ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[Duce]

you are being blocked to ck.kolivas.org or ck.kolivas.org is not resolving
do
nslookup ck.kolivas.org

Name:    reaver.kolivas.org
Address:  193.19.136.183
Aliases:  ck.kolivas.org

and do
ping 193.19.136.183

That worked with terminal before I logged into one of the ants but once in the ant I tried again this time it came back with the 127.0.0.0, local bitcoind, not sure why it resolved to this. I can download the file so I guess I will just need to go about this a different way. Thank you for the quick reply.

does
nslookup cnn.com
resolve to cnn or localhost? Seems something is messing with your dns resolution on the ants
you can always bypass that by adding to the ants hosts file
193.19.136.183 ck.kolivas.org

/etc/hosts

Exactly what dawned on me this morning. I recently changed routers so I need to change the DNS on the ants. Since I am on a private node this has not raised it's head yet. Truly appreciate the support.

[eoakland]

UPDATE:

After receiving my RMA replacement PCB i noticed it had a burnt spot, and that when powered on it would make the fans spin at 3000!  Bitmain said that the pcb was in perfect condition---well, i woke up today and that chain 2 pcb is dead.  i noticed my rewards halved in my pool, so i checked the s3.  it indicated it was hashing at 200 gh/s and had X's in web ui for chain 2.  i rebooted, and chain 2 disappeared. 

i am very disappointed with Bitmain and the quality control that is going on.  i pointed this out to them immediately after receiving the replacement.  i have lost way too much time not being able to mine because of a faulty control card, then a bad chain 2, now a chain 2 that is completely dead.  there is no way in the world i can hit a ROI.  i have asked Bitmain to either send me a new s3 that works as new (what i paid for initially) or to refund my order. 

so today i sent them pictures and a video of my device hashing with both chains plugged in to verify.

i will keep all posted. 

[Count_Frackula]

any ideas if updating my S3 would improve my GH/s vs watts?...

My current measurements are:

Freq   Gh/s   Watts
*********************

100   200   166

150   300   250

200   400   336

218.75   427   350

225   450   389

250   500   450

The watts per GH/s all seems a little on the high side.

l purchased my S3 secondhand and believe it's a first generation model
and has never been updated...  also are there any thoughts about undervolting
the S3. l note from the BM1382 datasheet reducing supply volts by just 0.05v reduces
consumption by 25%+ without affecting the hash rate.

Are your measurements from the wall?  If so, they seem within tolerance, assuming you have 90% efficient PSU.

Freq      Gh/s   Watts   Expected from wall (Gh/s*.78*1.1)
************************************************
100      200   166      171.6
150      300   250      257.4
200      400   336      343.2
218.75   427   350      366.366
225      450   389      386.1
250      500   450      429

[marklyon]

Anyone have experience with fan replacement on their S3?  I have "free" power in my apartment, making the location attractive to use, but my wife is not happy with the amount of noise generated by my pair of S3's. 

I'm having trouble locating actual specs on the stock fans in order to find an equivalent (but quieter) replacement.

[Count_Frackula]

Anyone have experience with fan replacement on their S3?  I have "free" power in my apartment, making the location attractive to use, but my wife is not happy with the amount of noise generated by my pair of S3's.  

I'm having trouble locating actual specs on the stock fans in order to find an equivalent (but quieter) replacement.

You'll be hard-pressed to find many fans that make less noise than the S3s and still keep it cool enough.  You might try putting something in front of them to buffer the noise.  Maybe a shelf with a rug hanging off to absorb noise.  Just be careful to not block airflow.

[mrpark]

We will just have to agree to disagree there. If a breaker is rated at 20 amps load at 110v it will certainly hold 1920. I also speak from experience here. Long term loads of 1800-1900 months on end. No issues. But yes the breaker will get warm.

Strato

Good luck with that.  I hope your breakers work correctly.  Some of them don't.  I replaced my entire panel because the manufacturer, Federal Electric, produced breakers that didn't shut down reliably in the case of overloads and caused a number of house fires.

Another factor to consider if your power is subject to brown outs...  Your miner power supply will attempt to maintain a constant voltage to the miner and hence constant power output even if the line voltage drops.  This means the current draw will increase.  So if you have reliable operation during periods when your supply voltage is high you may have difficulties if your voltage drops.  Should this happen, you can hope that your problems are tripping breakers and not breakers that you wish had tripped but didn't.

