I did some Titan modding using the info Searing provided.
1. Got some of those Noctua fans.
2. Resurfaced the CPU with some Artic Silver.
3. Sawed away most of the main heat sink plate to make room for some DC/DC heatsinks.
4. Installed 8 tiny DC/DC heatsinks per cube.
5. Removed the PCI power port plastic adapters and connect directly to the 6 pins.
I live in Florida and my Titan runs in a closed garage with no ventalation. Before the mod my CPU ran at 70C and my DC average temp was 95C. Post mod my CPU is 56C and DC average temp is 76C.
I was never too concerned about CPU temp, but my DC temps were really high. Getting rid of all that greasy thermal rubber and opening up the airflow seemed to help a lot. The DCs are running 19C/34F cooler now. Also I found out by accident that the cores will start rebooting once the DC temps reach about 110C.
Topic: Hacking KNC Titan / Jupiter / Neptune miners back to life. Why not? - page 21. (Read 76793 times)
July 05, 2016, 08:44:51 PM
June 28, 2016, 08:01:50 PM
And damn! Drilled out the vias on one board here that has a shorted power supply die (the one I thought was the shorted overall die) and pin 6 still reads low ohms. Drat. Also broke several bits.
Back to thinking board. In the meantime sent out a larger repair batch of 4 controllers. Off to FedEx land they go to happy homes or something.
Back to thinking board. In the meantime sent out a larger repair batch of 4 controllers. Off to FedEx land they go to happy homes or something.
June 28, 2016, 04:49:21 PM
I got my repaired board back, looks good running about 50-60 mhs, at 325 Mhz
nice job salvaging those dies on a 100% dead board
Sweet! You shouldn't have to worry about the plug, just keep an eye on that single power supply's temp. It's in the back though so it should get enough cooling air.nice job salvaging those dies on a 100% dead board
Drill bits arrived. Heh heh....
June 26, 2016, 04:09:28 AM
Where are y'all sourcing the little dc/dc converter heat sinks from ?
here is where I'm getting all of it...I've found cheaper prices..but the guy in ebay I link to ...the shipping is free so he is like 4 to 6 bucks less
even from the newegg prices (unless it changed)
anyway best prices I've found..just got the last of my stuff today...so at 14 cubes (including the 1 die working cube I tried to get back but did not do so ...60 bucks shot..
it mocks me)
but again ....at 60 bucks about a cube (including a 3 buck a cube cost for the paste ..spendy the paste is but seems to do the trick) that is
$820 bucks total! Then again for a 10c to 15c temp drop on the dc/dc's and the fan rocks...I just have sucked it up and paid it
here is the link of all the stuff and best prices found again
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.15286157
I have found a new way to pay for such ...'attic mining' you take crap out of attic and put it on ebay for sale..the only home mining that works these days
(whatever the frack gets me back 820 bucks in my own mind)
so it goes
June 25, 2016, 07:32:08 PM
Ok, two boards shipped, back to thinking here. It looks like it will take forever to get my micro drill bits (under 1mm sizes) does anyone know of a source that is not in China with a 2 month ship time?
I'd like to try drilling a board to see if I can clear the faults.
In the meantime I have one extra KNC controller board that I fixed as a spare, just the board not the bridge/pi or BBone. 3btc if interested
I'd like to try drilling a board to see if I can clear the faults.
In the meantime I have one extra KNC controller board that I fixed as a spare, just the board not the bridge/pi or BBone. 3btc if interested
Googling 'PC board drill bits' will get you a variety of different suppliers.
June 25, 2016, 01:10:22 PM
Ok, two boards shipped, back to thinking here. It looks like it will take forever to get my micro drill bits (under 1mm sizes) does anyone know of a source that is not in China with a 2 month ship time?
I'd like to try drilling a board to see if I can clear the faults.
In the meantime I have one extra KNC controller board that I fixed as a spare, just the board not the bridge/pi or BBone. 3btc if interested
I'd like to try drilling a board to see if I can clear the faults.
