Modifying a USB hub for extra power and "I did it!" showoff thread

[AJRGale]

[INTRO]

Well, let me start with what the searches say.
I bet there is plenty of people who have done this type of mod in some way, fashion or form..

Well, for starters, here is an old post with a list of hubs that could be used with the old Block Eruptors, and then some:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=253749.0

Here is a newbie making their own modified powered USB hub:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=801230.0

as TheRealSteve said you could just force feed power into the usb power wires:

...

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

I have a cheap and nasty USB 7 port thing off Ebay: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/320785264621 what ever you do, don't pull 1A off them 2A bricks, they make nice fireworks...

So, I have a barrel connection in this thing, could just cut the wire off the brick and splice it into a PSU, but that's easy! On this one I got, they have the wiring the wrong way around, the negative painted wire(the one with the white stripe) is not negative! luckily I found this out with a multimeter!


So, lets move on and get the tools, items, wires and workspace needed

[1715630089]

1715630089

[1715630089]

1715630089

[1715630089]

1715630089

[AJRGale]

[PREREQUISITES]

What we need:

The Hub, duuur
pliers, to remove and hold components
Solder
flux
A screwdriver, to open the case (mine was clip shut, used hands to pop it open)



the wire that we are going to use, as you can see, the male Molex plug is what we need



As you can see, this hub has a barrel connection, if you don't want to go any further, use the wire off the power pack, check to see which wire is the middle barrel, that's the positive, push the wire into the Red wire on the female Molex plug. the other is negative, that goes into one of the 2 black wire connectors.

From here on, we get into soldering up heavier wiring onto the hub..

[AJRGale]

[WORK]

This is where the road to many mistakes start:

First thing, pop open the case:


As you can see, there is rather large tracks on the PCB already from the Barrel plug:


Which I Removed, I'm going to solder the Molex plug to this point:


Oh, I almost forgot the most nessecary tool for this type of project, The Multimeter!!

As you can see, I have another Molex plug ready to solder in

Now this is where you start stripping wires:


Solder them wires into the empty points on the PCB:


F%#@ S*%! BALLS! its 5V not 12V!!


Yellow is 12V


Red is 5V


So lets try that again!

Following the track from the rail off the barrel plug, the pin for the middle is positive, that is the spade that is on the back of the barrel plug, and soldered onto the board where the single track tracing around to each connection. Easy way to test this is plugging in the hub to a USB port, finding an earth, and testing the solder points on the track.

From here we solder the Red wire to the solder point on the board related to the 5V


Cleaning a bit of the green solder mask off the tracks, I tin the exposed tracks (yes, i did change the layout a little with the wiring, its going to be a little choppy now)


then from here, I soldered on a thicker bodge wire across from the main wire to the plug:

(as you can see, no extra exposed tinned tracks, told'ya its gonna get choppy)

And continue with the bodge bridging:


or you could go from the main solder point, and across to the power pin on the plug..

[TO BE CONTINUED]

[sidehack]

I'd recommend soldering individual lanes from each plug back to the molex connection. Otherwise as you add high-current devices the voltage drop gets successively worse for each plug.

[TheRealSteve]

One slight correction to the first post - on DC wiring, the wire with the line / dashes is usually actually the positive.  There is, unfortunately, no unified marking across all devices (e.g. band on diode = cathode, band on SMD polarized cap = positive) but at least within classes it tends to be.  Good thing to measure, regardless, as there's always exceptions.

Would also be good to see a mod done to a hub that doesn't already have an external power option - though the procedure is very similar

[AJRGale]

I'd recommend soldering individual lanes from each plug back to the molex connection. Otherwise as you add high-current devices the voltage drop gets successively worse for each plug.

good point.

One slight correction to the first post - on DC wiring, the wire with the line / dashes is usually actually the positive.  There is, unfortunately, no unified marking across all devices (e.g. band on diode = cathode, band on SMD polarized cap = positive) but at least within classes it tends to be.  Good thing to measure, regardless, as there's always exceptions.

Would also be good to see a mod done to a hub that doesn't already have an external power option - though the procedure is very similar

wiring is all up to the fab labs, speaker wire has markings similar to this, but the amount of colours and markings can change depending on application at the time.

as for the "self powered" hubs, i do have a hub with plugs that go both ways if you want to see that go up in smoke too?

