[Guide] Dogie's Comprehensive ASICMiner Cube Setup [HD]

[bjalbert]

Any suggestions on how to power 6 cubes?

It sounds like I should power 2 each with a CX750m or something like that.

What is the cheapest PSU someone has been able to use for 2 cubes overclocked? Anyone have 3 cubes OC'd on single PSU?

I was thinking of trying this one. 2 rails both over 25 amps. I have read this thread among other threads on the web but no obvious choice:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817553016

[dogie]

Just go with 3x 750s it will save you so much time.

[DanZaph]

Just go with 3x 750s it will save you so much time.

Looks great power-wise: Single rail 12v @ 62a but only two PCI-E connectors.

Specs at: http://www.corsair.com/~/media/Corsair/download-files/manuals/corsair-psu-spec-table-091813.pdf (page down toward the bottom).

Might look at one of these that have four PCI-E connectors: CX750M, AX750, RM750, TX750M.

[dogie]

Just go with 3x 750s it will save you so much time.

Looks like: Single rail 12v @ 62a, two PCI-E connectors. Specs at: http://www.corsair.com/~/media/Corsair/download-files/manuals/corsair-psu-spec-table-091813.pdf (page down toward the bottom).

Might look at one of these that have four PCI-E connectors: CX750M, AX750, RM750, TX750M.

Thats what I always thought, but the amazon page lists it as having 4. Could be a new revision.

[DanZaph]

Thats what I always thought, but the amazon page lists it as having 4. Could be a new revision.

Yep! Corsair does not make it easy to get at the specs.

[ceslick]

Hi,

Might not be the correct thread but this is all Cube related

One of my Cubes decided to melt it's fuse and damaged the Start relay in the process...


If anyone has dead or damaged cubes, I may be interested in purchasing them.

PM me with details if you have.


Cheers

Chris

[DanZaph]

One of my Cubes decided to melt it's fuse and damaged the Start relay in the process...

Are you planning to fix the cube? Easy enough, jump the start relay and add a new fuse. Of course there may be a bigger problem that caused the fuse to "blow".

Or are you thinking of something else?

[Isuearl]

Was moving my cube to a new home tonight, after about a 2 week run period I was going to move it in with the rest of my mining equipment, while moving it I noticed some discoloration of wiring near the PCI-E plug, inspected closer... found some melted spots with bare wires....IDK what caused it, whether it was the fuse that got hot and melted, or if I had a wire short near the plug...but whatever, it forced me to shut down the cube until I can figure out the cause of my issues....
  Also before I did shut everything off, I found that my cube was at max trying to pull over 100 VDC, at min pulling around 55-59 VDC, I didn't grab an amp reading, since I became overly concerned with the discolored wires......
  Tomorrow I am going to solder in a new PCIE plug...I just have to work through a morass of wires to find the right ones to replace with a thicker guage wire that can stand a bit higher temps if necessary....
  All I can say is this cube has been a royal pain in the @$$ since I have had it...normally I would sell it, but I don't want to pass on the issues to someone else.... I will figure it out, I just need to get some time between studying for exams...

[ceslick]

@DanZaph - Yeah I did that and got it going again It looks like a poor contact on the fuse in the fuse housing may have been causing this.... Crimped it tighter and will monitor..

[DanZaph]

It looks like a poor contact on the fuse in the fuse housing may have been causing this.... Crimped it tighter and will monitor..

I was wondering about that. From the reports of "melting fuses" it would seem that the fuse connection might be the culprit adding resistance that would cause excessive heat. The actual fuse metal should melt at a reasonable temperature. They generally protect against sudden high surges from the thing they are protecting and because of the short duration should just melt the metal fast.

I just checked the temperature of the fuse in my Cube, it is to hot to keep my finger on for more than about two seconds, not sure if that is normal, can some otherreaders also check their fuse temperature and report their findings?

Can you or anyone upload a photo of the melted fuse?

[DanZaph]

Was moving my cube to a new home tonight, after about a 2 week run period I was going to move it in with the rest of my mining equipment, while moving it I noticed some discoloration of wiring near the PCI-E plug, inspected closer... found some melted spots with bare wires....IDK what caused it

What probably caused the heat was poor contact of the PCI-E connectors. There is general problem splitting a high current between multiple connector pins and is generally avoided in good designs. The connection resistance (there is always some small amount) is not the same for all the pins so some have to carry more current to make up for the pins with higher resistance. In the case of the cubes the current is split between six pins for the positive and six for the negative, and molex connectors are hardly the best, they are used because they are cheap. Can you post a photo of the burned wires and connector?

Also before I did shut everything off, I found that my cube was at max trying to pull over 100 VDC, at min pulling around 55-59 VDC

Some explanation of what and how you were measuring would help here because the load really can't increase the voltage. If the voltage was above 12v to 13v that was a power supply fault, not the cube.

 Tomorrow I am going to solder in a new PCIE plug...I just have to work through a morass of wires to find the right ones to replace with a thicker guage wire that can stand a bit higher temps if necessary

The high currents are what caused the wires to heat up and that is an effect not the cause. The cause is probably a bad connector which was the cause of the heat. A photo of the damaged wire and connector(s) would be really great.

