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Bitcoin => Mining support => Topic started by: hotwired007 on September 06, 2013, 12:41:35 PM



Title: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 06, 2013, 12:41:35 PM
I've got 8 ASICMINER USB miners running - 2 in a hub on my PC and 6 on a dlink hub - all were working ok on cgminer 3.1.0 but a couple were iffy (no accepted shares) so i decided to upgrade to cgminer 3.4.2

ive downloaded the new version of zadig (http://zadig.akeo.ie/)

installed the winUSB driver and run cgminer-nogpu.exe:

cgminer-nogpu.exe -o *** -u *** -p *** --icarus-options 115200:1:1 --icarus-timing 3.0=100

only one miner runs - any suggestions what ive done wrong?


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: OtaconEmmerich on September 06, 2013, 05:20:33 PM
Remove "--icarus-options 115200:1:1 --icarus-timing 3.0=100"
the new version of CGminer doesn't need/require it.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: HellDiverUK on September 06, 2013, 05:22:36 PM
Or you could use BFGMiner and the VCP drivers, which means you don't have to fool about with the pointless WinUSB stuff.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 06, 2013, 06:16:07 PM
Or you could use BFGMiner and the VCP drivers, which means you don't have to fool about with the pointless WinUSB stuff.

done :) also dropped the difficulty and everything seems happier now :)


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: os2sam on September 06, 2013, 09:31:19 PM
Or you could use BFGMiner and the VCP drivers, which means you don't have to fool about with the pointless WinUSB stuff.

You only have to fool around with pointless serial drivers.  And good luck if you want to run multiple instances of the miner and your serial ports get reassigned on the fly by Windoze.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 09, 2013, 10:54:42 AM
i'm running BFGMiner, 4 USB miners on a USB hub plugged into the PC and 4 miners in the DLINK hub - now all 8 show up and occasinaloly some error BUT not all of them are actually submitting shares


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: os2sam on September 09, 2013, 11:03:52 AM
i'm running BFGMiner, 4 USB miners on a USB hub plugged into the PC and 4 miners in the DLINK hub - now all 8 show up and occasinaloly some error BUT not all of them are actually submitting shares

Make sure your USB Hub power supplies can supply the current needed.  Each Erupter needs .5 Amp.  So you have two USB Hubs with 4 Erupters each so your Power Supplies need to be rated HIGHER than 2 Amps each.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: b!z on September 09, 2013, 11:08:39 AM
i'm running BFGMiner, 4 USB miners on a USB hub plugged into the PC and 4 miners in the DLINK hub - now all 8 show up and occasinaloly some error BUT not all of them are actually submitting shares

Make sure your USB Hub power supplies can supply the current needed.  Each Erupter needs .5 Amp.  So you have two USB Hubs with 4 Erupters each so your Power Supplies need to be rated HIGHER than 2 Amps.

Yeah, that's right. Some devices don't provide enough power to the USB hubs, according to what I've read.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 10, 2013, 07:12:10 AM
The HUB i hvae on my PC is powered directly from the PSU so has plenty of power and works perfectly - not had any issues with that hub since installing it - the external hub im currently using is a DLINK DUB-H7 - its recommended for the USB miners - its pluged directly into the motherboard USB ports at the back.

I'm using BFGminer 3.2.0 if that helps?


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: Trongersoll on September 12, 2013, 06:11:54 PM
The HUB i hvae on my PC is powered directly from the PSU so has plenty of power and works perfectly - not had any issues with that hub since installing it - the external hub im currently using is a DLINK DUB-H7 - its recommended for the USB miners - its pluged directly into the motherboard USB ports at the back.

I'm using BFGminer 3.2.0 if that helps?

I have a PCIe hub powered by the power supply. the specs that came with it say 2amps, that is it. where it gets its power doesn't matter. It seems that all(most of) the hubs get some of their power from the port that they are plugged into. That PCIe hub will run 2 Dlink 7 ports fine, add an anker and the Anker doesn't work much beyond 1 erupter. Plug the Anker into the Dlink and it runs 8 erupters and a fan fine. that is my experience so far.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: os2sam on September 12, 2013, 11:52:01 PM
the Anker doesn't work much beyond 1 erupter. Plug the Anker into the Dlink and it runs 8 erupters and a fan fine. that is my experience so far.

