Bitcoin Forum

Going to make A thread 🧵 for gpu miners.

listing cheap easy tools 🧰 for us gpu miners.

1) a few screwdrivers
2) a wire stripper
3) a digital meter
4) a psu tester.
5) a kwatt meter


software

windows 10
smos
hive os

these are very likely the minimum you need

other software

msi afterburner

many would say bios flashing software.

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please feel free to add your ideas.

How about spare parts? Having extra working power packs and risers can erase headaches when they comes, they always come one day or months later, the convenience of swapping parts makes life easier for miners, don't you think? I have complete tool box and others but without spare parts you will get to a point of confusion

For rigs: Several universal risers, test/reserve PSU and motherboard - better PC test bench, USB-flash/HDD with mining OS.
For support: 50-100 meters of UTP and power cable.
Software: latest and old versions of NVIDIA and AMD drivers.

If i remember some more - i`ll correct this post

If you are a real crypto miner you must have everything extra, power cables can burn at any time, RAM can give up at anytime, risers connection can fail and need replacement, it's always a good move to have an extra for parts, can't even remember how many times I've change power cables and risers now

What is handy is to have a wire crimp tool and the pins for your PSUs. Also having different wire guages helps, along with different male/female connectors like MOLEX, PCIe. This way when you accidently burn a wire on a PSU, you can easily replace it. You can also do many things such as make custom wiring to power the USB risers so they don't melt wires. These are dirt cheap on Aliexpress and so are the pins that you can crimp on. Wires you can buy pretty much anywhere. There are videos on Youtube of custom wiring and shows you how to use the crimp tool properly.

Another must for miners is, an air compressor. Simply because you need to clean out the dust from time to time. Before I had an air compressor I would buy the compressed air, however they lately gone up in price >$5 for a single can which lasts maybe one use. Air compressor you can pretty much not have to worry about running out of air. Just make sure you don't set PSI too high or you will make PCB components fly off or you will kill the bearings if you spin a fan too fast.

Thermal paste (MX5)

Air compressor for cleaning heatsinks.

Simple rig resetter's from SMOS (optional but very very helpful if rigs not on site)

Smoke detector, by prevention.

Mining software app can be handle when you aren't around at home, you can easily see what's going on with your miners and what their temps are too, for example ethmonitoring.com app, there are others out there too, I think nicehash have one too

this is can be removed.. "4) a psu tester" ..nothing beats a rig as a psu tester.


very important -- a test rig composed of
  - 1 riser
  - 1 gpu
  - a motherboard
  - a processor
  - a hdd or a ssd
  - a psu

what this "test rig" can do?

so you can know what is fucking up your other rigs, if ever you pinpointed the problem and you just want to make sure. you can test these(one at a time):

- risers
- gpus
- psus
- motherboards
- cpus
- hdds or ssds

note: this test rig is mining 24/7 as to ascertain that all the components are working, and when you plug parts to be tested you'll be able to compare  ;)

one cpu for test bench, raspberry pi for remote management and online wallet, bor, usb wifi and some knowledge in electrical parts

portable monitor for easy troubleshouting, and the last is nice chair for rest a while

Smart wifi switches are very nice. I can restart the rig remotely when it freezes. I monitor power consumption too.

They are god send!

Ive been using them for years and have saved me so many trips to the moning warehouse :)

Mine even have watt meters built in that log the power usage.

I love this thread!  Thank you for starting it, and for those who are contributing to it.  I was thinking of starting a thread basically asking the question that Phil answered in the title. I have been reading and asking lots of questions as a newbie getting started.  I'm doing my due diligence, and hoping to start building a small mining room in my basement early next year.  The way I was going to pose my question was basically if you were able to take what you've learned by building your rigs over time, and had the ability to buy everything (but the GPUs maybe! hahaha) all in one stroke a build your setup the best way possible, what would it look like? 

The vision I have for what I'd like to do, involves running a dedicated 30amp 240v line into my basement, which I believe would support 4 rigs, 8 cards each, provided I could ever actually get my hands on 32 GPUs (leaning towards 3060Ti if they become available for a decent price, right?)

