ANTMINER S4 Discussion and Support Thread

[jimmothy]

Now for the: Questions That Are Eating Away At Me Currently

Power Cord: The Bitmain site says the A/C power cord (that they don't supply) must be rated for 6 amps ("Power line not included. You may look for one line with no less than 16A in your local market").  Those are kinda hard to find!  I'm currently powering the S4 with a standard 10A PC power supply power cord.  I do have a 16A one (it came with my EVGA SuperNOVA 1300G2 power supply, but it's busy powering my two S3's).  You can definitely feel the thicker wire gauge, heavier weight and increased stiffness in the 16 amp compared to the flimsy-by-comparison standard 10 amp AC cords.  But I had lots of flimsy 10 amp cords laying around and I wasn't about to wait 2 more days to start hashing while i wait for this new one to arrive:

  Tripp Lite Heavy Duty Power Cord, 16A,14AWG (NEMA 5-15P to IEC-320-C15) 8-ft.(P019-008)
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0091F8GP6/
  $21.22 (free 2 day shipping if you have Amazon Prime)

So my first question is:

A. Does the S4 really *need* this monster $20 A/C cord?

-- or (put into more practical terms) --

2. is my house gonna burn down today (with my family in it) while I'm at work cuz I couldn't wait to start hashing? or

III. DId I just waste $20 on a monster A/C cord because Bitmain exaggerated its requirements?

I'm no expert but I believe it depends on your voltage. If it's 120V(like most wall outlets in the US) it would use 12.5A but if it's 220V it would only need ~7A.

[1714187343]

1714187343

[suchmoon]

A. Does the S4 really *need* this monster $20 A/C cord?

-- or (put into more practical terms) --

2. is my house gonna burn down today (with my family in it) while I'm at work cuz I couldn't wait to start hashing? or

III. DId I just waste $20 on a monster A/C cord because Bitmain exaggerated its requirements?

A. Yes and no. See dogie's link for a cheaper cord. 15A is enough.
2. Maybe not. Not all 10A cords are equal. Depends also on ambient temperature and other factors. Make sure it's not getting hot. House fire isn't very likely unless you have highly flammable materials nearby. But a cheap underrated cord could melt, short, and trip the breaker.
III. Sort of. See above.

[mrpark]

First, use the right cord. DO NOT EVER use a 10 amp cord for mining, especially on a 1400W power supply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did it by accident one time because i picked up the wrong cable on a 1000W power supply and the cord was hot to the touch. Most likely that is a no name 10amp cord. Not all cords are made the same, best to go with a brand name. Run the miner for a while (I woudnt even try this on a 10amp cord), (perhaps a few hours) and then feel the cords, also feel your electrical wires if you can. Yes, the cord will melt, also if your power supply is starved for power, it will damage your miner. Use a 20 amp circuit.  Don't play games with any of this, don't use long extension cords.  Just don't don't do it.  BTW, the same theory holds true for installing amplifiers in your car using DC, if you don't use a big enough power cable, the AMP will be starved for power and blow the amp. You may very well blow your miner with a 10 amp cord.

This one is 15amp, but there might be a reason they said 16amp. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027JRMD0/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Power Cord: The Bitmain site says the A/C power cord (that they don't supply) must be rated for 6 amps ("Power line not included. You may look for one line with no less than 16A in your local market").  Those are kinda hard to find!  I'm currently powering the S4 with a standard 10A PC power supply power cord.  I do have a 16A one (it came with my EVGA SuperNOVA 1300G2 power supply, but it's busy powering my two S3's).  You can definitely feel the thicker wire gauge, heavier weight and increased stiffness in the 16 amp compared to the flimsy-by-comparison standard 10 amp AC cords.  But I had lots of flimsy 10 amp cords laying around and I wasn't about to wait 2 more days to start hashing while i wait for this new one to arrive:

  Tripp Lite Heavy Duty Power Cord, 16A,14AWG (NEMA 5-15P to IEC-320-C15) 8-ft.(P019-008)
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0091F8GP6/
  $21.22 (free 2 day shipping if you have Amazon Prime)

So my first question is:

A. Does the S4 really *need* this monster $20 A/C cord?

-- or (put into more practical terms) --

2. is my house gonna burn down today (with my family in it) while I'm at work cuz I couldn't wait to start hashing? or

III. DId I just waste $20 on a monster A/C cord because Bitmain exaggerated its requirements?

[dogie]

Can we get actual proper specs on the included PSU?

Is this close?

1400w or 116.66A continuous 12v output? Assuming 88% efficiency, that should read as about 1591w at the wall if the miner is consuming 1400w DC correct? Who manufactures the PSU? I get a little nervous when I read "custom PSU".

It's 1400w at the wall.

No, I'm pretty sure the PSU can output 1400W DC. PSUs are never rated with what they draw at the wall.

Its a 1400W DC PSU, ie 116A @ 12V.

[Prelude]

Can we get actual proper specs on the included PSU?

Is this close?

1400w or 116.66A continuous 12v output? Assuming 88% efficiency, that should read as about 1591w at the wall if the miner is consuming 1400w DC correct? Who manufactures the PSU? I get a little nervous when I read "custom PSU".

