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

[mmfiore]

Thanks for the help and suggestions. I have re-pasted all of my cubes in February / March this year. I also replaced the fans and redid the dc/dc with new heat syncs just like suggested in youtube video. I have some good news though. I removed the cube from the controller I had it hooked up to and let it sit for a few days. I then connected it to another controller and it fired up and it started running at full speed. I dropped the frequency to 250mhz and it has been running great for over a day now.

[lightfoot]

Sorry, focused on these weird dead boards that come up, no hash, PSU's appear. They seem to have something in common, in each case the readings from U19 (the Z17C I think) to ground on the pins are different from Neptunes (which I know work). These seem to be the level controllers to match the signals from SPI to the Neptune/Titan chips which run on a different voltage. Still have no idea what this chip is, anyone know?

If these things blow up with enough force to take out the FPGA maybe they are also taking these chips out too.

Investing way too much time in this :-) But curious.

[TriAxis]

Does anyone have any ideas on what else inside a Titan could be getting hot and causing instability making dies shutoff or reboot. Something getting hot that isn't monitored or displayed in the ROM software?

I have 1 cube that is causing issues and often reboots dies and/or shuts off dies. I have 8 copper heatsinks on 8 little chips (not sure what these are called maybe the DC/DC?) I have the high powered Noctua fans. I resurfaced all CPUS (and on this problem cube I have tried Artic Silver, GELID and ARCTIC MX4). I sawed away most of the heatsink plate (to make room for copper heatsinks) and removed all that rubber greasy thermal stuff. I have GenTarkin ROM as well.

Even after all these mods this 1 cube reboots or shuts off. Even though the temperatures show 53C and 72C DC/DC temp. This is in a hot garage in Florida and the temps are way lower than the old days where the DC/DC would run at like 95C DC/DC temp. During the night this 1 cube can run fine at like 50C and 65C DC/DC temp. But once it gets a little hot outside issues happen. So there must be something "else" that is getting hot that isn't displayed in the ROM software. Any tips or ideas will be appreciated. If I login through PUTTY will that help? I did it years ago, but dont remember if there is anything useful in PUTTY / PI that may show the problems. Thanks All

[lightfoot]

Are you sure the heat sink on the chip is making proper contact? Those studs bend in, which could cause a small gap. How are the die temps and can you feel the warmth in the heat pipes?

[TriAxis]

Thanks TXSteve, the fans are stilling running and running fast, they are about 2 months old. Whats weird is my temps dont rise up and get hot. Like the main Temperature will show 55C and the DC/DC temps show a max temp of 75C and GenTarkin starts shutting off dies. (Previously before Tarkin, dies would just reboot and run for a bit and reboot and run for a bit). Then GenTarkin will say Dies 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 have been removed from health check.

Thanks Lightfoot I will check if the heat pipes are getting warm. I think the heatsink is making proper contact. I resurfaced it 4X using various thermal products. My temps dont get that hot, like 55C on main page and DC/DC average is 75C max.

It seems like something is shorting out when it gets slightly hot, like maybe metal is expanding in the heat and shorting. Haha I used to run this thing at like 90C-95C on the DC/DC temps and never had issues. I will keep playing around and see if I can figure anything out.

I noticed in PUTTY that Die Temps dont show up in there. It has a section for it called "hottest temperature", but its blank. I heard that KNC didn't program WAAS drivers or something to retrieve the die temps.

[GenTarkin]

I noticed in PUTTY that Die Temps dont show up in there. It has a section for it called "hottest temperature", but its blank. I heard that KNC didn't program WAAS drivers or something to retrieve the die temps.

I dont think the dies themselves even have the hardware(thermistor) to even read die temps. Ive never received factual evidence of this and obviously KNC hasnt coded for it so... I doubt such mechanism exist ... in reality we dont know the actual die temps under that heatsink.
Meaning ... a heatsink could be not mounted correctly and we would never know it outside of stability issues / burning spots on the PCB for certain dies.
It really sucks ... if someone wants to poke n prod and knows more low level code than myself .. go for it =) ... maybe something can be discovered and there may be a thermistor for each die, but at this point I highly doubt it.

[TXSteve]

I noticed in PUTTY that Die Temps dont show up in there. It has a section for it called "hottest temperature", but its blank. I heard that KNC didn't program WAAS drivers or something to retrieve the die temps.

