ANTMINER S4 Discussion and Support Thread

[bittalc1]

Hi guys, one noob question
I ordered 5 s4 and they are on their way, i was reading allot , but im little confused on which pool to connect when my antminers arrive. What pools do u guys use? I'm beginner in this mining and the whole bitcoin world, any suggestions are appreciated.

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[dmwardjr]

Hi guys, one noob question
I ordered 5 s4 and they are on their way, i was reading allot , but im little confused on which pool to connect when my antminers arrive. What pools do u guys use? I'm beginner in this mining and the whole bitcoin world, any suggestions are appreciated.

Hi bittalc1,

If you read the posts just above the one you posted, you will notice the S4's are not good for most pools who mine multiple crypto coins.  I recommend you pointing your rigs at a pool and stay their a while.  At least a month.  All miners have their preferences.  I've mined at several.  

I really like these four [in no order for any particular reason at all] that are good for your S4:  

Eligius           Pool sight:     http://eligius.st/~wizkid057/newstats/
                    Pool Forum:   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=441465.0

Slush            Pool sight:     https://beta.mining.bitcoin.cz/home/
                    Pool Forum:   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1976.0

BTCGuild       Pool sight:     https://www.btcguild.com
                    Pool Forum:   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49417.0

CKPool          Pool sight:     http://www.kano.is
                    Pool Forum:   https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=789369.0

The payouts are approximately the same across all of them.  It can vary between them from month to month BASED OFF OF LUCK!  One pool is liable to me more lucky than the other each and every day.  The problem is: we don't know which one will be more lucky than the other from day to day.

Which ever one you choose to go to first, stay there for at least a month before going to another and then another.  After you've mined them all, you be the one to decide which one you prefer over another.

Happy Mining!  Once you get your S4's...

[bittalc1]

thanks dmwardjr! i cant wait to start this journey

[dmwardjr]

thanks dmwardjr! i cant wait to start this journey

No problem!

Have any questions; come to the forums and enter in the search engine what you want to find out.  If you still have a problem finding it, just ask someone in what you deem is the appropriate forum.

Good Luck to you!

Regards,

David

[dogie]

Hi guys, one noob question
I ordered 5 s4 and they are on their way, i was reading allot , but im little confused on which pool to connect when my antminers arrive. What pools do u guys use? I'm beginner in this mining and the whole bitcoin world, any suggestions are appreciated.

Here are the biggest pools:

Antpool ^Register!

Code:

Servers : stratum+tcp://stratum.antpool.com:3333
User    : username.worker or username_worker - auto creates workers!
Password: anypassword

Bitminter ^Register!

Code:

Servers : stratum+tcp://mint.bitminter.com:3333
User    : username_worker
Password: anypassword

BTCGuild ^Register!

Code:

Servers : stratum+tcp://stratum.btcguild.com:3333
User    : username_worker
Password: anypassword

GHash IO ^Register!

Code:

Servers : stratum+tcp://us1.ghash.io:3333
User    : username.worker  - auto creates workers!
Password: anypassword

Eligius ^Register!

Code:

Servers : stratum+tcp://stratum.mining.eligius.st:3334
User    : payoutbitcoinaddress
Password: anypassword

Discus Fish ^Register!

Code:

Servers : stratum+tcp://stratum.f2pool.com:3333
User    : username or username.worker  - auto creates workers!
Password: anypassword

PolMine ^Register!

Code:

Servers : stratum+tcp://api.polmine.pl:4012
User    : worker
Password: password

Slush ^Register!

Code:

Servers : stratum+tcp://stratum.bitcoin.cz:3333
User    : username.worker
Password: password

[sEpuLchEr]

I've tried a few and my favourite now is slush, especially with their new interface.

ghash - stable but small payments, but can be very confusing for beginners. Log in is through cex.io and then you have to find your way to ghash from there...
ckpool - good simple pool, but currently, due to low hashing power, not very profitable. I believe it will be a good pool once they get enough miners.
eligius - don't understand their payout system, super confusing (for me)
slush - Easy, and as of now, I feel the payout is fair (even though it's very complicated and with a rather high pool fee), but funny thing is, I seem to get more from slush than any other.
antpool - hashrate update is SLOW. Only realised I have some btc balance there after a few days...

This is just my opinion. Nothing else.

