ANTMINER S4 Discussion and Support Thread

[dogie]

I posted pictures of my PSU and you can clearly see it had a significant arc of electricity .

That's heat damage, not arcing.

[bolehvpn]

Ugh my hash rate is fluctuating wildly... even with the latest firmware.

On the miner it reports all is well but it either hashes at only 1.7 gh as reported on the pool or it drops to a few gh and then goes up crazily then drops down again.

Is this normal?

[dogie]

Ugh my hash rate is fluctuating wildly... even with the latest firmware.

On the miner it reports all is well but it either hashes at only 1.7 gh as reported on the pool or it drops to a few gh and then goes up crazily then drops down again.

Is this normal?

What pool and difficulty?

[Incanus]

I can confirm that setting the difficulty to 2048 on Slush's works perfectly.  Increased my hash rate to 2.0T and increased my payout by .0015 per block.   

[dkaufman]

Ugh my hash rate is fluctuating wildly... even with the latest firmware.

On the miner it reports all is well but it either hashes at only 1.7 gh as reported on the pool or it drops to a few gh and then goes up crazily then drops down again.

Is this normal?

Sounds like you haven't read back through around page 32 - 33 of this topic in which

Thanks, that's all anyone can ask!

Fudged my way through a cross compile, wedged shit in here and there, patched stuff, moved stuff around, can't remember what I did, but here's a binary:

http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s4/4.6.1-141009/cgminer

I have no idea if it really is for the right architecture, where you stick it on their filesystem or what to make it work or if it will just explode in a ball of flames, but there it is.

If you haven't already, you need to ssh into your S4, download that patched cgminer binary from the link, and replace the /usr/bin/cgminer that shipped with the machine (version 3.6.x) or that you got from the first S4 firmware update on bitmain's site (which was 4.6.1, but not with these vardiff fixes).

It fixes a problem in which the underpowered S4 controller board can't keep up with the pool software rapidly adjusting its difficulty upward when you first join a pool.  This, combined with using a pool which lets you set your worker's minimum difficulty ~ 2048 (i've been using 2250, as my S4 is slightly overclocked) has finally allowed my S4 to attain its "guaranteed 2TH" rate on my preferred pool (Slush's, which just added back the minimum diff setting in response to this issue).

Some are saying you don't need that patch, that bitmain has updated the firmware on their site (but changing the contents of the tarball they already had up there, without changing the date in the file name, just seems a little squirrely to me).  Others seem to be saying that using a pool with a min-diff setting ~ 2048 obviates the need for Con's  updated / customized version of the cgminer code, but that was not my experience.  I hadn't seen my S4 operate with a stable 2TH hash rate on any pool until I had both the updated cgminer running and a pool that let me set the diff to 2048.

So ymmv but thats been my experience.  Now back to watching youtube videos about how to install hot air ducts to deliver the hot air from the miners in the basement up to the rest of the house.  It's getting COLD in northeastern PA!

thanks,

-dave

[HerbPean]

Just my 2 cents but we all know they run/test those machines before they ship it. They had PSU failure and they closed their eyes ...

This is really sad ...

[-ck]

I could no longer watch having seen how much breakage there was so I've created a new binary for S4

http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s4/4.6.1-141014/cgminer

Usual warnings apply, seems to work in places where the other one didn't. Supports --suggest-diff though only ckpool has that implemented. You should probably add --lowmem to your command line options for it.

[Sandhog]

So ymmv but thats been my experience.  Now back to watching youtube videos about how to install hot air ducts to deliver the hot air from the miners in the basement up to the rest of the house.  It's getting COLD in northeastern PA!

thanks,

-dave

Does S4 heat up your house as good as S1s and S3s? If so, it should be good for the winter months. Summer months will be another story with AC and fans blasting.

[Minnesooooota]

Ordered my S4 over a week ago. Still hasn't shipped... what's up with that?! 

[bolehvpn]

I could no longer watch having seen how much breakage there was so I've created a new binary for S4

http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s4/4.6.1-141014/cgminer

Usual warnings apply, seems to work in places where the other one didn't. Supports --suggest-diff though only ckpool has that implemented. You should probably add --lowmem to your command line options for it.

Thank you! Giving it a try. Will let u know.

Ugh my hash rate is fluctuating wildly... even with the latest firmware.

On the miner it reports all is well but it either hashes at only 1.7 gh as reported on the pool or it drops to a few gh and then goes up crazily then drops down again.

