ANTMINER S4 Discussion and Support Thread

[Prelude]

No problem guys. One thing to note is that not all K-A-W will display the proper voltage. I have 3, and only 1 shows the proper voltage when running on 240v. Double check with a multimeter to be sure. If it doesn't read the voltage properly, the watt reading will be incorrect. They always read amperage properly, so you'll need to multiply A x V (actual volts measured with multimeter) to get your true watts.

BitmainWarranty, any news from the higher ups on what is going to be done about the S4 problems?

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[Marvell1]

No problem guys. One thing to note is that not all K-A-W will display the proper voltage. I have 3, and only 1 shows the proper voltage when running on 240v. Double check with a multimeter to be sure. If it doesn't read the voltage properly, the watt reading will be incorrect. They always read amperage properly, so you'll need to multiply A x V (actual volts measured with multimeter) to get your true watts.

BitmainWarranty, any news from the higher ups on what is going to be done about the S4 problems?

This won't work for the type of outlets i have I have a PDU with the femaie outlets.  The metered PDU i have works fine

[Prelude]

No problem guys. One thing to note is that not all K-A-W will display the proper voltage. I have 3, and only 1 shows the proper voltage when running on 240v. Double check with a multimeter to be sure. If it doesn't read the voltage properly, the watt reading will be incorrect. They always read amperage properly, so you'll need to multiply A x V (actual volts measured with multimeter) to get your true watts.

BitmainWarranty, any news from the higher ups on what is going to be done about the S4 problems?

This won't work for the type of outlets i have I have a PDU with the femaie outlets.  The metered PDU i have works fine

I replaced the C13 side of a PDU cable with a 5-15 R to be able to use the K-A-W when needed.

[MyRig]

No news yet, but sent you PM

No problem guys. One thing to note is that not all K-A-W will display the proper voltage. I have 3, and only 1 shows the proper voltage when running on 240v. Double check with a multimeter to be sure. If it doesn't read the voltage properly, the watt reading will be incorrect. They always read amperage properly, so you'll need to multiply A x V (actual volts measured with multimeter) to get your true watts.

BitmainWarranty, any news from the higher ups on what is going to be done about the S4 problems?

[abracadabra]

I solved my low fan/hash rate issue by putting the miner on 240V

the S4s seem to like the higer voltage and even at 60c I get over 2100GH now for 1.45KW

By chance do you have a kill-a-watt you can put on it?   I'm happy you fixed it just curious of how many watts it's pulling.

theres no killowatt I know of that has a 240V plug..
I have a metered PDU
http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?326761_g10e

each side has its own amp mesurement so i have each s4 on a sepratate side. Right now it shows 6 amps used for each s4 for a total of 1440 watts

There's no Kill-A-Watt but there's definitely knockoffs available for 220/240V receptacles.

Might want to consider an amp clamp instead for measuring 240v AC. Also handy for measuring DC amperage from the PSU and calculating a PSU's efficiency.

Most commonly available clamp ammeter do not allow you to measure DC using the clamp.

[Prelude]

I solved my low fan/hash rate issue by putting the miner on 240V

the S4s seem to like the higer voltage and even at 60c I get over 2100GH now for 1.45KW

By chance do you have a kill-a-watt you can put on it?   I'm happy you fixed it just curious of how many watts it's pulling.

theres no killowatt I know of that has a 240V plug..
I have a metered PDU
http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?326761_g10e

each side has its own amp mesurement so i have each s4 on a sepratate side. Right now it shows 6 amps used for each s4 for a total of 1440 watts

There's no Kill-A-Watt but there's definitely knockoffs available for 220/240V receptacles.

Might want to consider an amp clamp instead for measuring 240v AC. Also handy for measuring DC amperage from the PSU and calculating a PSU's efficiency.

Most commonly available clamp ammeter do not allow you to measure DC using the clamp.

True, you'd need a higher end amp clamp.

[vabchgent]

For 120W not exceeding 1500W WEMO works rather well .

http://www.belkin.com/us/F7C029-Belkin/p/P-F7C029;jsessionid=6B59F8516F153D99D7A30B6CCB1FA4B3/


Wemo insight

[GreydonIselmoe]

So I'm a newb when it comes to overclocking... I'm in canada so we have 120v outlets, what's the safest max I should overclock to? (Could, maybe not should)..

[Prelude]

So I'm a newb when it comes to overclocking... I'm in canada so we have 120v outlets, what's the safest max I should overclock to? (Could, maybe not should)..

You shouldn't, the stock PSU can't even handle running stock. You should also consider installing a 240V outlet if you have a few miners.

[abracadabra]

So I'm a newb when it comes to overclocking... I'm in canada so we have 120v outlets, what's the safest max I should overclock to? (Could, maybe not should)..

