BITMAIN Antminer S3 support and OverClocking thread

[la7eralus]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ztureo0yjlys9a/Screenshot%202014-08-08%2011.53.58.png

Looks like we have stability on the Ant that would'nt take 250 at a setting of 243.75 and averaging 490 GH/s!

[allcoinminer]

Hi Guys

I just got my antminer s3 and having big problems.

It's only mining at about 250ghs and gets around 75% hw error.

I am using a brand new Corsair CX500 and have also tried with my Corsair HX850.
I have changed the thermal paste on all the chips.
I have flashed it to latest firmware.
I have very stable internet connection.

Anyone have advice for me?

After 5min:
After 10min:
HW error:

Sorry, you are an RMA candidate!

[NotGoodAtTennis]

Problem re-starting S3?

I've had two Antminer S3 running for a few days now.  No problem setting them up or getting them going.  They have worked to spec.

However, today I had to shut them off, and when I turned them on again they would not start mining.
I cycled the power numerous times and rebooted.  They would come up but not mine.

The only thing that works is this: start them up.  They sit there running but not mining.  So I login through the web interface and go to "System" and "Startup", then hit the "Restart" network button, wait until it comes back, and then "Restart" cgminer.  Then they start mining and continue to work smoothly.

Any comments or advice?

I point out that both units have behaved exactly the same.

[allcoinminer]

Problem re-starting S3?

I've had two Antminer S3 running for a few days now.  No problem setting them up or getting them going.  They have worked to spec.

However, today I had to shut them off, and when I turned them on again they would not start mining.
I cycled the power numerous times and rebooted.  They would come up but not mine.

The only thing that works is this: start them up.  They sit there running but not mining.  So I login through the web interface and go to "System" and "Startup", then hit the "Restart" network button, wait until it comes back, and then "Restart" cgminer.  Then they start mining and continue to work smoothly.

Any comments or advice?

I point out that both units have behaved exactly the same.

Do Reset to Factory Settings.
If not working again update firmware.

[JennaK]

Hello!
I'm going to have two antminer s3s
I will never upgrade and I just want a PSU that can handle both Antminer's overclocked.

I heard my EVGA 500W 80 PLUS psu won't work as the 2 pci-e cables are daisy chained? I can't even see if they are or not.
I may return that PSU and try to get either..

EVGA 1000W

or

EVGA 1300W

The cheaper the better.

I was also thinking of getting two
CX600
or
CX750

Please help!

[NotGoodAtTennis]

Thanks for your reply, allcoinminer, but that doesn't help.  I updated the firmware for one of the two units, and they're both still doing the "not mining" thing until I restart the network and the cgminer.

My guess is that it's some timing thing with the network --- something times out in the first network setup when the antminers are first booted, and it doesn't time out after the antminer operating system has settled down.  Maybe the name server?  I've got them doing the network setup with DHCP.

[Cy13er007]

You need to vent at the top and bottom... At the botton you can put in a 8" fan, at the top you can use Dundas insulated 4" conduit and an inline fan to move air from the top of your room over to an exhaust outside. It looks like you're in a garage, so there should be some venting around going outside.  Here's a couple of links:

Insulated duct: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0049H9970/ref=pe_385040_30332190_TE_dp_1
4" Inline fan: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F6BL11U/ref=pe_385040_30332200_TE_item
8" inline fan: http://www.amazon.com/VenTech-DF8-Duct-Fan-400/dp/B005KMUHWY
Transition: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00009W3GE/ref=pe_385040_30332200_TE_item

Good luck with your room man...

The S3's are all venting out of the enclosure.  The only problem is they cannot pull enough air into the room.  A simple whole in the wall will suffice to fix the problem.

Also, to the OP, your insulation will still be very beneficial to keep the radiating heat from coming through the walls.  It just would have taken some extra math to learn that 16 S3's have more CFM than your window AC can move.  Who knows....Maybe just removing the window barriers next to the AC would be best. 

