[Guide] Dogie's Comprehensive Bitmain Antminer S3 Setup [HD]

[mayitzu]

Few questions:

1- Any idea on why would my S3 show 220GH/S(5s) and 230 GH/S(avg) but GHash shows an avg of 190 GH/S?
Above number goes up/down slightly but are not close. Seems there is a loss of 30+/- GH/S

2- When mining exclusively with GHash my S3 Difficulty shows as 128. I have not tweaked any parameters on this. Should I? Where and what number is the optimal?

3- Do you guys perform any advanced configuration in your S3s other than overclocking them? What's your suggestion?

4- A single S3. Is it still profitable running one at this point? (considering electrical costs)

Cheers!

Mayitzu

[mayitzu]

Also, I'd like to try multipool mining with GHash but the "-scrypt -o stratum+tcp://multi.ghash.io:3333" entry in the GUI does not work. Is SHA256 and SCRYPT at the same time possible in the S3? Any opinions or experiences with this? Should I not bother?

All ant miners are sha256 only.  They were going to release a scrypt unit back in December but that fell through, presumably due to the low value of scrypt coins currently.

That explains why it wouldn't work. I thought it was the mix of both.
Thanks for clarifying!

-Mayitzu

[mayitzu]

Anyone knows if the last two firmwares are faulty/buggy? Why would they fail to hash to 200+ GHs (overclocked)? Is there a way to make the latest firmware work? I noticed, while I had it that the GUI was faster, not that I really miss a lot though.

The last few revisions were attempting to support one version of S3 PCBs better, which unfortunately may do weird things on earlier S3s. There is no particular reason if you feel you're stable on any firmware after 12/19.

Also, I'd like to try multipool mining with GHash but the "-scrypt -o stratum+tcp://multi.ghash.io:3333" entry in the GUI does not work. Is SHA256 and SCRYPT at the same time possible in the S3? Any opinions or experiences with this? Should I not bother?

From your perspective no. From a network perspective, yada yada decentralisaiton yada yada. Some will argue that large pools are not good for the economy, but regardless of who it is, there will always be a biggest pool.

Excuse my ignorance. I'm totally new to this!  
(threat: more questions coming in the near future... )

No problem, you're questions are valid and better than most newbies.

Thanks for your answer!!!

My system shows in Status\Overview:

Hostname              antMiner
Model                    TP-Link TL-WR743N/ND v2
Firmware Version    OpenWrt Barrier Breaker r38031 / LuCI Trunk (svn-r9909)
Kernel Version        3.10.12

And the file I used to update firmware was [antMiner_S320141013.bin] I believe. This one was 10/13. Should I retry the next up?

Mayitzu

[dogie]

Thanks for your answer!!!

My system shows in Status\Overview:

Hostname              antMiner
Model                    TP-Link TL-WR743N/ND v2
Firmware Version    OpenWrt Barrier Breaker r38031 / LuCI Trunk (svn-r9909)
Kernel Version        3.10.12

And the file I used to update firmware was [antMiner_S320141013.bin] I believe. This one was 10/13. Should I retry the next up?

Mayitzu

Go up to 20141219, its a critical update. Download is here.

[Stratobitz]

Thanks for your answer!!!

My system shows in Status\Overview:

Hostname              antMiner
Model                    TP-Link TL-WR743N/ND v2
Firmware Version    OpenWrt Barrier Breaker r38031 / LuCI Trunk (svn-r9909)
Kernel Version        3.10.12

And the file I used to update firmware was [antMiner_S320141013.bin] I believe. This one was 10/13. Should I retry the next up?

Mayitzu

Go up to 20141219, its a critical update. Download is here.

Dogie... Ok different topic. I have 60 S3+ units running the previous firmware. Im having no issues. Why upgrade if they are hashing as expected?

Strato

[dogie]

Thanks for your answer!!!

My system shows in Status\Overview:

Hostname              antMiner
Model                    TP-Link TL-WR743N/ND v2
Firmware Version    OpenWrt Barrier Breaker r38031 / LuCI Trunk (svn-r9909)
Kernel Version        3.10.12

And the file I used to update firmware was [antMiner_S320141013.bin] I believe. This one was 10/13. Should I retry the next up?

Mayitzu

Go up to 20141219, its a critical update. Download is here.

Dogie... Ok different topic. I have 60 S3+ units running the previous firmware. Im having no issues. Why upgrade if they are hashing as expected?

Strato

Pre 12/19 the reset button's functionality is broken. I'm not sure at what point that problem occurred so if you have extremely old firmware [august??] you won't have that bug. Its very important to fix it as if you get network locked out etc, the controller is as good as bricked.

You'll also get a cgminer update if you're coming from a much older version. [12/19 is very similar to 10/24 but with fixed reset button.]

