A Look at Halong Mining's DragonMint T1 Bitcoin Miner

Just wanted to share my thoughts on Halong Mining’s DragonMint T1, which is their debut product for the SHA256 mining scene. I’ll be posting some detailed images of the user interface and breaking down the hardware too. The DragonMint T1, also known as "Terminator", is Halong’s first SHA-256 miner. It claims to use AsicBoost technology, boasting specs of 16TH at 1480W, with a variation of about ±8%. Halong Mining popped up in the public eye around November 2017, backed by some notable figures in the Bitcoin world who vouched for its credibility. They offered preorders at $1350. Myrig is mentioned as their global distribution partner, and I’ve got the official links for you: https://Halongmining.com, https://twitter.com/halongmining https://Myrig.com, https://twitter.com/MyRig_com One of Halong’s reps, Scott O, was pretty active in the threads and mentioned he’s from near Milwaukee. Since I live nearby, I decided to take him up on his offer to review the miner in person, which I did back in early January. I was really impressed and ended up becoming a customer shortly after. Just last month, I asked if I could review a unit again, and they sent one over along with the PSU, which I got yesterday. So, let’s get into it... unboxing time! The unit has that typical "tube" shape that’s pretty common in the industry. The PSU comes with 10 PCI connectors for the 3 ASIC chains (3 each), plus one for the control board. Here are some close-ups and the process of connecting the PSU! After hooking it up to my system, it didn’t take long for it to show up on my network.

What's the behavior if you point it to a pool that doesn't support version rolling? Does it show an error and goto the backup pool?

Great work. Nice teardown. Thanks for the post. Loving my Dragons!

It's nice to have a good look at this machine, thank you.   I've waited ever since from January for this to happen and now it finally has.

Great question! Shows up as dead, and tries to find the next pool. Also, I didn't specifically show off the dark accent option of the GUI! I made a clip of me changing the that around and you can see the pools. Pools 1 and 2 are the ones that don't support ASICBoost, where the third is compatible. This is the interface after applying the firmware - you can see some GUI changes! A welcome addition. I would really like tuning capabilities in a future update! https://i.gyazo.com/711990fe2ae65329fd7042a05d4869b0.mp4 Thank you! And thanks for your prior reviews as well - I looked at one of your prior reviews for formatting ideas

Good review. Pls update us after few weeks how’s the performance ? Also QUESTION: Since you opened the Miner , did you see SAMSUNG on any off the chips ? Curious to find out what the manufacturer or manufacturing process 10nm or 7nm??

Looks like there are heat sinks on both sides, you would have to pry them off of whatever adhesive they used.  I would hate to break a new toy.

Will update after a bit for sure! I did try to pull off the heatsinks from both sides, didn't budge with gentle pressure. It's got some good adhesive, and I don't want to break the toy just yet! It would be interesting if each board can accommodate 10 more chips. You'll note one side is fully populated with heatsinks, one is missing 10 - perhaps airflow is sufficient enough. If so, on the 3 chain ASIC setup they have, that would mean an increase from 138 total chips to 168, nearly a 22% increase. I'd imagine this would create way more strain too on the power pull. 22% on top of even the 1584 I reported puts it at around 1930 watts. It also brings the 16TH spec to 19.5TH! We're going to need some bigger power supplies

Now *that* is a review. Non-political, entirely on-point and shows that you studied Hagg's and other members reviews to see how to do them properly. Very well done and worthy of some Merit.

WTF?  it's an S9 for fck sake...exact clone..with overt ASIC boost.... Big fck deal..rip off

Slightly more efficient than proven S9.

Right looks like totally copy of S9, they need to develop something new not resell with same ASCI with little bit more comsumption and Hash rate...

It is not an S9, that is just a silly statement that everybody with no technical knowledge says. The design is close to what Innosilicon has done with its current gen. miners, as I have stated many times earlier..

It looks like an S9 but remember that you can find all the design files for an S9 in shenzhen if you know where to look.   And you dont even need the design files to reverse engineer  it.  you just need cash and connections

THanks for the breakdown, very well made post !  Who cares if it looks the same.  BTC ASIC design is no secret anymore.  Bitmain is probably plotting to destroy the market or extract as much from it before other competitors like Halong eat up its market share, and more importantly, its hashrate quasi-monopoly.  No supply monopoly, no coin control.

