BBT saved my Thunder x3
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Was it actually on fire?
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No but it was only a matter of time before they fused to the point where the wires would short circuit.
These were playing the role of gender changer for the 4 6pin PCIE power plugs… All 3 rigs prior to the 4th had female connectors. Then they decide to, without warning, put on male connectors. It was intended to internalise a modular psu but no fully modular psu I’ve found so far will kick over using the mobo green pin bridging trick…
I couldn’t find gender changers, so I’ve used a splitter… The wires were rated to 80c and were reaching 70c but because of the zip ties and also the gauge of the wire was slightly thinner, the amps or something was causing the connectors and wires themselves to begin to smolder.
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That’s nasty!
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Fire from my rigs is a real worry!
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Yikes!
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Calem, I posted these pics to my blog (hope you don’t mind) and a lot of people got a kick out them.
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Hey that’s fine ahy!
The wire was probably only rated at about 5 to 7 amps… The connectors themselves should have been fine but they were creating a bottleneck because they gauge of the wire was significantly lesser…
I feared it was going to be a problem but I ran them for 24 hours without any issue’s.
The wire was rated to 80c and they reached 70c but generally sat at about 60c at night. The connectors sat at about 55 degrees. The wires leading to the psu and rig on the other hand were about 30c.
On the second night it all became to much and the heat gradually began to melt the wire.
I’ve now crimped on my own nylon connectors that are similar to pcie but much chunkier and rated for a solid 10 amps.
Temps of the wires for the psu and rig are still the same at about 30c but the new connectors are 35c during the day.
Let that be a lesson to anyone using ASIC’s. if you need to gender change or extend power connections, be extremly wary of the gauge (thickness) and rated capacity of the wire’s used.
tl;dr
Even if it means chopping the ends off both your rig’s, you are better off with custom connectors as opposed to trying to use pcie splitters as gender changers…
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Perhaps invest in a co2 extinguisher too! haha
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Considering I’m now operating as a business, It’s probably law…
I think I’ll do that actually…
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Dont forget to put up you glowing emergency exit signs and emergency lights which will need to be tested every 6 months, as will your co2 extinguisher, and the list goes on… :)