In the meantime I have one extra KNC controller board that I fixed as a spare, just the board not the bridge/pi or BBone. 3btc if interested
June 25, 2016, 12:35:22 PM
Where are y'all sourcing the little dc/dc converter heat sinks from ?
See this post from tupsu (2 pages before): https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.15072425
June 25, 2016, 11:28:03 AM
Where are y'all sourcing the little dc/dc converter heat sinks from ?
June 23, 2016, 09:25:31 PM
Ok, Steve's cube is in a stable state. Hashing at 50mh (not megahertz, megahash). Not bad for a total dud.
Here's the scoop:
Die 0 is working, as is Die 3.
Die 1 is bad. Specifically power supply 2 blew up and took out the die and was nailing the spi bus. That was the nature of the problem. Removed.
Power supply 3 is ok, however there is nothing for it to power, so it is down.
Die 2 is interesting. Power supply 5 was also bad, pulled it and supply 4 is powering the die at 50%. So you can run it at 150mhz, with the other two at 300mhz (well, 325 depending on your inside temps).
That's about as far as I am going to go on this one. I could try to sweat another supply on for supply 5 but my record of success is to put it politely "low" on those and I have no new supplies here. So 50mh cube it is, better than a 0 mhz cube. :-)
One other thing I verified is a failure in the Z17R chip there will show the symptoms of a working cube with supplies that come up but never hash. Interesting. Need to find what those two chips are.
DC/DC Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W) Temperature (°C)
0 0.7833 40.1875 31.479 80.500
1 0.7787 40.1250 31.245 87.400
3 0.0046 0 0.000 36.600
4 0.7848 38.3750 30.117 57.700
6 0.7784 42.0000 32.693 64.100
7 0.7811 42.0000 32.806 70.400
KNC 0: | 50.89/49.78/49.97Mh/s | A:20 R:0+0(none) HW:2/.22%
Here's the scoop:
Die 0 is working, as is Die 3.
Die 1 is bad. Specifically power supply 2 blew up and took out the die and was nailing the spi bus. That was the nature of the problem. Removed.
Power supply 3 is ok, however there is nothing for it to power, so it is down.
Die 2 is interesting. Power supply 5 was also bad, pulled it and supply 4 is powering the die at 50%. So you can run it at 150mhz, with the other two at 300mhz (well, 325 depending on your inside temps).
That's about as far as I am going to go on this one. I could try to sweat another supply on for supply 5 but my record of success is to put it politely "low" on those and I have no new supplies here. So 50mh cube it is, better than a 0 mhz cube. :-)
One other thing I verified is a failure in the Z17R chip there will show the symptoms of a working cube with supplies that come up but never hash. Interesting. Need to find what those two chips are.
DC/DC Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W) Temperature (°C)
0 0.7833 40.1875 31.479 80.500
1 0.7787 40.1250 31.245 87.400
3 0.0046 0 0.000 36.600
4 0.7848 38.3750 30.117 57.700
6 0.7784 42.0000 32.693 64.100
7 0.7811 42.0000 32.806 70.400
KNC 0: | 50.89/49.78/49.97Mh/s | A:20 R:0+0(none) HW:2/.22%
June 22, 2016, 01:53:15 AM
Further info on my repaste success of 4 cubes using Maxumark's X bracket mod....Man does it work well. Like a frigging wind tunnel now lol.
anyway here is the link to anyone interested
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.15315059
and below here (again) is the list of parts I used and the best places and prices I've found in 3 months as I accumulated them..before my 4 cube (so far) completion.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.15286157
I guess this qualifies on this link because it is "hacking ......related"
fun fun
anyway here is the link to anyone interested
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.15315059
and below here (again) is the list of parts I used and the best places and prices I've found in 3 months as I accumulated them..before my 4 cube (so far) completion.
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.15286157
I guess this qualifies on this link because it is "hacking ......related"
fun fun
June 21, 2016, 08:25:50 PM
In the meantime I figured out Steve's cube: The problem is subtle: One of the power supplies has a defect and was putting 12v on the SPI bus. This blew out the U19 chip (WHAT IS THAT THING!) so I swapped it with a spare, removed four supplies to find at least one dud, and now it's hashing away at 30+mh. Not bad.
