Bitcoin Forum
March 28, 2024, 03:09:55 PM *
News: Latest Bitcoin Core release: 26.0 [Torrent]
 
   Home   Help Search Login Register More  
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 »
  Print  
Author Topic: Server Power Supply Interface Board - for standalone miners and GPU rigs  (Read 120422 times)
sidehack (OP)
Legendary
*
Offline Offline

Activity: 3304
Merit: 1838

Curmudgeonly hardware guy


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 10:20:24 AM
 #1

First "complete" prototype finished and undergoing testing; as soon as a reliable source of parts can be found I'll start on actual production. If anyone's got an "in" with Molex or FCI I wouldn't mind a bit of assistance tracking down both parts and information.








This board is designed to mate with a Dell Z750P power supply from a PowerEdge 2950; said supplies can be found fairly readily on eBay in various conditions for as low as $12. They are rated to provide 62A at 12V at 90% efficiency. This interface board provides
 - Screw terminals for +12V and GND so you only hook up what cables you need.
 - Additional output capacitance for voltage ripple and burst current buffering
 - Manual fan speed control (the stock full speed is quite loud)
 - Auto-powerup which can be triggered by an external signal as low as 3V, disablable by a toggle switch
 - Manual powerup from a toggle switch. Because toggle switches are legit.
 - In-signal and Out-signal headers which allow chaining, so one supply can turn on multiple others
 - Current share feature which should allow multiple supplies to cross-regulate and evenly distribute high power loads in parallel


I've had one of these supplies running a pair of full-overclocked Cubes for a few weeks with zero issues. These supplies, equipped with these boards, should work beautifully for standalone miners at reduced cost for comparable ATX supplies (similar power and efficiency) and without requiring paperclips or additional wire management. Output regulation should also be better than a standard ATX.

They'll also work as additional 12V rails controlled by ATX supplies; the auto-powerup was originally designed to fire up the supply as additional power for a GPU rig.

The Z750P uses a fairly common interface style and pinout; I don't have a complete list of other supplies this board would work for but there should be several.

I don't have an estimated price tag yet, probably in the neighborhood of $30 to $40 - a lot of that is going to depend on the cost of parts. All manufacture will be done by American people in America, which adds to the cost a bit but one of the tenets of my business is to never for any reason outsource jobs that can be done domestically.

Cool, quiet and up to 1TH pod miner, on sale now!
Currently in development - 200+GH USB stick; 6TH volt-adjustable S1/3/5 upgrade kit
Server PSU interface boards and cables. USB and small-scale miners. Hardware hosting, advice and odd-jobs. Supporting the home miner community since 2013 - http://www.gekkoscience.com
1711638595
Hero Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 1711638595

View Profile Personal Message (Offline)

Ignore
1711638595
Reply with quote  #2

1711638595
Report to moderator
1711638595
Hero Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 1711638595

View Profile Personal Message (Offline)

Ignore
1711638595
Reply with quote  #2

1711638595
Report to moderator
"With e-currency based on cryptographic proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman, money can be secure and transactions effortless." -- Satoshi
Advertised sites are not endorsed by the Bitcoin Forum. They may be unsafe, untrustworthy, or illegal in your jurisdiction.
1711638595
Hero Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 1711638595

View Profile Personal Message (Offline)

Ignore
1711638595
Reply with quote  #2

1711638595
Report to moderator
1711638595
Hero Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 1711638595

View Profile Personal Message (Offline)

Ignore
1711638595
Reply with quote  #2

1711638595
Report to moderator
1711638595
Hero Member
*
Offline Offline

Posts: 1711638595

View Profile Personal Message (Offline)

Ignore
1711638595
Reply with quote  #2

1711638595
Report to moderator
DigitalPackrat
Member
**
Offline Offline

Activity: 67
Merit: 10


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 11:03:36 AM
 #2

Glad to see I'm not the only one doing this.
For the molex crimp pins, I used mouser 538-39-00-0038-CT, I used 538-39-01-2060 for the 6 pin connectors but they have one square plug that didn't match my video cards but worked with the cube. The big issue is making all the connections, it's too time consuming to do by hand and the edge connector I used was $6 plus $0.27 per pin. Overall it's worth it for my own use because I already had the tools but the labor and liability keeps me from selling any.



