A8 Parts Forum  

Go Back   A8 Parts Forum > General Natter > IT, AV and other Tech

IT, AV and other Tech All computing, home cinema and technology that isnt car related

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #261  
Old 9th October 2017, 02:05 PM
moltuae's Avatar
moltuae moltuae is offline
RIP 27/02/2021 :-(
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: East Lancs.
Posts: 2,679
Default

I get a lot of found blocks on the S9 some days, while using NiceHash, most likely when it's mining an SHA256 altcoin. I suspect it's the same with the L3. The blocks yours found may not be Litecoin blocks.

A small percentage of HW errors are considered normal. I'm not sure of the exact normal range but it's typically a fraction of one percent.

I think I'll try overclocking one of the L3s later. Why did you choose 462MHz?


Also, out of curiosity, what firmware version are you on?

Ours L3s state:

Hardware Version 1.0.1.1
Kernel Version Linux 3.8.13 #22 SMP Tue Dec 2 15:26:11 CST 2014
__________________
Mark
------------------------------------------------------
2002 FE S8 Ebony Black Pearl
------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Cars Owned:
The Tesla Era: 2020 Model S Performance Ludicrous+ (present)
(Black, with all black premium interior and carbon fibre décor, 21" sonic carbon twin turbine wheels and FSD capability)

The Audi Era: '97 A8 4.2 (Ming Blue) --> '96 A8 4.2 QS (Dark Green) --> '02 FE S8 (present)
The Citroen Era: '84 BX 1.6 RS --> '89 BX 1.9 DTR Turbo --> '94 XM 2.0L Turbo --> '96 XM 2.0L Turbo Exclusive --> '00 Xantia Activa 2.0L Turbo
The Banger Era: '76 1.2L Lada VAZ-2101 (Ruski Fiat 124) --> '80 1.7L Morris Ital HL, finished in Ermine White and Rust

Last edited by moltuae; 9th October 2017 at 02:07 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #262  
Old 9th October 2017, 02:22 PM
ainarssems ainarssems is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Rushden, Northants
Posts: 3,799
Default

Did not think about altcoins, you are probably right about found blocks being for altcoins.

My firmware is :

Hardware Version 1.0.1.3
Kernel Version Linux 3.8.13 #22 SMP Tue Dec 2 15:26:11 CST 2014
File System Version Fri Aug 25 17:28:57 CST 2017

There is only 1 available to download from Bitmain and that is from the same day 25/08/2017 but 17:37 instead of 17:28 if I remember correctly.

I chose 462MHz because I found a post on internet somebody else successfully using that speed. When the weather gets colder I might try a bit higher.
__________________
Currently 8less
2011 Q7 S Line 3.0TDI, 2016 Tesla Model S 90D

8 history:
2006 A8 Sport 4.2TDI quattro SOLD,
1997 S8, reached end of life with gearbox failure
Reply With Quote
  #263  
Old 10th October 2017, 05:58 PM
ainarssems ainarssems is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Rushden, Northants
Posts: 3,799
Default

After seeing somebody selling active links on e-bay for $50 to Bitmain shop where L3+ can still be ordered for November delivery I set myself to find the link without paying. I have not found L3+ link yet I did find D3 for $1450 for end of November delivery and I am considering ordering another one.

I have been looking at the hashrate and earning charts for X11/dash and since 1st of August hashtrate has increased x14 and and payouts decreased 14 times. If there are 2 batches being shipped by the end of November and they are similar numbers of units per batch we would see hashrate to increase 3 times and payout to drop 3 times to about £500 per month with £100 electricity usage so still not bad for a unit that costs $1450. There is still PSU, shipping and duty costs to consider so all in about £1600, not bad with 4 months payback time. Some more thinking needed and need to do a bit of research on other coins that can be mined with x11. This also depends how many units other miner manufacturers have shipped and how much will be shipped by the end of November.

I am happy to provide link to D3 in private message, just don't want to put it in public post for whole internet to see and buy them out in case I decide to buy more.

