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

[hawkfish007]

Hm. Weird. Now the Titan chips have a lot more junk on them than the Neptunes (Titans have memory, processors, stuff while Neptunes are barrel rollers all the way) so I wonder if overheating would damage those sorts of things instead of just knocking down some hashing engines.

That said, how does the cube turn off? Does the fan stop and everything, or does it just restart the power supplies? Haven't seen that on a Neptune yet (is this Tarkin's software build)?

The cube just restarts (or is it BFGMiner?). The fan, controller stays on, but the hash rate goes back to zero until it tries to revive all of the dies. The Cycle continues every 5-0 minutes, so I just keep the dies turned off. I am using KNC's software for this Titan.

[ZeroGee]

I really wish I could chime in and help. These are just too rich for my blood to invest in and tinker with at the moment. Looks like you're doing good work though!

[lightfoot]

No problem. Hopefully all of these posts will help other home miners and small miners continue to keep going (which is my personal goal thing)

[lightfoot]

How we can wake up
Some dead die. At Titan cubeL

I do not know yet. I think part of the problem is that the chips melt the solder under themselves and short. Reflowing with really good flux and proper heat might fix it (it does fix neptunes)

And on a related note the US Postal service has totally failed today. Will try again tomorrow.

[adaseb]

The fact that the DC-DC converters are showing voltage means they are probably working. If they were shorted you would see 0 volts on that die. My guess is nothing is pulling power from those particular ones, that's why they are cold.

Ergo, chip problem. You can try a low frequency on those dies, see if they respond to that.

I tried the lowest voltage and the lowest frequency and they are still dead. Been like this ever since I got the unit. Figured it might of been an easy fix.

[lightfoot]

I tried the lowest voltage and the lowest frequency and they are still dead. Been like this ever since I got the unit. Figured it might of been an easy fix.

Easy is relative. Was KNC shipping dead units?

Anyway, pull the board and tell me if there is a big black burn spot on the back. I just got some pictures of a Titan coming over and sure enough it has the same burn pattern as the neptunes.

Interesting.

[adaseb]

I tried the lowest voltage and the lowest frequency and they are still dead. Been like this ever since I got the unit. Figured it might of been an easy fix.

Easy is relative. Was KNC shipping dead units?

Anyway, pull the board and tell me if there is a big black burn spot on the back. I just got some pictures of a Titan coming over and sure enough it has the same burn pattern as the neptunes.

Interesting.

THese aren't Neptunes actually they are Jupiter units. Ill take it apart when I get some free time, right now I got a bunch of these Jupiters all stacked on top of each other hashing away. The one with the dead dies is the unit stacked at the bottom

[lightfoot]

THese aren't Neptunes actually they are Jupiter units. Ill take it apart when I get some free time, right now I got a bunch of these Jupiters all stacked on top of each other hashing away. The one with the dead dies is the unit stacked at the bottom

I'm beginning to think they are all the same thing, at least since October Jupiters. Check if you can to see if the bottoms of the boards are smoked.

Like this:



That's a Titan board, crashed. Will be working on it.

View it as a smaller image and you can see the discoloration all around the chip. Especially in the corner where the die burned the board, that's where the reflow failure is.

Interesting.

[adaseb]

Back when I reapplied the solder paste on all of them, I remember all the boards looking like that, they all looked burned in those places.

If that is the case for this board, I need to reball the entire ASIC?

[ZeroGee]

Back when I reapplied the solder paste on all of them, I remember all the boards looking like that, they all looked burned in those places.

If that is the case for this board, I need to reball the entire ASIC?

I'm not an expert on this specific hardware, but I would imagine so. I think some bottom side heatsinking would be helpful too. Though, if it's dissipating so much in those areas that it melts the solder and causes that kind of discoloring, I'm not sure what extent of cooling modification would be required to keep the board temperatures down...

[Searing]

How we can wake up
Some dead die. At Titan cubeL

er...most you can't imho......maybe a complete re-paste of the cube....but not worth the risk imho for 1 die to wipe out the whole cube on a mess up

and MOST NOV Titans 1st batch had flaky cubes usually 1 or 2 dies dead .....this is why knc told all to overclock from 300 to 325 on the firmare they changed it to (was orig 300)...SO
they could say (like they did to me) oh...you only have 1 die dead on a cube because now that you are oc to 325  on the rest and getting 306.1mh we can't/won't do any titans
over 300mh and not do any cubes with only 1 die dead ...fu and hit the road

so they OC the titans past their orig firmware speed setting for the units from 300 mh to 350 mh assuming all your cubes worked....also why they had to use the 2 to 1 16awg split plugs for power....

so anything above 300mh is a gift...orig Titan was set for 250mh (thus the components in such are rated for) they overclocked (because late delivery) to 300mh (because they had that slack in the components) they then because of bad dies overclocked it again (beyond the psu plugs in each cubes voltage/amp rating..thus the psu split cables) so they could not get beat up on RMA's


thus no further way to overclock these Titans (maxed out) and their solution to the bad dies off problems

so repaste....bigger fan.....the heat sink replacement (see Swedish guy videos on such on youtube...just search knc titan they pop right up)

but me...I 'm getting 645mh with 2 dead dies and 1 die at 250 and one die at 275 after 15 months of mining ...am not gonna sweat this (again 2 titans an orig one nov and used on mar 15)

