ANTMINER S4 Discussion and Support Thread

[Sandhog]

How many people have upgraded the S4 firmware to: initramfs.bin.SD-20141016.tar.gz from the bitmain website?

I only ask because mine is still running on the factory firmware no problem with difficulty manually set, so I'm kind of wondering if I should bother with the upgrade.

I upgraded all of my S4's to this firmware and gained at least 5% hashing speed on the pool. I also set difficulty to 2048. 225 Mhz 0725 volts . They are all hashing at least 2200 and are stable meaning I don't have to hard reboot them every day for crashed chips or reduced hashing speeds.

I just did the same thing and hopefully I don't get reduced hashing speeds. Thanks.

[MissouriMiner]

How many people have upgraded the S4 firmware to: initramfs.bin.SD-20141016.tar.gz from the bitmain website?

I only ask because mine is still running on the factory firmware no problem with difficulty manually set, so I'm kind of wondering if I should bother with the upgrade.

I upgraded all of my S4's to this firmware and gained at least 5% hashing speed on the pool. I also set difficulty to 2048. 225 Mhz 0725 volts . They are all hashing at least 2200 and are stable meaning I don't have to hard reboot them every day for crashed chips or reduced hashing speeds.

Maybe I need to upgrade my firmware. When S4 hashing rate drop to below 1500 Gh/s, my pool with Ghash.IO goes to zero. I had difficulty set to 2048 manually.

Looks like your hashrate dropped to 0 over 14 hours ago.  It just took that long for your average to get below 1500.  I upgraded all of my S4's to the latest firmware (Oct 16) and have not had any issues, except I needed to reboot another time after the firmware upgrade, on all of them.  All of them ran poorly after the automatic reboot from the firmware upgrade.  But I always set the difficulty manually when the option is offered by the pool.
 
Do you know how high the board temps are getting?  The UI shows 50-51 now, but it hasn't been hashing.  I've seen this (hashrate drop to 0) happen with temps in the 60's.  They should be able to handle 60, but I'm just passing along what I have seen.  I have also seen this happen when trying to overclock with stock PSU.  (I can see in your screenshot that you are not overclocking, but wanted to mention it anyway.)

You should setup some kind of alerting.  You don't want to lose half a days worth of mining on an S4.  There are a couple home grown monitoring programs out there.  They require a bit of work to set them up.  I see that Justin Ramos shares open-source monitoring software.  I don't know him.  I have tried his P2Pool code, which is good and has extra reporting.  I intend to try his monitoring solution.  I think you have to install 3 software packages.  The API client, the manager, and the monitor.  https://github.com/jramos

I also ran across this site, if you want fast and easy.  http://www.awesomeminer.com/   There is a one time charge for the version that send notifications.  There is a free version to try.  I don't know this site and am not endorsing them, but their product looks good.  If you search for "bitcoin mining monitoring", you will find others.

[dogie]

How many people have upgraded the S4 firmware to: initramfs.bin.SD-20141016.tar.gz from the bitmain website?

I only ask because mine is still running on the factory firmware no problem with difficulty manually set, so I'm kind of wondering if I should bother with the upgrade.

I upgraded all of my S4's to this firmware and gained at least 5% hashing speed on the pool. I also set difficulty to 2048. 225 Mhz 0725 volts . They are all hashing at least 2200 and are stable meaning I don't have to hard reboot them every day for crashed chips or reduced hashing speeds.

Maybe I need to upgrade my firmware. When S4 hashing rate drop to below 1500 Gh/s, my pool with Ghash.IO goes to zero. I had difficulty set to 2048 manually.

I'd hard reboot that one and just see how it does. Pictures don't suggest any other problems at the moment.

[dogie]

How many people have upgraded the S4 firmware to: initramfs.bin.SD-20141016.tar.gz from the bitmain website?

I only ask because mine is still running on the factory firmware no problem with difficulty manually set, so I'm kind of wondering if I should bother with the upgrade.

I don't think you'll be able to get an accurate number of people

Even if you don't currently have any problems you might have issues if you ever want to switch pools. I had trouble with some rentals - for some reason even December delivery S4s came with old firmware - upgraded to the 1016 version and haven't seen any problems since.

I really only asked because I've been seeing people have more problems after upgrading the firmware (not necessarily with the S4, but with S3's for sure), and I've kind of been taking the "If it isn't broke don't fix it" position with my miners.

