Why is the power usage so low?

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alex_shardSenior Member
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#1May 28, 2017, 11:39 PM
I just cleaned up my old Bitmain Antminer S3, connected it, and it's hashing at 496.1GH/s. Back in the day, this thing was pulling around 366W, which was considered low power. Now I’m trying to figure out what kind of batteries I need for solar power, so I started checking its power usage. It's now consistently between 68.5 and 70.4W. Either I’m doing something completely wrong here, or my miner has magically transformed into a super-efficient machine. What do you guys think?
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coin_sigmaLegendary
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#2May 28, 2017, 11:48 PM
What pool do you mine? You might be trying to mine in the Asicboost pool which is not compatible with the S3 unit. Access through IP its should have a dashboard then look for mining logs and post them here. We should see the issue under that logs and don't forget to put all logs inside the code tag its a # button when editing a post here.
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alex_shardSenior Member
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#3May 29, 2017, 01:32 AM
I'm afraid I don't understand where to get the mining logs... you mean ssh into the miner? Mining at stratum+tcp://eu.stratum.braiins.com:3333 which is the Stratum V1 pool, right?
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bear365Full Member
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#4May 29, 2017, 01:49 AM
Well it seems to me that your device does not support the V2 firmware that you switched to braiins.com you need a firmware on your ASICs that supports the V2 protocol, but it supports devices starting from S9 https://ru.braiins.com/os/plus#support-and-docs
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degen23Full Member
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#5May 29, 2017, 05:54 AM
Can you see what hashrate arrives at the pool? If it is the same as before you really have a super miner now. Most likely the miner is actually not running and the 70 watts are just from the control board and fans.
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alex_shardSenior Member
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#6May 30, 2017, 07:24 AM
It really is weird. Bitmain's specs say: I measured power consumption and hash rate over some days, also comparing what hashrate is shown on the miner's dashboard and what hashrate arrives at the pool. The average was 65,7 Watt with 410.1GH/s arriving at the pool. That really, really is weird.
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SwiftOrbitSenior Member
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#7May 30, 2017, 10:50 AM
First thing first, how did you measure this consumption, and did you check with a different device to see if it's accurate? You connected this mine alone as a single worker to the pool and it gets accepted shares at that hashrate? Second, no, even with this "magic", you still have 140W pe Th/s, 5 times less efficient than a standard s19.
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alex_shardSenior Member
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#8May 30, 2017, 11:43 AM
I measured with two different volt-meters, they both showed the same value. And yes, basically, I'm mining with a loss (although: electricity is free because it is excess power from my solar installation).
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orbit100Hero Member
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#9May 30, 2017, 08:14 PM
Maybe try using another testing tool or make sure it is really connected to the miner and not something else by accident. Also, do you not have a monitoring panel for your solar panel installation? If something like that exists it would make it easier to double-check the actual power consumption. At the end of the day does it matter for you since it uses a battery? Unless you also use your batter to power something else.
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b3ar2017Member
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#10May 30, 2017, 09:57 PM
What does it mean when referring to low power consumption with regard to BTC mining?
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colddiamondHero Member
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#11May 31, 2017, 03:11 AM
If you take a look at the OPs other thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5420302 It's not running in a location that can sell power back. I agree with you in the fact that running the miner is loosing time and money, but I can also see it as a I am going to do this because I can, not because its going to generate any money. As for the oddball power consumption, take the miner back to where you can plug it in and run it on power company power and see what it says in terms on consumption. I have seen some solar, and other inverters, cause some power meters to give really odd results. As in, running a 100W bulb would pull 50 watts or 500 watts according to the meter and the inverter. Had an electronics guy try to explain it to me but never really understood it. -Dave
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#12May 31, 2017, 03:39 AM
Hi bro you are using Antminer 3 that is so much old and it's only using 366 watts power that is too less. And You are not using Antminer s19 pro that uses almost 10x that are using and that's sucks so much power. And that's why your mining power is negligible too. You should use higher miners so that you can earn much more and I do not know that what are using and I think you would be loss by running that's too old machine.
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alex_shardSenior Member
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#13May 31, 2017, 04:54 AM
Did this. And yes, other devices show the correct value, so I assume it is correct with the miner, too. Well, it may be one of those unsolved technical miracles
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