ANTMINER S4 Discussion and Support Thread

[MrGreenHat]

Is anyone else experiencing an issue using ck's s4 firmware where the S4 powers off after approximately 5 hours? I'm not even sure that the issue is a result of ck's firmware, but as i mentioned earlier in this thread I mine exclusively in the eligius pool, so if I want to achieve a hashrate > or = 2 th/s, it is necessary for me to use his firmware which seems to work excellently with Vardiff pools that don't let you set minimum worker difficulty...

Edit: I guess a better question might be- has anyone had a similar issue with their S4 powering off after approximately 4.5-5 hours (regardless of firmware)? If you have, what firmware are you using?
Is anyone using ck's s4 firmware for their S4 and has been able to run 24/7 without any issues?

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[NotFuzzyWarm]

Is anyone else experiencing an issue using ck's s4 firmware where the S4 powers off after approximately 5 hours? I'm not even sure that the issue is a result of ck's firmware, but as i mentioned earlier in this thread I mine exclusively in the eligius pool, so if I want to achieve a hashrate > or = 2 th/s, it is necessary for me to use his firmware which seems to work excellently with Vardiff pools that don't let you set minimum worker difficulty...

Edit: I guess a better question might be- has anyone had a similar issue with their S4 powering off after approximately 4.5-5 hours (regardless of firmware)? If you have, what firmware are you using?
Is anyone using ck's s4 firmware for their S4 and has been able to run 24/7 without any issues?

Running perfect here using CK's tweaked firmware. My 2 s4's have been going 24x7 for the past 2 weeks with zero issues.

Any fault lights lit by the plug on the psu? Using the right power cord that has at least 16ga wire in it? 14ga would be ideal. Per my UPS the s4 pulls 12.6A with 120v feed. A 'normal' cord is 18ga and definitely not a good idea as they are only rated to 8 amps and aside from getting rather warm will also produce a large voltage drop between the wall and the psu...

[bgibso01]

I pointed out in an earlier post that with CK's fix, the 5s average shows zero.  I propose we leave this as is until Bitmain fixes their firmware so that it's an easy tell that the machine has rebooted and is not using CK's fix.

Just my thoughts.

[MrGreenHat]

Is anyone else experiencing an issue using ck's s4 firmware where the S4 powers off after approximately 5 hours? I'm not even sure that the issue is a result of ck's firmware, but as i mentioned earlier in this thread I mine exclusively in the eligius pool, so if I want to achieve a hashrate > or = 2 th/s, it is necessary for me to use his firmware which seems to work excellently with Vardiff pools that don't let you set minimum worker difficulty...

Edit: I guess a better question might be- has anyone had a similar issue with their S4 powering off after approximately 4.5-5 hours (regardless of firmware)? If you have, what firmware are you using?
Is anyone using ck's s4 firmware for their S4 and has been able to run 24/7 without any issues?

apparently it was just a coincidence that the first few times I ran ck's firmware that it powered off after 5 hours or so; it was likely due to weather that may have caused the electricity to go out. I have now been running t successfully for 24 hrs straight without issues. I also see 0 as my 5s avg but it's mo big deal bc it's obvious what your actual, real average is in the next column, certainly not a huge issue at the moment...

[MrGreenHat]

I pointed out in an earlier post that with CK's fix, the 5s average shows zero.  I propose we leave this as is until Bitmain fixes their firmware so that it's an easy tell that the machine has rebooted and is not using CK's fix.

Just my thoughts.

agreed

[bolehvpn]

Interestingly, when using the old S4 firmware WITH CK's fix and queue 0 i was still getting hash rates in about 1920-1930 on my P2Pool node.

When I updated the S4 firmware (20141016), placed the queue 0 setting in and used CK's fixed cgminer, I'm now in the 1970-1990 range with my P2Pool node.

Just thought I'll let you all know

[dogie]

Interestingly, when using the old S4 firmware WITH CK's fix and queue 0 i was still getting hash rates in about 1920-1930 on my P2Pool node.

