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

[mmfiore]

I can tell you evga is no good either I had 4 die on the same day. I came back from vacation after they were off for 5 days and they all smoked when I fired them up. It seems most of these Atx  supplies have trouble going more than a year. They are really not designed to work full on 24/7. What is the best Atx supply? any recommendations?

[TXSteve]

yeah most of my seasonics(1000w platinum) failed within 2 weeks of each other, it was pretty hectic -- and you're right they usually fail after sitting for awhile, when they get powered back up -- I think all mine failed that way, sometimes even after an extended internet failure -- they'll stop hashing, cool down, I-net comes back up, they start hashing again and then they'll fail

So far the 1000w corsair 80+ gold have been great for half the price and if you look at the specs 80+ gold means about 91% efficient @ 240v so not far behind the platinums

[mmfiore]

Oh man am I glad to hear you say corsair are working good for you. That is what I switched too. I think they will last longer if you don't run them at full capacity. I try to run a 1000 watt at no more than 600 watts. This will hopefully allow them to last longer. I wonder if there is some sort of heavy duty industrial grade power supply that would work better. I suspect the component that causes failure most often is capacitors that go bad.

[lightfoot]

I use and like the Corsairs. 750 is the biggest I will use, if I am using bigger on a set of systems then IMO a short can cause a fireball before a shutdown. For normal units I'll go with Corsair 500's per each system.

Only Corsiar failure I have had was when the shed door blew open in a hurricane and the PS was heavily rained on. The chilli attached to it was also dead, but cleaning it up got it running again.

[mmfiore]

I like to run two cubes per PSU it is more energy efficient. But the short issue is a concern. My units are on a fire proof rack. Even if they smoke there is nothing else to burn. I also temperature monitor the room and have video monitor as well.

[lightfoot]

Meantime back to work. Some things I have been working on:

The qberty boards. Something is fucked on them, and I'm looking into it.

Got a Titan that was hashing on one die, problem is another die is mumbling garbage that shuts down the rest. Working to isolate.

Got another Titan with the normal 4-6 short. However I did find something: Pins 4 and 6 both are power to SCI type channels. Normally they are isolated, but on many cubes they share a common rail at the junction between U9 and U10. Disconnecting this clears the fault on pin 4 but not 6. However this does clear a lot:

Pin 4 powers the SCL lines for the DC-DC's, the EEPROM, LM75, and one of the level shifters. So it's not that.

Pin 6 powers U17,18,19 (the clock circuitry), and the 8 lines under each die. Which can't be isolated and sucks.

Pin 7 is a Sdi clock channel for the DC-DC's and house stuff
Pin 2 is the SDA channel for the DC-DC's and house stuff

Pin 8 is another interesting one: It goes to each of the corners of the chip, with isolation. I think that's either the SDI clock or signal for the chips themselves. This is how you can bypass a mumbler.

So if Pin 6 is what is blowing up, then it is either the clocks or the chip die (in which case we're fucked). Hm.

[Searing]

Meantime back to work. Some things I have been working on:

The qberty boards. Something is fucked on them, and I'm looking into it.

Got a Titan that was hashing on one die, problem is another die is mumbling garbage that shuts down the rest. Working to isolate.

Got another Titan with the normal 4-6 short. However I did find something: Pins 4 and 6 both are power to SCI type channels. Normally they are isolated, but on many cubes they share a common rail at the junction between U9 and U10. Disconnecting this clears the fault on pin 4 but not 6. However this does clear a lot:

Pin 4 powers the SCL lines for the DC-DC's, the EEPROM, LM75, and one of the level shifters. So it's not that.

Pin 6 powers U17,18,19 (the clock circuitry), and the 8 lines under each die. Which can't be isolated and sucks.

Pin 7 is a Sdi clock channel for the DC-DC's and house stuff
Pin 2 is the SDA channel for the DC-DC's and house stuff

Pin 8 is another interesting one: It goes to each of the corners of the chip, with isolation. I think that's either the SDI clock or signal for the chips themselves. This is how you can bypass a mumbler.

So if Pin 6 is what is blowing up, then it is either the clocks or the chip die (in which case we're fucked). Hm.

ACK! Those are my cubes. ACK!

(It is like public surgery on the walking dead TV show....)

ACK! The horror!

[lightfoot]

Yeah, I know. And I got two of them working on all dies (ok, one die out of 8 is a bit wonky but that's fucking amazing!) The trick is if it has only one die hashing it's possible the other dies have cold-soldered themselves to the point where they don't work. It's possible to reflow but be warned: IT IS VERY EASY TO FUCK IT UP AND WIND UP WITH A DEAD UNIT. Also the line drivers were damaged on one board.

