DRILLBIT SYSTEM Miners - Avalon range available - Now $104.99!

[console_cowboy]

New question for you Barntech, is there any possibility of these boards failing in such a way that it causes a short and a fire? This is another significant part of the risk analysis that would make me VERY concerned to run these boards until there is a repair. Failing and causing the board to power off in a puff of smoke is one thing, but a short causing a fire is another.

When you say that it burst while you watched, was there actual fire?

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[chadtn]

U20 is burned up on at least one of my boards.  I've powered down everything for now.  I just woke up and  found the last board that still worked at 100% has died. I'll try to get some pictures in the morning.

Chad

[vulgartrendkill]

@barntech So the boards that have yet to leave you, will they be fixed and then sent out?

A real shame we have been let down by sub part components

[Zeek_W]

@barntech So the boards that have yet to leave you, will they be fixed and then sent out?

A real shame we have been let down by sub part components

Especially when a delay was due to sourcing better components...

[erk]

Can someone please post a closeup of the U20 component that is failing so we can read the writing on it?

[vulgartrendkill]

@barntech So the boards that have yet to leave you, will they be fixed and then sent out?

A real shame we have been let down by sub part components

Especially when a delay was due to sourcing better components...

Which, by the sound of it, weren`t used anyways.

Might I suggest that when (if) batch three gets going a more local assembly plant is chosen.

All that hard work and graft by the entire team let down at the very last hurdle by...well..whoever.

[erk]

Honestly, my hashrate is pretty low on four boards.   I'm using a 300watt powersupply, which should be good enough, yet only getting 58gh/s from four boards. This seems mighty low to me. By my calculations, I should be getting around 70GH/s. Maybe it's my powersupply? Overclocking is a no go as well. I'm setting my clock speed to 40 for my blades, even 42 doesn't work. And it doesn't just error, it plain won't work. I'm directly connected to usb ports, no hubs here. I am also using a masscool 120mm fan blowing down the heatsinks, so no passive cooling here.

Slightly disappointing, but in a fun way. Now I get to troubleshoot something. I've already discovered the cause of my libusb errors (usb3 is no beuno).

In response to why the bitfury heatsinks are on the bottom... That's how these chips are packaged. The heat transfer pad is actually on the bottom of the chip, so you connect to it through a transferpad in the PCB. BFL just did it wrong. And you are seeing the bitfury chips. They are not under the heatsink... 

BFL chip packages have nothing whatsoever to do with Bitfury chip packages. BFL is doing like 15watts per chip, which would fry the Bitfury package in an instant. That said, Bitfury needs a heatsink unless you are running at 2GH/s per chip.

[creatine_one]

1/1 boards dead. CGMiner reports ZOMBIE
No green light, attempts to revive have failed.
No visible damage
Dedicated 650 watt silverstone strider PSU
Stock settings used
It's a sad sad day.

[lajz99]

 

[tk1337]

Are any of you out there particularly handy with a soldering iron and PCB modding? If so, write to me and you can help us try a few things out.

Shot you over a PM, I've got a good amount of tools & skill regarding PCB repair, esp SMD work.

If I can get a hold of the components, I can probably assist in board repairs within the states, so there aren't further international shipping charges involved.

[RicRock]

So glad I decided to blow up my new boards before I read the forums.

Maybe I misunderstand the prototype model, isn't it used to establish what components go into production boards?

[Unacceptable]

Thanks for your help in resolving this ASAP Barntech  

Read this guys!!

From Barntech,while BTCtalk was down:

Hey guys.

So we believe we have discovered the source of the problem. Basically we are looking at a bad inductor at LP1 which in turn in causing the regulator at U20 to fail and in some cases burn up. The fix is to replace the inductor, and if the regulator chip has failed, replace it also. All the boards out there that are experiencing the ?no green light? symptom have had the regulator fail and will need both components replaced. The good news is that this issue is isolated and doesn?t affect the rest of the boards. Everything else is solid.

We?re really sorry for the inconvenience this causes, and we?re determined to make it right. The bad components weren?t present in our original prototypes, and as you know the boards often mine successfully for hours or days before failing so the problem didn?t show up when the factory tested the pre-production boards or when we tested them before sending them out. In the interest of getting everyone mining quickly we chose to only test the boards for about 15 minutes and in that 15 minute none of them failed.

Now though, with the boards being run for longer, under different conditions, we are seeing it. Sigh. At least we know what it is and how to fix it, so that?s the next step.

First things first, stop running your boards. If they haven?t failed now, there is a pretty good chance they will at some point. Swapping out the LP1 inductor is a reasonably simple task. Swapping out the U20 regulator after it fails is not so simple. The more of these boards we can get to before the regulator goes the better. Its not worth getting a few extra days of hashing to potentially make the boards harder to repair and lose more time in the long run. STOP RUNNING THEM UNTIL THIS PART IS REPLACED.

We are coming up with a couple alternative solutions for replacing these parts.

Replacing just the inductor (green light on)

This is the good news option - you?ve powered off the board while the green light was still coming on.

Option 1 - DIY Inductor Replacement

Once we have selected and tested a suitable replacement inductor we?ll publish it for you all. Those of you we feel confident with a soldering iron, or have a friend who is handy with soldering can replace it yourselves.  We will publish a detailed instructional video on how to do this. This will be the quickest and cheapest way, but please only choose to do this if you are confident that you know what you?re doing. We can?t take responsibility for your boards once you start tinkering with them.