I agree with this. get an AC that will push more air than your S3's combined

The overall misunderstanding is in how an AC system works.  The AC unit is not pulling the hot air from inside the room to the outside.  What it is doing is a fan is pulling ambient temp air from inside your room,  and moving that air across a coil that is cooler than the ambient air. The colder coil absorbes some of the heat energy and removes some of the moisture via the beer can affect.  The ambient temp room air that has gone through the coil gives up some of it's heat into the coil, and left some of it's moisture condensed on the coil and is returned to the room drier and 8-15 degrees cooler than it started.  That particular AC is a closed system and doesn't move any air from inside the room to the outdoors, or from the outdoors to the inside of the room.  The hot air you feel coming out of the AC on the outside is the "heat energy" collected from the inside air through the cooling coil.  On the outside, another fan blows the outside ambient temp air across the now hot coil, pulling some of the heat from the coil then recirculates the reduced temp coolant back to the inside to soak up more heat energy from the ambient inside air.  I found a good video that illustrates how it works on youtube.      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OU7WHgJ_cY

Air from inside the room is blown across the cooling coil, then back into the room, this keeps the pressure of the room static or unchanged. 

Now with the miners doing what they do, how you currently have them configured, is attempting to pull cooler air from inside the room through the heat sinks, picking up heat energy, and exhausting that warmer air outside the sealed room.  With no air being let into the room (not through the AC as previously assumed) and all of those miners trying to pull air out of the room...creates a vacuum or negative pressure zone, that's why the door slams shut since it opens to the outside of the room which is now a positive pressure area relative to the lower pressure inside the room.  If that door was hinged on the other side of the jam and swung into the room, the miners would be sucking the door open when pulling air into the room.  Your concept is pretty good, however, you should try sealing the miners inside the room entirely.  Seal off all the exhaust holes, and mount the miners vertically so they are sucking cooler air up from the floor since colder air sinks, and exhausts out the top as hot hair naturally wants to rise away from cooler air.  Then your room will be back to a static pressure area, where the cooler air coming out of the AC unit sinks to the floor, gets pulled up through the miners heat sinks and the warmer air naturally wants to rise out of the miners.  In this fashion, your using the miners fans to help the already natural convection current, of cooler air down, and warmer air up.  I have my miners running in a small room, the ambient temp of the room about waist/chest high is 78-80F.  I have my miners mounted vertically, pulling in the air from down by the floor ~74F, (2-3 degrees cooler than midzone), when it comes out of the miners, its much warmer ~94F(warmer than midzone) and rises to the ceiling where it's apx. ~82F.  If you mount 3 digital thermometers in your room, you see the thermocline, or temp difference between the floor, mid, and ceiling height.  Give it a shot...your miners will never run cooler unless you put em in a freezer.

[Cy13er007]

Hello!
I'm going to have two antminer s3s
I will never upgrade and I just want a PSU that can handle both Antminer's overclocked.

I heard my EVGA 500W 80 PLUS psu won't work as the 2 pci-e cables are daisy chained? I can't even see if they are or not.
I may return that PSU and try to get either..

EVGA 1000W

or

EVGA 1300W

The cheaper the better.

I was also thinking of getting two
CX600
or
CX750

Please help!

PSUs are less efficient and will burn out sooner if you run them at full load.  My advise is to get yourself a gold or platinum certified PSU around 1000-1200w.  Overclocked at full tilt (350 MHz) you will pull apx 400w from the wall per miner...so your looking at ~800w for the pair. The conversion from 120V AC to 12V DC isn't perfectly efficient, so some energy is lost as heat(why PSUs have fans).  If you have a decent gold/plat PSU your looking at 87-92% efficient...so if your pulling 800w from the wall your miners are only consuming 696-736w...the other 104-64w are lost as heat. The less efficient PSUs (uncertified, bronze, silver) put out more heat, as the conversion is less efficient.  You also want to have some headroom on the PSU so your not pushing it at the max 24/7( = burnout & replacement costs).  I only use gold/platinum certified Corsair PSUs (wish I got $ for the free advertising) because they are pretty much tanks.  I'm running 4 Corsair RM1000 PSUs (gold cert.) and they have a 5 year warranty if I remember correctly.  They worked great on the S1s (I had 6 S1s overclocked on 3 PSUs...2 each), and the S3s.  You can do your own research, and this isn't exact ,but 80% of the rated load is normally approaching the point where efficiency starts to decline because of the heavy load/heat buildup.  You could also run an additional single blade(half an S3) if your not overclocking any of them...overclocked that would be using 1000w and would be incredably hard on any PSU.  My advise is pay the extra for a reliable strong PSU.  You also pay a little more for fully modular, but if you have alot of gear, it keeps clutter to a minimum....may not make a difference to you if your only going to ever have 2 miners, then modular doesn't matter so much.  Just remember...additional cables in the way reduces airflow and increases temps...maybe not to the point of making an impact...the rule holds true to life (ie...computer case cable management).  Good luck and happy mining.

