Braiins OS+ support thread

[Artemis3]

What people also build is a device that disconnects the fan for a few seconds via a relay. It switches to a dummy fan adaptor for some seconds after start and then switches back to the fan, when the miner is up and running. Sadly this is not commercially available as far as I know.

Here you can find some more tips: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5436532.msg61644308#msg61644308

Hmm you can do that without the dummy with Braiins OS. Just enable immersion mode.

Also remember to edit your first post, miner doesn't stop hashing at Hot, it does at Dangerous.

[MrMik]

I got BraiinsOS+ going on an S9J miner, running from SD card.

Installation was very easy and it runs without the stock fans connected. That's nice because I have an external large fan to suck air through the miner.
However, I wonder why there is no warning, because the temperature control mode is still set to 'Automatic'.

I'm wondering how to set the correct values for temperatures. Looking at this page https://support.bitmain.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020079754-S9j-Specifications ,
what does 'Chip temperature: 95C' mean?   Is that a maximum to avoid or a target to achieve? When I was running the miner with it's stock fans, the chip temperatures remained in the 62-65C range, but that was in low power mode.

And in general for the BraiinsOS+ configuration page: Is 'Target temperature' meant to be reached (for efficiency or whatever) from above or from below that temperature?

[Artemis3]

The default values are correct. Bitmain changed the way S9 reports temperatures around 2017, basically subtracting 15°. The oldest firmware reports temperatures exactly the same as Braiins OS: as the sensors send it.

What warning? If it reaches hot fans go 100%, if it reaches Dangerous hashing stops. You can change them if you wish.

In the Bitmain specs the max chip temp is written as 135°C. Someone mentioned that factory fw stops hashing at 130°C. Braiins OS is far more conservative by default.

The default requires 1 fan plugged, if won't hash until you enable "Immersion mode" which means minimum fans required: 0, and nothing else.

[MrMik]

The default values are correct. Bitmain changed the way S9 reports temperatures around 2017, basically subtracting 15°. The oldest firmware reports temperatures exactly the same as Braiins OS: as the sensors send it.

What warning? If it reaches hot fans go 100%, if it reaches Dangerous hashing stops. You can change them if you wish.

In the Bitmain specs the max chip temp is written as 135°C. Someone mentioned that factory fw stops hashing at 130°C. Braiins OS is far more conservative by default.

The default requires 1 fan plugged, if won't hash until you enable "Immersion mode" which means minimum fans required: 0, and nothing else.

Thanks for the explanations!

Very interesting to watch the auto-tuning in progress. Takes quite a while!

I notice particularly that one of the 2 connected hashboards (1 of the 3 is cactus and not connected) always had a higher chip temperature than the other one, but after about 8hrs of tuning the chip temperatures are now even.

After tuning is complete, I'm getting 11.2TH/s, that would be 11.2TH/s / 2 ×3 = 16.8TH/s from a 14.5TH/s spec miner. A 15.8% increase.

Estimated efficiency as per BraiinsOS+ is 96W/THs, and the measured efficiency at the wall (including PSU and 8'' Phresh fan and ethernet hub thingamabob) is 1062W/11.2THs = 94.8J/THs.

Regarding the 'missing warning', I meant this: I powered up the (2/3rd) S9J without it's stock fans, with the brand new BrainsOS+ SD card and cooled by a Phresh 8'' ducted fan (with manual control dial to adjust the speed). BraiinsOS+ had no way of knowing that a big manually controlled fan was taking care of cooling, and the 'Enable Immersion Mode' was not ticked, but it did not warn something might be wrong. It did however show Fan Monitor 0% 0% 0% 0%
I have since ticked the 'Enable Immersion Cooling' box and now the non-existent fans are shown in Fan Monitor as '100% 100% 100% 100%'.

Questions:
1) Does it matter if I manually adjust the fan speed during the tuning process, or if the air intake temperature fluctuates? It seemed that setting the 'Enable Dynamic Power Scaling' caused trouble. Because I did not realise that cooling requirements do fluctuate so much during tuning, and because I was trying to keep the noise low, the power reduction got triggered a few times by reaching the 'Hot 100C' temperature. Then I turned 'Dynamic Power Scaling' off and tuning appeared to progress more orderly.

