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Bitmain is the only choice for Bitcoin Mining
Why do I say this?
I have purchased 267 Antminer S1's. Out of 267 S1's I have had 1 problem unit. One unit with a dead ASIC blade. That's it, 99.8% success rate. That's unbelievable. They just keep running, and running smoothly.
I have purchased 27 Antminer S2's . Out of those 27 S2's I have 1 blade that only half worked (From batch 1. The heatsink had a burr on it that cut into the board and shorted out half the blade). I also had 1 power supply that melted as the cables weren't connected tight at factory. While batch 1 had a good amount of extremely irritating issues, batch 2 was much better and batch 3 was nearly flawless (A few loose internal cables). I have been in contact with Bitmain concerning all the issues and they are indeed working to correct where they have come up short.
I have no doubt the S2 will soon be just as rock solid as the S1, and as you can see form above, the S1 is gold standard in ASIC hardware.
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After having no setup issues and running great for the last couple of weeks, I woke up this morning to find my batch 1 AntMiner S2 not hashing, fans going full speed, panel dim and the red light solid. Recalling that others here have had the same issue, I went back and skimmed over the previous posts and found that the likely issue was probably a corrupt SD card. That was indeed the case, as I am now back up and running, and I figure the problem started when a brief power outage occurred here this morning. Thought I would briefly summarize what I did to recover, which may be of special interest to those folks using a Mac to write to their SD cards: - ran to the store and bought a 4gb Sandisk microSD card. They didn't have any class 10 cards, only class 4, but it seems to work (ordered a couple class 10s from Amazon for backup). - Downloaded onto my MacBook the latest firmware from the bitmaintech website, as well as the SD card image from https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16075357/bitmain.img.zip (thanks 1l1l11ll1l) - put the new microSD card in the adapter, shoved it into my MacBook, read through the guide at http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup, and then ran these commands in Terminal: cd Desktop (my bitmain.img was on the desktop) diskutil list (to find the disk name of SD card, mine was disk2, so replace disk2 below with what yours is) diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2 sudo dd bs=1m if=bitmain.img of=/dev/disk2 (this took 30 minutes to complete) - once SD card was ready, I opened up the AntMiner, pulled out the BeagleBone card, swapped SD cards and reassembled - powered up, and it started hashing again. Connected to the miner from the browser, uploaded the latest firmware, changed to point to my pool, and everything was golden. Much thanks to all of previous posters that talked about this issue, as your help got me back up in hours as opposed to days. Glad to help! |
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after 20 minutes cooling down (and changing S1 IP) reset buttin works...
will try again with stock settings & 1l1l1l1l1ls SD image
Off the bat its doing nothing,
Antminer S2
192.168.1.99
0GH/s
Max 0C
so its not hashing for 1l1l1l1l1l either....
im 24 hrs deep now with this fkn rig... not happy at all
So it doesn't work with 1l1l1l1l1l's SD image (unmodified)... that worries me. That image worked for me (and obviously 1l1l1l1l1l). Must be a piece of faulty hardware because we know that software image works. A couple of shots in the dark: 1) Try running 1l1l1l1l1l's SD image on another new SD card (just to rule out the chance of a faulty new SD card). 2) Try running it with just one hashing card, to see if you can get anything hashing at all. If that works, build it up slowly one card at a time, testing each time that each additional card works. If one card doesn't work, try a different card and a different slot until you can get one card hashing. If you can't get even one card to hash then something central must be the issue: BBB, daughter-board that BBB sits on, backplane at the bottom... Try replacing the internal ethernet cable. I had one unit with a poorly crimped end, and that machine was acting all sorts of crazy weird. replaced the cable, 100% running. |
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How about a panoramic?
redacted
I told another one who posts a picture with 10 Gridseedblades he is a pervert. I think i have to reconsider about it. And on the other hand my gratulation for u. I think mining for the normal people is over. This was my very first rig. Put it on a credit card, as I didn't have any cash for such things. (Yeah, I know, I coulda built 5 rigs for the price of the water cooling)  Mining is by no means over, we are still at the beginning of the bitcoin revolution. Anyone who says otherwise is either bad at pre-ordering or attempting to discourage mining growth. But it's the mining growth that makes Bitcoin what it is and needs to be. |
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How about a panoramic?
