Topic: [Review] Avalon 6 Miner - Winter Mining - Notlist3d - Also FAQ and Help - page 12. (Read 79347 times)

Thanks for the inputs, but then there won't be any fun of owning one. Or I would of just rent hashes instead. I'm the kind of person that likes to play around with stuff =) even if it voids warranty, makes it more exciting =).

There is really not much reason to ask them to run it.  On over volt you should be within :12V DC ±0.2V .  If you are not warranty is void, so I don't see them supporting over volt to that point.   75-80 should not be a issue it is within Working Environment: 0C to 35C.    

How you mention you don't have funds to spare for Avalon 6 test, I would strongly suggest you don't try things like switching fan orientation.  It chances are voids warranty under: Equipment Tampering And Disassembly.

I'll keep the reverse fan for a month and will keep you guys posted if anything happens.

@philipma1957 Regarding the burnt cap, that might be a gray area, because we can't really tell if it was due to heat or over-volting or maybe both, just too much variables. Maybe blockc can do a testing just for good faith, have 1 miner over volted to 12.8 and have another miner run at constant 75-80 degrees at 12.2 volts and see which one dies first.

I would test this myself, but I don't have the funds to spare for the Avalon 6's to test =P

not sure reversing is a good idea.  my burnt cap was as far as it could be from the fan.

So it was near the intake and the cooler air. it still popped. ,but  here is something I do think you are doing right the 38% fan setting is better then letting the ramp up and down.
the orginal rasp pi card set temps to 75 the newer cards set temp to 68-70  so if 38% keeps you steady at 70 I think that is best.

Wouldn't that mean it's actually better if the fan is running reversed flow then? Since the 1st number wouldn't matter because it is just the intake temperature. And the 3rd number is actually running cooler and the 2nd number averages out and is still below the 3rd number. So overall running the fan in reversed flow actually keeps them running cooler than the other way within the same fan speed testing.

After running it reversed flow over night, the temps now read:
43 59 62

Before, it would read about:
30 53 69

For some reason, the 3rd number is always higher running it the normal way (maybe due to it's internal design), but with the reversed fan, the 3rd number is running lower and the 2nd number balances out.

I wonder if they actually did a side by side test when they designed the Avalon 6, because so far, to me, it seems like running the fan in reversed flow makes more sense of keeping the miner cooler.

P.S., I was able to set the fan speed to 38% now, since it is running cooler, and it doesn't ramp up the fan speed anymore when it has a constant fan flow of 38% minimum. Setting the fan speed at default 20% will be too low, the fan will ramp up and down due to lack of air flow. Maybe this is why we get the random ramping fans because it gets hotter due to the low fan speed, and it ramps up to cool it fast, then back down, then back up, etc. But if the fan is like at a 38%-40% minimum, then it gets constant air flow inside to keep it cool enough where it won't need to ramp up as much.

The first number is the intake temperature.  The second and third number are the left and right side temps.  Hope that helps.

You are blowing hot air out of the intake which is why the first number increased

Well, there's something interesting that I found, after some testing with 40% minimum fan speed:

With the normal fan direction of blowing air out of the miner (stock), the temps are:
30 53 69

I then switched the fan around so it blows air inside and out from the back (reversed), and the temps are:
41 55 60

It lowered the 3rd number down dramatically, but it increased the 1st number up.

Any thoughts?

I'll switch to rasberry pi 1 this weekend.  I just used rasberry pi 2 cause I had a couple from work.

Removed the big red message on first page about not going above above suggested volt's.    Figure most should have seen it by now.

I had a rasp pi 2 

kipper01 sent me a  programmed mini sdcard..   I am using the rasp pi 2  I can not see a difference with 2 avalon6's linked.

I am getting more avalon6's in and will test longer chains.

my guess is if you are running 5 or more in a chain maybe it is better.

Waste of money pi1 will cope easily with the amount of data.