Plugging your Aker into a different hub stabilizes it?  That sounds weird.
Sam


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: Trongersoll on September 13, 2013, 01:02:01 AM
the Anker doesn't work much beyond 1 erupter. Plug the Anker into the Dlink and it runs 8 erupters and a fan fine. that is my experience so far.

Plugging your Aker into a different hub stabilizes it?  That sounds weird.
Sam

only on the surface Sam, i believe the Anker depends on the power it receives via the port it is plugged into as much as the power it's brick supplies. But i'm not a hardware guy.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: os2sam on September 13, 2013, 01:30:36 AM
the Anker doesn't work much beyond 1 erupter. Plug the Anker into the Dlink and it runs 8 erupters and a fan fine. that is my experience so far.

Plugging your Aker into a different hub stabilizes it?  That sounds weird.
Sam

only on the surface Sam, i believe the Anker depends on the power it receives via the port it is plugged into as much as the power it's brick supplies. But i'm not a hardware guy.

I bought 3 of the Anker 9+1 hubs and so far I'm not impressed.  One fried in less than a day, one looses 4 to 5 ports in about 10 minutes and the third one works fine.  Just wondering about your theory, although it makes no sense, but you seem to have empirical evidence on your side.

Worth a shot :)
Thanks,
Sam


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: HellDiverUK on September 13, 2013, 08:53:15 AM
If your Anker is giving trouble, then it's most likely the USB3 drivers on your PC.  I couldn't get mine working properly on the ASMedia USB3 ports on my AMD rig. Wouldn't work reliably on a Renesys USB3 on another Intel machine (H61 chipset Intel Desktop board).  Works perfectly on the Intel chipset USB3 on a different PC.

I've had better luck plugging the Anker hub straight in to a USB2 port. 


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: os2sam on September 13, 2013, 09:24:06 AM
the Anker doesn't work much beyond 1 erupter. Plug the Anker into the Dlink and it runs 8 erupters and a fan fine. that is my experience so far.

Plugging your Aker into a different hub stabilizes it?  That sounds weird.
Sam

only on the surface Sam, i believe the Anker depends on the power it receives via the port it is plugged into as much as the power it's brick supplies. But i'm not a hardware guy.

I daisy chained one Anker off the first one, which was always stable, everything worked great over night.  Thanks for the suggestion and input.

I had plugged all three directly into my USB ports on the PC because I wanted all of the available higher current ports used for erupters.  But now looking back on it I have always daisy chained my old hubs.

Now I will test chaining them off of my Rosewill hubs on the non powered ports.

Thanks again,
Sam


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: os2sam on September 13, 2013, 09:26:07 AM
If your Anker is giving trouble, then it's most likely the USB3 drivers on your PC.  I couldn't get mine working properly on the ASMedia USB3 ports on my AMD rig. Wouldn't work reliably on a Renesys USB3 on another Intel machine (H61 chipset Intel Desktop board).  Works perfectly on the Intel chipset USB3 on a different PC.

I've had better luck plugging the Anker hub straight in to a USB2 port. 

My mining rig only has USB 2.0 ports.  The daisy chain method seems to work though.
Thanks,
Sam


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 13, 2013, 11:10:01 AM
The HUB i hvae on my PC is powered directly from the PSU so has plenty of power and works perfectly - not had any issues with that hub since installing it - the external hub im currently using is a DLINK DUB-H7 - its recommended for the USB miners - its pluged directly into the motherboard USB ports at the back.

I'm using BFGminer 3.2.0 if that helps?

I have a PCIe hub powered by the power supply. the specs that came with it say 2amps, that is it. where it gets its power doesn't matter. It seems that all(most of) the hubs get some of their power from the port that they are plugged into. That PCIe hub will run 2 Dlink 7 ports fine, add an anker and the Anker doesn't work much beyond 1 erupter. Plug the Anker into the Dlink and it runs 8 erupters and a fan fine. that is my experience so far.

