Some random thoughts on avalon 6 antminer s-7 and j4bberwock/finksy boards

[philipma1957]

Okay :

 I have mined with the s-7 since sept 30
I have mined with the avalon 6's since Nov 22

I have used the 2880 break out boards
and the dual 2000/4000 break out boards

I can't comment on the newer s-7's

  Since I am using a batch 1 and a batch 2

My experience with batch 1 was it underhashed and I sold it at a discount to buy solar I lent him an evga titanium 1600 watt psu to run it

It under hashes for him   but it has run none stop 24/7 since sept  and it does do close to .25 watts to the gh

My batch 2 s-7 sold as a 575 freq is basically a god   ,"not the god, but a god" I will give a prize to the first person that identifies that quote correctly.

I can over volt it to 12.5 watts with the finksy j4bberwock boards  and over clock it to freq 650  hash at 5200 gh at .25 watts and get 0.0005% error rate.

I run it under clocked in my friends office at freq 480 get  hashrate of 4000gh.

It is using a seasonic 1200 platinum psu and burns just under 1000 watts  with the under clock my error rate is under 0.0010 %  fans at 2500 rpm and it is a set it and forget piece of gear.

So basically I had a dud and a stud with the 2 s-7's.  

The other 17 or 18 I owned  were client's  except for one of them at li's China hosting site.

That was a batch one it was an underhashing unit and li was good enough to give me a credit for the underhashing.  I have sold it to a forum member and do not track it.  The ones for clients have been un-eventful  in that I got them on time and shipped them to my clients on time.  Our deal is as long as he or she gets them my part is over.  So basically I got them on time from bitmaintech and shipped them on time.

    The s-7 will run in a hot spot I have had it run in 102 f  garage without issues.
They are loud but flexible over ducting make them much better sound wise with out restricting air flow.

[1714879440]

1714879440

[1714879440]

1714879440

[judypug1956]

So what about the avalon 6's.

[philipma1957]

The avalon 6's are preferred for sound  and for the good service I get from yan of block_c

But they have some flaws.

First off they should have 6 pcie jacks not 4. _ this is a major design flaw.

The avalon 6 will pull 1000 to 1025 watts dc at freq 500

and that means 250 to 260 watts per pcie connection.

This is a lot to ask of a pcie connection  and now that I have run them long enough I am getting some heat darkened pcie jacks on the units and on the finksy/j4bberwock 2880 break out boards.

So what is the cure for this?  I have purchased this product


http://www.lemproducts.com/product/dehydrator-screen-material/food-dehydrator

let me show a few photos

three fans drag hot air away from the jacks








see jacks in this photo

[TheYankeesWin!]

How do you power the 3 fans to cool the finksy/j4bberwock boards.  I can see two ports did blacken.

[philipma1957]

Some one sent me some fan controllers to test out.  I need to do  a review on them.

they do allow for extra fans.  I plugged a pcie cable(yellow-black one) into one of the 2880 boards  and put a positive and negative into it.

here is an ebay link

I do not use the heat sensor or the alarm but it runs 3 fans fine


http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-PWM-PC-CPU-Fan-Temperature-Control-Speed-Controller-CPU-High-Temp-Alarm-/131557958526?


back to the problem at hand.

I think the finksy/j4bberwock boards are decent gear but as you see by the plugs they can blacken under a 250-275 watt draw.

So the avalon 6 with its 2 jack per board can pull that 250-275 watts.

My problem was discovered when we had two  82F  temp days last week .

My first  thought  was to use a y-cable to come from the break out board to the avalon 6

[sidehack]

That seems more like a problem with the breakout board than with the Avalon, and kinda verifies some of Optimizer's testing and concerns about thin copper.

[philipma1957]

That seems more like a problem with the breakout board than with the Avalon, and kinda verifies some of Optimizer's testing and concerns about thin copper.

it is both but you are not wrong I would say you are ⅔ correct.