This does also point out that U19 is one of the key parts of the chip side and not the supply side. I wonder again if these components are blowing which takes out the whole board. Hm....
C
This does also point out that U19 is one of the key parts of the chip side and not the supply side. I wonder again if these components are blowing which takes out the whole board. Hm....
C
June 21, 2016, 01:11:08 AM
did you get those qberty boards from the 2nd batch? or they leftover from 1st batch? I am still waiting on my 2nd batch order
1st batch one clone bridge working....have 3 clone bridges coming (2 for me 1 for a buddy) and have 3 jupiter boards 2 4 ports and 1 6 port jupiter board (got lucky)
total in the 3 jupiter boards was probably 180 bucks or so.....got the 3rd board because it was 42 bucks with shipping lol
but no have NOT heard/gotten any 2nd batch clone bridges yet....not too concerned...
June 20, 2016, 11:22:16 AM
Something I did in my older mining days: I would put the units on a windowsill so the hot air exhausted *outside*. Acted as a nice whole-house fan in the summer, and kept the room at ambient temps overall.
These days I'm not in the mining business, although I wish I had bought a Titan. I just fix em. :-)
These days I'm not in the mining business, although I wish I had bought a Titan. I just fix em. :-)
June 20, 2016, 08:33:15 AM
hey searing you got me motivated. I installed that 2nd exhaust fan already, and the sun's only been up less than an hour. I know what you mean about floor fans, they are .pretty much worthless. They move the air around, but disrupt the airflow for the exhaust fan actually making things worse.
I rigged up a no longer used floor fan as the 2nd exhaust fan, all I had to do was cut a hole. With both fans running together on low it actually feels pretty breezy in there. I'll have to see what it's like around noon time.
I still have to get about 10ft of 14-2 to wire up the ventmatic thermostat to control the fan. I'll set the 2nd fan to come on higher temp than the first fan, dual automatic fan controls
About the only time a fan isn't running is winter and even then it'll usually come on during the day
maybe I'll take some pictures later
I rigged up a no longer used floor fan as the 2nd exhaust fan, all I had to do was cut a hole. With both fans running together on low it actually feels pretty breezy in there. I'll have to see what it's like around noon time.
I still have to get about 10ft of 14-2 to wire up the ventmatic thermostat to control the fan. I'll set the 2nd fan to come on higher temp than the first fan, dual automatic fan controls
About the only time a fan isn't running is winter and even then it'll usually come on during the day
maybe I'll take some pictures later
I run my fans 24/7 low to the ground varmits bugs wander in if shutters stuck or with my setup rain shudder. Full out fans rain or bugs or critters not an issue.
Full out all the time 14c kWh I think I figured it was 14 bucks a month (that's both fans) so screw it...on all the time 😄
I had no luck with the longer ribbon cables 3rd party ones. Stacking cubes also heat issue
thus my setup
Got Qberty Titan bridges and 60 buck Jupiter boards gonna make a mess of 3 cube units around basement. They seam to hash better and cooler and if they dump only 3 cubes down thus the plan. Also 1 cube setup to do detailed setup prob cubes or ones thAt reboot can play bounce and hash Alone
June 20, 2016, 06:16:55 AM
Well it's not the level converters. Oddly enough it looks more like 1.8 volts being placed on the SCL bus. Odd.
June 20, 2016, 06:00:48 AM
Those 3000 rpm Noctua fans are nice, but after running them 24/7 for over a year I have had 3 of them fail
I didn't think the batch 1 fans with 11 blades were too bad, however the batch 2 fans with 7 blades were really bad -- it really depends on the ambient temp -- One rig in my bedroom with A/C runs fine with batch 1 fans, however the ones that run in unconditioned space all have the noctua fans.