Nothing wrong with the S4 firmware, just this S3 one. S4 firmware has of a bit of a hash rate boost.

[Sandhog]

How many people have upgraded the S4 firmware to: initramfs.bin.SD-20141016.tar.gz from the bitmain website?

I only ask because mine is still running on the factory firmware no problem with difficulty manually set, so I'm kind of wondering if I should bother with the upgrade.

I upgraded all of my S4's to this firmware and gained at least 5% hashing speed on the pool. I also set difficulty to 2048. 225 Mhz 0725 volts . They are all hashing at least 2200 and are stable meaning I don't have to hard reboot them every day for crashed chips or reduced hashing speeds.

Maybe I need to upgrade my firmware. When S4 hashing rate drop to below 1500 Gh/s, my pool with Ghash.IO goes to zero. I had difficulty set to 2048 manually.

Looks like your hashrate dropped to 0 over 14 hours ago.  It just took that long for your average to get below 1500.  I upgraded all of my S4's to the latest firmware (Oct 16) and have not had any issues, except I needed to reboot another time after the firmware upgrade, on all of them.  All of them ran poorly after the automatic reboot from the firmware upgrade.  But I always set the difficulty manually when the option is offered by the pool.
 
Do you know how high the board temps are getting?  The UI shows 50-51 now, but it hasn't been hashing.  I've seen this (hashrate drop to 0) happen with temps in the 60's.  They should be able to handle 60, but I'm just passing along what I have seen.  I have also seen this happen when trying to overclock with stock PSU.  (I can see in your screenshot that you are not overclocking, but wanted to mention it anyway.)

You should setup some kind of alerting.  You don't want to lose half a days worth of mining on an S4.  There are a couple home grown monitoring programs out there.  They require a bit of work to set them up.  I see that Justin Ramos shares open-source monitoring software.  I don't know him.  I have tried his P2Pool code, which is good and has extra reporting.  I intend to try his monitoring solution.  I think you have to install 3 software packages.  The API client, the manager, and the monitor.  https://github.com/jramos

I also ran across this site, if you want fast and easy.  http://www.awesomeminer.com/   There is a one time charge for the version that send notifications.  There is a free version to try.  I don't know this site and am not endorsing them, but their product looks good.  If you search for "bitcoin mining monitoring", you will find others.

I have to manually set difficulty to 2048. Otherwise, it doesn't hash more than 180 Gh/s on the pool while S4 shows it's hashing 2000+ Gh/s. I check my S4 B2 which I received in early December which has latest firmware. I tried to set to 225 Mhz 0725 volts then it went to zero. But before, it never went to zero. When hashing speed drop below 1500 on the S4, pool goes to zero. When I set pool difficulty to anything less than 2048, it never hash more than the difficulty setting. S4 temperature never goes up above 52 since it's winter here and I have all the windows open.

I'm trying different settings to see which would work the best and optimized mining.

I didn't know pool went to zero since S4 was running. With other miners' noises, I tend to be not hear the noises as much. I guessed I have adapted to the miner noises.

Anyhow, thanks for your insight.

[Sandhog]

How many people have upgraded the S4 firmware to: initramfs.bin.SD-20141016.tar.gz from the bitmain website?

I only ask because mine is still running on the factory firmware no problem with difficulty manually set, so I'm kind of wondering if I should bother with the upgrade.

I upgraded all of my S4's to this firmware and gained at least 5% hashing speed on the pool. I also set difficulty to 2048. 225 Mhz 0725 volts . They are all hashing at least 2200 and are stable meaning I don't have to hard reboot them every day for crashed chips or reduced hashing speeds.

Maybe I need to upgrade my firmware. When S4 hashing rate drop to below 1500 Gh/s, my pool with Ghash.IO goes to zero. I had difficulty set to 2048 manually.

I'd hard reboot that one and just see how it does. Pictures don't suggest any other problems at the moment.

I rebooted soft once and hard whenever I need to use the microwave since I only have limited amount of amps to my flat.

[Sandhog]

How many people have upgraded the S4 firmware to: initramfs.bin.SD-20141016.tar.gz from the bitmain website?

I only ask because mine is still running on the factory firmware no problem with difficulty manually set, so I'm kind of wondering if I should bother with the upgrade.

I upgraded all of my S4's to this firmware and gained at least 5% hashing speed on the pool. I also set difficulty to 2048. 225 Mhz 0725 volts . They are all hashing at least 2200 and are stable meaning I don't have to hard reboot them every day for crashed chips or reduced hashing speeds.

