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

[dogie]

Sorry TracerX and Dogie.

I didn't mean to be rude - point taken though.  Just a bit frustrated with my S2.  I never imagined it would not solo mine. 

I have looked at bitsolo and solopool and am not sure of their validity.  There is nothing stopping the pool controller from keeping the bitcoins and to date, no one has found a block.  Of course, it does support everyone's argument that solo mining is a waste of time but I am perplexed that the cgminer running in the S2 BBB cannot be configured to solo mine my local Bitcoin-Qt.  Bitmain came back to me and said they are currently developing BFGminer to run on the S2.  Maybe we will have better success with that.

Anyways, if anyone is out there solo mining correctly with the S2, I would love to hear from you regarding how you got it configured.

Cheers

Google knows as much as we do on this topic, as its not something that we've ever done.

[RchGrav]

There is no reason the SD card problem would cause a breaker to trip

Of course it wouldn't... I was just reading how others corrupted their SD's when they cut power abruptly.

I replaced the PS, then the BBB Board wouldn't get a link light.. Then I replaced the BBB with one of my own from my personal stash.. and it linked up fine.

Then I put back the orig BBB (Because I wouldn't have a use for a partially populated BBB like the one in the miner.)  Luckily, it linked up once again and decided to work.

Anyway.. I'm hashing right along now.

I did notice something else while removing the boards however...  My boards have larger caps on them attached to the surface mount ones... but the solder is connecting to the cap right next to it on a few of them... maybe someone would know if this is a concern.



Regards,

Rich

[dogie]

Hmm. That cap looks like its just there to smooth something spikey, and the board could probably run without it anyway. I wouldn't worry about it.

[abracadabra]

There is no reason the SD card problem would cause a breaker to trip

Of course it wouldn't... I was just reading how others corrupted their SD's when they cut power abruptly.

I replaced the PS, then the BBB Board wouldn't get a link light.. Then I replaced the BBB with one of my own from my personal stash.. and it linked up fine.

Then I put back the orig BBB (Because I wouldn't have a use for a partially populated BBB like the one in the miner.)  Luckily, it linked up once again and decided to work.

Anyway.. I'm hashing right along now.

I did notice something else while removing the boards however...  My boards have larger caps on them attached to the surface mount ones... but the solder is connecting to the cap right next to it on a few of them... maybe someone would know if this is a concern.



Regards,

Rich

Isn't this the "fix" that bitmain recently released?

[TracerX]

There is no reason the SD card problem would cause a breaker to trip

Of course it wouldn't... I was just reading how others corrupted their SD's when they cut power abruptly.

I replaced the PS, then the BBB Board wouldn't get a link light.. Then I replaced the BBB with one of my own from my personal stash.. and it linked up fine.

Then I put back the orig BBB (Because I wouldn't have a use for a partially populated BBB like the one in the miner.)  Luckily, it linked up once again and decided to work.

Anyway.. I'm hashing right along now.

I did notice something else while removing the boards however...  My boards have larger caps on them attached to the surface mount ones... but the solder is connecting to the cap right next to it on a few of them... maybe someone would know if this is a concern.



Regards,

Rich

Isn't this the "fix" that bitmain recently released?

It appears to be, yes.  Have they stated what problem these extra caps address?

[abracadabra]

There is no reason the SD card problem would cause a breaker to trip

Of course it wouldn't... I was just reading how others corrupted their SD's when they cut power abruptly.

I replaced the PS, then the BBB Board wouldn't get a link light.. Then I replaced the BBB with one of my own from my personal stash.. and it linked up fine.

Then I put back the orig BBB (Because I wouldn't have a use for a partially populated BBB like the one in the miner.)  Luckily, it linked up once again and decided to work.

Anyway.. I'm hashing right along now.

I did notice something else while removing the boards however...  My boards have larger caps on them attached to the surface mount ones... but the solder is connecting to the cap right next to it on a few of them... maybe someone would know if this is a concern.



Regards,

Rich

Isn't this the "fix" that bitmain recently released?

It appears to be, yes.  Have they stated what problem these extra caps address?

Chips that go missing after a while

[RchGrav]

There is no reason the SD card problem would cause a breaker to trip

Of course it wouldn't... I was just reading how others corrupted their SD's when they cut power abruptly.

I replaced the PS, then the BBB Board wouldn't get a link light.. Then I replaced the BBB with one of my own from my personal stash.. and it linked up fine.

Then I put back the orig BBB (Because I wouldn't have a use for a partially populated BBB like the one in the miner.)  Luckily, it linked up once again and decided to work.

Anyway.. I'm hashing right along now.

I did notice something else while removing the boards however...  My boards have larger caps on them attached to the surface mount ones... but the solder is connecting to the cap right next to it on a few of them... maybe someone would know if this is a concern.



Regards,

Rich

Isn't this the "fix" that bitmain recently released?

It appears to be, yes.  Have they stated what problem these extra caps address?