You shouldn't, the stock PSU can't even handle running stock. You should also consider installing a 240V outlet if you have a few miners.

This information is incorrect.  I have been able to overclock to 212.5 100% of the time with no issues whatsover on stock PSU running on 110V. Yielding about a 5.5% increase in hashrate.  A majority of the units I have experience with, will overclock at 225M with no problems.  Just make sure your ambient temp is cool enough to keep the S4 at sub 65C temps. If you can't keep temps cool enough you will start loosing chips and they'll show up with X or completely missing from the status. 

[Prelude]

So I'm a newb when it comes to overclocking... I'm in canada so we have 120v outlets, what's the safest max I should overclock to? (Could, maybe not should)..

You shouldn't, the stock PSU can't even handle running stock. You should also consider installing a 240V outlet if you have a few miners.

This information is incorrect.  I have been able to overclock to 212.5 100% of the time with no issues whatsover on stock PSU running on 110V. Yielding about a 5.5% increase in hashrate.  A majority of the units I have experience with, will overclock at 225M with no problems.  Just make sure your ambient temp is cool enough to keep the S4 at sub 65C temps. If you can't keep temps cool enough you will start loosing chips and they'll show up with X or completely missing from the status. 

And I've had more than 1 PSU fail running at 200MHz. Hard to say who's right. At 225MHz and stock voltage, the entire miner (4 hash boards + controller + fans) draws exactly 120A DC from the PSU, and the PSU is rated for 120A. If it were a quality unit, there wouldn't be any problem running 225MHz on it, but it isn't.

I'm convinced that all of the S4 PSUs will have died within 6 months max. If you're going to overclock with it, make sure you have a backup ready or you'll be pissed when your S4 is a temporary paperweight and you lose all the ground you made by running overclocked. Better yet, replace it now and have peace of mind.

[GreydonIselmoe]

So I'm a newb when it comes to overclocking... I'm in canada so we have 120v outlets, what's the safest max I should overclock to? (Could, maybe not should)..

You shouldn't, the stock PSU can't even handle running stock. You should also consider installing a 240V outlet if you have a few miners.

This information is incorrect.  I have been able to overclock to 212.5 100% of the time with no issues whatsover on stock PSU running on 110V. Yielding about a 5.5% increase in hashrate.  A majority of the units I have experience with, will overclock at 225M with no problems.  Just make sure your ambient temp is cool enough to keep the S4 at sub 65C temps. If you can't keep temps cool enough you will start loosing chips and they'll show up with X or completely missing from the status. 

And I've had more than 1 PSU fail running at 200MHz. Hard to say who's right. At 225MHz and stock voltage, the entire miner (4 hash boards + controller + fans) draws exactly 120A DC from the PSU, and the PSU is rated for 120A. If it were a quality unit, there wouldn't be any problem running 225MHz on it, but it isn't.

I'm convinced that all of the S4 PSUs will have died within 6 months max. If you're going to overclock with it, make sure you have a backup ready or you'll be pissed when your S4 is a temporary paperweight and you lose all the ground you made by running overclocked. Better yet, replace it now and have peace of mind.

Replacement PSU's are pretty expensive... I thought the newer batches had better PSU's? Am I incorrect?

[Prelude]

So I'm a newb when it comes to overclocking... I'm in canada so we have 120v outlets, what's the safest max I should overclock to? (Could, maybe not should)..

You shouldn't, the stock PSU can't even handle running stock. You should also consider installing a 240V outlet if you have a few miners.

This information is incorrect.  I have been able to overclock to 212.5 100% of the time with no issues whatsover on stock PSU running on 110V. Yielding about a 5.5% increase in hashrate.  A majority of the units I have experience with, will overclock at 225M with no problems.  Just make sure your ambient temp is cool enough to keep the S4 at sub 65C temps. If you can't keep temps cool enough you will start loosing chips and they'll show up with X or completely missing from the status. 

And I've had more than 1 PSU fail running at 200MHz. Hard to say who's right. At 225MHz and stock voltage, the entire miner (4 hash boards + controller + fans) draws exactly 120A DC from the PSU, and the PSU is rated for 120A. If it were a quality unit, there wouldn't be any problem running 225MHz on it, but it isn't.

I'm convinced that all of the S4 PSUs will have died within 6 months max. If you're going to overclock with it, make sure you have a backup ready or you'll be pissed when your S4 is a temporary paperweight and you lose all the ground you made by running overclocked. Better yet, replace it now and have peace of mind.

Replacement PSU's are pretty expensive... I thought the newer batches had better PSU's? Am I incorrect?

The trick is using cheap (but much better quality than ATX) server PSUs. I picked up 2x 2880w server PSUs for 90$ the other day.

