Helium Mining

Milesight UG65 Helium Miner Configuration & Frequently Asked Questions FAQ

February 19, 2022
UG65 Milesight Miner

If you own a Milesight UG65 Helium Miner and are looking for configuration, questions about common issues, etc. you’ve come to the right place. This started as a config and FAQ for the Milesight Community Discord and grew from there.

This guide for the Milesight UG65 Helium Miner is brought to you by Dennis Crawford. To help pay for server hosting costs, if you are looking for outdoor helium deployment equipment, please consider using the Amazon Storefront which has various products to use in an outside HNT environment. Or, if you’d like here is the HNT donation wallet:

13kPLKyXAVwHwTTKy7GDS5pAgM3X2A8BoeEezhSs7ZTb6cLnfwN – never expected, but always appreciated!!

If you have comments, suggestions, or need personalized one-on-one help for your Milesight Helium Miner, find me on the Discord: DCYeahThatsMe#9422

To navigate, click to jump to the section:

Firmware

(as of 03/02/22)
The new Milesight UG65 GA (Generally Available) releases:

**NEW** https://resource.milesight-iot.com/firmware/61.0.0.37.bin

Previous version links are here for archival purposes:
https://resource.milesight-iot.com/firmware/61.0.0.36-r2.bin
https://resource.milesight-iot.com/firmware/61.0.0.36-r4.bin

The previous alpha (pre-GA) firmware link:
https://ursalink-resource-center.oss-us-west-1.aliyuncs.com/kevin/61.0.0.37-a3.bin

NOTE: IF YOU UPGRADE PAST 36-R4, Your root ssh password WILL BE CHANGED if you do not change it yourself prior to upgrade. The helium functions are now part of the Milesight GUI under the “helium” section, so the need for most end-users to have ssh access is not required.

What are the differences between 61.0.0.36.x and 61.0.0.37.bin?

Upgrades:
1. Added new Helium section which includes Sync Status, Fast Sync, Onboarding tab, Helium Operation tab. 2. Changed default snapshot server from Helium to Milesight server, which will bring quite timely snapshot. 3. Added network detection before generating QR code for onboarding. 4. Random root password will be generated for each UG6x hotspot after upgrade to 61.0.0.37.

Bug Fixes:
1. Reboot may change WiFi mode from Client to AP mode when there is space character in WiFi SSID or the WLAN is set by static IP.
2. Wrong TX frequency fixed at 61.0.0.36-r2 will not be updated during upgrade.
3. Cannot save the default frequency at AS923, RU864, EU868.
4. PPTP and L2TP VPN will not reconnect after reboot. 5. LoRa packet forwarder process may be stuck due to the wrong timestamp.

Notes:
1. Clean the web browser cache after this upgrade, or the Helium section will not show on the web GUI.
2. Do not downgrade after upgrade to this version, or it may cause no response from Hotspot.

Having trouble onboarding?

If you are having trouble generating a QR code or onboarding your Milesight Helium Miner, here’s some tips for you to try. (This is to solve issues like cannot generate QR code, cannot scan QR code, wrong_txn_fee, invalid, wrong_staking_fee, etc.)

  • Make sure your timezone is set properly. This is absolutely important.
  • Ensure your miner is connected to the Internet properly. Some people have tried to connect via WiFi to the miner but that doesn’t mean the miner is actually connected to the Internet. Go under Maintenance> Tools> then Ping and type “google.com”. This will test your Internet connectivity. You should see something like this:
  • Having a sync’ed miner has been a solution for others to getting successfully onboarded. Check your sync status and retry once you are fully sync’ed.
  • If you are able to generate a QR code but the onboard transaction fails, don’t panic. Even my second miner had issues where I had to try it about 8 or 9 times. In your helium app on your phone, the second tab is your wallet tab. You should see the “add to blockchain” transaction in there. If it’s successful, you’ll see it in the list with a time it processed and you can click on it and see the transaction ID, location, etc. Now, if it says “pending” just wait. Wait for the transaction either to go through or fail. Do not continue to try to onboard (same goes for asserting location/details) while you have a pending transaction. Be patient and if the transaction fails – then go back to the start, generate a new QR code and try it again. It will eventually work. Be patient.

Alternative Helium Snapshot Repositories

If the default fast sync helium repository isn’t working, the one that I recommend is: http://snapshots-wtf.sensecapmx.cloud/ NOTE HTTP not HTTPS. You can enter this on your R37 Milesight Firmware under Helium> Fast Sync> Snapshot Address and click save. The next time you click “Sync” to start a sync process, it will use the fast sync repository specified.

Not witnessing

If your UG65 suddenly goes long periods without witnessing, your Lora packet forwarder might be stuck. You can easily restart the process by ssh’ing into your miner and issuing the following command:

/etc/init.d/lora_pkt_fwd stop && /etc/init.d/lora_pkt_fwd start

This will attempt to stop the lora_pkt_fwd process and then immediately start it back up. Hopefully this helps get your radio back to life!

Block Height Stuck

If you experience “syncing” but your miner height isn’t incrementing, try this. First, check your current height by ssh’ing into your miner and typing:

docker exec miner miner info height

That will show you your height. Wait a minute, try again. If your height is not counting up, then you could be stuck. Check your current sync status:

docker exec miner miner repair sync_state

It may say “sync paused” or “sync active” – Either way this is okay, try to cancel the current sync operation:

docker exec miner miner repair sync_cancel

Check your state again. But most importantly, check your height. Wait and check your height again. You should see it increment!

