Hacking KNC Titan / Jupiter / Neptune miners back to life. Why not?

[lightfoot]

Note to self: Charge a fee to clean a filth-covered board. Yuck.


On the other hand the back of the board shows no heat damage, just destroyed power supplies. My guess is that the caps and fets were covered in filth and the usual happened....

Oh and the power Molex connector is on the way out. Need to replace that too.

On the other hand, first Titan in. Next batch coming. Busy weekend ahead.

[lightfoot]

Well with the power supply pulled it comes up. That's one Titan miner running. Got another Titan going here as well, testing it with a very low burn rate of 150mhz, stock voltage, purring at 42mh, 31c chip temp, 42c dc-dc temp. Will let it purr for awhile.

Edit: That Titan ran the night but soft-dropped a power supply. Odd.

[Searing]

Well with the power supply pulled it comes up. That's one Titan miner running. Got another Titan going here as well, testing it with a very low burn rate of 150mhz, stock voltage, purring at 42mh, 31c chip temp, 42c dc-dc temp. Will let it purr for awhile.

Looks like we can repair Titans!

yeah info on 'dead die' issues.....is re-paste a good bet on such? That I can do myself (maybe)

have had 2 dead dies since I got the orig unit...need a 'good' reason to muck with a cube working 3/4 (cowardice has worked for me well and holding LTC till move to BTC for the equiv of
since Titans 47 btc..we also serve who scream like a girl and run away from such 'operations' as you preform! )

really really want someone to donate a bridge/neptune board and pi and just see if such would at least come up with the GUI and LCD as working even w/o cubes

then again the BBB project may eliminate that I guess


er crap

someone trusts me enough they could I suppose send me a Neptune 6 port  Board....i have a pi B+ 512mb and a bridge coming (figured like 100 bucks each for each titan it was a deal as
insurance my units have been mining 14.5 months now ..bit more was .5 btc .but hell I made that on sig campaign over past year so wth)

[lightfoot]

Hm. Well, this is interesting.

So I fixed Titan #1 here and brought it online for testing. All 8 power supplies come up, all cores, hashied at 60mh with temps on the chip in the low 30's, power supplied averaging around 50c. Left it alone last night, checked in this morning.

Hash speed in the 40's. But under advanced tab I see that one of the power supplies is just *missing*. And the other had a current of zero, rhat's odd.... So I tried changing the voltage, applied changes, and quickly noticed that power supply 0 (the partner to the now missing supply 1) was trying to put out 50a to meet the chip need. Turned that to OFF *fast*, then turned it to a low 50mhz. Which it will supply:

DC/DC   Voltage (V)   Current (A)   Power (W)   Temperature (°C)
0   0.7394   12.1562   8.988   44.100
2   0.7963   27.8125   22.147   55.400
3   0.7972   27.8750   22.222   54.700
4   0.7933   33.9375   26.923   52.100
5   0.7938   34.0625   27.039   47.800
6   0.7930   34.3750   27.259   49.400
7   0.7955   33.5625   26.699   47.200

(note I also cut the voltage back on core zero).

That's weird. So I went over, power cycled the cube and controller (need to put those on separate supplies) and:

DC/DC   Voltage (V)   Current (A)   Power (W)   Temperature (°C)
0   0.7397   5.8984   4.363   38.100
1   0.7413   5.2500   3.892   41.500
2   0.7981   27.1250   21.648   49.400
3   0.7987   27.1562   21.690   48.800
4   0.7952   32.8125   26.093   47.900
5   0.7938   33.4375   26.543   45.600
6   0.7948   32.8125   26.079   47.100
7   0.7960   32.8125   26.119   43.500

Back and purring. Bringing it to full speed gets me:

DC/DC   Voltage (V)   Current (A)   Power (W)   Temperature (°C)
0   0.7988   28.6250   22.866   56.000
1   0.7992   28.2812   22.602   65.500
2   0.7950   28.8438   22.931   57.200
3   0.7958   29.0000   23.078   54.800
4   0.7930   33.3125   26.417   52.000
5   0.7938   33.8125   26.840   49.600
6   0.7924   34.0000   26.942   50.900
7   0.7955   33.5000   26.649   47.800

Right back to normal.

This is an odd thing, and if it's something that happens to others I wonder if it is the source of the "bad die" issue. Is this what Tarkin's software fixes?

What concerns me on the side is that I was able to try and get that one remaining power supply to supply all the hashing power, that would blow up a supply quickly.

