Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Hardware => Topic started by: philipma1957 on July 02, 2015, 03:40:44 AM



Title: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 02, 2015, 03:40:44 AM
I will delete all off topic posts.




I am asking for confirmed dead sp20 info. and if you are like me  confirm all your good ones.

screen shots of your dead machines gui help.

what speed did you run them at.

good ones to dead ones ratio,



 

please don't say they suck
 they did not fix it .
I am looking for trends in breakdowns.

I am also looking for repair techniques.



 In my case 13 into my home all good. all run under  1400gh.   all used quality gold or plat psu's. All ran 2 to 5 months in my home.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: shacky on July 02, 2015, 04:53:16 AM
Hi,

I have more than 50 SP20, running with Lepa 1600 or Silverstone 1500, each one at 1.2TH.

Dont have any problem at all,

Have all running for more tha 4 months.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Pt0x on July 02, 2015, 06:38:17 AM
27 SP20 Miners running fine at 1.2TH, all with 80 gold or Platinum PSUs,  BUT  5 only boot reliably from a SD Card.





Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Xian01 on July 02, 2015, 06:54:17 AM
8 units total. 2 have given me some problems recently, but nothing I haven't been able to resolve so far (purchased a replacement board from a user), although I think luck has a lot to do with it...

Spider sense is telling me two controller boards are starting to lose their marbles. One wasn't honoring the voltage settings. Set the limit to 150 on one of the loops, and watched it go past 175 and the temps start to rise, and one of the loops had an * beside the temperature. I'm betting that's how that one PCIE socket of mine burnt out; controller probably went nuts and gave it too much power, causing the cable to actually melt and cause the wires to snap.

EDIT: All running Corsair AX 1200 gold power supplies, and the one I fixed most recently with a replacement board is now running on an Antec 1300 plat, clocked at ~ 1.2TH/s


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 02, 2015, 09:42:38 AM
My thanks to all replies.

I would love to read more people's info.


I want to do this for the 3 major  pieces of gear that came out last dec.

the sp20
the s-5
the avalon 4.1


then do the sp30 sp31 sp35

along with the s4 and s4+

I am trying to do this to assess what breaks most.

Pcie socket
controller
pcb caps
etc


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 02, 2015, 10:21:42 AM
dogie

I deleted your post since it has no info on sp20's

To all This is about gear info on gear you own.

and in this case only sp20's


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: p3yot33at3r on July 02, 2015, 10:32:07 AM
I'm having problems too. 2 out of 3 of my SP20's no longer boot - dead controllers. Tried every kind of SD card, recovery, boot & in every possible combination - dead. The worst thing is, SPTech are charging way too much for the replacement controller boards to make it economically viable to buy them - especially when there's a very good chance that the same thing could happen again at any time.

It's a shame, cos when they work, they work great - but when they don't, you're screwed.

I'm a bit miffed about it all tbh...... :(


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 02, 2015, 11:00:24 AM
So far 128 sp20's mentioned.

13     13 - 0     Philipma1957
50     50 - 0     shacky
27     22 - 5     Pt0x   -----------    but the 5 do recover with sd cards
  8      6 - 2      Xian01 ----------   a controller and a pcie issue fixed by owner
  3       1 - 2     p3yot33at3r ----- dead controllers
  2       1 - 1     r00t$ --------------    needs an sdcard and 2 bad asics
  9       9 - 0     Prelude ------------ all good has run them at 1.1th
  5       5 - 0     sjc1490 ------------ all good  run at 1.1 to 1.3th
 17     17 - 0    Tupsu --------------- all good
 17     17 - 0    Finsky --------------- all good some ip issues ran them hot 1300 to 1500gh
 58     56 - 2    MCHouston --------- 2 with dead asic issues.
 17     14 - 3    sidehack ------------- 3 with shipping damage
 1         1-  0    alh ------------------- 1 good with a slightly hot asic chip
 4         4 - 0    GenTarkin ----------- 4 good run 1250 to 1400
 4         4 - 0    tlhIlwI---------------- all good but the eBay purchase runs hot

so of the 235   looks like 220 still run  and 15 needed parts from sp-tech or run a bit less then then should


thanks for info so far.

I know it is hard to not complain about the rma or company not doing the right repairs.  

Thanks for not pushing too hard in that direction.

I am hoping for  a few more replies today.

Thanks again Phil

 
Totals

the running rate with little or no issues is over 93% 

the remaining 7%   run somewhat after repairs.

I will leave thread open longer for more replies.

Thanks for not pushing the anger on the imperfections.

Best to all phil



Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: r00t$ on July 02, 2015, 01:22:41 PM
2 SP20's running since Nov. One unit has been running strong at 1.3 TH/s.

