The Chili – 30+GH/s BFL based Bitcoin Miner Assembly

[MrTeal]

So I have noticed,   when my cards go "south" I have no way to remotely reset them... I have to turn them off, wait for the chips to cool enough to self test ( usually 20 minutes) then turn them back on.  And often times, I have to do this with my Pi's off, so that they don't issue work to the "off" miner while its self testing.

Has anyone come up with a way to do this remotely?   I have the opportunity to move my mining to my work, but before I do that, I need to understand if there are any terminal or other ways to force the miners to cool down, and truly "reboot" themselves remotely.

Thanks all!

You don't have to leave them off for them to cool down; if they're powered on while hot they'll just wait until they cool down. It goes a lot quicker if the fan is on.

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[1714733478]

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[miaviator]

what psu are you guys using?
so far i killed 2 psu any ideas what is going on?

Enermax Revo 1350 W has 6x 12V @ 35 A. 4 of them are connectable by PCI-E. The 5th on a different rail is from the EPS12V line so I used a "good" well enough copper diameter extension which I cutted and assembled an PCI-E as an adapter. I've never found Adapter for EPS12V -> PCI-E.
The 6th rail is on the 24pin ATX plug. I have an extension only with low copper diameter. So I will buy an good well copper one and will try assamble an PCI-E again.

Also I did this for an 1500W Enermax Platinum (4 PCI-E Rails on knc Jupiter, 5th EPS12V via adapter to one chilly. Missing one adapter for 24pin ATX)

The Enermax 1000W Platinum looks like the best for this because you don't need a special adapter. You can add 5 PCI-E cables because it has only one 12V rail for 996 W. The ones with higher rates e.g. 1500 W have 6 rails with only 35 A each.

Also I use one 550W Enermax Revolution87+ on PCI-E, one on EPS12V with 3 low performers. It could be hard on limit, but is stable working for the moment. Each single rail can support 25A, but generally not more than 45A.

Also I use one Thermaltake Smart SE 730 (3 rails 18 A on 2 PCI-E + 1EPS12V).

Edit:

In my opinion the best is to use an mono rail power supply because you lost to much A on different rails or the rails did not have enough A to support 2 Modules on one rail :-(

I have an very old Enermax Noisetaker for 600W. It supports 2x18 A, one on PCI-E and one on EPS12V.
I use this for tests of my boards.

I guess your PSUs have no output electronic fuse which emergency shut down the psu. I killed also one old style psu :-/ which was allready in my electronic trash bin. Now it's back in the bin but without the internal cooler which is still usuable. I recommend to us an psu which has no problems with overloading an save themselve. I've allready two defects on enermax psus but never there destroyed my connected hardware.. So I feel to trust them. But I think also there are better ones on the market ;-)

My corsair AX1200s will take 8 PCI-E 8 pin connectors.  Single 12V rail. 

[Hands]

So I have noticed,   when my cards go "south" I have no way to remotely reset them... I have to turn them off, wait for the chips to cool enough to self test ( usually 20 minutes) then turn them back on.  And often times, I have to do this with my Pi's off, so that they don't issue work to the "off" miner while its self testing.

Has anyone come up with a way to do this remotely?   I have the opportunity to move my mining to my work, but before I do that, I need to understand if there are any terminal or other ways to force the miners to cool down, and truly "reboot" themselves remotely.

Thanks all!

You don't have to leave them off for them to cool down; if they're powered on while hot they'll just wait until they cool down. It goes a lot quicker if the fan is on.

I've found that sometimes they will get "stuck" at 36c and never quite get below that to do the self test if that 100 watts and that if I power them off, wait 20 and turn them on it works every time.

Now if no power is going to the card but the fan is running then I get MAD MAD cool quick.. (like 2 minutes).

but more to the point, is there a way from terminal/script/commandline that I can issue a "reset" or "reboot" command?

Thanks

[MrTeal]

So I have noticed,   when my cards go "south" I have no way to remotely reset them... I have to turn them off, wait for the chips to cool enough to self test ( usually 20 minutes) then turn them back on.  And often times, I have to do this with my Pi's off, so that they don't issue work to the "off" miner while its self testing.

Has anyone come up with a way to do this remotely?   I have the opportunity to move my mining to my work, but before I do that, I need to understand if there are any terminal or other ways to force the miners to cool down, and truly "reboot" themselves remotely.

Thanks all!