The 4 USB Miners plugged into the DLINK are the ones that dont seem to be doing anything :S they'll submit a few shares and then stop doing anything - i've ordered a couple of new hubs to replace the DLINK - going to use the dlink for a different purpose (my raspberry pi entertainment center :))


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: Zanatos666 on September 13, 2013, 11:54:39 AM
What about cooling?  These things get hot and you need a good air moving fan to blow across them.  Get you a USB fan, or, just take a box fan and point it at them. It could be the reason why they begin to run, then crash (especially the ones in the hubs that are lined up next to each other, it creates a heat dome).


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 13, 2013, 12:07:38 PM
What about cooling?  These things get hot and you need a good air moving fan to blow across them.  Get you a USB fan, or, just take a box fan and point it at them. It could be the reason why they begin to run, then crash (especially the ones in the hubs that are lined up next to each other, it creates a heat dome).

the ones in the PC have a 120mm case fan blowing over them and the 4 in the DLINK have a USB fan blowing over them - they feel cool to the touch.

My new hubs turned up today so should be up and running later :)


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: os2sam on September 13, 2013, 12:11:28 PM
What about cooling?  These things get hot and you need a good air moving fan to blow across them.  Get you a USB fan, or, just take a box fan and point it at them. It could be the reason why they begin to run, then crash (especially the ones in the hubs that are lined up next to each other, it creates a heat dome).

the ones in the PC have a 120mm case fan blowing over them and the 4 in the DLINK have a USB fan blowing over them - they feel cool to the touch.

My new hubs turned up today so should be up and running later :)

Try Trong's suggestion of Daisy Chaining them.  That has resolved my situation.  Don't quite understand the theory of operation of that yet.
Sam


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 13, 2013, 12:21:32 PM
i have an 8 port hub on the PC (like this):
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-3-5-Inch-Desktopfront-Multi-function-Panel-8-Ports-USB2-0-HUB-/370816918505?pt=UK_Photography_MemoryCardReaders_RL&hash=item56566923e9

a DLINK DUB-H7 USB hub and 2 10 port teknet USB 3.0 hubs - and 11 USB miners :D the plan is to put 5 and 6 miners in the two hubs and plug them both into the 8 port hub.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 13, 2013, 08:41:31 PM
I'm now running all my miners on the two 10 port usb hubs - 1 miner on the first hub and 10 on the second which is plugged into the first - still using BFGminer 3.2.0

i have a USB fan blowing over all the miners.

am running difficulty 8 - is this ok?


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: os2sam on September 13, 2013, 08:48:41 PM
am running difficulty 8 - is this ok?

Diff8 with 11 Block Erupters isn't bad.  But it will have pretty high variance.  Two or 4 would be more inline with your hashrate.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 13, 2013, 09:02:54 PM
dropped it to 4 :)


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 13, 2013, 09:10:44 PM
seeing a lot of:

stratum from pool 0 requested work update - and my hash rate is slowly dropping - any ideas what this is all about?


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: os2sam on September 13, 2013, 09:21:10 PM
seeing a lot of:

stratum from pool 0 requested work update - and my hash rate is slowly dropping - any ideas what this is all about?

Go back to Diff 8 and see if it goes away.

What pool are you using?


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: -ck on September 13, 2013, 10:24:08 PM
See this for choosing a diff:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=274023.0


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 13, 2013, 11:11:08 PM
use 50btc.com


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 16, 2013, 07:48:21 AM
Right i've now moved my miners to my laptop as a test over the weekend - the two 10 port hubs are daisy chained as recommended.

I'm using BFG 3.1.4 as its 32 bit and its been running fine - the only issue i've had is an automatic windows restart after installing updates.

I suspect that my main minning rig doesn't like the fact that that it has 5 hubs connected - is it worth disconnecting the hubs connected via the onboard headers?

I'd like to stop using my laptop as its additional power usage that i want to drop ;)

50btc.com say to use diff 8 with 2000-4000Mhash.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 20, 2013, 09:50:00 AM
Moved it all back to my main desktop after it was running fine - now having the same issues - i've disabled (in windows) the other USB hub that was running from the onboard headers - i'll unplug it later. My assumption is that there is a config in BIOS that messing up the USB ports or something...