When I tried 225 Mhz with 0725 volts, it wasn't stable. I went back to factory default setting of 200 Mhz 0725 volts and even with upgrade firmware. Either I'm doing something wrong or your S4 is better than mine. 

[mdude77]

Note that my Miner Monitor app now supports Bitmain Antminer S4s. 

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=596178.msg6548589#msg6548589

M

[Bitkoinzz]

How many people have upgraded the S4 firmware to: initramfs.bin.SD-20141016.tar.gz from the bitmain website?

I only ask because mine is still running on the factory firmware no problem with difficulty manually set, so I'm kind of wondering if I should bother with the upgrade.

I upgraded all of my S4's to this firmware and gained at least 5% hashing speed on the pool. I also set difficulty to 2048. 225 Mhz 0725 volts . They are all hashing at least 2200 and are stable meaning I don't have to hard reboot them every day for crashed chips or reduced hashing speeds.

When I tried 225 Mhz with 0725 volts, it wasn't stable. I went back to factory default setting of 200 Mhz 0725 volts and even with upgrade firmware. Either I'm doing something wrong or your S4 is better than mine.  

Ok the most stable settings I can find are 225/0725/2048 with the newest firmware. One key is the temperature. I am blowing cold air from outside right into the S4's. They are not even warm really. The air coming out the back is cool. Now one thing that can slow down your hashing speeds at the pool, even though the S4 shows normal speeds, is your ROUTER. If the S4's slow down reboot all of them and your router/modem.
Also if you see any crashed chips, or the speeds slow down on the S4 itself, or if it goes offline, or anything just do a hard reboot. Power off/ power up. It works everytime.

[Bitkoinzz]

How many people have upgraded the S4 firmware to: initramfs.bin.SD-20141016.tar.gz from the bitmain website?

I only ask because mine is still running on the factory firmware no problem with difficulty manually set, so I'm kind of wondering if I should bother with the upgrade.

I upgraded all of my S4's to this firmware and gained at least 5% hashing speed on the pool. I also set difficulty to 2048. 225 Mhz 0725 volts . They are all hashing at least 2200 and are stable meaning I don't have to hard reboot them every day for crashed chips or reduced hashing speeds.

Maybe I need to upgrade my firmware. When S4 hashing rate drop to below 1500 Gh/s, my pool with Ghash.IO goes to zero. I had difficulty set to 2048 manually.

Looks like your hashrate dropped to 0 over 14 hours ago.  It just took that long for your average to get below 1500.  I upgraded all of my S4's to the latest firmware (Oct 16) and have not had any issues, except I needed to reboot another time after the firmware upgrade, on all of them.  All of them ran poorly after the automatic reboot from the firmware upgrade.  But I always set the difficulty manually when the option is offered by the pool.
 
Do you know how high the board temps are getting?  The UI shows 50-51 now, but it hasn't been hashing.  I've seen this (hashrate drop to 0) happen with temps in the 60's.  They should be able to handle 60, but I'm just passing along what I have seen.  I have also seen this happen when trying to overclock with stock PSU.  (I can see in your screenshot that you are not overclocking, but wanted to mention it anyway.)

You should setup some kind of alerting.  You don't want to lose half a days worth of mining on an S4.  There are a couple home grown monitoring programs out there.  They require a bit of work to set them up.  I see that Justin Ramos shares open-source monitoring software.  I don't know him.  I have tried his P2Pool code, which is good and has extra reporting.  I intend to try his monitoring solution.  I think you have to install 3 software packages.  The API client, the manager, and the monitor.  https://github.com/jramos

I also ran across this site, if you want fast and easy.  http://www.awesomeminer.com/   There is a one time charge for the version that send notifications.  There is a free version to try.  I don't know this site and am not endorsing them, but their product looks good.  If you search for "bitcoin mining monitoring", you will find others.

I have to manually set difficulty to 2048. Otherwise, it doesn't hash more than 180 Gh/s on the pool while S4 shows it's hashing 2000+ Gh/s. I check my S4 B2 which I received in early December which has latest firmware. I tried to set to 225 Mhz 0725 volts then it went to zero. But before, it never went to zero. When hashing speed drop below 1500 on the S4, pool goes to zero. When I set pool difficulty to anything less than 2048, it never hash more than the difficulty setting. S4 temperature never goes up above 52 since it's winter here and I have all the windows open.

