Topic: What to do with all the old s-9s. (Read 2573 times)

Have that not made any progress in terms of cooking towers yet? Idk, but why they have not made some sort of chamber which can help suck the Hot Air and recirculate the cooler one with the low cost of production and also maintaining of the same.

I am now seeing water cooled CPU and mining equipment as well which is mind blowing. Anyways they cost Far more than the conventional one. 

Since you are discussing about the oldest player devices here, I could imagine more run over cycles until they break itself.

The afb1212sh fan pulls a lot less power IIRC

I'm not really sure I see any reason to mod the s9. With apw5 and braiins os+ the s9 is way quieter than my r4 by running the stock fans on auto and the power >1000. I watch television in a room with 2 s9 at 700w and auto fans running >20%. The AFB1212SH fans actually run at a higher rpm and seem louder to my ears at the same settings as stock fans.

I unlocked this as there has been some interest in s9 mods.

setting these up and locking them

If you don't want crazy hash rate then you can go below 70w/th but we are talking really low hashrate.

Ooh, firmwares. Maybe in early December I'll have time to test out some of that, rig up S9 space heaters for the new shop. I've seen BM1387 go below 70W/TH at the chip and landing a couple machines below 80W/TH wall would be nice.

I'm good on HW at the moment.
At the moment I have two customers who are getting out of mining and they are just leaving their gear behind as it does not pay to ship. All of them older S9 units, all (most?) with some issues.

Probably going to see if I can mix & match good boards and go from there.

-Dave

Yeah, it works on I and J. I am not 100% about it working on the K so hold off on that I will confirm because otherwise you got to flash the board back to life and it's a major pain in the ass.

This is the instructions for the S9's https://asic.to/documentation/

Pardon the shitty language I have to rewrite it from scratch but I think I am going to re-write it for the S17 and T17 since the S9's are on their last leg.

There have been people that have gotten 2 s9's with 1 fan each running at 21th at 1500w off one psu. The autotune will be the saving grace for maximum efficiency.

Edit 4:

475 - 8.0 - 10 TH/s - 750 watt
550 - 8.2 - 11,6 ths - 950 watt
(78 waтт / THs)
631 - 8.3 - 13,5 ths - 1100 watt
(81 waтт / THs)
700 - 8.6 - 14,9 ths - 1300 watt
(85 waтт / THs)
750 - 8.7 - 16.1 ths - 1450 watt
(90 waтт / THs)

edit 5:


now is that with stock firmware or are you making it worth a little harder or less through software?

I am going to play around with it.  Is it good with s9 s9i s9j? I also have some s9k

So the firmware I last uploaded to my thread in the software section. Also can be found here: https://asic.to/firmware-for-antminer-s9-ij-17-5-th-s-70w-th/

Can do 70w-75w/th  at around 10th.

at davef  i have this miner in clifton and i have a s 7ln

i am going to clifton mon or tues after thanksgiving maybe we can get together.

i also have a avalon a721 working.

When I put mine together, I couldn't find the thick spacer that I had ordered.   So, since I had a 2 pack of the thinner ones, I used that on both sides.  I found the thick spacer sitting around, so I put it on.  I didn't notice a difference either in noise, temps, fan speed or hashrate.  So if someone was trying to save a few bucks, they get away with using a 2 pack of thinner spacers.

Although not nearly as efficient (or even BTC related) I just did something similar with an L3+
Just unplugged 2 boards (left the other 2 in) and it's a nice just about dead silent 250MH/s scrypt space heater.

Going to work on power and speed vs fanspeed and noise while playing with the number of boards but, it might be nice in the back room of the condo for the winter.

Makes you wonder how much gear we can keep running by doing this.

Going to play with an A721 next.

-Dave

Brains would work well.
March 2019 may be good.
Dec 2018 works well.

I have run a single board from 2.5 to 4.7 th

Some settings did 100 watts a th
Some did 88 watts a th.

I only built one as most gear is in Clifton NJ not HOWELL NJ

I have a bad m10 that I am trying to get aboard to work. It would be a copy of the s9 idea.

what about clocking it down with a firmware modification?

edit: voltage

Yeah I use a 1000 watt Corsair. I have also used a 1500 watt Corsair.