I'm using 1 10 port connected into the motherboard USB port at the back and 10 10 port plugged into port 1 on the first hub (9 USB miners in forst and 2 in second) am using BFGminer:

c:\tools\bfgminer3.1.4\bfgminer.exe -o pool -u username -p password -G -S ica:\\.\COM2 -S ica:\\.\COM3 -S ica:\\.\COM4 -S ica:\\.\COM5 -S ica:\\.\COM6 -S ica:\\.\COM7 -S ica:\\.\COM8 -S ica:\\.\COM9 -S ica:\\.\COM10 -S ica:\\.\COM11 -S ica:\\.\COM12 --icarus-options 115200:1:1 --icarus-timing 3.0=100 2>logfile.txt

the logfile occasionally is helpful - the past few times its crashed have been down to a dll file..


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: Zanatos666 on September 20, 2013, 12:13:44 PM
Moved it all back to my main desktop after it was running fine - now having the same issues - i've disabled (in windows) the other USB hub that was running from the onboard headers - i'll unplug it later. My assumption is that there is a config in BIOS that messing up the USB ports or something...

I'm using 1 10 port connected into the motherboard USB port at the back and 10 10 port plugged into port 1 on the first hub (9 USB miners in forst and 2 in second) am using BFGminer:

c:\tools\bfgminer3.1.4\bfgminer.exe -o pool -u username -p password -G -S ica:\\.\COM2 -S ica:\\.\COM3 -S ica:\\.\COM4 -S ica:\\.\COM5 -S ica:\\.\COM6 -S ica:\\.\COM7 -S ica:\\.\COM8 -S ica:\\.\COM9 -S ica:\\.\COM10 -S ica:\\.\COM11 -S ica:\\.\COM12 --icarus-options 115200:1:1 --icarus-timing 3.0=100 2>logfile.txt

the logfile occasionally is helpful - the past few times its crashed have been down to a dll file..

You dont need all those arguments, they are pointless and probably confusing bfgminer.  Just use:

c:\tools\bfgminer3.1.4\bfgminer.exe -o pool -u username -p password -G -S all

That will not use your GPU and will scan all of your ports for USB devices and use them.  If  you want to add the argument for the log file still you can.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 20, 2013, 01:07:53 PM
Ok i've just realised that there is a new version of BFGMiner - 3.2.1 - downloaded it and now running with only the -G -S all on the end - ive also reset all my COM ports back to 2 through 11 and it seems to be working atm - its frustrating as everythign runs on one rig so whenever i reboot it take out either my BTC mining or my scrypt mining... when i have problems i notice that in device manager one of my USB hubs has got a fault so i disable it and enable it and it comes back online.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 23, 2013, 07:47:26 AM
i removed the 8 port USB hub from the USB headers on the motherboard and everything appears to be running smoothly - 24hrs and no crashes, lost miners or failures - each USB hub is connected to a separate USB port.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: frankenmint on September 23, 2013, 10:08:33 AM
spent my weekend dealing with Vista Hell back to Windows XP (I don't feel the urge to learn Linux just yet but was inches away from picking up bamt)  and now I seem to be almost back to where I was with having my 33 (for now) BEs back working again with BFG miner.  I see that when I plug them into windows I get Two Code 42s (duplicate devices detected) and one single Code 39 I believe well its the one that says windows failed to load drivers for * device.  I can't seem to figure out how to fix this (there was a post somewhere where it was mentioned to regedit the upper limit on USB devices but that wasn't on my computer so it didnt help)  Any ideas on how I can get them to work?  (I had them all working successfully before until Vista decided to keep itself on a reset loop and I was forced to use a burned copy of windows xp)

Asking now because I'm adding another 10 or so tomorrow.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: hotwired007 on September 23, 2013, 10:32:18 AM
you could go into Device Manager and manually reassign the COM ports to the ones that are playing up - i ended up with ports assigned all the way upto 90s - i went through and assigned them all down to COM2 and upwards again and that sorted that out.


Title: Re: USB miner issues
Post by: frankenmint on September 23, 2013, 11:58:03 PM
I tried this and it seemed to work on one Erupter but not the other two...When I restarted the PC I still had issues....its ok though...I got a free copy of Windows 7 pro to install on this machine instead.