sidehack (OP)
Legendary
*
Offline Offline

Activity: 3304
Merit: 1838

Curmudgeonly hardware guy


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 11:10:06 AM
 #3

I've been playing around with hacking server supplies since probably June, first for GPU and now for standalone. Decided it would be a better way to go to make a pluggable interface board than make all the changes internal to the PSU. Faster, easier and interchangable/replaceable.

What I'm working with has pins and blades, not an edge connector, but I'll probably start looking into making for the HP 850/1000 that everyone seems to love from their Blade backplanes.


I'm guessing you're using a 12V relay to kick the supply on from external source?

Cool, quiet and up to 1TH pod miner, on sale now!
Currently in development - 200+GH USB stick; 6TH volt-adjustable S1/3/5 upgrade kit
Server PSU interface boards and cables. USB and small-scale miners. Hardware hosting, advice and odd-jobs. Supporting the home miner community since 2013 - http://www.gekkoscience.com
DigitalPackrat
Member
**
Offline Offline

Activity: 67
Merit: 10


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 12:02:48 PM
 #4

Close, I went with a 5v relay. I do like these HP power supplies, they were basically free.

Spotswood
Sr. Member
****
Offline Offline

Activity: 512
Merit: 250



View Profile WWW
December 21, 2013, 01:32:29 PM
 #5

Please add at least 2 mounting holes, for M3 or 6-32 bolts.   Wink

FreeGiz
Newbie
*
Offline Offline

Activity: 22
Merit: 0


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 03:31:53 PM
 #6

Close, I went with a 5v relay. I do like these HP power supplies, they were basically free.
This is really great idea and I just hand-on 2 HP DPS-600PB.
I like to use matched connector too, but it is hard to found any where.
 
sidehack (OP)
Legendary
*
Offline Offline

Activity: 3304
Merit: 1838

Curmudgeonly hardware guy


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 05:47:07 PM
 #7

Quote
Please add at least 2 mounting holes, for M3 or 6-32 bolts.

Whereabouts and what for exactly?

Cool, quiet and up to 1TH pod miner, on sale now!
Currently in development - 200+GH USB stick; 6TH volt-adjustable S1/3/5 upgrade kit
Server PSU interface boards and cables. USB and small-scale miners. Hardware hosting, advice and odd-jobs. Supporting the home miner community since 2013 - http://www.gekkoscience.com
Cheshyr
Full Member
***
Offline Offline

Activity: 168
Merit: 100


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 07:01:47 PM
 #8

Send me a PM with the part numbers and quantities you need from FCI and Molex.  I wouldn't mind helping you out with developing the manufacturing documents and test procedures as well.
Spotswood
Sr. Member
****
Offline Offline

Activity: 512
Merit: 250



View Profile WWW
December 21, 2013, 08:37:40 PM
 #9

Quote
Please add at least 2 mounting holes, for M3 or 6-32 bolts.

Whereabouts and what for exactly?

I design and build open-air cases made from aluminum t-slot extrusions, and I could foresee someone asking me to build a case for them that uses this board. 

Two M3 holes in a straight line anywhere on the board would suffice.


sidehack (OP)
Legendary
*
Offline Offline

Activity: 3304
Merit: 1838

Curmudgeonly hardware guy


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 08:44:06 PM
 #10

Gotcha. I'll see about probably widening the board slightly and adding screw holes at the corners; these can double to hold a plastic baseboard under it for insulation in standalone applications, and for mounting to frames in your type of application.

