Dead BitAxe Gamma 601 : Chips found = 0

[Nexus9090]

Oh Well,

Another one bites the dust. Guess I'll be reworking that this week then!

Chips found = 0


Out of the 7 BitAxes I've owned that's 5 of them that have gone with dead ASIC's


Not exactly a shining example of reliability that's for sure.

I think its biggest failing is the poor heat sink mount which is almost certainly what killed this one off.

Anyone else finding the same issues with BitAxes?

[philipma1957]

yeah the heatsinks wobble basically the worst issue is they should have gone with 4 hole heatsinks and pcb  boards

[FP91G]

Have you tried any of these?
https://solomining.de/en/products/pimp-my-bitaxe-upgrade-kit

Here we discuss cooler models that can be installed after modification instead of the stock cooling system.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bitaxeworldwide/posts/1840995093182969/

Is your chip dead or do you have a problem with the contacts between the chip and the board?

[Nexus9090]

yeah the heatsinks wobble basically the worst issue is they should have gone with 4 hole heatsinks and pcb  boards

Yes, indeed poor co-planarity with the ASIC. This one the fixing pin failed completely snapped clean off and of course I didn't notice when I moved it so within a few hours it was game over.

Thankfully I've got a few spare BM1370's so I should be able to repair it.

[Nexus9090]

Have you tried any of these?
https://solomining.de/en/products/pimp-my-bitaxe-upgrade-kit

Here we discuss cooler models that can be installed after modification instead of the stock cooling system.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bitaxeworldwide/posts/1840995093182969/

Is your chip dead or do you have a problem with the contacts between the chip and the board?

The chip is dead. I've already tried re-flowing it. Unfortunately the heat sink mount failed and I didn't notice until it was too late.

I cant access solomining.de it gets flagged as a scam site and facebook is blocked by my system.

Anyway, I have a suitable replacement heat sink that I bought ages ago, I just never got around to fitting it.

Thanks for the links anyway.

[victor-uniform-solo]

...
Out of the 7 BitAxes I've owned that's 5 of them that have gone with dead ASIC's...

Damn, 5 of 7 dead sounds terrifying.

History check reveals you are in since apr-2025 ... my 3 months older units still works, knock on wood.
Could you please share more details about the other fails. All were mechanical issue like this mount?

Great you have "few spare BM1370's" ... sounds like serious mining operation going on  
I guess pro miner like you kept them in good condition/environment so dust clog was not the issue but what about overclocking. Any experiments, pushing the limits?

[Nexus9090]

...
Out of the 7 BitAxes I've owned that's 5 of them that have gone with dead ASIC's...

Damn, 5 of 7 dead sounds terrifying.

History check reveals you are in since apr-2025 ... my 3 months older units still works, knock on wood.
Could you please share more details about the other fails. All were mechanical issue like this mount?

Great you have "few spare BM1370's" ... sounds like serious mining operation going on  
I guess pro miner like you kept them in good condition/environment so dust clog was not the issue but what about overclocking. Any experiments, pushing the limits?

No overclocking to speak of I run all of them at 625MHz and around 1.14V-1.18V some variation on that from device to device which nets around 1.2TH/s

I've bought them from various vendors, Zeus BTC, Aliexpress & Ebay.

The build quality has been really hit and miss. The one I bough from Zeus had the best build quality of the lot it was branded BitSoloPlayer who also have an Aliexpress store.

I think all of the failures have been heatsink related.

The mounting pegs just give up after a while and either pull through the board loosing grip and reducing contact with the ASIC or in the last case it snapped clean break on the back of the board so wasn't visible

I've manage to repair all of them and its always been a dead ASIC.

[philipma1957]

its a shame

a 4 hole heatsink

with a 4 hole pcb board

and 4 nylon bolts, washers,nuts

done and good.



look how cheap they are

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B17JHRKV/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?

the kit above has

20x m3 by 12 mm
20x m3 by 15 mm
20x m3 by 20 mm
20x m3 by 25 mm

bolts
and 140x washers and nuts

all would be long enough so 80x would do 20 miners

with your m3 x 6mm
with your m3 x 8mm
with your m3 x 10mm left over


so $8.99 usd to do 20 miners

or 45 cents a miner

when I see this I get enraged at the manufacturers . 

which is why I tell people buy 1 unit no more.

[Nexus9090]

its a shame

a 4 hole heatsink

with a 4 hole pcb board

and 4 nylon bolts, washers,nuts

done and good.



look how cheap they are

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B17JHRKV/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?

the kit above has

20x m3 by 12 mm
20x m3 by 15 mm
20x m3 by 20 mm
20x m3 by 25 mm

bolts
and 140x washers and nuts

all would be long enough so 80x would do 20 miners

with your m3 x 6mm
with your m3 x 8mm
with your m3 x 10mm left over


so $8.99 usd to do 20 miners

or 45 cents a miner

when I see this I get enraged at the manufacturers .  

which is why I tell people buy 1 unit no more.

Yes, its a major design flaw for certain. Just cheaping out on the part that's probably the most important.

To be honest, I wish I'd replaced all the heatsinks from the get-go, but they were working and stable right up until they weren't. So in that respect its my own fault.
 

There's a nice one from thermalright but they're a bit on the pricey side. £35 each probably cheaper if you shop around a bit.

