[Guide] Dogie's Comprehensive Bitmain AntMiner S2 Setup [HD]

[Wookie50]

Guys -- a noob question:  

I have a Corsair 1200i that I'd like to replace the S2's Enermax PSU.  However the pinouts aren't compatible ... can't plug in the motherboard plugs from the S2 into the modular connection of the 1200i.  Is there an adapter I need to use?

Thanks!

You need to use cables from your Corsair 1200i. I'm guessing you just disconnected cables right from the PSU, am I right?

This. Remove all the power cables that were in the S2 and start again.

I removed half the modules and unhooked the power cables to the motherboard.  The new cables from the Corsair fit perfectly ... so your suggestion worked.  Thank you!

Tried overclocking to 212 and getting 2-3% reject rate, despite the better PSU.  Going to try to scale down a bit to see if it makes a difference.

[dogie]

Guys -- a noob question: 

I have a Corsair 1200i that I'd like to replace the S2's Enermax PSU.  However the pinouts aren't compatible ... can't plug in the motherboard plugs from the S2 into the modular connection of the 1200i.  Is there an adapter I need to use?

Thanks!

You need to use cables from your Corsair 1200i. I'm guessing you just disconnected cables right from the PSU, am I right?

This. Remove all the power cables that were in the S2 and start again.

I removed half the modules and unhooked the power cables to the motherboard.  The new cables from the Corsair fit perfectly ... so your suggestion worked.  Thank you!

Tried overclocking to 212 and getting 2-3% reject rate, despite the better PSU.  Going to try to scale down a bit to see if it makes a difference.

Chips are voltage limited very quicky, and swapping out the PSU is more so to prevent the old one from blowing up when pushed.

[Wookie50]

Guys -- a noob question:  

I have a Corsair 1200i that I'd like to replace the S2's Enermax PSU.  However the pinouts aren't compatible ... can't plug in the motherboard plugs from the S2 into the modular connection of the 1200i.  Is there an adapter I need to use?

Thanks!

You need to use cables from your Corsair 1200i. I'm guessing you just disconnected cables right from the PSU, am I right?

This. Remove all the power cables that were in the S2 and start again.

I removed half the modules and unhooked the power cables to the motherboard.  The new cables from the Corsair fit perfectly ... so your suggestion worked.  Thank you!

Tried overclocking to 212 and getting 2-3% reject rate, despite the better PSU.  Going to try to scale down a bit to see if it makes a difference.

Chips are voltage limited very quicky, and swapping out the PSU is more so to prevent the old one from blowing up when pushed.

From my experience, it seems that overclocking the S2 just makes little sense.

Replacing the PSU (and paying an extra $350) + increasing load by 0.5amps just to get an extra 50 GH/s seems more risky than the value it will bring.

Would love to see what other people think.

[freebit13]

If anyone is interested in load-balancing their machine or adding any other cgminer parameters, here's how to do it:

ssh into your S2 with putty or similar software (root,admin)

Type the following, exactly as written; a new line means press enter/return:

Code:

cd /etc/init.d/
vi cgminer.sh
i

Move down to line 51 in the code, starting with

Code:

PARAMS="--bitmain-dev....

and add your parameters in that string, something like:

Code:

PARAMS="--balance --bitmain-dev....

and press "esc", then type:

Code:

:wq

Now go to the "Miner Configuration" tab in the GUI and click "Save & Apply" to restart cgminer with the new settings and it should work.

Unfortunately, a reboot will set this all back to the default, so if anyone knows how to actually save any of the settings changed, please let me know.

[dogie]

From my experience, it seems that overclocking the S2 just makes little sense.

Replacing the PSU (and paying an extra $350) + increasing load by 0.5amps just to get an extra 50 GH/s seems more risky than the value it will bring.

Would love to see what other people think.

Thats what I also concluded and stopped. Its just not worth the time, power, potential for failure or effort.

[dogie]

If anyone is interested in load-balancing their machine or adding any other cgminer parameters, here's how to do it:

ssh into your S2 with putty or similar software (root,admin)

Type the following, exactly as written; a new line means press enter/return:

Code:

cd /etc/init.d/
vi cgminer.sh
i

Move down to line 51 in the code, starting with

Code:

PARAMS="--bitmain-dev....

and add your parameters in that string, something like:

Code:

PARAMS="--balance --bitmain-dev....

and press "esc", then type:

Code:

:wq

Now go to the "Miner Configuration" tab in the GUI and click "Save & Apply" to restart cgminer with the new settings and it should work.

Unfortunately, a reboot will set this all back to the default, so if anyone knows how to actually save any of the settings changed, please let me know.