Rich

Anyone know if there is any benefit of running the Avalon 6 on a raspberry pi 2? Do you submit shares faster or anything special or is it just basically running the same on a raspberry pi 1? Debating if I should get a raspberry pi 2 or not since it's faster. Or would it be a waste?

@notlist3d Yes, it is winter air right now, will keep an eye on it coming summer time or hot days. So far running overnight, the flat 55% fan speed is still keeping them below 70 degrees, and the low sound is nice. Now my server PSU fan is louder than the Avalon 6.

I remembered when I had an antminer S4, there was a setting for it to shutdown once it reach like 80 degrees for safety reasons, is there a safety measure similar in the Avalon 6? Because I don't see an option like that.

I'm guessing your getting winter air right now (could be wrong).  But I would agree with Phil 75 should be good.  The only thing is the miner twords top would be spinning faster RPM and pushing a lot more air through miner then if you max it at 40 you mentioned. 

In 90's I suspect it would be over double possible close if not hitting the 100 percent.   So my fear would be you need to watch miner temp's more carefully.  If you have a quick heat up.... might not be good for miner.

So keep in mind the risks that are there limiting the fan, as damage is a possibility in worst cases.

It is supposed to be safe at 75

Ambient temps need to be under 95f  but I have found at 92f things get a bit shaky

you have 29 as ambient temps you are good.

It is designed to run  right near 75.

although I suspect  70 is better I just do not know that.

After some testing, 30% is too low. I changed the code to:

So it'll just be 20% in the GUI with a max fan speed of 55%. So the fan won't ramp up no more, the max it can go is 55% fan speed. and the temps are  28 51 67 with fan speed at a constant 2600 rpm to 2790 rpm. It won't go past 3000+ rpm any more due to me setting the hard cap of max fan speed of 55%. This seems fine too me since it seems like sometimes the Avalon 6 ramp up the fan up and down randomly like at low to full speed then back down. Probably due to the auto overclock or smartspeed option it has. This is all with a volt of 11.7 in the GUI.

The reason I'm doing this is because noise is a big factor for me and this seems like the best solution / settings for low constant noise with no ramping of the fan.

I did try the hard cap of the max fan speed to 40%, but the temps got to around 75, not sure what is safe, so I tried to tweak it where the temps are at least 70 or below.

Would it be safe to run it at a temp of 75 constantly?


Edit: Did some more testing, if you change the code to just:

Then it will just run what ever flat fan speed % you enter in the GUI, so you only need to edit the file once and play around with the fan speed % through the GUI. If you do it this way, the fan speed is not variable no more, it's just a flat constant fan speed % to what ever you set.

do 30%    and let us know the temps

Well, I finally found a way to make the fan speed at a constant % without any ramping up or down. BE WARNED IT MAY OVERHEAT!!! I set mine to a constant 20% and it got up to 81 degrees. but it did stay at a constant 20% fan, which was like 1100 RPM.

The file is in /etc/init.d/cgminer and there is a line called:


That $_fan is the % you set in the GUI and you see that 100? It's the max % that the fan can go too. So if you set 20% in the GUI, it will set your fan as 20%-100%.

So if you changed that 100 to 20, then the max would only be 20%, so it would be 20%-20%. See following code:

WARNING: Be careful though, running at a constant 20% max might be too low from my testing (varies on your ambient temperature), since it was only at around 1100 RPM and with my ambient temperature, it rised up to 81 degrees fast. So maybe set the GUI fan speed to 100, and edit /etc/init.d/cgminer for max 100, and test by -10 increments each time to be safe, so the temperatures don't run that high.

P.S. if you don't know how to edit or get to /etc/init.d/cgminer, then maybe it's best not to touch it =)

Put on first page for and will leave it for a day or two:

If you are overvolting past the "12V DC ±0.2V" turn it down, it can damage your miner
Specs - http://www.blockc.co/collections/bitcoin-miners-shop-avalon-blockc-co/products/avalon6-bitcoin-miner

Hopefully if anyone is overvolting they will turn down.

No the auto function is locked in the on position.