Episode Details

Bitesize Bitcoin

Bitcoin Mining Server Components

Emergentism, is the belief that complex systems can exhibit properties or behaviours that are not present in their individual components. Such is the case with a Bitcoin miner. In today’s Bitesize Bitcoin, we will review the components that comprise a common, air-cooled, single-phase powered, Bitcoin miner. 

A mining rig is in many ways less complex than other electronic devices we use every day as it is designed to perform only one function. It is comprised of a case, a control board, hashboards, ASIC chips, a power supply, fans, and wiring connecting them all together.

Control Board:

The control board is the central hub of the machine. It is responsible for controlling the other components of the rig and communicating with the greater Bitcoin network. It serves as the central hub for all the machine's hardware and software components. The control board contains a microcontroller, RAM, and other supporting chips and circuitry. It has connectors for various peripherals like temperature sensors, network connection, power supply, and fans and is responsible for controlling and monitoring the operation of the rig.

The control board…

• Controls the power supply to the miner, including the power draw of the ASIC chips, fans, and other components. It also monitors the power consumption of the machine to ensure that it is operating efficiently.

• It monitors the temperature of the ASICs and other components, and it adjusts the power and cooling accordingly.
• The control board monitors the operation of the miner and detects any hardware or software failures. It can also protect the miner from overloading or other potential damage by shutting it down in case of a fault. With firmware like Braiins or Vnish these shutdown parameters can be set by the user.
• It tracks the performance of the miner and provides real-time updates on mining statistics, such as hash rate, pool stats like accepted and rejected shares, temperature, fan speed, and power consumption. It also provides error logs and other diagnostic information to help miners troubleshoot.
• The control board includes a processor, ARM, FPGA, or a combination of both, to handle the calculations and communicate those tasks to the hashboards.
• It includes a small amount of RAM and storage, such as an SD card, to store software and data.
• Contains a variety of ports, such as USB and Ethernet, to connect to other hardware components and the network.
• It is also equipped with an LED display to indicate network connection status
• And contains reset and ip report buttons.

Fans:

The fans blow air over the ASIC chips and other components to cool them down. Whatsminer and the Bitmain S9 use two 12V, 7-9amp fans. The S19’s use four smaller 2.7 amp 12V fans. Machines are designed to operate within a certain temperature range, the S9 and Whatsminer have an operating temperature range of 0-40°C, S19’s range is -5-45°C. 

Case:

The case is the enclosure that holds all the components of the machine. The cases are aluminum, particularly stylish, and protect the internal components and provide a mounting point for various peripheries like fans and power supplies. 

Power Supply:

 The power supply does what it says it does, supplies power to the machines. It does this through a transformer and voltage regulator to convert AC to the DC power required by the machine. Common power supplies are the Bitmain APW12 and APW3+. As well as the Whatsminer PD21/22. 

Power supplies consist of several key components: 

• Power conversion module, which converts AC to DC 
• Power distribution board, which routes the DC power to the various components of the rig.
• Cooling system, yes power supplies have fans on them as well 
• Connector pins: Single-phase po