I think this approach is saving something into a volatile cache which works until the unit is power cycled. The beagles clear that every time they restart, so this would have to be integrated into the firmware.

[klondike_bar]

From my experience, it seems that overclocking the S2 just makes little sense.

Replacing the PSU (and paying an extra $350) + increasing load by 0.5amps just to get an extra 50 GH/s seems more risky than the value it will bring.

Would love to see what other people think.

Thats what I also concluded and stopped. Its just not worth the time, power, potential for failure or effort.

A 1200W psu can get 1050-1100GH from the unit. Clocking anything higher would require pencil modding of 40 resitors per S2 unit.

IMO - the S1 is still the king. about $1.15/GH when overclocked, and can underclock to ~160GH/300W without voltage modification, and probably as low as 110GH/120W if heavily underclocked during the summer months. Only issue is space requirements and the power/cooling requirements when running them at 2w/GH initially.

[dogie]

Why do the S1s have voltage control while the S2s don't? Unless you meant that range when pencil modded.

[nikolaz]

This is bit of a stupid question, I want to replace the S2 PSU and I am thinking of getting "EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1300W"

http://www.evga.com/articles/00755/images/univ/1k_Mod_Face_lrg.jpg

My stupid question is would I be using the VGA ports and using the provided cable marked VGA (https://www.moddiy.com/product_images/uploaded_images/dual-6-2.jpg). Just want to be 100% sure before I plug anything.

Thanks

[Angela8488]

Bitmain AntMiner S1 is the best I've seen with the mining machine, it is stable, and the power consumption is very small. I like it very much.

[dogie]

This is bit of a stupid question, I want to replace the S2 PSU and I am thinking of getting "EVGA SuperNOVA G2 1300W"

http://www.evga.com/articles/00755/images/univ/1k_Mod_Face_lrg.jpg

My stupid question is would I be using the VGA ports and using the provided cable marked VGA (https://www.moddiy.com/product_images/uploaded_images/dual-6-2.jpg). Just want to be 100% sure before I plug anything.

Thanks

Yes you would, they're known as PCI-E cables.

[buckrogers]

so is there a solution to all the rejected rates peple are getting?

Is there a way to sort of staalize it to send more accepted shares that dont get rejected?

thanks!

[dogie]

so is there a solution to all the rejected rates peple are getting?

Is there a way to sort of staalize it to send more accepted shares that dont get rejected?

thanks!

Whats happening with yours? Upload a screenshot of status please.

[buckrogers]

so is there a solution to all the rejected rates peple are getting?

Is there a way to sort of staalize it to send more accepted shares that dont get rejected?

thanks!

Whats happening with yours? Upload a screenshot of status please.

Here are 2 screensshots, if you can figure out what I can do to get this improved that would be very helpful.

Thanks!

https://i.imgur.com/Jms9lGx.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/rLUKlly.jpg

[dogie]

so is there a solution to all the rejected rates peple are getting?

Is there a way to sort of staalize it to send more accepted shares that dont get rejected?

thanks!

Whats happening with yours? Upload a screenshot of status please.

Here are 2 screensshots, if you can figure out what I can do to get this improved that would be very helpful.

Thanks!

https://i.imgur.com/Jms9lGx.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/rLUKlly.jpg

Discarded is fine, those are difficulty ONE discard shares you're comparing against difficulty 1024 shares. Compare discards against DiffA.

[buckrogers]

So everything looks normal?  I just am not used to seeing so many discards and rejects compared to previous miners.

[buckrogers]

It still looks as if ~ 50% of all shares are lost? am i wrong?

[dogie]

It still looks as if ~ 50% of all shares are lost? am i wrong?

73,000 of 1,300,000 = 5%. Its just on slush's that its bad, its a bad pool.

[Soros Shorts]

Running a couple S2's in a hot basement. The Enermax power supplies would randomly shut down after several hours. I couldn't be bothered to buy AX1200i's so I just lowered the clock to 175 Mhz by changing /config/asic-freq.config.

Code:

  option   'freq_value'   '0681'  #175M
  option   'chip_freq'    '175'
  option   'timeout'      '40'

Getting 890 GH/s with around ~940W draw at the wall. Small price to pay for no more random shutdowns.

[freebit13]

Running a couple S2's in a hot basement. The Enermax power supplies would randomly shut down after several hours. I couldn't be bothered to buy AX1200i's so I just lowered the clock to 175 Mhz by changing /config/asic-freq.config.

Code:

  option   'freq_value'   '0681'  #175M
  option   'chip_freq'    '175'
  option   'timeout'      '40'

Getting 890 GH/s with around ~940W draw at the wall. Small price to pay for no more random shutdowns.

I'd suggest rather pulling a card, it still runs at 900GH/s... that way, you have one spare card per machine