In this article, we’ll show you an alternative method for securely turning off a Bitmain Antminer S9 Series miner.
We were fairly confident that we had made a mistake when we had to shut down the Bitmain Antminer S9 Series miner for the first time. The solution for us—and for many other cryptocurrency miners—was to merely unplug the power supply because Bitmain Antminer S9 series miners lack a power switch. We figured there had to be a way to safely shut an Antminer down. After some searching, it was discovered that there is.
Read more: How to power off, reboot or restart the Bitmain Antminer S9 Series miners?
Table of Contents
What Happens When You Unplug An Antminer S9 Series Miner?
Just unplug it?
A running Antminer S9 Series miner loses all power when the plug is pulled out. Naturally, it malfunctions, loses its connection to the Internet, and becomes a paperweight. There is a small potential issue when it does this, though.
Hot ASIC miners
The high RPM fans are bolted onto both ends of the Chinese workhorses because Antminer S9 Series miners produce a lot of heat. The unit’s fans push cooler air into the ASIC’s one end while it is mining. As it moves through, the air picks up heat from inside the appliance and releases it in the opposite direction.
If there is no power, neither of the unit’s fans at either end will operate. The chips inside are now left to cool down independently. Internal heat can escape because of the aluminum enclosure, the tube’s constrained airflow, and the heat sinks. However, it is undoubtedly possible that temperatures will rise briefly prior to any cooling. It has the potential to be harmful. The miner will incur financial loss and be forced to sit on the bench.
What Happens When You Change An Antminer’s Settings?
If you’ve ever underclocked or overclocked your Antminer S9 Series miner, the fans most likely run at a very high RPM after you apply a frequency change. In order to continue removing heat from the chips and boards and prevent damage, the unit stops mining at this point and turns up the fans. Then, over the course of about a minute, the frequency change is gradually applied while the fans are spinning slowly.
This is a sensible way to turn off sensitive hardware that is hot. We only need to halt mining while keeping the fans running for a while. Here’s how.
Safely Shut Down An Antminer S9 Series Miner
You will need to know the local IP address of your Antminer S9 Series miner as well as your login credentials to its dashboard and access to a computer on the same network. Also read: How to Use IP Reporter to Find the IP Address of the Bitmain Antminer S9 Series
For the sake of this example, let’s pretend that root is still the administrator name and that our Antminer is connected to a local network at the IP address 192.168.7.125.
- Open the Terminal App (on a Mac) or Command Prompt (on a PC)
- Type: ssh [email protected] replacing root with your administrator name and 192.168.7.125 with the Antminer’s IP address
- If you get a security warning, such as an OS X host authenticity warning go ahead and still connect
- Provide the Antminer with your password when prompted
- The Antminer and you are currently connected. To stop mining but leave the fans running, type: poweroff
- The Antminer will reply to you letting you know that it is shutting down.
- Wait 5 or 10 minutes, then safely unplug the Antminer.
The work we did is summarized here. In steps 1 through 4, we established a connection with the Antminer S9 Series miner. The mining process was finished after step 5. As long as the Antminer is connected to a power source, its fans will keep the chips cool. We finally unplug the Antminer after it has had time to cool down, confident that there won’t be a temperature increase.
Issuing the poweroff command to the Antminer
However, the majority of people will probably just turn off the electricity. But now you know how to turn off your Antminer in a less risky manner if that’s what you prefer.
How do you restart a miner that has been turned off after sending a remote ssh command?
It will turn on automatically if you simply unplug the power cable from the power supply and plug it back in.
Summary: Safely Shut Down a Bitmain Antminer S9 Series Miner
Pulling the plug is the simplest way to stop using your Bitmain Antminer S9 series miners, but doing so could reduce their lifespan. Try the above method to safely shut down your miner.
Recently, some people discovered Bitmain has disabled ssh in their recent Antminer S9 firmwares. Don’t update or flash back to an older firmware if you still want to shut down your Antminer S9.
FAQs
What Happens When Antminer Overheats?
Moreover, in S9, the hashrate will gets down in case of any overheat. Therefore, your machine hash rate and function will be adapted to the machine temperature instead of shutting down!
Read more: Bitmain Antminer S9 Series High-Temperature Alert and Protection
How Do I Reset Antminer S9?
To reset Antminer S9, after the miner is turned on for 2 minutes, please press and hold the “Reset” button for 5 seconds, and then release it. Within 4 minutes, the miner will restart automatically and return to its factory settings; there is no need to turn it off.
What is the Best Temp for Antminer S9?
As far as I’m aware, these models include the S9, L3+, T9, T17, S17, and S9 series. Although it is possible to run machines between 0C and 40C (32F – 104F), most miners prefer to operate above 5 C (41F). Bitmain recommends an ambient running temperature between 15 – 35C (59 – 95F).
Read more: Bitmain Antminer S9 Series Normal Operating Temperature Range
Do ASIC Miners Need Cooling?
ASIC miners generate an enormous amount of heat.
The high temperature can damage the hardware or even be a fire hazard if left unattended. Therefore, miners often install dedicated cooling systems to reduce the temperature of their mining facilities.