Asking a pcie jack to handle 250-275 watts dc is asking for trouble.

and the optimizer testing   along with my temps finally getting warm enough show a flaw in the  boards in that the air that comes from the psu blows warm and hits the back of the pcie board and does nothing to cool where the pin meets the socket.

the fans pulling air directly across the connection and not behind the connection are a good cheap fix.


a better board with more copper will help the socket on the psu end not melt   which is where I think you are fully correct.

but on the avalon 6 end the same issue is there and a perfect psu side may simply move the problem to the avalon 6 side  pcie jacks.

for now the fans will keep the break out boards safe.

I was going to have y cables made   that would be a pair of 18 gauge cables into the  break out  board   and then connecting to a 15 gauge cable into the avalon 6

which would mean 8 break board jacks into 4 avalon 6 jacks.   this would solve the issue in that the break out jacks would do 125 to 150 watts max.

but it allows for a lot more power into the avalon 6 jacks.  as much as  400-500 watts per jack in case of a loose connection on the avalon jack side.

So I concluded that the fan idea is best in the short run.  I do suggest a 3 jack avalon solution for the future and a heavy copper  fix for the  break out boards.

Mean while if you are like me and have 2880's and avalon 6's watch for this.

the fan solution really seems to work. also note I have the top jacks of the break out boards filled as they get the most cooling from the fans.


I asked for custom cables on the  12th

Would you be able to make f-m-f  combiner cable

I have some really good 15 awg 3 ft cables hooked into an Avalon 6 miner.

While the Avalon end seems decent the psu ends get hot.

I have some 20 jack break out boards for 2880 psu

So I need eight jacks to run two Avalon 6 miners

I rather use 16 jacks not 8

Reply came on the 13th

Would you be able to make f-m-f  combiner cable

I have some really good 15 awg 3 ft cables hooked into an Avalon 6 miner.

While the Avalon end seems decent the psu ends get hot.

I have some 20 jack break out boards for 2880 psu

So I need eight jacks to run two Avalon 6 miners

I rather use 16 jacks not 8

I can definitely have this produced at a price similar to the M-F-M cables listed on the first page, but theres pretty low demand for them (the 16awg cables are pretty reliable to 300W+) and it would need to be a custom order >100pcs, and with a 3-4 week delivery time.

I realized that this idea would reduce the issue on the breakout boards but a very good shot at moving issue to the avalon 6's


So I remembered the little fan controllers  I purchased the mesh which is heat resistant and made the board coolers for now.

In a magical perfect world made for mining BTC and digital coins  the breakout boards would have 25 to 50% more copper  and the avalon 6.5's would have 3 pcie jacks.

In this world be very careful and mind those pcie jacks.  on the psus and on the avalon 6's

I am going to buysolar and the solar array  those avalon 6's are on different psu's.   I will look at the pcie jacks very closely to see how they are doing.

[VirosaGITS]

That seems more like a problem with the breakout board than with the Avalon, and kinda verifies some of Optimizer's testing and concerns about thin copper.

it is both but you are not wrong I would say you are ⅔ correct.

Asking a pcie jack to handle 250-275 watts dc is asking for trouble.

and the optimizer testing   along with my temps finally getting warm enough show a flaw in the  boards in that the air that comes from the psu blows warm and hits the back of the pcie board and does nothing to cool where the pin meets the socket.

the fans pulling air directly across the connection and not behind the connection are a good cheap fix.


a better board with more copper will help the socket on the psu end not melt   which is where I think you are fully correct.

but on the avalon 6 end the same issue is there and a perfect psu side may simply move the problem to the avalon 6 side  pcie jacks.

for now the fans will keep the break out boards safe.

I was going to have y cables made   that would be a pair of 18 gauge cables into the  break out  board   and then connecting to a 15 gauge cable into the avalon 6

which would mean 8 break board jacks into 4 avalon 6 jacks.   this would solve the issue in that the break out jacks would do 125 to 150 watts max.

but it allows for a lot more power into the avalon 6 jacks.  as much as  400-500 watts per jack in case of a loose connection on the avalon jack side.

So I concluded that the fan idea is best in the short run.  I do suggest a 3 jack avalon solution for the future and a heavy copper  fix for the  break out boards.

Mean while if you are like me and have 2880's and avalon 6's watch for this.

the fan solution really seems to work. also note I have the top jacks of the break out boards filled as they get the most cooling from the fans.

