ANTMINER U3 Discussion and Support Thread

[richardamullens]

"The U3 utilises 4 of Bitmain’s latest generation BM1382 chips in high quality, domed case."

Doesn't look like a domed case, but more importantly the latest generation is the more efficient BM1384 so perhaps Bitmain is getting rid of old stock.

[Phosphorous]

Why on earth would you go with a wire cage over the decently styled version 1?

Weight. Less metal shipped round the world.

Really, or are you just guessing again? The old lid was a whopping 4.35oz.

Still waiting to hear from one of the 1000's of U3 owners whose unit doesn't ZOMBIE without modification.

[spazzdla]

"The U3 utilises 4 of Bitmain’s latest generation BM1382 chips in high quality, domed case."

Doesn't look like a domed case, but more importantly the latest generation is the more efficient BM1384 so perhaps Bitmain is getting rid of old stock.

Getting rid of old sock via creating a mini miner made for a hobbyist seems like a good idea to me.  Hopefully it's legit stable.

[-ck]

Was hoping more that they would focus on quality myself though;) any changes on parts in the new batches that could have positive impact on stability?

Hopefully less thermal paste...

[irobb]

lol. less thermal paste according to dog is not the reason why it zombies. LMAO.

[Visvas]

Been trying to run my U3's for a while now, with a powered USB hub as well. Bought an Icy Box IB-AC611.
Does not seem to be a good idea however.
1) i plug in only the U3 that works best: a lot of plug/unplugs to get it up and running with cgminer. Averages at 45. Zombies very very fast
2) i attach the same directly to the laptops usb 3 port. averages at above 60. not stable, but maybe zombies only two times a day
3) I plug both into the hub at the same time: Always gets an error saying the last unit attached on usb was not recognized by windows. hence never get the two units up via the hub (device descriptor fails)

Weird thing with nr 3 is that i then might get the one nearly working unit up and running when windows disables the other usb connection, and i then get a higher average than 1), more like above 60.

So thanks for the suggestions Dogie, didnt solve all my issues however. I like everything else with this unit, so please just make a version that actually works well too

[dogie]

Been trying to run my U3's for a while now, with a powered USB hub as well. Bought an Icy Box IB-AC611.
Does not seem to be a good idea however.
1) i plug in only the U3 that works best: a lot of plug/unplugs to get it up and running with cgminer. Averages at 45. Zombies very very fast
2) i attach the same directly to the laptops usb 3 port. averages at above 60. not stable, but maybe zombies only two times a day
3) I plug both into the hub at the same time: Always gets an error saying the last unit attached on usb was not recognized by windows. hence never get the two units up via the hub (device descriptor fails)

Weird thing with nr 3 is that i then might get the one nearly working unit up and running when windows disables the other usb connection, and i then get a higher average than 1), more like above 60.

So thanks for the suggestions Dogie, didnt solve all my issues however. I like everything else with this unit, so please just make a version that actually works well too

That's a USB 3.0 hub, are you plugging it into a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port on your computer?

Unfortunately there isn't a science to getting these to work, so if its not working without a powered hub, its time to try a powered hub and vice versa.

[Visvas]

Been trying to run my U3's for a while now, with a powered USB hub as well. Bought an Icy Box IB-AC611.
Does not seem to be a good idea however.
1) i plug in only the U3 that works best: a lot of plug/unplugs to get it up and running with cgminer. Averages at 45. Zombies very very fast
2) i attach the same directly to the laptops usb 3 port. averages at above 60. not stable, but maybe zombies only two times a day
3) I plug both into the hub at the same time: Always gets an error saying the last unit attached on usb was not recognized by windows. hence never get the two units up via the hub (device descriptor fails)

Weird thing with nr 3 is that i then might get the one nearly working unit up and running when windows disables the other usb connection, and i then get a higher average than 1), more like above 60.

So thanks for the suggestions Dogie, didnt solve all my issues however. I like everything else with this unit, so please just make a version that actually works well too

That's a USB 3.0 hub, are you plugging it into a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port on your computer?

Unfortunately there isn't a science to getting these to work, so if its not working without a powered hub, its time to try a powered hub and vice versa.

Tried both 2 and 3.

[jackbox]

Any people in Thailand that would like to get together on a group buy of at least 5 or more of these units? I have run group buys it the past on other forums for other types of goods so would be willing to handle this if we can swing at least 5 units.

[dogie]

Any people in Thailand that would like to get together on a group buy of at least 5 or more of these units? I have run group buys it the past on other forums for other types of goods so would be willing to handle this if we can swing at least 5 units.

You'll probably find some people lurking around the group buys subform: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=137.0

[jackbox]

Bitmain - Why don't you just sell these as singles or a min. order of two? Why require five? At a small qty it would be an impulse buy and you would most likely sell many. But at the current btc rates requiring a buy of 5 or more these units are expensive in terms of btc for the lack of bang for buck you get for these units. These are units for playing around with, not serious mining. You need to sell them as such instead of requiring bulk buys. I would want one or two, not five or twenty.

[dogie]

Bitmain - Why don't you just sell these as singles or a min. order of two? Why require five? At a small qty it would be an impulse buy and you would most likely sell many. But at the current btc rates requiring a buy of 5 or more these units are expensive in terms of btc for the lack of bang for buck you get for these units. These are units for playing around with, not serious mining. You need to sell them as such instead of requiring bulk buys. I would want one or two, not five or twenty.

Shipping. The bulk kits go to localised resellers so end customers can buy one at a sensible price. Have a look on Amazon etc.