Is this normal?

What pool and difficulty?

It was at ghash and also bitcoindigger. For ghash I tried locking difficulty to 2048. Still varies a bit. Trying the new cgminer now.

[Sandhog]

Just my 2 cents but we all know they run/test those machines before they ship it. They had PSU failure and they closed their eyes ...

This is really sad ...

I think you have a valid point. Unless, they only tested for less than a week prior to shipping. I would give them the benefit of doubt since they have been really good miner manufacturer. I'm sure all the miners have horror stories with other ASIC miner manufacturers especially with pre-orders not delivering on time and many problems from the start.

I definitely will purchase S4s. But it's matter of when I see most of the miners are satisfy. There will be few who will never be satisfied no matter what.

[bolehvpn]

I could no longer watch having seen how much breakage there was so I've created a new binary for S4

http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s4/4.6.1-141014/cgminer

Usual warnings apply, seems to work in places where the other one didn't. Supports --suggest-diff though only ckpool has that implemented. You should probably add --lowmem to your command line options for it.

I have changed the binary in /usr/bin set it to permissions 0755 but where do I change the command line?

[-ck]

I could no longer watch having seen how much breakage there was so I've created a new binary for S4

http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s4/4.6.1-141014/cgminer

Usual warnings apply, seems to work in places where the other one didn't. Supports --suggest-diff though only ckpool has that implemented. You should probably add --lowmem to your command line options for it.

I have changed the binary in /usr/bin set it to permissions 0755 but where do I change the command line?

in /etc/init.d/cgminer.sh

[bolehvpn]

I could no longer watch having seen how much breakage there was so I've created a new binary for S4

http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s4/4.6.1-141014/cgminer

Usual warnings apply, seems to work in places where the other one didn't. Supports --suggest-diff though only ckpool has that implemented. You should probably add --lowmem to your command line options for it.

I have changed the binary in /usr/bin set it to permissions 0755 but where do I change the command line?

in /etc/init.d/cgminer.sh

Line 61
PARAMS="--bitmain-dev /dev/bitmain-asic --bitmain-options 115200:32:8:$timeout:$chip_value:$freq_value:0725 --bitmain-checkn2diff --bitmain-hwerror --queue 8192 --lowmem"

That look right?

Very peculiar, the hash rate shows 2TH but the pool shows only a couple of gh after 20 minutes of running. Wonder where the heck is it hashing to. Doing another reboot.

[-ck]

Line 61
PARAMS="--bitmain-dev /dev/bitmain-asic --bitmain-options 115200:32:8:$timeout:$chip_value:$freq_value:0725 --bitmain-checkn2diff --bitmain-hwerror --queue 8192 --lowmem"

That look right?

Very peculiar, the hash rate shows 2TH but the pool shows only a couple of gh after 20 minutes of running. Wonder where the heck is it hashing to. Doing another reboot.

Yeah it does. Not sure how many things I fixed, and which pools got better... queue 8192 is once again excessive and could probably be removed entirely. Make sure you actually are running the new binary too...

[bolehvpn]

Very strange. See the horrible LSDIFF



But reporting on the pool only 1.19 th.

[-ck]

Very strange. See the horrible LSDIFF



But reporting on the pool only 1.19 th.

lowmem disables diff calculation on this binary. It needs all the help it can get...

Please note, this is NOT a complete rewrite of the driver. It's just a set of hacks to work around various fails as I saw them.

[bolehvpn]

Cool thanks!

yeah think i have the right binary now. (it restores the original binary after every reboot?)

There's no longer any gh/5s reporting either just the avg.

It's now averaging about 1.7

[-ck]

Cool thanks!

yeah think i have the right binary now. (it restores the original binary after every reboot?)

There's no longer any gh/5s reporting either just the avg.

It's now averaging about 1.7

That's about all I got when I tried it unless the pool supported a higher diff setting. At least it's better than sitting at 125Ghish... This driver really needs a thorough reworking, not this hack that I've just done.

If you're already on a pool with the previous binary and happy with your hashrate, there is no point upgrading to this binary.

[bolehvpn]

Thanks no I'm glad the thing even works. The funny thing is that it was hashing out of the box without issues for about a week. albeit at about 1.7-1.8 thereabouts despite it being reported as 2TH in the miner.

Then just yesterday both of the miners started going hay wire...I don't know if it's got anything to do with PSUs failing