The other is down 2 ASIC's, with an intermittent test serial failed message. Sometimes the 2 faulty ASIC's will hash, but I've found it easier to simply disable and not have to babysit the unit. This unit also will not run reliably without an SD card. 


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 02, 2015, 01:34:12 PM
2 SP20's running since Nov. One unit has been running strong at 1.3 TH/s.

The other is down 2 ASIC's, with an intermittent test serial failed message. Sometimes the 2 faulty ASIC's will hash, but I've found it easier to simply disable and not have to babysit the unit. This unit also will not run reliably without an SD card. 

thank you  for your input


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Prelude on July 02, 2015, 01:42:03 PM
9 SP20Es, all purchased used.

All running at 1.1TH/s due to lack of power. Getting a new electrical service installed next week, once that's done they'll be mining at ~1.3-1.4TH/s.

Haven't had a hardware failure yet. CGminer likes to restart it's self once in a while, but I donj't see that as a big issue.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: sjc1490 on July 02, 2015, 01:49:54 PM
 5 SP 20 all running down clocked (thanks for your thread) in the range of 1 to 1.3 TH. 1 on a Corsair 1200 PSU 1 on an old S2 PSU and 3 on 1300 G2 PSU's. SE USA.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Tupsu on July 02, 2015, 01:59:30 PM
SP20 was one big lie from start to finish.

Technical Specs.

Effective Hash Rate
 
1.7 TH/s ± 10%
 
Nobody knows any SP20, which would be  works at a speed of  1,7TH/s+170GH/s=1870GH/s

Even  was almost  impossible to achieve 1,7GH/s.

With each new purchase SP20, the price had already fallen and previous order had not yet arrived.

My 17x SP20 are still working, so I have not had to deal with those horrible ( KNC )  customer service, or had to buy their overpriced spare parts.

The only good thing with them is a SP20 software.  
For this we must thank of just one man and his efforts -  Zvisha Shteingart .

http://www.spondoolies-tech.com/pages/team

But one man can not stand against the policy of the company.
I think it is right to put a reference mark  Spondoolies - Tech = KNC


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Finksy on July 02, 2015, 02:42:30 PM
17x SP20e purchased in December, mined for about 2-3 months with them without problem, sold them way too early.

Had 2 or 3 that had a hard time getting on my LAN via DHCP, but was easily fixed after running a DHCP server on my PC and pegging static IP's. Some hashed steadily @ 1500 GH/s for periods of a couple weeks, most stayed at around 1300GH/s for their life to keep chip temperatures down (I never trusted their auto-settings, they would leave the chips hotter than I feel was good for longevity). 

They were great miners, if only they had been marketed and priced more accurately given their true performance. For a small "home" style miner, they were built too expensively for both the company and the consumer, and ultimately seem to have been the nail in SP-Tech's consumer sales' coffin.  SP has made it clear that they are not willing to sacrifice quality in order to sell for less, which is a problem in our world (or was more-so in 2014 w/ difficulty) because miners are not assets, they are liabilities; their only true value is in what they can provide in revenue during their foreseeable lifespan.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: MCHouston on July 02, 2015, 03:12:07 PM
58 SP20e 50 Purchased new from Spondoolies, 8 purchased used locally.

Running for 4 Months at 1.4Th each.  Two units have dead asic boards.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: sidehack on July 02, 2015, 03:31:34 PM
SP has made it clear that they are not willing to sacrifice quality in order to sell for less

Sacrificing complexity (and in my opinion, heat density) would sure be nice, as that tends to decrease costs and increase reliability. 200A four-phase VRMs per 120C-rated chip and an FPGA-implemented custom comm protocol into a custom controller board isn't doing the trick.

I've had 17 running on my hosting shelves for several months now with occasional issues. Three of one guy's six miners were damaged out of the box, including cracked inductors on the VRMs, cut ribbon cables and a smashed LED. One of the damaged units has a pair of ASICs that have never worked since being here, and the unit will not hash at all if that loop isn't manually disabled.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: alh on July 02, 2015, 04:34:21 PM
My single SP20 was purchased used in February of 2015. For the most part it's been run underclocked in the range of 1000-1200 GH/s, with a few hour burst run when it was colder. The max has been about 1400 GH, since I only have a 1000W power supply, and only let it go to about 950W from the supply.

I try not to reboot it often, and sometimes when it's a power-cycle type of reboot, it seems to go through 1 or more additional internal reboots to get itself all squared up. I use my router to assign a static IP address. It's connected to my WiFi network via a Netgear WiFi-->Ethernet bridge that's powered off the SP20 USB port. I haven't tried to make the SP20 run a WiFi dongle in the USB port as others have.

