Antminer Z9 mini overclocked

[maxtech]

Those batch1 or something else?

It is possible to overclock any batch.

Do tell. What hardware modifications made?
I've no problem pulling these outta the factory chassis and modding...

yes I know, my question was about the hardware change and not how to set 900 on frequency.

https://ibb.co/dx6LkK


On the right is the original hash panel. Left - changed.

The bottom line is that the chips should get extra power.
Detailed step-by-step instructions from me will not be, as long as I make money on these changes. Excuse me. My message was for those professionals who work with electronics. These people know that this is possible and how.

I want OC z9 mini 25K Sol . How many?

[sleeper1974]

Sorry for asking here.

I received two Z9 mini yesterday. One of them is mining normally. The other does not recognize hashboards. Any tips? Or should I forward it to Bitmain? I'm in Brazil, so if there was a solution without having to send to Bitmain, this would be the best alternative.

Tks!

Alexandre

[Warlockks]

everyone, i'm pretty sure that Bitmain has restricted the VRM (voltage regulation module) to a certain voltage so that the chips will only run so high before they crash. more than likely, batch 1 was lesser restriction, batch 2 has more, and i guess batch 3 has a lot?! my assumption is that too many people were frying their miners from unresponsible OCing (because they either had a bad chip or was poorly cooled) and then warranty-claiming them back to Bitmain. i don't think there is any way Bitmain can tell that the miners have been OC'd unless there is a hidden log somewhere. the super-strip down version of linux that runs the miner is imprinted into ROM and reloaded upon each power-up cycle; the only changes it keeps (i.e. stratum, address, frequency, etc) is saved to a config file.

anyone who has experience OCing CPUs will know that at some point you need to up the voltage to keep going... well, in the case of these Z9M chips, you can't do that so as you OC the MHz up and up, it will hit a ceiling and crash. trip the VRMs enough times and the darn thing will go into a "i don't want to play anymore, i quit" mode where it won't hash at all and you will think you have bricked your miner. if and when this happens, just power down the miner, exhaust all the power from the miner, disconnect the psu, exhaust the power from the psu, and fire it back up (or just disconnect everything cables and all and let it sit off for 15-20 minutes).

if you want to go above what Bitmain has set, you will need to have some electrical engineering background or knows somebody who does and have some equipment, like a USB-PMBus dongle tool at the minimum to regulate the voltage as well as needing to solder some connectors to certain points on the PCB itself. this is no easy task as you need to be able to read electrical schematics let alone know what the hell you're doing so you don't fry your boards on the first power-up after you mod it. FPGA-guys are already doing this as they really need to regulate voltage when they push their chips while mining. of course this isn't the only way as the direct interface to the PCB may allow modification.

also, heat is going to be an issue if you can actually accomplish what i mentioned above. just like OCing CPUs, the higher it goes, the better fan heatsink or waterblock you better have. i recommend liquid immersion but that's just me. if you disregard this, your chip will fry really quick.

either way, take what i said with a grain of salt cause i am still a noob in regards to this forum and have zero trust so what do i know, eh? just an observation, nothing personal, hehe...

i'm pretty sure at least 99% of you Z9M owners will not be attempting this and the ones who have done this will keep it to themselves and not share out. why give more hashing power to the rest to increase difficulty, right? welcome to the world we live in. happy mining!

 

I'm thinking you may be correct.  It's also possible they may have skimped on MLCCs (power supply decoupling capacitors) in the newer batch, thus creating more ripple voltage at the chips, and lower overclocking potential.

The MLCC market is EXTREMELY tight right now, and prices are going up, and availability is way down.   

So it may be as simple as replacing a few capacitors per hashing chip.   I began to suspect this because I own an electronics manufacturing company, and am an electrical engineer.    But I have yet to verify (or attempt to verify) my suspicion. 

[Jack Bond]

I've played with mine and they seem safe at 650
I tried different settings and i'm not happy with the quality of the miner since its gen2 shippment and not stable like the others at 750. I think the software is junk and also bitmain took the GEN1 firmware off the website, Anyone have a clean version firmware of GEN 1? I'd love to reflash mine. Have been running 600 to 618 and getting all kinds of diffrent speeds. Now I just leave it at 650.. Get these to make some  oney back on these hard time mining

[Sebahl]

I've played with mine and they seem safe at 650
I tried different settings and i'm not happy with the quality of the miner since its gen2 shippment and not stable like the others at 750. I think the software is junk and also bitmain took the GEN1 firmware off the website, Anyone have a clean version firmware of GEN 1? I'd love to reflash mine. Have been running 600 to 618 and getting all kinds of diffrent speeds. Now I just leave it at 650.. Get these to make some  oney back on these hard time mining

People have tried reflashing with batch 1 firmware. No improvement on hash speed, so it's not a firmware but a hardware limitation.

[grinbuck]

Now I'm really confused. I've been following this thread for a while and was completely expecting my batch two z9 mini's to underperform compared to batch one. I received two of them on the 10th of September.