(i do have all the Swedish guys stuff he used on hand thou..in case i have to rescue a cube)

but hell ave is 322.5 per Titan now (was 325) so again imho anything over 300mh is a frigging gift ........(again knc products are evil imho leave them alone an let them mine
if you make direct eye contact or muck with them too much ..they will try to brick themselves out of spite).....its true they are 'evil' I tell you

edit: actually will make up the 5mh have 5 moonlander 1mh usb sticks coming (was 32 bucks each plus 6 bucks shipping ...will never ROI but were cute as heck) so....dumb as it may be

I shall get up to 650mh again (whoo hoo!) (damn that's lame..but they are soooo cute) So FU KNC

[quakefiend420]

I have a non-functional Neptune cube that I'd sell for cheap if someone wanted to try and repair it, anyone have any interest in it?  IIRC it was recognized but only showed a couple amps on the VRMs in the UI.

PM me.

[lightfoot]

Status: Had two more Neptune/Titan boards come in, both were solid dead. One is back up and running with the TPS power chip replaced, the second one still does not come up and it looks like the FPGA is shorted. Contacted user to see if they want me to replace the FPGA chip (costs .15btc by itself), will see.

It's looking to be about 50/50 in terms of replacing the power chip vs. the FPGA to fix these Titan/Neptune controller boards.

Now I just need to wait for the postal service to deliver more packages. Then we can start on reflows/rebuilds of the power supplies (bit more fun)

[coinut]

came across this pic of a jupiter board



the die its self looks to be the same brand and type as the chip on the controller, cant read the part number though.
although i can see that it reads ALTERA
                                            cyclone IV
It just got me wondering if it was possible to purchase and replace a dead die with a new part.
and also what part numbers are used for the dies neptune/jupiter/titan hashing boards.

I know very little about fpga's in general, although after owning a titan I want to learn more.

[Searing]

The fact that the DC-DC converters are showing voltage means they are probably working. If they were shorted you would see 0 volts on that die. My guess is nothing is pulling power from those particular ones, that's why they are cold.

Ergo, chip problem. You can try a low frequency on those dies, see if they respond to that.

I tried the lowest voltage and the lowest frequency and they are still dead. Been like this ever since I got the unit. Figured it might of been an easy fix.

I got 2 dies like this from day one .....nov 2014 1st batch units are notorious for having at least 1 dead die...but it was usually 2 dies 1 dead and 1 slow it seemed back
when folk were yelling and burning torches on knc forums to no avail

but yeah me too 2 dead dies orig unit

got a badly abused used titan in march when we all thought all them new bigger scrypt miners were coming out (volcano/alpha/flower/etc) so figured at the time
my units might last till may and paid appropriately ...not sure if ebay search goes back that far but the problems with firmware and other issues they were being dumped

my 'regret' is I could have gotten a titan cube like may 2015 or something for 500 usd buy it now...passed i mean LTC was 1.30 or so.....duh....my hope is the same NOW
with the price....of LTC say as an example.....if price would pop.....we would be golden

anyway the 2nd used unit I got in March was run in hot outback of Australia no a/c (or hell it could not keep up) in an apt.and had blown thru 2 or 3 psu's due to heat
the paint on the cube ...looks like the hood of an Arizona car parked in the sun for 8 years..sheesh (very retro looking thou I must say..you can see the paint speckles on
the top from the heat..I kid you not)

that titan unit complete still runs 350mh full out balls to the wall....my orig 'babied' titan unit...has the orig 2 dead dies and 2 dies on a cube 1 set to 250 the other to 225

so go figure it is all about the dies...the 1st run titans had lots of bad dies....it is the luck of the draw imho some got Titans back then with 1/2 the die dead

got the re-paste i got with fan and heat sinks (Swedish guy mod video on this thread)  stuff I could try ..but I've lost 5mh since these Nov 2014 units were gotten .....both of them nov units 2014..that is what now 14 months on the orig miner..yesterday

So am not gonna sweat it and burn a cube (yet) There will come a time when I will probably have to do the re-paste and mods etc..but only losing 5mh from 650mh to 645mh it is
JUST NOT worth mucking with them yet (knock wood)

anyway again imho the reason KNC overclocked these beasts 2x (orig 250mh machine..then 300mh firmware when late by months...then bad dies changed firmware to make them use the 325 setting to 350mh units...so they could get out of masseve RMA issues....and of course 2 prog to 1 plug adapters so they STOPPED catching on fire ).....so again ...anything anyone can get over 300mh is a gift...so think long and hard on if you really want to muck with a cube that is working overclocked 3/4 of the dies.....you could kill the works (being a coward seems to work for me so far.....)

Anyway to me the risk/reward is just not worth it..then again I have 2 Titans and one was way way golden at 350mh so ......i have some slack for my ego on all this....