I's been essentially trouble-free, with one hot ASIC, that's usually about 20C hotter than the others. That ASIC is on a loop that is usually 30+ Watts over the limit I specify. The other 3 loops run as specified, and seem cooler.

I cross my fingers whenever I have to reboot it.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: GenTarkin on July 02, 2015, 04:52:46 PM
4x SP20e been mining on them since jan / feb without issue.

In recent months all 4 of them run towards 120C at chip temps on loop 2 & 4, VRM's around 100C ... they are tanking the heat like warriors.
I did up the fan to keep them as cool as possible. Throughout the winter, fan was at 10% and clocked much higher than they are now. I think they were running close to 120C in winter as well w/o issue. They declock / devolt as needed to stay under 120C

Run them anywhere between 1250-1400GH


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Pt0x on July 02, 2015, 05:30:39 PM
I'm having problems too. 2 out of 3 of my SP20's no longer boot - dead controllers. Tried every kind of SD card, recovery, boot & in every possible combination - dead. The worst thing is, SPTech are charging way too much for the replacement controller boards to make it economically viable to buy them - especially when there's a very good chance that the same thing could happen again at any time.

It's a shame, cos when they work, they work great - but when they don't, you're screwed.

I'm a bit miffed about it all tbh...... :(

The ones that that I own and failed to boot, did not started after several tries with the permanent boot sd card inserted. I can tell you that I tried to boot a least 5 times per miner with different time intervals between tries. But once I got them to boot at least once, they started to work again as expected.

Every time I had a power outage, I could loose as much of 2 or 3 days of mining until I used the SD cards. Now they boot immediately after the power comes back or in the second try.

Now I keep some SD cards ready all the time waiting for the next board with dead flash.






Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 02, 2015, 05:42:34 PM
I will tally numbers in a little bit.

So far looks to be better then 90% good.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: tlhIlwI on July 02, 2015, 06:34:01 PM
I have 4 SP20s.  Two of them have metal shields on the serial connection and two just have black plastic connectors there.  In my testing the ones with the silver serial connections run slower but undervolt better, whereas the ones with the black connectors run much faster but don't undervolt as well.  I mention this because I suspect those connectors might correlate to production batches.

Anyway, of my SP20s:

Two of them (both with black connectors) run perfectly and have been at around 1.40T-1.50T (0.72V) their entire life with an occasional bump to 1.60T (0.75V) when WestHash was paying ridiculous amounts.

One of them (with metal connector) struggles to reach 1.37T and runs really hot at the ASICs (7 of 8 hitting 120C with 29C intake).  The exhaust temp on this one never exceeds 60C and feels relatively cool compared to the others, so I suspect a problem with the thermal compound between the ASIC and heatsinks (the heat isn't getting transferred into the air)-- possibly the compound is drying out.  I never set this one past 0.72V and am more comfortable with it at 0.69V max .  I'm tempted to pull the heatsinks and change the compound, but am a bit concerned about cracking the ASICs if the compound has already hardened too much.  It's bad enough that a couple of the ASICs are thermal limiting to around 0.60V.

The last one (also with the metal connector) bricked after a power outage.  Recovery SD didn't fix it, but it will run with a boot SD inserted (and that is how it now runs).  It has been run at 1.35T-1.45T (0.72V) with the occasional bump to 1.55T (0.75V) during the WestHash runs.

I run all of mine with the fans set to 100%.  They are in a location where noise isn't a problem, so I prefer the extra airflow over quiet operation.

Edit: All of mine except for the one with thermal compound issues were new purchases back in January (I know their history).  The one with thermal issues was an eBay purchase, so I have no idea the history (probably ran hard before I got it).


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 02, 2015, 08:04:15 PM
So far 235 sp20's mentioned.  lots of good info. thanks to all

13     13 - 0     Philipma1957
50     50 - 0     shacky
27     22 - 5     Pt0x   -----------    but the 5 do recover with sd cards
  8      6 - 2      Xian01 ----------   a controller and a pcie issue fixed by owner
  3       1 - 2     p3yot33at3r ----- dead controllers
  2       1 - 1     r00t$ --------------    needs an sdcard and 2 bad asics
  9       9 - 0     Prelude ------------ all good has run them at 1.1th
  5       5 - 0     sjc1490 ------------ all good  run at 1.1 to 1.3th
 17     17 - 0    Tupsu --------------- all good
 17     17 - 0    Finsky --------------- all good some ip issues ran them hot 1300 to 1500gh
 58     56 - 2    MCHouston --------- 2 with dead asic issues.
 17     14 - 3    sidehack ------------- 3 with shipping damage
 1         1-  0    alh ------------------- 1 good with a slightly hot asic chip
 4         4 - 0    GenTarkin ----------- 4 good run 1250 to 1400
 4         4 - 0    tlhIlwI---------------- all good but the eBay purchase runs hot
 1         1 - 0    CrazyGuy ------------ 1 chip runs hot but works
 3         2 - 1    Biodom --------------- 1 all good 1 runs hot 1 came doa easy fix
12       10 - 2   Quakefiend ---------- 2 dead controllers
 1         1 - 0    edonkey -------------- all good runs a bit hot

