ANTMINER S3+ Discussion and Support Thread

[dogie]

[I don't monitor this thread so you'll have to play fetch to get me back but...] for anyone struggling with the newer firmware, roll back in the meantime. Engineers are looking at the problem.

[windpath]

A part on one of my S3's broke...

Well, didn't really break but let's say it does not do its intended job anymore.

I know, I tried its opposite side's wire and it's definitely the wire.

I know why, my own stupidity, don't ask but it happened  

It's the one of the two, 2 x 10 pin ribbon wires that connects the hashboards to the control board.

The ones that are over/under, as in:

xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx

I don't have a spare and I cannot for the life of me find a website that sells this... I just don't know the fancy name, if there is ever one.

No sense putting a picture, I'm sure a "few" miners know what I'm talking about.

Anyone know where to get one in North-America, hassle free or does this need to be special ordered from Bitmain?

They're not very co-operative, all I want is an invoice, I'll pay it then they can ship it, after 3 back and forth emails, still no payment request.

When they reply they talk to me like I'm a computer n00b; been a client of theirs for over a year now and still buying hardware.

Can someone help me find the wire I need?  I'm sure I'm not the only guy who's had one of those wires go bad...

There's also people who know their shit a lot more than me =D

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Looks like the name of the part is SPI Ribbon Wire.

Have not opened the S3 to look at the cables yet, but this is what you describe:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Pcs-2mm-Pitch-2x10-Pin-20-Pin-20-Wire-IDC-Flat-Ribbon-Cable-Length-15CM-/170932131535

[GigaBit]

A part on one of my S3's broke...

Well, didn't really break but let's say it does not do its intended job anymore.

I know, I tried its opposite side's wire and it's definitely the wire.

I know why, my own stupidity, don't ask but it happened  

It's the one of the two, 2 x 10 pin ribbon wires that connects the hashboards to the control board.

The ones that are over/under, as in:

xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxx

I don't have a spare and I cannot for the life of me find a website that sells this... I just don't know the fancy name, if there is ever one.

No sense putting a picture, I'm sure a "few" miners know what I'm talking about.

Anyone know where to get one in North-America, hassle free or does this need to be special ordered from Bitmain?

They're not very co-operative, all I want is an invoice, I'll pay it then they can ship it, after 3 back and forth emails, still no payment request.

When they reply they talk to me like I'm a computer n00b; been a client of theirs for over a year now and still buying hardware.

Can someone help me find the wire I need?  I'm sure I'm not the only guy who's had one of those wires go bad...

There's also people who know their shit a lot more than me =D

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Looks like the name of the part is SPI Ribbon Wire.

Have not opened the S3 to look at the cables yet, but this is what you describe:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Pcs-2mm-Pitch-2x10-Pin-20-Pin-20-Wire-IDC-Flat-Ribbon-Cable-Length-15CM-/170932131535

Ha!  You fucking rock!!

This could work, yes, it looks like them, different colors but mining's not supposed to be pretty anyways 

I'll look if I can get shorter ones but if all else fails, this is it right there.

It's that or go fuck myself I guess, eh? lol

Cheap price, free shipping, mind blown, day saved.  Those would perfect spares, if they do work.

That said, I would, however, still want Bitmain OEM parts on my Bitmain AntMiners... :/

If anything, I can always keep that elusive miner that makes it way in my "miner retirement" closet.

That's perfect, too bad I can't buy right there on eBay, I need that like yesterday, not in Mid January lol

I'll now be able to find a store near me to order a bunch and see what happens but at least now I have a target to hunt for.

[pekatete]

That said, I would, however, still want Bitmain OEM parts on my Bitmain AntMiners... :/

Mind what you ask for, else you'll get it!
I'd say not worth it getting bitmain parts (more relevant though not worth for bitmain!). They'll charge you a packet for shipping, as they'd rightly have to, and their prices are ridiculous to say the least.
A replacement S3 controller board, for example, is nothing short of $ 110 plus shipping (or you'll have to make an order for an S3 and they'll ship both together at no extra shipping cost).
At the end of the day, the parts bitmain use, aside from their custom chip, are OEM parts which you can get on the open market.

[jjiimm_64]

I would like the bring up the discussion about downvolting again..  it doesn't appear to make a difference measured by the a killawatt at the wall when lowering the voltage.

the watts go down some when you lower the freq., but you should be able to get a better Gh/j with the voltage change... right?

has anyone been able to lower the watts at the wall???