[Cy13er007]

I was able to seperate the above frequencies into smaller incremental steps, but I have no idea how to calculate the "reg. value" or the "ideal delay" for them.  Anyone with a little more know-how than myself willing to help out?  I know a few other people in this thread were looking for something like this as well, and any help at all would be appreciated.  Thanks!

Adjusting the S1 formula based on S3 ASIC spec I was able to get following register values (and timeout). Use the settings below at your own risk!

Clock_Freq	Register value	Timeout
(chip_freq)	(freq_value)	(timeout)
100	0783	40
103.125	1007	39
106.25	0803	38
109.375	1107	37
112.5	0883	36
115.625	1207	35
118.75	0903	34
121.875	1307	33
125	0983	32
128.125	1407	31
131.25	0A03	30
134.375	1507	30
137.5	0A83	29
140.625	1607	28
143.75	0B03	28
146.875	1707	27
150	0B83	27
153.125	1807	26
156.25	0C03	26
159.375	1907	25
162.5	0C83	25
165.625	1A07	24
168.75	0D03	24
171.875	1B07	23
175	0D83	23
178.125	1C07	22
181.25	0E03	22
184.375	1D07	22
187.5	0E83	21
190.625	1E07	21
193.75	0F03	21
196.875	1F07	20
200	0782	20
206.25	1006	19
212.5	0802	19
218.75	1106	18
225	0882	18
231.25	1206	17
237.5	0902	17
243.75	1306	16
250	0982	16
256.25	1406	16
262.5	0A02	15
268.75	1506	15
275	0A82	15
281.25	1606	14
287.5	0B02	14
293.75	1706	14
300	0B82	13
306.25	1806	13
312.5	0C02	13
318.75	1906	13
325	0C82	12
331.25	1A06	12
337.5	0D02	12
343.75	1B06	12
350	0D82	11
356.25	1C06	11
362.5	0E02	11
368.75	1D06	11
375	0E82	11
381.25	1E06	10
387.5	0F02	10
393.75	1F06	10
400	0F82	10

JakeTri -- I would like to thank you for your work, I know the request wasn't mine, but I was wondering about this the same as la7eralus.  I'm interested in how you calculated those Reg. values.  I would like to break this down one more level and be able to find the nitch between 250 and 243.75.  I looked at the Reg. values and attempted to convert from HEX...but that didn't look even close to right.  So...i'm interested in how you calculated them.  If you could explain, or point me to some documentation that explains it...i would be grateful.  I have done a few Google searches...but found zip.  Any direction you could give would be appreciated.

[Cy13er007]

I'm sorry if this was already covered...so Ill keep it brief.  I have an AntMiner S3 that's a rockstar.  I overclocked it to 250 MHz, and it was hashing right along at 505-506 GH/s, even after 2-3 hours.  Temps were great 39C-41C, absolutely no X's on my chips.  This morning, I wake up...take a quick peek before heading off to work and it was sitting at 490GH/s, and it was still sitting at 490GH/s (rock steady) when I got home from work 10 hours later.  After work I calculated the HW errors and i'm sitting at 0.21%(pretty good unless I missed the boat).  Now I know that's nothing to complain about...and I'm not trying to.  I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced a similar situation and has any kind of explanation or trick to get it back above 500.  Thanks.

[sairef]

Please help, can I use a Rosewill LIGHTNING 1300W for three overclocked antminer s3s?

[kaltar]

I'm sorry if this was already covered...so Ill keep it brief.  I have an AntMiner S3 that's a rockstar.  I overclocked it to 250 MHz, and it was hashing right along at 505-506 GH/s, even after 2-3 hours.  Temps were great 39C-41C, absolutely no X's on my chips.  This morning, I wake up...take a quick peek before heading off to work and it was sitting at 490GH/s, and it was still sitting at 490GH/s (rock steady) when I got home from work 10 hours later.  After work I calculated the HW errors and i'm sitting at 0.21%(pretty good unless I missed the boat).  Now I know that's nothing to complain about...and I'm not trying to.  I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced a similar situation and has any kind of explanation or trick to get it back above 500.  Thanks.

i'll trade you for mine that doesn't go above ~400GH   

but if you're worried about 10GH just restart cgminer.