[AJRGale]

I'm going to redo the wiring, have 4 wires to the plug itself, then I'm going to show how to just do a power wire to plug modification..

[sloopy]

AJ thanks for posting this.
You saved several of us some time even thinking about it, and can come straight here to copy yours in readiness for our Compac's.

[philipma1957]

AJ thanks for posting this.
You saved several of us some time even thinking about it, and can come straight here to copy yours in readiness for our Compac's.

or just buy this


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

not saying it is better  I am waiting  on my 5 cables to arrive.


for all I know they will work poorly

[sloopy]

AJ thanks for posting this.
You saved several of us some time even thinking about it, and can come straight here to copy yours in readiness for our Compac's.

or just buy this


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

not saying it is better  I am waiting  on my 5 cables to arrive.


for all I know they will work poorly

I will look for your notes on it working or not.
I've been looking at USB3 externally powered hubs, but none seem to offer the amperages you guys talk about for being able to go to the high end of frequencies on sidehack's sticks.

[AJRGale]

AJ thanks for posting this.
You saved several of us some time even thinking about it, and can come straight here to copy yours in readiness for our Compac's.

or just buy this


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

not saying it is better  I am waiting  on my 5 cables to arrive.


for all I know they will work poorly

Yeah, that too. i was looking into Molex to USB power + data on ebay, but you think i could find something? there is this though:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5pcs-lot-5V-2Pin-IDE-Molex-to-USB-A-Female-Power-Charge-Cable-Cord-35cm/32297387976.html but it would be nice if it was UAB-A-M to USB-A-F with IDE Molex 5V rail spliced in..

I was thinking of getting one of these and taking the power plug side, and splicing a molex plug on.. Next idea: multiple USB jacks to only power these types of cords..  only need several USB jacks, a proto-board and a Molex plug

[AJRGale]

There is an option of getting these Male to Female adaptors, splitting the plastic off, and with the 5V lines, solder in 1 Molex adaptor.

[philipma1957]

AJ thanks for posting this.
You saved several of us some time even thinking about it, and can come straight here to copy yours in readiness for our Compac's.

or just buy this


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

not saying it is better  I am waiting  on my 5 cables to arrive.


for all I know they will work poorly

I will look for your notes on it working or not.
I've been looking at USB3 externally powered hubs, but none seem to offer the amperages you guys talk about for being able to go to the high end of frequencies on sidehack's sticks.

also remember that when you push the sticks they become less efficient.

 I got lazy and stopped at 1.1amps  per port and freq 250  giving me 13.7gh and about .33-.34 watts a gh.

Therealsteve has pushed the sticks up to 23gh!  but they then use over .4 watts a gh  they need a fan and are still pretty hot. I think he was at freq 350 or 375  IIRC.

425 freq corrected

[sidehack]

23GH is 425MHz and I'd be surprised if they weren't hitting 0.5 at that point.

[TheRealSteve]

Therealsteve has pushed the sticks up to 23gh!  but they then use over .4 watts a gh  they need a fan and are still pretty hot. I think he was at freq 350 or 375 IIRC.

cgminer version 4.9.2-compac - Started: [2015-08-17 17:57:31]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(5s):27.02G (1m):23.40G (5m):23.25G (15m):23.19G (avg):23.31Gh/s
A:396784  R:108  HW:57  X:237  T:126  GN:398784  WU:325.67/m  WE:100.00% HE:99.73% cf:425.00 ch:23375.00 t:73471
Connected to pool0.btcdig.com diff 19 with stratum as user BEUSB@gscompac
Block: 545278ff...  Diff:52.7G  Started: [14:20:54]  Best share: 178K
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
425MHz, giving 23.31Gh/s on average so far; hover over the statistics to get an explanation of what all those extra bits are.

Temperature-wise, it's currently at 38.1°C vs 23.5°C ambient, but that's with an Arctic 'Breeze' USB fan just about on top of it now.  At 400MHz it was at a 50.2°C vs 27.7°C with the fan 9cm above it.

Power-wise, I haven't tweaked this for efficiency; Vusb is at 5.23V, Iusb is at 2.6A - yielding an apalling ~0.58W/Gh.  Still beats the 0.6W/Gh scamware people tried to get for free, but I'd definitely stick to lower hash rates and with it much more agreeable current draw

[sidehack]

Since it's got a buck, it should be about 10% less efficient than an S5 at the same setpoint.

