The combined sidehack-novak usb stick review thread. AKA GekkoScience BM1384

[alh]

I just wish I had this now I could do some summer mining even with my 18 cents a kwatt

You do, just not as many as you would like..... 

[alh]

Maybe the stick miner should be the U4 in homage to the U1 and U2 series? Or maybe the U2+ ?

While I am sure my recollections are off a bit, other than packaging, is this just about what the original BFL ASIC  miner was supposed to be? USB powered, and 6-8GH? This is better than a Jalapeno in terms of speed, and maybe 1/10 the power draw?

[philipma1957]

I just wish I had this now I could do some summer mining even with my 18 cents a kwatt

You do, just not as many as you would like..... 

yeah I have
1.6th at btcguild
 140 gh at solo pool
 this 11gh at mmpool

but summer prices in NJ are just too high to mine.

[alh]

Probably should be thinking about your 1.6TH when BTCguild closes later this month (i.e. June 30th). Maybe you already know about this, but thought I'd mention it anyway.

Sad to see it go.

[Mikestang]

Great pictures and reporting so far, Phil.  I have one request/suggestion: for the cgminer screen caps hit d then i for widescreen reporting and it will show accepted/rejected/hw errors at the top to the right of WU.

Keep it up, great project to be following!

[philipma1957]

Great pictures and reporting so far, Phil.  I have one request/suggestion: for the cgminer screen caps hit d then i for widescreen reporting and it will show accepted/rejected/hw errors at the top to the right of WU.

Keep it up, great project to be following!

I did that. I also bumped up current from .75 to .78 amps

I had 6600   good 13 bad at .75 amp x 4.89 volts
I had 12800  good 26 bad at .75 amp x 4.89 volts

I now have 65000 good 29 bad at .78 amp x 4.88 volts

so the little bit higher power has resulted in  much better hw   gh is 10.91

3.8064 watts/ 10.91 gh  this is 0.3488 watts a gh

[philipma1957]

full size links

http://imageshack.com/a/img661/6564/wV1m5o.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img537/1056/HPPAwX.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img910/295/YxLwqa.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img540/7320/88S5fC.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img903/6558/fvr6rY.jpg

my shirt


Hw are 30 or 29  but we have done only 3 or 4 errors with current amp setting in about 20 hours



amps are .78 volts are 4.87-4.88  freq = 200 gh is about 10.93



 second hw shot


tomorrow I am going to try a higher freq

[philipma1957]

errors are 30/224000 = 0.0001339


they were 26/12600 = 0.0020634

so when I bumped amps from .75 to .78

we did 4/211400 = 0.00001892


so I am pretty happy with this setting  on the pot.

.79 x 4.87 = 3.8473 watts

3.8473/10.95 = 0.35135 watts a gh  with next to  a 4/211400 hw rate

the setting with  .75 amps did   

.75 x 4.89 = 3.6675 watts/10.95 =  0.33493 watts a gh with a 26/12600 hw rate

both  settings    are really good.


looking forward to a higher freq test.

[valkir]

my shirt

Nice! 

[philipma1957]

 1) Note all HW are way under 0.5%
 2) Note to set new freq a full restart of my windows 7 pc is needed.



tested are in bold

   100           5.5  
   125           6.88  
   150           8.25    .                   .31             Hw under 0.5%
   175           9.63                        .31 to .32    Hw under 0.5%

   193.75         10.66  
   196.88         10.83
  
   200         11.00                         .33 to .35  Hw under 0.5%


   206.25      11.34                          .36  still testing    4.85 volts.  .84 amps    11.34 gh    0 HW    with 34820 good.
                                                        .35  started  test  4.87 volts   .81 amps    11.34 gh  
                                            
   212.50         11.69      
   218.75          12.03

  
   225.00         12.38  
   237.5         13.06  
   243.75      13.41  
   250           13.75  


make note that amps of .81 or .84  start to push  usb hubs

As soon as I exceed 0.40 watts per gh I will stop testing

freq 206.25 needs testing at lower amps.  it ran for  more then 4 hours and did about 34800 good shares with 0 Hw at the .84 amp level


these sticks need cooling at freq 175 and up

freq 150 seemed okay with no fan

I will test lower numbers last as  running them with no fan at freq 100 at .25 watts a gh would be really cool (pun intended )

[hurricandave]

my shirt

Nice! 

My Shirt is on its own vacation!