Yeah, I think the Antminer PSU is actually louder than the AntminerS9 now, switching out the PSU makes it even quieter.

Quiet right?

I finally had some time to assemble this.  I also found that adhesive backed insulation.   I put it together as per your instructions and am getting 4.7TH/s with an 81 degree chip temperature.  I cut the boards 10 1/4" by 4 5/8th" by 1 1/4" thick.  I think my wedges are a little closer to the hash board than yours is, as my board was thicker.   It seems to be working just fine.

yeah  it will do 4th and 400 watts with one board.

if you have the older firmware from dec 2018  low speed does less and is quieter.

No I couldn't find it at the Lowe's I was at.  I got some silver insulation like that but it's non adhesive.  I was just going to screw it on.

1/2" away from the has boards, thanks, I can make it like that.  I'm still waiting on the delta fans but have pretty much everything else.  I am going to do the wedges tomorrow, so it's all ready to go when the delta fans arrive.

I just have the one s9 because I only have one 220v circuit available for mining, the rest are 110v.  Although now that this space heater s9 can run easily on 110v, I can get something else to put on the 220v.

did you get the foamed silver insulation I linked?

It is pretty heat resistant.

I had two wedges say 1/2 inch away from the center board.
I ended up using only the center hash board and I pulled the two outside boards.

I have around 26 s9s with five or six of them having dead boards so it was easy to make the one board s9.

I just went to Lowe's to pick up the last items that weren't being shipped.  Instead of the tongue and groove you are using (which looks nice in your basement BTW), I bought a 5/4" thick cedar board.  Should I just use one of these, or should I double it up?  I also have some cedar fence boards that are just under 3/4" thick, I could do one of each.  I'm just wondering how thick I should be building these wedges.   Obviously I want it close enough to channel the air but not so close it is a fire hazard.

It’s up in Clifton. You can try any combo they all work.

Ie

just LPM
just LPEM

OR check both.

I think both worked better then the bottom one LPEM alone.

I just ordered all the parts to do this mod and I am waiting for it to be shipped.  I just flashed the firmware.   

Phil are you running it with both LPM and LPEM boxes checked, as in the original pic?  Or are you just running it with the top one checked now that you have the wedge mod in place?

take out the boards and turn them into pocket knives like these...
Cuda CY1

http://camillusknives.ru/2mainframe.htm?cuda/cam_cy1_en.shtml~main


*I'd post a picture of my old  CY1 pocket knife but I can't remember how 

I left one of my undervolted S1's with a friend years ago and plan to eventually do something like that with the boards when he's done with it.

And a custom case to fit one board to it... Hmmm i see a potential product here

I would be very interested to see your prototype.  I'm sure you would make a thread about it if you get around to it.   

Technically yes, they could be adapted to USB and run natively with VH's NewPac/R606 driver. You wouldn't have voltage control (without additional custom hardware) and even with ASICBoost you'd be limited to about 2.5TH per board, which is around half speed. Note I have not tested this. Maybe if I get bored I'll prototype an adapter and see what happens.

However, controllers fail much less often than do hashboards so anyone running multiple miners for very long probably has at least one spare.

Is there a way to run them without the controller?   If so then it would be a waste of resources but I'm not resourceful enough to know how to use them.

Might be more complicated than you want to go, but you might consider building an adapter to fit a larger diameter fan. This one moves 1.7 times more air at about same noise level.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/for-15-cm-super-large-air-volume-violence-cabinet-fan-AFC1512DG-1-8A-15CM/183040983448

Also  the wedges work better at cooling along with the spacers I put in.

If the other hashboards still function, they can be used somewhere else instead of sitting as dummies. Waste of resources.

Did you consider just leaving all 3 S9 boards in place, only running the middle one but otherwise following your procedure with the delta fans, firmware and LPM?  I'm just wondering how much the wedge mod is worth doing vs just leaving the old hashboards in there to accomplish the same purpose.  I know you mentioned a 7c drop in temperature after the wedge mod, but was this from the case empty of the other two hashboards or with them in?

maybe  maybe not.  worth a try.