[jackbox]

Bitmain - Why don't you just sell these as singles or a min. order of two? Why require five? At a small qty it would be an impulse buy and you would most likely sell many. But at the current btc rates requiring a buy of 5 or more these units are expensive in terms of btc for the lack of bang for buck you get for these units. These are units for playing around with, not serious mining. You need to sell them as such instead of requiring bulk buys. I would want one or two, not five or twenty.

Shipping. The bulk kits go to localised resellers so end customers can buy one at a sensible price. Have a look on Amazon etc.

Prices on Amazon and eBay for U3 units are not reasonable in the slightest. Very expensive for what you are getting.

[Visvas]

Done some more testing her, got hand on another u3 as well, total of 3 now.

1) Did work for a little while pretty well. then stopped functioning at all. Test different psu, cables, powered hubs etc. Cleaned up inside, still dead. Got a refund from Cryptocrane
2) The other one from Cryptocrane worked, but a bit slow. Faster now with the cgminer 4.8 build from Antminer, might be that one optimizes a bit better than i managed myself. Cleaned it up inside as well, no issues with just this alone now, nearly ever zombies. Directly connected to the pc, usb 2 port.
3) the new addition, reportedly unstable and zombie'ing. Cleaned it up inside, applied new paste etc. Working pretty well, but something wrong with usb recognition. I have to install the winusb driver again if i unplug it, even if back to the same port.

If i start cgminer with both connected, it fails. Starting cgminer, adding one, waiting till it runs, then adding the other, and they seem to be stable for quite a while. Not working with both of them on the same hub.
Zadig freezes if it believes driver install failed (even though it actually installs)

[dogie]

I have to install the winusb driver again if i unplug it, even if back to the same port.

If i start cgminer with both connected, it fails.

I only had the winusb driver issue when I was running a new R-box at the same time, not seen it in isolation before.

I went to buy 5 of these yesterday; and found Bitmain had removed the option to buy only 5.

Will see whats going on with that.

[BITMAIN_JLXUE]

Done some more testing her, got hand on another u3 as well, total of 3 now.

1) Did work for a little while pretty well. then stopped functioning at all. Test different psu, cables, powered hubs etc. Cleaned up inside, still dead. Got a refund from Cryptocrane
2) The other one from Cryptocrane worked, but a bit slow. Faster now with the cgminer 4.8 build from Antminer, might be that one optimizes a bit better than i managed myself. Cleaned it up inside as well, no issues with just this alone now, nearly ever zombies. Directly connected to the pc, usb 2 port.
3) the new addition, reportedly unstable and zombie'ing. Cleaned it up inside, applied new paste etc. Working pretty well, but something wrong with usb recognition. I have to install the winusb driver again if i unplug it, even if back to the same port.

If i start cgminer with both connected, it fails. Starting cgminer, adding one, waiting till it runs, then adding the other, and they seem to be stable for quite a while. Not working with both of them on the same hub.
Zadig freezes if it believes driver install failed (even though it actually installs)

-->
Starting cgminer, adding one, waiting till it runs, then adding the other,

It is the right operation

[jackbox]

So Dogie, did you get an answer from Bitmain why the option to buy five U3s is gone? 

[Phosphorous]

An update on my saga.

After trying to get my U3 RMA's by Bitmain they didn't want to do it because I bought from MinerSource. They wanted me to get MinerSource's order number. Why they need this I don't know, because at the time we were less than 3 months out from the product's release date so it had to be under warranty. But regardless, I contacted MinerSource. MinerSource does not (or did not) have a posted return policy. But after some email exchanges with MinerSource, they kindly sent me 2 additional units at no expense. Very nice of them!

While waiting for the units to arrive, I had my first unit taken apart and cleaned the heatsink compound by a professional technician and had it reapplied. This did actually improve the functioning and reliability of the device but not to any extent that I could call it reliable and get it to run more than a day. I am going to do more testing with running individual units by themselves. It appears that best case scenario is having ONE that works by itself.

Once the other two units arrived I also paid to have them cleaned. I think they work better now when by themselves, but they do not work well together at all! I can sometimes get 2 to work for a little while but within an hour 1 will die. Upon plugging in the 3rd one at least one will almost instantly go ZOMBIE.

Conclusion:
The U3 is a PIECE OF SHIT.
Dogie claims there are 1000's running just fine but no one will post to claim they have one of them.
Clearly they released the U3 without testing it. This is obvious because there was no CGMiner support for it when I first got mine and I had to wait a few weeks for CK to work his magic. But even his magic can't polish this turd.

My thoughts: Bitmain needs to replace every U3 out there with their tested, fully functional next-gen U3.

About my setup:
I have a powered USB hub and many USB ports on my desktop computer. I have tried them all, mixing and matching, every combination.
I have 1 Rockminer R-Box. This thing is solid. It just works.
I have 3 U3 paper weights.
Running CGMiner 4.9.0.

[dogie]

Dogie claims there are 1000's running just fine but no one will post to claim they have one of them.

Its the other way around, there are 10,000s of U3s out there and only a handful of complaints. There are more problems then Bitmain would like but its not as doomsday as you're portraying.

Clearly they released the U3 without testing it. This is obvious because there was no CGMiner support for it when I first got mine and I had to wait a few weeks for CK to work his magic. But even his magic can't polish this turd.

There was no mainstream cgminer support, Bitmain releases and maintains its own cgminer branch which was published before release.
My thoughts: Bitmain needs to replace every U3 out there with their tested, fully functional next-gen U3.

I have 1 Rockminer R-Box. This thing is solid. It just works.

You should test without the R-box (assuming you mean new R-box?) Its known to conflict with U3s as they both use the same ID chip.

[dogie]

So Dogie, did you get an answer from Bitmain why the option to buy five U3s is gone? 

Not yet unfortunately, a lot of people were travelling this week so there's a few things in stasis. Hopefully back to normal on Monday.