[JakeTri]

JakeTri -- I would like to thank you for your work, I know the request wasn't mine, but I was wondering about this the same as la7eralus.  I'm interested in how you calculated those Reg. values.  I would like to break this down one more level and be able to find the nitch between 250 and 243.75.  I looked at the Reg. values and attempted to convert from HEX...but that didn't look even close to right.  So...i'm interested in how you calculated them.  If you could explain, or point me to some documentation that explains it...i would be grateful.  I have done a few Google searches...but found zip.  Any direction you could give would be appreciated.

I started with the bit layout for freq_value and from there you can calculate the chip_freq.

Bit layout for the freq_value is as follow:



OD can have values between 0 and 3
R can have values between 0 and 31
F can have values between 0 and 127
BS can have only 0 or 1

From page 6 of BM1382 spec (https://www.bitmaintech.com/files/download/BM1382_Datasheet_v3.0.pdf) you get:

NR = R + 1
NF = 2 * (F + 1)
NO value from OD value (see Table 4 from same spec page)

Fref = Fin / NR
Fvco = Fout * NO
Fout = Fin * NF / (NR*NO)

So Fout is "chip_freq" and can be calculated based on valued from above ("OD", "R" and "F"). BS select "high-band" or "low-band" (see page 7 from BM1382 spec for valid freq values for each band).

chip_freq = 50 * ( F + 1 ) / ( ( R + 1 ) * POWER( 2 , OD ) )

For timeout I used following formula:
timeout = 4000 / chip_freq

I suggest to calculate all 3 Fref, Fvco and Fout and make sure all 3 value are in range described on page 7 for the band specified by "BS" value.

EDIT: Here is an example:

freq_value = 1306

OD = 2
R = 1
F = 38

You can compute the rest as following:

NR = 2
NF = 78
NO = 4

Fref = 12.5
Fvco = 975
Fout = 243.75

BS = 0 and all 3 values for Fref, Fvco and Fout are in range for Low-Band.

[Rabinovitch]

Please help, can I use a Rosewill LIGHTNING 1300W for three overclocked antminer s3s?

Wow. It's beatiful.  
Should be OK, but it looks like chock-a-block PSU. You better try to find 1400+ Wt PSU, just to be safe. What about warranty period for that Lightning?

[Cy13er007]

JakeTri -- I would like to thank you for your work, I know the request wasn't mine, but I was wondering about this the same as la7eralus.  I'm interested in how you calculated those Reg. values.  I would like to break this down one more level and be able to find the nitch between 250 and 243.75.  I looked at the Reg. values and attempted to convert from HEX...but that didn't look even close to right.  So...i'm interested in how you calculated them.  If you could explain, or point me to some documentation that explains it...i would be grateful.  I have done a few Google searches...but found zip.  Any direction you could give would be appreciated.

I started with the bit layout for freq_value and from there you can calculate the chip_freq.

Bit layout for the freq_value is as follow:

http://s24.postimg.org/ftzr6e7w5/freq_value.jpg

OD can have values between 0 and 3
R can have values between 0 and 31
F can have values between 0 and 127
BS can have only 0 or 1

From page 6 of BM1382 spec (https://www.bitmaintech.com/files/download/BM1382_Datasheet_v3.0.pdf) you get:

NR = R + 1
NF = 2 * (F + 1)
NO value from OD value (see Table 4 from same spec page)

Fref = Fin / NR
Fvco = Fout * NO
Fout = Fin * NF / (NR*NO)

So Fout is "chip_freq" and can be calculated based on valued from above ("OD", "R" and "F"). BS select "high-band" or "low-band" (see page 7 from BM1382 spec for valid freq values for each band).

chip_freq = 50 * ( F + 1 ) / ( ( R + 1 ) * POWER( 2 , OD ) )

For timeout I used following formula:
timeout = 4000 / chip_freq

I suggest to calculate all 3 Fref, Fvco and Fout and make sure all 3 value are in range described on page 7 for the band specified by "BS" value.

EDIT: Here is an example:

freq_value = 1306

OD = 2
R = 1
F = 38

You can compute the rest as following:

NR = 2
NF = 78
NO = 4

Fref = 12.5
Fvco = 975
Fout = 243.75

BS = 0 and all 3 values for Fref, Fvco and Fout are in range for Low-Band.