I am still running the one test model



my apologies on not posting a second build.

but my ankle was slow to heal.

It delayed my trip to Clifton Farm.

We had a major net fail in Clifton and I have been pre occupied getting a better net setup.

So no action here.

but I will be going back to clifton this week and I will look to grab a few s-9s to toy with.

i love this.

would it work as a greenhouse heater for the winter? (i am a bit worried oh humidity/moisture/condensation on glass sides)

S7 or s9 controller and board?

My hack is for s9 controller and s9 board with. Dec 2018 firmware.

Just downclocked via the software, I think I am running it at a frequency of 525. Is the undervolt hack the hardware mod in your thread? I looked at that, but I was not 100% sure what all to do.

yeah the s7lns are good for noise level.

But I am thinking if I use 2 s7LN cases one s9 board set to 4th with brains

It will be really good.

4th
38db
390 watts.

Psu will be built in.

Is it just downclocked or also undervolted? Because you can get an S7 at 3.7TH to around 800W with an undervolt hack, and then replace the firmware with S7-F1 version you can run a single fan. Not dead silent but pretty quiet.

Obviously an S9 board is better, as you can get that hashrate from less than half the power draw. But it's still an option.

Also Phil's right, the housings aren't the same length. S9 is somewhere 1-2 inches longer.

I think the s-7  is a little shorter  but the height allows for the s9 board to fit.

When you cut the 2   wedge boards they would need to be long enough to protect the s-9 board.

I should have a working model by weds or thurs. Maybe friday.

I have an S7 currently down-clocked to around 3.7 TH. I think it would be better to swap in an S9 controller and a single S9 board along with your airflow mods. I am going to have to start scouring for parts

The input fan has a 7mm or 1/4 inch spacer. It is in the links.
Wood is quiet.
The silver faced foam fully surrounds the wood wedge.
Makes it fire resistant.

I plan to do some variations with the brains model which is in Clifton.

Price and ease of build has real meaning here.
You can mod an s9 in under 30 minutes and under 30 dollars.

I would do more videos and photos but I hurt my ankle early Wednesday and have it iced .

I am in my bedroom watching first type flippers while I type.
Ankle on ice for swelling☹️☹️

Hope to get back on my feet by mon or tue

Won't you try the trick of separating the input fan away from the case a bit to reduce the vacuum produced in the middle board position due to the proximity of the fan engine?

Should be easy if you have a damaged fan you are willing to sacrifice to use its plastic frame as tunnel. this should improve heat dissipation to the part of the board in close proximity to the input fan.

Another thing to try would be to use a dummy middle (double wedged) board and try with two hash boards on the sides instead of one in the middle, Not unlike the avalons...

While easy to work with, i don't like wood much. It retains heat, and if/when things burn, it might catch fire. It does absorb noise tho.

What would be really nice is if I can make the  m10's  do this.

Not sure it is possible with that damn  must use psu.

I have an extra psu.

I would need pull a fan in it and find a quieter fan to put in it.

my m10s are as low as 6200gh for one board on low power uses about 375 watts  if I can replace all the fans and  I could get this to work.  this would be very nice as it would be pretty efficient.

and m10s are as high as 9200 for one board on low power uses about 552 watts

the heat sinks are really good.

but it is more complex  to run it due to the must have psu that links to controller.

the boards are binned weird.

the highest board on high is about 13000 and uses 910 watts  this would be too loud.


But these  (m10's) are not getting touched until feb.

Salvage S9 chips? New generation?

The NewPacs and R606 are built with BM1387 same as used in the S9, but not raggedy old salvage chips. Pfft.

(we tried; harvesting sucks)

This is actually pretty cool...

If only the shitmain controller wasn't needed;  it would be very nice for the people wanting to put a little gear here, and a little there.

I have a friend in Australia that wants to send me some S9's or S9SE's...  So I may end up doing this in one form or another.    I am rather limited on the power I can use at home, but if I get my hands on the stock of panels that I have been promised several times;  it shouldn't be an issue to make several mini satellite machines to stick at the random locations I get free power/network use.

The thing that had me sold on the R606 was the <400w and quiet.....   This is also in that realm.