[philipma1957]

Okay I may grab one or two  of these.  I am interested in under clocked results.   

so is anyone running freq 187.5  with 0.685 volts?       if so what do you  get for hash rate watts/ power numbers and fan speeds?


better yet has anyone done freq 175 with 0.670 volts?  if so what do you get for hashrate watts used and fan speed?

TIA

philipma1957

[Cassey]

Okay I may grab one or two  of these.  I am interested in under clocked results.   

so is anyone running freq 187.5  with 0.685 volts?       if so what do you  get for hash rate watts/ power numbers and fan speeds?


better yet has anyone done freq 175 with 0.670 volts?  if so what do you get for hashrate watts used and fan speed?

TIA

philipma1957

Ask and yea shall receive (at least sometimes!):  http://puu.sh/d3BqI/ad9aaf7d23.png - 187.5 at 0.685V.

[audiotopix]

For Dogie, regarding my issue,

I have power cycled, rebooted, checked connections, reset to defaults, reloaded firmware,, and still cant seem to get these chips to pop up,,



out of the 11 that we have this is the only issue.

we have 9 more on the way, should get them today!


Also I noticed people talking about pools,, we use miningrigrentals to rent our gear but when it isnt rented,, My favorite pool to use is Bitcoin Affiliate Network,

They have ports specifically for difficulty *2048* so if you choose the proper port for your miners you dont have to worry about the share Diff as it is locked in.

They also pay per share so your not waiting on the pool to find a block to get paid,, they pay every 2 hrs per share,, and they are paying 10% OVER as a bonus.

[Kexkey]

...
They also pay per share so your not waiting on the pool to find a block to get paid,, they pay every 2 hrs per share,, and they are paying 10% OVER as a bonus.

Curious... How can they pay 10% over?  Where do they get the extra 10% bitcoins?

Thanks for the info!

[Cyper_BLC]

Okay I may grab one or two  of these.  I am interested in under clocked results.  

so is anyone running freq 187.5  with 0.685 volts?       if so what do you  get for hash rate watts/ power numbers and fan speeds?


better yet has anyone done freq 175 with 0.670 volts?  if so what do you get for hashrate watts used and fan speed?

TIA

philipma1957

Ask and yea shall receive (at least sometimes!):  http://puu.sh/d3BqI/ad9aaf7d23.png - 187.5 at 0.685V.

This is my best config, you can leave 2 front Fans. machine temperature not higher 50 celcius. fan speeds around 3000rpm.
you can find my J7 problem with this way.
if your chain 1 (J7connector is chain1) has higher temperature, you must to check voltage and J7 cable. probably chain1 feeding higher voltage, not our setted voltage. This problem is my nightmare. i am working on it.

[audiotopix]

...
They also pay per share so your not waiting on the pool to find a block to get paid,, they pay every 2 hrs per share,, and they are paying 10% OVER as a bonus.

Curious... How can they pay 10% over?  Where do they get the extra 10% bitcoins?

Thanks for the info!

Honestly,, I dont know but they do,, Ive been mining there for a month, and its been great.

[MrGreenHat]

My miner perfect work at a frequency of 268.75 - 275, and outputs the 2500-2700 ghesh

Seriously?

EDIT: I noticed you are using 2 PSU's instead of the PSU that comes with the S4, in that case, that makes more sense, as they can deliver a hell of a lot more power than a 1200W PSU. For those using the PSU that comes with the S4, do not expect such results, but then again if you have some spare PSU's this seems like a really really good idea, in fact I just might have to give it a shot at some point.

[Kexkey]

My miner perfect work at a frequency of 268.75 - 275, and outputs the 2500-2700 ghesh

Seriously?

I tried it and the S4 kept rebooting.  I was lucky to be able to switch back frequency during the 3 second window, after the web server is up and before the reboot.  I would not recommend it, definitely.

[MrGreenHat]

My miner perfect work at a frequency of 268.75 - 275, and outputs the 2500-2700 ghesh

Seriously?

I tried it and the S4 kept rebooting.  I was lucky to be able to switch back frequency during the 3 second window, after the web server is up and before the reboot.  I would not recommend it, definitely.

Yeah, definitely not going to happen with the stock PSU, but then again, the stock does deliver the advertised speeds, so i have no reason to complain. If anyone wants to try to achieve tfoto's hashrate, try using some PSU's that will deliver plenty of wattage  and see if you can get the same results, and if you do, I would appreciate it if you would let us know .

