Tutorial: Antminer A3 BLAKE2b ASIC Miner for Siacoin Mining

This tutorial is intended for the Antminer A3 BLAKE2b ASIC Miner for Siacoin Mining which is a BLAKE2 miner manufactured by BITMAIN. BLAKE2 is a cryptographic hash function faster than MD5, SHA-1, SHA-2, and SHA-3, yet is at least as secure as the latest standard SHA-3. BLAKE2 has been adopted by many projects due to its high speed, security, and simplicity. The Antminer A3 supports all the crypto coins based on the BLAKE2b algorithm, such as Siacoin.

Miner Specifications

Brand	Antminer A3
Hash Rate	815 GH/s ± 5%
Power Consumption	1275w
Cooling	2 x 12038 fan
Network Connection	Ethernet
PSU	NO PSU
PSU Recommend	Antminer APW3++ PSU

Preparations

First of all, you need to know what is the BLAKE2b algorithm, what is Siacoin, and some useful dash mining pools.

You need to choose one of the mining pools and create a mining worker in that pool. Also, it is recommended that you have a look at the “Help” section of your mining pool. Below are some useful sources for BLAKE2b mining:

BLAKE2 official site: https://blake2.net/
Sia official site: https://sia.tech/
Antpool: https://antpool.com/

In our tutorial, we will use the Antpool as our test pool.

Antminer A3 BLAKE2b ASIC Miner for Siacoin Mining IMG 32

Miner Connection

The connection of the Antminer A3 is exactly the same with other Antminer.
First, get your PSU ready. You need to prepare a PSU > 1300w with 6pin x 10 for the miner. Check here for the Setting-up for PSU.
For the miner configuration, please connect the miner to the LAN port on the same router which your computer is also connected to. The miner is stand-alone, your computer is just needed for the miner configuration.
This is the Antminer A3 you will receive. Please check if all the cables on the miner to make sure they are inserted tightly.

Antminer A3 BLAKE2b ASIC Miner for Siacoin Mining IMG 08

There are TEN 6PIN ports on the miner(3 ports on each hashing boards, and another one on the controller). All the TEN 6PIN ports are needed.

Antminer D3 X11 ASIC Miner for Dash Mining img 118

Connecting the miner to your PSU via the 6pin ports on the miner. All the TEN 6PIN ports on the miner should be connected.

Antminer A3 BLAKE2b ASIC Miner for Siacoin Mining IMG 33

Insert the ethernet cord.
Miner connection DONE.

Antminer A3 BLAKE2b ASIC Miner for Siacoin Mining IMG 34

Mining Guide

Please refer to Tutorial: General Mining Guide & TroubleShoot for Antminer Models for miner setting-up.

Trouble Shoot

Please refer to Tutorial: General Mining Guide & TroubleShoot for Antminer Models for miner troubleshoot.