Thoughts? If this is known and Tarkin fixes it for $50 by turning off then on the errant supply pair then this is not an issue I will fiddle with.  (Running Titan 2.0 software on this particular system, no special hacks)

[lightfoot]

yeah info on 'dead die' issues.....is re-paste a good bet on such? That I can do myself (maybe)

No, and since I am just starting on the dead die thing I am wondering if the dc-dc power supplies are what is causing dead die (not the same as board shorts out whole Titan thing). So don't replace everything yet :-)

really really want someone to donate a bridge/neptune board and pi and just see if such would at least come up with the GUI and LCD as working even w/o cubes

I can ask the guy that sent me this Rpi but when I am fixing controller boards (Titan or Neptune) I always use a BeagleBone with Neptune code as the test CPU and there is no problem testing/running them. I would find it spectacularly odd that a Neppie board will not work with a Titan at this point.

But there are some oddball differences in the Titan. This power supply vanishing act is not like the Neptunes, and these boards that shut down a controller (and quite possibly would burn up the FPGA) are a different animal as well. I'll need to spend a week probing gently to see what these are doing.

[Searing]

yeah info on 'dead die' issues.....is re-paste a good bet on such? That I can do myself (maybe)

No, and since I am just starting on the dead die thing I am wondering if the dc-dc power supplies are what is causing dead die (not the same as board shorts out whole Titan thing). So don't replace everything yet :-)

really really want someone to donate a bridge/neptune board and pi and just see if such would at least come up with the GUI and LCD as working even w/o cubes

I can ask the guy that sent me this Rpi but when I am fixing controller boards (Titan or Neptune) I always use a BeagleBone with Neptune code as the test CPU and there is no problem testing/running them. I would find it spectacularly odd that a Neppie board will not work with a Titan at this point.

But there are some oddball differences in the Titan. This power supply vanishing act is not like the Neptunes, and these boards that shut down a controller (and quite possibly would burn up the FPGA) are a different animal as well. I'll need to spend a week probing gently to see what these are doing.

yeah it is just damn hard to put a titan cube on one of these puppies w/o being sure..I did some quick figures...if as folk say BTC goes to 650 usd in 2016 and LTC still sits at its historically lousy 0.0008 ltc to btc...at 650 for btc that is 5.20 for LTC .....at double the difficulty for LTC I can run my Titans next winter at the reduced winter elec rate
and still get 400 usd a month ..sh*t these puppies MAY just run into next winter on mostly the electric rate savings from my local util for winter electric rates

now ...I'm not so sure we will see many 'home scrypt miners" or any data scrypt halls for that matter at 3.50 usd for LTC ...but if it was 5.20 LTC price that would change quick imho

anyway....thus the issue with the Titans ...it has been almost 15 months running for my units...they were initially expected to run probably 6 months max and orig warranty was only 90 days (they screwed up and left 1 year on the web pages) ....so.....you see my issue ...stuff will start falling off the wagon here I think...would be nice to know how to tweak these puppies on the hardware end as well as the firmware end like Glenn Tarken has done

just saying.....got to keep them going for 'space heater' savings into the winter of 2017..but by doing so....I don't really want to blow them up testing stuff unless damn sure of the outcome....just saying

anyway it is all gravy for Titans now...the puppies were only supposed to maybe last till may/june 2014 with all the big ass claims of big ass scrypt miners coming out...
remember alpha tech/flower tech/volcano and others?... all 500mh machines etc..but scrypt prices crashed and thus zip came out...sometimes just being damn lucky is your own reward

[lightfoot]

That's a bit odd. I tuned down one of the test Neptunes here (the water block equipped junker) to a clock speed of 300mhz and this morning noticed it was hashing slower. Power supplies 0,1 were .8 volts, no current. (note: They should be .78v). Reboots did not change anything.

Put the clock speed on that engine back to 350mhz and the power supplies came right back. Tried a similar thing on the other Neptune (600gh, 350/450/450/450 solid as a rock) and sure enough the supplies I moved to 300 shut down. Did through a reboot. Reset, no problem.

Weird. I am running 1.02 of the firmware for testing (was the first I got, consistency is key) but weird.

[lightfoot]

Yep, there are "islands of stability" in Neptunes. Strange, but something to note. Maybe the slower clock speed interferes with the power draw of the chip, causing the power supplies to restart. Hm. Tried running the junker at 100mhz all chips and the power supplies are at .8 volts, but all currents match and it's hashing at a very cool 100gh.

Anyway, I'm a bit curious as to why Titans are still such a good deal. With one running at 60mh @200 watts one should make 1.15ltc a day or 4 bucks a day. Difficulty doesn't seem to be doing squat in the LTC world. Power usage of 200w is 4.8kw a day or 50 cents of power at .10c/kw.

So each unit makes a profit of $3.50 a day. Hundred a month profit, 1.2k in a year per cube if not much changes in the ltc world.

That's interesting. Somewhere in there is a math error or something, because price always seems to match power required to hash the coin.....

Oh well. Other things to do in the next day or two, will pick this back up mid-week.

