Caution! Pandaminers catching fire!

[Eyedol-X]

I once got a new Pandaminer sent to me after receiving a whole damaged one, also as compensation for the lost mining time... Still I've lost a lot of money as ETH was skyrocketing meanwhile!
This was also the last time I was planning to work with Pandaminer again. I'm switching over to making my own rigs with Sapphires.

I'm going to try and see if Pandaminer would send me at least a couple mobo's to fix my miners. They can keep they're crappy PSU's. Just a motherboard will be a mission impossible to get! Hope they work along...

It seems like it would be in Pandaminers best interest to send you a replacement board since I'm sure this post can't be good press for them. It also seems like the best possible solution but opens them up to questions about who's responsible for a potential fire and whether or not they will sell motherboards directly.

[moftkhor]

I once got a new Pandaminer sent to me after receiving a whole damaged one, also as compensation for the lost mining time... Still I've lost a lot of money as ETH was skyrocketing meanwhile!
This was also the last time I was planning to work with Pandaminer again. I'm switching over to making my own rigs with Sapphires.

I'm going to try and see if Pandaminer would send me at least a couple mobo's to fix my miners. They can keep they're crappy PSU's. Just a motherboard will be a mission impossible to get! Hope they work along...

It seems like it would be in Pandaminers best interest to send you a replacement board since I'm sure this post can't be good press for them. It also seems like the best possible solution but opens them up to questions about who's responsible for a potential fire and whether or not they will sell motherboards directly.

I'll not be asking them to sell me the motherboards, but to send it to me as warranty replacement parts... We'll see what it will turn out...

[Liquid71]

F
Anyone having an idea what would cause this wires to melt. SHOOT!
I'm thinking maybe the PSU's included in the Pandaminers are worthless...

Low quality 18 or higher gauge wires will melt I've had it happen to me (not nearly that bad and not on a panda miner) but lower quality PSU will ship thin cables that melt. Try for 16 gauge cables whenever possible for mining. Panda must have went with the cheapest PSU they could find and it used low quality cables. I'm just shocked this hasn't happened to more people. I have one on order with Giga Watt, at least I won't have to deal with it but I probably wouldn't have ordered it if I knew they used such shitty PSU

no they are using 5 and splitting  2  into 4

so
1 single 18 gauge
 1single  18 gauge
 1 single 18 gauge

then a single 18 gauge that splits into 2 single 18gauge
then a single 18 gauge that splits into 2 single 18gauge

and every photo of every burnt  setup shows the melt starts by the split cables.

I mention that this psu should not be used long term more then one time in my review and that I went to a rosewill tokamak 1500 watt with no issues

Phil knows his stuff, if I was hosting mine I'd swap out the PSU to the rosewill he recommends. Hopefully Panda comes through with repair and parts but I wouldn't continue to use that PSU

[VoskCoin]

This is why you have them hosted by Giga Watt, they are professionals and also do on site repairs. https://giga-watt.com/promo/prices

Do their ICO now and lock in 3.3c kwh for 50 years https://cryptonomos.com/?r=1H2MkmZnQak9mIc0NKCaddDsQ

I just glanced over it, if you buy into their ICO now, when would you be able to begin hosting? Do you have hosting with them currently?

[Liquid71]

This is why you have them hosted by Giga Watt, they are professionals and also do on site repairs. https://giga-watt.com/promo/prices

Do their ICO now and lock in 3.3c kwh for 50 years https://cryptonomos.com/?r=1H2MkmZnQak9mIc0NKCaddDsQ

I just glanced over it, if you buy into their ICO now, when would you be able to begin hosting? Do you have hosting with them currently?

Yes I have hosting, I'm not 100% sure as in asked them but reading the whitepaper it sounds pretty clear that you can apply your tokens towards your hosted miners to lower the current plan you are on. It says if you don't have enough tokens to cover the power of your hosted miner then the amount above the tokens is charged at the regular rate, which is 9.75c kwh for the 1-9 miner package. I didn't ask because if for some reason I can't apply the tokens to my current hosting plan I'll rent the tokens out which will make up the difference between what I'm payign now and the discounted rate the ICO locks in. I trust the company though and never had any issues. The tokens are released Aug 7 and I have some batch 2 which is Aug 15 and you can use the tokens as soon as they are released for mining and renting.
If you go on coindesk and search Dave Carlson you'll see articles about the CEO and the company going back many years, pretty good stuff worth reading if you are considering the ICO or even just curious about professional mining company.

