Fixing old S3 miners

I picked up a couple of used S3 miners to tinker with, but the previous owner really messed them up. The fans were mounted the wrong way. So, unit 1 has a decent control board, one good hash board, and one that’s totally shot. Unit 2? A bad controller and two good hash boards. I tried combining the best parts to make one working unit. Got it going, but shortly after, the internal USB to UART went kaput. It’s not detecting the hash boards or fan signals anymore… tried them all. Anyone have ideas on how to fix this?

You could try connecting the boards using a UART to USB setup. It might help. Also, I remember a project on GitHub that used a similar approach, called Mighty Miner. It was designed for the S1, but I think it could work with the S3 boards too. Check it out if you're interested. Hope this gives you a lead!

Both of my control boards can boot OpenWRT, which is cool, and I can access the web interface. But one board drives the fans crazy at full speed, while the other doesn’t recognize the hash boards or fan RPMs. It seems like the fans just stop waiting for a signal to turn on, you know? The first link might force a factory reset, while the second one is mostly about the web panel in JavaScript, I think. Anyone else experienced anything similar?

fans going full blast usually mean the pwm signal line isn't working right or the firmware can't read the temp sensors. did u try reflashing or swapping the firmware between boards? sometimes it just fixes the fan control issue