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

About the best Bitmain could feasibly do with an S[odd] size miner with the BM1384 is probably a 17x3 string, getting 1.4TH at 500W and 70% higher chip cost. That's pretty dense. A new chip with 30-40% better top clock would do the job better and probably at lower cost. I'll be surprised if they roll out another S[odd] miner with the BM1384 instead of a new chip.

They could do another S[even] miner with it, and some 18s unregulated strings could get around 3.4TH off a 1KW PSU in a rack box which would be pretty darn sexy.

Even if we build with BM1384, 18-chip boards won't be available for months. If I had a design right now, I'd have to raise the money for a chip batch and then wait for them from the factory. If I had a design right now, S7 would probably be selling before I had the money all together. And since it'll be probably a month before I have the design ready...

But all that is discussion for the project discussion thread. Let's try and keep this one to stick facts instead of non-stick speculations.

this thread makes me really curious about undervolting the S5. I've searched but cant find any posts about it. i'm running the nicehash firmware which allows the ability to change the voltage. but i havent seen anyone post about it. im afraid to mess with it because i dont the the correct syntax(or parameters) to put in. dont want to fry my miner on the first try....

Quote from: Crypto84 on June 20, 2015, 12:46:32 AM

you cant change the volt on the s5 with the firmware Sad

it also seems to not work they way they intended it to by reducing the input volts from the psu.

s-5 is not able to go under 10.8 volts and needs to be dialed down to that after startup.

power savings is only 10%. and a plat psu at 12 volts will drop to a gold at 10.8 volt setting

so the 10% power savings may only be 5-6%

something in the string design. A bit above my paygrade. as to the why of it.

Back to this stick.

I found an issue it does not like to go lower then freq 125.

My freq 100 setting was not very stable and a bit power hungry.

So I would say think :

freq 125 no fan and 0.305 watts per gh as the minimum.

freq 225 with fan and 0.35 watts per gh as the maximum.

   100     5.00>>>>>>>>>>>>>not very stable


125     6.88 stable no fan needed 0.305W/gh
   150     8.25
   175     9.63
   193.75     10.66
   196.88     10.83
   200     11.00
   206.25     11.34
   212.50     11.69
   218.75     12.03
225     12.38 stable fan needed 0.34 or 0.35 W/gh



all below are not tested for 2 reasons stick was getting warm at freq 225 and most people do not have a usb hub that will give 1 amp at 5 volts for multiple ports 24/7/365

237.50 13.06
   243.75     13.41
   250     13.75

I can get the freq 237.50 and above to work, but I think I will not try them so quickly.

right now I am doing freq 218.75 working very nicely.

I don't have much else to test on it.

pools used

btcguild.com >>>>>>> RIP
mmpool.org
solo.ckpool.org

Playing around some more with the test unit today. At a frequency of 150, efficiency at the usb port is a little under .32 watts per gh with a board temp of 44.6c. I was also able to mine directly off of the usb port of a cubie, but you'll need a power adapter that can handle at least .9 amps at 5v to do the same.

"Look Ma, no burns!"

Quote from: CrazyGuy on June 21, 2015, 09:37:11 PM

"Look Ma, no burns!"

yeah I got 40-42c with the meat temp probe at freq 150

@CrazyGuy: I assume that you have not tinkered with the pot on you sample stick? You are using it the way it came "out of the box"?

Great work, and good pictures!

Quote from: philipma1957 on June 12, 2015, 02:58:39 PM

so moving from freq 150 to freq 175 jumped .7 watts and added 2.02gh that is pretty good .

less then .35 watts a gh.

lower right corner is adjustment pot it was like this

+ I turned it clockwise just a bit.

full size

http://imageshack.com/a/img633/1461/h1JKa4.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img537/166/bEy7uV.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img540/938/Pflb7O.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img912/9630/Ou1Of7.jpg

good clear shot

bump for pot shot

The second stick came.

After 3 or 4 zadig installs the second stick took install.

I have the two sticks running at this pool:

http://solo.ckpool.org/users/1JdC6Xg3ajT3rge3FgPNSYYFpmf53Vbtje

I also run a U2 at it I will post photos in a bit.

zadig truly sucks.

But I shut down everything on the pc except zadig I ran it as an admin and after two reboots it installed the new driver.

I then ran cgminer 4.9.2 and hot plugged the sticks. they both work.

I also ordered a second usb2 meter which arrives on sat.

some photos are coming

I didn't reset the voltage on those sticks before I sent them out, so it'll probably run hotter than the first. It should be stable to 225MHz at the current setting (at which speed it draws approximately 1A)

I ended up getting zadig loaded

I needed to turn off every app to get the failed install to really work

once every thing was off and zadig run as admin it did install

the hardest thing with the sticks is the zadig install

I then opened my cgminer 4.9.2

I have many start files for each freq tested I picked ckpool freq 218

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/661/N73SAG.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/673/XJvLCs.jpg

finally running well

the hub and 2 sticks use 13 watts.

my stud hub powered on with nothing pulls about 5 watts

so these two sticks are doing about 8 watts

Just got it out of the mail. Will be a few day's till I have a more in-depth review/test of it. I will say first impression is very nice. I was surprised looking at it was expecting a prototype looking miner, but this looks like its ready to ship. And love the color heat sink it is a nice looking gold.

Initial test plugged it in, loaded driver, and it ran first off. So once again a very nice start to a review right there.

Looking forward to playing with it

. Again a few day's and I will have more in-depth.

Quote from: notlist3d on July 02, 2015, 08:34:38 PM

And love the color heat sink it is a nice looking gold.

They're going for green ones in their production batch

I would highly recommend you adjust the voltage down (which on that guy will mean turning the pot clockwise a little bit) if you're running it off a laptop port.

I made a few very small changes to the PCB between this and what will be the production batch - mostly cosmetic, no circuitry changes. The heatsink is anodized a different color but otherwise identical to the final product heatsink. Also we'll probably be using a pick-and-place instead of a guy with a homemade air pencil so stuff like the inductor and input caps will be a little more squared-away.

Quote from: sidehack on July 02, 2015, 09:12:29 PM

It was for quick initial test. Didn't set up the hub/fan yet. You are very right on turning voltage down with laptop port it was good for a quick test but did heat up. It in no way was optimized as far as my first testing setup.

Quote from: notlist3d on July 03, 2015, 02:54:24 AM

Quote from: sidehack on July 02, 2015, 09:12:29 PM

yeah these sticks work without a fan at about .7 amps once you pass the .7amp draw which is freq 187.5 you need a fan.

I am doing .87amp on both sticks and doing freq 218.75 and I need a fan

Sometime soon I figure on pushing one up to 300MHz or better and see how it handles, see what the input current looks like. We did some rough comparisons today on heatsinks from some other miners and figure with moderate airflow the thing should be good up to about 6.5W chip heat, which would happen around 1.5A input current, which I should touch 300MHz before hitting that point. I think.

Unless one of y'all want to test that first. The only thing I know for sure is the buck's good for it. That's only about eight and a half amps output, pretty small potatoes for that circuit.

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