Speaking of which: I finally figured out what line drivers/buffers these KNC people used: It's this:

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/fairchild-semiconductor/NC7WZ17P6X/NC7WZ17P6XCT-ND/

They are super small, and super critical: If you plug in your 10 pin header so that it goes over pins 13579 with 246810 then you will probably blow up a few of these, your cube will appear, but will never hash. It will also blow out the FPGA on your controller, so a twofer failure.

So I have now expanded what I can fix:

If your Titan has one die, I can try to get it to 3-4 dies
If your Titan comes up with no hashing but can be seen in KNCminer, I can probably fix it
If your Titan has a burned power connector I can fix it
If your Titan totally burned the board under the power connector then sigh, I can fix it.
If your controller is dead, I can fix it
If your bridgeboard is dead, I can fix it but you have to replace your Rpi too.
If your Rpi is dead, just get a new one and power it via the USB port. Lazy but works.

And as for the crystals, it's probably one of these:

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/txc-corporation/7B-24.576MBBK-T/887-1898-1-ND/

But I need to measure it with the digital calipers. Note though the cross-grounds that's part of the problem with the QB BB.

C

[numnutz2009]

Yeah, I know. And I got two of them working on all dies (ok, one die out of 8 is a bit wonky but that's fucking amazing!) The trick is if it has only one die hashing it's possible the other dies have cold-soldered themselves to the point where they don't work. It's possible to reflow but be warned: IT IS VERY EASY TO FUCK IT UP AND WIND UP WITH A DEAD UNIT. Also the line drivers were damaged on one board.

Speaking of which: I finally figured out what line drivers/buffers these KNC people used: It's this:

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/fairchild-semiconductor/NC7WZ17P6X/NC7WZ17P6XCT-ND/

They are super small, and super critical: If you plug in your 10 pin header so that it goes over pins 13579 with 246810 then you will probably blow up a few of these, your cube will appear, but will never hash. It will also blow out the FPGA on your controller, so a twofer failure.

So I have now expanded what I can fix:

If your Titan has one die, I can try to get it to 3-4 dies
If your Titan comes up with no hashing but can be seen in KNCminer, I can probably fix it
If your Titan has a burned power connector I can fix it
If your Titan totally burned the board under the power connector then sigh, I can fix it.
If your controller is dead, I can fix it
If your bridgeboard is dead, I can fix it but you have to replace your Rpi too.
If your Rpi is dead, just get a new one and power it via the USB port. Lazy but works.

And as for the crystals, it's probably one of these:

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/txc-corporation/7B-24.576MBBK-T/887-1898-1-ND/

But I need to measure it with the digital calipers. Note though the cross-grounds that's part of the problem with the QB BB.

C

what about the converter boards that connect the pi to the controller card?? is there a seller with reasonable prices for these?? and they let you hook a pic to the controller that support beaglebone without the middle board between them right??

[lightfoot]

Someone here made a replacement, but the gen two versions have a few issues. You can fix the Gen 1 versions by replacing the Pi and powering it from USB power if you really want. Or send it to me to fix.

C

[lightfoot]

Update: I have the code working for a Neptune 100% on a beaglebone (yeah, big deal but it's a bitch to compile and get working) however Titan is still down. It's somewhere in the titan.c files in Bfgminer. But anyway in the meantime know that the newer version of fpga code on the Rpis can work with Neptune boards, so it's an enhancement to the Neptune code and not a replacement.

BBB's compile so much faster than Rpi's. I hate Rpi's.

[GenTarkin]

Update: I have the code working for a Neptune 100% on a beaglebone (yeah, big deal but it's a bitch to compile and get working) however Titan is still down. It's somewhere in the titan.c files in Bfgminer. But anyway in the meantime know that the newer version of fpga code on the Rpis can work with Neptune boards, so it's an enhancement to the Neptune code and not a replacement.

BBB's compile so much faster than Rpi's. I hate Rpi's.

Is this the stuff from whats his face that was selling the firmware for 10btc? or did you dev your own?

[lightfoot]

Is this the stuff from whats his face that was selling the firmware for 10btc? or did you dev your own?

Dear God No. This is me pounding my own head against the KNC wall. Besides I would rather blow up beaglebones on controllers trying to figure out some of these failures than the now limited supply of Raspberry Pi's.

