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Hey. I have a 220VA wall socket for my stove. But I don't get access to the breaker box. How can I verify the amperase of that plug?
I want to make sure I can run both the stove and an Antminer on it. So I need to know what kind of wattage I can get out of it. Are there some sort of tester or meter I can plug in?

Not going to lie this just sounds like a bad plan.

There is really no way to find out your breaker size, without testing it for a trip. This is not ideal as it's a safety not a toy.

So unless you know for sure that everything was installed strictly to code, and you know the local electrical standards, there is no way to be certain. Not likely but they could put a 15 amp breaker there or a 100 amp breaker, one would trip all the time being undersized and the other wouldn't provide any protection.

Perhaps you could explain your situation and what's available and we could toss you some ideas.

First, learn the basics. It's 220 Volts, not volt amperes.

Second, get the access to the breaker box.

Third, keep measuring the voltage and turn off one MCB at the time to figure out which MCB is feeding your stove electric socket. When you successfully cut off the electricity, you'll know which MCB it is.

LOL. The A in 220 VA refers to alternative, not amps. And here normal wall plugs are referred to as 110 VA....or sometimes just 110 V.


That's not an option.


I live in an apartment. With no access to the breaker box. So if I want to mine with an Antminer S15, I have two options:

1) Buy a step- up converter to get 220 V out of the regular 110 V wall socket. Not a great idea as this would cost more what with the cost of the converter. And it's probably going to cost more in power too.

2) Share the stove's 220 V socket between the miner and the stove. I have to make sure the stove can still run if I want to keep the wife for one more week. I could also get a 110 V hot plate and let the 220 V socket supply only the miner. But if I can have both the full use of the stove and the miner running, I might keep the wife around for an other two weeks.

You are wrong on both. Either forget the stove, or forget the mining. Also you might find the same type of socket for clothes dryer or air conditioner. A step up transformer is big no, if the miner needs 8a with 220v the transformer would need at least 18a (or more), i think 110v circuits are usually capped at 15a (tho there are exceptions) but you would need to inspect if your house wiring and breakers can handle that load (and the transformer won't be cheap either). Remember, if you have a 20a circuit, the max that can handle is 16a constant load (80% rule), so no.

Do you know of the importance and delicacy of running an asic miner? Imagine you buy a 220v air conditioner, how do you plug it? You cannot share the "stove" circuit, you need a separate circuit from the breaker box.

So you say you have "no access" to the breaker box, what do you do if you make a short circuit? The breaker box must exist somewhere.
If you can use a gas stove instead, that would release the stove socket. Buy that if you still want to run an asic miner. You are worried about your wife? Wait until she hears the noise...

Technically its not impossible to "share" the circuit, but everytime you turn on and off the stove you are likely going to damage the PSU on the miner, so don't. Perhaps take apart the socket and put a small sub breaker in there. It could be useful if that circuit is, say, 50a rated and your stove only needs 20a or so.

What country is this anyway?

A better solution is you install your own sub-breaker panel from the main panel and redo your circuits "locally" (inside the apartment), exactly what you don't want to do, you must. It is weird that whoever built that apartment, didn't do it that way.

Nope. VA stands for volt-amperes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volt-ampere

If you want to be specific and define that it is AC voltage, correct way to mark it is 220 V_AC.

Also,
you are being annoyed for no reason.
I'm trying to help you here ...

Haggs is correct on all accounts. You may have noticed under his Avatar the words "Electrical Engineer". People enjoy helping here, so try not to gt annoyed or lose your patience as we become less likely to continue engaging.


You forgot the very reasonable 3rd option. Buy a Miner without an integrated PSU. You have to buy gear appropriate for your situation, in this case I would suggest buying something like an S9, or an Avalon 841. I know the Avalon has settings to improve efficiency and pull less power, and I believe there is firmware for the S9 to achieve the same results. In any case I'm going to assume your electricity costs are part of rent, and that efficiency isn't your concern.