But they're not underperforming. They're as good as batch one. Both of them. Both easily clock to 750 and have been averaging 16.5 KSols/s for the last 24+ hours.

In case it benefits anyone in the community, these are the exact steps I took and the results:

• Changed pool configuration. Set fan speed to 100% fixed.
• Initially tried the F12 trick to overclock the first one. Tried 750 off the bat. Didn't work. As in, the firmware still showed the machine running at 500M.
• Tried editing cgminer.conf directly (after granting it write permissions). Didn't work. The firmware still showed the machine running at 500M.
• Tried 600, 625, 650 with both methods above. Still didn't work. At this point I figured the firmware was locked to 500M. Didn't try 550M. Double checked cgminer.conf. It was correctly saving whatever frequency I put in it but the machine just wouldn't accept it. New firmware? Probably.
• Flashed firmware to one dated may 26th 2018. I had downloaded this from Bitmain way back just as a backup. Filename: Antminer-Z9-Mini-201805262047-500M.tar.gz
• Overclocked to 750M. Works perfectly as mentioned above.

I'm wondering if I was just lucky and got two good units but it doesn't seem probable considering the fact that the firmware I received was the one with the "Balanced" option on it. It had no option to overclock.

The only thing I seem to have done (maybe differently) is set fan speed to 100% fixed. Maybe that has something to do with it?

Worth a shot I guess.

EDIT: Forgot to mention - temperatures on all boards are between 65-70 degs with the fans at 100%.

[grinbuck]

I have a question regarding the Z9 Mini - not sure if this is the right thread but it's the closest I could find.

I'm planning on running 3 Z9 mini's off of a standard 1600w bitmain apw++ power supply running off of a 240v circuit. I plan to overclock all 3 to 750m (consumes about 400-450w each so well within the apw++ limits).

My question is this:

The apw++ has 10 pcie connectors. I need 12 to run 3 z9 mini's. I'm planning on connecting 9 of them directly to the hashing boards of the 3 units and using 2 splitters to split the power of the last pcie connector into 3 - for the 3 control boards.

Splitter I'm planning to use (for reference):
https://www.amazon.ca/StarTech-com-PCIEXSPLIT6-6-Inch-Express-Splitter/dp/B004NNTVT6/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1535493571&sr=8-14&keywords=pcie+splitter

This is assuming that the control boards dont take up much power compared to the actual hash boards. Given that, I'm thinking it would be OK to run three control boards off the same pcie connector.

Am I correct in this assumption? Is it safe to do what I am planning to?

Any input much appreciated. Thanks.

I donnt think you will power 3 clocked z9's.. i have 2 z9's clocked on one PSW3++ Firstly i am getting 750 mhz 16.5/17 sols out of one z9 and i can only get 681mhz out of the other 14.7/15.2 sols if i push the second z9 higher i begins high and drops off to zero hash rate.. i am guessing power failure.. but 2 do run nicely off one Bitmain PSU
Pics on my twitter

 https://twitter.com/mrtraderman

Including the entire quote above so people know the context. Three Z9 Mini's work perfectly well off of a single Bitmain APW++ power supply running at 240v.

May be a bit of a stretch on a 120v circuit since the APW++ only produces 1200w at 120v. It produces 1600W at 240v as per Bitmain's specs.

Tested how much the control boards consume. Each control board consumes between 35-40w on its own. Three of them are well under 120w total so it's safe to link 3 to a single PCIE connector (rated at 150w) using the splitters mentioned above.

Total power draw from the wall overclocked to 750M and running stable at ~16.5 KSol/s for the last 24 hours is about 1140w

Pic of the setup:



Cheers!

[oomurashin]

Is it dangerous to connect multiple ASICs from one PSU? 

[grinbuck]

Is it dangerous to connect multiple ASICs from one PSU?  

To the best of my knowledge - No. One S9 consumes about 1400w using the same PSU. Don't think there's any problem connecting three of the Z9 mini's (which consume 1150w total) to a single power supply.

Been working fine for me so far. Will update if there are any problems. TBH I don't see why there should be.

[DR_BamBam]

Looks like you won the silicon lottery, good for you . Whats funny is my batch 2 came with the may firmware but wont overclock past 662 stable,  I can go for 668 but sometimes after 24-48 hours one of the boards drops off. I tried the fans at 100% and 750mhz but it crashes after a few min. Mine is stable at 662 55% fan setting. What I did was reverse the fan so that it pulls instead of blows and it dropped the temp by 10c and it runs at 50c.

[grinbuck]

Looks like you won the silicon lottery, good for you . Whats funny is my batch 2 came with the may firmware but wont overclock past 662 stable,  I can go for 668 but sometimes after 24-48 hours one of the boards drops off. I tried the fans at 100% and 750mhz but it crashes after a few min. Mine is stable at 662 55% fan setting. What I did was reverse the fan so that it pulls instead of blows and it dropped the temp by 10c and it runs at 50c.

Damn. I was hoping to identify some pattern. Never won a single lottery in my life... my luck sucks that way. Maybe this is a good omen 

[zagorlord]

Now I'm really confused. I've been following this thread for a while and was completely expecting my batch two z9 mini's to underperform compared to batch one. I received two of them on the 10th of September.

