New GekkoScience product, the Compac A1

[sidehack]

Hello all. I hope you've been HALVING a good time mining lately!

(yes, it wasn't funny; no, I won't apologize)

Your old pals at GekkoScience are rolling out more stuff. Our new product for 2024, the first of many if everything works out, is a new stickminer. Of course it is; we always start with new stickminers.

This fellow is called the Compac A1.



If you have figured out the nomenclature of our company and products, you know it's all an homage to Eureka Seven, in which the Amita Drive was attached to Renton's Compac Drive, expanding its abilities. In the same vein, we've added our own Amita Drive of sorts to the Compac A1 (get it?) in the form of built-in telemetry and software control. No longer will you need to reach for a tiny screwdriver to tweak the voltage; it'll be done in software via cgminer commands or the API. And you'll be able to watch the temperature! And the USB bus voltage! And even change how the blinky light blinks! It should be possible to adjust the voltage on the fly, making tuning easy. Should be pretty fun.

There's also an optional 2-pin fan jack for snap-on fans without tying up another USB port. That's a new feature. Resellers will probably have add-on fan packages utilizing this. Please note that the fan jack is spec'd for fan loads only and CANNOT be used as an external 5V power input. You will burn things up by doing this.


This stickminer is built around S19 chips for good efficency, approximately 30% better than the Compac F. Samples have marked Compac F stock speeds around 260GH from under 8 watts.

Another benefit over the Compac F is low-end stability. It's built to handle high speeds, but unlike the F, it won't choke up at low speeds, so you don't have to overclock it on a juiced-up hub just to make it work.

But you can if you want. I've clocked samples running over 550GH on stock Smart Hubs, with a bit beefed up cooling of course. The main regulator on this stick is built to handle high power, up around 20W without blinking. The LEDs will blink of course, but power won't. Power will be fine.

And as always, these guys are Designed And Built In America.


*May not come in fancy retail packaging


The Compac A1 will be shipping in May. We're working on our own website for limited direct sales, but in the meantime confirmed resellers include:

AltairTech in USA
Bitshopper.de in Germany
The Solo Mining Co in England
101 Crypto in Australia
MineFarmBuy
Eyeboot (under construction)
BitcoinMerch

[gt_addict]

Loving the blue. Looks like I’ll be spending a bit of money after paying my tax bill in April 

[Wiredancer]

I need one for the toy rack.

[CochnocherCrypto]

pre-ordered a few! stoked to check them out!

As per usual - nicely done, Sidehack!

[kano]

These should be in the wild soon.

The new code is up in my git (see my sig)
It reports temperature and per chip voltage on the screen
It does cooldown if it overheats
Voltage is controlled by startup and via the API.
Current code is only tested on Linux so far.

There's a new 01-cgminer.rules needed for linux for the new USB chip
See the README/USB for details,
though this works the same as required before for linux, just an updated file.

I'll update the help page https://kano.is/gekko.php at a later date,
but the dual BM1362 has mostly the same API as the R909 and CompacF
but a couple of extras.

It has a specific A1 start value - which I guess all the old Gekkos should have had before,
but it's there for the new A1
All the A1 specific options are:
--gekko-compaca1-start-freq NNN
--gekko-compaca1-corev nnn (mV)
--gekko-compaca1-detect
--gekko-compaca1-freq NNN

Miner selection by serial --gekko-serial can now also be a comma list of miners,
not only just one miner.

The blinky led is as follow:
When you first plug it in, it blinks every 1 second until it starts mining.
When mining, it blinks with work processing.
When you stop mining, the led goes off.

Have fun

[altair_tech]

Thanks for releasing the new linux cgminer Kano! We received our first batch of Compac A1s yesterday so looking forward to test.
Will you also be releasing the windows version soon?

[philipma1957]

@ altairtech  what comes with your stick + cooler option?



https://altairtech.io/product/gekkoscience-compac-a1/


Compac A1 + IglooPac Cooling Upgrade

[altair_tech]

Just the stick and IglooPac Cooler in a Fancy box 
Would highly recommend purchasing a smarthub along with Gekkoscience products. It can run 9 miners and makes everything plug and play.

[philipma1957]

Just the stick and IglooPac Cooler in a Fancy box  
Would highly recommend purchasing a smarthub along with Gekkoscience products. It can run 9 miners and makes everything plug and play.

I am stupid I should have asked what is an igloopac cooler?

hmm I now see a photo of the fan which I assume is the cooler.

I wonder why it did not show yesterday.

the net was cranky I guess

[CochnocherCrypto]

happy to hear you guys at Altair took delivery of some! preordered a couple as soon as they hit your site =)

I'm going to take a gander and say we've got to update the SmartHub - any info available on where to download the new img?

can certainly use my gen2 GSHub and my RPi or OPi in the meantime.

[Nexus9090]

Do you have a MHZ/AMPS/GH chart like this one for the CompacF but for your new stick?

Thanks

CompacF

[slurfius]

Is this the only way to use this new stick with windows?

https://github.com/kanoi/cgminer/blob/master/windows-build.txt

[gt_addict]

I'm going to take a gander and say we've got to update the SmartHub - any info available on where to download the new img?

I was wondering the same thing. Seems like a fairly substantial update for the UI that IAmGPIO has to sort out with all the newly controllable aspect of this stick. Hopefully he won't keep us waiting too long 

[IAmGPIO]

I'm going to take a gander and say we've got to update the SmartHub - any info available on where to download the new img?

I was wondering the same thing. Seems like a fairly substantial update for the UI that IAmGPIO has to sort out with all the newly controllable aspect of this stick. Hopefully he won't keep us waiting too long 

Working on it right now. I only got my hands on an A1 last night...!

[altair_tech]

Is this the only way to use this new stick with windows?

https://github.com/kanoi/cgminer/blob/master/windows-build.txt

I tried that procedure, but it may be obsolete now. Kept getting errors for various missing libraries.
I guess we have to wait for kano to release the executables.

[CochnocherCrypto]

Got mine today! Very excited! LOVE how the temp/core voltage are shown RIGHT in the CG miner A1's line of text. Fantastic.

What are the recommended core clocks?