Chips that go missing after a while

I tested with a meter.. these caps are sharing common pos/neg.  I also learned something that is going to make fixing power modules on busted frankenjup boards a whole lot easier now. +++

[RchGrav]

Hmm. That cap looks like its just there to smooth something spikey, and the board could probably run without it anyway. I wouldn't worry about it.

I was worried about the rework, not the cap, look closely at the solder..

Good to know its not a concern in either case.

[freebit13]

Epic post....

Hey InvalidSnack, thanks so much for the detailed post, again I've learned a lot from you. I'm a windoze user so I'm not so linux savvy and your tips help a lot. I'm pretty sure my problem was due to the Miner Config page as you mention, I was using the S1 'trick' of restarting cgminer by clicking save&apply... I guess that was messing things around.

I've not had a chance to fully test your method again, I need to do a little more cgminer research and I'm waiting for a new power board and PSU to be delivered today, so will concentrate on getting that all switched out an running before going back to load-balancing.

I did originally try the method of adding ["balance" : true,] in the cgminer.conf, but that didn't work for me...

Thanks again, you've been very helpful so far

[major job]

Well you have to start somewhere - it's time to stop lurking and pop the first post cherry
Dogie you're the mutts nuts, cheers.. learnt a ton! -  5 s1's down and now 3 s2's on there way. Thanks for the info guys!

[dogie]

Well you have to start somewhere - it's time to stop lurking and pop the first post cherry
Dogie you're the mutts nuts, cheers.. learnt a ton! -  5 s1's down and now 3 s2's on there way. Thanks for the info guys!

No problem, enjoy

[pepto]

I'm thinking of re-powering two or three  S2's with a mix of power supplies and  don't want to waste available amperage where it isn't needed. Of the the 5 pci-e connectors on the backplane, are they each equally power hungry or do only two or three of them really need most of the amperage? 

[dogie]

I'm thinking of re-powering two or three  S2's with a mix of power supplies and  don't want to waste available amperage where it isn't needed. Of the the 5 pci-e connectors on the backplane, are they each equally power hungry or do only two or three of them really need most of the amperage? 

Its impossible to know, my current clamp is broken. You also don't know that if you swap PCI-E cables about the loading will be the same.

[dropt]

I'm thinking of re-powering two or three  S2's with a mix of power supplies and  don't want to waste available amperage where it isn't needed. Of the the 5 pci-e connectors on the backplane, are they each equally power hungry or do only two or three of them really need most of the amperage? 

Its impossible to know, my current clamp is broken. You also don't know that if you swap PCI-E cables about the loading will be the same.

All of the PCI-E plugs are likely tied to the same planes so (theoretically anyways) the current draw should be equal across all of them.  One can check that they're soldered to the same planes by checking for continuity between plugs. 

[xstr8guy]

Personal question for Dogie. Who many miners are you running at home? You seem to have at least one of everything, lol. And since you need to keep up with questions regarding so many different machines, they must be in your home.

How are you coping with the heat, noise and electrical demands? One of your famous "how-to" threads with tips for home miners who are having problems with larger farms would be helpful. I'm sure you've dealt with many of these issues in your other threads but to have them in one place mighty be nice.

Cheers!

[audiotopix]

I recieved My S2 today and I was excited to get it running. I was very pleased with the speed of shipping, and intend to buy more however,,

as soon as I picked up the box I heard things moving around.

I opened the package, and removed the shroud and i found this




Looks like the screw on the right hand side went through the hole of the bracket and the blades came loose and jumbled around during shipment,,



so I removed the blades one by one.




I inspected each blade and all connections, and I found this on one blade


I put the S2 back together, hoping that even though the capacitor on that one blade is dented that it would still work,




I made sure all blades were seated properly, all connections were tight, and everything looked acceptable (except the one capacitor).

after being put 100% back together I connected the device to my network and turned it on.

It appeared to be normal, I navigated to 192.168.1.99 and logged in.

I entered my 3 pools, I changed the antminers gateway address to that of my router,

and left all other settings the same,, I have also upgraded the firmware sucessfully,,

however It doesnt mine, at all,, nothing,, on the miner status page all I see is this,



Any help would be much appreciated.

How should I proceed? I cannot seem to find any information online,

I have read the manual.

Please Help.

[dogie]

Screenshot of the config page please, and of the network config page.

[fresca]

I have exact same problem as audiotex.  I configured antminer with DHCP so the gateway field doesn't populate.  I have everything running by Hash is at Zero.

I had a cable unhooked on the board that I hooked back up again after adjusting the blades.  I am not able to find anything that is not connected.

I am able to ping bitmain, so it should be going through the router.

[dogie]

I have exact same problem as audiotex.  I configured antminer with DHCP so the gateway field doesn't populate.  I have everything running by Hash is at Zero.

I had a cable unhooked on the board that I hooked back up again after adjusting the blades.  I am not able to find anything that is not connected.

I am able to ping bitmain, so it should be going through the router.

Still need to see a screenshot.

[fresca]

This is the network setting.