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Teapot Tempest on Bitmain S4 or Serious Issue?Not sure what to think of the recent spam / hate / firmware / hardware issues with the S4.
Is this a problem that has a simple solution or are customers being shafted?
Need to look into this deeper. Opinions?
Sample customer comment:Dogie, with respect - I don't want to hear the same thing from you as bitmain have been telling me & everyone else here for nearly
8 weeks. I have been in contact with bitmain over this issue here & via email this entire time, warning them about this exact thing happening, but to no avail.
I know you get paid to provide answers, but please don't just repeat what bitmain keep saying - it's patronizing & annoying.
Also, if you are going to post answers for & on behalf of bitmain, please at least try and make sure that your answers are correct & based on information from bitmain themselves. Some of your comments are quite simply wrong, leading to misinformation & confusion to other less experienced miners.
Peace
EDIT: Example:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.9129424 Recent post on failed PSU's in S4's:Power supply replacement for the Antminer S4
Dear loyal customers,
Today we have found out that the batch of power supplies shipped out in batch 1 and the first part of batch 2 Antminer S4s contain a critical defect. The customized power supply produced by AplusPower Co. Ltd is suffering from an unacceptably high failure rate and will be replaced with immediate effect.
We take full responsibility for the problems caused and had not anticipated the unique loading conditions of a miner when selecting and testing the suitability of these power supplies. You can read more about the defect in the post below.
We are now taking steps to ensure that customers are impacted as little as possible. The rest of batch 2 S4s will come with the improved power supply as standard.
The following actions are being taken for miners already delivered:1) If your PSU has already failed:• Submit a RMA request with some pictures and proof [ie with your username in the photo] of your PSU’s failure to
[email protected].
• We will then ship a new PSU out as soon as possible.
• We will also issue compensation to the value of 10 days of mining profit calculated starting from shipping date
2) If your PSU has not failed and the miner is running normally:• We will ship a new PSU to you.
• Please do not contact support yet, you will receive an email asking to confirm your shipping.
Analysis of power supply failures within the first batch of Antminer S4sWe are sorry for the inconvenience you may have experienced regarding power supply failures, or even sporadic events of smoke from our first batch of Antminer S4s. We immediately set out to investigate the reports of failed power supplies from customers, and have made immediate changes to improve the quality of future deliveries. What happened with these power supplies is not acceptable.
The power supplies failed by two different mechanisms:
1) Failed TR1 or TR2 MOSFETs on the power factor correction (PFC) circuitry.After investigations, it was found that the unusual service conditions a miner puts on its power supply was the cause of the failure. The repeated abrupt, dynamic loading generated significant current through the PFC circuits, eventually leading to the failure of the TR1 or TR2 MOSFETs.
The replacement power supplies have significantly upgraded PFC circuits in order to improve performance and prevent a recurrence of the problem.
2) Failed MOSFET on the output Synchronous rectifier circuitA MOSFET on the output Synchronous rectification circuit was also found to be failing, due to the repeated and sudden load changes during the miners’ operation.
During normal operation, the output MOSFET is expected to carry a current of approximately 30A and operate at a surface temperature of around 80C. The failing MOSFET was found to be heating up significantly further than this, causing the carbonized black PCBs and smoking thermal pad.
It is worth noting that although a failed output MOSFET at high temperatures may result in some smoke from the PCB and thermal pad, it will not start a fire. All internal components of the PSU meet the requirements of the UL94-V0 flame retardancy standard, which certifies that any ignition will self-extinguish within a maximum of 10 seconds.
In response to this problem, the sample filter in the Synchronous rectifier circuits have been altered to erase the excessive current, and so the MOSFET will not fail again. In addition, several high temperature prevention circuits have been added which will better protect the power supply from overloading and excessive temperatures.
Moving forwardsWe always perform significant dynamic testing on chosen power supplies, however in this case we failed to recognize the special conditions and specific loading characteristics the miner would place on the power supply. Our testing has been altered to replicate and include these loading characteristics on any power supplies introduced in the future. Once again, we are sorry.
Bitmain opens 11 Batch of S3s: AntMiner S3+ Batch 11 opens sale now, price has dropped to 0.535btc per unit, coupon is being issued
Long time Customer Calls Bitmain Out on some issues:Man I hate these 2 S3's I have that wont mine at 500gh/s.
I put them at 250 and they mine at 470ish, put them at 243 and they mine at 492.