You don't have to leave them off for them to cool down; if they're powered on while hot they'll just wait until they cool down. It goes a lot quicker if the fan is on.

I've found that sometimes they will get "stuck" at 36c and never quite get below that to do the self test if that 100 watts and that if I power them off, wait 20 and turn them on it works every time.

Now if no power is going to the card but the fan is running then I get MAD MAD cool quick.. (like 2 minutes).

but more to the point, is there a way from terminal/script/commandline that I can issue a "reset" or "reboot" command?

Thanks

No, there's no command for a reset through the USB interface.
I'm not sure what you mean by 100W.

[Hands]

[/quote]
No, there's no command for a reset through the USB interface.
I'm not sure what you mean by 100W.
[/quote]

well that's a minor bummer but not an end of the world..

100watts statement comes from some other comment made on the thread where idle these cards pull ~100 watts..  So if they are pulling 100 watts idle, that's extra heat that has to be removed from the card before it cools down enough to self test... (which I understand is 34c correct?)

Josh

[MrTeal]

well that's a minor bummer but not an end of the world..

100watts statement comes from some other comment made on the thread where idle these cards pull ~100 watts..  So if they are pulling 100 watts idle, that's extra heat that has to be removed from the card before it cools down enough to self test... (which I understand is 34c correct?)

Josh

They shouldn't be idling at 100W after a reset, more like 10-20W the majority of which is often the fan. After a reset the board turns on the 1V power supply to the chips, but it runs at 0.85V and does not enable the clocks until the self test starts. The chips only pull a few watts at this point.

The only time I could see it idling at 100W is if it was at a high voltage after having run for awhile (like 1.15V) and for whatever reason work isn't being sent to the chips, but the clocks are still on.

[Hands]

They shouldn't be idling at 100W after a reset, more like 10-20W the majority of which is often the fan. After a reset the board turns on the 1V power supply to the chips, but it runs at 0.85V and does not enable the clocks until the self test starts. The chips only pull a few watts at this point.

The only time I could see it idling at 100W is if it was at a high voltage after having run for awhile (like 1.15V) and for whatever reason work isn't being sent to the chips, but the clocks are still on.

Thank you for the clarification...

So any ideas why sometimes I come home with a miner with no lights on at all and CGMiner saying its connected but hashing 0?  And sometimes I'll reboot the pi and the card still wont' come back.. Power it off, wait N number of minutes (more than 5, 20 works all the time)  and it comes back to life just fine.

[MrTeal]

They shouldn't be idling at 100W after a reset, more like 10-20W the majority of which is often the fan. After a reset the board turns on the 1V power supply to the chips, but it runs at 0.85V and does not enable the clocks until the self test starts. The chips only pull a few watts at this point.

The only time I could see it idling at 100W is if it was at a high voltage after having run for awhile (like 1.15V) and for whatever reason work isn't being sent to the chips, but the clocks are still on.

Thank you for the clarification...

So any ideas why sometimes I come home with a miner with no lights on at all and CGMiner saying its connected but hashing 0?  And sometimes I'll reboot the pi and the card still wont' come back.. Power it off, wait N number of minutes (more than 5, 20 works all the time)  and it comes back to life just fine.

What firmware on the Chilis and cgminer version?

Power cycling it will bring the draw back down to the few watt mark again, whether you wait a couple seconds or a couple hours.

On startup the board measures three sensors and waits for them to cool if needed before enabling the chips; the internal temperature of the VRM chip (30C), the temperature of the sensor near the FETs (37C) and the internal sensor of the thermal diode measurement chip (30C). Once those have dropped and settled it uses that information to calibrate the thermal diodes on the ASICs, which can vary quite a bit from chip to chip. So long as your ambient temperature isn't very close to or over 30C, it should start.

[Cascaders28]

In the unlikely event that anyone else is considering trying to be creative and purchase a non-Corsair water cooler for their Chili I figured I'd relay some info about one I just picked up...

The Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro can be made to work but it will require some field engineering! The default hardware didn't work but I was able to rig it up using everything for the 1156 mounting except the screws they provided. Right now that Chili is hashing at 33 Ghs at 64C. My other Chilis are running at 65C and 69C so am I correct in my belief that some active cooling over the mofset area will allow for more speed at this point? These things really are a tweakers delight and I'm amazed at what a difference just giving them some air makes.

[Mudbankkeith]

In the unlikely event that anyone else is considering trying to be creative and purchase a non-Corsair water cooler for their Chili I figured I'd relay some info about one I just picked up...

The Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro can be made to work but it will require some field engineering! The default hardware didn't work but I was able to rig it up using everything for the 1156 mounting except the screws they provided. Right now that Chili is hashing at 33 Ghs at 64C. My other Chilis are running at 65C and 69C so am I correct in my belief that some active cooling over the mofset area will allow for more speed at this point? These things really are a tweakers delight and I'm amazed at what a difference just giving them some air makes.

some heatsinks under the mosfets helps cooling, a bit of air also helps, then you may see temps around 69/70c

[Hands]

What firmware on the Chilis and cgminer version?

Power cycling it will bring the draw back down to the few watt mark again, whether you wait a couple seconds or a couple hours.

On startup the board measures three sensors and waits for them to cool if needed before enabling the chips; the internal temperature of the VRM chip (30C), the temperature of the sensor near the FETs (37C) and the internal sensor of the thermal diode measurement chip (30C). Once those have dropped and settled it uses that information to calibrate the thermal diodes on the ASICs, which can vary quite a bit from chip to chip. So long as your ambient temperature isn't very close to or over 30C, it should start.

The Firmware version is the 1.1volt limited version you sent out a while back... The Cgminer version.. I'll have to tell you when I get home and can check.. It was built right around the same time so its roughly 6 weeks old I suppose.

I tried to run bfgminer, but for some reason it doesn't see the chiles... Same setup and cgminer sees them just fine (on my laptop bfgminer sees them just fine so maybe I am doing something wrong there.. that's entirely possible.)

I am going to test, shutting the miner down for 10 seconds and timing how long they take to come back..

I am also going to test if there is a difference with the pi's on or off during the reboot of the miners.

Thanks

[Hands]

I am running CGMiner 3.8.5   I also came home to one of my miners in that weird state (all lights off, zero hashing)... Rebooted the farm (with my 20 minute wait to cool down) and all was happy...

* I tested giving a miner 5 minutes of power and fans running to cool itself down enough to self test and it didn't...
* I also tested if the pi's could be turned on at the same time as the miners and would they complete their self test and start mining (even with work issued to them early) and that DID work so I can put the miners and the pi's on the same wifi controlled power switches if I want so that's good :-).


Like I mentioned before, if they are too hot to self test within 30 seconds, I have never seen them self test after that.

Thanks

[Mudbankkeith]

TeamViewer is a good FREE pc remote controller (free for domestic use)

Ideal for managing remote PC when running miners (and other software)

You can remote control many PC's from home.

[MrTeal]

I am running CGMiner 3.8.5   I also came home to one of my miners in that weird state (all lights off, zero hashing)... Rebooted the farm (with my 20 minute wait to cool down) and all was happy...

* I tested giving a miner 5 minutes of power and fans running to cool itself down enough to self test and it didn't...
* I also tested if the pi's could be turned on at the same time as the miners and would they complete their self test and start mining (even with work issued to them early) and that DID work so I can put the miners and the pi's on the same wifi controlled power switches if I want so that's good :-).


Like I mentioned before, if they are too hot to self test within 30 seconds, I have never seen them self test after that.

Thanks

On the bolded part, did you power cycle the unit when you did that? Also, what's the density of the installation, and were all the other units running? I can unplug mine from running full out and plug them back in immediately, and while it can take a minute to cool down they always come back up.

[twib2]

Still having intermittent problems now, but I think these are "normal" ones.  Couple of questions:

- What is the recommended miner and version that seems to perform best with these Chilis (and even what flags enabled/disabled if it's known)?  I'm looking for the most stable, not necessarily the fastest; I'd rather get rid of these intermittent zombie/sick attacks.

- I'm running the 14e version with the 1.1v limitation on both chilis, but one (212 Evo cooled) still gets above 1.1v and predictably craps out sometimes.  The other is fine usually (H60 refurb water cooled).  Any ideas what I can do?  There are heatsinks on the bottom under the mosfets and above on the 4 chips above the heatsinks on the bottom.  Should I be letting some part of it keep warm somehow (cold room in winter), or is there a recommended firmware for this situation?  BTW, the Chili that is acting up has all 16 cores enabled on all 8 chips so I was really hoping the 1.1v limiation would do the trick - but alas, no.

Thanks for any help!
- Tye

[Mudbankkeith]

Still having intermittent problems now, but I think these are "normal" ones.  Couple of questions:

- What is the recommended miner and version that seems to perform best with these Chilis (and even what flags enabled/disabled if it's known)?  I'm looking for the most stable, not necessarily the fastest; I'd rather get rid of these intermittent zombie/sick attacks.