Hmm, i've run high quality fat retail EVGA 1600 cables at close to 350-400W though. They never browned. On the Avalon6 i'm using standard retail PCI-e and they are still fully cold.

How long did it take for your jacks to brown?

[philipma1957]

That seems more like a problem with the breakout board than with the Avalon, and kinda verifies some of Optimizer's testing and concerns about thin copper.

it is both but you are not wrong I would say you are ⅔ correct.

Asking a pcie jack to handle 250-275 watts dc is asking for trouble.

and the optimizer testing   along with my temps finally getting warm enough show a flaw in the  boards in that the air that comes from the psu blows warm and hits the back of the pcie board and does nothing to cool where the pin meets the socket.

the fans pulling air directly across the connection and not behind the connection are a good cheap fix.


a better board with more copper will help the socket on the psu end not melt   which is where I think you are fully correct.

but on the avalon 6 end the same issue is there and a perfect psu side may simply move the problem to the avalon 6 side  pcie jacks.

for now the fans will keep the break out boards safe.

I was going to have y cables made   that would be a pair of 18 gauge cables into the  break out  board   and then connecting to a 15 gauge cable into the avalon 6

which would mean 8 break board jacks into 4 avalon 6 jacks.   this would solve the issue in that the break out jacks would do 125 to 150 watts max.

but it allows for a lot more power into the avalon 6 jacks.  as much as  400-500 watts per jack in case of a loose connection on the avalon jack side.

So I concluded that the fan idea is best in the short run.  I do suggest a 3 jack avalon solution for the future and a heavy copper  fix for the  break out boards.

Mean while if you are like me and have 2880's and avalon 6's watch for this.

the fan solution really seems to work. also note I have the top jacks of the break out boards filled as they get the most cooling from the fans.

Hmm, i've run high quality fat retail EVGA 1600 cables at close to 350-400W though. They never browned. On the Avalon6 i'm using standard retail PCI-e and they are still fully cold.

How long did it take for your jacks to brown?

I have to check but 2-3 months.  I noticed the issue when it got really hot in NJ  for March 8 ,9, 10 ,11 

 we were hot the days in bold

Daily Weather History & Observations
2016   Temp. (°F)   Dew Point (°F)   Humidity (%)   Sea Level Press. (in)   Visibility (mi)   Wind (mph)   Precip. (in)   Events
Mar   high   avg   low   high   avg   low   high   avg   low   high   avg   low   high   avg   low   high   avg   high   sum   
1   51   46   42   43   30   25   76   54   43   30.17   30.01   29.63   10   10   10   16   9   26   0.00   
2   57   44   30   46   23   7   76   47   29   30.12   29.75   29.47   10   10   8   28   15   44   0.13   
3   37   30   24   21   11   7   69   43   28   30.28   30.21   30.12   10   10   2   16   8   21   0.00   
4   35   30   26   25   21   12   80   65   48   30.18   30.06   29.97   10   6   1   18   7   25   0.09   
5   37   30   24   19   15   10   60   51   38   30.22   30.17   30.08   10   10   10   12   7   -   0.00   
6   41   34   26   21   19   18   69   54   39   30.31   30.26   30.19   10   10   10   10   5   -   0.00   
7   60   45   30   36   29   21   70   53   36   30.31   30.16   30.02   10   10   6   18   8   29   0.00   
8   64   54   44   37   34   30   62   50   37   30.17   30.12   30.07   10   10   9   12   6   -   0.00   
9   80   60   39   46   38   30   70   46   18   30.15   30.08   30.01   10   10   10   17   5   22   0.00   
10   80   70   60   52   48   45   60   46   30   30.04   29.97   29.90   10   10   10   16   9   21   0.00   
11   66   56   46   52   40   27   72   50   28   30.33   30.12   29.88   10   10   10   21   9   30   0.00   
12   59   47   35   37   32   25   65   51   42   30.35   30.22   30.01   10   10   10   13   6   17   0.00   
13   60   54   48   37   34   30   62   48   31   30.11   30.04   29.98   10   10   10   14   7   17   0.00   
14   48   45   42   37   35   34   76   69   58   30.10   30.00   29.84   10   6   2   25   15   37   0.81   
15   53   48   44   43   39   36   76   72   62   29.84   29.80   29.77   10   7   2   16   11   28   0.01   
16   46   44   42   39   37   36   81   76   71   29.86   29.83   29.80   5   3   0   6   4   -   0.00   
17   -   -   -

[buyandhold]

very nice thread. Groundhog Day with Bill Murray?