I have found that airflow is the most important thing, below 88f I can run the exhaust fan on low, above 88f I have to run it on high to keep gentarkins firmware from throttling a few cubes -- hottest this year is 97f 2 days ago(it'll get hotter) -- Thinking of putting a second exhaust that will auto start on high speed when temps reach 88f, plus that"ll give some redundancy in case the first exhaust fails -- gotta keep that air moving!!
My airflow is beyond good I think. See here my setup
lostgonzo.imgur.com
Temp today was 90F outside and humid. In the Basement it was 86F which is beyond good considering I'm kicking out at 705 mh at 2850 or so watts!
Other 300mh hosted recent 3rd Titan) So heck that is covered. They have not yet been modified. I have 6 more to modify in basement yet as well.
Not sure about the Noctura Fans dying thou...I have original first batch Titans (Nov Units) plus 2 cubes I got in Feb (1 cube only 1 good die) also Nov unit and they all had some
half assed labeled KNC brand fans...looked generic as heck. Still state NO WAY as was stated on KNC forums back in the day these puppies were 2000 rpm
they were likely 1500 rpm. There is just too much air flow if the ones I just put in are 3000 rpm don't ya know.
But taking into consideration your 3 noctura fans died in a year..that is some concern...I have the Gen Tarkin Firmware that guards against that kinda thing (had one fail from knc 1/2 year ago) but I just LOVE the conversation on here that NOW on NOV 2014 units (all 3 titans 1 orig price 2 used priced) we are really saying and really having this
CONVERSATION on this date of 6/20/16 that we MAY have a problem running KNC Titans SOMETIME NEXT YEAR on the same date 6/20/17 because perhaps 3
of these new noctura 3000 rpm replacement fans MIGHT croak! I wish I'm so LUCKY as that to happen. Yet another YEAR of life in my Titans!
Man I got to sit down ...considering when I got my 2nd Titan March 2015 and with all the NEW bigger badder scrypt miners that were supposed to come
out (Volcano/alpha tech/flower tech etc) that the best I could see was MAYBE I'd mine into JULY 2015 and then just play with crummy scrypt alts hoping
for a hit there after eating electric costs)....man 1 more year of these these raspberry pi 8th grade science project Titan miners is beyond my wildest dreams.
I mean really......2017....that would be Nov to Nov THREE SOLID YEARS. The mind boggles.
But again I take your point on air flow ...I did try putting in floor push fans...but in my setup the air rising up to the ceiling and the push fan at the other end
of the basement giving a flag waving wind up there 24/7 seems to just grabs the heat migrating to the ceiling and just shoots it out the exhaust shutter fan
in my above picture link.When I added Big Floor with wheels push fans on the floor to get more direct airflow it seemed to just MIX around and just kinda made the temp 2F worse
I suppose I could run flexible duct work to be more precise...but heck if it is 90F outside and 86F in the basement...it just seems that in my case it is pretty much as good as it is gonna get airflow wise, considering I'm running the equivalent of 24/7 2850 watt 'space heaters' heh
But I surely wish the only issues I have after my re-pasting and fan improvements dwells into NEXT YEAR is me wearing the fans out from too much use. But
I will watch for such. (Also I plan to clean them out like every 4 months ..the cubes I mean....don't be me and wait 22 months or so ...it was terrifying to look at!)
anyway .......still want to run my 1 cube with 1 working die on my previous posted message with links to water cooling.....see how fast a guy could make 1 die
scream...(man I need a life)
June 19, 2016, 09:23:57 PM
I saw 10c or more drop in temp and it is 84F in basement on this
with the Maxumark brackets replacement for knc heatsink and this just plain kills it ...mainly it is the no clunky knc heatsink blocking air flow due to the Maxumark brackets
with these 3000 rpm fans it is like a frigging wind tunnel ...and the individual heatsinks..but man the fan is the key imho
NOTE: the fans are NOT that much louder then the original titan unit fans I had.....maybe 20% louder or so imho....was pleasantly surprised....so not an issue in my basement
I really doubt the knc fans (orig 1st batch) were 2000 rpm this 3000 rpm replacement I used seems 2x more air flow...(heck they lied about everything else so
probably the fan speed too)
here are the links to the titan cube mods I use from the Swedish guys repaste video along with your Maxumark replacement brackets. (see thread or pm Maxumark) are best prices
from what I could find...so far this is always the case at least over the past 2 months as I picked this stuff up bit by bit or where available
Maxmark's thread on his X brackets they are only $10 bucks each and work great!
