Topic: Just accidentally plugged an antminer s15 into 110v... (Read 309 times)

Yes that's the one, thanks. And lets not forget, the panel breaker box itself is... How should i say, "flexible"? Imagine you attach something from one side and not the other, any little pressure would make the thing flex (inwards) in the "floating" side, and the whole side bends so when you try to use a switch in one of the breakers it might accidentally move the others in the same column. If you move it vertically too much, it can also get stuck against the metal front cover...

The dual breakers (two phase) are not connected inside like the decent breakers do, they are literally just two singles next to each other tied with some metal thingie on top of the levers. if one trips the other should pull the other lever also, but they are only connected at the lever part, and i found that this can actually make both stuck (hard) in the on position not halting any current at all so i removed that metal thingie and rather risk breaking a single phase than none. The way that would happen is if only one trips, the metal thing might get diagonal and have both stuck before reaching the middle (break) position

I doubt everyone has these, but this is a building from the 70ies. I have seen others with more decent material. The only saving grace is that the master breaker (which is not in the same box but separate) is not Federal Pacific or the Stab-Loc system. In fact the last short circuit i remember triggered that one, not any of the useless Stab-Loc ones in the box which serves more like decoration...

it is something that under normal circumstances, you would just replace entirely... But when you "survive" in a broken economy, things not food or bills get simply neglected. This building hasn't caught fire in over 40 years, i just pray...

And truth be told i only learned about it when i started messing with bitcoin mining and wondered why this box seemed so cheaply built, then i learned about it online from some old document wrote in the 80ies.

But yeah its not the first time they send the "garbage" here. Do you still have analog tvs? this country still broadcasts NTSC (yes its Nov 2019). There are even still plenty of CRTs humming along, we have two here still getting daily use... If they break, that's the end unless it can be cheaply repaired.

That is interesting: Last I checked a couple of years ago the only solution was a Square-D box designed to fit in the exact same space as a Stab-Lok with spots for real breakers. I'd have no problem with the use of UL approved breakers, but I didn't realize anyone made them for Stab-Lok panels (for a number of years in the 2000's someone was selling "new" ones, but they had the exact same failure mode as the old ones. Ug!)

Was that breaker a Stab-Lok or Square D? When I ran miners at the house I would check the panel weekly and I did see one Square D breaker that was getting warmer than the others so I pulled it just to be safe. Miners put an insane constant load, and if you quote the NEC I think a 20a circuit should have no more than a 13-14a continuous load on it (which miners are. Warm, cuddly miners).

Both GE and Siemens make them as well. No doubt because in the US, boxes using stab connections to the bus bars are very common though not sure if still allowed for new construction. I recently had to replace my main 100A breaker at home due to one of the sliding stab contacts on the breaker getting weak, then getting hot and finally giving up the ghost. Had no trouble finding a replacement at Home Depot.

Oh God, your country is wired with Stab-Loc? You might as well save time and set fire to your house :-)

For the un-initiated, Stab Loc was a maker of circuit breakers that.... well wouldn't break. Under load they had a tendancy to do one of two things:

1) Warp the contacts so that resistance increased as load increased, causing heat and a fire in the fuse box
2) Fuse shorted under overload (or even load) so that when a short was detected the breaker would ensure that the full 100-200ams of the house service could be dumped into the load, causing fires in walls, appliances, everywhere.

For awhile people thought that cycling the breakers every once in awhile would fix the problem, but then it was discovered that each time you cycled it you would make event 1 more likely. In other words having them open under load was a literal crap-shoot.

In terms of 30a 120v, that is very unusual in the US, it requires 10-8 gauge wire minimum and I could see a 120/240 unit melting its input lines under the extra current it tries to draw (do Antminer PSUs have a fuse in them?). Am curious to see what kind of power the OP has, and will test my icoming S15 with the Watts-Up meter to see what it does on 120v.

(Edit: I see Schindler Electric is selling new breakers that might fit in a Stab-Loc panel. Interesting)

I think it has 3 boards... Ideally no boards but measure voltage/amps first (on both ends), then (if correct) maybe try with one board.

