Breaker blowing with no changes in mining hardware

[badbart]

I have a 60amp 220 breaker powering my detached garage.  I've been running my rigs fine for 2 years no problems.  Made some changes 1 month ago and everything ran fine for a month.  Last night the 60 amp breaker tripped, I shut down half the rigs and ran them and it tripped again.  Could a breaker go bad?  Could it be a rig  with some kind of power problem?  If its a power supply drawing too much juice how do I find it?

[MOAMiner]

Testing another breaker should be easy enough - it's worth a try (we had that issue 2 times).

If that doesn't help, you can power the rigs on one after one to find a faulty PSU (we happened to had such a case, a PSU had some internal shorting with no signs at all, it just tripped the breaker when hitting 50% load, it was RMAd later)

I guess your breaker is already correctly dimensioned, so that it can support all connected PSUs on 100% power consumption?

[curt999]

when you take breaker out take a look at the bus bar condition its possible if its been run close to the edge for long enough u may have pitted or burnt it which will cause what you are saying

[adaseb]

Like the above poster said. Before you go replacing the breaker, make sure to test every PSU first.

I've had something similiar happen. The breaker kept blowing and I assumed it was a bad breaker. However after switching the rigs to another breaker the same thing happened AND after a few attempts I heard a VERY VERY LOUD BOOOOM!.

And basically it was some internal short with 1 PSU. I think the first few times the current protection shut it off and then it didn't work, so then the breaker shut it off and then finally some huge capacitor on the PSU basically exploded like a bomb, scared the crap out of me and took probably 2 days or so to get rid of the smell.

So just test your other rigs first and make sure its not a PSU that has gone bad.

[philipma1957]

Like the above poster said. Before you go replacing the breaker, make sure to test every PSU first.

I've had something similiar happen. The breaker kept blowing and I assumed it was a bad breaker. However after switching the rigs to another breaker the same thing happened AND after a few attempts I heard a VERY VERY LOUD BOOOOM!.

And basically it was some internal short with 1 PSU. I think the first few times the current protection shut it off and then it didn't work, so then the breaker shut it off and then finally some huge capacitor on the PSU basically exploded like a bomb, scared the crap out of me and took probably 2 days or so to get rid of the smell.

So just test your other rigs first and make sure its not a PSU that has gone bad.

most likely this

then maybe the circuit breaker has aged

lastly  60 amps needs good gauge wire  so how long is the run  under 20 feet to the garage or more like 50 feet?

at 60 amps you may need gauge 4 not gauge 6 wire

looking for better reference then this

https://www.reference.com/home-garden/correct-size-wire-60-amp-service-7e16432ae9936b30


note 4gauge below

https://www.reference.com/home-garden/size-electric-wire-need-60-amp-load-9fc92d8a41c05625?


here is chart
http://www.barr-thorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Digest-176-NEC-Tables.pdf


and 6 may work but can fall short
4 works  read the chart.

[badbart]

Thanks for all the replies.  It looks like it might have been a bad psu and or breaker.  At the breaker box in the garage I replace one of the 20 amp breakers that stooped working and when I plugged one of the psus back in it made a loud pop and is now turned off.  Everything is running right now expect for the rig with the bad psu.

Funny you mention the gauge of the wire for the 60 amp breaker.  The person who owned the house before me was an electrician and ran a wire that was too small for 60 amps, lol.  I had it replaced a few months ago by an electrician  and had everything checked and brought up to code.

[badbart]

Like the above poster said. Before you go replacing the breaker, make sure to test every PSU first.

I've had something similiar happen. The breaker kept blowing and I assumed it was a bad breaker. However after switching the rigs to another breaker the same thing happened AND after a few attempts I heard a VERY VERY LOUD BOOOOM!.

And basically it was some internal short with 1 PSU. I think the first few times the current protection shut it off and then it didn't work, so then the breaker shut it off and then finally some huge capacitor on the PSU basically exploded like a bomb, scared the crap out of me and took probably 2 days or so to get rid of the smell.

So just test your other rigs first and make sure its not a PSU that has gone bad.

This also might be a factor, I have the house maxed out and anymore and I blow the main 200 amp breaker, I have rigs in the basement also.  I have $.049 electricity so I'm still mining all I can.  I was thinking about have a new line run to the garage from the telephone pole but I'm not sure how much that will cost.

[philipma1957]

Thanks for all the replies.  It looks like it might have been a bad psu and or breaker.  At the breaker box in the garage I replace one of the 20 amp breakers that stooped working and when I plugged one of the psus back in it made a loud pop and is now turned off.  Everything is running right now expect for the rig with the bad psu.

Funny you mention the gauge of the wire for the 60 amp breaker.  The person who owned the house before me was an electrician and ran a wire that was too small for 60 amps, lol.  I had it replaced a few months ago by an electrician  and had everything checked and brought up to code.

yeah  a 6 gauge is borderline  and constant pull of mining will kill it off.

4  gauge is better.

[curt999]

you could get another 200a breaker box in garage don't skimp get a good cutler unit $1500-2k installed or so depending on wire run.then get 8 l6-30 outlets add $500

[daworm06]

I have a 60amp 220 breaker powering my detached garage.  I've been running my rigs fine for 2 years no problems.  Made some changes 1 month ago and everything ran fine for a month.  Last night the 60 amp breaker tripped, I shut down half the rigs and ran them and it tripped again.  Could a breaker go bad?  Could it be a rig  with some kind of power problem?  If its a power supply drawing too much juice how do I find it?

Yes the breaker can go bad. I had a similar problem but it was just a loose terminal on the breaker. On a side note, your breaker should not exceed 80% of it's load (48 amps). Running a constant load 24/7 that exceeds 48 amps is a HUGE fire risk.

[Agozyen]

I have a 60amp 220 breaker powering my detached garage.  I've been running my rigs fine for 2 years no problems.  Made some changes 1 month ago and everything ran fine for a month.  Last night the 60 amp breaker tripped, I shut down half the rigs and ran them and it tripped again.  Could a breaker go bad?  Could it be a rig  with some kind of power problem?  If its a power supply drawing too much juice how do I find it?

Get yourself a Power Supply Tester.  They are very inexpensive and can help you reduce time when it comes to troubleshooting issues like this.  A good one will cost around $25 and can test all the leads coming off of your power supply.  Good luck.

[badbart]

Thought I figured out out but the 60 amp 220 breaker blew again last night and now the breaker box smells hot.  So I shut off the breaker and I'm going to call an electrician.  Killing me to not be running but its better then a burned down house.  I'm assuming its the breaker since it smells hot and I've cycled off and on all my rigs and the breaker keep blowing.  Once its fixed I'm moving a couple rigs inside until I get more power to my shed, I'm guessing I ran it too close to the limit for to long.   

[Agozyen]

Thought I figured out out but the 60 amp 220 breaker blew again last night and now the breaker box smells hot.  So I shut off the breaker and I'm going to call an electrician.  Killing me to not be running but its better then a burned down house.  I'm assuming its the breaker since it smells hot and I've cycled off and on all my rigs and the breaker keep blowing.  Once its fixed I'm moving a couple rigs inside until I get more power to my shed, I'm guessing I ran it too close to the limit for to long.   

Smart move.  Do it right and don't half-ass it.  Hopefully it doesn't cost you a whole lot and it's an easy fix.  I want to go solar eventually, but I need to wait for another Bull market before I can do that.