The batch 2 and newer PSUs were improved vs batch 1, but they're still terrible. If your PSU has a sticker on the side of it, it's the newer model. I've had failures with B1 and B2+ PSUs.

[mdude77]

Replacement PSU's are pretty expensive... I thought the newer batches had better PSU's? Am I incorrect?

Mine was batch 2, and failed shortly after the 90 day warranty.

Buyer beware, Bitmain uses low quality PSUs for their miners.

M

[notlist3d]

Replacement PSU's are pretty expensive... I thought the newer batches had better PSU's? Am I incorrect?

Mine was batch 2, and failed shortly after the 90 day warranty.

Buyer beware, Bitmain uses low quality PSUs for their miners.

M

Mine are batch 2 I believe and no issues so far.   *Crosses fingers*.   It should not make a difference but I have only ran 110 on them.

I have blown dust out of the machines twice I think since getting them.  No issues so far with mine.

[Prelude]

Replacement PSU's are pretty expensive... I thought the newer batches had better PSU's? Am I incorrect?

Mine was batch 2, and failed shortly after the 90 day warranty.

Buyer beware, Bitmain uses low quality PSUs for their miners.

M

Mine are batch 2 I believe and no issues so far.   *Crosses fingers*.   It should not make a difference but I have only ran 110 on them.

I have blown dust out of the machines twice I think since getting them.  No issues so far with mine.

Weird, I ran all of mine on 240v and they still died. Running on 240 vs 120 is easier on a PSU, unless these PSUs somehow prefer 120v.

Either you're really lucky so far, or I'm really unlucky.

[notlist3d]

Replacement PSU's are pretty expensive... I thought the newer batches had better PSU's? Am I incorrect?

Mine was batch 2, and failed shortly after the 90 day warranty.

Buyer beware, Bitmain uses low quality PSUs for their miners.

M

Mine are batch 2 I believe and no issues so far.   *Crosses fingers*.   It should not make a difference but I have only ran 110 on them.

I have blown dust out of the machines twice I think since getting them.  No issues so far with mine.

Weird, I ran all of mine on 240v and they still died. Running on 240 vs 120 is easier on a PSU, unless these PSUs somehow prefer 120v.

Either you're really lucky so far, or I'm really unlucky.

The three I have at the moment were all purchased at same time.  So I could have got lucky on the batch of PSU's.   But 110 Volt entire life of all the miners. They do stay clean though.  Getting ready for summer mining was what caused me to open them up and clean.  Only 1 out of the 3 had a mild bit of dust, other 2 looked great.   

They were mostly ran in pretty cold weather with mining in winter, not sure if ambient conditions could play a role.

[Prelude]

Replacement PSU's are pretty expensive... I thought the newer batches had better PSU's? Am I incorrect?

Mine was batch 2, and failed shortly after the 90 day warranty.

Buyer beware, Bitmain uses low quality PSUs for their miners.

M

Mine are batch 2 I believe and no issues so far.   *Crosses fingers*.   It should not make a difference but I have only ran 110 on them.

I have blown dust out of the machines twice I think since getting them.  No issues so far with mine.

Weird, I ran all of mine on 240v and they still died. Running on 240 vs 120 is easier on a PSU, unless these PSUs somehow prefer 120v.

Either you're really lucky so far, or I'm really unlucky.

The three I have at the moment were all purchased at same time.  So I could have got lucky on the batch of PSU's.   But 110 Volt entire life of all the miners. They do stay clean though.  Getting ready for summer mining was what caused me to open them up and clean.  Only 1 out of the 3 had a mild bit of dust, other 2 looked great.   

They were mostly ran in pretty cold weather with mining in winter, not sure if ambient conditions could play a role.

Sounds like we have very similar conditions. Mine are basically dust fee, and ran between 0c-10c for most of the winter with occasional temps of 20-25c when I was working in the garage.

[GreydonIselmoe]

so.... im just gonna go ahead and overclock mine. Batch 3, and have had no chips drop out yet. Testing my luck?

[dmwardjr]

I have five (5) S4's.  My PSU's have worked fine.  I did not over clock mine until after warranty period was over.  They have been over clocked just a hair ever since until now.  It is starting to get warmer outside.  So, I have put them back to default settings.  The only issue I have had is with four fans in total going out.  Bitmain was great about getting replacements to me quickly.  I have extra Delta's I bought from Amazon at 5,500 RPM's and almost 240 CFM.  I had one fan go out after the warranty period and put the Delta in.  That thing is a beast.  It really moves a lot of air.

I have fourteen (14) IBM 2880W PSU's with breakout boards sitting around the house waiting to be used on something.  Maybe I will get lucky and not have to worry about a stock PSU going out on my S4's. If it occurs, I will be ready.

PS - Is anyone else having issues with not being notified of a post in a forum you are "watching" and have told it to "notify" you?