Ummmm....thanks?.  You made my brains hurt!  Is that even....I don't know.  Apparently I've got some studying to do.  I better just read the manual from the beginning.  I'll see what I can figure out.

[sairef]

Please help, can I use a Rosewill LIGHTNING 1300W for three overclocked antminer s3s?

Wow. It's beatiful.  
Should be OK, but it looks like chock-a-block PSU. You better try to find 1400+ Wt PSU, just to be safe. What about warranty period for that Lightning?

I have already purchased one, the warranty is 7 years. I'll try it on monday, I hope it works well.

[Fortpayne]

I setup 4 S3s in my office room for testing and configuration. They were all hashing away fine after the test so unplugged them to relocate to more permanent location in the adjacent room on the same network and wired router. My router obviously reassigned each one a new ip, but i just looked a the DHCP list to find them and typed in the new ips and three of the four logged in just fine. My problem is the fourth will not log in. The password screen comes up and i type "root" and then it goes to this  screen:

/usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:448: Failed to execute function dispatcher target for entry '/'.
The called action terminated with an exception:
/usr/lib/lua/luci/sauth.lua:87: Session data invalid!
stack traceback:
   [C]: in function 'assert'
   /usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:448: in function 'dispatch'
   /usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:195: in function </usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:194>



And also now when i type 190.168.1.99 for the setup after the password screen it just goes to Page not Found . The fourth one is still hashing as normal as reported by my pool. Im afraid to reboot again since everything is hashing normally, but would like to be able to access all miners for future OC. Can anyone offer some suggestions?  Or tell me what other info you may need me to provide.

[allcoinminer]

I setup 4 S3s in my office room for testing and configuration. They were all hashing away fine after the test so unplugged them to relocate to more permanent location in the adjacent room on the same network and wired router. My router obviously reassigned each one a new ip, but i just looked a the DHCP list to find them and typed in the new ips and three of the four logged in just fine. My problem is the fourth will not log in. The password screen comes up and i type "root" and then it goes to this  screen:

/usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:448: Failed to execute function dispatcher target for entry '/'.
The called action terminated with an exception:
/usr/lib/lua/luci/sauth.lua:87: Session data invalid!
stack traceback:
   [C]: in function 'assert'
   /usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:448: in function 'dispatch'
   /usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:195: in function </usr/lib/lua/luci/dispatcher.lua:194>



And also now when i type 190.168.1.99 for the setup after the password screen it just goes to Page not Found . The fourth one is still hashing as normal as reported by my pool. Im afraid to reboot again since everything is hashing normally, but would like to be able to access all miners for future OC. Can anyone offer some suggestions?  Or tell me what other info you may need me to provide.

Disable DHCP and set the IPs manually is the solution.
If not working Reset with the small button in the front side of your antminer S3.

[Master One]

I'm thinking of buying 3 or 4 Antminer S3, but right now I'm puzzled about getting proper power supplies for these.

• Such EVGA 1300 G2 is quite pricey, are there any cheaper alternatives?
• Can 3 Antminer S3 be powered by a single EVGA 1300 G2 without problem?
• When overclocking 3 or 4 Antminer S3, how do you solve the power supply issue with 4 power connections each S3 (since a EVGA 1300 G2 only comes with 6 cables)?
• What's the power draw of an Antminer S3 when running at 250 MHz?
  

[klondike_bar]

I'm thinking of buying 3 or 4 Antminer S3, but right now I'm puzzled about getting proper power supplies for these.

• Such EVGA 1300 G2 is quite pricey, are there any cheaper alternatives?
• Can 3 Antminer S3 be powered by a single EVGA 1300 G2 without problem?
• When overclocking 3 or 4 Antminer S3, how do you solve the power supply issue with 4 power connections each S3 (since a EVGA 1300 G2 only comes with 6 cables)?
• What's the power draw of an Antminer S3 when running at 250 MHz?
  

1) yes - but generally it would mean using a server power supply which is louder and less friendly to use in a small setup. THE EVGA 1300 is a great unit at a good price
2) yes, even at ~380W each you are left with over 150W of overhead capacity on the 12V rail
3) either get a good quality splitter or just use 2 connections per unit. AFAIK using all 4 connectors doesnt provide much realworld benefit but might be slightly safer for the pcb traces
4) closer to 380-400W