[RUN 2 CLOSED][SIDEHACK STICK]GekkoScience Compac Official sales thread

[klintay]

looks promising, sidehack, I sent you a PM  

Can anyone please tell me for 5 or 10 of the units would a powered usb hub be ok to power them and what specs would it

Depends on how hard you want to run them.  At its slowest (presuming it is the slowest), it'll work off of a standard 500mA port.  Fastest I've run it (16.5Gh/s), it needed just shy of 1.3A.  10 units at 1.3A and you're looking at a 15A-20A hub.. not exactly something you'll find at your local Currys.
Unless you want to put something together yourself / wait for sidehack's hub work, I've seen some recommendations for the Dipo 19-port 20A hubs.  iirc they do have individual limiting fuses so you might have to split the load across more than one port.. somebody who's used/has one can probably clarify, or ask the user 'klintay', he used to sell them over on eyeboot.com
He's still selling a 10-port, 2A/port, 10A total one; http://www.eyeboot.com/10-port-usb-hub

I can get professionally built 40A 20 port hubs but they are not cheap...we are talking in the range of 180 usd. Therefore I think the 10A 10 port hub would be the best bet here. you could run 4-5 miners easily. Did the same thing with the hex usb miners before.

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[1714877172]

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[sidehack]

I like to think I could beat that price point for a 20-port hub, but I shouldn't claim that until doing some more design work. I've been stalled on hardware dev for a couple weeks and haven't really made much progress on the powered hub already in development.

My test sticks pulled right around 1.4A from a solid 5V to hit 16.5GH (300MHz), but closer to 1.2A for 275MHz (15.1GH).

[klintay]

I like to think I could beat that price point for a 20-port hub, but I shouldn't claim that until doing some more design work. I've been stalled on hardware dev for a couple weeks and haven't really made much progress on the powered hub already in development.

My test sticks pulled right around 1.4A from a solid 5V to hit 16.5GH (300MHz), but closer to 1.2A for 275MHz (15.1GH).

Those hash rates are very nice for that ampage  The stick miners definitely look bad ass!
Would be interested in any hub you develop as well.

At 1.2A I might be able to power the miners on the 49 port hub...but it would be pushing the limits

[philipma1957]

I like to think I could beat that price point for a 20-port hub, but I shouldn't claim that until doing some more design work. I've been stalled on hardware dev for a couple weeks and haven't really made much progress on the powered hub already in development.

My test sticks pulled right around 1.4A from a solid 5V to hit 16.5GH (300MHz), but closer to 1.2A for 275MHz (15.1GH).

Those hash rates are very nice for that ampage  The stick miners definitely look bad ass!
Would be interested in any hub you develop as well.

At 1.2A I might be able to power the miners on the 49 port hub...but it would be pushing the limits

well at freq 250 my 2 test sticks use 1.07 amps and 1.12 amps

I still have the nice 19 port hubs you sold to me and I have  2 port bridges.  I also ordered some of these cables

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221661361513?

[edonkey]

While it's probably not practical unless you have a single stick, you can get USB hubs that have a charging port with higher amperage.

For example, I've got one of these at work. The tenth port is rated at 2.1 amps:

http://www.ianker.com/product/68ANHUB-B10A

I figured I would run my pair of sticks on my desktop at work anyway, so this should work for one of them. For the other one, I might look into those Y cables.

Or if the miner software allows per-unit frequency settings, maybe I'll set a lower frequency for the stick plugged into a non-charging 0.9 amp port.

[sidehack]

Currently I don't think cgminer is able to set different frequencies for sticks in the same cgminer instance. Since hotswap support became the standard and the -S flag disappeared I'm not sure what's required to specify devices in separate instances anymore.

[TheRealSteve]

While it's probably not practical unless you have a single stick, you can get USB hubs that have a charging port with higher amperage.

When buying hubs like that, double-check (look for reviews, perhaps) that the higher power port actually passes through the data lines as well - some of them really are only for charging

[Mikestang]

While it's probably not practical unless you have a single stick, you can get USB hubs that have a charging port with higher amperage.

When buying hubs like that, double-check (look for reviews, perhaps) that the higher power port actually passes through the data lines as well - some of them really are only for charging

My work desktop has a USB 2.0 port with a lightning bolt by it that provides 1.0 amps.  It's a cool feature, but I've never seen a hub to offer it.

[edonkey]

While it's probably not practical unless you have a single stick, you can get USB hubs that have a charging port with higher amperage.

When buying hubs like that, double-check (look for reviews, perhaps) that the higher power port actually passes through the data lines as well - some of them really are only for charging

Good point. It's always a good idea to check.

With this model, the charging port does pass data. I just double checked by plugging in my iPhone and it is visible on the USB bus.