- I'm running the 14e version with the 1.1v limitation on both chilis, but one (212 Evo cooled) still gets above 1.1v and predictably craps out sometimes.  The other is fine usually (H60 refurb water cooled).  Any ideas what I can do?  There are heatsinks on the bottom under the mosfets and above on the 4 chips above the heatsinks on the bottom.  Should I be letting some part of it keep warm somehow (cold room in winter), or is there a recommended firmware for this situation?  BTW, the Chili that is acting up has all 16 cores enabled on all 8 chips so I was really hoping the 1.1v limiation would do the trick - but alas, no.

Thanks for any help!
- Tye

MrTeal and Lucko are evaluating some more firmware versions, maybe they will have something soon.
Do you use any secondary cooling?

[MrTeal]

Still having intermittent problems now, but I think these are "normal" ones.  Couple of questions:

- What is the recommended miner and version that seems to perform best with these Chilis (and even what flags enabled/disabled if it's known)?  I'm looking for the most stable, not necessarily the fastest; I'd rather get rid of these intermittent zombie/sick attacks.

- I'm running the 14e version with the 1.1v limitation on both chilis, but one (212 Evo cooled) still gets above 1.1v and predictably craps out sometimes.  The other is fine usually (H60 refurb water cooled).  Any ideas what I can do?  There are heatsinks on the bottom under the mosfets and above on the 4 chips above the heatsinks on the bottom.  Should I be letting some part of it keep warm somehow (cold room in winter), or is there a recommended firmware for this situation?  BTW, the Chili that is acting up has all 16 cores enabled on all 8 chips so I was really hoping the 1.1v limiation would do the trick - but alas, no.

Thanks for any help!
- Tye

I don't really have a preferred version. I believe I'm using 3.8.5, but I just haven't bothered to upgrade. I probably should try again to see if 3.10.0 handles reconnecting USB devices better when I have hub issues.

For the second one, try flashing it again with 1V1, it shouldn't go (much) above 1.1V though 1.11V wouldn't be unexpected. Does it go up to 1.15? You don't need to keep the bottom heatsinks warm during operation, the issues with the boards needing to be warmed up prior to startup with a hair dryer is exclusive to the boards made by Lucko. It shouldn't have an effect on your board.

[twib2]

MrTeal and Lucko are evaluating some more firmware versions, maybe they will have something soon.
Do you use any secondary cooling?

Thanks, yep, good fan to blow across the heatsinks on the underside.  For the watercooled one, it's actually angled a bit and gets to the top part of the tall heatsinks.  I tried cooling the top for the problem board and I wasn't sure if it helped or hurt so I took it off.

[twib2]

For the second one, try flashing it again with 1V1, it shouldn't go (much) above 1.1V though 1.11V wouldn't be unexpected. Does it go up to 1.15? You don't need to keep the bottom heatsinks warm during operation, the issues with the boards needing to be warmed up prior to startup with a hair dryer is exclusive to the boards made by Lucko. It shouldn't have an effect on your board.

Thanks, I was wondering about the hairdryer thing.  The problem board does get above 1.15v in cgminer sometimes - that seems to be the majority of the times it's crapping out (bfgminer doesn't show it getting that high when it craps out).  It also sometimes now does the 200+ GHs with practically all errors too, if that info helps.

[Mudbankkeith]

For the second one, try flashing it again with 1V1, it shouldn't go (much) above 1.1V though 1.11V wouldn't be unexpected. Does it go up to 1.15? You don't need to keep the bottom heatsinks warm during operation, the issues with the boards needing to be warmed up prior to startup with a hair dryer is exclusive to the boards made by Lucko. It shouldn't have an effect on your board.

Thanks, I was wondering about the hairdryer thing.  The problem board does get above 1.15v in cgminer sometimes - that seems to be the majority of the times it's crapping out (bfgminer doesn't show it getting that high when it craps out).  It also sometimes now does the 200+ GHs with practically all errors too, if that info helps.

The "hairdryer mod" is only good for boards that "stick" just under 1v it just gives the warm up a bit of a push.
The secondary cooling is mainly to move the air under the board.  Heat rises, so the spill off from the main cooling fan is enough to ventilate the top.

A thought has just struck me, Will the Lucko boards with a problem work better upside down!!!!!!!!!!!