Ta for the thoughts but despite the way it sounds, I did my research and I was perfectly happy to take the chance, why not, it's great to learn things.  I do not agree however with your comments regarding Bitcoin mining being only a datacenter thing.  There are plenty Antminer S9 owners who have 1 or 2 of these devices and they seem to manage.  Quite often though people tend to focus on the gross payout per day and forget about the costs involved.  Electricity for specifically the M3 is higher than other miners, also it gets pretty hot under regular operation which requires cooling.  I live in Africa, it's very hot here on a normal day and it is not so simple to calculate what kind of cooling requirement one would need in my type of environment, so as with any investment, you make an educated guess based on the facts that you have and you take the chance.  It either works out or it doesn't, I could keep running the M3 yes, but the payoff is not what I would call worth it, despite that it will pay itself off eventually.  For some the Antminer S9 seems to be profitable, either their parents pay for electricity and cooling and they can run their rigs without concern or they have subsidised electricity or the climate in which they operate is naturally cooler.  Either way, I have watched several hours of YouTube vids of S9 owners happy with their investment.

My argument has not quite been considered in its entirety.  @ $15/day, with $6/day on electricity, that leaves $9/day before I calculate cooling costs.  Cooling costs will erode that value further, as I said it is very hot here in Africa so cooling is a huge factor.  On the GPU rig mining equihash, the electricity usage is much lower, and the rig does not require serious cooling, I have a 100w fan blowing in the rig rooom and that is good enough, however the 100w fan is not enough to keep the M3 from overheating.  So, I do not walk away with $15 per day, it's more like $6/day after costs have been taken into account, not to mention the fact that the machine is very noisy.  And before you mention it, I was aware it would be noisy but one doesn't know how your environment will react to something until you have the kit and you run it.  In terms of the GPU's, I initially bought 8 x GTX 1070's, the risers I had (8 of them) were mostly faulty so I ended up only being able to use 5 while I wait for new risers.  In terms of overall rig size and value spent, it's a pricier rig for sure, but the return is greater pound for pound and is cheaper to run.  I can't recall the exact values as I don't have the invoices to hand but I definitely did pay more for the GPU rig components.  I average between 2300 and 2500 sol/s on the 5 GPU's, they can go higher as they collectively inch over 3000 sol/s sometimes at night for some reason, but I'm not convinced these risers are all that as the GPU hashrate is eratic during the day.  I OC each GPU a bit to where it is stable but these risers are definitely bad grade.  I'll add the other 3 GPU's when the new risers arrive, that'll push the hashrate to between 3500 and 4000 sol/s (depending on my OC settings and rig stability).  On current values for equihash, that's anywhere between $500 and $700 per month depending on equihash value and my hashrate (never sure how accurate these calculators are) but between 2:32am yesterday morning and 12:28 today these 5 GPU's earned $29, with less than $6 of that is electricity.  So while in time the M3 will pay itself off, it's not the kind of return I am looking for, and I don't think I'm being unreasonable.  It does represent SOME kind of return, I agree, but we are all into crypto mining for our own reasons and we all have our own expectations.  

Anyway, my point is that the GPU game pays off quicker than the Bitcoin mining game and I totally understand why and all the technical considerations such as difficulty, I sell enterprise blockchain as a service so it's my job to know what this technology is all about and how the various algo's work and their short comings, so allow my comments on the basis that I've done my calculations and research and the M3 numbers don't work for "me" as well as the GPU numbers work, despite the fact that the GPU rig is more expensive.  The GPU rigs will pay themselves off sooner, by comparison, and the post breakeven earnings will be in line with my expectations.  That's all.  Everyone if of course free to have their own opinion of things.

A quick update for you.  I eventually got technical assistance from the Whatsminer guys, they connected via Teamviewer.  They changed my DHCP address settings on the M3 to static address and disabled the NTP time server settings in the device config.  Now it works.  Odd, but happy nonetheless.  Next question I have, with cooling requirements (because this thing gets SO hot, i am wondering if it is even worth having.  At roughly $6 per day for electricity, and the device only makes about $15 per day (without cooling) I don't think this device is profitable.  If I factor in cooling, that takes a further chunk out of that $15 per day value.  Also, I was connected to Slushpool and after several hours the Slushpool dashboard eventually came down from 31 years to threshold for payout to 6 months.  That was with payout settings @ 0.1 BTC.  So I changed it from 0.1 to 0.01 BTC for payout.  After a few more hours it eventually changed to 2 weeks and 1 day to reach payout.