Cool, quiet and up to 1TH pod miner, on sale now!
Currently in development - 200+GH USB stick; 6TH volt-adjustable S1/3/5 upgrade kit
Server PSU interface boards and cables. USB and small-scale miners. Hardware hosting, advice and odd-jobs. Supporting the home miner community since 2013 - http://www.gekkoscience.com
bobsag3
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Activity: 546
Merit: 500

Owner, Minersource.net


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 08:58:30 PM
 #11

You know im on board

Quote
Please add at least 2 mounting holes, for M3 or 6-32 bolts.

Whereabouts and what for exactly?

I design and build open-air cases made from aluminum t-slot extrusions, and I could foresee someone asking me to build a case for them that uses this board. 

Two M3 holes in a straight line anywhere on the board would suffice.



2 Bitmain Blades + 2 dell PSU + spotswood case?
sidehack (OP)
Legendary
*
Offline Offline

Activity: 3304
Merit: 1838

Curmudgeonly hardware guy


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 09:24:43 PM
 #12

Two PSU for redundancy? One of these supplies should handle two or three blades itself at stock clock, if I'm remembering the power specs right. That would be a pretty sexy setup though.

Cool, quiet and up to 1TH pod miner, on sale now!
Currently in development - 200+GH USB stick; 6TH volt-adjustable S1/3/5 upgrade kit
Server PSU interface boards and cables. USB and small-scale miners. Hardware hosting, advice and odd-jobs. Supporting the home miner community since 2013 - http://www.gekkoscience.com
timmah
Member
**
Offline Offline

Activity: 70
Merit: 10


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 09:34:21 PM
 #13

First "complete" prototype finished and undergoing testing; as soon as a reliable source of parts can be found I'll start on actual production. If anyone's got an "in" with Molex or FCI I wouldn't mind a bit of assistance tracking down both parts and information.








This board is designed to mate with a Dell Z750P power supply from a PowerEdge 2950; said supplies can be found fairly readily on eBay in various conditions for as low as $12. They are rated to provide 62A at 12V at 90% efficiency. This interface board provides
 - Screw terminals for +12V and GND so you only hook up what cables you need.
 - Additional output capacitance for voltage ripple and burst current buffering
 - Manual fan speed control (the stock full speed is quite loud)
 - Auto-powerup which can be triggered by an external signal as low as 3V, disablable by a toggle switch
 - Manual powerup from a toggle switch. Because toggle switches are legit.
 - In-signal and Out-signal headers which allow chaining, so one supply can turn on multiple others
 - Current share feature which should allow multiple supplies to cross-regulate and evenly distribute high power loads in parallel


I've had one of these supplies running a pair of full-overclocked Cubes for a few weeks with zero issues. These supplies, equipped with these boards, should work beautifully for standalone miners at reduced cost for comparable ATX supplies (similar power and efficiency) and without requiring paperclips or additional wire management. Output regulation should also be better than a standard ATX.

They'll also work as additional 12V rails controlled by ATX supplies; the auto-powerup was originally designed to fire up the supply as additional power for a GPU rig.

The Z750P uses a fairly common interface style and pinout; I don't have a complete list of other supplies this board would work for but there should be several.

I don't have an estimated price tag yet, probably in the neighborhood of $30 to $40 - a lot of that is going to depend on the cost of parts. All manufacture will be done by American people in America, which adds to the cost a bit but one of the tenets of my business is to never for any reason outsource jobs that can be done domestically.

I think this is a wonderful use for all the industrial parts which have been EOL'd just because the speed/capacity/etc does not fit the needs of the large corporations with huge server farms and upgrade all the time, including lots of hardware from the government.  

TL;DR (just IMHO view on the computer hardware industry, as I had operated a business liquidating IT assets for almost 10 years)

In fact since all these servers and parts that are in them were built specifically for industrial use they already optimized them to run 24/7 and at maximum efficiency so there was no need for those 80 Plus PSU, etc certification.  A lot of these servers are sold at pallets at a time for very cheap and a lot of times they look brand new (it seems common for "upgrades" to be done every couple years so these are mostly barely broken in) sometimes it's when a company goes out of business.  In any case these servers have pretty high end (at the time of purchase) parts like RAID, SCSI with mostly 10k rpm hard drives (80gb but not everyone needs tonnes of storage), custom designed cooling to fit dual cpu installations cool and even redundant PSUs all in a 1u Case.

