I'm probably a bit late to the antminer game, so I missed all the tutorials on how to use the thing. I have searched a bit on how to get it up and running and how to overclock it, and I've found bits of information here and there, but not yet everything in one place.
With that in mind, this is my attempt to put everything I've found in one place. I'll edit this to add more tidbits as I find them, or as others point them out to me.
I will likely re-organize the layout of this as I add more data.
*This is for the Antminer S1, not the U1.*What is it?- The S1 is large unit with a big fat fan in the front that needs a separate power supply that runs at a minimum of 180gh/s. The U1 is the USB dongle version that runs significantly slower.
- The S2 is the next generation Ant, superseding the S1. It's big, and runs at 1 TH/s. That said,
This link describes what my Ant looks like, but where I bought it's listed as an S1.
- The original models apparently only had one "blade" (circuit board) and required splicing cables from your power supply into it. You could use a PCIx extender cable instead of cutting your power supply cables.
- The newer models have two blades and come with a 6-pin PCIx connector on each blade, removing the need to cut cables on your power supply.
- Original models did not have a reset button to reset the Ant back to factory default. If you have one of these, you can follow the instructions
here to reset it. This looks extremely dangerous, if you connect the wrong pins you could easily fry your Ant or worse! (
Reference)
- The newer models have a S2 button on the backside of the blade that has the LAN connector near the ribbon cables on it that can be used to factory reset instead of risking frying your Ant by connecting the wrong pins.
Can I overclock it?- Overclocking Ants to 200gh/s or higher is possible. There is apparently more than one way to overclock via the same configuration file. Maybe a future version will make this easier?
- Overclocking *may* void your warranty. Lots of places say it's well worth trying.
- Overclocking requires using Linux stuff. If you're not the techie type, or you aren't familiar with Linux, this can be a bit daunting. I *am* the techie type, but Linux and I don't mix very well. Lots of sites say what to do to edit the config file to overclock, but not many tell you exactly how to do it.
-
This link gives very detailed instructions on how to edit the configuration file. Once I found this I was finally able to properly change and save the configuration file. However, it seems the changes it recommends aren't the best way to overclock (high hardware errors).
This one has better settings, but omits the details on how to exactly save the file. As the one comment below the above link properly states, VI is the least intuitive text editor there is.
- There's a formula for calculating your Ant's hardware error rate. From one of the links above:
HW / (diffA + diffR + HW) * 100
Get the values from your Ant's miner status page. It should be quite low (< 1%) when not overclocked, and if properly overclocked, shouldn't be *too* much higher. I'm at 2.05% right now using the overclock instructions I recommended above.
- I'll intend to replicate the instructions between the two links into this post as time permits.
Connectivity.- The Ant is a pretty capable fellow. It supports LAN, WAN, and wireless connectivity. That includes DHCP, which means it can obtain it's own IP address from your router.
- I haven't tried wireless. From what I've read, an antenna may be needed, and if you have poor reception, your hashrate will suffer.
- At the moment I don't understand why it has LAN and WAN settings, unless you intend to expose it to the Internet (not recommended!!). I tried following the vague instructions listed on the various sites on how to get DHCP working, and it would not work for me. Apparently older Ants didn't come with DHCP enabled, mine did. Regardless, I couldn't find the IP address. I have other devices on my LAN using DHCP w/o a problem, so I don't know what's up.
- The default IP address is on a sticker above the fan. If your network isn't using the subnet (that may not be the right term), you *don't* have to change your router to configure the Ant. I advise against that, actually, as it's generally easier to reconfigure your PC than it is your route. If your Ant is configured to 192.168.1.99, and your network is configured to 192.168.0.*, then the two won't talk. The easiest way I found to reconfigure your Ant is to change your PC (computer or laptop) to an address on that subnet (like 192.168.1.105) (take a screenshot before you change it if you aren't familiar with this!) and connect your PC directly to your Ant via your network cable. Then go to your browser on your PC and put in the Ant's address. From my experience, Internet Explorer is horrible at doing this properly, I suggest using Firefox or Chrome. Then configure your Ant as needed, disconnect the network cable, put your laptop/computer IP config back as it was, and connect both your PC and Ant up to your LAN with their own cables. You should now be able to access your Ant from your PC on the new IP through your network now.
- If you can get DHCP working on your Ant, great. Otherwise, change the WAN IP to what you need it to be then apply the changes.
- If you use a static IP address, you'll want to specify some DNS servers. I recommend the opendns addresses, 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.
- If you do decide to use a static IP address, don't forget what it is! (If you do by chance forget/lose the IP address, you can use a network scanner tool to find it.) My Ant came as 192.168.1.99, and I use the .0.* subnet, so I changed my Ant to 192.168.0.99.
- See
Dogie's guide for one example of how to do the above network configuration. I'll replicate the info here as I can later.
Power supply requirements- There are lots of opinions about this. It seems if you don't overclock, you need about 350W of power, if you do, about 425W.
- The *important* thing is having enough amperage on the 12V line. You need at least 32A for each Ant if you overclock it.
- I'm successfully running 3 OC'd Ant on a
Rosewill 1300 Gold. It has 108 Amp on the 12V line, which is plenty for 3 OC'd Ants.
- According to my Kill O Watt, these 3 OC'd Ants are pulling 10.5A and 1225 watts. That's about 406 watt's a piece.
- When getting a power supply, make sure you note how many 12V rails it has. If there is more than one, you need to be mindful of how you wire things.
- That said, the normal power supply rules apply. Don't buy/use a cheap no name brand. Bigger is better within reason. Gold rating is better, but will cost you more. Look for one 12V rail, those with multiple 12V rails require more planning and may not function as you anticipated. I've seen lots of people swear by Corsair. I've had bad experiences with Corsair and Antec. XFX makes garbage GPUs, so I'd assume their PSUs are the same. Right now my preferred is the Rosewill Lightning 1300W gold. Costs a pretty penny, yes, but I haven't had a problem with one yet, and can power a lot of devices at once, and is efficient. If you're in this for the long haul, consider a gold rating, you'll likely save money in the long run. A lot of people swear by Seasonic. I've never had one. YMMV.
- Using my example above, I'm paying $0.11/kwh. Those 3 Ants are using $100 in electricity a month. Assuming my PSU is 90% efficient, that's $10 being used by the PSU, or $120/year. If I was using a 80% efficient PSU, that waste would more than double.
Odds and Ends- You can update the firmware on your Ant. My Ant has the version embossed on the top right outside of the blade with the LAN connector, under the Antminer logo. According to
this you should do this if the date reads 2013/11/4.
This url shows how to find out what firmware your Ant has.
This one has the actual updates.
- The web interface is powerful. Perhaps too powerful. Fortunately there are very few things you have to change to get the Ant mining. Unless you know what you're doing, I wouldn't twiddle with any settings unless you see others recommending to do so!
Referenceshttps://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=344970.0https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=355387.0https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=348327.0http://www.rubicite.com/Tutorials/AntMinerS1Tutorial.aspxhttp://cryptomining-blog.com/366-how-to-overclock-your-bitmain-antminer-s1-to-200-ghs/M