But they're not underperforming. They're as good as batch one. Both of them. Both easily clock to 750 and have been averaging 16.5 KSols/s for the last 24+ hours.

In case it benefits anyone in the community, these are the exact steps I took and the results:

• Changed pool configuration. Set fan speed to 100% fixed.
• Initially tried the F12 trick to overclock the first one. Tried 750 off the bat. Didn't work. As in, the firmware still showed the machine running at 500M.
• Tried editing cgminer.conf directly (after granting it write permissions). Didn't work. The firmware still showed the machine running at 500M.
• Tried 600, 625, 650 with both methods above. Still didn't work. At this point I figured the firmware was locked to 500M. Didn't try 550M. Double checked cgminer.conf. It was correctly saving whatever frequency I put in it but the machine just wouldn't accept it. New firmware? Probably.
• Flashed firmware to one dated may 26th 2018. I had downloaded this from Bitmain way back just as a backup. Filename: Antminer-Z9-Mini-201805262047-500M.tar.gz
• Overclocked to 750M. Works perfectly as mentioned above.

I'm wondering if I was just lucky and got two good units but it doesn't seem probable considering the fact that the firmware I received was the one with the "Balanced" option on it. It had no option to overclock.

The only thing I seem to have done (maybe differently) is set fan speed to 100% fixed. Maybe that has something to do with it?

Worth a shot I guess.

EDIT: Forgot to mention - temperatures on all boards are between 65-70 degs with the fans at 100%.

Hello since i am still newbie i cannot send private message to you. Can you please send me in pm link of that firmware (Filename: Antminer-Z9-Mini-201805262047-500M.tar.gz) , there is none at bitmain page anymore. Thanks in advance!

[Shadow82]

https://service.bitmain.com/support/download?product=Antminer%20Z9%20mini

Antminer-Z9-Mini-NAND-500M-201808311812.tar.gz

Is it a new firmware form Batch-3? Has anyone tried it? What is about overclocking?

[DR_BamBam]

I noticed the control board has a connection for 1 more hash board is it possible to connect a 4th board to the miner? Has anyone tried if it works or dose it need a custom firmware to initialize the 4th board? I was thinking about building its own case for it with 4 boards instead of 3. I read on another thread that some one fried one of their boards and ordered a new hash board for 200 bucks form bitmain. Thoughts?

[zhzz]

https://service.bitmain.com/support/download?product=Antminer%20Z9%20mini

Antminer-Z9-Mini-NAND-500M-201808311812.tar.gz

Is it a new firmware form Batch-3? Has anyone tried it? What is about overclocking?

it's a new firmware and does not allow OC.

I noticed the control board has a connection for 1 more hash board is it possible to connect a 4th board to the miner? Has anyone tried if it works or dose it need a custom firmware to initialize the 4th board? I was thinking about building its own case for it with 4 boards instead of 3. I read on another thread that some one fried one of their boards and ordered a new hash board for 200 bucks form bitmain. Thoughts?

almost every antminer (even older models) has one additional connection. I thought the same but no one did it before. I doubt that bitmain will send you a new board (solo) for 200 usd.

[DR_BamBam]

almost every antminer (even older models) has one additional connection. I thought the same but no one did it before. I doubt that bitmain will send you a new board (solo) for 200 usd.

Im sure they will since another user on this forum got one sent to him after he burned out a board, my question is will it work ? Im hoping some one with 2 units can set one up and test it, if it works i will hit up bitmain and say i fried one of my boards due to overclocking and i can order a replacement just like the other user.

the post is some where in this thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3509006.0

[Tailgunner]

Is it dangerous to connect multiple ASICs from one PSU? 

I don't think so. I currently have 5 z9 minis connected to 2 apw3++ psus on 110v without issue. However the above poster must be using a splitter to connect all 3 to 1 PSU which from what I understand is something you are NOT supposed to do.

[fjzappA]

Is it dangerous to connect multiple ASICs from one PSU? 

OK to drive multiple things from one PSU.  (Think of your house - 1 PSU for your whole city)

Don't mix PSUs on a single device.

I have an IBM 2880 watt server PSU and running 4 Minis off of it.  Previously running 2x S9's off of it.

[fanatic26_]

Batch 2 z9 minis checking in.

Both stable at 675

Seeing 16k/sols from one and 15.7 k/sols from the other pool side. Its actually more than what the local console is reporting. Anything over 675 drops boards within 12 hours.

[grinbuck]

Hello since i am still newbie i cannot send private message to you. Can you please send me in pm link of that firmware (Filename: Antminer-Z9-Mini-201805262047-500M.tar.gz) , there is none at bitmain page anymore. Thanks in advance!

Here you go - just in case it's the firmware that's locking down overclocking and not the 'silicon lottery'.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1y3poGmeOpeZuAy4rvfT4uZ1Z7tozjTLx

Cheers!

EDIT: Had inserted the wrong link by mistake initially. Have updated it. Should be working now.