Bitcoin Forum

With the sometimes questionable construction of mining rigs and running lots of GPUs with lots of power in tight spaces, I wonder if having a fire alarm directly over the setup would be a good idea.

What smoke/fire alarms would be good for electrical fires?  I have this nagging suspicion that the $5 ones at wal-mart aren't the best.  ;D
 
Maybe even have it rigged so if there's smoke the power is automatically cut...

I am interested in this as well.

Fairly sure there are regulations on minimum performance levels of something as important as a smoke detector, so even the cheap ones should be OK. As for auto power shutdown, well I don't know if anyone has really thought of that. Of course, expensive UPSs have an EPO (Emergency Power Off) port that kills the load if you connect the pins together, but no one uses those for mining.

I don't even know of any smoke detectors with relay or signal outputs, other than expensive built-in systems used for commercial buildings. It would be a good idea though.

I would say for big mining rigs something like this would be usefull http://www.gadsecsolutions.com/Exporters_Suppliers/Exporter3688.46968/Automatic-Fire-Extinguisher.html

That moment when you're not at home and something in your mining rig gets to hot and causes a fire you were glad that you had one of those.

Get a normal fire alarm. Check to see the voltage and current that goes through the buzzer and find a solidstate relay that fits within those limits. Use this relay to trigger larger mechanical relays to cut out your power across your breakers. A better option might be a small arduino controller that monitors these pins, sends out a SOS when SHTF and then triggers relays to cut power. All just ideas thought up while reading this but there are many different approaches to this. In the end something battery backed so in the event of an electrical fire causing a breaker to trip you don't lose your watchdog.

The chemical temperature triggered extinguishers, if placed correctly, will work also. They'll save the building but effectively destroy your gear.

Righto.
Just make sure your solid state relay uses optical coupling (most do) or add a photocoupler yourself.

Power probably will self cut (short out and pop a breaker) if there is a fire big enuf to trigger a smoke alarm.  

Probably be too late if you get a electrical fire going that big with no one present, whole structure could go.

Come on it if you are going to do it then do it right.

Door to my hashing farm.  :)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Halon_fire_supression.jpg/450px-Halon_fire_supression.jpg

Just kidding but that would be awesome right?

I wasn't going to mention a Halon system just due to the unrealistic costs for a mining operation. They are very neat systems though  :D I wonder though, a CO2 suppression system could be built for maybe $1-2k. It would require some coordination between ventilation  and solenoids but it would not be a difficult system to implement. Ideally a small room/enclosure, a intake/outlet ventilation system with a system of shutters to block the intake/outtake, pressure regulation manifold to link and meter multiple CO2 cylinders into the chamber.

The other option would be liquid nitrogen. I have some experience with LN2 solenoids and I could easily/quickly vent a 180/230L dewar in to said room. From the wiki "Since the liquid to gas expansion ratio of nitrogen is 1:694 at 20 °C (68 °F), a tremendous amount of force can be generated if liquid nitrogen is rapidly vaporized." You won't get quite that high of an expansion ratio as it'll be injected in to the room in a liquid state and quickly drop the ambient temperatures but if done correctly you could gradually expand the LN2 in the delivery system. Perhaps have a finned heat exchanger like used to generate dry gaseous nitrogen from LN2. Place that in the room and just vent the nitrogen in to the room.

Hmm. I have a few bottles of Halon sitting around here, pulled from an old suppression system. They would cost a shit ton to ship, but does anyone wanna buy a fire suppression system that won't damage your rigs? Name your price :D

https://i.imgur.com/a5CEml.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/a5CEm.jpg)
Big Fike bottles

https://i.imgur.com/bJp4jl.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/bJp4j.jpg)
Little Fike bottle

Hey that little one might actually be cool for my operation... It used to be in the rectifier room at the datacenter we converted to an office.... In other news, anyone want some used CRAC units? Liebert 10 ton upflow, 4 stages, with humidifier and dehumidifier...  4 available</end advertising>

How about a cheap water based system that will destroy your gear? And buy insurance.

How about you just wire it properly and your likelyhood of a fire is extremely low, approaching nil..