Option 2 - Send the board back

For those of you who don?t feel confident replacing the inductor yourselves, we will get them shipped either back here to us for repair or to a local repairer closer to you. We?re currently looking into overseas repair options so boards won?t necesarily have to come all the way back to Australia, though it may be easier in the long run. I?ll see what i can come up with.

Replacing inductor and regulator (no green light)

If your boards have already lost the regulator chip (no green light) then you will need to send them in so both the inductor and regulator can be replaced, unless you are VERY capable replacing chips on PCB boards, if you believe you are, then you are welcome to have a go at this too, but just know that the regulator chiup has 16 tiny little feet that all need to be soldered.

What to do next

I need to get a solid idea of how many of the boards fall into this second category (no green light) and where you are located. I also need to know how many people will be replacing the inductor themselves for the boards still getting green lights. Can you guys please enter this information for me into this form:

http://formsmarts.com/form/1cic

Thank you all for your patience and understanding. It certainly hasn?t been the smoothest birth of our collective drillbit babies, but they are alive, kicking and screaming, and ready for some parental love and care. Stay tuned for updates about replacement parts, how to do the replacement and where to send boards for fixing if you won?t be doing it yourselves. Lets get this sorted out as quick as we possibly can.

Thanks guys.

Barntech

Source:
http://drillbitsystem.com/forum/index.php?topic=196.45




I would prefer you guys fix em for me (even the one that still works,may go bad later),I don't trust or want someone who knows nothing about bitcoin to work on them.What if they mess up & then they go poof ??

Be more than happy to pay shipping (at least one way) & for the part & maybe a little extra for your labour....in BTC of course.

Hurry with a solution,Please!!!

Again.....Thanks for all your help in resolving this Barntech!!!

[Pistachio]

I am ready to ship off my boards once a destination is set for USA customers. Do we need to include the mine-plane and double scroll for repair as well?

[leftybenno]

Just received my pair of boards and I am glad I read through this thread before I fired them up. Can anyone confirm that the inductor in question is labelled "LP1" (adjacent to U20) and that it should be repairable by a competent soldering iron user?

edit: Hoping it is actually "L1" as that looks a crapload easier to solder.

[Unacceptable]

Just received my pair of boards and I am glad I read through this thread before I fired them up. Can anyone confirm that the inductor in question is labelled "LP1" (adjacent to U20) and that it should be repairable by a competent soldering iron user?

edit: Hoping it is actually "L1" as that looks a crapload easier to solder.

Yes,that is correct,but wait for Barntech to give the word officially before replacing.May be more to do than that or another component altogether.

Be patient,hes on it like fly's on sh_t 

[bobsag3]

I will be working with UPS first thing in the morning for US customers, to get all of their boards that need to be be shipped wherever they need, at no cost. Most likely will be sending everyone emails with PDF labels once its all been sorted out.

[Skriglitz]

LP1 looks like a fun job with my iron .-.  I nearly if not already ruined it by tooooo much heat trying to solder 0603's and a 48-TQFP with shoddy 0.022in silver solder that took assloads of heat to melt.  I shall see if its possible or if i need to ship it once it arrives tomorrow

[pyra-proxy]

So before seeing the notice to stop running these I tried running about 8 of my boards (half due to missing mini-planes that already got worked out).  Of these half all died (no more green light), I'm not running the remaining although there were a couple initial ones that never got the green light on initial power up.

My preference is to send all back to get fixed because I'm not confident in my low level electronics repair skill and I filled out the form the best I could to indicate this but wanted to give details here for anyone concerned.  My other concern is the statement that this is isolated, this has hit 100% of the boards I've tested before ceasing trying to run them so I'm curious what was meant by them being isolated and not all boards are affected by the component failure.

Thanks in advance!

[Barntech]

So before seeing the notice to stop running these I tried running about 8 of my boards (half due to missing mini-planes that already got worked out).  Of these half all died (no more green light), I'm not running the remaining although there were a couple initial ones that never got the green light on initial power up.

My preference is to send all back to get fixed because I'm not confident in my low level electronics repair skill and I filled out the form the best I could to indicate this but wanted to give details here for anyone concerned.  My other concern is the statement that this is isolated, this has hit 100% of the boards I've tested before ceasing trying to run them so I'm curious what was meant by them being isolated and not all boards are affected by the component failure.

Thanks in advance!

All boards are affected by the component failure. The isolated statement refers to the fault being isolated to the two particular components mentioned, not the rest of the board, the idea being that repairing this will sort the problem out.

[Barntech]

Ok, so we have someone lined up to do the parts replacement for the U.S. Bobsag will be sending out prepaid shipping labels to everyone. Send your boards as soon as you can and we will get them sorted out. Can you please put a post it note or something on all the 'no green light' boards so it is easy to identify them on the other end.

Europe and other parts of the world, i'm still working on a plan for you guys. We have someone in Norway willing to help out, so once i get a bit more info from everyone, we can get that moving also. All Australian orders, please send back to me.

I'm not publishing replacements psrts for DIY until we try and test them. As soon as we get results i'll let you all know.

Thank you so much for all your patience.

Cheers

Barntech