How to run the Avalon 6 Miner without an AUC2 Converter?

As mining hardware usually has a short life-cycle and at least every year a new generation of hardware reaches the market there are often issues with the support of older hardware. In case of the Avalon 6 it is especially hard to get your hands on an AUC2 converter – as the newer Avalon generation use AUC3 converters which are not compatible with each other.

First of all it has to be said that the AUC2(Avalon USB Converter 2) converter is a common USB2IIC converter which works with the on board IIC in the CGMiners driver. Basically this means another USB2IIC device can be used but its software has to be extended with the drivers. Therefore this is probably a more complex way to replace the AUC2 converter.

Another more theoretical possibility is to produce your own AUC2 controller, this is possible as the full hardware and software is open source. But after checking the BOM for the AUC2 converter I can tell you it’s rather hard to do this without replacing many parts of the BOM due to availability issues. See below all the necessary links to create your own AUC2 controller:

The last and probably easiest way to run your Avalon 6 without an AUC2 converter is to use the IIC interface of the Raspberry Pi directly, a disadvantage of this method is that you lose the ability to daisy chain multiple miners as the IIC interface only supports one device. When testing this I had a lot of issues with the Raspberry Pi 3 and I’m not sure if it works with the Raspbery Pi3 due to the available Software – therefore it is suggested to use a Raspberry Pi 2. See below the Pinouts of the AUC2 connection:

Pinout of Avalon 6 (Wiki)

 

Pinout of Raspberry Pi2 (Github)

The basic setup can be seen in the picture below. As you can see in the picture, the Avalon 6 is connected with the Raspberry Pi2 by the use of the standard AUC2 4pin cable(any other 4pin cable will also do) and by an individual 4pin cable in accordance to the above pin-out. After this step you have to flash the SD-card of the Raspi with the latest image from the Avalon wiki. Additionally the following code has to be added to cgminer config: “–avalon4-iic-detect” (more detailed code examples: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Avalon6#RPi_Firmware)

Now it should be happily hashing again.

 

Basic setup of Avalon6 Miner without AUC2 converter

To summarize this, there are basically the following 3 ways to “replace” your AUC2 controller:

  1. Use a standard USB2IIC converter with flashed drivers
  2. Build your own AUC2 controller as it is open source
  3. Run your Avalon 6 without an AUC2 converter and use the IIC interface of the Raspberry Pi directly

 

The third option is for most of you the most feasible and easiest way for a workaround to AUC2 issues. If you have any questions or troubles when trying this guide just comment below.

UPDATE – 16.12.2017: I wanted to point out that there is also a Plug and play way to work with the third option – its a product from a trusted partner shop of us, check it out in the link below:*
https://www.parallelminer.com/product/avalonminer-raspberry-pi-controller-for-a6-modded-to-bypass-auc2/?wpam_id=58

cheers

Tom

 

Sources not mentioned:

Credits go to Fengling Qin from the Avalon developer Team!

*affiliate

17 COMMENTS

    how can add the Additionally the following code has to be added to cgminer config: “–avalon4-iic-detect”
    after i flashed th sd ram

      Just add it to “additional cgminer config” in the avalon dashboard

    Hello, thanks for instruction. I cant find additional cgminer config in Advanced Dashboard. Where it is? Can you help? Thank you

      its under CG-miner configuration – MORE OPTIONS at the bottom

    Hello, I would like to try the first method but was not able to see any reference as to how that is actually done. is there any documentation on adding drivers to an existing ic2 bus?

    Hello
    I have followed your instructions for both an RPi1 and Rpi3 with the associated software installed. I can run Dashboard but it would appear I can’t communicate with the miner.
    Socket refused
    I tried to upgrade the MM and it would appear to have worked. (no error messages)
    Miner shows a flashing green light.

    -avalon4-iic-detect added

    configured as per Avalon setup guide

    Just to point it out, there is also a plug and play custom solution from Parallelminers – a trusted partner shop:
    https://www.parallelminer.com/product/avalonminer-raspberry-pi-controller-for-a6-modded-to-bypass-auc2/?wpam_id=58

    This solution also does not need an AUC2.

    check it out
    *affiliate

    Hello, can i do it with out AUC3, on avalon 741 miner? Do you know?

    Please note:
    The cable pinout from the Avalon cable has the SDL and SDA REVERSED.
    Furthermore there is a hyphen missing from the cgminer config code it should be:
    “–avalon4-iic-detect”

    Now it should work

    Many thanks for this guide. I used an rpi 3b for this, and with the latest image was able to daisy-chain 3 miners without an auc2.

    hello, does that work with a Raspberry PI 1? and what else do you have to flash about software?

    Avalon 741 and/or later models without AUC3 converter? – Btc News Magazine

    […] Avalon models prior to the 741 normally required an AUC2 converter to work, but it was also possible to bypass that requirement by plugging the miner’s data cable directly into a Raspberry Pi’s IIC pins (as explained for example here). […]

      Ok, I knew that. I did everything as in this manual, but the following message always appears under “CGMiner API Log”:
      [Firmware Version] => Avalon Firmware – 20160726
      luci: ba1ef5b
      cgminer: e3b2bb9
      cgminer-packages: e4fb5c3
      Socket connect failed: Connection refused

      Now it works for me, what exactly was it, I can not say unfortunately. But the miner runs only with 2.9Th / s and not with the indicated 3.8 Th / s -> Avalon 6.01

    Hi,
    I want to drive only one Avalon 852 with Raspberry Pi . Could you tell me that can i do this without AUC3.
    Can I connect I2C output of Raspberry Pi to input of Avalon directly.

      Its possible without but not so easy and we have no tutorial.
      Better to just buy An Auc3.
      regards

        Thank for your reply. Do you know why number of pin in I2C inverter in AUC2 is 4 but in AUC3 is 5 ?

Leave a Reply to quorle Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top