[NotFuzzyWarm]

For various reasons I've added a rather nice always online UPS http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups-systems/smart-app-ups/paragon-series/ol2200rtxl2u.html?selectedTabId=specifications&imageI=#tab-box to my 2nd s4 and found something rather interesting:

My 1st s4 on it's own same UPS reports a very significantly higher power draw. Like 290Watts more.

Both s4 are Batch-2, the first one possibly was made a week earlier earlier than #2 but both arrived within 1 day of each other (direct vs hosted shipping goof).

The UPS's report
  #1 1,480 to 1,490w load
  #2 1,100 to 1,200w load.
Both consistently reporting as 1.950-2.25THs by my pool.

Anywho, in some earlier threads it was mentioned that on some Batch-2, one of the ASIC chains can't/doesn't change Vcore and pretty much runs near max safe voltage. Wonder if that is the case here? Certainly would explain the 290w higher load...

 I take it that during power-up when the Vcore regulators are either set from a pre-stored value in a Dpot or set by the I2C link one chain is not getting the message...  Any way to fix that by Firmware?

[Cyper_BLC]

For various reasons I've added a rather nice always online UPS http://www.cyberpowersystems.com/products/ups-systems/smart-app-ups/paragon-series/ol2200rtxl2u.html?selectedTabId=specifications&imageI=#tab-box to my 2nd s4 and found something rather interesting:

My 1st s4 on it's own same UPS reports a very significantly higher power draw. Like 290Watts more.

Both s4 are Batch-2, the first one possibly was made a week earlier earlier than #2 but both arrived within 1 day of each other (direct vs hosted shipping goof).

The UPS's report
  #1 1,480 to 1,490w load
  #2 1,100 to 1,200w load.
Both consistently reporting as 1.950-2.25THs by my pool.

Anywho, in some earlier threads it was mentioned that on some Batch-2, one of the ASIC chains can't/doesn't change Vcore and pretty much runs near max safe voltage. Wonder if that is the case here? Certainly would explain the 290w higher load...

 I take it that during power-up when the Vcore regulators are either set from a pre-stored value in a Dpot or set by the I2C link one chain is not getting the message...  Any way to fix that by Firmware?

if it happens all S4's same asic freq. like 200Mhz .. this is definitely have a problem. i am first founder this and i wrote this problem before and i am working on it. fpga cotroller board sending voltage and hash data on same TX pin then 12F1822 collect voltage data then send i2c commands to Buck controller on the BOOT. (bitmain designed seperatly but never used pclk-pio-pen pins. Direct FPGA to BuckController)
this is J7 situation you are facing.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=796839.msg9608656#msg9608656

[NotFuzzyWarm]

ya know... this sounds a lot like how Bitmine.ch screwed with AMT on the first A1 attempts... Never told them how to save to the Dpot NVM so it always defaulted to mid-point (way too high).

Think they just never write to that chains Dpot or hybrid regulator address to save start value? temps across the chains range from #1 @ 41c, 2 @ 42c, #3 @ 45c and chain 4 @ 44c

Hmm. S4 #1 is set to 200mHz with Core set to 725. I'll look at work tomorrow to see what the other S4 is set to. Should be as-shipped.

As to conflicts between SPI and i2c coms - they are supposed to co-exist... ja when things get really fast is best to interrupt the hash coms to set/query the regulators but... should only need to do that on power-up before the ASICS start hashing or if otherwise queried. still sounds like someone dropped the ball on setting a value to startup NVM memory vs the working segments. Just my 2-cents...

EDIT: Just checked the other s4 and it is using same settings of 200mHz clock and 0725 for core voltage.
That 290w  power difference between the 2 units really bothers me...

[dogie]

My miner perfect work at a frequency of 268.75 - 275, and outputs the 2500-2700 ghesh

Seriously?

EDIT: I noticed you are using 2 PSU's instead of the PSU that comes with the S4, in that case, that makes more sense, as they can deliver a hell of a lot more power than a 1200W PSU. For those using the PSU that comes with the S4, do not expect such results, but then again if you have some spare PSU's this seems like a really really good idea, in fact I just might have to give it a shot at some point.

*1400W

[dogie]

For Dogie, regarding my issue,

I have power cycled, rebooted, checked connections, reset to defaults, reloaded firmware,, and still cant seem to get these chips to pop up,,



out of the 11 that we have this is the only issue. we have 9 more on the way, should get them today!

RMA time.