[edonkey]

Currently I don't think cgminer is able to set different frequencies for sticks in the same cgminer instance. Since hotswap support became the standard and the -S flag disappeared I'm not sure what's required to specify devices in separate instances anymore.

Then I guess I'll need a Y connector after all...

[AJRGale]

Currently I don't think cgminer is able to set different frequencies for sticks in the same cgminer instance. Since hotswap support became the standard and the -S flag disappeared I'm not sure what's required to specify devices in separate instances anymore.

i think it can, but you have to know which stick is in which port, and you have to number them correctly, its an augment set at run, i'll read the documents later and see how wrong i am.

I like to think I could beat that price point for a 20-port hub, but I shouldn't claim that until doing some more design work. I've been stalled on hardware dev for a couple weeks and haven't really made much progress on the powered hub already in development.

My test sticks pulled right around 1.4A from a solid 5V to hit 16.5GH (300MHz), but closer to 1.2A for 275MHz (15.1GH).

Those hash rates are very nice for that ampage   The stick miners definitely look bad ass!
Would be interested in any hub you develop as well.

At 1.2A I might be able to power the miners on the 49 port hub...but it would be pushing the limits

well at freq 250 my 2 test sticks use 1.07 amps and 1.12 amps

I still have the nice 19 port hubs you sold to me and I have  2 port bridges.  I also ordered some of these cables

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221661361513?

and here i am is getting a cheap'n'nasty china special 7 port hub and soldering in heavy wiring with a molex plug for a PSUs 5V rail.. i wanna release the magic blue smoke!

[sidehack]

That's exactly what I did for a hub, and it's run me just fine. I ran nine sticks pulling an amp each and the tenth port driving a Pi, ran perfect.

[edonkey]

That's exactly what I did for a hub, and it's run me just fine. I ran nine sticks pulling an amp each and the tenth port driving a Pi, ran perfect.

I'm not afraid of some soldering, or using a meter. But I'm not sure how you did this.

Does anyone have a guide?

[AJRGale]

That's exactly what I did for a hub, and it's run me just fine. I ran nine sticks pulling an amp each and the tenth port driving a Pi, ran perfect.

I'm not afraid of some soldering, or using a meter. But I'm not sure how you did this.

Does anyone have a guide?

When I get mine done, I'll photograph the steps I take and make a new thread with it, i'll tidy up my work table and charge camera batteries.. but i do remember some old posts back in the usb block eruptor days with people showing off their builds

[TheRealSteve]

I'm not afraid of some soldering, or using a meter. But I'm not sure how you did this.
Does anyone have a guide?

While waiting for AJRGale's guide - the short of it is that instead of using the USB host for power, you use an external (5V!) power supply.  

That can be as simple as severing Vbus (V+ / the red wire), connecting the positive of your power supply where Vbus used to connect (or connecting it closer to the actual ports on the hub (in case the traces are pretty narrow and you're not too sure the traces will handle the current), connecting your power supply's negative where USB GND (V- / the black wire) connects, and off you go.  

You can add some capacitors for stability or make the circuit a bit more intelligent (google 'USB power injector'), but it pretty much comes down to that first sentence.

I picked a USB hub that basically has that intelligent bit and whatnot already built-in so I can just plug external power in with a barrel jack, but it is a bit power limited, so I also have a small board where I've only done the 'sever the red wire' approach that's been running my engineering sample Compac for some higher speed tests, but efficiency goes down the gutter at those higher rates

[AJRGale]

Currently I don't think cgminer is able to set different frequencies for sticks in the same cgminer instance. Since hotswap support became the standard and the -S flag disappeared I'm not sure what's required to specify devices in separate instances anymore.

i think it can, but you have to know which stick is in which port, and you have to number them correctly, its an augment set at run, i'll read the documents later and see how wrong i am.

Well, i think i might be wrong? there is a Advance USB options that lets you tell cgminer whats connected:

Code:

Advanced USB options:

The --usb option can restrict how many USB devices are found:

  --usb 1:2,1:3,1:4,1:*
or
  --usb BAS:1,BFL:1,MMQ:0,ICA:0,KLN:0
or
  --usb :10

You can only use one of the above 3

The first version
  --usb 1:2,1:3,1:4,1:*
allows you to select which devices to mine on with a list of USB
 bus_number:device_address
All other USB devices will be ignored
Hotplug will also only look at the devices matching the list specified and
find nothing new if they are all in use
You can specify just the USB bus_number to find all devices like 1:*
which means any devices on USB bus_number 1
This is useful if you unplug a device then plug it back in the same port,
it usually reappears with the same bus_number but a different device_address

You can see the list of all USB devices on linux with 'sudo lsusb'
Cgminer will list the recognised USB devices

with the '-n' option or the
'--usb-dump 0' option
The '--usb-dump N' option with a value of N greater than 0 will dump a lot
of details about each recognised USB device
If you wish to see all USB devices, include the --usb-list-all option

The second version
  --usb BAS:1,BFL:1,MMQ:0,ICA:0,KLN:0
allows you to specify how many devices to choose based on each device
driver cgminer has - the current USB drivers are:
AVA, BAS, BFL, BF1, DRB, HFA, ICA, KLN and MMQ.