Edit: A bit more patience and found active link for L3+ as well for $2280 end of November delivery.
__________________
Currently 8less
2011 Q7 S Line 3.0TDI, 2016 Tesla Model S 90D

8 history:
2006 A8 Sport 4.2TDI quattro SOLD,
1997 S8, reached end of life with gearbox failure

Last edited by ainarssems; 10th October 2017 at 06:13 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #264  
Old 10th October 2017, 06:33 PM
moltuae's Avatar
moltuae moltuae is offline
RIP 27/02/2021 :-(
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: East Lancs.
Posts: 2,679
Default

Nice find

I wonder if the sale will be fulfilled though. Is it maybe an official link (perhaps given out by Bitmain staff to customers having trouble ordering) or is it just an expired link (that may have no stock associated with it)?

I'm tempted to buy more but I think I'll stick with what I have for now (an S9, one and a half L3s and a D3, when the latter ships in November). I might buy some more GPUs soon, to complete another rig I'm building, but I think I'll wait until the D3 has arrived before I consider buying another Antminer. Not that there's anything wrong with them -- they're all running perfectly so far -- I just need to find somewhere to put them all! All of my Antminers are at my customer's premises right now, but we're running out of places to put them. I'm considering building some sort of housing for them in my cellar, with a filtered air inlet and ducting to carry the heat up into the house.


Oh, the L3 firmware update and overclocking went well by the way And I've switched back to using NiceHash now after my brief Prohashing experiments. I've left the Prohashing configuration settings in the L3 though, as 'Pool 2', in case the NiceHash servers go down.
__________________
Mark
------------------------------------------------------
2002 FE S8 Ebony Black Pearl
------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Cars Owned:
The Tesla Era: 2020 Model S Performance Ludicrous+ (present)
(Black, with all black premium interior and carbon fibre décor, 21" sonic carbon twin turbine wheels and FSD capability)

The Audi Era: '97 A8 4.2 (Ming Blue) --> '96 A8 4.2 QS (Dark Green) --> '02 FE S8 (present)
The Citroen Era: '84 BX 1.6 RS --> '89 BX 1.9 DTR Turbo --> '94 XM 2.0L Turbo --> '96 XM 2.0L Turbo Exclusive --> '00 Xantia Activa 2.0L Turbo
The Banger Era: '76 1.2L Lada VAZ-2101 (Ruski Fiat 124) --> '80 1.7L Morris Ital HL, finished in Ermine White and Rust
Reply With Quote
  #265  
Old 13th October 2017, 05:50 PM
ainarssems ainarssems is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Rushden, Northants
Posts: 3,799
Default

Well the D3 disappeared soon after I found the link. L3+ was still available for couple of days but then that link was sold out and it reappeared in general shop at lower price for $2040 instead of $2280.

I have been looking wrong at D3 data on Nicehash, it was showing £1.5k/month but that was the earnings for the last month when the payouts were better. at the current rates it's £300-400 per month. It's not bad considering relatively cheap purchase price but taking power consumption in account I don't think i will buy another one for now. L3+ seems like a better bet.

I was wondering why the APW3++ power supply that came with L3+ had so many extra cables, it turns out that it is designed to run 2x L3+ from one PSU if you do not overclock them. Speaking about overclocking i did try to push my L3+ a bit further. At +30% (500MHz) it was still running but getttinbg a lot more hardware errors . Instead of usual 0.00XX% it was more like 0.5XXX%. So I tried 25% increase at 481MHz and that seems fine without giving excessive errors and ~630MH/s . Temperature has gone up another 3C to 65C but then again it's warmer outside as well and L3+ is sitting on the loft.
__________________
Currently 8less
2011 Q7 S Line 3.0TDI, 2016 Tesla Model S 90D

8 history:
2006 A8 Sport 4.2TDI quattro SOLD,
1997 S8, reached end of life with gearbox failure
Reply With Quote
  #266  
Old 13th October 2017, 05:52 PM
ainarssems ainarssems is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Rushden, Northants
Posts: 3,799
Default