Most of these servers would work great for many people who are willing to deal with the sound of the fans or to part out and put into a regular computer case.  For the part of the computer users that just need something to write documents or watch videos here and there they work great!  Although computers have gotten so cheap and have other things like USB 3.0 which some of the older servers mostly don't have make it a very tight profit margin to convert these servers into desktop machines.  

For small offices though these work great because the prices are so low they can get 10 of those servers for the price of a new one which they most likely won't use to the full capacity anyway.  Of course marketing has gotten to even the small/medium business owners wanting the latest and greatest when that is not needed at all, especially if they are just using it for a firewall or some other task that does not require all the processing power from a new "top of the line" device.

I would install these servers/switches/IT equipment for my clients and they were very happy because it saved them so much money and there was no noticeable difference between the "used" equipment or new ones.  In fact even using a Cisco 4000 switch can still provide a lot of switching power with gigabit blades, 24 port 10/100 Ethernet blades and lots of room to add up to 4/5 blades to the backplane (if I recall correctly) and also a management module that usually comes with those switches for remote management.  Honestly, does a company really need all gigabit Ethernet connections for their office workstations?  If some user needs the speed then a single gigabit switch can be installed in the rack, still saving money than getting all the newest stuff.

(Steps off soap box)

Last, since this hardware was made for industrial use they have already built the components to last a whole lot longer than even the manufacturer's EOL on the hardware.  Not to mention all the perks like hot swappable fans/PSUs/etc.  

So whole point, I think this is a wonderful project!  Especially with all the "features" that those power supplies offer and at the price 20 of them can be purchased for the price for less than 5 standard ATX power supplies that are certified with the 80 plus etc, and as they are for consumer use all those power supplies lack the advantages of server PSUs like the load balancing.

In any case I fully support your project and would like to work with you on getting this out to the community as this is a wonderful way to "recycle" many very well designed INDUSTRIAL hardware that we need for our miners.  I would rather use 10 dell PSUs to power 6 KnC Jupiter units than 6 SeaSonic or Corsair retail units.  That would have been cheaper and would have provided more than enough power with some overhead in case of a failure on a unit or two, so no down time at all.

Please PM me if you want to chat more about the best way to do this as well as teaching the community the advantages of using industrial quality parts for our ASICs (which I would consider an industrial product as well) instead of being told to get consumer level retail parts or even just using off the shelf consumer parts for the ASIC manufacture's product lines (like HF and others).

The cost of these miners are more than 1/3 of a salary for many people and is comparable to getting a top of the line Cisco (or any other industrial hardware manufacturer) so I would expect industrial grade parts in my units but we all know that is not the case and they would rather pocket the extra...

Anyway, again, very cool. love this project.  I may be able to tap some old resources to get bulk quantities of server parts for cheap in volume and will put money down for development of things like this.

Thanks!
sidehack (OP)
Legendary
*
Offline Offline

Activity: 3304
Merit: 1838

Curmudgeonly hardware guy


View Profile
December 21, 2013, 09:45:46 PM
 #14

The supplies I'm testing with were built for the Dell PE2950, which is a 2U. But other than that, yeah spot on. The local shop I used to work for did a fair bit with servers like these, and one of my best friends is making a living as an IT guy dealing mostly with older equipment that's not bleeding-edge but still pretty gosh darn solid.

As for not needing 80Plus certification, these supplies have them anyway, and I'm impressed with the outcome. http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/psu_reports/DELL%20INC_Z750P-00_750W_SO-81_80+_Report.pdf

Also keep in mind these can be used as additional 12V rails in GPU farms by using the chain feature off an ATX master supply, not just for standalone miners.

