All in with controller, batteries and PV panels I paid around €4000. Should get 5 -7 years from the battery bank this system knocks off approx €100 a month from electric bill so payback is around 40 months... the space heater S3 and Bitcoin is just a bonus.

Also, I wanted to add for anyone else reading that the new controller board I fitted does not allow the cover to be put back on the S3 and this has been a blessing in disguise. OC the unit to 250 Frequency now runs at just over 500 GH/s but temperatures are much lower remaining stable at 41 C. Temp's used to creep up around 45 - 47 with the cover on. Fans run always at 1,920 rpm which is not too noisy for me.    

I do actually have 3KW solar array which, even with the S3 running 24/7, still manages to fully charge my battery bank daily when the sun is shining which is most days here in the Algarve. So, I am not paying the electric company as such but just recovering some of the initial solar investment I made 3 years ago plus I might end up with a bitcoin or two by the time the difficulty doubles again I believe middle of next year. I turn the unit off on cloudy days to divert max energy to battery charging. Once the warmer weather returns in March I will put the S3 back in my workshop don't need the added heat in my room then.        

Thanks for the replies and suggestions I tried the new firmware with and without old settings but still the same issue. I found a nice chap from Finland on Ebay who sold me a replacement control board for 50 dollars not the same as original but an adapted S1 control board. S3 works fine now at 250 Frequency it's pulling 420W at the plug and mining just over 500 GH/S with no X's and very low errors (0.01%) Nice little 400W heater in my bedsit so far no need for extra heater it's been down to 5 C outside but remains 23-25 C in the room.

Bitmain support was non-existent despite several emails asking for spares.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201460056095?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Hope this helps someone else with a problem board I have read it is possible to recover the board corruption using an adapter & software but this would be beyond my scope.

  

Hi to all

Just switched my ISP from totally unlimited (but very slow) to 150Gb per month (but quickish) 4G internet. I am hosting an S3 in my bedsit which actually is a nice little 400W heater now the nights are getting cooler here in Portugal. The question I can't seem to find an answer too is how much bandwidth does an S3 use in a 24 hour period? (up and down) I have Networx installed on my desktop and laptop which gauges the usage from computers but the S3 is connected directly to my 4G router so bypasses the monitoring.

Any help much appreciated. TIA

Hi to all

I have Bitmain S3 have been mining last few months no problems. Couple days ago I power up the miner and both fans run flat out but no mining. I thought perhaps it is software issue so I tried a factory reset using a paperclip near the ethernet port and once rebooted found the miner on my network and re-installed the configuration .gz file that I saved months ago. This made no difference still when I power up the S3 the fans run flat out but no mining. I have also changed the psu I have a 32A, a 40A and an ATX Corsair CX600 which puts out 46A on the 12V rail. Swapping between these supplies also makes no difference the S3 fans just continue to run flat out with no mining.
Not sure what to try next any help much appreciated

no point putting anything here it just gets deleted

total newbie question but can someone give me a hint as to starting bfgminer completely auto when starting win7 64 bit machine. I have saved config file but each time I launch bfgminer.exe I still have to type M+ and then com3 to get it going. I also have AMD 280X graphics card installed and would like to mine from that same time but when I get that going it just overheats and bfg shuts it down even in dynamic mode. Any pointers to a nice easy tutorial would be very appreciated   
TIA

Hi to all

Have managed to get BFGMiner running a single erupter on USB and saved to BFGMiner.conf file but when I run the program it is always 'waiting for devices' at which point I press M+ and tell the program the miner is on com3 and all is well (device succeeded)
Question I have is can I add a line of code to the .conf file to tell BFG where the miner is (always at com3) so the process is automated? I was previously using an older version of BFG and after saving the .conf file I never had to keep inputting the com port. Have tried saving the .conf file over and over but the com port location never seems to get saved.

Any help much appreciated