If you go that route you can use any PSU that runs on 110V, utilizing the other available circuits in the apartment. Getting to the apartment a little more, most of the ones I lived in prior had a sub panel tucked in the closet or a kitchen cabinet. Are you sure there isn't a little 60 or 100 amp panel hiding somewhere? IS it a problem to ask your landlord to figure out what you have for circuits in the home? I mean how many 110 and what size (as some home circuits do have 20 amp breakers on 110).


I'm going to advise against this. Just placing a breaker inline hidden/jammed in the socket is just a wiring mishap waiting to go wrong.

The answer is, these LOUD INDUSTRIAL MINERS are not meant to be run in a home let alone an apartment.

This is just a terrible idea all the way around

it's alternating not alternative.

it's wrong to say the least , VA = watts  "excluding power factor"

you can argue that it stands for alternative but then again there is no point of stating the obvious, my grandmother would have figured that you are not getting 220v on DC to run your stove.

anyway, answer to your question is, there is no way to know. you can simply run them both, if the MCB trips you will know it can't handle both, call whoever has access to it and they will get it back up and running after you have unplugged the miner of course.

the other concern to me would be the wire size from the plug to the MCB, not sure it will be able to handle that much current. it could get hot and trip the breaker or might just burn the house down, so be careful.

How about a photo of the receptacle?

And how about mining while you sleep?

Thus the stove is turned off.

I spend a lot of years and money in the past water cooling custom built computers to make them run silently and over clocked to the max. My last project was a 1500W rig with water cooled CPU, motherboard, and 3x graphic cards in SLI configuration, all over clocked to the tits and as noisy as a mouse farther.

I think I can get the S15 to run really quiet in my bedroom next to my bed. See my other thread about this.
I think I might even be able over clock the S15 a little bit and still get it to run silent. The one hurdle to over clocking is not the noise, but the power available.


I'll do that when I get home tonight.


That's not a bit worry. I never heard or seen an S15. But I have heard and seen a S9. And if they are equally loud, I think I can silence the S15. Noise is not the problem, power is.


At this point I might decide to get a hot plate and dedicate the socket to the miner.
I was talking to an electrical at work today who said the code here is 60 A for a stove, or 2x30 A. Not sure if that's what I have or not.

---

There's got to be a way I can find out how much juice I can get out of a socket without access to the breaker panel, no?

I appreciate how you guys tell me it's going to be too loud. And how I can install a sub panel and fuses.
But none of this is helpful if I can't get enough amps out of that socket.

Any way to figure out how much amperage I got without looking at the panel?

As said earlier, NO!

The best you could do is look at the socket for the oven and based on what type it is, make a GUESS based on the sockets max current rating.
Only possible way to test the capacity is if you can provide a variable heavy load and monitor it while increasing the load until the breaker trips. Of course after that you will need to reset the breaker so...

You need to get access to the breaker panel and look. Period.

No not really. Your only option would be to put increasingly large loads on it until you pop the breaker, then you will have a basic idea.

Is spending a bunch of money sound proofing a machine and giving up your stove to make like $100 in a year really worth it?

I just dont follow the logic behind this at all. One miner stands no chance of making you more than some pocket change over the course of the year when you calculate paying it back and the cost of all the other stuff you have to do to quiet it. My brain hurts trying to imagine a scenario where this makes any sense at all....

I'm guessing you got involved in Bitcoin and other cryptos around 2017?

So you only see bitcoin as a money making machine. And you can't imagine why anyone would mine at a lost. But in fact I was an early miner back in 2009 when Bitcoin was less than a penny and you could mine it on a desktop. Hardly nobody back then was making much money with mining. There is far more to mining Bitcoin than pure profit. But as a late adopter, I'm guessing that would be too difficult to explain it all to you.

Even if I was doing it at a lost, I'd still want to mine. And I think Bitcoin will eventually climb much higher. So I hang on for the long run.