Cool, quiet and up to 1TH pod miner, on sale now!
Currently in development - 200+GH USB stick; 6TH volt-adjustable S1/3/5 upgrade kit
Server PSU interface boards and cables. USB and small-scale miners. Hardware hosting, advice and odd-jobs. Supporting the home miner community since 2013 - http://www.gekkoscience.com
timmah
Member
**
Offline Offline

Activity: 70
Merit: 10


View Profile
December 22, 2013, 09:23:52 AM
 #15

The supplies I'm testing with were built for the Dell PE2950, which is a 2U. But other than that, yeah spot on. The local shop I used to work for did a fair bit with servers like these, and one of my best friends is making a living as an IT guy dealing mostly with older equipment that's not bleeding-edge but still pretty gosh darn solid.

As for not needing 80Plus certification, these supplies have them anyway, and I'm impressed with the outcome. http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/psu_reports/DELL%20INC_Z750P-00_750W_SO-81_80+_Report.pdf

Also keep in mind these can be used as additional 12V rails in GPU farms by using the chain feature off an ATX master supply, not just for standalone miners.

It's good to know that Dell had their power supplies certified in any case, it's good business practice.  I also really like the feature that it will load balance the voltages, with connected supplies.

Couple of questions, does your part have the ability to link the power supplies currently or is it another part to add?  Next, is your design capable of hot swapping?

If not, those would be some really good features to have, for the hot swapping failed PSUs I would think it would be a lot easier to do if the PSUs are installed in some sort of case that has your mod connected like a back plane.  If you want I can look into getting custom enclosures for those PSUs and perhaps have different models, like ones that take 2 PSUs or 4 or more, etc.  All depending on how the end user would want to connect the power supplies.  Maybe even set it up to fit in 2u of rack space for those that have server racks.  That way it would be really easy to mount them side by side and just populate the power supplies to match the amount of power necessary.

Let me know what you think and also I am serious about working with you to fund something like this so PM me if you want to discuss it.

Thanks!
CroverNo01
Sr. Member
****
Offline Offline

Activity: 364
Merit: 250



View Profile
December 22, 2013, 01:28:17 PM
 #16

Just want to say congrats on getting the prototype up and running.

Looking forward to when you have these in production for the Antminer's and Cubes

Cheers
Spotswood
Sr. Member
****
Offline Offline

Activity: 512
Merit: 250



View Profile WWW
December 22, 2013, 01:57:11 PM
 #17

Anyone have a link to a mechanical drawing of that powersupply?

sidehack (OP)
Legendary
*
Offline Offline

Activity: 3304
Merit: 1838

Curmudgeonly hardware guy


View Profile
December 22, 2013, 03:42:42 PM
 #18

The pin headers on the board are for linking multiple supplies; each has an input and an output so you can either chain them (where one supply turns on the next, which turns on the next, and so forth) or run them in master/slave (where one turns them all on) and both headers tie the current share lines. The only thing you'd need to do for hotswap in parallel is make sure the ground and 12V outputs are tied into the same bus.

I wonder if I shouldn't put on a fan speed override with a linkable header so the master supply could control the speed of all linked supplies, or it could be linked to an external temp sensor driver that monitors the temperature of the exhaust air? Do people think this is useful enough to implement?

Cool, quiet and up to 1TH pod miner, on sale now!
Currently in development - 200+GH USB stick; 6TH volt-adjustable S1/3/5 upgrade kit
Server PSU interface boards and cables. USB and small-scale miners. Hardware hosting, advice and odd-jobs. Supporting the home miner community since 2013 - http://www.gekkoscience.com
bitpop
Legendary
*
Offline Offline

Activity: 2912
Merit: 1060



View Profile WWW
December 22, 2013, 07:04:47 PM
 #19

I will need power for 3 neptunes but they must be separate

takagari
Legendary
*
Offline Offline

Activity: 1050
Merit: 1000


View Profile
December 23, 2013, 12:48:36 AM
 #20

I'd use these, very nice idea, thanks for doing the work. hope you can produce fast Smiley
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 »
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.19 | SMF © 2006-2009, Simple Machines Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!