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Why do remote commands fail on Whatsminers?

Whatsminers require a little extra attention to open their APIs so Foreman can dispatch remote commands.

By default, Whatsminer ASICs typically allow read-only API access.  This provides the ability to remotely monitor the devices, but prevents them from being managed.  The Write API must be enabled for the following actions to be performed:

  • Rebooting
  • Changing pools
  • Network re-configurations (static IPing)
  • Factory resetting
  • Changing the power mode
  • Changing the miner password
  • Blinking the LEDs
  • Etc

This guide will walk you through how to turn it on.

Your Whatsminer Firmware must be newer than 20200801, but we recommend at least 20211116. Remote management of older versions is minimally supported by both Foreman and Whatsminer. Their API was very defective prior to this release, with bug fixes getting applied all the way up to 20211116.

Download the Whatsminer Tool

The Whatsminer Tool is an official utility provided by Whatsminer and it must be used to enable the API.  You can download the latest version here (see Tools and documentation section).

Enter IP Range

Once you extract and run the exe, you'll need to tell it where your miners can be found.  To do that, click "Miner IP" and then enter the range. Be sure the range is selected in the bottom box so the tool knows where to look:

Specify the IP range where your Whatsminers can be found.

Start the Scan

Click the "Monitor" button and wait until all of the IP addresses have been scanned.  You'll know it's completed when the Total and Scanned counts match at the bottom of the window. Once the scan is complete, select the "All" checkbox at the bottom since throughout this tutorial, we'll be re-configuring all of the miners it finds:

Scan the subnets for miners and wait for it to complete.

Change Miner Passwords

Before the tool will let you enable the API, you have to change the miner passwords.  You must do this.  By default, the Whatsminer credentials are:

  • Username: admin
  • Password: admin

You can use this opportunity to either change to an entirely new password, or you can use the tool to change the password from admin / admin to admin / admin.  It doesn't matter what the password is.  It just needs to be changed and it can be changed back to the same one:

Change the miner's password.

Enable the API

Now you can enable the API. Click the "Remote Ctrl" button at the top, and in the window that appears, select "Miner API Switch" and click "Ok".  In the following window, select "Enable" and click "Ok".

Enable the Miner API Switch.

Change Miner Passwords Again

Yes, this must be done for the setting to hold.  We recommend never changing from admin / admin, so perform another change from admin / admin to admin / admin.

Congratulations! Now your Whatsminer's API has been opened and you can use all of the features that Foreman has to offer. 🍻

 

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