You think that's bad ? You could be a batch 1 buyer that had 50% of his units unable to perform stably at 218.75mhz.
Have 3 units that can only run stably at 212.5mhz. Plan on getting around to re-pasting them in the near future to see if I can't improve things.
Ask me how annoyed I am. Especially when I emailed Bitmain early on in the S3 process and they assured me they would not be updating the S3's in the future to resolve the performance problems... And lo-and-behold the S3+ arrives a month later.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Bitmain, and more than 50% of my hash power comes from their devices, but the S3 launch did not go as well as the S1 launch, it appears the S4 launch (Don't own one) has been problematic, and given anecdotes I'm reading here, seems the community consensus is confirming my gut-feel: Bitmain is losing it's way
Funny that I'm thinking of circling back to AsicMiner products for my next miner purchase...
Then on the other hand... C1. Someone is going to be building some new chips given this step:Liquid Cooled Miner C1: It is not only cool, but it is cool
The density of miners is becoming more and more important as the rapid growth of the bitcoin hash rate continues. The industry is trending towards industrial level mining, which leaves home miners without much choice for compact and quiet miners.
In response to this problem, Bitmain has developed a solution. The high end PC industry has used water cooling for years, and this expertise has been transferred to mining equipment. Bitmain is proud to announce our first Liquid Cooled Miner – the C1.
The 1st Batch of C1s are priced at 1 BTC per unit (excluding shipping), with dispatch estimated Oct. 25th Specifications:* Hash Rate: 1,008 GH/s guaranteed
* Power Efficiency: 0.8 Watt/GH/s at the wall
* Voltage: DC 12V input, 70A recommended, no PSU
* Water cooling block’s interface: G1/4-8 thread screw
* One 14038 Fan working with water cooling block
* Temperature: 38~40 °C at 25 °C ambient temperature
* Noise: 40~45 DB at 25 °C ambient temperature
* Ethernet connection, Stand alone
* Certificate Compliance: FCC/CE
Recommend Accessories:Note: Bellow recommend parts are not included in C1, but a purchase links recommended on bitmaintech.com.* Water cooling pump: Flow 450L/H, Head Pressure 3.0m, DC12V/0.5A, G1/4-8 screw threads, 1 unit
* Radiator: Aluminum, 389mm * 128mm * 36mm, G1/4-8 screw threads, 1 unit
* Fan 12025: DC12V/1A, including grills, 3 units
* Transparent tubing (ID/OD): 5/16” / 3/8” (10/8mm), 3 meters
* Coolant: If you choose an aluminum radiator, you can use deionized water with an additive, or specialist coolant. If you buy a copper radiator, you must only use specialist coolant.
* Connectors: G1/4” thread 10/8mm fittings to connect the C1 to the pump and radiator. Either compression fittings or barbs 4 units
* Spring clamps or worm drive fittings if you chose barbs, 6 units
Note: 1) Power consumption: Quoted figures depend on your PSUs efficiency, the ambient temperature and the accuracy of the power meter.
2) PSU: You must provide your own ATX PSU. There are 4 PCI-e connectors for +12V DC input and all are required.
Features:Stone alone: C1 mines are stand alone and do not require a proxy server or external controller. Setup consists of installing the water pump, radiator, filling the coolant, connecting a PSU and an Ethernet cable.
Cool: Skving technology is used to design New-Style water cooling block. This allows for a large heat-transfer area, which keeps the PCBs exceptionally cool. Thermal Images’ comparing liquid cooling and air cooling at 1TH/s hashing power
Quiet: Four hashing PCBs with 16 BM1382 chips per board are mounted to the both sides of two aluminum water cooling blocks, which are 250mm-long, 115mm-high and 13mm-thick. Each water cooling block contains 24 water channels for efficient heat transfer. A quiet fan works in tandem with the water cooling blocks in order to keep other board components on the C1 cool.
Stable and Accurate: Customized and optimized from the design of the S3+, the C1 is designed with the same PCBs and is supported by Serious-Double-Block Liquid Cooling technology. This allows C1s to benefit from the stability and accuracy of S3+ required to run 24 hours a day with minimal downtime.
Exquisite:Die Casting Forming technology integrates the common heatsink with a water cooling block, compacts two water cooling blocks working in tandem. These technologies are saving space and allow for 1TH/s of power in a case the same as the S3.
C1 Pictures: