Topic: The ultimate S5 mega-enclosure... Maybe... (Read 2972 times)

heheh, thanks!  Here's the latest version, but I'm doing (hopefully) the final small tweaks:

wow that rig is quit amazing dude - nice work

Keep this up Hopefully difficulty will not increase :O

regards
BTC LOVER

Very well done. What was the estimated cost of the build? also, are there any plans that you have for others to look at for construction?

Thanks - it actually doesn't really lend itself to smaller builds, the right cost per unit started around 20 units or so I think, which is why it houses 24.  Once J4bberwock makes his new PSU, I think I can increase the density a fair bit, and probably get closer to 30 or maybe 36 in the enclosure.  I also have sound soundproofing foam I may put inside of it to help reduce the sound, not that it's that bad.


It's going to be pretty hard to beat the price/performance of card board boxes. 

In all seriousness, I used wood for the panels, but I was originally planning on using some sort of plastic - I figured it would be lighter weight and probably cost less.  But in the end it came down to what Home Depot had in stock, so wood it is.

I'm on the hunt for an S7, so I'll be adding it in the mix to see how it works...


Arizona is pretty good, my residential rate is 0.08c and commercial is under 0.06c... I've found a way to get under 0.05c as well, which I'll be spinning up next month.  TBH, as the efficiency of these miners get better, it becomes a lot less about power and alot more about noise and heat. 

One super-easy change I haven't tested yet, but plan to, is moving the fan inside the case instead of outside - this should be dual benefit.  The first is that I don't need to cut a spacer between the case and the fan anymore, as the insert is the spacer.  The second is that the fan is completely inside the enclosure, so should be somewhat quieter as well.  What held me back from doing this before was mounting becomes a bit trickier (I need a 2x size removal, not 1x), and I wasn't sure about exposing the fans for prolonged periods of hot air - since all the ambient air around them would be very hot relative to intake air.  Of course the intake air should cool the fan motor itself, but still not sure about the long term effects.

OP can you answer to my pm ? 

these might be nice for a few S7's would make it more data center friendly thats for sure..  Looks good though

Next rev huh. Must be making enough on the mining then and your power is paid for with it. Am guessing free energy or very cheap and working out good for you. What is your current cost on kw/h and what you actually making profit to equipment wise. Sure would like to get an idea as this makes me want to buy more equipment but UK prices are stupid on import tax and also energy cost to use.

I like the modular design like you said a row can be upgraded with new plates as new miners with a new foot print come out and you upgrade but for me its always been a project do build something to try and capture and channel the heat where i want it to go my first version was a bunch of cardboard boxes with a few High CFM barrel fans ducted out the window to keep the room ambient temp lower and it worked so this could help take that up a notch and be even more efficent then my card board box method 

Damn you didnt answer mine 

Ok, I'll try to answer everyone's questions! 


I'm in Arizona - commercial rates are quite good, and even residential rates are workable (about 0.08c), but it's super convenient to be able to test things in my garage.


My original acrylic case enclosure is much better for home mining I think - it reduces the operating temps when the entire mod is done, plus it's pretty basic to do.  I've played around with unit-specific ducting, and probably will again - but the challenge is the amount of airflow that flex ducting allows.  This was one of the better links I found that breaks out both round and square, plus also flex vs sheet:

http://www.northwestenergystar.com/sites/default/files/resources/EasyDucts%20Slide%20Deck_Final.pdf

A 120mm fan exhaust hole is basically 4", so you're looking at 30cfm, which isn't great.  Plus with flex duct it decreases even more over distance because of the turbulence caused by the shape, etc.  Even a 4x6 rectangular duct only moves 60cfm, which is roughly the size of the back of the S5.  You can increase the CFM with more and more static pressure, but the problem is that you're buying that CFM at the cost of additional amps of consumption.