[Isuearl]

no I understand the heating up is an effect, not cause....... I was measuring my Voltage with a digital multimeter at the fuse....was being curious as to how much voltage was running through the fused system....I knew I should have grabbed an amp reading, but I was more concerned with other things.
   Sorry I don't have pictures, plus  I trash canned the connector last night...sorry...

[DanZaph]

I was measuring my Voltage with a digital multimeter at the fuse....was being curious as to how much voltage was running through the fused system.

What were the voltmeter probes touching, "at the fuse" is rather vague?

A high reading between negative and positive on the cube would indicate a power supply failure and that power supply should be trash-canned. A Power supply should never put out a voltage higher than it's rated output, if it does it has failed badly and you would be lucky the fuse saved the Cube.

[Isuearl]

by probing where the fuse was I mean, the fuse has probing points on the outside (mostly to test whether is good or bad without having to remove it). If you would have heard me when I measured you would have laughed...cause it was utter surprise. 
  Yeah I am going to trash can the PSU, which sucks, because its fairly new, and should be under 'warranty'. but since I opened it to check the board for loose solder joints, and trying to determine where the 6 pin port wires were soldered in as well as checking for any other bare spots.....(I suspect there are some other spots I haven't located that were causing my issues due to the fact that some of the zipties that were bundling the wires together were on so tight they were causing kinks). 
  I have had good luck with thermaltake power supplies in the past, but this one has put me off of them, I should have sprung the little extra for the cosair, but I was being cheap....Lesson learned...
  Its just super annoying to have issues like this.....

[DanZaph]

by probing where the fuse was I mean, the fuse has probing points on the outside (mostly to test whether is good or bad without having to remove it). If you would have heard me when I measured you would have laughed...cause it was utter surprise.

Were you measuring across the fuse as in the photo below? If the fuse was not blown at that time, the cube was running, then I would suspect the digital multimeter auto-ranged to mili-volts. 50mv-60mv or 100mv would not be unreasonable.

I just measured mine and found 20mv, I found a spec on these kinds of fuses that indicate 60mv for 30a is to be expected Even at 100mv at 30a the heat generated would be 3w, that is enough to make it feel warm to hot. In my case it would be 20mv at 30a: 0.6w and the heat seems higher than that.

The outside event is the connector, it's contract resistance with the fuse and how well it is soldered to the circuit board. One good way to check this is to measure the voltage drop on the fuse and the voltage drop measured on the circuit board (yeah, running the Cube out of the enclosure). Any substantial discrepancy would point to a poor fuse connector connection.



For some good background information on fuses and wire sizing see: Littlefuse

For information specifically on Cure ATC Blade Fuses see: Bussmann

Suggestion: If you have a question about the fuse replace it with a good brand automotive fuse. Littlefuse and Bussmann are long established top end fuses.

[Isuearl]

Yeah thats, where I measured on the fuse.......and it wasn't microvolts...it was VDC, (I know when my multi does micros its obvious).....
  I stopped and got a corsair CX 600, Inspected all the boards and ensured all the screws were in properly, plugged the cube back in and every thing is working good!!! there is no heat being generated on the 2 PCIE connectors or wires, and even the PSU itself isn't pushing a large amount of heat out....so everything points to a bad PSU....(must have been put together on a friday at 4:30 lol)..
  Oh I replaced the fuse already (the previous one melted)....and I only have ever used Bussmann fuses...mostly because they are the most common (well at least in my area and places I go)....

Moral of the Story: Get a good powersupply....Cheap ones will only cause you problems in the end and cost you more money...

[sgginc]

Moral of the Story: Get a good powersupply....Cheap ones will only cause you problems in the end and cost you more money...

Mine has been hashing at ~38GHz for 27d 14h on a $30 30A 12V power supply from Amazon (see my earlier post for setup).

I keep expecting it to quit but it just takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

Thanks   ...   Ken

[DanZaph]

Mine has been hashing at ~38GHz for 27d 14h on a $30 30A 12V power supply from Amazon (see my earlier post for setup).

I keep expecting it to quit but it just takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

I have one of those and was using it on my Cube until another PS went side-ways and had to move things around. Personally I like that one best, simple one voltage, low cost. I see a lot of these being used with 3D printers. It is basically an industrial PS so should hold up well, The form factor leaves something to be desired but then an ATX style with lot's of extra cables and a hassle with the power-up number is also a mess. I would either go with this one or a modular ATX to avoid the extra cables (I cut my extra cables off).

[DanZaph]

Yeah thats, where I measured on the fuse.......and it wasn't microvolts...it was VDC, (I know when my multi does micros its obvious).....

Scary! In the old days I used to use analog power supplies (series regulated) and always bought the output crow-bar circuit. That basically shorted the output if the voltage exceeded the voltage spec. The power supply either went onto current fold-back, blew a fuse or self-destructed all without damaging the device it was powering. In your case it looks like the power supply failed by shorting input to output--really bad.

[Nomadikhan]

Enlarged pic https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50776193/cube%20issue2.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50776193/cube%20issue2.png

The cube doesn't seem to communicate with the proxy?  The proxy seems to repeatedly disconnect from btcguild?  I'm not quite sure what's going on.  Can anyone help me out?  Thanks!

Also, the forums are acting bizarre... tells me my last post was less then 360 seconds ago yet this is my very first post.