so of the 252 looks like 234 still run  and 18 needed parts from sp-tech or run a bit less then then should


thanks for info so far.

I know it is hard to not complain about the rma or company not doing the right repairs.  

Thanks for not pushing too hard in that direction.

I am hoping for  a few more replies today.

Thanks again Phil

 
Totals

the running rate with little or no issues is over 92.85%  

the remaining 7.15%   run somewhat after repairs.

I will leave thread open longer for more replies.

Thanks for not pushing the anger on the imperfections.

Best to all phil

If you were to project this to all gear (a big stretch ) 

the network  of 350ph has lost about 17ph in the last 7 months to gear dying.

I will leave the thread open until monday and then do one on s-5's

I know this is only an approximate number,but one can see why network growth lags since last Dec.
  If your gear dies and you were doing marginal profits a buyer of gear may not replace it.
We all know a builder of gear that self mines will find it easy to replace it compared to a buyer of gear.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 02, 2015, 08:26:24 PM
At least they dont burn themselves up when not connected a pool like S5's =P


going to delete as off topic.   but in a while when I try to do the s-5 I am sure we will hear that problem over and over again.

once I get a decent amount of numbers  on the sp20's   (so  far we have 235 in)

I will do the s-5's next.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: CrazyGuy on July 02, 2015, 08:43:47 PM
I've got one left. Other than one die that runs pretty hot (~120c) and shuts off every couple weeks, it's still running strong.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Biodom on July 02, 2015, 09:38:27 PM
I had three.
One is still running (since mid December). I run it at 1.2Th with low fan. One loop has one chip at 85C, but another at 115C. That high temp chip seems to get progressively hotter over the months (it was 105-110 initially, then went to 120, so I had to decrease power to that loop). A good machine, nevertheless.
One machine I run a little, then sold-it was good as well.
One SP20 had one nonfunctional loop from the get-go. Spondoolies was very nice to fully compensate. I sold it here, and it turned out that one connector did not properly "bite" the cable, so it was a relatively easy fix by someone who was ready to void the warranty.

I would score it as two/three with no problems and one with a fixable problem


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: quakefiend420 on July 02, 2015, 09:40:31 PM
Have had 12 units total, 2 controllers died, no other issues.

BTW, to anyone reading this thread that has dead hashing boards, I have 3 good ones left.  PM me if you need.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 02, 2015, 11:14:12 PM
Have had 12 units total, 2 controllers died, no other issues.

BTW, to anyone reading this thread that has dead hashing boards, I have 3 good ones left.  PM me if you need.

good to hear you can supply a few parts.

I will tally this up again later today.



Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: edonkey on July 03, 2015, 04:24:21 AM
I've got one SP20e that's been mining for 211 days. It's been very reliable.

Loop 3 does run hot, so the hash rate fluctuates a bit. I've always run it in an air-conditioned environment, so it's fed with cool air. That seems to help with the overall hash rate. It's performance is very tightly tied to the ambient temperature. More so than other miners that I've had (like the S3's).

There have been a few times where the unit went off line, stopped hashing, and was unreachable (even via ssh). Power cycling has always brought it back. Fortunately I have it at a data center with a PDU, so remote power cycling is easy.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: alh on July 03, 2015, 05:25:29 AM
Just had a random thought. If it interferes too much with your data gathering feel free to delete.

I am wondering if the controller on the SP20 were to run warm for some reason (e.g. max speed, poor intake air temp, whatever), could that shorten the life of the installed flash on the controller? I am reluctant to tinker with my SP20, but I think it's basically a Beaglebone Black (BB) with an extra FPGA to connect it to the hashing boards. I think the BB has a builtin in EMCC(?) flash that it normally runs from. Lets say it was running for weeks at an elevated temperature, could some of the flash cells lose their state and hence end up with a corrupted flash (i.e it's bricked)? The external SD card is almost outside, and likely wouldn't get as hot, besides it's relatively easy to just swap in a new SD card if that gets corrupted.