What tools and tricks would you use to set all that up?  I'm thinking 4 identical mobos, sets of risers, same CPU, etc., trying to build 4 identical racks so that all the processes are the same, just cloning the setup for efficiency's sake.  What power supplies have proven the most reliable?  Would you put a Killawatt on every PSU and leave them there permanently to monitor?  Would you craft some external air flow to draw in cold outside air in the winter and pipe the hot air into the home to get some heating out of it?  What would your investment look like if you were able to build a full rack of GPUs at one shot - even if you just got each rig up and running and added cards slowly as you found them to become available? 

My day job is all about creating processes, redundancies for production, fail safes, and automation.  I'm trying to apply what I know there, to how I could build an excellent mining garden (the word farm seems to big for what I could do!) that is reliable, efficient, tidy cable management, etc. 

I think this thread is going to have a lot of useful information for this process, thanks again!

Amp circuit breakers are very good too, you can conveniently leave your home and remotely spy on your mining rig through apps and see if is still mining, circuit breakers works wonder if there is a very high current that can destroy your rigs

nice these are the best I have 4 of them from digital logger.

you can buy them used on ebay.


this is a great model for 1x  30 amp 240 circuit

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Loggers-EPCR3-Ethernet-Power-Controller/114598321218?

The most important thing that a miner should have are arms that grow from the shoulders, not arms that grow from the ass.
If the miner does not know how to do anything, then in Russia colleagues tell him that his hands grow out of his ass.
I never had a psu tester, so when testing the power supply, I connected several hard drives and other devices to it and checked all voltages with a multimeter.
Should I tell you what I use instead of an expensive wire cleaning tool?

okay to make things clear

I will list and lock for a bit.

I get zero money from these links

psu tester $11.99
https://www.amazon.com/axGear-Supply-Tester-Computer-Digital/dp/B07NW9ST1Z/ref=sr_1_2?


digital meter $11.99
https://www.amazon.com/WeePro-Vpro850L-Multimeter-Voltmeter-Continuity/dp/B07VHC1NMC/ref=sxin_11_pb?

wire stripper,cutter,crimper $6.89
https://www.amazon.com/WGGE-Professional-crimping-Multi-Tool-Multi-Function/dp/B073YG65N2/ref=sr_1_6?


screwdriver set 11.99
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0747DYJJR/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?

the list above is under 50 usd.

is it enough no but the list above should prevent you from shorting out your gear from mis-wiring a mobo.

 the product below was tested with a multi meter by me before I plugged it into a 800 usd nvidia 3080
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08G8V6QBB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?

guess what it was not a correctly wired adapter and I save 800 on not killing my gpu.

spare riser kits a must if you are a riser guy

sata to the riser

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GU94QSQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?

six pin pcie to the riser

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NPV3K5N/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?



mulitiple mobos.

this is tough.  the best way to mine is all the same mobos and all the same cards.  Good luck having that happen.


I have a lot of this one.


https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Promotion-ONDA-DP1800-mining-motherboard-support_50045649499.html


thermal paste

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06Y156V4Z/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?

c13 and c19 plugs

https://www.amazon.com/Cablelera-North-American-Extension-ZWACPFAC-06/dp/B00GMPVAJM/ref=sr_1_2?
https://www.amazon.com/NEMA-5-15P-C13-Power-Cord/dp/B0085B2N24/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?

digital logger is good 120-240 volts  allows power on and off can run 4-8 rigs grand total of 4kwatts

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Loggers-EPCR3-Ethernet-Power-Controller/114598321218?

kwatt meter

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07M8JKLG5/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?

usb sticks burned and really to swap into a mobo

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BPHML28/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?

quiet air compressor yeah you can have a big loud one. I own the one below and I have a big loud on I like the one below. I added a better hose to it.

https://www.amazon.com/California-Air-Tools-CAT-1P1060S-Compressor/dp/B01LYHYHEA/ref=sr_1_6?

smoke detector
https://www.amazon.com/First-Alert-SA303CN3-Battery-Powered/dp/B000BD6BSG/ref=sr_1_7?