I dont think the dies themselves even have the hardware(thermistor) to even read die temps. Ive never received factual evidence of this and obviously KNC hasnt coded for it so... I doubt such mechanism exist ... in reality we dont know the actual die temps under that heatsink.
Meaning ... a heatsink could be not mounted correctly and we would never know it outside of stability issues / burning spots on the PCB for certain dies.
It really sucks ... if someone wants to poke n prod and knows more low level code than myself .. go for it =) ... maybe something can be discovered and there may be a thermistor for each die, but at this point I highly doubt it.

hey tarkin where you been hiding?

the stability issues of an improperly mounted heatsink, are pretty flagrant --  The usual culprit is the alignment pins not in the holes,  but if you catch it quick you'll be ok. I imagine the fan failure code will shut the dies off, but I haven't tried it and I double check before closing a cube up, it's an easy mistake if you're in a hurry

[GenTarkin]

I noticed in PUTTY that Die Temps dont show up in there. It has a section for it called "hottest temperature", but its blank. I heard that KNC didn't program WAAS drivers or something to retrieve the die temps.

I dont think the dies themselves even have the hardware(thermistor) to even read die temps. Ive never received factual evidence of this and obviously KNC hasnt coded for it so... I doubt such mechanism exist ... in reality we dont know the actual die temps under that heatsink.
Meaning ... a heatsink could be not mounted correctly and we would never know it outside of stability issues / burning spots on the PCB for certain dies.
It really sucks ... if someone wants to poke n prod and knows more low level code than myself .. go for it =) ... maybe something can be discovered and there may be a thermistor for each die, but at this point I highly doubt it.

hey tarkin where you been hiding?

the stability issues of an improperly mounted heatsink, are pretty flagrant --  The usual culprit is the alignment pins not in the holes,  but if you catch it quick you'll be ok. I imagine the fan failure code will shut the dies off, but I haven't tried it and I double check before closing a cube up, it's an easy mistake if you're in a hurry

The fan failure trip is all circumstantial. It uses the TEMP difference of the DCDC's as a determination factor in a possibly dead fan. Theres nothing that Ive seen to detect actual fan failure. Keep in mind this is completely seperate from the temp of the dies(since we have no way of reading the die temp).

As for where Ive been lately, lotsa life stuff going on. Was laid off few months back due to business closure then couple weeks later notified I had to move out in 90 days because owner wanted to sell where I was living, so the past couple months has been all about finding a new job and place to live. Luckily it all worked out. Just finished moving into my new place.... now time to unpack which will take a while as well. LOL!

[TXSteve]

Oh sorry to hear that, that's a really tough business to make it in. When I was younger I was laidoff a few times but after a period of adjustment always found something better. Glad it worked out, enjoy your new place

[psycodad]

Likewise my one recommendation would be to put a 30 amp automotive fuse in line to each Titan from that big supply. That way if a Titan shorts a capacitor it will blow the fuse before catching fire.

Actually a super idea would be to put a 10 amp fuse on each one of the three lines that feed each titan's PCI plug. That way if a plug line went bad the other two fuses would blow, saving the titan from the ground fault fail.

that's a pretty good idea, one of the y connector resellers should jump on that with 3 inline fuses on each connector -- I just ordered some more Y-connectors, maybe I'll give it a try

May I ask you for a recommendation on where to buy good Y-connectors ? The ones I found are too thin (AWG18), I think the original ones were AWG16.

TIA

[TXSteve]

I've been using these

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261846105445?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[TriAxis]

I dont think the dies themselves even have the hardware(thermistor) to even read die temps. Ive never received factual evidence of this and obviously KNC hasnt coded for it so... I doubt such mechanism exist ... in reality we dont know the actual die temps under that heatsink.
Meaning ... a heatsink could be not mounted correctly and we would never know it outside of stability issues / burning spots on the PCB for certain dies.
It really sucks ... if someone wants to poke n prod and knows more low level code than myself .. go for it =) ... maybe something can be discovered and there may be a thermistor for each die, but at this point I highly doubt it.

I think this must be my problem. It makes no sense in my brain that all 4 dies can run at 250mh but if I put them at 300mh they shutoff. In my brain either something is broken or not. So if they are not 100% broken, then why can they not run at 300mh. The only logical explanation is something is getting too hot that isn't being monitored by the software. And it shuts off dies when they get too hot, even though the Temps in the software are really low. Either that or something is short circuiting when they get too hot.

I felt the copper heatsink tubes and they are all pretty cool. Right now my temps are at 47C and 65C DCDC average temp. And 42C and 54 DCDC average temp on the cube running at 250mh. The last thing I may try is to see if the cover plate for the heatsink that goes over the copper tubes is too tall.

Ideally you have an aluminum plate that goes over the copper section that makes contact with the CPU. And this should be the same height as the copper tubes. Something like this # = Aluminum plate | O = Copper heatsink tubes
######
#OOOO#

But if this plate is too high or the copper is too short, then maybe the copper isn't touching the CPU properly.
######
#OOOO#
#         #
<with a gap at the bottom, if that makes sense>

[GenTarkin]

I dont think the dies themselves even have the hardware(thermistor) to even read die temps. Ive never received factual evidence of this and obviously KNC hasnt coded for it so... I doubt such mechanism exist ... in reality we dont know the actual die temps under that heatsink.
Meaning ... a heatsink could be not mounted correctly and we would never know it outside of stability issues / burning spots on the PCB for certain dies.
It really sucks ... if someone wants to poke n prod and knows more low level code than myself .. go for it =) ... maybe something can be discovered and there may be a thermistor for each die, but at this point I highly doubt it.