That's fucking sick, dude ! The cabinet on the very left and the very right await miners! |
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How about a panoramic?  Can you guess which one I had to set-up in a hurry without all the shelves I needed? If one of those S1's in the center dies, it's staying dead! lol, they're all zip tied together! Can you tell which are the Batch 1 and which are the Batch 2+? hint: LCD Backlights  |
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How about a panoramic? |
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Is gold psu and not platinum
The platinum seemed to be only in Batch 1, as they couldn't get anough Gold to fill all the orders (hence some used gold supplies) |
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Hrm, got Rev 3 it seems:  |
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Antminer S2 turned up today, it was in horrible condition, cards loose everywhere, thermal paste everywhere, pci slots all bent to shit, after an hour and a half or so of fiddling (2 screws were stripped and needed to be drilled out) i managed to get it back together, then i had a problem with the screen, played around some more and got that working. PROBLEM! Its turning on and mining (all cards are flashing, hash rate on screen etc) but it will not allow me to access the settings and displays a "404 not found" error and on top of that it will not login via ssh with putty and tells me that the password i am using username: root password: root is not working, so i cannot even change pools. Bitmain shipped me a unit that is basically mining for them!  Can someone please help? For whatever reason it's either got a different user/pass or different IP or something. A sure way to get it to the right IP/user/pass would be to image the microSD card with my image. |
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Format the card and image it, try to boot, if it won't boot take a few asic cards out so you can read teh BBB and eject the sd card while the unit is on, then put it back in, you'll see the ethernet lights cycle, I've had that make mine turn on before.
In other news, I did have a bad BBB that wouldn't write to the SD card. I replaced it with a factory BBB, that's what my machine is using now
Ahhhh, now THAT was some f'ing good advice! thanks mate - you're the best. followed these steps and got each one working with 8 boards. Sweated like a blackjack player holding 17 for a while, wondering if i should stick with what works or risk it and try adding the other two boards. I chose to try something new - i ejected the SD card while it was running. Left it like this for about 5 minutes. it kept mining! i then powered it off, added the two boards, popped the card back in and turned it on. magically, it booted it up just fine! So, until i figure out something better, this is my step-by-step to deal with the corrupt SD card problem: shut off remove 2 asic boards and sd card reimage sd card via laptop boot up with 2 cards missing, pop card in and out until it boots (you can tell when the blue lights on the BBB card near the ethernet card light up) when it's running, pop out SD card, power off, then add 2 boards, pop card back in and hope for the best. From what I can tell, the SD card is only used to load up the OS, once it's there it runs from memory. so removing the microSD card before powering off is definitely a way to keep it from getting corrupted (again and again and again) |
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i emailed bitmain but his advice was to reseat everything and try again...
i have done this a dozen times.
is the BBB supposed to have a solid red led lit on it?
404 not found even after hard reset means something is wrong for sure
startin the rig without the sd card makes it spin loud continuously and the lcd screen never 'arrives' despite being lit.
20 secs after inserting the sd card it settles to 'idle' and lcd displays;
antminer s2
192.168.1.99
0GH/s
Max 0C
cannot access gui, cannot access via Putty...
root root
root admin do nothing
if im going to reflash the sdcard do i just swap 1l1l1l1l1l1s 1.83Gb bitmain Disc Image File with the u-boot 370Kb Disc Image File??
why are they so different in size?
urgh... 9 hrs so far !!
The disk image I made is of the entire microSD card, thus the entire 2GB card, including free space. You'll want to download win32diskimager and flash the entire image to the microSD card. |
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corrupt SD cards.
twice now, i've gotten corruption on the SD card on one machine or another. If there's a power cut, i cross my fingers and hope for the best. chances are, at least one machine will need it's SD card removed and re-imaged. Big thanks to the guy who posted a link in this thread to a copy of his SD card. Although Bitmaintech has now posted updates to the firmware, they are in the format needed to update via the web gui - not directly image the SD card.
this problem is particularly concerning as there is no "shutdown" option in the GUI or button on the case. just the power switch. So each time you shut it off, you have a 50/50 change of buggering the software.... yikes.
If anyone has a step-by-step on how to image the SD card using Win32 Disk Imager and the downloadable "initramfs.bin.SD-20140410.tar" from Bitmaintech's new support page, it would be VERY helpful. I'm using an image file someone posted much earlier in this thread, but it's the old firmware version. You're welcome (from earlier) and I've updated the file to be an image of the latest firmware, IP of 192.168.1.99 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16075357/bitmain.img.zipLink is the same, so using the other posted link will grab the new firmware. It has my mining info in it, so be a gent and let it mine for a bit! lol UPDATE: Here's the latest image with the most recent firmware from June. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16075357/S2firmware.img.zip It's over 4GB so it won't fit on the stock card. Sorry, but newb question, i have gone out and purchased a class 10 spare, but i havent the slightest clue on how to image that SD card and have it ready in case the one from Bitmain croaks. Can anyone give me the procedure ? 111 Thanks so much for making a new image ! You'll want to download win32diskimager. Unzip the image file, then select it in diskimager, then choose your SD card (you'll want to get a micro SD usb card reader) then click "write device" it then writes the whole image to the microsd card and there ya go, drop it back in the S2 |
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can ping, clear cache doesnt help
if SD card is corrupted what is the symptom/s?
does anyone have a pic of their control board?