N.B. you can only specify which device driver to limit, not the type of
each device, e.g. with BAS:n you can limit how many BFL ASIC devices will
be checked, but you cannot limit the number of each type of BFL ASIC

Also note that the MMQ count is the number of MMQ backplanes you have
not the number of MMQ FPGAs

The third version
  --usb :10
means only use a maximum of 10 devices of any supported USB devices
Once cgminer has 10 devices it will not configure any more and hotplug will
not scan for any more
If one of the 10 devices stops working, hotplug - if enabled, as is default
- will scan normally again until it has 10 devices

  --usb :0 will disable all USB I/O other than to initialise libusb

which I'm sure you could use this to tell cgminer what speed to run each device at..
Maybe get ck- to pop in and tell me what I'm thinking wrong?

Alas, this is the Sales thread, not the discussion thread, if it wasn't for the price of milk here in aussieland, I'd have another BTC in sides wallet for 10 more of these sticks :< maybe i should stop milking up my coffees..

I'm not afraid of some soldering, or using a meter. But I'm not sure how you did this.
Does anyone have a guide?

While waiting for AJRGale's guide - the short of it is that instead of using the USB host for power, you use an external (5V!) power supply. 

That can be as simple as severing Vbus (V+ / the red wire), connecting the positive of your power supply where Vbus used to connect (or connecting it closer to the actual ports on the hub (in case the traces are pretty narrow and you're not too sure the traces will handle the current), connecting your power supply's negative where USB GND (V- / the black wire) connects, and off you go. 

You can add some capacitors for stability or make the circuit a bit more intelligent (google 'USB power injector'), but it pretty much comes down to that first sentence.

I picked a USB hub that basically has that intelligent bit and whatnot already built-in so I can just plug external power in with a barrel jack, but it is a bit power limited, so I also have a small board where I've only done the 'sever the red wire' approach that's been running my engineering sample Compac for some higher speed tests, but efficiency goes down the gutter at those higher rates

working on it, I'm pulling up some old threads that people have discussed and done this said build too, just for extra clarity. i might even go as far as to show you how NOT to do it!

[edonkey]

i might even go as far as to show you how NOT to do it!

That could be entertaining, what with the magic blue smoke and all.

But don't burn your house down. Where would your kangaroo live?

[AJRGale]

Well, heres something: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1152953

i might even go as far as to show you how NOT to do it!

That could be entertaining, what with the magic blue smoke and all.

But don't burn your house down. Where would your kangaroo live?

oddly enough, skippy loves the wreck out the back, the one his mother bodyslammed >_>

[sidehack]

Anyone thinkin' about buying a stick, either from me or one of the resellers, should do so within the next two days. I'll be tallying up available dollars on Monday and buying parts for the first batch. Right now I have about 260 sticks paid for, which covers all the PCBs, heatsinks, and ASICs for the whole 1000 run (which PCBs and heatsinks will be in hand in the next few days), and components for at least that 260 sticks. I can't afford the remaining parts for all 1000, and I can't guarantee I'll have very many in-stock units to sell out of this first batch, but the more that are sold now will help buy parts for the next batch that much quicker. So if you want one but you're waiting until I have some in stock, you might end up waiting a fair bit longer than if you toss in now. All funds that come in by Monday will go to buying components to stretch this batch as far as I can.

[RaginglikeaBoss]

Anyone thinkin' about buying a stick, either from me or one of the resellers, should do so within the next two days. I'll be tallying up available dollars on Monday and buying parts for the first batch. Right now I have about 260 sticks paid for, which covers all the PCBs, heatsinks, and ASICs for the whole 1000 run (which PCBs and heatsinks will be in hand in the next few days), and components for at least that 260 sticks. I can't afford the remaining parts for all 1000, and I can't guarantee I'll have very many in-stock units to sell out of this first batch, but the more that are sold now will help buy parts for the next batch that much quicker. So if you want one but you're waiting until I have some in stock, you might end up waiting a fair bit longer than if you toss in now. All funds that come in by Monday will go to buying components to stretch this batch as far as I can.

How much are you looking to charge for say, 20-50 of these units?