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.14395660
Newegg best price found $27 nf14 3000 rpm fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9PV3Y64442
Ebay best price found Gelid gc-extreme thermal paste 10g size large
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GELID-GC-EXTREME-10g-Big-Thermal-Paste-Compound-Grease-CPU-GPU-Chipset-Heatsink-/181852749369?hash=item2a5744be39:g:~lcAAOSwDNdV5EfM
Ebay best price found worldwide (other cheaper prices but shipping is like 7 bucks so too high thus this choice) best price with shipping
for the SWiftech spiky mc14 bga Memory Heatsinks
http://www.ebay.com/itm/262260737940?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Ebay best price for KNC Titan data ribbons (you probably don't need any but here they are he has a bunch
http://www.ebay.com/itm/112027952881?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
that's about it just figured you'd want the links of the stuff works out better then the stuff you got for fans/heatsinks etc
oh..almost forgot if you want to water cool something lol
How to do a Titan blog water cool instructions below link
file:///C:/My%20Web%20Sites/KNC%20Titan%20Water%20Cooling/cryptomining-blog.com/tag/knc-titan-water-cooling/index.html
Silverstone Tundra TD02-SLIM AIO water cooler – dual 120mm slim radiator with two silent slim fans best price I could find w/shipping new
lots of out of stock on newegg etc
Ebay best price $92 I could find one only place in stock...fyi for now anyway prob the td03 version works etc
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SilverStone-TD02-SLIM-Tundra-Series-All-In-One-Liquid-CPU-Cooler-/252427836323?hash=item3ac5df1ba3:g:3vwAAOSwnNBXYw~B
But in all seriousness my basement right now is 84F and the cubes done so far (4) are in the 50c and 60c range where they were in the 70c and 80c range so at the minimum
I have knocked off 10c of heat on each die...maybe as much as 15c on some dies..I mean this stuff with the Maxumark bracket just kills....like a frigging cleared out wind tunnel
out of 4 cubes (1 cube only 1 die working and 1 cube with 1 die off) I've knocked up my total hash rate from 1000mh to 1010mh ..hey every little bit helps (the cubes were
also way way dirty...main problem imho was the rubber heatsink pads (only ones I left in were on bottom to support the board) they after 20 months deteriorate and oil film
on everything a mess to clean up with alcohol and Q tips
So if no other reason then that you need to do the above mods.
Anyway hope the above links are of some use to folk....10 cubes for me to go on this yet...sheesh...
fun fun
with the Maxumark brackets replacement for knc heatsink and this just plain kills it ...mainly it is the no clunky knc heatsink blocking air flow due to the Maxumark brackets
with these 3000 rpm fans it is like a frigging wind tunnel ...and the individual heatsinks..but man the fan is the key imho
NOTE: the fans are NOT that much louder then the original titan unit fans I had.....maybe 20% louder or so imho....was pleasantly surprised....so not an issue in my basement
I really doubt the knc fans (orig 1st batch) were 2000 rpm this 3000 rpm replacement I used seems 2x more air flow...(heck they lied about everything else so
probably the fan speed too)
here are the links to the titan cube mods I use from the Swedish guys repaste video along with your Maxumark replacement brackets. (see thread or pm Maxumark) are best prices
from what I could find...so far this is always the case at least over the past 2 months as I picked this stuff up bit by bit or where available
Maxmark's thread on his X brackets they are only $10 bucks each and work great!
