Author

Topic: Need advise on what to do with this S9 (Read 334 times)

legendary
Activity: 2436
Merit: 6643
be constructive or S.T.F.U
October 21, 2018, 02:13:36 PM
#14
sorry to see this happen to you, on the other hand, am glad it was ONLY this bad, things could have been worse.

i'd say , try to change the connectors yourself, or take it to someone who has the tools/hands ( hands that can do these kinda stuff of course) like a mobile phone repair shop or PC/laptop guys, these connectors should be easy to change.

unless you live next door to bitmain then it really is not worth the fees of shipment and the waiting time. plus i see many offers for brand new s9 + psu for 299$ on telegram groups. so do the calcls and most likely my advice will make a lot of sense.

copper member
Activity: 32
Merit: 12
October 21, 2018, 12:47:19 PM
#13
I'm sorry to see this happen to your unit! If you are in the states, you can ship this to Bitmain in California for under $20. (The whole unit). The last time I had them repair an S9 with a similar issue, they charged $70. You may sit around $110 for a turnaround cost. With the availability of S9s being abundant lately, you may or may not be better holding your unit for parts.
legendary
Activity: 3164
Merit: 2258
I fix broken miners. And make holes in teeth :-)
October 19, 2018, 07:58:23 PM
#12
I think you have your answer: Hate to say it but S9's are disposable.

Toss on ebay or junk it. I haven't done the ROI on power vs. difficulty but I don't know if an S9 can mine profitably anymore. So the best answer may be to not mine.

Sad, but the fate of many a miner....
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 1
October 19, 2018, 02:51:38 PM
#11
Yeah the shipping on this back and forth is very high. Higher than getting a new miner.
legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1714
Electrical engineer. Mining since 2014.
October 18, 2018, 02:19:15 PM
#10
Yeah, the difference in price between sending a faulty unit back for repair
or buying a new unit is not that big these days.
legendary
Activity: 3164
Merit: 2258
I fix broken miners. And make holes in teeth :-)
October 18, 2018, 11:52:29 AM
#9
Yeah, ground fault. You know, it costs ten cents for a damn optoisolator pair, buffer the SCL signal in and out, and this sort of stuff doesn't happen. But no, everyone wants to go straight TTL and save a dime....

Ahem. Anyway, if it's under warranty send it back to bitmain, but they may laugh at you except for the fact that you did use their power supply. I could fix one of the boards, maybe the ground looped one, but that's up to you. Really the best thing to do may be to put it on Ebay with a $50 opening bid and let someone pick it up. That will give you the true worth right there.

Thanks for posting all the pics and such, it's an interesting thread because of them.

Edit: Holy cow, these things go for $200 on Ebay? Serious price collapse there...
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 1
October 17, 2018, 11:54:26 AM
#8
Yes, the ribbon cable did burn (just one)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jfQTV2DiK4ibdwtR8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/pA5VLpoXNfEgh3Gv5
https://photos.app.goo.gl/jAUHdMzXhL1e8REN6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MCUTys31Nt9JYtHZ9

These are the photos of the hash boards.

The connectors were so badly burnt - that I had to cut out the wires, so its pretty much goodbye to the PSU.

The irony is that if I just connect the one board - with the same PSU - it still works. But I'm not using it now. Will have to figure out what to do with the miner.

Shaunak
legendary
Activity: 3164
Merit: 2258
I fix broken miners. And make holes in teeth :-)
October 17, 2018, 11:50:36 AM
#7
Odds are that it was not the supply itself that caused the damage but rather worn out PCIe connectors pins on it and/or the miner. Connector pins are good for surprisingly few connect/disconnect cycles, typically I see ratings as low as 25. After that the plating wears off and spring tension drops leading to poor connections. Once that starts things avalanche to burned plugs rather quickly.
Sometimes. One thing I have noticed is that Bitmain uses cheap plated brass plugs, they do not conduct as well as nickel ones but they cost a few pennies less.

And while loose connectors can be a problem I think the bigger problem is voltage sag: If you check the voltage at the miner pins and it's less than 12v then you have voltage drop between the supply and the miner. Aside from being resistance (warming the wires) it results in the miner pulling more current to maintain output. P=I*E, so as voltage (E) goes down, current goes up which stresses the pins even more.

Thus the connector warms up, resistance goes up, and the connector burns.  This happens a *lot* on Neptunes running with 500 watt Corsair supplies. Annoying. Then if you have 3 plugs in parallel, one burns, goes high resistance and the current load is distributed across the other two. With the usual results.

Side question is did the ribbon cable burnt: I can see one of the ribbon cable plugs looks melted, if the grounds opened on the final plug before the hots it's possible for the miner to use the ribbon cable's ground as a return, burning that and possible traces on the board.

newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 1
October 17, 2018, 11:48:24 AM
#6
Hi

Yeah - I think that was the one. It's in a bad state now - I will have to just throw it out. No way I can salvage it at this point. The new one is only $90.

Shaunak
legendary
Activity: 2506
Merit: 1714
Electrical engineer. Mining since 2014.
October 17, 2018, 11:26:25 AM
#5
It was a bitmain power supply - a very old one. The big box one which they don't sell any longer. APW 3 I think. I'm not sure.

I'm looking at the hash board and I don't see any real damage to the board itself.

The question now is - whether I should send this to bitmain to repair or not.

The psu looks to be Bitmain APW3++ model?
legendary
Activity: 3822
Merit: 2703
Evil beware: We have waffles!
October 17, 2018, 10:55:35 AM
#4
Odds are that it was not the supply itself that caused the damage but rather worn out PCIe connectors pins on it and/or the miner. Connector pins are good for surprisingly few connect/disconnect cycles, typically I see ratings as low as 25. After that the plating wears off and spring tension drops leading to poor connections. Once that starts things avalanche to burned plugs rather quickly.
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 1
October 16, 2018, 11:36:10 PM
#3
It was a bitmain power supply - a very old one. The big box one which they don't sell any longer. APW 3 I think. I'm not sure.

I'm looking at the hash board and I don't see any real damage to the board itself.

The question now is - whether I should send this to bitmain to repair or not.
legendary
Activity: 3164
Merit: 2258
I fix broken miners. And make holes in teeth :-)
October 16, 2018, 10:45:32 PM
#2
Hm. Not too bad; if the boards themselves are not damaged then the connectors can be swapped. The trick is to use preheat under the board, not too much but enough to then use an iron or hot air to pull the plugs. Then clean up, and use new plugs. PM me if you need a hand.

What kind of power supply were you using? Also did it burn up any of the ribbon cables?
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 1
October 13, 2018, 08:18:53 AM
#1
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fYziU3zWK6Lx5JmN8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4xzefquJ3UUzmAYM7

I have an S9 - which has only one hash board working. Two boards have burned out. (See photos above)

I'm thinking this was because of the PSU, it was a really old bitmain PSU. I'm pretty sure I need a new PSU.

What I'm thinking is whether I have any way of salvaging the two boards that have died on me.

If you see the photos, the socket, is completely gone - but the connectors below the socket are fine - should I try opening it and connecting it to a new socket ? Or should I send it to bitmain and hope they do that at a reasonable cost? I could easily hire someone with circuit board expertise to put new sockets, but I don't know if I should do that.

Anyone with thoughts on this, with any experience on this would be appreciated.
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