Fixing Avalon and other miners because people keep sending them in... :-)

[lightfoot]

Hello all!

I'm Lightfoot, and this is my thread for fixing general miner problems with bitcoin miners.

I started with Jalapenos, then went to fixing Monarchs, Neptunes, have been enjoying a good run with KNC Titans and now I'm branching out into fixing other types of miners. Mainly because people have them, they need fixing, and I enjoy working for bitcoins and litecoins. Go figure.

Anyway, this thread will be similar to my other threads where I fix KNC stuff and the like. Same rules apply: I get stuff to fix, I post what I do, what I learn, and charge for my time and expertise to repair. The classic information is free, experience is rewarded thing.

As for myself, I have been fixing miners for about 4 years now and have gotten pretty good at it. Truth be told there are only so many ways to build a miner, and I've been able to troubleshoot a lot of problems without the help of things like schematics, vendor help, and the like. Not that I would refuse it, if a vendor wanted me to help I would be happy to, I just would write what works so other people can fix things too.

I have air tools, SMD rework tools and the almighty board pre-heater. Seriously if you want to fix PC board get a good pre-heater even if you're using a soldering iron. They warm the board up, allow the solder to properly flow, facilitate taking off components with ease, and most importantly allow you to reduce the temps on your iron which keeps the board from getting burned/traces lifted. There's no feeling quite like opening someone's miner to find that someone else took a blowtorch to the inside.

Anyway, on with the thread. Unlike my ones about KNC Titans and Neptunes, this will cover general bitcoin miners. If you have a question feel free to post. We'll start with an Avalon A6 which came in with toasted power plugs....

Lightfoot Labs

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[lightfoot]

Reserved for technical things.

Currently I can fix the following things:

Most problems with KNC Neptunes and Titans
Power and cooling issues with Monarchs
Burned power plugs on Avalon 6 and 7 miners
Burned power plugs on just about anything
Working on MAT miners (weird things)

Open to working on other systems as presented.

[lightfoot]

Reserved for announcements and the like.

[Flying Hellfish]

With all the screwed up S9's out there you should see if some folks could "donate" some fucked up boards to you for diagnostics/analysis.

S9's are likely to be king of the hill for another while yet.  If a fellow like yourself could find a way to bring some of those boards back to life I think you might just have a pretty decent client base.

Or maybe the S9's boards can't be brought back to life?

Either way I know you've been around here for a while now so good luck!

[Unacceptable]

Lightfoot has been around for quite awhile & is REALLY good at fixin miners!!!

He's got my trust!!! 

Too bad I'm into GPUs now,those 3 year warranties rock!! 

Best of Luck Lightfoot!!!!! 

[lightfoot]

Thanks guys! Meantime here's my first project in pictures, repairing a burned A6.



Board is out and on the pre-heater. Very important to pre-heat.


Old plugs are off and holes cleared of solder.


All done with new plugs installed. Should be good as new.

[truckinusa]

Where did you get the preheater?  I need something like that for a small surfacemount project.

[lightfoot]

Where did you get the preheater?  I need something like that for a small surfacemount project.

Ebay. Mine is an Aoyue 853a, I've thought about getting the ++ with the remote temp sensor but to be honest I just use a $30 Home Depot IR temp sensor to measure board temps. It's simple, cheap, small, and a little God when it comes to getting things working.

IR lamp ones are far more expensive but can heat the board quicker. I just grab a beer for 5 mins.

C

[lightfoot]

With all the screwed up S9's out there you should see if some folks could "donate" some fucked up boards to you for diagnostics/analysis.

S9's are likely to be king of the hill for another while yet.  If a fellow like yourself could find a way to bring some of those boards back to life I think you might just have a pretty decent client base.

Shouldn't be too hard. I know Antminer likes to chain their signal lines through the chips, either a source of chips or a single dead A9 should provide plenty of them and swapping those QFN type chips is no different from working on the TMS series power controller chips on the Titan boards.

That and power plugs are usually what blow these days. Plugs are fixable if you have the right tools. :-)

If you know someone who wants me to take a look point them to the thread. I'm going to be working on some S7's pretty soon, will see how those work out.

Thanks!
C