[Searing]

Yep, there are "islands of stability" in Neptunes. Strange, but something to note. Maybe the slower clock speed interferes with the power draw of the chip, causing the power supplies to restart. Hm. Tried running the junker at 100mhz all chips and the power supplies are at .8 volts, but all currents match and it's hashing at a very cool 100gh.

Anyway, I'm a bit curious as to why Titans are still such a good deal. With one running at 60mh @200 watts one should make 1.15ltc a day or 4 bucks a day. Difficulty doesn't seem to be doing squat in the LTC world. Power usage of 200w is 4.8kw a day or 50 cents of power at .10c/kw.

So each unit makes a profit of $3.50 a day. Hundred a month profit, 1.2k in a year per cube if not much changes in the ltc world.

That's interesting. Somewhere in there is a math error or something, because price always seems to match power required to hash the coin.....

Oh well. Other things to do in the next day or two, will pick this back up mid-week.

Well the Titans difficulty wise should have been 'toast' around May/June 2015 if new equip could have come out in march as stated...

firms such as alpha tech/flower tech/volcano miner etc....all around 500mh etc..the price of ltc dumped to what 1.40 usd or some such thus NO one made any

thus Titans ARE still the top scrypt miner out there ...is not scrypt data halls that I'm aware (sfards?) so there you be

an A2 Terminator uses the same watts for 110mh as a Titan 350mh uses fo same ....

anyway how i got my good deal on a titan march 1st 2015 panic on the new equip and knc (we thought) big dump on 2nd titan run perhaps a knc data hall for
titans etc....I got my Titan 2nd one (all good dies) for 569 usd and incl shipping from Australia! The guy got a neptune for like 11 btc when btc was 1000 or so
upgraded/ithat neppie order (same price) to a titan and just wanted to get his original btc back ..thus the 2.69 btc I got it expecting to mine maybe till June/July at worst

so no new equip ..difficulty went up for LTC some but not a big deal for titans but for say a 50mh 1200watt gaw miner shut down as such ...elec too high

thus  old equip falls off the bottom end of scrypt miners as they go to doorstop status due to diff rise and high elec use per mh...and no top end stuff to push the
titans down.....viola

add the price of LTC now at 3.50 or so and well if 650 usd btc comes to pass at the current 0.008 ltc to btc ratio .which is low imho) that is 5.20 usd LTC

at that price I can run this beast with my lower elec costs thru NEXT winter

now if LTC pops today to 5.40 usd ..you'd see scrypt asics hit quick ..maybe i'd only miner till nov.....but w/o new equip or even equip that comes out in my mh range
500mh at 1150 w folk say ....my titan is 350mh 1250 w ..i can run with that pack for a bit

so anyway...titans shoulda been toast in june/july...now it looks like maybe I can run them thru next winter (heat benefit and elec costs less probably)

sometimes dumb and lucky is the best plan

 

[Tigggger]

Hm. Well, this is interesting.

So I fixed Titan #1 here and brought it online for testing. All 8 power supplies come up, all cores, hashied at 60mh with temps on the chip in the low 30's, power supplied averaging around 50c. Left it alone last night, checked in this morning.

Hash speed in the 40's. But under advanced tab I see that one of the power supplies is just *missing*. And the other had a current of zero, rhat's odd.... So I tried changing the voltage, applied changes, and quickly noticed that power supply 0 (the partner to the now missing supply 1) was trying to put out 50a to meet the chip need. Turned that to OFF *fast*, then turned it to a low 50mhz. Which it will supply:

....

Right back to normal.

This is an odd thing, and if it's something that happens to others I wonder if it is the source of the "bad die" issue. Is this what Tarkin's software fixes?

What concerns me on the side is that I was able to try and get that one remaining power supply to supply all the hashing power, that would blow up a supply quickly.

Thoughts? If this is known and Tarkin fixes it for $50 by turning off then on the errant supply pair then this is not an issue I will fiddle with.  (Running Titan 2.0 software on this particular system, no special hacks)

My titan has recently started doing the same eg...



This cube goes after a few hours, asic 3 follows suit not long after, and a couple of the others go after that.

Restarting or changing voltages/speeds does nothing, but if you power off and then back on it works as normal for a while

Sadly I'm not near my server room so rebooting is not something I can do very often, so I am also curious if gentarkins firmware can solve this, he used to have a test version, don't mind paying $50 if I know it will work but here in the UK the titan is nearing the end of it's profitability anyway.

[lightfoot]

My titan has recently started doing the same eg...



This cube goes after a few hours, asic 3 follows suit not long after, and a couple of the others go after that.

Restarting or changing voltages/speeds does nothing, but if you power off and then back on it works as normal for a while

Sadly I'm not near my server room so rebooting is not something I can do very often, so I am also curious if gentarkins firmware can solve this, he used to have a test version, don't mind paying $50 if I know it will work but here in the UK the titan is nearing the end of it's profitability anyway.

