GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread

[Mikestang]

I'm pretty sure that bfgminer suport decimal freq, not hex.

5.4.0+ bfg supports decimal frequencies, 5.3.0 still used hex, so unless he's building an old version yes, it should be decimal.

[notlist3d]

I'm pretty sure that bfgminer suport decimal freq, not hex.

5.4.0+ bfg supports decimal frequencies, 5.3.0 still used hex, so unless he's building an old version yes, it should be decimal.

And if he is using a old version I suggest for him to update.  Using decimal's compared to hex seems to save some users from using wrong hex.

I am happy he made it start to take decimal's.  It makes it easier for a beginner user which I think is good in long run.

[Jake36]

Yeah.

Is it better use the Gekko cgminer one or bfgminer?

from those example:
GekkoScience cgminer:
To build use --enable-gekko flag.

./cgminer -o stratum+tcp://stratum.mining.eligius.st:3334 -u 1BURGERAXHH6Yi6LRybRJK7ybEm5m5HwTr --compac-freq 250
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

bfgminer:

./bfgminer -o stratum+tcp://stratum.mining.eligius.st:3334 -O 1BURGERAXHH6Yi6LRybRJK7ybEm5m5HwTr --set compac:clock=x0b83
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What is highest cpu the new gekko can run with and still be stable?
Is any difference on using cgminer or bfgminer for best performance stability?

From the solo pool club's 24 hour over-clock contest

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1243205.msg13054095#msg13054095

After 24 hours was up, I let it run until it hit 60 hours, a lot of HW errors because I didn't get the power dialled in. But Sidehack and (I think) someone else has done higher.

[Jake36]

Order was cancelled in time, thanks for the help its much appreciated....

So what's the general consensus for a hub to both power and transmit data for 5 compaq's?

This one works good

http://www.amazon.com/Superbpag-Portable-Charger-Transfer-Samsung/dp/B013OK10YM

It even work's with Raspberry Pi 2-B (Pi's are very picky on hubs and will usually never work with usb 3.0 hubs or even some 2.0 hubs).

It will do ~2 amps per port, I've ran 5 sticks at 250MHz for over 2 week's with only about 3 HW errors (once you get the pot on the stick adjusted).

Interesting re 5 sticks on Superbpag (BTW, I second the Jake36 and zOU opinion)-I failed to run four, but maybe because I hot-plugged them without reset.
Three are good with almost no error for a couple of days.

BTW, how did you fit five sticks there? When I tried to put two sticks in adjacent slots they touched. I was not sure if this is OK or not.

Superbpag is 70W/14A (7X2A slots). I also just got an incredible 3A Y-cable from Cali. The thickness of it...the only caveat is the f-f coupler (to link Y and stick), which is less formidable, otherwise, I am ready to try for overclocking when i have a bit more time.

Find some thin rubber (or even plastic) pads to stick on the back edges, just to be safe, and they also leave room for air.

[sidehack]

Novak and I had a nonstandard stick stable at 485MHz. Could have done higher but my hub couldn't keep up. The input current was spiking and dropping the input voltage below turnon threshold for the buck chip, which caused it to reset when the input voltage drifted back up. Leastways I think that was the problem. Lower impedance power lines to the USB jack (it was drawing probably close to 4A average, which means input spikes potentially close to 20A) would have kept it running more stable. The buck was hacked to allow over 900mV and we were only seeing average around 850mV because of the input power issues.

[zOU]

Hello,

Could I get the information about space between the heatsink monting holes and Ø ?

I'm working on an improved cooling system and that information would be helpful.





I recovered this heatsink from a power supply along with a fan controller including a temperature sensor.

I'm thinking of mounting 3 sticks on each side (where my fingers hold the heatsink in the picture) and 1 fan at each extremity to get airflow through the length of the heatsink

[munky666]

so my cgminer-gekko on raspberry pi b+ with active hub and the EU sticks is also not working.
in the usb management under "list all devices" there's just this:
Bus 1 Device 6 ID: 10c4:ea60 bitshopperde Compac BM1384 Bitcoin Miner inactive

when presseing e(nable) and entering any device number it just says "invalid selection"...

any solution?