[philipma1957]

very nice thread. Groundhog Day with Bill Murray?

yes give me a btc address

 I will send you 0.025 btc  


back to thoughts.

I like the avalon 6's more then the s-7's

I like the finksy/j4bberwock 2880 break out boards with a 2980 pus and fan mods.

but both the avalon and the certainly the breakout boards need improvement.

I have an avalon 6 running with a seasonic 1200 plat and thin 18 gauge cables here it is as part of the solar array

I will closely examine it maybe this weds as I am going to the solar array this week.  hopefully there will be no sign of melting

[buyandhold]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VF5P7qLaEQ

o wow thanks 1GSv7EXULxf2Csbr3oUpsxDh7aEuiRjXw8

[philipma1957]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VF5P7qLaEQ

o wow thanks 1GSv7EXULxf2Csbr3oUpsxDh7aEuiRjXw8

sent from my coinbase account

https://blockchain.info/tx/5b9237e205d55dfc48dde7fca91d6dafc40f46074cfd211d903bd09fe0ff9f26

[sidehack]

I trust a proper jack up to about 250W. Not really more than that. Course, I also plan to put two jacks on any S1-refit board I make and I don't expect to build 'em to draw more than 250W. For long-term reliability's sake, it's good practice to overspec. Course, since when were mining hardware manufacturers into doing anything more than the minimum required to clinch a sale, and since when were they into long-term reliability? If they thought about either of those things, they wouldn't be selling fixed-voltage string miners.

Also, you do know I make custom cables also? And by "make" I don't mean "outsource to a factory in China with a large MOQ to make it feasible". I have a wire cutter machine and crimping tools, partial spools of 16AWG copper MCW; if you only need a handful of something let me know, and if it's doable with parts I have in stock I can probably have it shipped within a day or two.

[buyandhold]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VF5P7qLaEQ

o wow thanks 1GSv7EXULxf2Csbr3oUpsxDh7aEuiRjXw8

sent from my coinbase account

https://blockchain.info/tx/5b9237e205d55dfc48dde7fca91d6dafc40f46074cfd211d903bd09fe0ff9f26

received with many thanks

[philipma1957]

I trust a proper jack up to about 250W. Not really more than that. Course, I also plan to put two jacks on any S1-refit board I make and I don't expect to build 'em to draw more than 250W. For long-term reliability's sake, it's good practice to overspec. Course, since when were mining hardware manufacturers into doing anything more than the minimum required to clinch a sale, and since when were they into long-term reliability? If they thought about either of those things, they wouldn't be selling fixed-voltage string miners.

Also, you do know I make custom cables also? And by "make" I don't mean "outsource to a factory in China with a large MOQ to make it feasible". I have a wire cutter machine and crimping tools, partial spools of 16AWG copper MCW; if you only need a handful of something let me know, and if it's doable with parts I have in stock I can probably have it shipped within a day or two.

I may ask for something along the lines of a y-pcie  in which 2  female plugs go into the 2880 psu board   and they merge into 1 female plug for the avalon 6

this would in effect double the copper of the 2880 board since I would be using 8 jacks on the psu side to go into 4 jacks on the avalon 6 side.

I am using 2980 psu's and they give me a true platinum rating.

I could use four of them at first to run 1 avalon 6.

they maybe a niche product for j4bberwock to avalon 6

what do you think?

[kipper01]

I'll need to take a look at my EVGA power supply tomorrow although connectors are black if I recall.

Phil, are the connectors brown on the avalon 6 or just at your breakout board?