SIM Card

There has been a lot of discussion around the Milesight UG65 and the existence of a SIM card slot. My understanding is that Milesight took their IoT Hotspot (also called UG65) and added Helium capabilities. This is confusing, right? My model is UG65-915M-EA-H32 and the H in the model name means HELIUM. The Helium versions do not have an active SIM slot so you cannot directly put in a mobile broadband SIM card and expect this to work. There’s been reports that Milesight is come out with a 4G/LTE backhaul option for the new milesight model. I’ll keep you posted on that. For the existing owners of UG65’s, YES, there’s a SIM slot in the UG65 non-helium and helium version. Just because it has the slot, doesn’t mean it will work. No, as of right now there is no indication that the existing UG65H versions will be software upgradable. Some very early miners were shipped with a working slot. A guy in the discord actually showed his off (he’s very lucky!) and I’m a little jealous. But, chances are great that you’re not one of the very few lucky ones. It likely will not work. No you cannot get it to work. You may see a reference to it being an optional item. Yes, but only if you ordered the non-helium version. If the Helium hotspot model name does not include “-LXXX”, it does not support cellular connection. (unless you were one of the first to order back in October 2021 or so). End of story. If you’re deploying the UG65 in a mobile / remote environment, buy a Jetpack and use that for wireless connectivity. If Milesight comes out with a SIM Version of their UG65 Helium Hotspot Miner, I’ll let you know.

Enable NAT

You may be tempted to change settings in your UG65 Helium Miner. One word of caution. DON’T. Your miner isn’t being used in this fashion and the factory default enable NAT has no affect on your ability to reach the Internet. This is not service affecting. It likely doesn’t matter, but “if it ain’t broke… don’t fix it.” With this miner especially there’s so many variables and proverbial knobs to tweak. Just leave this alone and you’ll be fine. If you’re finding that you’re “relayed” – this is not the answer you’re looking for. Just keep “enable NAT” on as that’s how the factory wanted and it will not affect you adversely.

Also, as 114.114.114.114 is a 53/UDP DNS server I would change that to a common well known DNS server, like 1.1.1.1 or use your local router if it does DNS lookups, or use your internet service providers – the one your broadband connection came with. But I would recommend changing 114.114.114.114 to something else – I use 1.1.1.1

Fast Sync

If you are using the version 36 GA firmware for your Milesight UG65, then you do not have the Helium portion in your GUI. In an effort to help users, Kevin (tech support for Milesight) posted this to the Discord Channel and m0j0martini was awesome enough to document it on Reddit. Check it out:

How to Fast Sync Your Miner from MilesightMiners

How do I know if my UG65 is synced?

Again, m0j0martini to the rescue. His post on determining if your miner is synced is spot on!

How to tell if your miner is synced (blockchain) from MilesightMiners

Remember, blockchain explorers are not current. Neither is Hotspotty, etc. Especially with SYNCING and RELAY status. It took me personally almost 9 days before helium explorer told me that I was synced. If you’re earning, you’re synced. When in doubt, look at your miner for the proof. Your miner is the only expert as to whether or not you are synced, relayed, etc.

In version 37 alpha firmware, there is a helium section of your management webpage. This refreshes every 5 minutes so be patient. Also when starting/stopping/fast syncing/etc. this may show not syncing. This is normal. Things take time so be patient. Anytime you delete blockchain data (like the fast sync, miner_clean.sh, etc.) it will take a while to rebuild. It has to download the snapshot, process the snapshot, … and your miner may appear offline. This is normal.

Waterproofing

In this area, I am not an expert – let me say that up front. When I first saw the Milesight claim that this unit has “basic waterproof capabilities” I immediately decided that there was no way I was going to put this miner outside without protection. Maybe IP65 devices should be able to do that, but I strongly felt that putting this miner out in the elements would not be the correct decision. In the discord there has been much chatter about what IP65 is, and should be, and whether or not Milesight is compliant with IP65 water resistant specifications. We could debate back and forth on this topic for a long while, but the proof is here that it is not recommended to put your UG65 outside without waterproof protection.

Should Milesight be marketing this as IP65? I cannot comment on that. I can tell you what one of the discord users reported which was having standing water inside the UG65 enclosure and it was only outside for 30 days.

Another user (shoutout to r1c0r4y!!!) who provided me with another example of putting the UG65 out in the weather without protection. The center black label is a sticker and if you lift the edge you can see right into the casing through the holes where the blue LEDs are. Another reason why you definitely want to protect your investment here.

I know some of you may have purchased the UG65 thinking you would just install it outside without an additional enclosure or other waterproofing methods. Please don’t. Please consider this proof that you should rethink that.

Deleting the Blockchain / How to start over

Well, sometimes it comes to this. You need to delete the blockchain data and start over. Here’s an easy guide to how to do it.

First, stop your miner docker.

docker stop miner

And then type in these commands, as-is, line by line. If any fail (like the miner_poc one), don’t worry about it. Just keep going. 

mkdir /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/delete
mv /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/blockchain.db /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/delete/
mv /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/ledger.db /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/delete/
mv /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/miner_poc_statem.state /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/delete/
mv /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/state_channels.db /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/delete/
mv /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/checkpoints /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/delete/
mv /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/snap /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/delete
rm -rf /mnt/mmcblk0p1/miner_data/delete/

That moves the contents of the directories out, then removes the data, but leaves the directory structure in tact. Now, restart your miner and you are good to go! It will rebuild itself.

docker restart miner