Topic: S3+ (BM1382) Overclocking with voltage setting (Read 28804 times)

Thanks for the reply. Yes agreed this is all old stuff... It was just when on my recent / rapid Mining learning curve over the last couple of Months as I progressed from an S1 to a couple of S3 & now a couple of S5 that I am now working on undervolting, that all sorts of questions came up so I was just posting away as part of the getting to know mining and the community etc...

I am modifying the S3 with a 3 position switch to give it standard & 2 levels of undervolting and then the will be on ebay, so no need for any more info.   The undervolted S5 will see me through to the halving, will have to then decide what to do next? Just wish I could afford an S7...

I like Kano but just cannot cope with the variability, so use PPS Pools. Have to say I have a concern for the smaller pools as the overall network hash increases, that time between blocks will get longer and runs of bad luck will take their toll on the smaller Pools and they will start loosing Miners?

Rich

Hey Rich,

Sorry nobody has gotten back to you. I just don't come here often anymore.

I'm not sure about the converters you are referencing or the difference in boards. Needless to say, not much help today. My s3+'s (2 of 'em) are due for a cleaning in the middle of the month so when I take those off-line, I will be more than happy to get back to you with more info. I am answering now so you didn't think you were being ignored.

IMHO, you are really spinning your wheels tho. I mean, does it really matter? We already know what the s3+ can/cannot do. I can only speak to the 'plus' (as in the thread title). These miners are a beast, rough, & tough and can take a lickin' & keep tickin' (as long as you don't 'brick' it). We DO know that voltage is adjustable in .0005 increments. That is a fact straight from a Bitmain guru.  However, it is sort of an unwritten piece of info that the s3+ is a 'sail in the wind'. Meaning, they have some common settings but each one 'acts' just a little different. Like a fickle woman. You need to test the waters and find out what each one likes. Furthermore, make sure you are running the latest flash/software.

The pool I and some others mine on is www.kano.is. Not advocating for the pool, just backround info for ya (I won't mine anywhere else). They (kano & ck) are the coders/creators of cgminer...blah..blah (no dis meant, total respect). Anyway, very good ppl and have written an upgrade to the cgminer that comes in the 'flash' for the s3/s3+ you get from Bitmain. I can't find the link, right now. (shoutout to mikestang...have you got it handy) I'll get back with that if you need it. I will check back in here to see if I can assist further and update what my converters are for you. Or, you can PM me if you need any help sooner as I'm usually somewhere in BCT, just not this thread as much.

Best of Luck, Happy Mining

CapnBDL

     

Would be great to get to the bottom of what variants there are to the S3 & S3+ hashing boards & which ones support Variable Voltage & which ones do not. The pictures I have added two posts back show a section in the middle top of the board, where the power connectors are & 2 of the DC-DC converter stages, they are very different as you can see.
 
The one on the right uses the TPS533355 DC-DC converter as the S1 and definitely does not support variable voltage. The one on the left is from this thread by adaseb and also appears to not support Variable Voltage?


The "key" component will be the DC-DC converter IC in these pictures numbered U32 & U35, the spec for this should reveal if it could support variable voltage.

Can I suggest that if you have a different board that does or does not support Variable Voltage that you add a picture here along with the IC type so that others can tell if their unit will support VV?

I am still very new to mining, but we are at a stage IMHO where efficiency and hence a need to adjust for best J/GH is of paramount importance. My S3 on my electricity tariff in the UK on the standard settings is now only just better than break even.

I have risked buying an S3+ from ebay in the hope that it allows VV, but am also about to start work on a mod to add VV to any S3.


Rich

Does anyone know if all S3+ miners have the ability to control the voltage or are there some where it is not possible like the S3? I like the idea of "tuning" one for lowest J/GH and will have a look on ebay if the probability of an S3+ being adjustable is 100% or very high.

Would be interested if anyone with an S3+ can identify the DC-DC converter chip in the picture above?


Rich

Very interesting thread. I am very new to mining and have been scratching my head as to why some units respond to voltage & others do not. Sorry if this is all known... Looks like they changed the Buck Converter in the S3+ some of? and also in the upgrade kits? Here is a picture of an S3+from this thread compared with an S3.



The S3+ is on the left & the S3 on the right. You can see that the S3 picture uses the same TPS533355 DC-DC converter as the S1, whereas the S3+ on the left has a completely different IC and supporting circuitry. I assume that it is a programmable DC-DC converter, and does not rely on a potential divider to set the voltage?

For interest can anyone read the IC type from the top of the chip above the R15 inductor?


Rich

There are some freq settings that my S3+ just won't hash at all with.  Play around with the settings and you'll find out which your machine prefers.

First, from what I could gather in your post, your voltage setting is too low for that freq. You can try 0755 or 0760. Don't forget to 'reboot' after making the changes. Second, you say your chips are 'x'ing out. It may very well be your S3+ doesn't like that freq. Nature of the beast. Your options would be to go to the next highest/lowest 'freq', step the 'voltage' accordingly, 'reboot', and see how it runs. FYI: my S3+ doesn't like to function beyond the 250 freq. /w a voltage of 0755, and runs >500Gh. However, the fans run higher too. (noise) Most of the time I just run it at factory spec. I did my share of experimenting tho.