All fine and dandy however you are still faced with the fact that you want to run a very loud, hot, and power hungry industrial machine in an apartment where you have no access to a very vital bit of information information - namely, how much power is available to you. Sorry Life is not cooperating but you MUST have at least that very basic information before saying 'I want to mine'. The other 2 bits (loud and hot) can be dealt with but you MUST know what power is available to you. I'd like to fly and spit diamonds but guess what -- don't see that happening either...

@NotFuzzy

Totally agreed, and as I've suggested OP already.

This is turning into a totally pointless and stupid discussion with the stubborn OP..

Peace, I'm out

Thank you. Your thoughtful, respectful, and informative post will be evaluated and taken into consideration.

I call B.S on that, sorry not sorry :o


"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"

By: Albert Einstein

You are so far off base its laughable when it comes to me. I have been doing this as a career for years and I run one of the largest mines in North America, and would venture to say I have more mining experience than any 50 people you would like to gather combined. You picked the wrong person to try an call out, I will clown on you until you give up if that is how you want to play it.

I am saying this because what you are attempting is extremely stupid and potentially dangerous. You came here for advice, we give you advice you dont like, so you argue and attack the people that are trying to save you from your own ignorance.

I was an early miner too, that does not make you better than anyone. As a matter of fact, most early miners I know are intelligent enough to understand what we are trying to tell you. If you just want a miner so you can feel like "part of the club" go get a USB stick miner from sidehack. You can run it on a computer, which will help you feel more comfortable since that is where you are so proud of starting from. Plus it has the bonus of reducing the chance of you burning your place down to basically nothing.

Or if your confidence in the coin is that strong, buy the amount of bitcoin it would cost you to buy the miner, then buy the $100 in coin the first month, $90 in the second, $80 in the third. That way you are mirroring the profitability of the miner without any of the hassle. Then there are no noise issues, no safety issues, and you can stop making a fool of yourself on the internet.

You are quite welcome for the ideas, good luck with them.

I think he should also look at the wire gauge and read the code printed on it if possible. Even if the breaker is high rated the wire might not be, and that is not rare in certain countries... (Yes, it should be the opposite, a wire stronger than what the breaker is rated for, but the "3rd world" can be like that).

For that very reason, I wouldn't blindly trust a socket that says "50A" (look at the wires). Yes, in nice countries the electricians are supposed to respect the rules...


The simple reason people won't mine at a loss: The money you would spend buying the miner and the electrical works and silencing, take it all to buy bitcoin now and you end with more bitcoin now than trying to mine the same amount for months or years. That is unless you are betting the price will go up later, but it is possible the miner becomes damaged before that.

Suppose your S15 and the rest the stuff costs you $1500, you could get 0.4215₿ now, or wait 383 days mining it, assuming nothing breaks in the meantime. But what about the electricity? you have to add the costs of the electricity during those 383 days, and you would have rather gotten even more bitcoin today by simply buying it. How many days would you need to mine to get that many bitcoins? Its more days, so more electricity, so more money you need to sum, this goes to infinite.

Its logical to stop the mining if it is unprofitable, or make it profitable (ie. with solar panels). If i knew what is the electricity price per kw/h or what country it is (so i can find the price by myself) i could be a little more specific.

"I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares more is none"
- Shakespeare

You got your answer: You cannot know without getting access to the breaker panel -- either to read the breaker's label, or to reset it after tripping it.

There is no "meter" that can tell what the breaker is other than by overloading it and tripping it.

You absolutely do not want to use a transformer to convert. The cost of that and the losses would be considerable. It would be less costly to get a 120v capable PSU. ... but then you'll probably have too much current for whatever circuit you put it on. 1.8kw / 120v = 15amps, but if you put a 24/7 1.8kw load on a 15amp breaker you _will_ blow it eventually (and perhaps kill the breaker in the process). You shouldn't be running any sustained load of more than 80% of the breaker's label.  ... and 15amp is all you should assume is supporting a standard 120v outlet in the US.

