How to configure an ASIC miner
asic.es knowledge base
How to configure an ASIC miner
The route from the socket to the first shares in the pool: find the miner on the network, open its web panel, set the pool and the worker, and check that the machine is really calculating. Typical failures are at the end.
01What should be ready first
Configuration takes about ten minutes when the wiring and the network are already in place. When they are not, the evening goes on hunting for an extension lead instead of on the miner.
- A dedicated line with a breaker and residual current device, sized for the model
- A router with a free RJ45 port and DHCP switched on
- Twisted pair crimped at both ends
- A computer or laptop on the same network
- A mining pool account and a wallet address for payouts
How cable size and breaker rating are worked out for a given model is covered separately: power supply and wiring for an ASIC miner.
02Connect it and find it on the network
Ethernet first, power second. The other order breaks nothing, but on a first start with no network the miner gets no address and you have to reboot it by hand.
A minute after power up the ASIC takes an address over DHCP. There are three ways to learn it.
- The IP Report button on the case. Hold it for about five seconds until it beeps. The miner sends its address to the IP Reporter utility running on a computer in the same network.
- The DHCP lease table in the router. Open the router panel, look through the connected devices and find a name like Antminer.
- A network scanner. Any utility that lists occupied addresses in the subnet will show the miner too.
03Open the web panel
The miner address goes into a browser like any website, without https. A login form opens.
Bitmain default credentials changed from one firmware version to another, so there is no single correct answer. Check the sticker on the case and the documentation for your revision. On a second hand miner the previous owner may have changed them, and then only the Reset button helps.
The first thing to do after logging in is change the password. A miner with factory credentials and a port exposed to the internet is found by automated scanners within a day.
04Set the pool and the worker
The pool screen looks the same across Bitmain models: three lines, three fields in each.
| Field | What goes in |
|---|---|
| URL | The pool address in the form stratum+tcp://server:port. Take it from the pool website, in the section for your coin. |
| Worker | The worker name. Usually your pool account, a dot, and a free name for the machine. For example account.s21garage. |
| Password | Most pools accept any character, an x for instance. Some use this field for parameters and document the format. |
Fill in all three lines. The first works as primary, the second and third take over when the primary stops answering. The usual setup is one pool with three of its servers, or two different pools. Without a fallback, any outage on the pool side turns into downtime.
On save the miner restarts calculation and begins submitting shares. The first ones normally appear within a minute.
05Check that the machine really calculates
Go to the status screen. Four things are worth reading, not one.
- The 15 minute hashrate. That is the figure that should sit near the nameplate value, the instant one swings by tens of per cent and says nothing.
- Chip temperature. As long as it holds steady and the machine is not cutting frequency, the cooling is coping.
- Fan speed. If they all run flat out with the room at normal temperature, the air is not getting out.
- Accepted and rejected shares. Rejected should stay under one per cent.
The hashrate in the pool dashboard is always lower than in the miner panel and jumps around for the first few hours. That is expected: the pool counts accepted shares and averages them. Compare daily figures.
06When something does not work
| Symptom | Where to look |
|---|---|
| The miner never appears on the network | The cable and the port light. Then DHCP in the router: the address pool may have run out. |
| The panel will not open | Check the computer is on the same subnet. Try another browser and a private window, older firmware and cached pages get along badly. |
| Hashrate well below nameplate | Temperature and fans. Usually overheating or heatsinks packed with dust. Less often a hash board has dropped, visible in the number of active chips. |
| Many rejected shares | High latency to the pool or a badly chosen server. Take the geographically closest one. |
| The miner reboots on its own | Power. Voltage sag, a marginal breaker or a connector with a poor contact. |
If the hashrate falls by a third and stays there, it is nearly always one hash board. Diagnosis from the logs is a separate topic.
07Frequent questions
Bitmain has no Wi-Fi in any model. There is a workaround with a separate access point in client mode, but the link is less stable and dropouts cost shares.
Not required, but convenient. The tidy way is to reserve the address in the router by MAC, then the panel is always in the same place.
ASIC traffic is tiny, the limit is the number of ports. For ten machines an ordinary unmanaged switch does the job.
The miner switches to the second line in the pool list. If it is empty, it calculates into the void and the shares are lost. That is why backup pools are filled in from the start.
Yes. On save it restarts calculation by itself, which takes a few seconds. There is no need to cut the power.