Modifying Antminer S9 Hashboard for Low Power Use

Looking to tone down my Antminer S9 hashboard to only run 1-5 ASIC chips. Is it even possible with the standard control board? Need help on how to make this work, like firmware edits or something. I want this to run off a low power 5V supply for my solar setup... maybe link it to CK pool. Geckoscience sticks have only 2 chips, right? I can't afford those... but I do have an S9 with three boards and 63 chips each. Any thoughts?

You might want to check this thread about an open-source miner project with 2 BM1387 chips. Could give you some insight on what you're trying to achieve.

Ever looked into ASIC.to's firmware? They have something for S9 units that lets you tweak chip settings like frequency and power. Not sure if you can completely disable chips, but you can try lowering the power to the lowest settings and see if that works.

Just so you know, you'll still need 12V for the hash boards and control board, not just 5V. They convert 12V from a PCIe connection to what they need. A lot of us pull two boards to use them as silent heaters instead. Plus, try finding a custom firmware to shut down most chips. Honestly though, it might not be worth all the hassle.

+1, not sure if you can pull off the 1-5 chips idea. Selling that S9 might be better. They go for about $500 now. Grab an R909 instead for around $600, it's pretty solid. However, I doubt your solar panels would give you 5V only; usually, they're 12V or higher.

You could set up a small 2S battery buffered by a solar panel with a $10 BMS. Then use a voltage step-down converter to get 5V output. If 12V is needed, consider a 3S or 4S config. Just make sure they stay around 4V charged. Idk the exact voltage tolerance for the boards but usually, there's some wiggle room.