[pekatete]

I would like the bring up the discussion about downvolting again..  it doesn't appear to make a difference measured by the a killawatt at the wall when lowering the voltage.

the watts go down some when you lower the freq., but you should be able to get a better Gh/j with the voltage change... right?

has anyone been able to lower the watts at the wall???

Have you got a killawatt and have you measured / monitored? I'd hazard to say thats your answer; but bitmain (or someone else) may have other empirical evidence / knowledge.

[Swoosher76]

Hi All,

If this has already been discussed please forgive the double post, but in a brief search I did not find it mentioned yet.

I have been having odd issues with the latest S3+ firmware (antMiner_S320141126.bin) that my miner will just seemingly randomly start slowing down in its mining rate until it completely drops to zero.  Not overclocked, running off a good 620 watt antec power supply.  It never did this until the firmware update and since I rolled it back to the old one it has not done it since...  Going on 48+ hours not since the roll back and no issues.  It was happening about twice a day with the (antMiner_S320141126.bin) firmware.

Anyone else have similar issues?

*** After More Searching I found my answer ***

[jjiimm_64]

I would like the bring up the discussion about downvolting again..  it doesn't appear to make a difference measured by the a killawatt at the wall when lowering the voltage.

the watts go down some when you lower the freq., but you should be able to get a better Gh/j with the voltage change... right?

has anyone been able to lower the watts at the wall???

Have you got a killawatt and have you measured / monitored? I'd hazard to say thats your answer; but bitmain (or someone else) may have other empirical evidence / knowledge.

Yes I do, reference the post you quoted!

[pekatete]

I would like the bring up the discussion about downvolting again..  it doesn't appear to make a difference measured by the a killawatt at the wall when lowering the voltage.

the watts go down some when you lower the freq., but you should be able to get a better Gh/j with the voltage change... right?

has anyone been able to lower the watts at the wall???

Have you got a killawatt and have you measured / monitored? I'd hazard to say thats your answer; but bitmain (or someone else) may have other empirical evidence / knowledge.

Yes I do, reference the post you quoted!

I'd hazard to say thats your answer!

[pekatete]

If anyone still running the new firmware, would you please post here the line used to start cgminer? It "should" be in the System Log (under Status) immediately after starting up (I think that is where I saw it before, but may be wrong!) or even better, if you SSH into the rig open the file /etc/init.d/cgminer with vi editor and scroll down to the line that starts PARAMS= (not #PARAMS=). I think the issue of dropping hash-rate may be due to the setting of auto-voltage / frequency (and the startup line may reveal that!).

[IITravel01]

Dumb question, but I can't seem to find in the menus of the S3 (with Oct. 2014 firmware) where to change the IP address of the AntMiner from the default .99.  Any help?  I've gone through all the setting and have forgotten where I changed them before, was it moved in a later firmware or have I just missed it?
Thanks,

[jjiimm_64]

Dumb question, but I can't seem to find in the menus of the S3 (with Oct. 2014 firmware) where to change the IP address of the AntMiner from the default .99.  Any help?  I've gone through all the setting and have forgotten where I changed them before, was it moved in a later firmware or have I just missed it?
Thanks,

i think there is a network tab

[IITravel01]

So trying to figure out where to change the IP address (Network settings that doesn't show when you select DHCP), seems now the S3 isn't responding.  Funny how the firmware update for Nov. caused the hashing to drop to less than 50Gh/s so I reverted back to the Oct. firmware (yes, the one where the reset button doesn't work).  So no reset button.   Anyone have any suggestions on what to do, I tried pinging the default address as well as the one the router gave it when I selected DHCP, but no response from either.

[727miner]

So trying to figure out where to change the IP address (Network settings that doesn't show when you select DHCP), seems now the S3 isn't responding.  Funny how the firmware update for Nov. caused the hashing to drop to less than 50Gh/s so I reverted back to the Oct. firmware (yes, the one where the reset button doesn't work).  So no reset button.   Anyone have any suggestions on what to do, I tried pinging the default address as well as the one the router gave it when I selected DHCP, but no response from either.

Check your router and see if it assigned a different IP address to it. If you don't have access to the router, try using an IP address scanner such as Angry IP scanner to scan the subnet to see if you can find it's ip address. Do you have a link light on the nic?

