[Hands On] Bitmain AntMiner S7 - Batch 8 - Notlist3d

[RadekG]

So, B8 has no PIC controller. Voltage is set at 10.5V. I don't think it will be SW controlled.

The pictures show a PIC and a Digital Pot on the Batch 8 Boards. What is unknown at the moment is if it is stand alone /Factory Pre-set or if it is controlled by the main controller?

Rich

Oh sorry, my mistake, other side of PCB is PIC12F1572 controller Buck controller seems to be LM27402 driving pair of toshiba TPHR9003 high side and only one at low side.

[mavericklm]

hope you dont mind me posting this:

5min test at -10C  

[notlist3d]

hope you dont mind me posting this:

5min test at -10C  

No problem at all.  This is for any batch 8.  That is very low on testing but seems to work fine which is nice.

Lowest I have got is around 30F or so but no issues running in it.   Also started mining around December 19, 2015. or so and no fault's or errors which is nice.  So guess were like 1/2 month of running great.

[VirosaGITS]

hope you dont mind me posting this:

5min test at -10C  

No problem at all.  This is for any batch 8.  That is very low on testing but seems to work fine which is nice.

Lowest I have got is around 30F or so but no issues running in it.   Also started mining around December 19, 2015. or so and no fault's or errors which is nice.  So guess were like 1/2 month of running great.

I've ran some miners where the chip were at -6~-10c, they worked fine. I'm guessing as long as no condensation freeze at temp variance there would be no problems.

[klondike_bar]

its around -10C outside here. i have a quiet 120mm fan pulling cold air directly to the S7 intake

S7, B8 fans are 15%, 691MHz, and I have temperatures of 61-68C

[notlist3d]

its around -10C outside here. i have a quiet 120mm fan pulling cold air directly to the S7 intake

S7, B8 fans are 15%, 691MHz, and I have temperatures of 61-68C

It's getting colder and colder here.  They are still working in 20F or below here.   So it's good to see cold does not seem to have an effect.

I have also turned off some fan's.  Winter mining is a heck of a lot easier then summer mining when mining a decent scale.

[klondike_bar]

its around -10C outside here. i have a quiet 120mm fan pulling cold air directly to the S7 intake

S7, B8 fans are 15%, 691MHz, and I have temperatures of 61-68C

It's getting colder and colder here.  They are still working in 20F or below here.   So it's good to see cold does not seem to have an effect.

I have also turned off some fan's.  Winter mining is a heck of a lot easier then summer mining when mining a decent scale.

yeah, its great in the winter, i usually just put a few antminers near a slightly-open window and they run quietly and without being too hot

[nhando]

Anyone have experience using the S7 in an upright position where it's sitting on a wire shelf with the exhaust fan pointing to the ceiling and the intake fan at the bottom?  I'm hearing that this would increase the risk of the heat sink falling and burning out the boards but when I look at the pictures of the internal, regardless of what position there will always be some heat sink that will be in a vertical position.  Any other reason why I should avoid this particular configuration?  Intake air wont be block as it's wire shelves below have plenty of gaps for air.  My goal is to point all the exhaust fans to the ceiling Vent for better efficiency.

[notlist3d]

Anyone have experience using the S7 in an upright position where it's sitting on a wire shelf with the exhaust fan pointing to the ceiling and the intake fan at the bottom?  I'm hearing that this would increase the risk of the heat sink falling and burning out the boards but when I look at the pictures of the internal, regardless of what position there will always be some heat sink that will be in a vertical position.  Any other reason why I should avoid this particular configuration?  Intake air wont be block as it's wire shelves below have plenty of gaps for air.  My goal is to point all the exhaust fans to the ceiling Vent for better efficiency.

I have had good luck with laying regular.   I do use some extra fan's to pump all the hot air though the miners quickly and twords my exhaust.  So far have had good luck with it (winter has helped to ofcourse).

It's a interesting idea on risk of heat sink falling being more likely.  I'm not sure that the weight of being turned up would do it or not.  But it would be getting the board hotter exhaust on back of boards instead of top so depending on how good the adhesive is you might have problems from the heat in a different pattern then they tested.   

Do you no have the space to push the air through it normal with laying down?   Is space the issue where you have miners? Or are you just wanting to do a different setup?