Sweet. Apparently there is a soft reset (my guess is "soft reset all power supplies explicitly using waas or direct SPI pokes) followed by 8 power ups. That will do it.

And Tarkin knows about this and is writing the solution into the next gen of his code. So this can be solved by software which is a lot better than sending it to me to swap power supplies.

Noted, moving on. The right way to turn off a Titan remotely of course is to just remotely turn off and on a small relay connected to the power supply enable line (the one we always jumper). But software is simpler.

[lightfoot]

That Titan is now stable as a rock. I set the frequencies to 300mhz all the way around and no more problems. Once again I think KNC has some sweet spots with the chips, use too low a frequency for the voltage or a significantly different frequency from the other dies and it resets the power supplies.

Titan 1 is hashing at a full speed of 80mh. Titan 2 (the filth one) is hashing on two cores at 40mh, waiting for the two new power supplies to come in. Once those are here I will secure them to the board and go from there.

First two repaired controller boards are on the way out as well. Getting there....

[lightfoot]

Which leaves me three dead Titan boards to fix. These are really odd: The main symptom is that the boards have 0 ohm shorts on pins 4 and 6 of the 10 pin ribbon cable. This forces down the FPGA and crashes the whole stack. The user said there was some sort of power surge that took three of them out but I don't see how: The FPGA is isolated from 12v power by the TPS chip (blown) and the signal voltages on those lines are small. The miners likewise don't put out that much current there, and so far I have not been able to fuzz out where those lines go.

Hm.

[hawkfish007]

lightfoot,

What did I mess up the RPi or the controller, please see the picture below? Only 1 LED is on instead of three and red LED on the RPi is off. Screen lights up but without any text or bright light at start up. I was using 2 PSUs but 1 to power both controllers, probably turned on one before the other or something to create a short. I can access the web GUI, but it won't show any cubes or hash.

[jstew]

lightfoot i got that neptune cube apart that i pmed ya about , board looks good except for the oily substance on the board , not sure what it is or were it came from , as i only ran this cube for like 2 days before it went out anyways heres the pics

bottom of the board ( i think the dark spots on it is my shadow it doesnt show any darker spots when holding it in ur hand

top


in theese u can see the oily substance on the board


and wiped off




and on the bottom, u can see here there are no dark spots



before i send it off to u i wanna clean the board well and try pluging it back in , going to be hard to clean off with qtips or a rag, can i spray the board down with electrical contact cleaner or mass airflow sensor cleaner and then blow it dry with an airgun?

[jstew]

lightfoot,

What did I mess up the RPi or the controller, please see the picture below? Only 1 LED is on instead of three and red LED on the RPi is off. Screen lights up but without any text or bright light at start up. I was using 2 PSUs but 1 to power both controllers, probably turned on one before the other or something to create a short. I can access the web GUI, but it won't show any cubes or hash.

my neptune did this , could get to web gui but no hashing and my lights didnt come on correctly on the controller , try each cube one a time and see if it works with any of them ,. this is what i did with my neptune till i narrowed it down to one problem vube that it in the post above this .

the neptune runs perfect with the other 4 cubes but if i try to plug in that one specific cube it stops hashing on all cubes and the controller goes wacky

[lightfoot]

lightfoot,

What did I mess up the RPi or the controller, please see the picture below? Only 1 LED is on instead of three and red LED on the RPi is off. Screen lights up but without any text or bright light at start up. I was using 2 PSUs but 1 to power both controllers, probably turned on one before the other or something to create a short. I can access the web GUI, but it won't show any cubes or hash.

Hm. When you power up the controller without any cubes attached does the super-bright light on the side come on bright, then go out or just do 3-4 little flashes? That's usually the sign the TPS chip or the FPGA has shorted, both are fix-able.

[lightfoot]

the neptune runs perfect with the other 4 cubes but if i try to plug in that one specific cube it stops hashing on all cubes and the controller goes wacky

Yup. Question 0 is "what does it do with nothing else plugged into it" (even the display). What should happen is the unit should power up, pick up an IP address, then the light on the side of the board should light up super bright for a second, then turn on a little green LED there. If the bright LED flashes very briefly 3-4 times in a row, you have a short and the DC-DC can't turn on the FPGA or the SPI busses.

If one unit causes the whole string to crash, then it has the odd short between pins 4,6, and ground. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

[frenchy]

Hello guy!

@lightfoot : What i know on the titan bridge leds:

first green led: closest to lcd display seems to refering to the micro-sd slot(because not working if micro-sd in bad position)
second green led:don't know anything 
third green led:don't know anything but my titan is working well without this led putted on.

I don't know if this could be very helpful....

[frenchy]

@hawkfish: this is exactly the case i was living last summer:I'm sorry for you but you seems to have a dead controller....
The only solution for me was to RMA the controller....
But you're very lucky because now there is a king of the knc controller who can repair it (he's doing very goog work) with fair prices.