Exactly - you need to be to a certain minimum size to be able to make this work.  You also need to be wanting to mine for more than a year - the reason I designed it the way I did was to be able to replace the inserts with whatever new device profile that showed up.  Plus you can also vary orientation to give more options as well - for instance, I originally designed it for the units to be facing down, but it could easily face up as well - so heavier or smaller items worked better.

For my ROI calculations - I consider this very much like a PSU, it's a cost that is going to be amortized over the life of more than one miner.  Plus the gain in the raw amount of miners I can run more than makes up for it.


My laser cutter should be faster than most CNC's - the only cutting I'm doing is for the actual inserts and the panels on the sides of the air channel (plenum).  The extrusion can be ordered pre-cut to your exact lengths - but the extrusion profile is super basic, so if you've got a local place that does things like that, it would certainly cut costs down considerably.  I'll use a local manufacturer for our main deployment.


The S5's are light enough that the bolts are more than sufficient to hold it - originally I was worried about how delicate it might be, but 5.6mm of acrylic is very strong, and I did some tests to failure, and interestingly the acrylic cracks (as expected) but didn't actually come out of the plenum - it was jammed in there by the broken pieces.  One of the advantages of the tight fit, and the ~5mm of acrylic embedded in the channel is that it turns out to be a very durable and equipment-safe design.  And if that really is a concern, you could just change the orientation as I described above.  I'd love to get my A2 Terminators running on this wall, but I'm going to have to change their cases considerably to do that, for both weight and bulk.


I try to manage dust coming in at the intakes and less at the device - but one of the big advantages of my original case mod is that you don't get buildup behind the fan on the heatsink anymore.  Ultimately I'd like to get rid of the fan on the units altogether and just have a couple big extractor fans, but that will be the next rev...


PM me if you'd like to talk about it seriously - this is designed for maximum flexibility, but depending on your space and other variables, there could be smarter/cheaper ways to lay things out.  The way we deploy these isn't exactly the same as what you see here, this is my garage version, but the principle is the same - it's all about controlling airflow.

Wow really nice setup! I have 3 S5. Will like to know if I could order you a setup for 3.

Let me know. 

well my farm is far from the average home miner I have a whole warehouse filled with miners and I am interested in this if you're open to selling your design and or plans to build it I could source the materials local and have a local shop cut the Plexi for me

@ MarkAz Iwhs I had as much space as you to out into a build like you have. Some really nice compact and tight units going on their. Maybe next  step in making dust proof and getting some dust filters on units that can be took off and hovered and cleaned every now n then to keep good air flow to the units Very impressive.

Looks fantastic Mark, well done once again!  Quick question, are the intake sides of the S5's supported somehow, or are they completely being held up by the 4 bolts through the acrylic cutout through the fan?

my buddy in the brooklyn navy yard has a cnc it would have to cut down the time.

Really nice design do you plan to sell these to the home DIY miner?

Exactly - we have two deployments, but I do all my testing in my garage setup.  I have 400a service to the house and about 300a going into the garage, so try to have it at capacity whenever possible... It's a great environment to actually see how things work in the real world over the course of more than just a couple hours.  I have both forced air and exhaust fans going in there, as well as a direct/indirect evap cooler, but even then I can get it pretty toasty in there. 

Actually, not as many as you'd probably suspect - I've built things like this before, so I generally knew what would work, and I had the templates for the PSU and S5 from when I did the acrylic case.  So in actual hours building the thing, I would probably say maybe 20 - in terms of real world time it took, it was several weeks because when I would miss something I'd have to order whatever I needed, and you lose a week each time.


Yeah, the S7 would be no problem... The S5+ would probably be a bit more problematic with acrylic probably because of it's size, but the material I used was 5.6mm so it's pretty strong.

Part of my intention with the design was to end up with something that would be easily modified for whatever might come out in the future - and the nice thing about this design is that it's just a matter of replacing the mounting insert to match whatever the device is.  It won't work with something super-heavy like the InnoSilicon Terminator 110's, but for most miners it should work like a champ.

Impressive. I hope it can easily be modified for S7s.

Nice work!  It looks amazing.