and fire blankets
https://www.amazon.com/Suppression-Protective-Suitable-Fireplace-Retardant/dp/B07T9PQ5J7/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?

lets see spacers like these

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LDBB94B/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?


spare psu's to complicated to list which one.

and spare cpu coolers

$8.85 and work if the board is linux and only gpu mining.
https://www.amazon.com/Intel-LGA115x-CPU-Heatsink-E97379-003/dp/B01MSD39CN/ref=sr_1_3?

oh sometimes these pads help with random shorts.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RNCDVZ5/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?

nylon ties

https://www.amazon.com/Assorted-Self-Locking-12-Inch-Mounts-Workshop/dp/B089KJ1JSV/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia-wc-nc-drs1_0?

Sadly this thread just came in really handy.  I only have 2 rigs, have had them a few years and one just died.  It boots, sees my video cards, then miner crashes and the rig also looses network and goes down.   Tried new risers, only using a single card, etc.    I think its the motherboard, and since I don't have a spare I ordered one along with a psu tester that Phil listed.

One question that I thought of this morning... for those of you who have small farms in your home, and have invested hundreds, thousands, (more?) into your hardware...  What are you doing to insure your hardware?  Do you add it on as specific items on your home owner's insurance?  Or do you get a separate policy to protect them?  As I'm considering a large investment over time (by my standards), I got thinking gosh what if I had a massive power surge that fried everything.  Or a rig catches on fire and destroys them all.  Or a basement flood.  Or... Or... Or... 

And to that end, do you guys leave your gear running if you got off on vacation for a week? 

Insurance isn't a tangible tool, but maybe a tool I should have in my bag of tricks? 

Mine are all covered on my business insurance and specifically listed.  But i dont mine at home...i have large industrial buidling.

Ive got smart switches on every rig so i can power up/down at will from anywhere. So for me 24/7/365 :)

Something i havent seen listed...FANS... extra fans for the problems that arise.  Both 100x100 or 120x120 but also spare gpu fans.  iroberts has been a reliable fan source for me...there are plenty. 

And when a gpu fails and you cant get a replacement fan or its too expensive...the zip ties and the 100x100 or 120x120 will do the trick.

Miner29, thank you.  Those are great points.  I had thoughts that spare fans would be good.  I am interested in your smart switches, would you mind sharing details with us on that?  I would like to be able to remotely control anything I can.  I use remote desktop software at work, so I can work from home if needed, just like I'm sitting there.  I would like to setup that same interface if possible for my rigs.  Probably mostly so I can count pennies every day LOL.  But I like the ability to be able to shut it down if needed, that's cool.  Do GPUs alert you if a fan goes out, or do you need to physically look at them to make sure they are all spinning?

Here are high quality switches


I purchased this one

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Loggers-EPCR3-Ethernet-Power-Controller/313181394732?


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Loggers-EPCR3-Ethernet-Power-Controller/233854644649?

if you use simple mining you can look at your gear from all over the world.


and if you use the switch above with 1 pc and

anydesk https://anydesk.com/en


or teamveiwer. https://www.teamviewer.com/en-us/


you can sign into that pc and look at the switches and turn them on or off.

Speaking of smoke detectors, they are good however they won't help you when you are not home. I think its rare to have someone's house burn down due to mining. I had many melted cables, PSUs blow up, GPUs go Kaboom and emit black smoke and make the place stink afterwards, however none actually started a fire.

What I would do in the future is just keep the rigs on metal frames and keep the frames on a metal rack away from anything flammable. So don't put it next to a wall or near boxes which are easily flammable.

They sell these type of blow up balls which basically you can put near your rig, if it detects any heat, they will blow up and send fire extinguisher powder everywhere and hopefully put out the fire. Never tried this however.

fire blankets can help.  Amazon has them. I have a few here and there.

Let's not forget about:

• USB sticks

        very handy when using linux distros like smos, etc. Should have good read/write figures to easily reflash if needed.

• lombar exercises (daily)

        I almost killed my back carrying rig cases from one place to another :D. I think this should be in top 3 ;D.