[notlist3d]

Deleted a post that as pretty much double post from regular S7 thread.   Don't delete many so I try to mention when I do.

Not much reason to have 2 conversations https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1165628.msg13564443#msg13564443 is where other one is if anyone want's to comment.

[nhando]

Anyone have experience using the S7 in an upright position where it's sitting on a wire shelf with the exhaust fan pointing to the ceiling and the intake fan at the bottom?  I'm hearing that this would increase the risk of the heat sink falling and burning out the boards but when I look at the pictures of the internal, regardless of what position there will always be some heat sink that will be in a vertical position.  Any other reason why I should avoid this particular configuration?  Intake air wont be block as it's wire shelves below have plenty of gaps for air.  My goal is to point all the exhaust fans to the ceiling Vent for better efficiency.

I have had good luck with laying regular.   I do use some extra fan's to pump all the hot air though the miners quickly and twords my exhaust.  So far have had good luck with it (winter has helped to ofcourse).

It's a interesting idea on risk of heat sink falling being more likely.  I'm not sure that the weight of being turned up would do it or not.  But it would be getting the board hotter exhaust on back of boards instead of top so depending on how good the adhesive is you might have problems from the heat in a different pattern then they tested.   

Do you no have the space to push the air through it normal with laying down?   Is space the issue where you have miners? Or are you just wanting to do a different setup?

I'm building a vent in the ceiling of the Garage so figure the rack being 72" high, I can just have the S7 exhaust fan pointed up.   It would pull the cooler air and push the hot air up, since hot air rise anyway, it would be the most efficient.  Yeah, Mark did mention about the Heat sink issue where they can fall and jam a FAN causing it to over heat.  I'm just wondering how it can burn down the unit if the system is designed to turn off when it's 80C.  I would think the cooling of the unit via the fans would be exactly the same as it's thru the same short tunnel.   If I have it lay on the side then I'll need to create a Plenum to funnel the hot air to the vent better.   

[notlist3d]

S7 Batch 8 is a good miner for me on up-time.  Over 27 and 1/2 day's uptime still hitting average of 4.7T.   I am using the bitmain PSU on it.

One thing which I saw in S5+ aswell is it seems HW error can go negative if run for around a month like this.   So that is impossible.  But the main thing is the S7 is stable and running good.

[BTC_ISTANBUL]

Vertical and horizantal orientation is directly related to aerodynamics.The importan point is hot air rises up, if you have a some device to transfer heat out it is going to be very efficient.

The heat sink's falling problem is not the gravity problem but still an aerodynamic problem.Some points can not be cooled enough, these not enough cooled extra hot points reason not well oriented and applied heat sinks to fall.Not well oriented and applied means if the chemical is not perfectly under or less then the neccesarry enough amount.

[mavericklm]

Is that a negative ) on the % of hw errors? ))

[notlist3d]

Is that a negative ) on the % of hw errors? ))

In reality no, but after it runs for about a month it is a low number and the equation behind it gets confused it seems.

One thing which I saw in S5+ aswell is it seems HW error can go negative if run for around a month like this.   So that is impossible.  But the main thing is the S7 is stable and running good.

[RichBC]

Is that a negative ) on the % of hw errors? ))

In reality no, but after it runs for about a month it is a low number and the equation behind it gets confused it seems.

One thing which I saw in S5+ aswell is it seems HW error can go negative if run for around a month like this.   So that is impossible.  But the main thing is the S7 is stable and running good.

Yes I have seen that a couple of times on my S5. I assume that a counter has wrapped round or overflowed into another variable.

Rich

[Subw]

Rich, I send you a PM, could you please read it.

[RadekG]

Right behind the inductor. There are 3 TPHR9003NL mosfet. I didn't take a photo when I took out the hashing board

Well those a pretty beefy mosfets, so just need some sort of controller chip and we are back to perhaps having a way to adjust the voltage?

Would be great for someone to measure the voltage across the full chain? but understand the warranty issues.

Rich

I did some deeper investigation, hope you will help me with some points.

1) Buck converter is set at 10.59V
2) PIC controller IS connected (through U2) to Feedback line of buck controller, so PIC controller is either controlling (more probable) or reading voltage. Or both.
3) Still don't know what U2 is.