The official way to calculate continuous load is to subtract 25% after your calculation. It's a fact, not really an opinion of mine. Also, an electrician inspected some of my 20 amp circuit breakers and he said max is 15 amp load which is about right.  Now, a circuit breaker will not trip at exactly 20 amps, more like 30 amps most likely.  When your breaker is getting hot, your breaker is on thermal meltdown. Anyway, if you like to take chances and gamble, by all means go for it. But for if you are looking to be safe subtract about 25% for continuous loads. 

Put in two outlets last week to a 20 amp breaker with #12-2.  There was a strange 60 cycle vibrating from the service afterwards and specifically the new breaker.  Took the cover off and it turns out I hadn't mashed it down fully into place.   While the power was off I checked the tightness of the screws holding wires into other breakers.  One was quite loose.  Also the huge aluminum cables into the service took a minor turn tightening.  Aluminum wiring has been known to cause fires as its expansion and contraction, differing from copper, tends to cause it to loosen over time.  But that one loose #14 copper that loosened in a 15 amp breaker I have no way to explain it.  Glad I caught it tho.

yikes, that's probably the only thing more dangerous than overloading a circuit is electrical arc which can make a spark that heats up to 10,000F. This is why new construction code requires arc fault breakers in bedrooms. The fear is that you have an arc in the outlet, which is near a bed and then because of the heat it will catch something nearby on fire. The arc is very quick, it will spark before the breaker trips.

[eoakland]

Anyone have experience with fan replacement on their S3?  I have "free" power in my apartment, making the location attractive to use, but my wife is not happy with the amount of noise generated by my pair of S3's.  

I'm having trouble locating actual specs on the stock fans in order to find an equivalent (but quieter) replacement.

You'll be hard-pressed to find many fans that make less noise than the S3s and still keep it cool enough.  You might try putting something in front of them to buffer the noise.  Maybe a shelf with a rug hanging off to absorb noise.  Just be careful to not block airflow.

agreed, even high output corsair fans will not keep it cool enough.  you may want to remove the case from the s3 and hookup regular fans (cable tied underneath the s3)and connect them via moelx to add cooling.  perhaps that will lower the temp and cause the stock fans to spin at a lower rate and reduce noise.  it's worth a shot. 

[lvl]

Bitmain ANTMINER S3  Evaluation by Cybtc http://www.cybtc.org/article-52-1.html

[bspurloc]

Louisville, KY, United States    09/19/2014    1:06 A.M.    Arrival Scan

blah! just deliver it sheesh!

2 more days, buddy... 1 to NY + 1 to you...

ZiG

nope! actually it just arrived work! signed by some UNKNOWN person... which is awesome cuz I aint at work yet..
Gotta love UPS just letting some random person sign for a package.

[ZiG]

Louisville, KY, United States    09/19/2014    1:06 A.M.    Arrival Scan

blah! just deliver it sheesh!

2 more days, buddy... 1 to NY + 1 to you...

ZiG

nope! actually it just arrived work! signed by some UNKNOWN person... which is awesome cuz I aint at work yet..
Gotta love UPS just letting some random person sign for a package.

You just got lucky...

Happy mining...

ZiG

[tonyec99]

yes, my measurements were made at the wall and I'm using a Corsair G550M power supply.
I'm just a little disappointed that l cannot achieve BITMAIN'S spec figures.
At freq=225 I'm getting 420GH/s and 354watts

What with the difficulty level and the current value of bitcoin every watt saved helps.

[moss]

Anyone have experience with fan replacement on their S3?  I have "free" power in my apartment, making the location attractive to use, but my wife is not happy with the amount of noise generated by my pair of S3's. 

I'm having trouble locating actual specs on the stock fans in order to find an equivalent (but quieter) replacement.

I agree with you that the standard fans are noisy, but others disagree, as this is a very subjective issue and not everyone is sensitive to sound at particular frequencies.  You will know what your own ears tell you!

To replace them, you will need to buy PWM 4 pin fans.  I would suggest a high static pressure fan on the inlet and a high airflow flan on the outlet.  I have tried various makes of replacement fan, most of them quieter than the standard ones, but my best results were with a Corsair SP120 High Performance 120mm fan on the inlet, which is designed to push air through heat sinks, and Thermalright TY143 140mm PWM on the outlet, which is a 140mm fan with a 120mm mounting.  I have also experimented with 140mm fans on 120-140 adaptors, but I haven't found one that gave me cooler temps than the 120mm Corsair.

With the Corsair and Thermalright combination, the S3s are much quieter to my ears, but they do run a degree or two hotter - not enough to be an issue for me, but if it worries you, stick with the standard fans, which are very good at what they do!

