Maintenance for Bitmain Miners

[BTC_ISTANBUL]

I would like to know if there is a periodical maintenance for miners?Hoovering the dust, tightening the screws, and other controls.
Is there any resource for periodical maintenance, I could not find it at Bitmain's site.

[MarkAz]

It depends on the environment that you're keeping the S5's in - but in general, all I do is hit them with compressed air and blow out any dust that might have built up about once a month, and I think I'm doing more than most people.  Once they're setup and running, they pretty much do their own thing unless something goes wrong, and in general, beyond watching temps and making sure fans are spinning, there isn't much that can go wrong.

[notlist3d]

It depends on the environment that you're keeping the S5's in - but in general, all I do is hit them with compressed air and blow out any dust that might have built up about once a month, and I think I'm doing more than most people.  Once they're setup and running, they pretty much do their own thing unless something goes wrong, and in general, beyond watching temps and making sure fans are spinning, there isn't much that can go wrong.

Watching temps is a big thing for a lot of us right now with it being summer.   We are mining in a hotter season.  I am surprised at how well my miners have done ( I did add a lot of fans though).

Most will just need to blow out dust once in a while if you have a good place they are in.   Rubbing alcohol can help on heat sinks if so bad it can't be blown out, but if you get to this point you have a problem.

[BTC_ISTANBUL]

I own my miner for two months, but I have been giving service to gas turbines for more then 3 years.My initial thoughts were as below.

If there is dust, there may be a red spot which may cause a fire.

There is mechanical vibration.Screws must be controlled.If they are loose there may be a problem with heat sinks.

I will also add compressed air cleaning to my list. I thank you very much for sharing your experience MarkAz.

[BTC_ISTANBUL]

I thank you for your recommendations notlist3d.I will try alcahol cleaning.

I use metal bucked filled with water on the seramic ground.It helps reaching critical point.
Have you experienced Peltier units.Can they be useful?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

I thank you for your recommendations notlist3d.I will try alcahol cleaning.

I use metal bucked filled with water on the seramic ground.It helps reaching critical point.
Have you experienced Peltier units.Can they be useful?

If you mean as an active cooling device to pull heat from the chips or heatsinks -- sure they would work. But - all you are doing moving the heat problem from the miner assembly to the thermoelectric coolers. Now you have to keep their heatsinks clean and reasonably cool. Not to mention you now take an efficiency hit from having to power them in addition to the miners.

[VirosaGITS]

I own my miner for two months, but I have been giving service to gas turbines for more then 3 years.My initial thoughts were as below.

If there is dust, there may be a red spot which may cause a fire.

There is mechanical vibration.Screws must be controlled.If they are loose there may be a problem with heat sinks.

I will also add compressed air cleaning to my list. I thank you very much for sharing your experience MarkAz.

A fire? Red spot? xD Well i suppose if you have huge chunk they could combust, not that there is much to actual catch fire if it get stuck on a chip but i very much doubt there's any spot on the miner that will accumulate enough heat to combust dust anyways.

In 1.5years i don't have a single screw that came loose. You can always check to your heart content till you realize its probably something you don't do as upkeep as they probably won't run away on their own in any time of frame that "upkeep" could be.

Just let some Watch Dog app check temps and check often to see if something red start flashing.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Agreed ^^
While glad to see someone who does realize that equipment (of any sort) can need care and at least monitoring, miners are pretty much hands off until trouble. Aside from below a PM schedule is not needed. Hashing issues seem to be pretty random and almost always solved by a hard reboot. I have miners that have never needed a reboot in over a year to some that seem to prefer a reboot every month.

 The only thing that should be checked from time to time is that the fans are in good shape (bearings known to corrode/fail) and the heatsinks are reasonably clean. Same applies to the PSU's used.

[VirosaGITS]

Agreed ^^
While glad to see someone who does realize that equipment (of any sort) can need care and at least monitoring, miners are pretty much hands off until trouble. Aside from below a PM schedule is not needed.

 The only thing that should be checked from time to time is that the fans are in good shape (bearings known to corrode/fail) and the heatsinks are reasonably clean. Same applies to the PSU's used.

I could add to seasonally unplug and replug the PCI-e connectors in relevant ASICs. Apparently that get rid of the accumulated moisture between the connector, which otherwise contribute to oxidation and thus create resistance and thus generate heat.

[BTC_ISTANBUL]

I will try to make a list for maintenance. I thank all the members sharing their experience(s). After ten days I will try to publish a maintenance list.