[philipma1957]

its a shame

a 4 hole heatsink

with a 4 hole pcb board

and 4 nylon bolts, washers,nuts

done and good.



look how cheap they are

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B17JHRKV/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?

the kit above has

20x m3 by 12 mm
20x m3 by 15 mm
20x m3 by 20 mm
20x m3 by 25 mm

bolts
and 140x washers and nuts

all would be long enough so 80x would do 20 miners

with your m3 x 6mm
with your m3 x 8mm
with your m3 x 10mm left over


so $8.99 usd to do 20 miners

or 45 cents a miner

when I see this I get enraged at the manufacturers .  

which is why I tell people buy 1 unit no more.

Yes, its a major design flaw for certain. Just cheaping out on the part that's probably the most important.

To be honest, I wish I'd replaced all the heatsinks from the get-go, but they were working and stable right up until they weren't. So in that respect its my own fault.
 

There's a nice one from thermalright but they're a bit on the pricey side. £35 each probably cheaper if you shop around a bit.

I don't like to beat a dead horse but this one I will beat on some more. As it was so simple to do it correctly.

You have solder skills and can repair for 75% of the buyers it turns into a brick and a lot of them just say fuck btc its a rip off.

I truly would like to thrash not trash the builders that did them wrong.

[victor-uniform-solo]

...
Out of the 7 BitAxes I've owned that's 5 of them that have gone with dead ASIC's...

Damn, 5 of 7 dead sounds terrifying.

History check reveals you are in since apr-2025 ... my 3 months older units still works, knock on wood.
Could you please share more details about the other fails. All were mechanical issue like this mount?

Great you have "few spare BM1370's" ... sounds like serious mining operation going on  
I guess pro miner like you kept them in good condition/environment so dust clog was not the issue but what about overclocking. Any experiments, pushing the limits?

No overclocking to speak of I run all of them at 625MHz and around 1.14V-1.18V some variation on that from device to device which nets around 1.2TH/s

I've bought them from various vendors, Zeus BTC, Aliexpress & Ebay.

The build quality has been really hit and miss. The one I bough from Zeus had the best build quality of the lot it was branded BitSoloPlayer who also have an Aliexpress store.

I think all of the failures have been heatsink related.

The mounting pegs just give up after a while and either pull through the board loosing grip and reducing contact with the ASIC or in the last case it snapped clean break on the back of the board so wasn't visible

I've manage to repair all of them and its always been a dead ASIC.

Great info, thanks.

I'm trying to keep low fan so currently at 490Mhz / 1.1V  (almost 1TH/s)  ... in winter I was around 1.2TH/s

Probably will have to go even lower than 1TH/s  ... OR ... I'll start looking for better heatsink.

[Nexus9090]

-SNIP-
I don't like to beat a dead horse but this one I will beat on some more. As it was so simple to do it correctly.

You have solder skills and can repair for 75% of the buyers it turns into a brick and a lot of them just say fuck btc its a rip off.

I truly would like to thrash not trash the builders that did them wrong.

I totally agree, for the average user once its bricked that's the end of the road and the BitAxe just becomes a paperweight, recycling or landfill.

All for the sake of doing the job properly in the first place. Lets face it a good heatsink for this design was a must. But so many chose to build with the crappiest junk they could find.

Truth is I had exactly the same experience with Gekko Science Compac F USB sticks when I first got involved with mining BTC. They all died one after another until I was left with nothing.


So, I eventually designed and built my own based on BM1397 and BM1362

This is just a 3D rendering:-



And the final product


As you can see I went overkill with the heatsink design and mounting. 120mm CPU heatsink and a solid aluminium mount for the heatsink.

These have served me well but they're just no longer efficient enough which is why I ended up replacing all of it with NerdOctAxes.

But let me say this, again with the NerdOctAxes, the thermal management is a total failure.

The reported temperatures aren't the actual ASIC temperature, but a close approximation based on the PCB temperature from a sensor located 10mm or more away from the actual ASIC chips.

Having discovered this the only sensible thing to do was set the fan speed to maximum and prey to the gods of BTC that the fan mount an thermal paste doesn't give up.

[Nexus9090]

...
Out of the 7 BitAxes I've owned that's 5 of them that have gone with dead ASIC's...

Damn, 5 of 7 dead sounds terrifying.

History check reveals you are in since apr-2025 ... my 3 months older units still works, knock on wood.
Could you please share more details about the other fails. All were mechanical issue like this mount?

Great you have "few spare BM1370's" ... sounds like serious mining operation going on  
I guess pro miner like you kept them in good condition/environment so dust clog was not the issue but what about overclocking. Any experiments, pushing the limits?

No overclocking to speak of I run all of them at 625MHz and around 1.14V-1.18V some variation on that from device to device which nets around 1.2TH/s

I've bought them from various vendors, Zeus BTC, Aliexpress & Ebay.

The build quality has been really hit and miss. The one I bough from Zeus had the best build quality of the lot it was branded BitSoloPlayer who also have an Aliexpress store.

I think all of the failures have been heatsink related.

The mounting pegs just give up after a while and either pull through the board loosing grip and reducing contact with the ASIC or in the last case it snapped clean break on the back of the board so wasn't visible

I've manage to repair all of them and its always been a dead ASIC.

Great info, thanks.

I'm trying to keep low fan so currently at 490Mhz / 1.1V  (almost 1TH/s)  ... in winter I was around 1.2TH/s

Probably will have to go even lower than 1TH/s  ... OR ... I'll start looking for better heatsink.

The Thermalright heatsink looks good, given its heat pipe structure its going to be actively cooling the ASIC instead of passively cooling, so it'll definitely be better than all the rest and the mounting looks sensible on it as well.

Once I repair the remaining BitAxe board I have I think I'll invest in one of these then I shouldn't have to worry about it breaking down again.

Its pricey but probably worth it if you want the thing to last forever.