[Oklawolf]

no they are using 5 and splitting  2  into 4

so
1 single 18 gauge
 1single  18 gauge
 1 single 18 gauge

then a single 18 gauge that splits into 2 single 18gauge
then a single 18 gauge that splits into 2 single 18gauge

and every photo of every burnt  setup shows the melt starts by the split cables.

I mention that this psu should not be used long term more then one time in my review and that I went to a rosewill tokamak 1500 watt with no issues

Yeah, that's completely irresponsible engineering right there. Too few conductors with too few connections to the hardware. And with wiring like that, I seriously question their "1600W" unit is capable of anywhere near that mark over the long haul. If it is, it's a fire hazard because the cabling simply can't support it.

Stuff like this sickens me. This crap is going to burn someone's house down.

FYI, those Tokamak units throw a ton of EMI back into the power lines. I just pulled one out of my farm because I couldn't review power supplies with it running at the same time. Too much extra noise in the oscilloscope. They kill AM radio for a block, too. I have another 1200W Enhance Titanium doing the same thing which will also come out of the farm soon. Other than that, they are good units. I'd have just kept using it if I wasn't a power supply reviewer, but I hate shutting the rigs down just for load testing so I'm migrating to units that don't do that.

[VoskCoin]

no they are using 5 and splitting  2  into 4

so
1 single 18 gauge
 1single  18 gauge
 1 single 18 gauge

then a single 18 gauge that splits into 2 single 18gauge
then a single 18 gauge that splits into 2 single 18gauge

and every photo of every burnt  setup shows the melt starts by the split cables.

I mention that this psu should not be used long term more then one time in my review and that I went to a rosewill tokamak 1500 watt with no issues

Yeah, that's completely irresponsible engineering right there. Too few conductors with too few connections to the hardware. And with wiring like that, I seriously question their "1600W" unit is capable of anywhere near that mark over the long haul. If it is, it's a fire hazard because the cabling simply can't support it.

Stuff like this sickens me. This crap is going to burn someone's house down.

FYI, those Tokamak units throw a ton of EMI back into the power lines. I just pulled one out of my farm because I couldn't review power supplies with it running at the same time. Too much extra noise in the oscilloscope. They kill AM radio for a block, too. I have another 1200W Enhance Titanium doing the same thing which will also come out of the farm soon. Other than that, they are good units. I'd have just kept using it if I wasn't a power supply reviewer, but I hate shutting the rigs down just for load testing so I'm migrating to units that don't do that.

do you have links to your reviews? That's very cool.

[Oklawolf]

do you have links to your reviews? That's very cool.

Anything by OklahomaWolf: www.jonnyGURU.com

I don't have the gear to test EMI, but the scope will give me 20-30mV of background noise at the load tester without the unit being tested even being fired up whenever those big Enhance OEM units are online.

The big ones I use that don't throw out EMI: all EVGA/Super Flower 1600W units, Corsair AX1500i, Coolermaster MIJ 1200W, Seasonic X-1050. Also running an Andyson N700 and Seasonic Prime Titanium 750W in the same room as the load testing gear - those don't do EMI either.

[chiwalfrm]

So far all the problem reports are from the B1 model which uses RX480 cards, also they may have changed PSU suppliers since 6 months ago.  Has anyone have any insight into the recent production to say things have changed for the better?

[philipma1957]

no they are using 5 and splitting  2  into 4

so
1 single 18 gauge
 1single  18 gauge
 1 single 18 gauge

then a single 18 gauge that splits into 2 single 18gauge
then a single 18 gauge that splits into 2 single 18gauge

and every photo of every burnt  setup shows the melt starts by the split cables.

I mention that this psu should not be used long term more then one time in my review and that I went to a rosewill tokamak 1500 watt with no issues

Yeah, that's completely irresponsible engineering right there. Too few conductors with too few connections to the hardware. And with wiring like that, I seriously question their "1600W" unit is capable of anywhere near that mark over the long haul. If it is, it's a fire hazard because the cabling simply can't support it.

Stuff like this sickens me. This crap is going to burn someone's house down.

FYI, those Tokamak units throw a ton of EMI back into the power lines. I just pulled one out of my farm because I couldn't review power supplies with it running at the same time. Too much extra noise in the oscilloscope. They kill AM radio for a block, too. I have another 1200W Enhance Titanium doing the same thing which will also come out of the farm soon. Other than that, they are good units. I'd have just kept using it if I wasn't a power supply reviewer, but I hate shutting the rigs down just for load testing so I'm migrating to units that don't do that.