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.14395660
Newegg best price found $27 nf14 3000 rpm fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9PV3Y64442
Ebay best price found Gelid gc-extreme thermal paste 10g size large
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GELID-GC-EXTREME-10g-Big-Thermal-Paste-Compound-Grease-CPU-GPU-Chipset-Heatsink-/181852749369?hash=item2a5744be39:g:~lcAAOSwDNdV5EfM
Ebay best price found worldwide (other cheaper prices but shipping is like 7 bucks so too high thus this choice) best price with shipping
for the SWiftech spiky mc14 bga Memory Heatsinks
http://www.ebay.com/itm/262260737940?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Ebay best price for KNC Titan data ribbons (you probably don't need any but here they are he has a bunch
http://www.ebay.com/itm/112027952881?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
that's about it just figured you'd want the links of the stuff works out better then the stuff you got for fans/heatsinks etc
oh..almost forgot if you want to water cool something lol
How to do a Titan blog water cool instructions below link
file:///C:/My%20Web%20Sites/KNC%20Titan%20Water%20Cooling/cryptomining-blog.com/tag/knc-titan-water-cooling/index.html
Silverstone Tundra TD02-SLIM AIO water cooler – dual 120mm slim radiator with two silent slim fans best price I could find w/shipping new
lots of out of stock on newegg etc
Ebay best price $92 I could find one only place in stock...fyi for now anyway prob the td03 version works etc
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SilverStone-TD02-SLIM-Tundra-Series-All-In-One-Liquid-CPU-Cooler-/252427836323?hash=item3ac5df1ba3:g:3vwAAOSwnNBXYw~B
But in all seriousness my basement right now is 84F and the cubes done so far (4) are in the 50c and 60c range where they were in the 70c and 80c range so at the minimum
I have knocked off 10c of heat on each die...maybe as much as 15c on some dies..I mean this stuff with the Maxumark bracket just kills....like a frigging cleared out wind tunnel
out of 4 cubes (1 cube only 1 die working and 1 cube with 1 die off) I've knocked up my total hash rate from 1000mh to 1010mh ..hey every little bit helps (the cubes were
also way way dirty...main problem imho was the rubber heatsink pads (only ones I left in were on bottom to support the board) they after 20 months deteriorate and oil film
on everything a mess to clean up with alcohol and Q tips
So if no other reason then that you need to do the above mods.Anyway hope the above links are of some use to folk....10 cubes for me to go on this yet...sheesh...
fun fun
June 19, 2016, 06:28:53 PM
No prob, based on the lack of any sort of heat damage, arcing to the power connectors, or any general screwage I'd chalk it up to factory bad components.
The fun question: Which component.
The fun question: Which component.
June 19, 2016, 01:12:29 PM
Your Titan board is a different class of problem: What is happening isn't a traditional short in any sense of the word, it's more like the board has gone insane and is chattering all over the place on the SPI bus.
This doesn't happen when the board is powered down on the 12 volt side, which indicates that the problem is not in the LM75 or EEProm chips. Likewise there is no direct short from the +12 line into the SPI bus or the SPI power bus either. Nor are there any identifiable shorts from the supplies into the board.
When powered up the SPI bus to all cubes "freezes" with gibberish.
Did this board ever work, or was it dead from the factory? I see no evidence so far that any of the supplies have failed, but it might be an internal error.
C
This doesn't happen when the board is powered down on the 12 volt side, which indicates that the problem is not in the LM75 or EEProm chips. Likewise there is no direct short from the +12 line into the SPI bus or the SPI power bus either. Nor are there any identifiable shorts from the supplies into the board.
When powered up the SPI bus to all cubes "freezes" with gibberish.
Did this board ever work, or was it dead from the factory? I see no evidence so far that any of the supplies have failed, but it might be an internal error.
C
June 19, 2016, 12:02:23 PM
Not sure. Note I can repair the bridge boards for about .1btc (why not...) but you also probably have to replace the Rpi as that is what blows up in the first place.
Also I have a pair of repaired controller boards (just the baseboards) here that I'd be happy to sell for .3btc each. New FPGAs, both tested and running fine. Six plug units.
Can help fund the "buy drill bits" repair fund :-)
Also I have a pair of repaired controller boards (just the baseboards) here that I'd be happy to sell for .3btc each. New FPGAs, both tested and running fine. Six plug units.
Can help fund the "buy drill bits" repair fund :-)
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