2.6A is pretty good current for USB. To be honest, the jack on that is only rated 1.5A from the manufacturer. What's the hub setup you're pushing that with (since this is a hub thread)?

[TheRealSteve]

2.6A is pretty good current for USB. To be honest, the jack on that is only rated 1.5A from the manufacturer. What's the hub setup you're pushing that with (since this is a hub thread)?

I ended up just cobbling something together so I wouldn't have to mess about with the hubs I have in terms of adding test points. I'll have to take a pic when I get home, but it's essentially just the data signals going straight through and power coming off of a small PSU.

[philipma1957]

In terms of easy over clock :

   freq 250   uses 1.1 amps  does 13.7gh   uses about .33-34 watts a gh likes a fan but can be run without the fan.  you can use this link


http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/

and get the 4.9.2 build and zadig

I still don't know if ck has add support for above freq 250  but sidehack and steve do have how to go above 250


In terms of insane over clock

freq 425  uses 2.6 amps does 23.3 gh   uses about .58 watts a gh  and must have a fan


sidehack and theRealSteve   can fill inbetween



a usb2 hub with the y-adpater from here

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

should let you go to 1 amp maybe 1.2 amps,  still waiting for these  to test them.

Op's solder trick  should be good for a better diy hub.  sidehack's  star power idea vs chained power should improve on op's idea.

A cheap hub


http://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Adapter-Charging-Protector-Indicators/dp/B00ELPSEVW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1439906982&sr=8-2&keywords=10+port+usb+2+hub


I would think that with the y adapter this  hub can do 4 sticks at freq 250   giving you  4.4amps at 5 volts    about 22 watts for about 66gh .  comes with a 3 amp 12 volt brick 

which has 36 watt max  and you are pulling 22 watts.   may not be able to do this once again I have these on hand and will test once the y-adapters come.

[AJRGale]

Therealsteve has pushed the sticks up to 23gh!  but they then use over .4 watts a gh  they need a fan and are still pretty hot. I think he was at freq 350 or 375 IIRC.

cgminer version 4.9.2-compac - Started: [2015-08-17 17:57:31]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(5s):27.02G (1m):23.40G (5m):23.25G (15m):23.19G (avg):23.31Gh/s
A:396784  R:108  HW:57  X:237  T:126  GN:398784  WU:325.67/m  WE:100.00% HE:99.73% cf:425.00 ch:23375.00 t:73471
Connected to pool0.btcdig.com diff 19 with stratum as user BEUSB@gscompac
Block: 545278ff...  Diff:52.7G  Started: [14:20:54]  Best share: 178K
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
425MHz, giving 23.31Gh/s on average so far; hover over the statistics to get an explanation of what all those extra bits are.

Temperature-wise, it's currently at 38.1°C vs 23.5°C ambient, but that's with an Arctic 'Breeze' USB fan just about on top of it now.  At 400MHz it was at a 50.2°C vs 27.7°C with the fan 9cm above it.

Power-wise, I haven't tweaked this for efficiency; Vusb is at 5.23V, Iusb is at 2.6A - yielding an apalling ~0.58W/Gh.  Still beats the 0.6W/Gh scamware people tried to get for free, but I'd definitely stick to lower hash rates and with it much more agreeable current draw

Well, the maximum rating by the documents with the BM1384 is 400MHz, so anywhere outside the factory tests ate unknown territory (probably people have pushed them well beyond this)

But hey, I know nothing about these chips..

But more photos coming up!

[AJRGale]

I'd recommend soldering individual lanes from each plug back to the molex connection. Otherwise as you add high-current devices the voltage drop gets successively worse for each plug.

good point.

So going by this:

I've restated this idea, stripping all the old wires off, going to resolder these wires to each port (yes yes, its a 7 porter, I'm only using the 5 on this side)


I start off with stripping out the wires in the molex needed to connect to the 5 wires.


Starting the solder onto the Positive side to the USB jacks.


Finalising the soldering to each point. and as you can see, the 5 wires are now joined to the pin at the Molex plug.


Moving on to solder on the Negative to the Earth pins and casing


The final product:


Shall we see if it smokes?


Well, Power light is on, so that must mean something Right? RIGHT?!