2) Can the results of the auto-tuning be stored and then implemented quickly after a restart, or must it go through the whole tuning process every time? I ask because I plan to run comparatively inefficient miners like this one on 'free/stranded' electricity from solar panels. The miners will need to turn on and off frequently, or maybe ramp up and down their power use depending on SOC of solar battery, strength of solar irradiation and grid feed-in tarrifs, or when max allowed feed-in power is reached.

3) Will it make a difference to the tuning results (or to the tuning time requirements) what 'PSU Power Limit (for all hashboards)' I set? I am using a HELA 2050 Platinum PSU (up to 2KW) and I noticed that the auto-tuning starts at different power levels and frequencies when I set different PSU Power Limits.

4) What is the best / fastest / most efficient way to find the most efficient J/THs setting?

5) What is the best way to find the lowest possible power setting for a miner?

[MrMik]

Questions:
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...
2) Can the results of the auto-tuning be stored and then implemented quickly after a restart, or must it go through the whole tuning process every time? I ask because I plan to run comparatively inefficient miners like this one on 'free/stranded' electricity from solar panels. The miners will need to turn on and off frequently, or maybe ramp up and down their power use depending on SOC of solar battery, strength of solar irradiation and grid feed-in tarrifs, or when max allowed feed-in power is reached.

Rebooting the S9J with SD card with BraiinsOS+ in it has answered this question. Very neat!

[Artemis3]

0) Like i said, it won't hash. It leaves the red led on, and the log shows the error "0 < 1 fans... blah blah" What more warnings you need?
1) For S9 it doesn't matter much, The S19 chips are much more sensitive to temperature fluctuations. DPS is optional but you should keep the target temperature (or less) at all times. Of course it should trigger if you fail to keep the miner cool, that's its purpose. The S9 family does not scale back up on its own even if temperature improves, it needs a bosminer restart (can be scheduled).
2) Its saved and reused as long as chips perform properly, chip performance is monitored 24/7. Sometimes a power fluctuation will make them misbehave and a full autotuning process may be invoked again.
3) Of course, that's the whole point of setting the power target. Each hashboard gets 1/3 of this value.
4) The autotuning will find it according to the power target specified. Each miner is unique and will give slightly different results.
5) Best user shared result was at 825W (set to 900) 60°C chip temp. Next best 1142W (set to 1150) 89°C. S9j 14.5 and S9i 14 gives the best results.

With S17 i have seen results as low as 29 J/T, S19 pro 25 J/T and S19j pro as low as 20 J/T (measured at the wall).
Note: S9 = 16nm, S17, S19 Pro 7nm, S19j Pro 5nm.

Rough average is 20% efficiency increase (meaning, use 20% less power at factory hashrates), usually more efficiency with lower power targets but it depends in the specific miner itself and chip temperature. No two hash boards have identical chips and only Braiins OS+ can find the most efficient result which is why its autotuning process is so involved unlike other wannabe imitations that not only use shortcuts that are suboptimal for the specific miner, they just "tune" and forget; without any care if the miner breaks later...

[MrMik]

0) Like i said, it won't hash. It leaves the red led on, and the log shows the error "0 < 1 fans... blah blah" What more warnings you need?
...
...

That's the issue: I did hash (on first run, no fans connected except the big one that BraiinsOS+ does not 'know' about). I will try this again with a new / repurposed SD card at some stage. Please let me know how exactly you would like me to test it if you think it depends on something or another. It looks like BraiinsOS+ was/is ignoring that 'Enable Immersion Mode' is not selected on first run.

I would like to 'build a library' of settings'. What is the best way to do that?

BraiinsOS+ is very good at optimising hashrate, but I would like to be able to turn on different optimised setting quickly.

For example:

"Minimum noise' cause I'll be sitting next to the miner for some hours today".
"Maximum Hashrate, I have free electricity toady".
"Maximum Efficiency"

Questions:
My assumption is at this stage that BraiinsOS+ will only remember the most recent completed tuning result, is that correct?
Would it be the easiest method to etch a number of SD cards and then run the auto tuning process for the desired (and previously tested) setting on each SD card? Then label the cards and put in the one I want?
Do I remember correctly that the SD card must be 16GB?