Pics of the controller were posted earlier by me, you'll have to dig in my post history to see 'em. If the SD card is corrupt the unit won't boot, and you won't see the bright blue LEDs on the BeagleBone Black card. |
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Setup Support for AntMiner S2 ---------------------------------- As the owner of 3 batch 1 S2's, i've had a couple of weeks to work through some of the issues involved in getting these setup and running. Virtually everything I know about the S2 i've either learned from others here in this thread or i've described it myself in this thread. I'm not BitMainTech nor do i work for them - I'm just an IT guy. If you are struggling to get your S2 working and want a helping hand, I may be able to help. I can share your screen with join.me and video conference with Skype. 0.1 BTC per hour, but only if I'm able to help. Email me to setup a time. I'm in Toronto, Ontario (eastern standard timezone) dale@dalenorman.com-Dale u want 50USD per hour to pass on help you received for free from our very community.... Hey sucker, pay up or forget mining if its too hard for you. Hey attitude, didnt you already get told to mind your own business if you have nothing of worth to contribute? if there is a hardware/SD issue does that mean mining is too hard?? get back under ur bridge if using ur brain for anything other than being a douche is too hard for you. Meanwhile, you can use your S2 as a door stopper .....  Guys, we're the Bitmain community here on the forums, not the BFL, KNC or HashLast. Let's keep it civil, let's avoid name calling and negativity. I'm here trying to catch up and getting ready to respond and I see negative comments, it's distracting and just puts a bummer on things. Keep it cool? Answering questions next :-) |
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After about 10 mins the whole unit powered off and has been unresponsive ever since.
I've unplugged all outputs from the PSU and it's still not coming back up, so it looks to be the PSU.
Any ideas on what to try to resurrect? I have multiple CX750M PSU's but nothing big enough to replace the 1000W Enermax.
Cheers
I followed some advice earlier in the thread and removed one blade, it's now been mining for a couple of hours so far. These batch 2 units are a lot quieter than batch 1, with larger effective fan diameters and case holes, they also seem subjectively cooler. Taking out 1 blade makes you pull 10% less power, thus if your power supply is struggling at full load, removing 1 card could give it the margin it needs. When the enermax PSU goes into overload, to power it back on you'll need to have it plugged in and on and remove the jumper, count to 5 and put them jumper back in. This requires the case to be removed...again lol |
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Is there any way of powering down that reduces the risk of corrupting the SD, or just pull the plug and pray?
Not that I've found. Haven't had a problem with the Batch 2 yet. Also, I took one of the corrupted SD cards and made an image of it and sent it to the bitmain engineers. Hopefully it'll tell them something It seems like sync and halt in the shell might help, but I can't seem to ssh into it the way I can into the S1s. Is there a trick to it? user root pass admin |
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Well thank you my friend, but i'm concerned that i may actually be on the wrong track.....
Since a power outage earlier today, i've been busy reimaging the SD cards of two out of my three S2's. The power outage knocked out two of them but the 3rd booted back up no problem.
I have now reimaged the SD cards twice, but i still can't get the machines to boot!
The lights of the BBB board all light up, but the blue activity lights do NOT. This, to me, means the BBB board failed to boot for whatever reason. In the past, it's been a corrupt SD card due to loosing power at a bad time, but i just can't seem to solve it this time.
I'm now imaging again using your just-uploaded version. fingers crossed.
if this doesn't work, then what???
Format the card and image it, try to boot, if it won't boot take a few asic cards out so you can read teh BBB and eject the sd card while the unit is on, then put it back in, you'll see the ethernet lights cycle, I've had that make mine turn on before. In other news, I did have a bad BBB that wouldn't write to the SD card. I replaced it with a factory BBB, that's what my machine is using now |
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Is there any way of powering down that reduces the risk of corrupting the SD, or just pull the plug and pray?
Not that I've found. Haven't had a problem with the Batch 2 yet. Also, I took one of the corrupted SD cards and made an image of it and sent it to the bitmain engineers. Hopefully it'll tell them something |
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