Note: Everything I do here is my own work or is based on publicly accessible documents. I have no encumbrances or NDA's in this venture and I would prefer to keep it that way.

C

[GenTarkin]

Is this the stuff from whats his face that was selling the firmware for 10btc? or did you dev your own?

Dear God No. This is me pounding my own head against the KNC wall. Besides I would rather blow up beaglebones on controllers trying to figure out some of these failures than the now limited supply of Raspberry Pi's.

Note: Everything I do here is my own work or is based on publicly accessible documents. I have no encumbrances or NDA's in this venture and I would prefer to keep it that way.

C

Cool beans =) was just curious.

[Searing]

Is this the stuff from whats his face that was selling the firmware for 10btc? or did you dev your own?

Dear God No. This is me pounding my own head against the KNC wall. Besides I would rather blow up beaglebones on controllers trying to figure out some of these failures than the now limited supply of Raspberry Pi's.

Note: Everything I do here is my own work or is based on publicly accessible documents. I have no encumbrances or NDA's in this venture and I would prefer to keep it that way.

C

HEH..I got a few bbb laying about from Jupiter's and titans I can send to the cause for you to blow  up should the need arise...

Also being KNC and evil and all it MIGHT be easier to decipher this book first...just to make the task less of a pain..see how the evil flowed into KNC devices don't ya know

http://www.viralnova.com/devil-bible/

Also the 'Voodoo for Dummies" Book is handy...along with a 5-gallon pail of ACME Chicken Entrails.....

[vapourminer]

...along with a 5-gallon pail of ACME Chicken Entrails.....

ACME (the name you can trust) sells chicken entrails by 55 gallon drum too. cheaper. and with knc you will need a LOT.

[Unacceptable]

Is this the stuff from whats his face that was selling the firmware for 10btc? or did you dev your own?

Dear God No. This is me pounding my own head against the KNC wall. Besides I would rather blow up beaglebones on controllers trying to figure out some of these failures than the now limited supply of Raspberry Pi's.

Note: Everything I do here is my own work or is based on publicly accessible documents. I have no encumbrances or NDA's in this venture and I would prefer to keep it that way.

C

HEH..I got a few bbb laying about from Jupiter's and titans I can send to the cause for you to blow  up should the need arise...

Also being KNC and evil and all it MIGHT be easier to decipher this book first...just to make the task less of a pain..see how the evil flowed into KNC devices don't ya know

http://www.viralnova.com/devil-bible/

Also the 'Voodoo for Dummies" Book is handy...along with a 5-gallon pail of ACME Chicken Entrails.....

[lightfoot]

...along with a 5-gallon pail of ACME Chicken Entrails.....

ACME (the name you can trust) sells chicken entrails by 55 gallon drum too. cheaper. and with knc you will need a LOT.

Honestly I feel like I should buy Kestrel 957 flux by the drum. It's not as tacky as Zephlux but that's for bitchy bga's.

C

[lightfoot]

Marry Christmas everyone. Been busy working on a number of things, got some cards repaired, can fix just about everything except the shorts on pins 6/8.

The only way to fix that seems to be to replace the hashing chip. Not going to happen. But everything else has been mapped out and can be fixed; shorted controllers, dead FPGAs, even cubes with no dies.

I just wish KNC had not routed the power supply line to the chip control circuits through a via *under* the die. If there had been any other place one could isolate or cut it we would be in business. But no, drat.Moral: Route power and SPI signaling to your engines through a 0 ohm resistor. Would cost .0001c per board.

Meantime everything else is purring along. How long will Titans keep running I wonder.

[Searing]

Marry Christmas everyone. Been busy working on a number of things, got some cards repaired, can fix just about everything except the shorts on pins 6/8.

The only way to fix that seems to be to replace the hashing chip. Not going to happen. But everything else has been mapped out and can be fixed; shorted controllers, dead FPGAs, even cubes with no dies.

I just wish KNC had not routed the power supply line to the chip control circuits through a via *under* the die. If there had been any other place one could isolate or cut it we would be in business. But no, drat.Moral: Route power and SPI signaling to your engines through a 0 ohm resistor. Would cost .0001c per board.

Meantime everything else is purring along. How long will Titans keep running I wonder.

I thought Vegas made a post he had that solder ball grid thingy you nneeded to replace a die
I'll see if I can find the post. Long odds this is likely.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=170332.msg16227695#msg16227695

Er.   Likely I'm mixed up.  He says custom stencil which may be of some other use