This is shared Avalon A-Series reference material covering 5 models. Components, supply voltage/phase, PSU, cooling and service procedures vary by model and revision. Use the exact model nameplate and OEM manual; shared examples do not establish compatibility.
Every unit is built from the same handful of parts. Learn what each does, how to identify it, and - most importantly for diagnosis - what its failure looks like.
Avalon's control layer. Modern industrial A-series integrate a controller (own IP + web UI) in each box, but the MM (Mining Module) firmware generation defines the platform: MM3 → MM317 → MM318 → MM319 for the 12/13/14/15 series. The MM holds the job, rolls the extranonce, and reports per-chip health.
Runs mining + networking and reports the richest telemetry in the industry via estats.
Board with the network + USB + fan headers (A1466 = 'MM4_V1_1'). Controller is Raspberry-Pi-class on some generations.
On chained/legacy setups, a USB-to-I²C/CAN dongle bridges the host (classically a Raspberry Pi running Stratum) to up to 5 miners over a bus. Integrated A-series units fold this inside the box.
Host-to-miner bridge on multi-unit Avalon setups.
Small USB dongle with a status LED (blue idle, green normal I²C, red = comms fault).
Usually 3 Canaan-made boards. Unlike Antminer's serial daisy-chain, Avalon's MM selects each chip through a hardware MUX (+broadcast), so a DEAD chip drops out but neighbors keep mining - graceful degradation. Chips still sit on series voltage strings, so a SHORTED chip collapses its string and kills the board.
The hashing muscle, with per-chip addressing.
Three finned boards; the API reports each board's chip count (TA) and per-chip PVT.
Canaan's proprietary chips (community names: A3205/A3210/A3197S/A3198S by generation). Every chip has an on-die Process-Voltage-Temperature (PVT) sensor, so estats returns per-chip temp/voltage arrays - a diagnostic surface Antminer lacks.
The hashing units, individually monitored.
Confirm the die from the board silkscreen when a unit is in hand - Canaan doesn't consistently publish per-SKU die numbers.
Avalon uses an EXTERNAL PSU brick (e.g. A1466 = PSU3400-01 Plus, ~3230 W, 220-277 VAC, C20-type inlet) - like Antminer, unlike Whatsminer's integrated supply. The PSU state is a bitmap (PS field) in estats.
Feeds the boards; PS bitmap tells you exactly what's wrong.
External brick with a C20 inlet; PS=0 means healthy.
Avalon's signature is a DUAL FRONT-FAN intake face with dual-sided heatsinks (not Antminer's front/rear tunnel). A1466 uses two 12050 fans (8 A/12 VDC) plus a PSU fan.
Airflow across dual-sided heatsinks.
Two fans on the front face; distinctive vs Antminer's end-to-end tunnel.