There is a huge inductor on the PCB so it looks like there is a DC/DC converter on board. Can you read the chip number of the chips that are directly under this inductor on the other side of the PCB?

all of mine are about .105 watts per 1gh at the wall. 1 has a dropped board http://ckpool.org/users/16yLHLoeyuCLPMXkVpC3gyrRYvwRGwjKJr first unit old firmware on this one look at 1 hr rate of 15.1t workername": "16yLHLoeyuCLPMXkVpC3gyrRYvwRGwjKJr",    "hashrate1m": "19.8T",    "hashrate5m": "16.8T",    "hashrate1hr": "15.1T",    "hashrate1d": "142T",    "hashrate7d": "34.6T",    "lastshare": 1523633408,    "shares": 5329198977,    "bestshare": 65201213603.0,    "lns": 5307498287.915012,    "luck": 1.01,    "herp": 5351461064.377117 second unit old firmware look at 1 hr rate of 15.0t "workername": "16yLHLoeyuCLPMXkVpC3gyrRYvwRGwjKJr.1",    "hashrate1m": "11.7T",    "hashrate5m": "13.7T",    "hashrate1hr": "15T",    "hashrate1d": "9.66T",    "hashrate7d": "2.05T",    "lastshare": 1523633409,    "shares": 311079480,    "bestshare": 226462495.0,    "lns": 310052756.1595064,    "luck": 1.0,    "herp": 310046022.2003531 third unit old firmware look at 1 hr rate of 10.6t this is the one with dropped board.  "workername": "16yLHLoeyuCLPMXkVpC3gyrRYvwRGwjKJr.3",    "hashrate1m": "12.4T",    "hashrate5m": "11.7T",    "hashrate1hr": "10.6T",    "hashrate1d": "6.56T",    "hashrate7d": "1.39T",    "lastshare": 1523633409,    "shares": 210180304,    "bestshare": 196625949.0,    "lns": 209494784.5212819,    "luck": 1.0,    "herp": 208768486.6223349 fourth unit old firmware look at 1 hr rate of 15.2t "workername": "16yLHLoeyuCLPMXkVpC3gyrRYvwRGwjKJr.4",    "hashrate1m": "16T",    "hashrate5m": "16T",    "hashrate1hr": "15.2T",    "hashrate1d": "9.74T",    "hashrate7d": "2.09T",    "lastshare": 1523633403,    "shares": 317464726,    "bestshare": 1129180623.0,    "lns": 316388009.930127,    "luck": 1.01,    "herp": 318588468.9164163 fifth unit new firmware look at no number yet note this is the one from a forum member. "workername": "16yLHLoeyuCLPMXkVpC3gyrRYvwRGwjKJr.2",    "hashrate1m": "17.7T",    "hashrate5m": "14.3T",    "hashrate1hr": "2.43T",    "hashrate1d": "2.41T",    "hashrate7d": "583G",    "lastshare": 1523633398,    "shares": 89727984,    "bestshare": 128850564.0,    "lns": 89362162.95710222,    "luck": 0.99,    "herp": 88289805.74712613   }, sixth unit new firmware look at no number yet this is fro myrig/yoshi "workername": "16yLHLoeyuCLPMXkVpC3gyrRYvwRGwjKJr.6",    "hashrate1m": "15.5T",    "hashrate5m": "15.4T",    "hashrate1hr": "5.34T",    "hashrate1d": "495G",    "hashrate7d": "95.3G",    "lastshare": 1523633410,    "shares": 14209748,    "bestshare": 11305225.0,    "lns": 14171517.17823051,    "luck": 1.05,    "herp": 14845056.71371713   }

I've never seen a teardown of a Bitcoin miner before and was amazed to notice the sheer amounts of Heatsinks on the PCB. It would've been nice if all the cables came braided or with some outer protection for the PSU wires. The 14AWG power cable looks pretty good. I'm pleased to notice the front end as well which looks fairly simple to configure and setup the connection to the pools. How many years of warranty does Halong provide for these units? Also is there a possibility to have a look at the ASIC chips and to verify if it was producted by Samsung?

Never looked at the reviews of the s7 or s9 despite them being several years old now?? The t1 has same layout and lazy/brain-dead heatsink design that makes for them being LOUD due to all of the turbulence created by so many leading/trailing edges on that mass of individual sinks. ref the Canaan Avalon repair guide for example of correct thermal design.

That's 6.25% less than S9 on APW3++ is about .112 watts per 1gh at the wall, better efficiency indeed.