So my thinking is, if this device takes 2 weeks to payout a mere $130, with $6 a day electricity ($90) that means on a 2100w device profit is $40.  That is not worth it at all.  I've been watching YouTube videos where guys are making $50/day using an Antminer S9 with 13TH/s which is hardly that much more than the M3 so I don't understand how @ 12TH/s this M3 is not really profitable.  You would need several of these devices, but one definitely is not profitable by my calculations.  To contrast this, I have 5 GPU's (not even a full rig, I have 3 GPU not attached to that rig yet) that does over $20 per day some days with a smaller and 80+ Gold rated PSU and I've watched my electricity consumption and it's noticeably lower than the M3 and the entire rig has an average temperature of 60 degrees celcius.  Granted it is mining a different coin but the point I am trying to make is that unless you have a mining farm and you're selling hash power, Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable.  The reason these mining farms make so much cash is that with every contract they make their money back almost instantly, so their sunken cost are returned far ahead of schedule in comparison to a solo miner who needs to earn back their sunken costs.

What are your thoughts?

@Shazam,

Thx for the comments mate.  I'll try a different LAN cable, is probably worth a try.  The same cable connects my laptop to the Internet hence me using that but at this point anything is worth trying.  As for the support, no worries I realise they don't work weekends :-)

I haven't tried pool.viabtc.  When I say "CGMiner still does not start", I am referring to the mining software that is installed on the controller board.  CGMiner is the same software that Antminer uses except that Whatsminer uses their own version because it is open source.  In the web interface there is an option to view the device overview and in there you see a value for CGMiner version.  It cannot tell me the CGMiner version because it says "Waiting for CGMiner to start" but the software never does start.  Also, I cannot view the API log because it says "Cannot open socket.  Connection refused..."

I have not contacted them via Facebook but I have contacted them via their website and on whatsapp and I received no reply.  I will try Facebook message.

You're right, it's an ARM board.  It has a Micro SD card slot I could use to re-flash the thing if I knew how:

1)
2)

Yes, I did follow that post.  I put a reply there asking if anyone could help.  I tried Slushpool, f2pool, and Antpool.  See the picture below:

1)

Has anyone tried to get support on their M3?  I got mine from China this week and it doesn't work.  The device spins up okay, the fans blow (it's very loud) and the PSU seems fine but the CGMiner software refuses to start.  I understand the device needs a handful of minutes to get going but even after over 30 minutes running, CGMiner still does not start.  I have been trying to get support form the Whatsminer people but the email responses are lack lustre and not super effective.  Also, the device has no diagnostic features in the interface so I don't know how to work out what is wrong with it.  Not only that but I have no way of telling whether the hasboards are working or if the control board is okay.  The device does not come with a manual either although on the Whatsminer Facebook page there is a WhatsMinerTool Guide V1.6 that you can download from their Google Drive but when you try access it you need to request permission and of course no one responds to that request.

So, I have several issues here:

1) I bought a VERY expensive piece of kit from China, it arrives and it does not work
2) Technical support is weak
3) In the interface it suggests that you go to some Micro Bit page for support and the page does not exist.
4) Pangolinminer is owned by Whatsminer, they sell globally so you would think technical support is available through Pangolinminer, so I created an account on their website and raised a support ticket and not a soul has answered me
5) Connecting to the device via SSH, I try starting the CGMiner software, it simply states "All devices are diabled. Cannot mine!" 

So, considering that Whatsminer is competing with the likes of Bitmain for which there is OFFICIAL CGMiner support on the CGMiner support threads and Whatsminer is NOT supported by CK (The guy who created CGMiner), I would like to know what Whatsminer and Pangolinminer intend on doing regarding bridging this support gap because I can guarantee you there is no shortage of support both from Bitmain and the community on Bitmain products.  So far, my experience of this group and their product/product support has been weak. 

I would REALLY appreciate it if someone from Whatsminer or Pangolinminer could make the effort to reach out and HELP ME with this thing I have paid so much money for, bearing in mind I am from South Africa so effectively I pay 13 times what the Whatsminer is sold for as our exchange rate is 13 of our currency to $1.  So when I say I paid A LOT of money, I am not kidding!!

Thank you for the explanation, that is very helpful.  I understand a whole lot more about the implementation.  I thought maybe CGWatcher could give some insight as well as Awesome miner but without CGMiner started on this device, I can't seem to get API access enabled which means these tools will not work.  I have sent the logs to the manufacturer support team, hoping they will help me possibly factory reset the device.  If all else fails, I will have to arrange for the device to be sent back to China for repair or replacement.