Is it true that you can't reflash the native EMCC from the SD card? That seems like an unfortunate design situation. Would it "help" to periodically reflash the EMCC while it's still sane, in order to "refresh" the cells?

Of course this whole line of thinking might be completely off. If Spondoolies looked at this, they might also have some good ideas, and learn something from our experience. I doubt they would "fix" anything, but might have ideas to offer. They might also learn something for their generation of hardware (i.e. make sure you have an easily replaced flash).

Continuing to keep my fingers crossed and my SP20 "cool".


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 03, 2015, 01:53:08 PM

So far 235 sp20's mentioned.  lots of good info. thanks to all

13     13 - 0     Philipma1957
50     50 - 0     shacky
27     22 - 5     Pt0x   -----------    but the 5 do recover with sd cards
  8      6 - 2      Xian01 ----------   a controller and a pcie issue fixed by owner
  3       1 - 2     p3yot33at3r ----- dead controllers
  2       1 - 1     r00t$ --------------    needs an sdcard and 2 bad asics
  9       9 - 0     Prelude ------------ all good has run them at 1.1th
  5       5 - 0     sjc1490 ------------ all good  run at 1.1 to 1.3th
 17     17 - 0    Tupsu --------------- all good
 17     17 - 0    Finsky --------------- all good some ip issues ran them hot 1300 to 1500gh
 58     56 - 2    MCHouston --------- 2 with dead asic issues.
 17     14 - 3    sidehack ------------- 3 with shipping damage
 1         1-  0    alh ------------------- 1 good with a slightly hot asic chip
 4         4 - 0    GenTarkin ----------- 4 good run 1250 to 1400
 4         4 - 0    tlhIlwI---------------- all good but the eBay purchase runs hot
 1         1 - 0    CrazyGuy ------------ 1 chip runs hot but works
 3         2 - 1    Biodom --------------- 1 all good 1 runs hot 1 came doa easy fix
12       10 - 2   Quakefiend ---------- 2 dead controllers
 1         1 - 0    edonkey -------------- all good runs a bit hot

so of the 252 looks like 234 still run  and 18 needed parts from sp-tech or run a bit less then then should


thanks for info so far.

I know it is hard to not complain about the rma or company not doing the right repairs.  

Thanks for not pushing too hard in that direction.

I am hoping for  a few more replies today.

Thanks again Phil

 
Totals

the running rate with little or no issues is over 92.85%  

the remaining 7.15%   run somewhat after repairs.

I will leave thread open longer for more replies.

Thanks for not pushing the anger on the imperfections.

Best to all phil

If you were to project this to all gear (a big stretch ) 

the network  of 350ph has lost about 17ph in the last 7 months to gear dying.

I will leave the thread open until monday and then do one on s-5's

I know this is only an approximate number,but one can see why network growth lags since last Dec.
  If your gear dies and you were doing marginal profits a buyer of gear may not replace it.
We all know a builder of gear that self mines will find it easy to replace it compared to a buyer of gear.
  This has really shown me something   using a 5% death rate of gear gives us 17.5ph of gear shut down . using a 10% death rate 35ph of gear has shut down.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: tlhIlwI on July 03, 2015, 02:49:43 PM
I am wondering if the controller on the SP20 were to run warm for some reason (e.g. max speed, poor intake air temp, whatever), could that shorten the life of the installed flash on the controller?

I have wondered this before given the reports (mine included) of a SP20 having a messed up controller requiring a SD card after a power outage.  When the power goes out the fans stop.  When the fans stop the still hot ASICs/heatsinks dissipate their heat upward-- and that is where the controller board is at.

I've been tempted to rig up a fan on a relay and UPS to start up when the power goes out just to provide some airflow through/across the miners for 20 minutes or so after an outage.  Alternatively (and simpler), maybe just run them upside down so the controller is underneath the ASICs.  I'm not sure if that would cause other problems though.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: LeeC on July 03, 2015, 03:28:15 PM
Running 6 here all flawlessly for months.
3 bought direct and 3 bought from here all running at around 1.3TH/s

As for them not running at 1.7TH/s when i first got them and just because I wound everything up to 11 i got 1.6, 1.68 and 1.77.

They are far happier at 1.3TH/s and so are my power bills.

I'd like more but we'll more chance of pigs flying..


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 03, 2015, 04:06:51 PM
Running 6 here all flawlessly for months.
3 bought direct and 3 bought from here all running at around 1.3TH/s

As for them not running at 1.7TH/s when i first got them and just because I wound everything up to 11 i got 1.6, 1.68 and 1.77.

They are far happier at 1.3TH/s and so are my power bills.