Will be interesting to see how far sidehack will get the efficiency when he begins to salvage the s9 chips to build a new generation.

yeah may be better that way.

here is final video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvHlfQpNH38

I got lowest mode to remarkable sound levels  under 36db.



This morning I realized I have 3 s7ln's

I am thinking of doing a case mod of that case to fit 1 s9 board.

and using a single delta fan as a push.  I have 8 of these delta fans


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Delta-AFB1212SHE-120mm-x-38mm-4-Pin-PWM-Fan-Server-Case-Water-Cooling-151-CFM/401711683311?

these are a bit faster and move more air.

should be fun.  But I won't work on this unit next week.

This really makes me want to see if I can fold up a simple single-board case with board-facing fans. Not sure if I'll have the energy to do it this weekend.

@ yankees

next year  maybe I will make one.

I think  it does 6 to 9 th on low 1 board. 350-500 watts
and  9 to 11 th on high 1 board. 700-800 watts

The issue is the psu noise it may not be fixable.

Phil  would this be good with all the m10's you have?

well  before the wedge mod  it was 40-45db

on lowest power. (3300gh)

since fans are just about the same speed on higher power (4800gh)

I would guess 40-45 db

give me a few minutes I will go meter it on 4800gh speed

yep 45-46db but miner now has no other sound proof ing of any kind.

quite remarkable 4800 gb 450 watts 45-46db

mod is under 27 bucks

2 fans                        = 16

https://www.ebay.com/itm/for-Delta-AFB1212SH-12cm-Ball-Bearing-12V-0-8A-4pin-PWM-cooling-Fan/182961677356?

1 thick spacer             =   4 for 16.00 or    4 bucks note: it is 7mm

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0103MXYA2

1 thin spacer = 10 for 14.99 or 1.50  typical thin rubber fan spacer about 2 mm

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073XJLBGJ

1 roll of silver/foam     = 3   you can do 6 miners with an 18 dollar roll.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Frost-King-0-125-in-Foam-Plumbing-Pipe-Wrap-Insulation/1081449

1 box of screws           = 50 cents        you can do 12 with a 6 dollar box

1 box of washers         = 50 cents        you can do 12 with a 6 dollar box

2 pieces of scrap wood = free

about 26 bucks for mod

fans......... 16.00
spacers....   5.50
foam........   3.00
screws......    .50
washers....    .50
scrap wood... free

total--------25.50

basic design



more detail

Really liking the project, got any db readings?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztc7XIX_Jtg

second video.

at lowest hash of 3300 it is 330 watts

at higher hash of 4800 it is 455 watts

actually more efficient at high setting since the fans and controller pull down number more on the low setting

I would guess  fans are doing .6 amps x 12 x 2 on low setting = 15 watts plus controller is 20 so 35 watts plus hash board is so low that it does not make effective efficiency  but it is really quiet with fans lower.

I would guess fans are doing .7 amps x 12 x2 on high setting = 17 watts plus controller is 20 so 37 watts

really happy with these on dec firmware.

find some good fans for yourself.  like the deltas I linked.

Looking damn good there. What is the power usage, under 400w I take it?
Looks like I may just be able to run some of my old s9's that have been piling up. Considering all the dead hash boards I have, running 1-per casing will work out just fine

__________>>>>>>>hashboard >>______________________________

I am going to fully flesh out the s-9 build  adding the shim and foam mods.

first youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzkub23R8QU

damn   look at these guis'

middle board no wedges just the 25mm delta fans



wedge board mod   7c temp drop!  and good fan drop under 40db!



even able to run LPM  getting 4.5th with good fans and temps!

I been too busy with the Clifton build. So I can't play with new ideas much.

But this thread will be getting some love from me.

I will drive up to Clifton and bring some older beat on s-9's back down to Howell.

I am getting 4TH from my single board S9 units.
From the discussion about 110V mining back in April:
-Dave

I've got a couple S9s here at the shop that have been sidelined. Might be worth looking at trying to fold a simple housing that can hold one board and two fans, maybe with the controller mounted on the back. I've got junk/spares of everything; will play around with that at the shop later.