[IITravel01]

So trying to figure out where to change the IP address (Network settings that doesn't show when you select DHCP), seems now the S3 isn't responding.  Funny how the firmware update for Nov. caused the hashing to drop to less than 50Gh/s so I reverted back to the Oct. firmware (yes, the one where the reset button doesn't work).  So no reset button.   Anyone have any suggestions on what to do, I tried pinging the default address as well as the one the router gave it when I selected DHCP, but no response from either.

Check your router and see if it assigned a different IP address to it. If you don't have access to the router, try using an IP address scanner such as Angry IP scanner to scan the subnet to see if you can find it's ip address. Do you have a link light on the nic?

No, there isn't a IP address showing up for the S3 using an IP scanner (192.168.1.99 or the one the router gave it previously aren't showing and there isn't any other ones new that have showed up).  The S3 has both lights on the NIC on the S3 on and one's flashing next to the red light on the S3.

[727miner]

So trying to figure out where to change the IP address (Network settings that doesn't show when you select DHCP), seems now the S3 isn't responding.  Funny how the firmware update for Nov. caused the hashing to drop to less than 50Gh/s so I reverted back to the Oct. firmware (yes, the one where the reset button doesn't work).  So no reset button.   Anyone have any suggestions on what to do, I tried pinging the default address as well as the one the router gave it when I selected DHCP, but no response from either.

Check your router and see if it assigned a different IP address to it. If you don't have access to the router, try using an IP address scanner such as Angry IP scanner to scan the subnet to see if you can find it's ip address. Do you have a link light on the nic?

No, there isn't a IP address showing up for the S3 using an IP scanner (192.168.1.99 or the one the router gave it previously aren't showing and there isn't any other ones new that have showed up).  The S3 has both lights on the NIC on the S3 on and one's flashing next to the red light on the S3.

If the reset button won't work, I think you're screwed. Reach out to Bitmain support and see if you can RMA it.

[mrpark]

This may seem dumb, but try a different port on your switch, also try another cable. One time a telcom cat 5 cable got mixed in with my data cables and that is why my S3 wasn't working.... Make sure you ports are set to Auto on the switch. Also, if you do get in your miner, make sure you use 8.8.8.8. I suppose you tried and IP scanner of the 192.168.1.x range already...

[IYFTech]

@ Bitmain:

How about taking that piece of junk firmware off your website before someone else makes the same mistake I did & tries to update their S3's with it?

I just spent 4 hours upgrading then downgrading all my S3's because, once again, you release firmware that is completely untested.

One is not amused 

[IITravel01]

@ Bitmain:

How about taking that piece of junk firmware off your website before someone else makes the same mistake I did & tries to update their S3's with it?

I just spent 4 hours upgrading then downgrading all my S3's because, once again, you release firmware that is completely untested.

One is not amused  

Here's some info. I learned this morning regarding the new November firmware.  There's a temporary fix for the new firmware to prevent the low hashing.  Set the AntMiner S3 to the default speed and put in 0725 in the voltage (from default 0770).  I was still having a problem on one of my S3+ with the fix set, that had Pool Balance setting set to Balanced from Fail (default) that was still doing the slow hashing, but when I selected Fail and rebooted it's been hashing at full speed so far.  Finger's crossed.

[IYFTech]

@ Bitmain:

How about taking that piece of junk firmware off your website before someone else makes the same mistake I did & tries to update their S3's with it?

I just spent 4 hours upgrading then downgrading all my S3's because, once again, you release firmware that is completely untested.

One is not amused  

Here's some info. I learned this morning regarding the new November firmware.  There's a temporary fix for the new firmware to prevent the low hashing.  Set the AntMiner S3 to the default speed and put in 0725 in the voltage (from default 0770).  I was still having a problem on one of my S3+ with the fix set, that had Pool Balance setting set to Balanced from Fail (default) that was still doing the slow hashing, but when I selected Fail and rebooted it's been hashing at full speed so far.  Finger's crossed.

That's great. A temporary fix to fix the broken new firmware that was released to fix the previous broken new firmware.....maybe.

Nah. I'll pass.

I have a better & novel idea: Why don't Bitmain simply test any firmware release thoroughly before releasing it - instead of using their customer base as guinea pigs, knocking their miners out in the process?  A bit like every other manufacturer does........much easier, simpler & customer friendly.