I'd like more but we'll more chance of pigs flying..

yeah I never was able to go over 1650 on any of my 13, but they suck up a ton of power at that speed.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: goxed on July 03, 2015, 04:46:53 PM
running 4 underclocked and undervolted (0.61V, 1TH/s) and Fan speed at 2. As of today all 4 are doing fine.
 Updated the firmware to 2.7.1


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Xircom on July 03, 2015, 10:26:54 PM
I have 35 SP20 and all running around 1350-1400 mhash. Not a single one has died and has been running flawless since January.
The key thing with SP20 is to run them downclocked and COLD. Mine is running in ambient temp of 16 degrees celcius all are running with 2800-3000 watt ibm server psu and breakout board. Rebooting them every 16-18 days.
If I could I would buy more..


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: GenTarkin on July 04, 2015, 02:18:20 AM
I have 35 SP20 and all running around 1350-1400 mhash. Not a single one has died and has been running flawless since January.
The key thing with SP20 is to run them downclocked and COLD. Mine is running in ambient temp of 16 degrees celcius all are running with 2800-3000 watt ibm server psu and breakout board. Rebooting them every 16-18 days.
If I could I would buy more..

Not sure if they REALLY care about temp that much, my 4 in the summer have tanked 35-45C intake temps just fine =)
What really odd I noticed is they clock themselves up a tad when they get hotter rofl! ... doesnt make sense.
I really wish the firmware were smarter, its way too aggressive on clocking shit down and leaving voltages high, rather than trying to drop voltages then clocks. In other words they dont run nearly as effecient as they could.



Any idea what changed on 2.7.1 firmware?


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Finksy on July 04, 2015, 04:46:33 AM
I found it helpful to reduce the power to the rear chips using the loop wattage limit. Helped keep them at a more consistent temperature, the cooling design wasn't exactly optimal in the SP20.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: GenTarkin on July 04, 2015, 05:27:59 AM
I found it helpful to reduce the power to the rear chips using the loop wattage limit. Helped keep them at a more consistent temperature, the cooling design wasn't exactly optimal in the SP20.

The design isnt bad, its just thats how these long tunnel designs work, the chips closer to the exit of air are gonna run hotter.
Whats funny is on all 4 of mine its the rear chips that peform the best / most efficient and they run hot as fuck =P


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: mitak64 on July 05, 2015, 12:15:03 PM
Just came back from vacation and 2 of my 4 SP20 were offline.
I pulled out the PSUs and tested them, both seem fine.
Burning smell came out of the SP20s upon trying to turn them on again.
Investigation still in process.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: p3yot33at3r on July 05, 2015, 01:19:51 PM
I'm having problems too. 2 out of 3 of my SP20's no longer boot - dead controllers. Tried every kind of SD card, recovery, boot & in every possible combination - dead. The worst thing is, SPTech are charging way too much for the replacement controller boards to make it economically viable to buy them - especially when there's a very good chance that the same thing could happen again at any time.

It's a shame, cos when they work, they work great - but when they don't, you're screwed.

I'm a bit miffed about it all tbh...... :(

UPDATE:

Lost my internet for 5 minutes this morning & my 3rd & last remaining SP20 never came back online. I now have the pleasure of reflashing SD cards & rebooting them all over the rest of the weekend in the hope that they "might" recognize an SD card & run again......

I hate baby sitting these things  >:(

3 out of 3 down.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 05, 2015, 02:10:06 PM
I am leaving this open until Monday.  I will then total full results.



Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Finksy on July 05, 2015, 02:38:21 PM
I found it helpful to reduce the power to the rear chips using the loop wattage limit. Helped keep them at a more consistent temperature, the cooling design wasn't exactly optimal in the SP20.

The design isnt bad, its just thats how these long tunnel designs work, the chips closer to the exit of air are gonna run hotter.
Whats funny is on all 4 of mine its the rear chips that peform the best / most efficient and they run hot as fuck =P

Sorry to go OT Phil.

That's strange, I had the exact opposite results. Efficiency went up for me when running fans at 100% and dropping avg ~10*C as opposed to running fans @ minimum. IIRC it was a 3-4% jump, but don't quote me on that. This was across about a dozen units, but was not actually measured at the wall (went by software readings).


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 05, 2015, 03:01:54 PM
I found it helpful to reduce the power to the rear chips using the loop wattage limit. Helped keep them at a more consistent temperature, the cooling design wasn't exactly optimal in the SP20.

The design isnt bad, its just thats how these long tunnel designs work, the chips closer to the exit of air are gonna run hotter.
Whats funny is on all 4 of mine its the rear chips that peform the best / most efficient and they run hot as fuck =P

Sorry to go OT Phil.

