GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread

[chooka03]

Ok. Sorry and thank you for your reply.
I bought it from HolyBitcoin.

Shame I'm in Australia. Freight is a killer.

Thanks once again.

[rockmoney]

It accepts and just error out after 10 secs

hmmm

any ideas?

I had the same problem with my compacs when I first received them. Your hashrate is MUCH too low and that is causing the error. You need to either adjust the voltage, increase the frequency, or likely both (I would try increasing frequency to about 300Mhz first). Once it starts hashing at a decent rate, that error will go away. Feel free to contact me privately and I will help you get them running efficiently - it took me a few days to figure everything out when I first got mine..

I now have 2 compacs running well and 2 more on the way. As you can see in my screenshot (which is a bit messed up from changing my display and screen resolution), my compacs did error out several times when first starting CGMiner (due to insufficient time for allowing the hasrate to normalize), they run fine once I get them going!

[philipma1957]

Super excited to order one! A bit of a noob question here: How well does this work with Raspberry Pi? Or would it just be easier/better to run on Windows or Linux?

Works really good on linux pc's ,  but I know people get it to run on rasp pi's.

[ZedZedNova]

Super excited to order one! A bit of a noob question here: How well does this work with Raspberry Pi? Or would it just be easier/better to run on Windows or Linux?

The Compac is pretty easy to get running on most platforms. There are a number of people on this thread that are running them on RasPi. I'm running mine on a Mac. Follow the instructions in the OP (and in other posts on the 1st or 2nd page of messages. Lots of good and helpful info.

The one common thread for most folks is that they are using an external powered USB hub. That is critical because as you crank up the core voltage and clock speed these Compacs can draw quite a bit of current. If you search this thread (or maybe check the OP) you will see the various recommendations for which USB hub works with which platform. The caveat with the RasPi that I remember is that it prefers USB 2 versus USB 3.

Cheers,

- zed

[chooka03]

I'm using a Superbpag 7 port USB3.0 Hub as recommended by people on this thread and the sticks go fine. If I plug that hub into a USB3.0 port on my mobo though, the sticks don't work. Plugged into USB 2.0 only.

These also worked plugged into my usb2.0 port on my pc case & mobo.
Just needed to increase the voltage as per the beginning of this thread, to get stability.

Saves you reading all the way back through

Sadly my one which is faulty (it did fire up for about 3 days then stopped) has stopped. I'm praying for it to perform a Lazarus.
Sidehack, is there is a way to reset these? I see the reset pad?

I'd rather try something to fix it before throwing away?
Thank you

[raiding]

Hy@all!

First of all: I'm very new to the mining-scene and I bought some of the gekko miners 2 months ago (from the german distributor). They're all up and running fine ... but I can't get them higher than 150MHz (which are  approximately 8GH/s).

I'm working with the raspberry pi (model b+), and tried different hubs ...

First one was the Orico 3.0 USB-Hub (https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-SuperSpeed-Adapter-Chipset-Windows/dp/B00CBEVTIA).

After that I tried the Anker 3.0 USB-Hub (https://www.amazon.com/Anker-10-Port-Transfer-PowerIQ-Charging/dp/B00VDVCQ84/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1467461481&sr=1-3&keywords=anker+usb+3.0+hub).

Both were recommended by the german seller, but both required the "dwc_otg.speed=0" - kernel-argument in /boot/cmdline.txt, to downgrade the USB 2.0 of the pi to USB 1.1 ... else, the pi won't recognize the miners ... so 150MHz was the maximum here.

At last I bought an USB 2.0 (Orico) and now I don't need the USB-downgrade of the pi ... but 150MHz (4 gekkos) are the max at all ... and it isn't stable, too ...

So ... I think after 2 frustrading months I can say, it depends on the used hub in combination with the VERY picky raspberry pi.

Did someone successful set up mining with pi and this stick and can give me some help, which hub I should use (or other traps which I don't recognized yet)?

In this threat, I was finding this hub (http://www.eyeboot.com/10-port-usb-hub) but it seems out of stock :/

Last but not least: I'm using Minibian (https://minibianpi.wordpress.com/) as raspberry pi image (I've had strange DNS-problems with raspberian .. however) and the official cgminer-version from the gekko-webside.

Greetings

[gt_addict]

I currently run two gekkos (bitshopper ones) on a raspi 3 with raspbian. They are plugged into a d-link 7 port USB 2.0 hub. It has 5 data ports and two charging ports. I use "Y" cables with one end in the data and the other in the charging port for extra power. The two sticks will run at 250 with no problems on the gekko version of cgminer 4.9.2.

I would highly suggest the Y splitter cables as the gekkos do draw more than a single USB port can provide. I do not plug them into the pi as I don't want to damage it.

[sidehack]

raiding - I'm assuming that you've already read the first post of this support thread, and tried increasing the core voltage on the sticks when you attempted higher frequencies?

[raiding]

@sidehack

Of course. That was the first thing I did, when I was receiving the miner

But I was always getting "libusb-error" (something like that), when I screwed higher than 0,6V (USB 2.0/USB 3.0 only slight differences when running 4 miners).

[gt_addict]

@sidehack

Of course. That was the first thing I did, when I was receiving the miner

But I was always getting "libusb-error" (something like that), when I screwed higher than 0,6V (USB 2.0/USB 3.0 only slight differences when running 4 miners).

Ive found that they are like an old car sometimes. They need a few tries at starting sometimes. While cgminer is running unplug them, warm them up a bit in your hand, then plug them back in. It can take a few tries but once they are running they will be fine. Don't forget about active cooling from a usb fan or something similar if youre going to higher freqs 

[sidehack]

And you were using cgminer-gekko, not stock cgminer? And also that your hub's power brick is capable of providing at least 3A of 5V without dropping the voltage?