U2: This IC uses 3 pins. Two coming from PIC, one goes to FB. Still unclear which ports of PIC are used - PIC has SW configurable pins, so we can guess about configuration.
PIC: no pin goes to buck converter, two pins go to controller board (TX and RST2)

Pin connection:

U2:

1: 3.3V
2: GND
3: PIC pin 6
4: PIC pin 5
5: GND
6: line to feedback of buck convertor

PIC:

1,8: Vdd, Vss
2: TX
3: P2 pin 1
4: RST2; P1 pin 1
5: U2 pin 4
6: U2 pin 3
7: P1 pin 4

http://pantin.cz/20160209_155344.jpg

So, I think PIC pin #2 receives commands or simple voltage settings through USART.

[RichBC]

Right behind the inductor. There are 3 TPHR9003NL mosfet. I didn't take a photo when I took out the hashing board

Well those a pretty beefy mosfets, so just need some sort of controller chip and we are back to perhaps having a way to adjust the voltage?

Would be great for someone to measure the voltage across the full chain? but understand the warranty issues.

Rich

I did some deeper investigation, hope you will help me with some points.

1) Buck converter is set at 10.59V
2) PIC controller IS connected (through U2) to Feedback line of buck controller, so PIC controller is either controlling (more probable) or reading voltage. Or both.
3) Still don't know what U2 is.

U2: This IC uses 3 pins. Two coming from PIC, one goes to FB. Still unclear which ports of PIC are used - PIC has SW configurable pins, so we can guess about configuration.
PIC: no pin goes to buck converter, two pins go to controller board (TX and RST2)

Pin connection:

U2:

1: 3.3V
2: GND
3: PIC pin 6
4: PIC pin 5
5: GND
6: line to feedback of buck convertor

PIC:

1,8: Vdd, Vss
2: TX
3: P2 pin 1
4: RST2; P1 pin 1
5: U2 pin 4
6: U2 pin 3
7: P1 pin 4

http://pantin.cz/20160209_155344.jpg

So, I think PIC pin #2 receives commands or simple voltage settings through USART.

PIC is controlling U2 which is an I2C Digital Pot. MCP4017 50K 128 Steps.

The unknown was if there is any connection from the PIC to the main controller board in the S7 or as I suspect the PIC is set up by the factory from the board edge connections to a preset resistance value for the Digital Pot & hence the Core Voltage?


Rich

[RadekG]

I did some deeper investigation, hope you will help me with some points.

1) Buck converter is set at 10.59V
2) PIC controller IS connected (through U2) to Feedback line of buck controller, so PIC controller is either controlling (more probable) or reading voltage. Or both.
3) Still don't know what U2 is.

U2: This IC uses 3 pins. Two coming from PIC, one goes to FB. Still unclear which ports of PIC are used - PIC has SW configurable pins, so we can guess about configuration.
PIC: no pin goes to buck converter, two pins go to controller board (TX and RST2)

Pin connection:

U2:

1: 3.3V
2: GND
3: PIC pin 6
4: PIC pin 5
5: GND
6: line to feedback of buck convertor

PIC:

1,8: Vdd, Vss
2: TX
3: P2 pin 1
4: RST2; P1 pin 1
5: U2 pin 4
6: U2 pin 3
7: P1 pin 4

http://pantin.cz/20160209_155344.jpg

So, I think PIC pin #2 receives commands or simple voltage settings through USART.

PIC is controlling U2 which is an I2C Digital Pot. MCP4017 50K 128 Steps.

The unknown was if there is any connection from the PIC to the main controller board in the S7 or as I suspect the PIC is set up by the factory from the board edge connections to a preset resistance value for the Digital Pot & hence the Core Voltage?


Rich

Thank you Rich for identifying U2. Now it is clear that PIC can control buck converter voltage and PIC is connected to control board - two pins from PIC (pin #2 and #4) go to controller board (TX and RST2).

My board has currently malfunctioning buck converter, it has only 8.7V across the chain which I belive is the lowest voltage set without digital pot, so my best guess is that we should be able to set PIC digital pot to control voltage from about 9V and voltage can be set even more that 10.59V.