That's strange, I had the exact opposite results. Efficiency went up for me when running fans at 100% and dropping avg ~10*C as opposed to running fans @ minimum. IIRC it was a 3-4% jump, but don't quote me on that. This was across about a dozen units, but was not actually measured at the wall (went by software readings).

Close enough to topic. Along with fail rates any good info on repair or preventing failures is not too off base.
Rants and complaints are too far off topic.  I got a lot of info on the gear in this thread.  I will try to summarize and present it on Monday. Then move to the s-5.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: notlist3d on July 05, 2015, 07:01:16 PM
I have had 2 SP20's. Both have been mining since almost release.   At first I did mine in the area of 1.5T, never pushed it to try to get what was claimed max speed.

For summer both have been underclocked to very efficient settings.  No problems, no issues, no dead parts etc.

Not sure if your are collecting this or not but had high quality ATX PSU's on them since day 1.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: rkinnin on July 07, 2015, 01:48:30 AM
trying to understand why owners of sp-20's run them under 1.7Ths so much. 

I would like to get one still trying to understand why I would not run it at 1.7 if I have horsepower under its hood to do so.

Thank you in advance for anyone's thoughts.



Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Finksy on July 07, 2015, 02:43:02 AM
Long story short:  They aren't 1.7TH/s miners.  Only a small-ish minority of people have had them consistently run what they claim to, and I imagine these were in ideal conditions (climate controlled data centers). When I was running mine in a ~27*C large basement, the most I could get was about 1550-1600, and that was running fans full blast and chips still HOT.

It would be equivalent to the S5 being released as a 1.45 TH/s miner.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: rkinnin on July 07, 2015, 03:25:41 PM
Long story short:  They aren't 1.7TH/s miners.  Only a small-ish minority of people have had them consistently run what they claim to, and I imagine these were in ideal conditions (climate controlled data centers). When I was running mine in a ~27*C large basement, the most I could get was about 1550-1600, and that was running fans full blast and chips still HOT.

It would be equivalent to the S5 being released as a 1.45 TH/s miner.

prefect....thanks!

does that mean that the ole sp10's never ran at 1.4 Th/s ?


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: Biffa on July 07, 2015, 04:20:02 PM
2 SP20's running since Oct/Nov with no problems so far.

One of them was a Batch1 and the cards had come loose in transit, opened it up and reseated everything and its going fine.

Replaced the fans with quieter (less powerful) ones from the start, so run at 1.3-1.5TH depending on ambient


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: HerbPean on July 07, 2015, 04:24:45 PM
I have two SP20E, one broke by my negligence of abusing of the cool air outside during the winter (staying to close to the cold air). I had one running his fan at 40% and the other at 30%. The first one always been less cold then the other one. that said, the one at 40% broke and the other still runs rock solid at 1500 in the summer (I have cheap electricity). I assume the 40% got all the shit and protected the other one of any other thing that would sneak inside the room (which i though would be not possible since the unit were hot but I was wrong and I learned from this mistake). So I would consider my failure as a user miss utilization.

I was able to run them close to 1650 without any issue until I broke one of the two by an accumulation of Hot and humidity inside. (Corroded the first circuit (first two asic))

Why i'm pushing them that hard ?
1. cheap electricity
2. I prefer having more BTC then focusing only on maximizing profit since they have a short lifetime, I used them as much as I can.

That's my 2 cent :P


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: wpgdeez on July 07, 2015, 05:35:15 PM
Long story short:  They aren't 1.7TH/s miners.  Only a small-ish minority of people have had them consistently run what they claim to, and I imagine these were in ideal conditions (climate controlled data centers). When I was running mine in a ~27*C large basement, the most I could get was about 1550-1600, and that was running fans full blast and chips still HOT.

It would be equivalent to the S5 being released as a 1.45 TH/s miner.

prefect....thanks!

does that mean that the ole sp10's never ran at 1.4 Th/s ?
My SP10's ran between 1.2-1.3. I would get close to 1.4 when the intake air was less than -20c though. Turned them off a couple weeks ago. The silence is so beautiful :)


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: mavericklm on July 07, 2015, 08:16:52 PM
same here with sp10
fuck that winning!

mine was going 1.5 in the winter :o


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: thsminer on July 07, 2015, 08:27:34 PM
Have two SP20's running both at 1.45 with at a 850watt corsair since February this year
Did set the power drawn for each board so temperatures stay pretty equal.