When I updated the S4 firmware (20141016), placed the queue 0 setting in and used CK's fixed cgminer, I'm now in the 1970-1990 range with my P2Pool node.

Just thought I'll let you all know

Sounds about right, the latest firmware definitely had a small hash rate bump in it.

[BITMAIN]

AntMiner S4 Passes ISTA® Test
                                                                                                                                — Ensure the Safety and Stability of Miner

We have drawn on the delivery experiences of AntMiner S2, design the S4 with less hash blades and adjust the space structure in each box to bring a light and portable model, enhancing the stability of the machine. What’s more, we improve the packaging type and materials to minimize the damage during transportation. And now S4’s package is successfully tested by the methods meeting the regulations of ISTA 1A & ISTA 3A. The entire outer packaging is good enough and S4 is still working normally after critical testing. ISTA® test pass plays an important role in ensuring the safety and stability of the AntMiner S4 in delivery process. 

In addition, the power supply issue of AntMiner S4 has been solved properly. The replacement PSUs we announced early are almost processed and we will be focusing on issuing the compensation to the effected customers this week.

We really appreciate every customer’s great support on BITMAIN. We do always have the time listening and humbly accepting your suggestion on the miners and other products of BITMAIN. And will spare no effort to design the miner that benefits all the bitcoin players!
 
*ISTA  http://www.ista.org/
International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) is an organization focused on the specific concerns of transport packaging. ISTA pioneered package performance testing and certification more than 60 years ago and today is the most trusted, knowledgeable, and respected authority in package-performance testing.

[bgibso01]

Great!  Now that we can get them here in one piece, let's get the firmware updated so it can work without having to apply fixes to it every time it has to reboot.

[PatMan]

Great!  Now that we can get them here in one piece, let's get the firmware updated so it can work without having to apply fixes to it every time it has to reboot.

+1

And test it properly to make sure that it works with every pool.....

[captjrc]

When I tried to follow the directions below to update my S4, when I enter "chmod +x cgminer" I get "chmod: cgminer: No such file or directory.
What do I need to do to correct this so I can finish with the update?
Thanks in advance for all the help!

Thank you so much for the time you've invested to make the S4 more funtional, ckolivas. I'm going to send you a donation tomorrow morning.

I'd like to try ck's new version tomorrow, but I have no idea how to go about updating cgminer. Can anyone shed some light, or point me towards a guide?

Assuming your S4's IP address was say 192.168.1.99:

Code:

ssh -l root 192.168.1.99 (or equivalent with putty)
wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s4/4.6.1-141018/cgminer
mv /usr/bin/cgminer /usr/bin/cgminer.bak
chmod +x cgminer
mv cgminer /usr/bin/cgminer
/etc/init.d/cgminer.sh restart

I think that might not keep across a power cycle though.

I did this, turned the power off, turned it back on, and I have noticed that the web gui has become quite slow?
previously when navigating through it, it was quite fast on loading pages, etc

Also, after ssh the above, after reboot, in terminal it shows;

PARAMS = --bitmain-dev /dev/bitmain-asic --bitmain-options 115200:32:8:7:200:0782:0725 --bitmain-checkn2diff --bitmain-hwerror --queue 8192

Is that anything important?

Thank you for your help ck.

[suchmoon]

When I tried to follow the directions below to update my S4, when I enter "chmod +x cgminer" I get "chmod: cgminer: No such file or directory.
What do I need to do to correct this so I can finish with the update?
Thanks in advance for all the help!

Did wget succeed?

Try doing wget line again and make sure it downloads the file.

Check where you are and what files you have:

pwd
ls -al

[pikachuy]

How do we do something like a power cycle to reset the O's and X's on the chips through SSH?

For example, sometimes I see X's on the chips and when I reboot through the GUI, it doesn't get corrected. It's only when I manually do a power cycle by powering it off and on from the power button is when all the chips turn back to O's on the status page.

The reason I am asking is because sometimes I get X's and i reboot it from the GUI remotely through a VPN and it doesn't get fixed. I don't want to have to keep going there and manually power cycle it every time because my S4 is located about an hour away and it's a hassle =(.