I'm trying different settings to see which would work the best and optimized mining.

I didn't know pool went to zero since S4 was running. With other miners' noises, I tend to be not hear the noises as much. I guessed I have adapted to the miner noises.

Anyhow, thanks for your insight.

I hate to say it but there are only a few pools that you will get full speed hashing from I can find. I tried several and right now I have all S4's showing 2200 + at the pool. i can get them to 2300+ but the chips sometime crash. It is that difficulty rate issue. Some pools you can set the minimum and it works and others you just can't get them to full speed. I am not here to promote a pool but the one I use  starts with an S.

[BITMAIN]

Christmas Sale  ANTMINER S4

Description:
1PH/s  (500 units of S4) for $425,000 USD
Electricity:  $80/KW per Month
 
Purchaser will own the physical S4 unit and electricity rate is locked for up to 12 months.
 
All necessary hardware is included to mine.  Miners will be pointed to the pool of your choice. (Pool1-3)
 
Hosting Location will not be disclosed to the customer, other than it is in USA.  If you’d like to resell used miner, we will provide shipping logistic for you via UPS.  (These S4 will not have a packaging box)
 
If you want to move the hosted miners outside of our control, 30 days notice is needed.  (when you need to remove out the bulk quantity of miner, there will be at least $2,000 per 14’ truck load fee will be charged to the customer)
 
90-days parts/labor warranty is provided from the date of purchase.
 
Feel free to contact Yoshi with any concerns before you place an order:
Tel: +1 323-697-6884
Phone: +1 844-248-6246 x635
Email: yoshi@bitmaintech.com

[CroverNo01]

Christmas Sale  ANTMINER S4

Description:
1PH/s  (500 units of S4) for $425,000 USD
Electricity:  $80/KW per Month
 
Purchaser will own the physical S4 unit and electricity rate is locked for up to 12 months.
 
All necessary hardware is included to mine.  Miners will be pointed to the pool of your choice. (Pool1-3)
 
Hosting Location will not be disclosed to the customer, other than it is in USA.  If you’d like to resell used miner, we will provide shipping logistic for you via UPS.  (These S4 will not have a packaging box)
 
If you want to move the hosted miners outside of our control, 30 days notice is needed.  (when you need to remove out the bulk quantity of miner, there will be at least $2,000 per 14’ truck load fee will be charged to the customer)
 
90-days parts/labor warranty is provided from the date of purchase.
 
Feel free to contact Yoshi with any concerns before you place an order:
Tel: +1 323-697-6884
Phone: +1 844-248-6246 x635
Email: yoshi@bitmaintech.com

From my calculations this will never even close to near return for the amount paid ? Or am I just mad ? 

[PatMan]

You are sane. It is fail.

[taweesak]

is it ok? if i buy from http://www.bitmainantminer.com/ at $1850

[PatMan]

is it ok? if i buy from http://www.bitmainantminer.com/ at $1850

NO!!

Only buy from the registered & official site.

[taweesak]

https://bitmaintech.com/productDetail.htm?pid=00020140926075515819D846Og240603

did u mean the site above?

[dogie]

Christmas Sale  ANTMINER S4

Description:
1PH/s  (500 units of S4) for $425,000 USD
Electricity:  $80/KW per Month
 
Purchaser will own the physical S4 unit and electricity rate is locked for up to 12 months.
 
All necessary hardware is included to mine.  Miners will be pointed to the pool of your choice. (Pool1-3)
 
Hosting Location will not be disclosed to the customer, other than it is in USA.  If you’d like to resell used miner, we will provide shipping logistic for you via UPS.  (These S4 will not have a packaging box)
 
If you want to move the hosted miners outside of our control, 30 days notice is needed.  (when you need to remove out the bulk quantity of miner, there will be at least $2,000 per 14’ truck load fee will be charged to the customer)
 
90-days parts/labor warranty is provided from the date of purchase.
 
Feel free to contact Yoshi with any concerns before you place an order:
Tel: +1 323-697-6884
Phone: +1 844-248-6246 x635
Email: yoshi@bitmaintech.com

Apologies, the wrong image was attached the first time. Fixed now.

[taweesak]

can antminer s4 use 220v. electricity?

[dogie]

can antminer s4 use 220v. electricity?

Yes

[Giulini]

"Christmas Sale Antminer S4"
my clue: S5 is waiting behind the corner
happy christmas time