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 07, 2015, 08:30:56 PM
going to close this a do a  final tally. thanks for all info


13     13 - 0     Philipma1957
50     50 - 0     shacky
27     22 - 5     Pt0x   -----------    but the 5 do recover with sd cards
  8      6 - 2      Xian01 ----------   a controller and a pcie issue fixed by owner
  3       1 - 2     p3yot33at3r ----- dead controllers
  2       1 - 1     r00t$ --------------    needs an sdcard and 2 bad asics
  9       9 - 0     Prelude ------------ all good has run them at 1.1th
  5       5 - 0     sjc1490 ------------ all good  run at 1.1 to 1.3th
 17     17 - 0    Tupsu --------------- all good
 17     17 - 0    Finsky --------------- all good some ip issues ran them hot 1300 to 1500gh
 58     56 - 2    MCHouston --------- 2 with dead asic issues.
 17     14 - 3    sidehack ------------- 3 with shipping damage
 1         1-  0    alh ------------------- 1 good with a slightly hot asic chip
 4         4 - 0    GenTarkin ----------- 4 good run 1250 to 1400
 4         4 - 0    tlhIlwI---------------- all good but the eBay purchase runs hot
 1         1 - 0    CrazyGuy ------------ 1 chip runs hot but works
 3         2 - 1    Biodom --------------- 1 all good 1 runs hot 1 came doa easy fix
12       10 - 2   Quakefiend ---------- 2 dead controllers
 1         1 - 0    edonkey -------------- all good runs a bit hot

6          6 - 0    LeeC -----------------  all good run at 1300
4          4-0      goxed ---------------- all good 4 at 1000gh
35        35-0     Xircom --------------- all good at 1350-1400
4           2-2     mitak64---------------  2 just died
2           2-0     notlist3d -------------- 2 underclocked
2           2-0     Biffa ------------------ 2 at 1.3th to 1.5th
2            1-1    HerbPean ------------  1 died to to op error got it too damp
2            2-0    thsminer---------------  1.45th
4            4-0    mavericklm -----------  all under 1.4th
----
so of the 313  looks like 291 still run  and 22 needed parts from sp-tech or run a bit less then then should or are dead


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: mavericklm on July 07, 2015, 08:38:36 PM
count me in with 4 units
all ok under 1.4th!


Title: Re: Been reading about a lot of dying sp20's
Post by: philipma1957 on July 07, 2015, 08:57:49 PM
added mavericklm and put in 1 more that died

so 291 and 22

of the 22 some were fixed

but lets judge hard  first and say all 22 are fully dead  the good to bad rate is 92.9%

lets judge easy  and say of the 22 with issues only 13 are dead

so 300 and 13 =  95.84% good to bad rate.



going to close this a do a  final tally. thanks for all info


13     13 - 0     Philipma1957
50     50 - 0     shacky
27     22 - 5     Pt0x   -----------    but the 5 do recover with sd cards
  8      6 - 2      Xian01 ----------   a controller and a pcie issue fixed by owner
  3       1 - 2     p3yot33at3r ----- dead controllers
  2       1 - 1     r00t$ --------------    needs an sdcard and 2 bad asics
  9       9 - 0     Prelude ------------ all good has run them at 1.1th
  5       5 - 0     sjc1490 ------------ all good  run at 1.1 to 1.3th
 17     17 - 0    Tupsu --------------- all good
 17     17 - 0    Finsky --------------- all good some ip issues ran them hot 1300 to 1500gh
 58     56 - 2    MCHouston --------- 2 with dead asic issues.
 17     14 - 3    sidehack ------------- 3 with shipping damage
 1         1-  0    alh ------------------- 1 good with a slightly hot asic chip
 4         4 - 0    GenTarkin ----------- 4 good run 1250 to 1400
 4         4 - 0    tlhIlwI---------------- all good but the eBay purchase runs hot
 1         1 - 0    CrazyGuy ------------ 1 chip runs hot but works
 3         2 - 1    Biodom --------------- 1 all good 1 runs hot 1 came doa easy fix
12       10 - 2   Quakefiend ---------- 2 dead controllers
 1         1 - 0    edonkey -------------- all good runs a bit hot

6          6 - 0    LeeC -----------------  all good run at 1300
4          4-0      goxed ---------------- all good 4 at 1000gh
35        35-0     Xircom --------------- all good at 1350-1400
4           2-2     mitak64---------------  2 just died
2           2-0     notlist3d -------------- 2 underclocked
2           2-0     Biffa ------------------ 2 at 1.3th to 1.5th
2            1-1    HerbPean ------------  1 died to to op error got it too damp
2            2-0    thsminer---------------  1.45th
4            4-0    mavericklm -----------  all under 1.4th
----
so of the 313  looks like 291 still run  and 22 needed parts from sp-tech or run a bit less then then should or are dead


I will start an S-5 on Weds.

Thanks one more time