[raiding]

@sidehack

Of course. That was the first thing I did, when I was receiving the miner

But I was always getting "libusb-error" (something like that), when I screwed higher than 0,6V (USB 2.0/USB 3.0 only slight differences when running 4 miners).

Ive found that they are like an old car sometimes. They need a few tries at starting sometimes. While cgminer is running unplug them, warm them up a bit in your hand, then plug them back in. It can take a few tries but once they are running they will be fine. Don't forget about active cooling from a usb fan or something similar if youre going to higher freqs 

Thanks for advice
Didn't know, hotpluging is working with cgminer. I always got errors, when I tried it. But I'll give it a chance next time!

I'm currently using 2 of these fans: https://www.amazon.de/ARCTIC-Breeze-Mobile-USB-Ventilator/dp/B003XN24GY/ref=pd_sim_147_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=31bg8Sp8sTL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_&psc=1&refRID=EHQGEFWVVF0671YVGFG7

I've got some questions: How much amp do you get with the Y-cables? I've heard rumors, that you can't get more than 600mA (500mA "main"-port and 100 mA from the second power-port). Is that true? Are 250MHz the "magic border" for you with these cables, or can u get higher? Are the miners running stable for a long time (1-3 weeks)?


@sidehack

I'm using cgminer-gekko. I've compiled it from source on the raspberry pi.
The power brick says: 12V 3A and I can't remember recognizing any voltage dropping.

[gt_addict]

250m is the standard running for mine. When I had a USB power meter plugged in line it read 1.4a at 4.54v or something like that. That's with the Y cables. Nothing gets hot apart from the heatsink on the gekkos. I use the arctic breeze fan aswell. Works well straight off the pi.

I've had the newer one upto 300m and that was pulling just under 2A. But the older one throws a hissy fit above 250m.

[CjMapope]

I'm a bit of a noob to mining - so I'm not really to sure how pools and such work. When will I get my payout? Thanks!

haha that's a wide question we need much more info to tell you, and tbh dosent belong in this thread ;p

PM me , i will help you out, welcome to mining!

[Mikestang]

I'm a bit of a noob to mining - so I'm not really to sure how pools and such work. When will I get my payout? Thanks!

Check out google.com.  You can put in questions and it gives you links to where you can learn.  Neat concept.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+bitcoin+mining+pools+work

[notlist3d]

I'm a bit of a noob to mining - so I'm not really to sure how pools and such work. When will I get my payout? Thanks!

Check out google.com.  You can put in questions and it gives you links to where you can learn.  Neat concept.
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+bitcoin+mining+pools+work

And when looking at this what you specifically will want to look at is minimum payout.  Unless you have a lot of these stick miners, or mixing in with other gear it might take a while to meet some pool's minimum payout (depends on pools payout how it work's).

Personally I did lotto pool most of the time when mining with compac.   I actually have a few I need to plug back in, but other project's have been higher priority currently. But they are very right all of this is easy to google.

[matale0]

how long it would take to mine 100USD worth of bitcoin with this usb stick?

and can you mine monero with it? or use minergate?

[CjMapope]

how long it would take to mine 100USD worth of bitcoin with this usb stick?

and can you mine monero with it? or use minergate?

well lets see
using https://alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator  a healthly 13gh/s would bring in about 0.30$ a month.
100$/0.30 equals 333 months to make 100$ from one stick at 13gh/s
now, that's PPS, you may make a bit more on a good solid pool that uses PPLNS , but not much more ;\

can u mine monero with it?  no sir u cannot. Monero (XMR) uses the "Cryptonight" algo, where's these sticks are SHA-only ASCIIs
so no, it has zero use with Minergate, sorry.

hope that helps!

[ZedZedNova]

how long it would take to mine 100USD worth of bitcoin with this usb stick?

and can you mine monero with it? or use minergate?

let's see, with BTC trading for ~650USD/BTC, 100USD is ~0.15384615 BTC.

What you earn each day depends on a lot of factors like how the pool pays out; the total hash rate of the pool; total hash rate in the network; how many blocks the pool finds; how many of those blocks you contributed shares to; the difficulty of the network, etc.

My Compac, clocked at 325MHz, was earning me 1,000-1,250 satoshi ( a satoshi is 0.00000001 BTC) per block at kano.is. I mined there from 16-May to 3-July with a two week break from 8-June to 19-June (no shares contributed) and earned 0.00155947 BTC which works out to 1.01 USD at the current exchange rate. On a good day the Compac was earning about 4,900 satoshi, or about 0.032 USD at the current exchange rate.

Those numbers were all before the halving. To figure out the numbers now, divide everything the miner earns by two. So, instead of earning 1,000-1,250 satoshi per block, it's now 500-625 satoshi per block; about 2,450 satoshi earned on a good day, or 0.016 USD per day at the current exchange rate.

So, you are looking at approximately 6,280 days or 17.2 years. But that's not quite right because it doesn't take into consideration what the future exchange rate might be, any of the subsequent halvings, any changes to hashing rates (pool and whole network), and changes in network difficulty.

Now, that said, you could buy the Compac, point it at solo.ckpool.org and "lottery" mine. Maybe you get lucky and find a block. Finding a block pays ~12.5 BTC which is 8,125 USD before pool fees.

Cheers,

- zed

[hurricandave]

No, these devices are meant for hobbyists to have some fun. Not for profiting a FARM.