ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[Real-Duke]

my s3s are on the 12/19 firmware and they are rock solid stable at 440ghs @ 218.75
its not a firmware problem.

Both S3 of mine running all on Firmware from 9th January..stable and the S3+ too
Picture from 1 S3:


1 S3+

[Mikestang]

My first S3+ should arrive any day, looking forward to it, woo!  I plan to factory reset it and flash with the latest firmware straight away, like I did with my S1.

As a hobby miner I love that I can pick up the older tech for a mere fraction of what it retailed new for.  Can't wait for the next gen to come out so that the used S5 price drops by 80%.

[vegasguy]

Anyone handy with fixing these. I just listed my 2Ths S4 on ebay starting at $49 (no reserve). Does need some sort of repair.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bitmain-Antminer-S4-BATCH-2-Bitcoin-Miner-2Th-s-SHA256-Mining-AS-IS-Power-on-/281651706290?

Vegas

[rva26]

Hello, I come to you because I 've realized a problem of hashrate on my S3 no more than 200GH/s
here is the screenshot


http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/827500antminer.png


Thank you in advance .

[soy]

Hello, I come to you because I 've realized a problem of hashrate on my S3 no more than 200GH/s
here is the screenshot





Thank you in advance .

You have power going to how many PCIE connectors?  Using all 4? only 2? only 1?  Plugged in closest to the RJ45 socket end?

[rva26]

Just two PCIE connectors plugged closest to the RJ45 and it normally runs for six months minimum, I just look 2 days ago the low hashrate. 

[MyRig]

Please try power it off, wait for 10-15 minutes then power it back on!

Hello, I come to you because I 've realized a problem of hashrate on my S3 no more than 200GH/s
here is the screenshot





Thank you in advance .

[Mikestang]

Just two PCIE connectors plugged closest to the RJ45 and it normally runs for six months minimum, I just look 2 days ago the low hashrate.  

Take a look at your screen shot, ASIC Status, one of your boards is dead, you're hashing with 1/2 an S3.

[soy]

Just two PCIE connectors plugged closest to the RJ45 and it normally runs for six months minimum, I just look 2 days ago the low hashrate.  

Take a look at your screen shot, ASIC Status, one of your boards is dead, you're hashing with 1/2 an S3.

I use all 4 PCIE connections and gather the three conductors of each polarity to 16 gauge copper stranded good for 15 amps.  Short a couple of connectors one time, I tried using only two PCIE and those conductors got warm.  So, you're moving a lot of current.

[rva26]

Just two PCIE connectors plugged closest to the RJ45 and it normally runs for six months minimum, I just look 2 days ago the low hashrate. 

Take a look at your screen shot, ASIC Status, one of your boards is dead, you're hashing with 1/2 an S3.

I use all 4 PCIE connections and gather the three conductors of each polarity to 16 gauge copper stranded good for 15 amps.  Short a couple of connectors one time, I tried using only two PCIE and those conductors got warm.  So, you're moving a lot of current.

Please try power it off, wait for 10-15 minutes then power it back on!

Hello, I come to you because I 've realized a problem of hashrate on my S3 no more than 200GH/s
here is the screenshot


http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/827500antminer.png


Thank you in advance .

I tried to plug 4 PCIE and turn off for 20 minutes, and i don't have any result.

[takagari]

I have an Ant S3+
That I can access, log into, but both boards will not come online.
No red LED's on the inside,
I've popped it open, cables look secure. No noticable issues on the boards. I can Web login, set my miner etc.


Anything I should look for? Is it cooked?

[takagari]

I have an Ant S3+
That I can access, log into, but both boards will not come online.
No red LED's on the inside,
I've popped it open, cables look secure. No noticable issues on the boards. I can Web login, set my miner etc.


Anything I should look for? Is it cooked?

Well, that was easy
I swapped the board with a control board that only had a single working blade, and boom online.

So I clearly had a bad controller.

Now to see what happens if I put it witht he one who had an offline blade

EDIT:
So yup, controller board is dead, have a bad board and a bad blade.

What does a new control board cost? does bitmain sell them?

[MyRig]

Bad control PCB can be send to USA or EU service center to be serviced for $25/25 Euro.  

if it is still 90-day warranty, simply send it back to the service center, if it is out of warranty, check with the center first via support@bitmain.zendesk.com

If it can be serviced, the replacement be send to you via postal service.

there is no more S3 or S4 parts available for sale.

I have an Ant S3+
That I can access, log into, but both boards will not come online.
No red LED's on the inside,
I've popped it open, cables look secure. No noticable issues on the boards. I can Web login, set my miner etc.


Anything I should look for? Is it cooked?

Well, that was easy
I swapped the board with a control board that only had a single working blade, and boom online.

So I clearly had a bad controller.

Now to see what happens if I put it witht he one who had an offline blade

EDIT:
So yup, controller board is dead, have a bad board and a bad blade.

What does a new control board cost? does bitmain sell them?

[soy]

I have an Ant S3+
That I can access, log into, but both boards will not come online.
No red LED's on the inside,
I've popped it open, cables look secure. No noticable issues on the boards. I can Web login, set my miner etc.