Oh now I know why my garage door opener does not quite work as well as it did.

I will build a faraday cage for it,  thanks for that info.

[darthmaul]

Thats dangerous and guess what I don't trust mining even more now. Lol. What if my house catches fire due to those little panda's. Dam that would be bad idea and bad investment ever.

Is your house too hot? Or the mining area looks congested something like that? It may be happening that overheating and bad electrical wrong is causing all these stuff. PSU's can be low quality so you might wanna double check them.

[Maxumark]

A few days ago after I first read this post I went into the DC and felt all of the Panda miner power connections. Most of them felt DC room temperature and only one of them was even mildly warm to the touch. While checking them again today we found one with very hot connections and on closer inspection the black wires were turning gray at the PCIe connector at the Panda miner, and several of the PCIe connector black wires were starting to melt for a few inches with some copper wire showing. We cut the power right away and let it cool just a minute and then disconnected the PCIe connectors before they fully cooled and plastic welded together. I few PCIe pins left the plastic in the connector, but I believe that it can be cleaned out and the miner will still function. I think we caught it in time to prevent major board damage.

The interesting thing is that the 2 most burn connectors were single connector cables, not double connectors.
The connectors with wires that were melting were closest to the back or intake side of the miner.   

I thought I would pass this on for others to keep a eye on there miners, and have them check even if they are hosted at a DC.

If the PSU is the issue I would strongly recommend replacing it with a Platinum or Titanium PSU.
   

[chiwalfrm]

moftkhor, can you post a picture of the PSU label?  Is it made by Great Wall, their current PSU supplier?  Great Wall is a big supplier of power supplies.

[PanneKopp]

Yeah I'd like to know more about the PSU's being used here, it could just as easily be the PSU and not the Panda's themselves.

... any statement from pandaminer ?

looks like an over-current (short-circuit) in pandaminer for me - no need to shill

[sp_]

Here is why I don't buy the pandaminer.

- 1 month warranty
- Laptop gpu's
- Closed case
- China quality

[daadog]

Did this happen on the B1?

Do you think it also happens on the B3? Just buy new wires and connectors and swap them out and you should be fine.

[moftkhor]

Thats dangerous and guess what I don't trust mining even more now. Lol. What if my house catches fire due to those little panda's. Dam that would be bad idea and bad investment ever.

Is your house too hot? Or the mining area looks congested something like that? It may be happening that overheating and bad electrical wrong is causing all these stuff. PSU's can be low quality so you might wanna double check them.

Well, the mining area where these miners are located is very ventilated. And for the electricity, I'm an industrial electrician, so I've used the right safety requirements. I've seen enough electricals go wrong back when I worked as a technician in a factory, so I've learned my lessons well years ago  This is obviously Pandaminer going cheap on the PSU's. Today my brother discovered 2 more PSU's starting to melt. So this time we were in time before it screwed up my miners... I'm ordering a bunch of new PSU's as we speak. So this problem should be solved in a few days for me though.

[moftkhor]

Did this happen on the B1?

Do you think it also happens on the B3? Just buy new wires and connectors and swap them out and you should be fine.

This was indeed on a B1.
I don't know how it goes on a B3 model. Mine hasn't arrived yet (still after months of waiting). But I think if you would use the same PSU, it will give the same problem as these PSU's are just crappy!

[philipma1957]

Did this happen on the B1?

Do you think it also happens on the B3? Just buy new wires and connectors and swap them out and you should be fine.

This was indeed on a B1.
I don't know how it goes on a B3 model. Mine hasn't arrived yet (still after months of waiting). But I think if you would use the same PSU, it will give the same problem as these PSU's are just crappy!

they use 5 sets of cables and split them into 7.

so it is 5 sets  of 18 gauge cables

 an 18 gauge  pcie cable  max is 150 watts.

so 750 watts at the cables would be safe in theory   since these are around 83%  efficient

750/.83 = 903 watts at a k-watt meter/pdu meter  in theory is the  safe max

well my b1 pulled 1015 watts on zec at the pdu meter = not safe
and my b1 pulled  1100 watts on eth at the pdu meter = worse then zec

So  they are selling a psu  that is not safe to run all the gpus inside of it.

[alani123]

This really has to be bad design on the part of the manufacturer. Never have I seen something so trivial overlooked to miners a company produces. This could hold them liable over huge damages, but they're a Chinese company anyway...