Thanks again for the explanation mate :-)

I'm not being rude.  I have said nothing to inflame, or anger or reduce.  I am simply asking for assistance.  Like any newcomer to a subject, I am reaching out to learn.  I imagine I am not the first newcome to Bitcoin mining technologies and if I make a mistake along the way or make choices along the way that is not inline with what the rest of the community is doing then one refers to that as a learning curve.  I know now the hardware is not supported, how was i to know?  So, I don't need to be bashed about my choice, some guidance would be more appropriate I think.  I expect nothing from CK or anyone else, I am respectfully asking for help as I have made an investment, an expensive one, and I am trying to get it to work. 

As for the manufacturer, I did contact them and there has been some dialogue but it seems very limited and while that may be a lesson in itself, there was no way that I would have known everything about CGMiner or the state of the art regarding Bitcoin mining.  You yourself and everyone here started at the same place I have started at, from zero knowing nothing about Bitcoin and mining.  Over time, you have learned which is what I am trying to do.  So relax a little and guide me please as I am here in the context of an interested person trying to learn more, not be told I am being rude, because I think you will find that I was not.

Ok fair enough.  I was hoping this forum would be able to assist since it is the support thread for CGMiner.  This is for a WhatsMiner M3, I had no way of knowing support would be limited or that the device would not come with a user manual.  I would really appreciate some assistance on the CGMiner part but if no one is willing to help me then what's the purpose of this CGMiner thread?  It is a thread for CGMiner on the various operating systems, not so?  At a basic level I'm asking for assistance on the CGMiner software to help me understand what features inherent to the software I could use to perform diagnaostics.

I'm not sure the device has or needs specific code.  It's simply running the CGMiner software inside a small Linux kernel.  As it runs CGMiner 4.9.2 I figured here would be the right place to come for support.  At minimum it is too much to ask for some asisstance in understanding how to perform diagnostics on this thing using the features built into CGMiner 4.9.2 ?

Hi All,

I have a WhatsMiner M3 that runs CGMiner 4.9.2.  When it arrived, I switched it on and it had 3 mining pools already configured from the factory.  It looked like CGMiner was running and it was mining.  The device became very hot, 83 degrees I think it was and then the screaming fans seemed to slow down to a crawl.  Within a few minutes the device had cooled down significantly and the fans sped back up to full speed.  I changed the pool settings from factory to the pool information using my chosen pool and worker name for the device.  I then restarted CGMiner but it would not restart.  I then rebooted the box too but that made no difference.  The device does not get hot at all currently.

At that point I only had 1 pool setup, so I added in 3 just to be sure and tried restarting CGMiner but it still didn't work.  The power supply is fine, and the device itself seems fine and I get get into the web interface as well as connect to the device via SSH.  The only visual feedback I have is from the device overview page which gives me the following error:

EventCode: E011
EventCause: Slot-0 Zero HS 4500 Seconds
EventAction: Zero HS Warning
EventCount: 6
LastTime: Thu Dec 7 12:59:42 2017
EventSource: system-monitor

Please see these images, they describe what I am seeing:

1) The device overview where it shows that CGMiner is waiting to start: 
2) The pool settings: 
3) The device status I get when I try start CGMiner vis SSH: 
4) The event code error as described above: 

My concern is that the initial run where it got up to 83 degrees has broken the miner, because it doesn't get hot at all currently.  Also, because CGMiner will not start, the device shows no system status information, I cannot see temperature info, I can't see if the hashboards are okay, I can't tell at all where the proble lies.  Please could I ask someone to assist me with figuring out what it wrong with this device?  I have looked at the logs but I cannot make sense of the logs as I do not know what I am looking for.

Thank you for any assistance.

I have a fresh M3 but it doesn't work :-(  . . .I plugged it in, it looked liked it connected due to the pools it was already configured with.  I then changed the pool settings, saved and rebooted and that was the end of that.  The device runs, the fans run but the cgminer software doesn't start and you can see that in the device settings.  It simply states "waiting for cgminer software to start".  I left it for up to 20 minutes with no luck.  The pool I'm trying to connect to is the EU based pool for Slushpool.  I made sure that I didn't copy any extra spaces at the end of the "3333"bit. 

I recall the device getting very hot, about 80 degrees and uncomfortable to the touch, then the fans completely slowed at some point and the device eventually settled.  The fans kicked back into gear up to full speed but the device status simply does not populate with any information.

Right at the bottom of the status page, the device shows an error": E011  Slot-0 Zero HS 4500 seconds  Zero HS Warning  6  Thu Dec 7 12:59:42 2017 system-monitor"

Has anyone experienced this?  I have restarted the cgminer by clicking the button and I have rebooted the device, nothing changes.