[philipma1957]

 1) Note all HW are way under 0.5%
 2) Note to set new freq a full restart of my windows 7 pc is needed.



tested are in bold

   100           5.5  
   125           6.88  
   150           8.25    .                   .31             Hw under 0.5%
   175           9.63                        .31 to .32    Hw under 0.5%

   193.75         10.66  
   196.88         10.83
  
   200         11.00                         .33 to .35  Hw under 0.5%


   206.25      11.34                          .36      4.85 volts.  .84 amps    11.34 gh    0 HW    with 34820 good.
                                                        .35    4.87 volts   .81 amps    11.38 gh   0 Hw with  85,000+ good
                                                        .34    4.87 volts   .79 amps----11.37 gh   1 Hw  for 9,000+ good shares


                                            
   212.50         11.69                   just started

 
   218.75          12.03

  
   225.00         12.38  
   237.5         13.06  
   243.75      13.41  
   250           13.75  


make note that amps of .81 or .84  start to push  usb hubs

As soon as I exceed 0.40 watts per gh I will stop testing

freq 206.25 needs testing at lower amps.  it ran for  more then 4 hours and did about 34800 good shares with 0 Hw at the .84 amp level


these sticks need cooling at freq 175 and up

freq 150 seemed okay with no fan

I will test lower numbers last as  running them with no fan at freq 100 at .25 watts a gh would be really cool (pun intended )


I ran 206.25 at lower amps. of .81 and still had 0 HW after 80000 plus shares. see photos below
0.81 amps gave me 0 Hw


I also did 11.38gh which is better then sidehacks' prediction of 11.34gh!




so I dropped current and I am  running one more set of tests. it is nice to see the stick doing a little better then I hoped for.

[philipma1957]

will be nice to see if it will do .34 watts a gh at freq 206.25  with low errors.   and after 9000 shares or about an hour  it had only 1 hw



 if this could project to an 18 chip board  we would have  about 205gh at about 70 watts. pretty good if cooling is easy.

this stick is a nice piece of work.

now testing freq 212.50

[valkir]

Cant wait to see the board!  This is really nice 0.34 watt

[philipma1957]

Cant wait to see the board!  This is really nice 0.34 watt

I am impressed by this gear. so far the 212.50  test is doing well.

[valkir]

And this show us that bitmain just dont care to make a good miner. They want to make profit. Sidehack take time to work with the chip and the result is awesome! 

[philipma1957]

And this show us that bitmain just dont care to make a good miner. They want to make profit. Sidehack take time to work with the chip and the result is awesome! 

well  this stick is really nice ,but it needs care.  remember I am using:

 1) an intel i5 quad core pc with an ssd and 8gb ram it is all mining /btc nothing else
 2) a high quality usb hub
 3) and I am a long term miner with a lot of experience playing with gear testing gear etc.


If bitmain sold this as a u3 stick to the masses it would have had issues from people that don't know how to mine.

I think a lot of rookies would do below:

No cooling
underpowered hub
People unable to run cgminer

I love this gear from sidehack  my geek viewpoint like it a like. 
Also as an ebay seller I can sell these sticks in a kit.

I am looking forward to the 18 chip boards.   I think they will do under 75 watts and around 200gh

[philipma1957]

freq 212 results Hw 69  30912 shares  hash rate 11.73  power .81 amps 4.85 volts notice in photo I went to a single port since most of us can not bridge  our usb ports.

amazing that these are a bit high on Hw  but on power used this is 0.335 watts per gh!  


this is my setting where I get  0.335 watts per gh




errors good   since I am looking for best gh per watt

[philipma1957]

starting  freq 218.75





notice power draw of .84 amps and volts of 4.84 that is 4.0656 watts and close to max  on many hubs

[philipma1957]

1) Note all HW are way under 0.5%
 2) Note to set new freq a full restart of my windows 7 pc is needed.



tested are in bold

   100           5.5  
   125           6.88  
   150           8.25    .                   .31             Hw under 0.5%
   175           9.63                        .31 to .32    Hw under 0.5%

   193.75         10.66  
   196.88         10.83
  
   200         11.00                         .33 to .35  Hw under 0.5%


   206.25      11.34                          .36      4.85 volts.  .84 amps    11.34 gh    0 HW    with 34820 good.
                                                        .35    4.87 volts   .81 amps    11.38 gh   0 Hw with  85,000+ good
                                                        .34    4.87 volts   .79 amps----11.37 gh   1 Hw  for 9,000+ good shares  
                                   I look at this set of three tests at freq 206.25  and  realize I did not go low enough on the pots's setting


                                            
   212.50         11.69                 0.335 watts per gh  Hw 69 / 30912 shares  hash rate 11.73gh  power .81 amps 4.85 volts

  
   218.75          12.03                           just started  .84 amps 4.84 volts

  
   225.00         12.38  
   237.5         13.06  
   243.75      13.41  
   250           13.75