Personally, I prefer to run computer equipment on 240v in any case-- because 120/240v stuff is pretty much universally several percent more efficient on 240v, plus it avoids load balance issues...

But if you don't have access to the breakers it's probably a bad idea to mine: even if your mining is properly at 80% of the rated load on the breaker, you still may manage to trip it during a brown out.  Then what?

"Roses are red, you got the answer , now lock the thread"

by: "mikeywith"

adiós

hey pepe

I actually sympathize with you and here is why.

I lived in astoria queens new york in an apartment  long ago .

Landlord was a true a-hole.

This was back in there 1986-1992 time frame no Mining,but in 1987 we had a black out

and all of Queens and most of manhattan was without power.

My wife said to me all the food will go bad  lets see what we can do with it.
I opened up the fridge to check and it had power.

I said what the fuck how can this be?

Some how  the wire was tapped into an illegal power source.

I was in the same boat as you  since it was not hooked up to the power panels which I did have access to I knew if I tripped the circuit the free power for the fridge would stop with no way to fix it.

So I checked all my circuits and found the one plug was the only one that was a mystery.  It was not hooked up to any of the 5 apartment circuit breakers.  I had a 110volt circuit which would be 15 amp or 20 amp

fridge was 4 amps.  so I knew I had 11 to 16 amps left.  I searched for a 8 amp AC for free summer cooling and found it.  I ran the ac and the fridge know I was pulling 12 amps and that both the ac and the fridge would shut off some of the time I never tripped the circuit.

So if you  show a photo of the plug  and the stove  can figure what it should be able to do.

No photo of stove and plug no help is possible.

a variation of this https://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Lighted-Extension-Watts-Wire/dp/B01FX6JSGC/

would allow you to hook up a miner and the stove to the circuit .

but to be safe you only mine while stove is off.

so say that is ¾ of the time  so the 28 th s15 becomes a 21th  machine

it earns 95 a month  with free power

to me  an s9i  is cheaper  set to 10 th use braiins software it uses 800 watts  

so ¾ of 10 th is 7.5 th which is 34.19 a month with free power.

realistically you can not do more then the one with the stove off.  you don't have access to the  breaker.

Good luck in what you decide to do.

Great post, thank you. You didn't even wrote anything condescending or insulting. Are you having problems fitting in here?

Your Amazon link is to a 125V cord with the typical 110V plugs on it. I don't see how that helps.

I am in North America, the building is about 30 years old. Today's usual practices call for 60A breaker for a stove. But not sure what it was 30 years ago.
I will get a picture of the socket tonight and I will post the stove amperage draw specs too.

For other posters, the heat and noise aspects of the miner are being worked on and dealt with. I just would like to find out if I can use both the miner and the stove safely on the same socket. Maybe I can restrict the stove to a single burner....not sure. We don't use the oven very often, spare for the iconic x-mas turkey.

Turning off the miner to use the stove would be a good idea. But I'm not sure the wife would know how to do tgat when I'm not around.


I don't think you understand. If I blindly plug whatever into that socket without knowing the rated amperage, yes, that would be stupid and dangerous. Thought I suspect the worst that could happen is that if I go over the breaker capacity, it would just flip the breaker, end of story. I'm not too impressed with those insinuating that I'm going to burn my place down.

If I go into it blind, yes, that could be dangerous. But if I go into it knowing what the socket can handle, in spite of my inability to look at the breaker, than it might be safe.

Unless my place is very unsafely wired, the worst that could happen if I plug too much into a socket that can't handle it, is that I'll just trip the breaker. So please guys. Stop it with perpetually claiming I'm going to burn my place down.

If you don't like me, that's fine. It you don't like my attitude, that's fine too. But maybe if you are harboring so much hatred towards me, maybe you should consider not trying to help me so much anymore.

Ok I'm back one more time, sorry

If your apartment is about 30 years old and you are in the US,
are you sure that you don't have aluminium wiring for the circuits?

