lightningspore on Nostr: Here is the story of getting the LightningSpore S19k miner up and running and the ...
Here is the story of getting the LightningSpore S19k miner up and running and the learning along the way... It goes pretty in-depth, so I think it should be helpful for people who really want to know the details of getting a home miner up and running.
First I ordered my miner from KaboomRacks. Apparently my rep went on vacation and stopped responding to customers, so I thought I was elaborately scammed for about a week.
I got the miner finally, plugged it in to my 240V outlet that had long been waiting for it. The miner was loud! I knew this but obviously this wouldn't fly in a home.
My friend and I took the miner apart to clean the dust and grime, and to my surprise, this one was pretty clean. The S15 I won at auction with Denver BitDevs was grimey AF!
I quickly buy some Noctua fans to solve the fan problem. Then I realize I have a new problem...
The standard fan cables are 4-pin in-line connectors, but this miner includes 2 4-pin rectangular fan cables, and 2 4-pin inline. So I quickly try and find a fan adapter.
I order a fan adapter from Ebay, but upon closer inspection of the control board PCB, I realize that I can desolder the square connector, and I can solder in my own right angle linear connector. The pictures show the solder job. It should've be easy, but the PCB has large copper traces which made it difficult to heat up the solder. But I got it done.
Also meanwhile I debug the fan issue, I 3D print some standoffs, since the Noctua fan is much thinner than the stock fan, you cannot use the screws as-is or else it will poke inside and destroy a capacitor or short something out.
I also learn that since I am using custom fans, with a different RPM rating than the stock fans, the stock firmware won't allow the device to mine.
I go to install BraiinsOS on my miner, when I stumble into the funky world of Miner Control Boards.
I learn that, in addition to the laundry list of miner models out there (in the S19 series), XP, Jpro, Kpro, hydro, S19 vanilla, and more, there is also a handful of control boards.
So even when narrowing down to S19Kpro, there are 4 control board options, Beaglebone, Amlogic, Xilinx, and CViTek.
I learn that Antminer is actively trying to prevent custom firmware, and the firmware I am running is one of the firmwares that tries to get in the way. In general, I learn that CVitek is I think the newest, and most documentation doesn't always even mention that it exists.
Finally, I figure out a way to downgrade my firmware, so then I can use the Braiins tool to remotely install BraiinsOS.
Almost there I promise...
I discover my fans aren't good enough to run the thing at full power, which is fine I guess. BraiinsOS made it pretty easy for me to underclock it to 1500W, where it seems to be stable.
Lastly, even with this new firmware, sometimes I reboot and it goes back to the old firmware for a few minutes. I haven't yet determined if this is a problem.
First I ordered my miner from KaboomRacks. Apparently my rep went on vacation and stopped responding to customers, so I thought I was elaborately scammed for about a week.
I got the miner finally, plugged it in to my 240V outlet that had long been waiting for it. The miner was loud! I knew this but obviously this wouldn't fly in a home.
My friend and I took the miner apart to clean the dust and grime, and to my surprise, this one was pretty clean. The S15 I won at auction with Denver BitDevs was grimey AF!
I quickly buy some Noctua fans to solve the fan problem. Then I realize I have a new problem...
The standard fan cables are 4-pin in-line connectors, but this miner includes 2 4-pin rectangular fan cables, and 2 4-pin inline. So I quickly try and find a fan adapter.
I order a fan adapter from Ebay, but upon closer inspection of the control board PCB, I realize that I can desolder the square connector, and I can solder in my own right angle linear connector. The pictures show the solder job. It should've be easy, but the PCB has large copper traces which made it difficult to heat up the solder. But I got it done.
Also meanwhile I debug the fan issue, I 3D print some standoffs, since the Noctua fan is much thinner than the stock fan, you cannot use the screws as-is or else it will poke inside and destroy a capacitor or short something out.
I also learn that since I am using custom fans, with a different RPM rating than the stock fans, the stock firmware won't allow the device to mine.
I go to install BraiinsOS on my miner, when I stumble into the funky world of Miner Control Boards.
I learn that, in addition to the laundry list of miner models out there (in the S19 series), XP, Jpro, Kpro, hydro, S19 vanilla, and more, there is also a handful of control boards.
So even when narrowing down to S19Kpro, there are 4 control board options, Beaglebone, Amlogic, Xilinx, and CViTek.
I learn that Antminer is actively trying to prevent custom firmware, and the firmware I am running is one of the firmwares that tries to get in the way. In general, I learn that CVitek is I think the newest, and most documentation doesn't always even mention that it exists.
Finally, I figure out a way to downgrade my firmware, so then I can use the Braiins tool to remotely install BraiinsOS.
Almost there I promise...
I discover my fans aren't good enough to run the thing at full power, which is fine I guess. BraiinsOS made it pretty easy for me to underclock it to 1500W, where it seems to be stable.
Lastly, even with this new firmware, sometimes I reboot and it goes back to the old firmware for a few minutes. I haven't yet determined if this is a problem.