[notlist3d]

Hello,

Could I get the information about space between the heatsink monting holes and Ø ?

I'm working on an improved cooling system and that information would be helpful.





I recovered this heatsink from a power supply along with a fan controller including a temperature sensor.

I'm thinking of mounting 3 sticks on each side (where my fingers hold the heatsink in the picture) and 1 fan at each extremity to get airflow through the length of the heatsink

Interesting I love to see mods.  That would be a interesting one indeed with 3 on one heatsink.  Don't think I've seen anyone do it.

Are you going to use Y adapters or what is plan to get power/data over to the compacs?

[zOU]

Interesting I love to see mods.  That would be a interesting one indeed with 3 on one heatsink.  Don't think I've seen anyone do it.

Are you going to use Y adapters or what is plan to get power/data over to the compacs?

I already am using Y cables :



Ideally, I'd like to put 3 sticks on each side of the heatsink (stick|heatsink|stick), and with the Y cables it's going to be just fine, I can even put the USB doctors back to back. (hopefully the display will face out, not in)

I received my 10 ports USB 2 hub today, it's likely to be limited to 500mA/ports, but if it's not it has a 12V/5A power supply, so it's quite good (better than my 12V/3A usb3)

anyway, I'm waiting to get the USB doctor delivered, and then I'll get started after the grouped-solo pool run.

[sidehack]

The shop is in a state of electrical-renovation turmoil right now (Novak's computer, this craptop and the hosting room are the only things functional right now; we don't even have lights back yet) but as soon as my workbench machine is back up I'll post the mechanical spec for the heatsinks.

Also, cgminer-gekko is known to not work with bitshopper.de sticks. This is a problem Novak will have to solve when we have time (probably this week) and will require fetching the updated source and recompiling. BFG works with both versions of the stick.

[tricass]

One of my sticks is now reporting "attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS" after running perfectly fine for the last 3 weeks on ubuntu 14.04. Tried different freq ranges from 150 - 250 and directly plugging the unit into the laptop's usb ports with no change. Is there a software fix for this or is this a hardware problem? The other stick i have is running fine.

[AJRGale]

One of my sticks is now reporting "attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS" after running perfectly fine for the last 3 weeks on ubuntu 14.04. Tried different freq ranges from 150 - 250 and directly plugging the unit into the laptop's usb ports with no change. Is there a software fix for this or is this a hardware problem? The other stick i have is running fine.

That may be software, what's the Diff:#? CGminer tends to reset the device after 3 seconds of not getting a hash from it.

for example, Kano.is sets diff at 1042 when you 1st connect, then about a minute later it resets the diff to something more usable from the miner so the miner is working on getting the bigger diff number, so it doesn't send data whist its trying to create the hash, then CGminer kill the connection and resends data to work on, giving you that error

sometimes its just getting a little to hot and the gives up for the day, I tend to pop them out for 30 seconds/minute then see if they still do it.

So, when you plug it in, and start the program, go make a coffee, it should be starting to go good by then.

[tricass]

One of my sticks is now reporting "attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS" after running perfectly fine for the last 3 weeks on ubuntu 14.04. Tried different freq ranges from 150 - 250 and directly plugging the unit into the laptop's usb ports with no change. Is there a software fix for this or is this a hardware problem? The other stick i have is running fine.

That may be software, what's the Diff:#? CGminer tends to reset the device after 3 seconds of not getting a hash from it.

for example, Kano.is sets diff at 1042 when you 1st connect, then about a minute later it resets the diff to something more usable from the miner so the miner is working on getting the bigger diff number, so it doesn't send data whist its trying to create the hash, then CGminer kill the connection and resends data to work on, giving you that error

sometimes its just getting a little to hot and the gives up for the day, I tend to pop them out for 30 seconds/minute then see if they still do it.

So, when you plug it in, and start the program, go make a coffee, it should be starting to go good by then.

i also get a "device failed to respond to restart" followed by "failure, disabling!" for COMPAC 0. it repeats this start up process for COMPAC 1, 2, etc until you kill cgminer-gekko but there's only one stick miner plugged in while i'm trying to run this unit. so no hashing is performed by the miner.