Adding wedges internally to make sure your air stays in the heatsinks, especially at the far end, will be helpful. Don't forget that the middle position already has trouble cooling because the fan's motor reduces where air naturally gets moved. You might try a side position where the chipside heatsinks (responsible for the majority of the heat) get right in the main airstream, and then do a single baffle across the middle. You could fetch a small roll of metal flashing and cut and bend the right shape in a few minutes, then have enough material off the one roll to do a host of miners.

I can picture that. That could be better than my thought to further mod this is to use these

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Nelson-Wood-Shims-Actual-0-25-in-x-1-25-in-x-7-75-in-12-Pack-Fir-Wood-Shims/50051789

and this

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Frost-King-0-125-in-Foam-Plumbing-Pipe-Wrap-Insulation/1081449

glue 3 shims on each side of case and then line with foam wrap.

cost for a one heaters is about 20 for fan and spacer mod and below will do 4 for under 20

so 5 for 1.    so 5+20 = 25 bucks

15 minutes work

say 330 watts 3300 hash 40-45 db maybe  under 40db with the wedge and foam mods



__________>>>>>>>hashboard >>______________________________

I am going to fully flesh out the s-9 build  adding the shim and foam mods.

Maybe show it for monday the 8th of July.

I think I can build one for 25 dollars for sure under 30 dollars.

maybe get it to do 35-38db

and 3300gh at 315 watts

I have  20+ s-9's that will get pulled  so it is a viable idea.

This could possibly work with a Whatsminer m10 but that project would be off in the distance.

Maybe in dec 2020.

It'd take some custom enclosure but cooling would probably be more efficient if you had two fans side by side blowing directly into the heatsinks from the side of the board instead of from the end.

I wonder how well it'd work to use pull fans right against the heatsinks. Might work better for being able to aim your heat. 300W isn't too hard to clear either, considering my R606 can clear over 100W with a single 80mm 12v/160mA fan.

With some cleverness it might be possible to do away with the stock controller also, for just a single board. Hacking the voltage would require a bit of doing but a dummy USB2 adapter using the same connections as my Newpac/R606 broken out to the 18-pin cable and VH's cgminer driver, with a sufficiently strong controller, should be able to get ~2.7TH out of a single connection.

In any case, S9 quiet space heater is a great idea.

spacer

The key to doing this is simple.
1) dec 2018 bitmain firmware set to LPM
2) 1 hash board in the center.
3) proper fans -----
The Delta fans I used were purchased from China source at about 9 dollars each
https://www.ebay.com/itm/for-Delta-AFB1212SH-12cm-Ball-Bearing-12V-0-8A-4pin-PWM-cooling-Fan/182961677356?  cost was about 32 dollars for 4 fans

4) proper spacers. ----- got these on amazon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0103MXYA2/

cost was 4 per spacer you only need 1 spacer for the push intake fan

You are building a space heater that mines.
Not a miner that space heats

net cost is 8+8+4 = 20 bucks to make a 1 board 3.3th 335 watt heater.

This assumes you have a psu and a miner.
I have lots of s-9's and will be retiring them from Clifton farm this fall but they can do space heating for me in my house and buysolar's house



hard to read but it is 335



lastly the psu is a 1000 watt gold I think I could drop to 310 watts if I used a titanium



You may need run on Low Power Enhanced Mode as it may not cool at Low power mode

On my test model I do 4700gh and 480 watts and temps go too high 105 since the fans max at 2800 rpm.

So I simply do  Low Power Enhanced Mode get 3300gh at 335 with temps at 88 since fans max at 2800 rpm.

No real need to sound proof since sound is in the 41-45db range which is fairly quiet.

Since I have 20+ s-9s my guess is I will build quite a few of these units.

That fan I use pushes 115 cfm but it is quiet at 2800 rpm.

There is another model delta that pushes 150 cfm but goes up to 3600 rpm it may be too loud for a space heater.

I have started a new project for this winter.
S-9 space heaters.

Design is dead simple.  1 s-9 board in the center slot.

december 2018 firmware LPM mode

and a few subtle tricks to keep them quiet enough to space heat

gui below shows around 3.3th with moderate fan speeds



Checked both boxes for speed setting



used dec 2018 firmware