Stay tuned. Photo coming tonight. Same Bat-channel!


Well, in the future, if I can power the S15 safely and quietly, I might consider adding a S9 too. But the S9 would have to run off of 110V. Not sure if that can be done. Right now I'm more concerned with the one S15.


You need not apologize for any well meaning, thoughtful, and respectful posts.


I'll check tonight and will let you know. The common way to do this is to stick my tongue in the outlet, right?
[/joking]

I'm only guessing the building is 30 years old. Could be older or newer. I'm known not to be very smart. I've surfed through life so far on my looks alone.

I think he is canada not usa.

usa had aluminum in some homes built in the vietnam era  due to copper shortages.

My 1972 home was all aluminum other then the 220 line for the ac.

I rewired it  because New Jersey allows a home owner to wire the house they live it.  Then have the town inspected.

One of the reasons I could mine in my house was I pulled all the aluminum  and did all 10ga 20 amp wiring  for the whole house.
Put in some extra 220 runs to the garage and to my home theater. ( for big subs)

So my house could do lots of miners  with no issues.

@ the op   I said a variation of the power cable in the link  not the cable in the link.

Since I don't know what you have for the stove.   here are a few.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/L6-30P-to-2x-L6-20R-Y-Splitter-Cord-10-ft-20A-250V-12-AWG-IBX-IBX-24117/111177612963?hash=item19e2b3bea3:g:wRcAAOSw2s1Ux~St:rk:4:pf:0

https://www.ebay.com/itm/L6-30P-to-2x-6-20R-Y-Splitter-Cord-10-ft-20A-250V-12-AWG-IBX-IBX-58036202/111177610408?hash=item19e2b3b4a8:g:QFwAAOSwa39Ux~hj:rk:3:pf:0

I'd rather have people on the Internet who give advice err on the side of caution rather than say "dude you are so smart, go for it". I want to see this magical S15 that you can sleep by. Either you're used to sleeping with a hair dryer running on your nightstand or you've made the equivalent of the 400MPG car...

Anyway, if you're just in it for the fun get an older Avalon and downclock it.

Okay. Here's a pic of my stove wall socket:

http://s346.photobucket.com/user/pepelapiuass/media/20190219_200735_zpsvdmtl5sc.jpg.html?filters[user]=147447958&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0

And if that doesn't come throught very well, here's what it looks like:

https://iguardfire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Plug-In-cropped.png

The faceplate reads 50A 125v/250v.
I'm not sure the breaker matches this 50A socket.

I believe the S15 is rated at 10A so I think if I assume the breaker to be 50A, that still leaves me with plenty of juice to use the stove. However, just to be safe I will limit the stove use to a single burner at a time and unplug the miner if we are to use the oven. Or maybe just turn the miner to economy mode when using the oven.

https://i346.photobucket.com/albums/p439/pepelapiuass/20190219_200735_zpsvdmtl5sc.jpg (https://i346.photobucket.com/albums/p439/pepelapiuass/20190219_200735_zpsvdmtl5sc.jpg)

Nice pic (awful sharing site). Unfortunately that doesn't reveal us the wires used or the breaker, but at least you know the plug can take 50a. :D

I will bet its the NEMA 14-50 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEMA_connector#NEMA_14).

http://www.generatorsforhomeuse.us/wp-content/uploads/14-50r.png (http://www.generatorsforhomeuse.us/wp-content/uploads/14-50r.png)

If you pay attention you will notice the power you need comes from the two most separate straight holes (not all three), and the round one is ground which is always nice. As you can see the flat in the middle is irrelevant, it only provides 110v if you connect it with either of the other two.