In my country 30a circuits are not uncommon. But then again if (current) American code was applied, Everyone would fail it. My home breaker box doesn't even have a single 15a, they are all 20a and 30a Well its 40 years old and the breakers are from an American company that closed in the 80ies because its products were unsafe, all that surplus (banned in USA) material was sold to the "third world" countries (as usual). Name is Federal Pacific...

Interesting. I'm getting in an S15 of my own for fixing and testing, I'm guessing since it's a switching power supply it will just try to double the current on the intake in order to generate the DC voltage on the output. Surprised it just didn't blow your fuse right off; did you plug it into a 15a or 20a breakered outlet?

One question I'll test is if it can run on 110v with half the boards. Should be possible....

Still waiting on Bitmain to approve my KYC to buy a power supply, what a crock... Just sumbitted my info for a second time.

Valuable science here. It does tell us something about Bitmain's PSU quality, this is the same PSU that was suspected to fry when fed 250v as well isn't?

The Chinese have this habit of taking shortcuts and getting the cheapest thing that works, and most tests are done against their current, which is 230v@50hz. I doubt anyone there bothered to test "what if" the psu is fed with 120v@60hz... No protection?, not even a fuse?

IIRC these psus deliver 20v rather than 12v (except the controller?)

That psu can probably be repaired, but of course not everyone has the ability to do so. Still, what a lousy psu design Bitmain did here. Would be interesting to test what voltages the thing was outputting under these conditions, if it didn't burn't up in the process...


Also, label your plugs silly. A marker or sticker suffices. No wonder your electrical code demands physically different prongs for different voltages, but that's overkill, its like that fable about the Nasa space pen vs the Russian pencil. Maybe its something cultural, just throw more money at things: Just replace all your receptacle plugs, and cut/replace all those power wire plugs to use the correct American 240v prong, waste of time and money, but would potentially save you a burnt psu because you didn't bother to mark with a 50¢ marker...

Yeah get the replacement see if it works. If good you can compare it to the dead one. It may be only one part to replace. I saw the psu on site and order one about two months ago just in case.

I think this is common sense, wrong voltage input usually toasts the PSU only, be it a miner or a regular PC or anything else, unless the PSU is a total piece of shit then it's output shouldn't be affected by its input, meaning that if it should deliver 12v on 220v it wouldn't do 6v and burn the hash boards on 110v, i would get a replacement ASAP because those stuff on bitmain's website disappear real fast, you might have to wait for way too long till they are back in stock again.

Also I would disassembled the PSU and try to fix it, check for burnt component/s , it might be easy to fix and then you get to have a spare PSU.

I think he wasted the psu and nothing else.  So lets see if it is true.

I've always wondered what would happen if you plugged a T15 or S15 into 110.

Thanks for sharing.

Fingers crossed it's a cheap fix for ya.

Good luck with it fingers crossed 🤞 for you.

Please post back if it works.

I was hoping that was all it was.  I'll order one and keep you guys updated.

an s15 psu replacement may be what you need.


 It is in stock. 98 usd plus shipping.

https://shop.bitmain.com/product/detail?pid=00020190418172319945PvKR86Kg0685

Sounds like the protection did not work for some reason and the high amount of current in the psu input circuit did some damage

It definitely did start up, although I think when it started to actually tried to start hashing is when the breaker popped and it didn't turn back on, been a couple hours now.  When it happened I smelled a slight burned smell from the box, very faint.

Like i said it has been a couple of hours. It is still dead, so I definitely damaged something.  Was using that for the heat in my office this winter, so that sucks.

IEC 13/14 and 19/20 connectors do not distinguish between 110 and 240V and there is no voltage-specific option for them like NEMA plugs have.

That said, the miner should have not even started up as the psu input was too low. There is at least 1 thermal device in it (inrush surge limiter(s)) that may have over heated. Did you try again after letting things cool down for 10 min or so?

Not sure why they make the two inputs exactly the same... however I grab the wrong cord plugged it in, it started running... left to do work on my PC and the breaker blew... realized what I did and switched the input to 220v, but now the s15 will not turn back on...

Is it toast or can I salvage this mistake?