[yslyung]

wut ? 102 F is hot ?

at this part of the world is roughly 35 C day & 26 C night with 70-80+ % humidity all year long !

if you use good quality PCIE cables 16 awg, it will be able to take more than 250W. good idea to have air flowing thru them.

j4b's boards are good, no complaints, works very well.

i don't mean to jack the thread or try to say something -ve but i've always look into stuffs you post & share, thx for sharing but there are a few things you might want to reconsider in your setups such as . . .

-put the boxes or miners away from card boxes (from your garage?) try to use other materials ? - you did mention about jacks melting etc so the risk of fire is slightly higher than normal.

- looking good & better from before, more well organized miners & wiring, but i do recall from earlier days of your mining, it was a little "messy" sorry to be that direct but risk of fire is not something to joke around.

may i suggest a swamp cooler for your cooling needs as at the part of your world, you get more dry air than me over here. it's not expensive & you can diy it, some ample time to diy before the hot summer hits.

airflow direction of the mining room, make it 1 way in & no other way out, good +ve cold/cool air in & only 1 way out for the hot air, make sure they have only 1 way out or have a chance of flowing back in. *i had that issue long time back & once i stopped that, wow HUGE difference* . . . i can't see much as the pics are close ups.

sorry if i'm being too direct, but i do have some small concerns about fire hazard/risk or me trying to be a guru, always appreciate what you share to the community ! but i hope you take it from a +ve side of things. keep it up & keep on evolving !

thx again for your time to share lots of info with everyone.

** don't use those Y splitter or share 1 pice for 2 jacks... NEVER a good idea** use 1 for each 16 awg cables can handle it without any issues.

[philipma1957]

I'll need to take a look at my EVGA power supply tomorrow although connectors are black if I recall.

Phil, are the connectors brown on the avalon 6 or just at your breakout board?

my issue is on the break out board side.

@ yslyung  
it is late and I am tired .  I need to make a long detailed reply to some of your post I will so  in the morning.

but real fast those cardboard boxes are lined with fireproof materials

I use 15 gauge high end  cables.

and I am looking for y cables in a reverse format.

which feed from 2 psu jacks into 1 avalon 6 jack.

not a normal procedure at all  only the insanely under specced knc miner jacks needed  to do this.

And because I fear that this will simply transfer the issue from the break out board to the avalon 6 I am hesitating to do it. those extra fans are cooling the jacks quite nicely and I am using the top row of jacks.  I am a bit more inclined to blame the break out boards but frankly the avalong 6 shares this issue with the  breakout board.
Note edit:
]also the  avalon 6 states do not run in a 95 f room.    they state 38 c which is 100.4 f not 95 f.
I converted wrong to f as I thought 40c was 100f it is not

 I picked up issues at 95f.  as I had problems running at this temp in my garage  as the 2880 break out board jacks ran very hot  and browned.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Avalon6


info from above
Basic Information
 Hashrate: 3.5Ths ± 5%
 Power Consumption: ≈ 1050 Watt (with assumption of 90% power conversion ratio)
 Overclocking: Support automatically optimizes frequency, no need to overclock manually.
 PSU ouput pin: 4 x 6PIN PCIe power connector.
 Controller: Raspberry Pi (version B or B+) Raspberry Pi 2 is not supported yet.
 AUC: Each AUC can connect up to 6 devices.
 Dimensions: 340 mm x 136 mm x 150 mm
 Operating Temperature: -10 °C to 38°C
 Fan Specs: 12038, Current less then 2.4A
 Protection Degree: IP20
 Net weight: 4.8kg
 Gross weight: 5kg

Note edit ends


my wiring management has never been good and won't be good in my garage

plain and simple I turn over the gear too much .

but I have to say I could effort ot make my compac sticks neater as they just sit and mine away for months

[HerbPean]

Suckssss, I have two hosting A6 using that breaking board....

Gotta need to find a better solution I guess. I'm running 3 on a double 2000DPS breaking board from Sidehack.

Do you think i'm gonna have the same issue with that breaking board ?

EDIT: Did Jabber gave you some feedback on this ?
EDIT2: I just checking most of my connectors on the double 2000DPS. They are all good. I did space all the connectors to make none of them is next to another one tho. To make sure I spread the heat.