It's 1400w at the wall.

No, I'm pretty sure the PSU can output 1400W DC. PSUs are never rated with what they draw at the wall.

Its a 1400W DC PSU, ie 116A @ 12V.

Any idea who manufactured the PSU?

[Prelude]

Just took delivery of my S4. Cost an extra $220 at the door for customs in Canada.

Nice looking box, kill-a-watt is reading 1308w on 240v.

Going to have to reverse the fans as the airflow won't work for my setup.

Why wouldn't you just turn the box round

I could, but then I wouldn't get to see the screen. 

[tom04137]

I just got mine yesterday and was surprised how fast it shipped (2 days)
I am have trouble getting my hashrate up to 2 TB currently

I first tried eligius and couldn't get it above 250 G/h..


Then i settled with Nicehash for the night and got a average hash of 1.4 T/H


Currently set on BTC guild for the last hour with a average of 1.6 T/h





I'll post more of the miner stats when I get home; frustrating I can't get the promised speed of 2 T/H.  My first guess is the CG miner is out of date.

Same problem here with slush pool and bitminter pool.

Slush pool says 1550-1600GHs
Bitminter jumps between 1300 and 2050GHs

Anyone else with the same problem?

Here are Miner webui and screenshot from slushs pool:




other miners are Ant S1, the last is the S4

[dlowings]

I'm on slushes pool, it don't report right at all, but I did notice a large number of discards on all three machines… I suspect that is impacting the overall performance of the S4… Anyone else have any ideas ?

[tom04137]

I'm on slushes pool, it don't report right at all, but I did notice a large number of discards on all three machines… I suspect that is impacting the overall performance of the S4… Anyone else have any ideas ?

Look at my screenshot I have also an extreme high number of discarded. But why?

Is any update for the S4 available?

[sjc1490]

I'm on slushes pool, it don't report right at all, but I did notice a large number of discards on all three machines… I suspect that is impacting the overall performance of the S4… Anyone else have any ideas ?

Try http://stratum.bitcoin.cz:3333 instead and the S3's also have a high disregard rate, don't think it is anything to be concerned about. I know people were tweaking the settings in the cgminer script trying to get them down and CK advised back then to stop as it wasn't effecting anything not to be worried about it. Since he wrote cgminer I decided to leave them alone as he should know. On Slush's pool it will take a couple of hours for the front end to report your correct speed.

[TracerX]

[...]trying to get them down and CK advised back then to stop as it wasn't effecting anything not to be worried about it. Since he wrote cgminer I decided to leave them alone as he should know. On Slush's pool it will take a couple of hours for the front end to report your correct speed.

CK did say that the discards don't matter at all on BM gear, and wasn't even sure why they included that number on the stat page.  That said, I'm interested to see what speeds we average out to with standard clocks... I have an S2 that's never _quite_ worked up to spec, and am wary about replacing with with an S4.

[sjc1490]

Here is the link about disregards from CK: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=671189.msg8056057#msg8056057

[Prelude]

Only pools working properly for me are Btcguild and Ghash.io. Even then, Ghash.io sometimes needs the S4 to be powered down and restarted to work properly. Use Btcguild until firmware fixes these issues.

[dlowings]

[...]trying to get them down and CK advised back then to stop as it wasn't effecting anything not to be worried about it. Since he wrote cgminer I decided to leave them alone as he should know. On Slush's pool it will take a couple of hours for the front end to report your correct speed.

CK did say that the discards don't matter at all on BM gear, and wasn't even sure why they included that number on the stat page.  That said, I'm interested to see what speeds we average out to with standard clocks... I have an S2 that's never _quite_ worked up to spec, and am wary about replacing with with an S4.

you'll be good to go with the S4 if that is your own worry… I have owned both .

[dlowings]

is there doing to be a comprehensive tech thread ? I would like to know things like "replacement PSU" , photos of parts ext like with products past .

[FlensGold]

I also have this underperforming problem with an S4.
Although the "Mining Status" shows 2000+GH/s I only get ~100GH/s @ghash.io and about 200GH/s at eligius.st.
I am using a 10A power cord since we have 220V here (1400W / 220V = ~6,4A) and do not expect that this is the problem.

I would recommend any suggestions on the performance, thanks.

[fishdojo]

Hey guys, changed my difficulty setting on BTC guild and saw a drop in my stales

https://i.imgur.com/7m8JrLB.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/zzBidsC.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/3dYmurM.jpg?1

[IYFTech]

Hmmmm, could someone tell me what version of cgminer these come with?

Also, if someone wouldn't mind telling me how they fair on p2pool - that would be cool. Even better, point one at my node for 10 mins using a wallet addy as your username:

stratum+tcp://iyftech.zapto.org:9332

.....just so I can see how they perform with p2pool & weather I should get one or not....

Thanks in advance 

[gallery2000]

Hi,

Are you still planning to ship your miners via Hong Kong?  How would the demonstration in HK affect your logistics?

[awaygotroubles]

Hi,

Are you still planning to ship your miners via Hong Kong?  How would the demonstration in HK affect your logistics?

My S3's came from Shenzhen straight to Anchorage and never went through Hong Kong. I think they are located in Beijing, China.