I would be wary of any Heath-Robinson type solution, with fans blowing onto the naked blades, as you won't get any airflow between them that way, so might get hotspots, etc. 

[mrpark]

Would these 3 pin fans would work? A 3 pin will fit into a 4 pin. The 4th pin is just used for fan control. They are quiet, I use them in another no name miner... Maybe RPM is not enough? Cheap enough to try....

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120
69.69 CFM
2000 RPM
$7.50 each

[vipgelsi]

Bitmain ANTMINER S3  Evaluation by Cybtc http://www.cybtc.org/article-52-1.html

Thanks for the link just ordered 1.

[not.you]

I missed in buried in this thread somewhere but what is to be gained by updating the version of cgminer in these?

[Count_Frackula]

I missed in buried in this thread somewhere but what is to be gained by updating the version of cgminer in these?

Not a ton, but here's the list that I know of.

• Security
• More responsive UI

[soy]

So the problem S3 was down around 430GH/s this morning and I decided to go over its probably reworked board, the board that had grossly over-tightened screws, but would try frequency change first. 

It had been down to 430 so I tried changing the frequency to check out its effect on hashrate.  In /etc/config/asic-freq I changed to f=225, rebooted and restarted cgminer to get a fresh time duration.  I gave it some time but it came up very slowly only to 420 or so.  And it was a cool morning!  All the other machines were hashing perfectly.  So, I tried again, this time with f=212.5 but again it came up slow and only to 417GH/s.  So, I ripped it apart again.

I was going to concentrate on its ASICs at the hot end of the reworked board, but ended up getting distracted.  What distracted me was that the board had marking in black ink at the far right under the top ASIC (on this board that would be near the intake fan).  Might have been Chinese or a code of some kind.  So, I cleaned that ACIC and the one under it with a spray of automobile brake cleaner such that all thermal paste was removed.  Must be careful with the stuff as it will mar many plastics.  I sprayed those ASICs cleaning around the pins, reapplied thermal compound to both sides of the blade and reassembled.  The brake cleaner removed the notation marks on that blade.  When I reassembled, for a change, I put the bad board on the right side facing the RJ45 connector.

I started it up then ran to the store and back.  Right now the 'difficult' S3, at a frequency of 218.75, after 1hr 20min, has an average hashrate of 443.74GH/s.  The temps are both 40° with fan speeds of 2040/1800.  Time will tell.

[moss]

Would these 3 pin fans would work? A 3 pin will fit into a 4 pin. The 4th pin is just used for fan control. They are quiet, I use them in another no name miner... Maybe RPM is not enough? Cheap enough to try....

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120
69.69 CFM
2000 RPM
$7.50 each

Not tried that one, but my S3s fans are regularly over 2000 rpm, so I don't think that's high enough, unless used on the outlet.  However, it has a high static pressure and is more of a heat sink fan than an outlet fan. 
With just 3 pins, it will probably run flat out all the time, but I haven't tested that.

I have tried a CoolerMaster JetFlo PWM high airflow (95 CFM) fan on the outlet of one of my S3s, but that wouldn't work properly.

[bspurloc]

anyone installed an upgrade kit yet?
I am about to do some. I dont see how they get the S3 firmware onto them tho??
there is a new power board and the old control board is attached to it.
So how does it get the newer firmware on it? Their video kind of forgets to tell you that!
Also their video doesnt show where these springed screws go.
Never mind the dude putting screw mounts in the middle of the board where the heat sink is supposed to go then suddenly those screws are missing when he puts the heat sink on...

 I havent taken and S1 or S3 apart before so why would I know this info!

I looked over the new hashing boards and they luckily dont look burned and are dated 8/1/2014 so hopefully they are good stuff and not batch 1 junk. blah!

[CHAOSiTEC]

anyone installed an upgrade kit yet?
I am about to do some. I dont see how they get the S3 firmware onto them tho??
there is a new power board and the old control board is attached to it.
So how does it get the newer firmware on it? Their video kind of forgets to tell you that!
Also their video doesnt show where these springed screws go.
Never mind the dude putting screw mounts in the middle of the board where the heat sink is supposed to go then suddenly those screws are missing when he puts the heat sink on...

 I havent taken and S1 or S3 apart before so why would I know this info!

I looked over the new hashing boards and they luckily dont look burned and are dated 8/1/2014 so hopefully they are good stuff and not batch 1 junk. blah!

im awaiting delivery of mine, but last update whas leaving shenzen on the 16th :-/