Any ideas?

[captjrc]

When I tried to follow the directions below to update my S4, when I enter "chmod +x cgminer" I get "chmod: cgminer: No such file or directory.
What do I need to do to correct this so I can finish with the update?
Thanks in advance for all the help!

Did wget succeed?

Try doing wget line again and make sure it downloads the file.

Check where you are and what files you have:

pwd
ls -al

Here is what it looks like:

Connecting to ck.kolivas.org  (193.19.136.183:80)
index.html                 100%  |**************************|  768  0:00:00 ETA
root@beaglebone:~# mv /usr/bin/cgminer usr/bin/cgminer.bak
root@beaglebone:~# chmod +x cgminer
chmod:  cgminer:  No such file or directory
root@beaglebone:~#

Any ideas???

[TracerX]

How do we do something like a power cycle to reset the O's and X's on the chips through SSH?

For example, sometimes I see X's on the chips and when I reboot through the GUI, it doesn't get corrected. It's only when I manually do a power cycle by powering it off and on from the power button is when all the chips turn back to O's on the status page.

The reason I am asking is because sometimes I get X's and i reboot it from the GUI remotely through a VPN and it doesn't get fixed. I don't want to have to keep going there and manually power cycle it every time because my S4 is located about an hour away and it's a hassle =(.

Any ideas?

I've spent some time thinking this through, and haven't come up with a great solution.  "shutdown -h now" won't clear the x's, the only thing I've found is killing the power at the PSU and bringing it back up, which is difficult to pull off without being in the DC.

Maybe someone know a trick we don't?

[suchmoon]

Here is what it looks like:

Connecting to ck.kolivas.org  (193.19.136.183:80)
index.html                 100%  |**************************|  768  0:00:00 ETA
root@beaglebone:~# mv /usr/bin/cgminer usr/bin/cgminer.bak
root@beaglebone:~# chmod +x cgminer
chmod:  cgminer:  No such file or directory
root@beaglebone:~#

Any ideas???

You are downloading index.html instead of cgminer. I just tried wget myself, it fetched cgminer correctly for me. Make sure you're running the wget command with the correct URL. Are you behind a proxy server by any chance?

wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s4/4.6.1-141018/cgminer

Edit: if you can't get it to work download the file to your computer and use scp (WinSCP if Windows) to copy it to the Ant.

[edgar]

Good Luck All!!

After 5 months of lies and empty/broken promises, Bitmain has finally asked for my wallet address and has agreed to pay up the compensation owed.

Once this is paid i will bow out of Bitmain threads indefinitely.

[Minnesooooota]

hi what pools are you guys using with success for the S4? ghash?

[Xian01]

That's a nice little unit at a nice price, but I'd need quite a few of them!  1200 watts is enough for two (but not quote 3) Antminer S-3's, but not quite enough for an S4...

* dkaufman is googling a bigger one right now..

Don't the S3's draw 355W? You should be able to fit 3 on one of these little guys?

Yep. I run three S3's on a single Corsair AX-1200 no problem. Loves those power supplies.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

How do we do something like a power cycle to reset the O's and X's on the chips through SSH?

For example, sometimes I see X's on the chips and when I reboot through the GUI, it doesn't get corrected. It's only when I manually do a power cycle by powering it off and on from the power button is when all the chips turn back to O's on the status page.

The reason I am asking is because sometimes I get X's and i reboot it from the GUI remotely through a VPN and it doesn't get fixed. I don't want to have to keep going there and manually power cycle it every time because my S4 is located about an hour away and it's a hassle =(.

Any ideas?

I've spent some time thinking this through, and haven't come up with a great solution.  "shutdown -h now" won't clear the x's, the only thing I've found is killing the power at the PSU and bringing it back up, which is difficult to pull off without being in the DC.

Maybe someone know a trick we don't?

As a general any ASIC mining chip can only be fully reset by cycling the power off/on. To remotely cycle power get something like this http://www.wifiplug.co.uk/