Anything I should look for? Is it cooked?

Well, that was easy
I swapped the board with a control board that only had a single working blade, and boom online.

So I clearly had a bad controller.

Now to see what happens if I put it witht he one who had an offline blade

EDIT:
So yup, controller board is dead, have a bad board and a bad blade.

What does a new control board cost? does bitmain sell them?

Return and repair takes some time.  I think I'd first check continuity between the ribbon cable pins and destinations.  Perhaps not all points can be seen.  Is it always the same side?  If you put a single board to the left (looking at the RJ45 port) does chain# 1 show working ASICs?  When you connect 2 boards which chain works? When you have a single board connected chain#1 is on the left.  When you have two boards connected chain#1 is on the right and chain #2 on the left.

Isolate specifically which ribbon cable connector to investigate first.

Also you can take the controller board out into bright sunshine and go over it with a dental pick looking for metal or solder balls that don't belong.

[soy]

My flux arrived so tomorrow while fresh I'll rip down my lousy S3#2, removing all four heatsinks, cleaning well, then hitting each solder point lightly to reflow the solder, well most of them anyway.  Won't touch the ASICs.  Reclean, reassemble and Bob's your uncle, hopefully.

[takagari]

I have an Ant S3+
That I can access, log into, but both boards will not come online.
No red LED's on the inside,
I've popped it open, cables look secure. No noticable issues on the boards. I can Web login, set my miner etc.


Anything I should look for? Is it cooked?

Well, that was easy
I swapped the board with a control board that only had a single working blade, and boom online.

So I clearly had a bad controller.

Now to see what happens if I put it witht he one who had an offline blade

EDIT:
So yup, controller board is dead, have a bad board and a bad blade.

What does a new control board cost? does bitmain sell them?

Return and repair takes some time.  I think I'd first check continuity between the ribbon cable pins and destinations.  Perhaps not all points can be seen.  Is it always the same side?  If you put a single board to the left (looking at the RJ45 port) does chain# 1 show working ASICs?  When you connect 2 boards which chain works? When you have a single board connected chain#1 is on the left.  When you have two boards connected chain#1 is on the right and chain #2 on the left.

Isolate specifically which ribbon cable connector to investigate first.

Also you can take the controller board out into bright sunshine and go over it with a dental pick looking for metal or solder balls that don't belong.

I do aircraft electrical repair, so I'm good at desnaging until I get to the circuits lol.
I move the board to another ant, new cables. No good.
So it's the board for sure, wish I new test points or what I was looking for. but I don't feel like poking around with a meter on a working board lol

[Mikestang]

Picked up a used S3+ from ebay, it was well taken care of.  I blew the dust out, fired it up, performed a factory reset, and then got it on my network.  It still had the original S3+ firmware, so I flashed to the January 2015 latest version, put in my pool info, and it's hashing away at 450+ gh.  Great little box, will let it run for a week or so and then play with overclocking.  My S1 is oc'd to 200gh with ~0.8% error rate, so I want to see what I can get out of the S3+ while keeping the error rate less than 0.9%.

[soy]

Just took the top off the 'new' bottle of liquid flux.  The foil seal is broken, there's flux removed, and there's crap around the inside top.  Bought from eio-electronicinventoryonline on ebay.
---------------------
This size smt is quite intimidating.  After reflowing the solder at the PCIE connectors I reflowed solder at the components top inside of the worse of the two hashboards.  This size is so difficult that I'm only going to reflow at the PCIE connectors on the other board, reassemble and test.  If something went bad from my reflowing then I want to know.  It seems a high probability that there may be current choking at one or more pins of the PCIE dropping the voltage so that's what I'll address on the second board.

-----------------------

Back up and running.  All ASICs are o's.   Both fans running.  Will see how it does on the hour for a few.

----------------------

I restarted both S3#2 and S3#1 at the same time to compare - although S3#1 started off all warmed up.  At 30 minutes it looks like my work on S3#2 was no help as it's down to 437.00 avg and dropping while S3#1 is 442.89.

Ran 45 minutes then hashrate had dropped to 420 and as it was on the half hour when I have cgminer-avg-monitor run, it restarted cgminer.

------------------------

Lesson learned: Only buy Bitcoin miners from the manufacturers except BFL.  One might luck out like I did with Cryptocrane but more likely you'll get somebody's castoff like from Pines in Florida.

[ToQcHista]

hi gusy 


probably your have s3 and i'm interested , What do you use? PSU for jumper ?


i that will do paper clip , i will be safety? don't will hot cables ?

[notlist3d]

probably your have s3 and i'm interested , What do you use? PSU for jumper ?

i that will do paper clip , i will be safety? don't will hot cables ?

I like to use gold PSU of a decent brand.  I have had good luck with the RM-1000 but I did run 2 S3s  on it; If only one S3 you dont need that many watts.

Yes you can use a paperclip to jump the PSU to start.  Main thing about "safety" is putting in right holes.  If worried you can buy a switch.

If cables get hot I would start looking if there is a problem as if they get to hot it can melt, this is most  common if you use a crappy Y PCIe splitter.