I think this must be my problem. It makes no sense in my brain that all 4 dies can run at 250mh but if I put them at 300mh they shutoff. In my brain either something is broken or not. So if they are not 100% broken, then why can they not run at 300mh. The only logical explanation is something is getting too hot that isn't being monitored by the software. And it shuts off dies when they get too hot, even though the Temps in the software are really low. Either that or something is short circuiting when they get too hot.

I felt the copper heatsink tubes and they are all pretty cool. Right now my temps are at 47C and 65C DCDC average temp. And 42C and 54 DCDC average temp on the cube running at 250mh. The last thing I may try is to see if the cover plate for the heatsink that goes over the copper tubes is too tall.

Ideally you have an aluminum plate that goes over the copper section that makes contact with the CPU. And this should be the same height as the copper tubes. Something like this # = Aluminum plate | O = Copper heatsink tubes
######
#OOOO#

But if this plate is too high or the copper is too short, then maybe the copper isn't touching the CPU properly.
######
#OOOO#
#         #
<with a gap at the bottom, if that makes sense>

If you touch the actual heatpipes on the heatsink near the base and they feel COOL..... then heat is DEFINITELY NOT being transferred to them from the ASIC ... meaning the ASIC could be EASILY OVERHEATING.
You want the pipes to feel warm / hot ... thats evidence of good heat transfer away from the ASIC.

[TXSteve]

good point, he's right they should be hot -- you said you repasted so double check BOTH alignment pins are in the holes

[Searing]

good point, he's right they should be hot -- you said you repasted so double check BOTH alignment pins are in the holes

Get the Maxumark Bracket replacements...for 10 bucks from him. There is NO alignment pin issue anymore.....in that 4 point cross screws down manner.

easy peazy... but good call that looks like the likely problem the pins....

[Searing]

Posted this on the KNC Swedish ASIC miner thread...but probably important here to....got a hold of digikey they said the link below is the LARGER equivalent to the small oscillator
people are trying to fix on the 2nd batch qberty board...in case that matters...they also have links there to the very small surface mount version

anyway here it the link with the rest on that page on replacing the oscillator with proper one..and below is my ramblings on why not just use the larger cousin
and a pi protoboard for $40 bucks off eBay and just say 'screw it' and use that fix instead...thus we are no longer bound by titan bridges nor qberty clone bridges

anyway my ramblings below (at the peak of my electronics skill (not) set even getting this far...) a hand off now to lightfoot or someone else I suspect would find
this child's play to form some instructions on and/or a kit of such to do it...ie idiot proof it for me in other words

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=170332.msg16203245#msg16203245

anyway supposed larger crystal from digikey that would work and be less of a pain to use (especially with a protoboard of the clone bridge hack)

http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/txc-corporation/9B-24.576MEEJ-B/887-1252-ND/2207672

trace the leads...do something like this as a hack with a raspberry pi B+ 512mb compatible protoboard and yippie skippie its a done deal (likely I'm missing something yet)



anyway more info on the knc Swedish ASIC miner thread linked above here

maybe a light at the end of the tunnel

(Lightfoot old buddy old pal...er ...if you could just look this over and bless it in some manner?)

as always in over my head likely skipping something (like every frigging lcd is needed or some such)

[Unacceptable]

Weird,Titans are NOT Bitcoin mining hardware so why is this thread in this section still??

Shouldn't it be in the ALTCOIN section??

[Searing]

Weird,Titans are NOT Bitcoin mining hardware so why is this thread in this section still??

Shouldn't it be in the ALTCOIN section??

he has neptune and jupiter in the title I guess

how's it gong?

[Tupsu]

Weird,Titans are NOT Bitcoin mining hardware so why is this thread in this section still??

Shouldn't it be in the ALTCOIN section??

I enter them  the address  of mining pool,  they mine and I get every day, for that  the BTC to my BTC wallet.
Do you know what exactly they mine ?  I do not know.

If you want  to start to explain me, that  TITAN  is not to able mine BTC, then open a new topic.

You know where to do it-  in  ALTCOIN section  
 

[psycodad]

I've been using these

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261846105445?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Thank you very much! I have searched so long for the right y-cables, have ordered a few (you really can not have too much in spare of these when running titans  )

I have a crimping plier and all needed to make my own pci-E connector/cables, but I never succeeded to squeeze 2 wires of 16AWG into one pin.