You just have to experiment until you find what runs best for your machine. NOTE: Making adjustments above recommended settings may damage your miner. Do this at your own risk!! I will not be held responsible for any and all damage caused by my comment.

Good Luck

hey I added the 262.50 setting inside cgminer.lua, set voltage under advanced to 0750 - I am getting - shares and really low hash rates... any ideas? tried several different firmwares, all same issue - am I missing something? and chips are going x

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s201/sh/355d57f7-0cec-4852-b4b3-4856208c9ff3/c3666369560c67af/res/aaa0a790-459d-4216-9f8c-9c530be1d3d2/skitch.png

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s201/sh/d8362ae2-a957-4e9e-aaec-c016beb10738/a93db7bbd554ca77/res/e018ab5b-7c8b-4d37-93b1-3985805d92cc/skitch.png

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s201/sh/f28cca25-30a6-46c7-90da-71f80bc3a5c6/44ac8605a530808d/res/3880756c-64cd-48de-b4fa-aa03f9d493f3/skitch.png

thanks for your help

Hi,

I can not set the voltage chips. In the menu box for tension, but typing in any value after boot S3 + B11 unresponsive and I measured voltage of the chip voltmeter and there is still 0.760 V. Bitmain then somehow forbid editing tension in newer firmwares, right? You have what firmware and editing tension will really work?
Thank you for advice.

I questioned bitmain concerning voltage settings and by what increments it could be set at. Here is the reply;

quote;
Support Representative：yanhua.qin   2015-05-21 07:12:46

Reply:
Hi,
The voltage can only be increased or decreased by 0.005V.
end quote;



There it is race fans. (in case anyone was wondering)

Happy Mining!

That's alot to put into it, and you also need to set your freq (clock). I believe you'll get too many rejects, but you are welcome to try. So, you are correct..that would be a setting of 0780.

Good luck & Happy Mining!!

edit; if you go back and read a bit of this thread, all the info is in here.

hello

how i know the voltage is modified?
For 0,78v its just write 0780 in the voltage place?
 

i run the cgminer that nicehash has on their site.. along with the 12/19 firmware.

Ummm...Ok, I did say I was gonna shut up...but, can't help this one. I've done nothing but clean updates when flashing, and have the latest, Jan. 2015. I would like to know what version of cgminer are we supposed to be running and if I 'putty' into this (adding dir,etc), can I run the newest version? I know it sounds dumb...but...

Thank You very much.

Happy Mining!!


edit: I ask due to a recent event, with me starting cgminer in shell, and it came up with cgminer 4.7.0.

Ah ha, well yes, 0755 makes much more sense.  Hopefully someone who knows the details of these chips will chime in.

Mike, I just caught what you meant in a previous post. I had to go back and edit the post saying 'volt 0752'. I meant 0755. I was tired last night when I wrote that, but am going to completely guess that the .005s are possible. Have a good one!

Happy Mining!!

Well the U3 voltage is adjustable in 0.005 increments through it's range, but I do not know if the chips on the S3+ support the same.

I've got it set that way....but haven't tested it to find out if it really is. Seems to work out. At this point....hell, who knows.     I've got tooo much time on my hands...lol.

Yup...I saw that sheet too. Just tryin' something out. Might have to break out the meter.

edit: I did notice this little ditty from one of the posts to pekatete;

[/quote]
_{Pete ...!? You talking to me? High fives all over then, and the pleasure is all mine.
I also noticed that the default voltage setting that bitmain ship with is 0725 but there is no mention of any 5 thousandth in the datasheet, so naturally, I tried it on one of my rigs that I had running at 0750 (aka tried 0755) ...... not bad!}
[/quote]

That SEEMS to imply that some of the thousands settings MAY be possible. I'm going back to do further research in this thread. Plus, I need to find out just where to touch my leads for testing 'cuz I don't have the faintest.

edit: upon further reading and strained eyes, I find that there is enough in this post to confuse an average man!! Plenty of info that suggests voltage settings in the thousands MAY be possible but not any specific mention pertaining to positive possibilities. Ok, if you understood that, it means, I don't know. Completely rattled. I think I'll stick to saying that .005s (such as 0755) is doable and refrain from any more jibber-jabber.

I did not think voltage was adjustable in 0.001 increments.

Ok....so I've done about all I can to OC by doing a volt/freq mod. My S3+ happens to love a freq of 250 and volt of 0752. Can't say this holds for everyone but I'm getting ~502Gh. Not too shabby. Still....I want more, so I took a look at cgminers 'queue' size. The default is 4096. After an ssh change to 6144 & 2048 for 6 hrs at each, I was able to squeeze ~4 more Gh out, with the size change to 2048. The 6144 actually gave me poorer preformance.

If someone else would like to try this, please let me know what your results are. I don't make any claims/guarantee. I'm just letting this thread know what worked for me. Anytime I can gain a little speed, it's all good. I push 'till it bleeds...then back off by a hair!  

Happy mining!

edit: Oppsss, meant volt of 0755.
Error on my part.....late night & very fat fingers.