[Searing]

Status: Had two more Neptune/Titan boards come in, both were solid dead. One is back up and running with the TPS power chip replaced, the second one still does not come up and it looks like the FPGA is shorted. Contacted user to see if they want me to replace the FPGA chip (costs .15btc by itself), will see.

It's looking to be about 50/50 in terms of replacing the power chip vs. the FPGA to fix these Titan/Neptune controller boards.

Now I just need to wait for the postal service to deliver more packages. Then we can start on reflows/rebuilds of the power supplies (bit more fun)

So NOW that you have compared the boards...Titan and Neptune are they REALLY the same boards? Would like to clarify that and off hand I'm curious on HOW they
compare to a NOV 2013 Jupiter board (the oct and before jupiter/saturn/mercury boards are NOT compatible with Nov cubes/controllers)

So I'm going with the fact that perhaps THEY (NOV Jupiter boards also) ...were the same and the start of the SAME boards for Nov Jupiter/Neptune/Titan string of
6 port controller boards from then on?

So anyone have a trashed Jupiter board you could send ...to test this theory?)

(or have I missed the memo and it is as I think it is above ...and I'm the last to get the memo?)

by the by see my setup below....I had TWO old dresser's with heavy glass tops...put my miner setup on such for fire protection (yep they was catching on fire the 1st month folk said w/o the 2 prong to 1 progng psu adapters) ...and the wood top work bench....I also figured would be very 'cool' on the glass top....so kinda reading the above pleased with self
I did that last summer..have not looked but suspect NO browning as a result of such actions

lostgonzo.imgur.com

(note: knc 'evil' Titan shrine...the knc Jupiter 550gh has not been used since feb 2015...it acts now as a gravity assist device to keep miner bench down)

damn ...I SOOOO drank the KNC kool-aid back in the day....they were a 'reputable' company in 2013 ..its like watching a NUN turn into a PORN star ...all very fascinating to watch like an ASIC Swedish Soap Opera....but damn sad on reflection

[lightfoot]

So anyone have a trashed Jupiter board you could send ...to test this theory?)

Yep, works. There is no physical difference between a T and N controller baseboard. In fact I'm working to get a Beaglebone to run the 2.00 Titan code. It's a little different but not much and they included all sorts of nice source code....

damn ...I SOOOO drank the KNC kool-aid back in the day....they were a 'reputable' company in 2013 ..its like watching a NUN turn into a PORN star ...all very fascinating to watch like an ASIC Swedish Soap Opera....but damn sad on reflection

I see that Antminers and now exploding in flames too. Though that's probably because people are running 8,000 watt power supplies into them. When there is a capacitor short those don't just go pfft and trip the power supply, they explode the capacitor and the manufacturer can't do a whole lot about that... (the technical term is AIR or Amp Interrupt Rating. It's why you can't plug a 15 amp appliance into a 20 amp outlet....)

[lightfoot]

Meantime second and third boards have the FPGAs off. TPS chips now come up properly, will put on new FPGAs as soon as they come in. And it looks like USPS has finally gotten off their asses and sent the one day express package across the country in FOUR DAYS! Big round of applause....

[Searing]

So anyone have a trashed Jupiter board you could send ...to test this theory?)

Yep, works. There is no physical difference between a T and N controller baseboard. In fact I'm working to get a Beaglebone to run the 2.00 Titan code. It's a little different but not much and they included all sorts of nice source code....

damn ...I SOOOO drank the KNC kool-aid back in the day....they were a 'reputable' company in 2013 ..its like watching a NUN turn into a PORN star ...all very fascinating to watch like an ASIC Swedish Soap Opera....but damn sad on reflection

I see that Antminers and now exploding in flames too. Though that's probably because people are running 8,000 watt power supplies into them. When there is a capacitor short those don't just go pfft and trip the power supply, they explode the capacitor and the manufacturer can't do a whole lot about that... (the technical term is AIR or Amp Interrupt Rating. It's why you can't plug a 15 amp appliance into a 20 amp outlet....)

yeah they have a group order as an example on the Avalon 6 for $1100 w/o shipping now...I do the figures on the www.tradeblock.com calculator and it just don't fly at my regular rate of 13.7c kwh..my winter rate is 9.27c kwh so maybe some used equip next winter I may be able to mine yet

but with difficulty increase with all the big btc data farms etc coming out ..just can't see getting an avalon or Antminer at this point in time

anyway ..if I had a NOV Jupiter board I'd try this...but I have an 0CT Jupiter board and in that they don't work with the Nov stuff ...probably a no go

If you ever get time ..I assume you read the post on using just wires etc to jump w/o the use of a bridge board on the titan at al

however I assume if your beagle bone project works ...this will be the work around ...ie slap a bbb into at least a Neptune Board and viola ....off to the races

Stupid KNC had any PR skills or gave a damn about image...they would at least at this point in time release the source code etc...but why 'brighten' an otherwise
'dark' hard earned reputation at this point in time?

anyway like the thread ...keep up the good work

[jstew]

i have a neptune cube that used to work and one day it just stopped , what happens is if u plug that one cube into a controller it freezes up the controller and none of the other 4 cubes work.
with that one cube unplugged the neptune works just fine. any chance u think that cube may be fixable?