Nicehash seem to be the most profitable most f the time unless you want to take a gamble smining altcoins and then get paid in the coins you mined .
__________________
Currently 8less
2011 Q7 S Line 3.0TDI, 2016 Tesla Model S 90D

8 history:
2006 A8 Sport 4.2TDI quattro SOLD,
1997 S8, reached end of life with gearbox failure
Reply With Quote
  #267  
Old 13th October 2017, 06:01 PM
ainarssems ainarssems is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Rushden, Northants
Posts: 3,799
Default

I still do feel like I need to buy S9 as well but a little bit less now. I assumed that coming up Bitcoin Gold will use the same SHA256 and increase competition and demand for hashing power but it looks like they are going equihash instead. So it could bring more profit for GPU's.

Still I do feel that i should get S9 as well. While there ar some reports of some guys doing more efficient SHA256 miners there are still none on the market and the ones in the pipeline look like they are just making them for themselfes and not for sale to general public. Anyway with the size of network it would probably take at least 6 months to have an impact on S9 returns and with rising Bitcoin price S9 should still do well.

I need to scale it up and L3+ seems like it's more profitable but S9 is cheaper and I thin safer bet.
__________________
Currently 8less
2011 Q7 S Line 3.0TDI, 2016 Tesla Model S 90D

8 history:
2006 A8 Sport 4.2TDI quattro SOLD,
1997 S8, reached end of life with gearbox failure
Reply With Quote
  #268  
Old 13th October 2017, 07:53 PM
moltuae's Avatar
moltuae moltuae is offline
RIP 27/02/2021 :-(
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: East Lancs.
Posts: 2,679
Default

We realised that too about the PSUs after we bought them but I'm glad we bought one per machine now since it means we can run them in separate locations if necessary. They're a good powerful PSU too, which I can probably use or sell later when it eventually becomes no longer profitable to mine.

I've actually just powered up our 3rd L3+ this evening. We were running out of places to put them at my customer's premises so I called there today and brought it home. My customer unboxed and plugged in the other 2 units, so this is the first time I've actually seen one in the flesh. It seems noticeably quieter than my S9 (which is still at my customer's premises). The L3+ isn't much louder than my GPU rigs. Unlike the S9 it's a less distracting steady fan noise too; the S9's fans make an almost 'breathing' type of noise, continuously changing speed (presumably in relation to load/work fluctuations).

I have noticed there's quite a difference in hardware errors between the 3 L3+ machines we have, even before overclocking. The 3rd machine seems the best of the bunch, which was also the last to arrive and is probably from the same batch as yours. It arrived with f/w version 1.0.1.3 pre-installed, unlike the other 2 which had 1.0.1.2. Even with the latest firmware installed, the first 2 are a bit temperamental. One of them in particular can take several reboots before it recognises all the ASIC chips properly. It seems to just be a management software/hardware issue though since the hashing rate and profitability is still correct, even when an entire hashing board is missing from the status screen.

My S9 is still going strong. It makes about 1mBTC per day less than the L3+ miners do though (and it costs more to run), so if I were to buy another S9 now it would have to be at the right price.

I think overall the L3+ miners are the best buy right now. I may consider buying a few more of them if they're still as profitable (and available) in a couple of months time.
__________________
Mark
------------------------------------------------------
2002 FE S8 Ebony Black Pearl
------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Cars Owned:
The Tesla Era: 2020 Model S Performance Ludicrous+ (present)
(Black, with all black premium interior and carbon fibre décor, 21" sonic carbon twin turbine wheels and FSD capability)

The Audi Era: '97 A8 4.2 (Ming Blue) --> '96 A8 4.2 QS (Dark Green) --> '02 FE S8 (present)
The Citroen Era: '84 BX 1.6 RS --> '89 BX 1.9 DTR Turbo --> '94 XM 2.0L Turbo --> '96 XM 2.0L Turbo Exclusive --> '00 Xantia Activa 2.0L Turbo
The Banger Era: '76 1.2L Lada VAZ-2101 (Ruski Fiat 124) --> '80 1.7L Morris Ital HL, finished in Ermine White and Rust
Reply With Quote
  #269  
Old 14th October 2017, 12:44 PM
moltuae's Avatar
moltuae moltuae is offline
RIP 27/02/2021 :-(
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: East Lancs.
Posts: 2,679
Default