I guess you could just split it with one of these:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41bXQQ6TIYL.jpg (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41bXQQ6TIYL.jpg)

Parkworld 692095 RV 50 AMP Splitter, NEMA 14-50P Male Plug to (2) 14-50R Female connectors (with Lighted) 1 Plug to 2 Socket Y Adatper (https://www.amazon.com/Parkworld-692095-Adatper-14-50P-connectors/dp/B079JPWSZT)

As for the stove, you still don't get it. Its not that you won't have "juice" for it, heck, the stove will be fine (or at worst just trip the breaker). But turning it on and off WILL harm the PSU of your delicate miner, and stoves go on/off a lot when in use.

Well you could always get something like this (https://www.amazon.com/Simran-AR-5000-5000-Watt-Stabilizer-Transformer/dp/B00526JQ4S/ref=sr_1_4) to connect your Miner and hope it can protect your PSU...

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81zsXaqPNbL._SX679_.jpg (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81zsXaqPNbL._SX679_.jpg)

If you buy this (or similar), do not use the included plug adapter (at those loads it melts), and do not plug it into a 110v socket. Either wire an European socket or get an sturdy adapter that can take 20a or more. I know it says it can convert 110v into 220v but you don't want to use it that way to avoid tripping the breakers or burning the place.

Which image sharing site do you recommend?


I'm trying to find what kind of wattage the stove pulls. If I can find that, it will get us closet to guessing what the breaker is.


Yup, you got it.


Nah, I think I'm just going to get a hot plate that runs on 110 and dedicate the stove socket only to the miner.

If in the future I decide to get a second miner (S15 or S9 maybe) you think that plug can power two of them?


So I can't have the stove turned on an off. But it could power two S15 miners drawing about 10A each?


Nope, it's getting to be on the expensive side now. But if I go with the stove and S15 on the same socket, I'll get the 3000W for under 100$.

Would I need to have both the stove and miner running off of that box? Or can I split the power before the box and only have the miner running on the box?

So after all these advices, you are going with guessing.

Well good luck..

What are you talking about?

If I can find out that the stove is rated xxA, it's a pretty safe bet that the breaker would also be xxA or more. And yeah, I would love to not guess and have a look at the breaker panel. But I don't.

I submitted my projections based on the information supplied by you guys on this thread. Do you have a constructive comment to add?

I don't care how smart you think you are. I find your attitude particularly offensive. If you have actual knowledge to share please do so. If you just want to foam at the mouth every time you claim to want to help me, never mind and move on.

I have already shared you knowledge.
You're the impolite one here, not listening to us.

Guessing is not a thing to do in electrical engineering!

No, only the miner(s). It's to protect the miner(s) from the stove going on and off. You will see (and hear) the fluctuations made by the stove and other appliances when you use it. Using multiple (one for each miner) could be troublesome as they will generate (electric) noise to each other. I guess you could buy the 8000w one (https://www.amazon.com/Simran-Converter-Stabilizer-Transformer-AR-8000/dp/B01IUBZ0JG/ref=sr_1_6) to feed stable electricity to 4 miners.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MarsFQ9wL.jpg (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51MarsFQ9wL.jpg)

In theory if your circuit is truly 50a (60a in breaker and wiring is what the spec says) and you are using no stove, then you should be able to safely put 4. It would be nice if you could measure, get an ampere meter clamp to see for yourself, i would not be surprised if the S15 pulls less than 10a, probably 8a or less like the S9s, or even less in low power mode.

There are several image sharing sites, imgur (https://www.imgur.com/) is one of the most popular.

It's not rocket science. If your fan has to push through a bunch of restrictions, it's going to make more noise than without restrictions. So removing the exhaust side grills should help a very little bit on the noise side. And it will allow for better air flow, or the same air flow at slower fan speed. Furthermore, a single fan pushing air through a tightly packed case is going to have to turn faster to provide sufficient airflow. Adding a fan pulling air on the exhaust side should allow me to turn them down to around 4000 RPM instead of the stock 6000 RPM.

What I am planning is similar to this:
https://www.silent-miner.eu/

My big 6" Vortex squirrel fan will be pushing air in while the stock fans will be relocated on the exhaust side to pull air out with a fan controller on them. I'll have to test fan speeds to see what works just as well as the stock configuration.

