Development Update: Braiins OS+ 20.11

Our last release, Braiins OS+ 20.10, included a beta version for Antminer S17+, T17, and T17+. This was labeled a beta because we had not yet tested it on hundreds of machines, so we wanted to get more data and feedback in order to make improvements. 

Thanks to everybody who tested the betas and helped us make it better. The latest build has improved the performance substantially, so we are now labeling this a full release for all of the models in the X17 family (excluding the S17e and T17e which have quite different architecture than the other models in the family and are not yet supported). 

Braiins OS+ 20.11 Overview

In case you aren’t already familiar with the core features of Braiins OS+, we recommend to read the overview in the 20.09 Dev Update. Additionally, we recently published a guest post from a miner in the community overviewing the different strategies of Bitcoin miners depending on the scale of their operations, the efficiency of their hardware, and other factors. If you are looking for more insights on how autotuning can help you optimize Antminer performance to suit your needs, give it a read!

As for what’s new in the 20.11 release, let’s dive in.

BOS Toolbox is now smarter

Until now, we had different versions of the BOS Toolbox for the different hardware models we support, creating the possibility for error or confusion if a user downloaded the wrong one. With this release, that is no longer the case. There is now a single BOS Toolbox that can be used for all supported hardware types to perform batch installation, configuration, uninstallation, etc.

Additionally, it is no longer necessary to run separate commands if you have multiple hardware models in your mining operation. You can mix S9 and X17 models on a single list.csv file, and BOS Toolbox will detect them automatically.

This even applies to the open-source version for S9s. If you wish to use that version instead of the autotuning firmware, simply add the --open-source parameter to your commands.

Improved tuning performance

We know that the biggest motivation for miners to use Braiins OS+ is to optimize your Antminers performance beyond the limits of the stock firmware. In this release, we’ve improved the autotuning algorithms for the whole X17 family.

Fan control

With the X17 family being so vulnerable to overheating issues, we’ve tuned the PID controller for fans to be more responsive to temperature spikes. This should make it a bit safer to run at higher power limits. 

Development Pipeline

The next devices in the development pipeline will be the Antminer S17e and T17e. While there are some differences between the ‘e’ models and the rest of the X17 family, they are still the lowest hanging fruit for us to add support. We don’t have an exact ETA yet with the holidays coming up, but we will do our best to include it in the next release.