended heatsink size or even a specific amazon listing they can point to?

What avenue of contact did you use when you got in touch with them? I tried techsupport@friendlyarm.com but no response so far.

That's a really good idea. I was considering placing another order for additional boards but I was getting cold feet - but if they replace it that will be a great sign. So far not looking good for booting, although I seem to be getting proper voltages at all of the gpio pins I have tested.

Thanks for the thoughtful post. I am going to try the items you brought up, starting with giving the board a few days off to fully settle. If all fails I will try to reset the connections with the oven method but I will treat that as plan C. I will post a followup later with whatever ends up happening.

I've had my 14 boards going mostly continuously for about six months now with some occasional scheduled downtime. I am finally having trouble with one board and I am trying to determine if it is dead. I just noticed that I wasn't able to find it on my network out of the blue a few days ago. The problem may be related to a power outage I had but I'm not certain about the timing of when it went offline. The board power light still works and I am able to power external items with the GPIO pins (fan) with no issues. I cannot ssh onto the unit because it doesn't show up on my network. I am not getting any display output from the HDMI either. I have tried re-imaging the OS on two different Class 10 U1 micro sd cards and had the same results on both. I am leaning toward a dead board but is there anything else I should try before I throw in the towel on the board? Also, I am now concerned about the health of my other boards and think I might be running them too hard/hot. I think my average temperature has been about 63 degrees Celsius. I have always been curious what an acceptable temperature is for these. The temp usually shows up as red text instead of green on that flash screen on login. Does that red/green threshold have any basis on anything or is it just arbitrary. I run my boards pretty hard but I will throttle them back a bit if I am risking their longevity. I'm also probably going to do the copper spacer mod that tkaiser posted about now to see if I can get my temps down.

Sorry if this is too noobish but how do I switch to the beta repository?

Are hugepages enabled by default for the nightly repository images? I do seem to have gotten it to work with this command: sudo sysctl -w vm.nr_hugepages=128 When I run this, hugepages seem to be on: cat /proc/meminfo | grep Huge

What is the process for enabling hugepages on NanoPi Fire3?

I'd like to do some benchmarking with xmrig and explore overclocking now that we're approaching the end of the summer heat. Can you share your xmrig build instructions? I am not finding anything concrete on the github for an armv8 aes support. EDIT: I did get xmrig running using the standard build instructions for Ubuntu 16.04 (using gcc 6.3.0). I am getting a consistent 28.2 h/s with those build parameters and no overclock. Any suggestions for a more optimal build are highly appreciated.

Is there a good resource for what's currently being developed by the major SBC manufacturers? I am curious about what is being developed and when it is coming out. I'm thinking about expanding my cluster by another 10 or 20 nodes but I don't want to invest now if something great is going to be released soon. I am most interested in FriendlyARM and OrangePi boards as they seem to have a good performance/value ratio around the $35 price point but I am interested in what all major manufacturers are doing. Is there anywhere to read about development? Or is anyone here privy to what's next for low cost ARM based SBCs?

Thanks, Keiser. That looks like a promising thread to read through.

For those of you running a large SBC cluster - what is your solution for powering your boards. I currently have a cluster of 18 boards that I am powering with several multiport usb chargers. My setup does work well but I am looking for alternative solutions. I'm thinking of expanding my cluster to 50 or more boards and I don't like the prospect of purchasing so many of these multiport chargers as they're a little bit expensive. And I also don't know about the long term reliability of my current setup as I have only been going for about 2 months now. I would love to hear about and see other people's SBC cluster powering solutions. EDIT: I'm open to all options but some kind of rackmount solution would be best. A lot of the rackmount stuff is very spendy - and I honestly don't mind that if it can power a lot of units. But I am mostly curious about skipping the powering alternatives that don't use the USB port at all. It just seems the best solution when powering many devices simultaneously.

Update All my boards have had continuous up-time for a full month now with rock solid consistency. I am really happy with this board so far and would recommend it to others. Just make sure the cooling is adequate and you will be happy with performance.

Overall I am running a very similar setup to you but I have 16 nano pi fire3s across three different anker usb multiport chargers. I have 6 fires on a 6-port, 6 fires on a 10-port and 4 fire on a 5 port. Also each of my fires has it's own fan. But now with what you're saying about the power supplies I guess I am going to switch one of my fires off the 6-port over to the 10-port.

Ok, I'm going to just keep adding boards if it continues to work. I was more worried about it throttling down the performance of the boards before they shut off but it sounds like that's not what it would do. You seem knowledgeable about the board so what do you feel like is a good stable operating temperature for these units? I am running active cooling and no overclock (1.4GHz) on all of my fires and I am seeing something between 66-70 degrees C on average when I periodically check on temps. This can of course vary depending on the ambient temerature in the room as well. If I tried out a mild overclock what temperature range would you start to get concerned at? It sounds like you are running yours at 1.6GHz - what kind of cooling are you running? I'm currently using small fans running on 3.3v. My setup is close to my desk and I have found running them at 5v is on the annoying side so I'd like to keep them at 3.3v.