And of course none of this is going to completely silence the rig.  It will still be noisy, albeit less noisy. But next I will do similar to what philipma1957 did. I will build a box with a 1 foot layer of carpet pieces around the miner - a soundproof box of sort. Just try to run a vacuum cleaner rolled up in a pile of carpets and see how quiet it gets.

But in truth, even if I just replace the stock fans with my squirrel fan, that would already push more air and be a great deal more quiet. I had my squirrel fan running all night at full speed right next to my bed last night. Slept like a baby too but I will look to make it even more quiet.

That's a bad design. make sure you keep some airflow around the miner, not just the hashboards. The controller above is notorious for breaking from overheat due to people sealing the airflow within the fans while ignoring the rest.

Attach your fan to a larger box, and put the miner freely inside that box. The miner inside should not be in contact with the box or duct. And you might as well leave the PSU in there, just like the newer S15 does anyway. Wood is good, and you could cover the walls inside with sound proofing fabric. Using a bit of sound insulated duct at the ends also helps.

I have seen another design where the air is following little Z like maze before going out. But there is an important design change, the holes are larger and of rectangular shape half covered, not round duct like. The maker describes it as a "nozzle" effect, noise cancelling but air flowing.

I'm actually worried your squirrel fan would make the others move, ie, generate electricity... Which is the same reason people should not let a fan spin when dusting off electronics with an air blower (they will generate and send electricity down the wire possibly damaging things).

I'm not sure what you mean here. The S15 runs on 220v and the squirrel fans runs on 110v. So they will be on two different circuits.

Not that... It depends how strong your fan is. if it moves the others by airflow alone, they generate electricity. A generator is the same thing as an electric motor, more or less. If you pass current, it makes the axis rotate. If you rotate the axis fast enough, it generates current. You don't want current flowing back into your controller board/psu.

Take a tester to measure voltage, plug it to a disconnected fan to the ± pins. Now make that fan move by pointing another fan to it, and see the results.

I never quite understood why asic miners used this tunnel design with two fans pushing/pulling one another, but it seems Bitmain has improved the design, perhaps after the R4 experience.

If both fans are moving about the same amount of air, there shouldn't be a problem. But i don't know how powerful your squirrel fan is. I think it would be ideal to just remove the small fans, as you originally intended. Problem is you need feed back rpms to the controller so it doesn't complain, at least until Braiins OS is ported to the S15.

Good to know. I'll just make sure no fans are driving other fans by adjusting the speeds appropriately.


That's not really a problem. Faking an RPM signal is easy. Or I can always pluck out one fan's petals and leave it running just as an RPM reporting fan.

And the reason why they use fans in push/pull is because that's the most efficient way of moving air around a case. Every fan you buy has a CFM rating. But that rating is in open air with no restrictions.  Once you add restrictions like ducks, elbows, fan grills, filters, and congested cases, the actual CFM goes way down from the rated one.

For example with water cooling it was once believed that radiators with multiple thin fins and thicker radiators would do a better job at cooling the system. Problem is, when the fins are too close and the radiator is too thick, the fans struggle at pushing air throught them. One remedy was to install thicker fans, faster fans, or have them going in push/pull configuration. And still, lab testing showed that thinner radiators with wide spacing between the fins actually performed better.

In other words, the more restrictions you have, the less effective and the more noisy your fans are. That's why it's beeter to have a set of fans pushing air in and an other set pulling air out. And tgat's why I think removing the grill on the exhaust side will help the airflow and help reduce the noise.

When you buy a fan, don't look just at the RPM and CFM rating. They only tell part of the picture. The static pressure is actually more important than the CFM rating. Static pressure is the fan's ability to push air throught restrictions. Kind of like water pressure versus water flow. Sadly, very few fan makers post the static pressure numbers.

But essentially, when you have two fans in push/pull, that basically doubles the static pressure while the RPM remains the same. So a lot more air gets moved.