Why the S9?
The S9 is the AK47 of Bitcoin Miners. It is easily the best miner for beginners to get started with home mining. There are three perks of the S9 that make it incredibly advantageous for the beginner.
- It can run on a 110v outlet
- The noise and heat are manageable
- They are super affordable compared to newer generation miners
How to Set it Up
Here is a list of parts you need to get started. Typically, we do not supply the ethernet cord, but make sure you specify which power cable you need. The one in the picture is Nema 5-15, which is compatible with your typical household outlet.
S9 Overview:
The Antminer S9 is a machine that was released by Bitmain in 2016. At 13.5 TH/s, it was the dominant machine at that time. Even today, they are highly sought after due to their durability and versatility. Depending on the price of Bitcoin, they break even at around $0.09-0.10 a kWh. This means that they are a great option for many people living in residential settings.
There are four different types of power supplies that are compatible with the S9. We ship our units with the APW3++ because of its ability to run on either 120v or 240v. Your typical household outlets run on 120v and will support a S9, as long as it is not overloaded with other devices.
All of the S9s we sell are preloaded with Braiins, which is an aftermarket firmware that allows for more control over your machine. Braiins has a feature called Autotune, which helps your machine to run as efficiently as possible by routing the appropriate amount of electricity to each chip.
Plugging in:
Check out our YouTube video on how to set up your S9.
It is incredibly important that you make sure to first plug in one the PCE connectors (The plastic plugs on the cords coming from the Power Supply) to the control board, which sits on the top of the machine. If you do not connect to the control board, and go straight to the hashboards, the fans will not turn on to cool your machine and it may catch on fire. Also, before actually plugging your PSU into the wall, makes sure to plug in your ethernet cable.
Finding your IP Address:
The easiest way to find your machine is to download the BTC Tool. This tool will allow you to plug in your IP range and it will automatically detect the miners on your network. This tool is only supported for Windows and Linux, so for Mac users, you will have to use a traditional IP Scanner. Unfortunately, it most likely will not distinguish the difference between all the devices on your network. You will have to take the IP addresses it pulls up and plug them in till you find the correct one. The scanner I suggest using is called Lan Scan.BTC Tool
Once you have identified your IP address and plugged it into your browser, login with:
Username: root
Password: root
If for some reason this does not work, try admin/admin
Signing up for a pool:
Because we preload Braiins OS+ on all of the S9’s we sell, I would suggest using Slushpool, because they waive the pool fees when you use Braiins. There is a contentious argument over which pool to sign up for, so I’d also suggest that you do your own research here. The sign-up process is fairly simple, and most pools only require that you give them an email address to sign up.
Whichever pool you choose should have a similar process to connect your machine. All you need to do is copy the info your pool provides you, over to your S9. Once you have your pool info in Braiins, make sure to save and apply. After around 3-5 minutes, you will see the pool begin to recognize that your miner is hashing.
Configuring Settings in Braiins:
Check out our video on how to configure settings.
One of the reasons that we preload the S9’s we sell with Braiins is because it unlocks a magical world of settings for you to be able to configure your miner. Let’s define and explain some of the settings you can mess around with.
Overclocking: Increasing the machines power consumption to achieve a higher hash rate. When doing this, there tends to be a loss in efficiency, but Bitcoin is always in a bull market so yolo. When running on 120v, do not exceed 1300w.
Underclocking: Some individuals aren’t bullish enough on Bitcoin so they will choose to underclock their machine to gain efficiency. In reality, often times this makes sense because underclocking can help you gain efficiency and run more profitably compared to your power consumption.
Immersion Settings: Bitmains base firmware has a safety feature that will not allow the miner to run, unless it is connected to the fans. Aftermarket firmware allows you to bypass this feature to be able to dunk your machine.
Auto Tuning: You will see a sizable increase in efficiency from running a firmware with auto tuning, because it analyzes each chip to direct the most effective amount of voltage, and frequency to it.
You can change your power consumption, which is measured in Watts. Make sure not to overload your circuit when overlocking.
Failures and What to Do:
S9’s are old machines that may have been operated in suboptimal conditions. When you buy from Kaboomracks, they are thoroughly tested and cleaned before we sell them. Even still, there could be failures, and that is why we offer a 14-day warranty period from when you receive it. When you receive the machine, make sure to test it.
Some common failures include, bad temperature sensors, bad Asic chips, broken fans, inability to connect to pool, etc. If you sense something is off with your machine, immediately contact Kaboomracks to get help with support, so that we can get you up and hashing as quickly as possible. Often times it is an easy fix, but sometimes we will have to replace a part, or the unit.