[AJRGale]

One of my sticks is now reporting "attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS" after running perfectly fine for the last 3 weeks on ubuntu 14.04. Tried different freq ranges from 150 - 250 and directly plugging the unit into the laptop's usb ports with no change. Is there a software fix for this or is this a hardware problem? The other stick i have is running fine.

That may be software, what's the Diff:#? CGminer tends to reset the device after 3 seconds of not getting a hash from it.

for example, Kano.is sets diff at 1042 when you 1st connect, then about a minute later it resets the diff to something more usable from the miner so the miner is working on getting the bigger diff number, so it doesn't send data whist its trying to create the hash, then CGminer kill the connection and resends data to work on, giving you that error

sometimes its just getting a little to hot and the gives up for the day, I tend to pop them out for 30 seconds/minute then see if they still do it.

So, when you plug it in, and start the program, go make a coffee, it should be starting to go good by then.

i also get a "device failed to respond to restart" followed by "failure, disabling!" for COMPAC 0. it repeats this start up process for COMPAC 1, 2, etc until you kill cgminer-gekko but there's only one stick miner plugged in while i'm trying to run this unit. so no hashing is performed by the miner.

it happens, I assume you do have them on a powered hub?

about the other one dying: That happens when the Hub gets a spike of power required to boot the other stick in, the other one resets

you can tell CGminer to not reset the device buy going [ U ] SB management -> [H]otplug interval -> set it to 0 to disable.
I believe that should stop it from timing out, but CGMiner may just Zombie it instead.

now, if you are running a hub, it should be able to handle 2A each socket. Check to see if the hub is giving 5V to the devices, check the Grd and Vcore test pads on the back, it should be about 770mV if its about 600mV and you have not touched the pot at the front, you're not giving it enough power, give that hub more juice!

[zOU]

The shop is in a state of electrical-renovation turmoil right now (Novak's computer, this craptop and the hosting room are the only things functional right now; we don't even have lights back yet) but as soon as my workbench machine is back up I'll post the mechanical spec for the heatsinks.

Thank you !

Hopefully I will not fry my sticks :p

I'm a bit wary of putting 2 face to face on the heatsink as it'll create a double hotspot where the 2 chips are in contact, but on the other hand it's quite big and will be well cooled with 2 fans. (push/pull, 1 fan at each end of the heatsink)

Since I have 6, I plan to put 3 on each side.

[munky666]

is it possible to have 2 gekko sticks mining in 2 different pools using just one raspberry pi with bfgminer?

[Mikestang]

is it possible to have 2 gekko sticks mining in 2 different pools using just one raspberry pi with bfgminer?

I know how to do it with cgminer, you run two instances of cg and in each batch file you use --usb :1 which means that instance of cgminer will only use 1 usb device and not look for others, then you configure each instance to point 1 stick to the pool you want.

I don't see a similar command for bfg, so you probably have to do load balancing and send 1/2 the hash to one pool and 1/2 to another.

[Mikestang]

I'm a bit wary of putting 2 face to face on the heatsink as it'll create a double hotspot where the 2 chips are in contact, but on the other hand it's quite big and will be well cooled with 2 fans. (push/pull, 1 fan at each end of the heatsink)

What are you hoping to accomplish with this?  If it's additional cooling beyond the stock heat sink then I think having the chips back to back is not a good idea.  Stagger them each side so the chips aren't right against each other.

[zOU]

What are you hoping to accomplish with this?  If it's additional cooling beyond the stock heat sink then I think having the chips back to back is not a good idea.  Stagger them each side so the chips aren't right against each other.

yep, that's also something I though about

Once I get the space between the mounting holes I'll see what I can do.

Just trying to put to some use some spare heatsinks I have lying around

I still have a couple of boxes of old junk to go through (I'll probably find my old Alpha P7125 too !)

[sidehack]

Well you're in luck, because my workstation's back up. At least temporarily.



Note that the Compac heatsink actually has 8 fins. I wasn't really specifying the profile so much as the dimensions.