That looks more expensive than the Simple rig resetter from SMOS, It can handle upto 300+ rigs with an extension board and pings your miner every 2-3 seconds to see if its still alive, if not, it powers it off and back on again.
I bought 3 of these SRR devices in '16-'17 and have never looked back.

https://simplemining.net/page/what-is-srr (https://simplemining.net/page/what-is-srr)

It is more costly as it monitors power use on each rig.

It is basically a remote pdu with meters for each of its 8 sockets

It allows any rig or asic up to 12 x 240= 2880 watts per plug

grand total of 24 x 240 = 5760 watts

It does more than simple  miner rig resetter does.

The temp rise is the alert.  If you have the miner screen up you can see the fan speed drop or go to zero.  Usually its a gradual rising of temp as fans wear out.  What crazy is some fans didnt last a couple of years...some i have are on their 5th year running 24/7....
I run Ethos and mmpOS on my rigs so they monitor temp snd will shut down card or rig if a problem arises. 

As for power plugs i use these...

https://www.amazon.com/KMC-Monitoring-Compatible-Required-Function/dp/B07313TH7B/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=kmc+plug&qid=1610718643&sr=8-1

The actual unit is marked at 100-240v.  I use pdus then have these on each plug on the pdu.  Also monitors power usage by the plug.  Phone app gives me control from anywhere.  Was the least expensive solution i found.  i have over 40 of them installed.   I only run them on rigs rated 10a so no where near that for a rig.  Need wifi for them to work.

They make a handy plug to go into my pdu C15R to the C14 plug on the switch.  

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IBIC1XG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you are on 110v power can plug straight to outlet.  For my biggest psus 2600watt...they take dual power plugs and just stick 2 switches one to each plug.  im on 240 so i have to use the little adapter plugs.  


This ad brought to you by amazon..... ;D

They monitor power use which is nice.

here is what the gear I have is running in my house.  Just a 2 board s9 with braiins firmware.

1 of 8 plugs is power on.  And we are running at 117 volts as the gear can do 110 to 204 volts.

https://i.imgur.com/S7QlX4E.png


https://i.imgur.com/0lYtUPM.png

Wow this is a bunch of great information guys, thanks!  I'll take some time over the weekend to try and absorb this. 

With planning to build this in the cold storage area of my basement, everything will be basically encased on 5 sides (3 walls, ceiling and floor) of concrete.  Trying to decide what to do for the 4th wall, I'm considering doing a simple framing job, install a metal door, sheetrock the inside of the just the newly added wall for some fire protection, and then covering all the internal surfaces with that automotive material for thermal protection and sound proofing.  Also reading up on some air movement ideas to push cold air in down low and push hot air out up high.  Still waiting on a call back from the power company to learn what my options are for installing some more juice to the house. 

I also found some inexpensive indoor/outdoor thermometers, and i figured I could put three of those in the room - floor, ceiling and in between to keep an eye on room temps as well.  I'm geeking out about this pretty good LOL. 

1. patience

2. logic

Looking at specs of what appears to be the current model of this switch (EPCR7) https://www.digital-loggers.com/epcr7spec.pdf (https://www.digital-loggers.com/epcr7spec.pdf)

It has 4 "pairs" of managed plugs on each of two circuits - an A circuit and a B circuit.  I'm trying to understand the electrical math.  The spec sheet I linked to says it can do 30amps, 3600 Watts.  But I thought that 30amps = 7200 watts? 

Each Rig I plan to build has a target of 440 watts - CPU plus 3 GPUs.  I am hoping that I can eventually run 12 Rigs on one 30amp dedicated circuit for a total draw of 5280 Watts.  But I can't figure out if I can run this on the EPCR7 (6 rigs on A circuit and 6 rigs on B circuit).  Or if I would need two of them to do it. 

Note it is 208-240v...240x30=7200w

my model is a bit older and auto selects 120 to 240

so it would do 3600 at 120 derate by 80% 2880 watts  and I would fudge down to 2500 watts  or 4 600 watt builds

and it would do 7200 at 240 derate by 80% 5760 watts and I would fudge down to 5000 watts or 8 600 watt builds

I buy them used on eBay and so far so good.