[gilwwong]

i just stumbled onto this support thread, perhaps a bit late it seems. i have quite a few S3's nearly all purchased directly from bitmain. they have worked without issues for many months. just yesterday one starting beeping for no reason, so i powered it off and on. now it is stuck with the two lights on (green and amber). no amount of pushing or holding the reset button does anything to get me back into it. i do believe it was running 24 Oct as all the rest (about 20) also have this same firmware. am i dead in the water or is there some other hitherto unknown miracle cure for my predicament? thanks to all for your time and considerate reply. cheers! ;-)

i read on another thread, a user named Pautado claimed that "For MY s3 the best firmware is 10/24 it is the one that gets me higher hashrates and the most stable. And yes, I know about the not working reset button and I really don't care about it... If anything goes wrong I can always flash it by serial/jtag..."

how would one go about doing the above as he suggests? thanks again...

[dogie]

i just stumbled onto this support thread, perhaps a bit late it seems. i have quite a few S3's nearly all purchased directly from bitmain. they have worked without issues for many months. just yesterday one starting beeping for no reason, so i powered it off and on. now it is stuck with the two lights on (green and amber). no amount of pushing or holding the reset button does anything to get me back into it. i do believe it was running 24 Oct as all the rest (about 20) also have this same firmware. am i dead in the water or is there some other hitherto unknown miracle cure for my predicament? thanks to all for your time and considerate reply. cheers! ;-)

i read on another thread, a user named Pautado claimed that "For MY s3 the best firmware is 10/24 it is the one that gets me higher hashrates and the most stable. And yes, I know about the not working reset button and I really don't care about it... If anything goes wrong I can always flash it by serial/jtag..."

how would one go about doing the above as he suggests? thanks again...

And this case is exactly WHY these people making misinformed decisions and trying to convert others are dangerous. Always listen to the manufacturers / experts, its like antivaxing....

Anyway, the thing is if you're not already comfortable with serial/jtag flashing then its not going to be cost efficient to learn. If you PM BitmainWarranty, they'll sort you out with a return for the controller and reflash it for you. There may be a small (reasonable) fee if the unit is out of warranty, but its worth your time if you are in the US as they can turn you around quick. Remember to include your Bitmain order number and a description of your problem [you can just quote this].

[RanjithHarsha77]

hello sir,
i have antminer s3, and i have corsair 450w psu 2 piece. it running smoothly until yesterday, today i have checked the miner. the PCI-E cable's neck was too hot to touch. what is problem with that.? plz help me

visit this link, i have posted photo of where my psu cable is hot.
http://imgur.com/6OjaFmH

sorry for bad english

thank you

[rpandassociates]

a 450w PSU is kinda small for the S3 I would think your maxing that out for sure

[dogie]

hello sir,
i have antminer s3, and i have corsair 450w psu 2 piece. it running smoothly until yesterday, today i have checked the miner. the PCI-E cable's neck was too hot to touch. what is problem with that.? plz help me

visit this link, i have posted photo of where my psu cable is hot.
http://imgur.com/6OjaFmH

What is the exact model of the PSU you were using? Your english is fine.

[RanjithHarsha77]

#rpandassociates i am runing antminer s3 with 2X 450W psu = 900W to 1 miner

[RanjithHarsha77]

#dogie

i have 2X Corsair 450W psu.

for model please visit this link : http://www.corsair.com/en-in/vs-seriestm-vs450-450-watt-power-supply

[dogie]

#dogie

i have 2X Corsair 450W psu.

for model please visit this link : http://www.corsair.com/en-in/vs-seriestm-vs450-450-watt-power-supply

Was it just one connector or one set of connectors that was too hot? If you're running 2x PSUs per S3 then there is no reason it should be getting hot at all.

[RanjithHarsha77]

#dogie
1 psu has 2 PCI-E conectors and i have connected 1 PCI-E to blade A from 1st psu and connected 1 PCI-E to blade B from 2nd psu. another 2 sockets from miner in empty only

[dogie]

#dogie
1 psu has 2 PCI-E conectors and i have connected 1 PCI-E to blade A from 1st psu and connected 1 PCI-E to blade B from 2nd psu. another 2 sockets from miner in empty only

Connect 2 PCI-E from 1st PSU to blade A and 2 PCI-E from 2nd PSU to blade B.

[usukan]

Thanks for the beep reduction idea.  My wife says your a smart guy and also thanks you.

Cheers - usukan

I like the guide.   I did a small how to on reducing the beep.

Simple easy low cost and fully reversible.


feel free to use the photos.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=701338.0

[Zich]

. I happened to sabotage the beeper on the board on antminer s3. assuming that the beeper will stop working and everything else will be fine ... but that was not the case .. looks like it is not mining at all now .

Does anyone know the model number of the beeper that is being used .. so that I can buy one and solder it back .

I guess any similar size buzzer will work.

[Ecnad]

Thanks Dogie! First-time miner here and got up and running in minutes using your guide. Only delay was a thin plastic coating on my paperclip keeping it from working on the PSU. Fixed it with a metal clip from my RC cars

[dogie]

Thanks Dogie! First-time miner here and got up and running in minutes using your guide. Only delay was a thin plastic coating on my paperclip keeping it from working on the PSU. Fixed it with a metal clip from my RC cars

No problem, damn those acrylic'ed paper clips