[womanderful]

Hi,

I'm thinking about getting hold of a miner supported by Braiins OS+ and use it to mine bitcoin using solar excess power. Summer is coming to the north hemisphere 🌞

From what I can gather in docs.braiins.com, I can edit /etc/bosminer.toml and set psu_power_limit to limit the amount of power that the miner will use. IIUC, this allows me to say "ok, I have 3000 watts available and am using 1500 at home, so I can divert 1500 to the miner", then set "psu_power_limit = 1500" and maybe restart something.

Is the above correct?

If it is, what's the minimum step that psu_power_limit accepts? Can I set it to eg. 258 watts? Or do I need to jump from 100 to 150? Or jump from 100 to 200?

[Artemis3]

That's the issue: I did hash (on first run, no fans connected except the big one that BraiinsOS+ does not 'know' about). I will try this again with a new / repurposed SD card at some stage. Please let me know how exactly you would like me to test it if you think it depends on something or another. It looks like BraiinsOS+ was/is ignoring that 'Enable Immersion Mode' is not selected on first run.

I would like to 'build a library' of settings'. What is the best way to do that?

BraiinsOS+ is very good at optimising hashrate, but I would like to be able to turn on different optimised setting quickly.

For example:

"Minimum noise' cause I'll be sitting next to the miner for some hours today".
"Maximum Hashrate, I have free electricity toady".
"Maximum Efficiency"

Questions:
My assumption is at this stage that BraiinsOS+ will only remember the most recent completed tuning result, is that correct?
Would it be the easiest method to etch a number of SD cards and then run the auto tuning process for the desired (and previously tested) setting on each SD card? Then label the cards and put in the one I want?
Do I remember correctly that the SD card must be 16GB?

The default configuration is minimum required fans 1, as long as you have 1 fan or spoofer plugged, it will hash unless it overheats and stops due to reaching Dangerous temperature.

It will save all the profiles. So you can tune it for low power, and when stable, switch back to the default quickly, and to the low power quickly.

No, because every miner is slightly different, main reason autotune by Braiins OS+ is unique while others take shortcuts which are not as efficient or adapt to your real chip situation in real time 24/7.

16g is what the manufacturer says. I presume it may work with 32gb as long as its sdhc and NOT sdxc, but smaller sizes are safer.


womanderful: Yes that's the general idea, and the steps are 1 watt. But you should double check by measuring at the wall, since its only an estimation, and in the case of the x19 family, higher chip temperature will make it use more power while producing the same hashrate. Min and max values depend on miner model / submodel / variant. You can also just disable one or two hashboards (each hashboard gets 1/3 if this value). Or you could just pause the mining completely and resume hashing later.

Support has vastly increased compared to previous versions, at least using the bbb or Zynq control boards, almost all x19 should work now, except the jpro+ because that's too recent, or the S19i and S19+ from being too rare.

[MrMik]

...
The default configuration is minimum required fans 1, as long as you have 1 fan or spoofer plugged, it will hash unless it overheats and stops due to reaching Dangerous temperature.

It will save all the profiles. So you can tune it for low power, and when stable, switch back to the default quickly, and to the low power quickly.
...
...

But mine did hash without any fan or spoofer attached. Anyway, I'll test that again one day when I have a suitable SD card and spare time.

The saving of all profiles is great, the software works really well!

My beat up old S9J with 2 hashboards and a 2050W new PSU and 200mm Phresh fan gets to a peak efficiency of 73-74J/Th when set to 900W (measured at the wall including PSU, fan and WiFi extender). I have not tried it in 50W steps yet, but both 800W and 1000W settings use more J/TH than 900W, so it's close to ideal.

It is also very quiet at that 900W setting, the Phresh fan needs to run at only 25% (rough estimate) to keep the chips at 85C in 29C air temperature.

Why is it that the power setting does not get reached? When I set 1000W, it settles at 683/1000W etc. Always a bit more than 2/3rd of what I set in the 'PSU Power Limit (for all hashboards)'.
Is it because I have only 2 hashboards connected? The "Override Global Hash Chain Configuration' is set to enable only Hashboard #6 and #7.

Edit: Another question: Is support for any Innosilicon miners coming in BOS+?

[Artemis3]

It is because the hashboards each get 1/3 of the value. So 900/3*2=600.
Innosilicon not at this point.