What do you guys think about something like this to help dampen the noise from several GPU rigs?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007PBK6A6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007PBK6A6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1)

These aren't ideal - I'm still looking for something that's 100% natural fibers like wool/cotton because of not wanting synthetic fibers in case of an electrical fire.  These are 70/30...  but I'm still looking...  Do you guys think that lining the walls, ceiling and floor in the mining room would help dampen the sound a little bit? 

My concrete room that I'm going to build my garden in will be sealed off, and hopefully sound into the house won't be nasty, but I'm thinking about when I'm in there servicing anything, the noise bouncing off the concrete surfaces might make me insane.  I mean earplugs are cheaper... but I'm just thinking long term, this might be useful to help dampen the sound...?  I'd be curious to see if any of you guys are doing something like this? 

I have better but I need to find links

this
Is fire resistant  and sound proofs well

https://www.homedepot.com/p/UltraTouch-48-in-x-75-ft-Radiant-Barrier-with-Recycled-Cotton-30000-11475/100656747

and to be super safe this is really fire resistant it cuts sound down as well here it is in my garage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqoQ0jPxs14

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084YZQV6M/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?

I thought about those welder blankets too... I have smaller ones that I use to protect my fireworks ignition systems for when I do fireworks shows.  Where they have those grommets in them, I was thinking I could run masonry bolts into the concrete walls and hang them like drapes on the concrete, but the concrete doesn't need any fire protection, mostly I'm just trying to baffle the noise.  A lot of the good sound absorbing materials would be awesome, except for the fact that they are synthetic and could melt/burn if a problem arises.  So that's why I was thinking the cotton/wool blankets.  You know how bad noise will echo in an empty room with no carpet, or furnishings.  That's what I'm thinking.  I'll check out the UltraTouch product.  Thanks!

If you plan to buy a fire extinguisher, be careful what type of fire extinguisher you use ...

There are five main types of fire extinguishers:

• Water, water mist or water spray
• Foam
• Dry Powder
• CO2
• Wet Chemical

Foam or Dry Powder are the best choise in my opinion.
but never use a dry powder extinguisher at your home ...
you will never get rid of the powder once it spreads in every crack...
Believe me, you don't want that at home :-)

Excellent point.  I was just researching that yesterday in fact.  I googled fire extinguishers for data centers, and I'm probably saying this word wrong, but I believe the ideal kind is "Halocarbon" based.  Not an ABC extinguisher, but just a "C".  They are supposed to starve the fire of oxygen, and leave no residue.  I believe it's something akin to dry ice - the material just evaporates and leaves no mess, and is supposed to be OK on electrical & computer equipment.  Looks like they are about $200 for a 5lb can. 

That is perhaps a little too expensive for the average miner like I am ;-)

 "Halocarbon" - Interesting! I must take a closer look at that

This is the article I found. 

https://blog.koorsen.com/what-is-the-right-fire-extinguisher-to-use-around-computers-servers (https://blog.koorsen.com/what-is-the-right-fire-extinguisher-to-use-around-computers-servers)

I did some fun research and there is even something better than Halocarbon:   

Novec 1230 fluid:

- helps protect irreplaceable paper documents and electronics
- highest margin of safety for human occupancy of any clean agent solution
- is not subject to the Halon 1301 phaseout or HFC phasedown
- is stored as a liquid and discharged as a gas.
- is appropriate for Class A, B and C fire hazards
- has zero ozone depletion potential
- the lowest atmospheric lifetime for chemical clean agent alternatives: 5 days. The next closest halon alternative is 29 years.
- has a Global Warming Potential of 1, which is 99.9% lower than any halocarbon agent acceptable for use in occupied spaces.
- Is appropriate for Class A, B and C fire hazard

They have a nice comparison table of fire protection solutions:
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/novec-us/applications/fire-suppression/#Z7_79L2HO02KO42D0QGI9GVE8RRN5

Might be also useable as air replacement for gpu cooling:
https://youtu.be/1E7Nr72rxB8?t=21

Hope this is helpful to someone...
however, over and out :-)