I had a few of these fan meshes in stock that I use on my GPU rigs to act as a fan guard and to reduce dust intake. Thought I'd try one on the L3+ to help protect it from dust and any larger foreign particles ...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5PCS-Cutta...k/232403957912

Click image for larger version

Name:	s-l500.jpg
Views:	197
Size:	25.8 KB
ID:	17238

I removed the 4 rear fan screws and placed it between the fan and the metal fan guard.

I was concerned it might restrict airflow and affect cooling but there's no noticeable temperature change and the fans don't appear to be running any faster. In fact it seems to have had a positive affect on the fan acoustics, making it run a little quieter.
__________________
Mark
------------------------------------------------------
2002 FE S8 Ebony Black Pearl
------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Cars Owned:
The Tesla Era: 2020 Model S Performance Ludicrous+ (present)
(Black, with all black premium interior and carbon fibre décor, 21" sonic carbon twin turbine wheels and FSD capability)

The Audi Era: '97 A8 4.2 (Ming Blue) --> '96 A8 4.2 QS (Dark Green) --> '02 FE S8 (present)
The Citroen Era: '84 BX 1.6 RS --> '89 BX 1.9 DTR Turbo --> '94 XM 2.0L Turbo --> '96 XM 2.0L Turbo Exclusive --> '00 Xantia Activa 2.0L Turbo
The Banger Era: '76 1.2L Lada VAZ-2101 (Ruski Fiat 124) --> '80 1.7L Morris Ital HL, finished in Ermine White and Rust
Reply With Quote
  #270  
Old 14th October 2017, 07:36 PM
ainarssems ainarssems is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Rushden, Northants
Posts: 3,799
Default

L3+ is definitely best for now. But if you look at network hashrate for the most popular coin - Litecoin the total hashrate is equivalent to about 57k L3+ so when a lot more L3+ come online or if somebody else releases more efficient machine profitability could drop a lot. By comparison Bitcoin network hashrate is equivalent to almost 800k S9's so if somebody ships 10k units of twice as efficient miner it will hardly make a dent so S9 while less profitable seem like a safer bet. Obviously it also depends on con price and other factors. At the current price at $1265 S9 seems reasonable.

Some people are still bidding £2.5k+ for D3 on e-bay when the payout is down to £10/day. I did actually bid on L3+ on ebay that is in UK already and used for 6 weeks but missed by £3 because of earlier placed bid. If I buy one from Bitmain now for end of November delivery it will cost about £2100 with power supply, shipping and taxes. I reckon if i had one now it would make £500-750 before that so I am looking to buy one for around £2.5k or less.

I have also been looking at other options and while Nicehash is the most profitable most of the time sometimes you could be better off mining elsewhere. But Nicehash is pretty much set and forget so it does not take any of your time. If I were running a large farm and gave up my day job it might be beneficial to follow and to point it at different mining but for hobby Nicehash is probably the best most of the time.

Then I came across https://www.miningrigrentals.com/ where you can basically rent out your rig and set the price you want with a fallback to another pool. Looking at Scrypt the average payout on Nicehash have been 0.0078BTC/GH/day and the cheapest available o rent on https://www.miningrigrentals.com/ was 0.00811 so a little better. You could set your price at 0.008 to get customers nicehash as your secondary pool so that if nobody pays that you still keep mining on Nicehash. I think i will try that out.
__________________
Currently 8less
2011 Q7 S Line 3.0TDI, 2016 Tesla Model S 90D

8 history:
2006 A8 Sport 4.2TDI quattro SOLD,
1997 S8, reached end of life with gearbox failure

Last edited by ainarssems; 14th October 2017 at 07:38 PM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 05:27 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.0
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.