[MrMik]

What does it mean on the BraiinsOS+ page under "Choose Miner" where it lists "Antminer X19" ?

Do you mean it includes all S19 and T19 models?

[Artemis3]

Yes.

[slurfius]

what control board works with the xp? thinking about swapping my amlogic...

[Artemis3]

The current public release has micro sd images for Zynq and BeagleBone. They run directly from the sd card, nothing is ever written to the nand or eeprom. Insert the card and it runs Braiins OS, remove the card and it boots factory firmware.

[MrMik]

Is there a thread or page where BraiinsOS+ tuning results are collected?

I'm wondering what results to expect, just roughly, for certain miners, to help decide which ones to buy.

Specifically, I would like to know:

- what is the lowest hashrate or power level that the miner was able to be tuned to?
- what is the best J/TH efficiency that has been achieved?
- what is the highest hashrate that has been achieved?

In case there is no such page, at the moment I'm interested specifically in results for an Antminer S19 90TH/s.

[Artemis3]

No, i collect them myself from people willing to share their results.

I am currently waiting for 23.02 results since the tuner and hardware support has vastly improved.

If you want to provide your own results, send me a dm with: Miner model, Real Hashrate, watts measured at the wall, chip temperature (Tuner Status: Stable)
I'm always sharing this file in our telegram group.

Your questions are basically answered this way: It depends on your own miner and conditions. We don't take shortcuts, pre-made profiles can only provide average results at best. True autotuning will find the best result within the target you specify for your own miner in your own place at any given time, and now without hashboard restarts or significant loss of hashrate during tuning.

Even better efficiency is observed using a lower power target and while having constant chip temperature of about 60°C or less.

If you read my previous messages in this thread, you can find out the best previous results. Miners with the highest factory rating tend to be more efficient.

For example I have an old result from a jpro 92T doing 22.1J at 74TH 40°C. Same miner did 29.5J at 110TH 69°C. Does it mean yours will do the same? Not necessarily, again it truly depends in your actual chips, the so called "silicon lottery" put in your hashboards by the manufacturer.

Only Braiins OS+ finds and achieves the very best your own miner can achieve, accept no imitations.

[MrMik]

What does it mean on the BraiinsOS+ page under "Choose Miner" where it lists "Antminer X19" ?

Do you mean it includes all S19 and T19 models?

Thanks for your 'Yes' reply earlier!

However, I have another related question which may seem redundant, but I want to be certain a miner will run on BraiinsOS+ before buying it:

I am looking at an Antminer S19 with this sticker: " Ctrl_Board: Amlogic "

Is that control board going to be a problem?

EDIT: I think I found the answer: " does not have an SD card slot, only a microUSB " from https://braiins.com/blog/bitcoin-mining-control-board-variations

I suppose that still means no BraiinsOS+ for such a miner?

When shopping around for a miner, how best can I get a reliable answer from a potentially clueless vendor to figure out if the miner has a zynq or a BBB or a Amlogic control board?

And how could it be verified, eg is there an easy way to take a photo that shows a relevant part of the control board, so that even an uninformed vendor could show me a photo that answers if it is a BBB or a Amlogic board?

The external SD card slot is easy enough to verify the zinq variant.

[slurfius]

what control board works with the xp? thinking about swapping my amlogic...

C87 doesn’t work with my 141 xp

[Artemis3]

Wait for the next release, or try with a BeagleBone. The Zynq image is currently supporting a few less variants.

When shopping around for a miner, how best can I get a reliable answer from a potentially clueless vendor to figure out if the miner has a zynq or a BBB or a Amlogic control board?

And how could it be verified, eg is there an easy way to take a photo that shows a relevant part of the control board, so that even an uninformed vendor could show me a photo that answers if it is a BBB or a Amlogic board?

The external SD card slot is easy enough to verify the zinq variant.

There is a new control board which is under study, it also comes with a microSD slot in the front, so no, it is not a safe method.
There will be an announcement about AmLogic, you should keep them. Only the aml has the usb port so its still easy to recognize from the outside. And only the bbb has no port at all, its also easy to recognize from the outside.

If it has a microSD slot, then hopefully it has a sticker with Zynq/Xilinx/7007 on top. Else you need to remove the metal cover and see for yourself.