GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread

[hedgy73]

Well, I'll attempt to recreate the "issue" and I'll get another screen-cap. I thought it was funny watching the little thing pulling 150GHs, I was waiting for smoke to bellow out!

Since the thing is sitting on a EEEPC701, to much voltage pulled would shut the system down, not make it pop a fuse.. I can see the green light dropping intensity when voltage starts getting pulled..

I haven't seen that either but then I'm not overclocking that much or using hubs as powerful as yours.

I cant believe you wanted to re-create it, perhaps you really are as crazy as the guy in your avatar .

Well, that was my face when it first happened, that surprised disbelieved look

Ha ha I can believe that .

[Kevinthijs]

Having the same problem as most users
Stick is connect to power USB 3.0 hub - connect to 2.0 (unpowered) hub - connect to rasberry (latest raspbian)

is dectected with driver but when starting CGminer, receive error: no usb devices detected.
With the option U & L, I can see the usb device as "known"
But cannot activate it.

Any suggestions?

[AJRGale]

Having the same problem as most users
Stick is connect to power USB 3.0 hub - connect to 2.0 (unpowered) hub - connect to rasberry (latest raspbian)

is dectected with driver but when starting CGminer, receive error: no usb devices detected.
With the option U & L, I can see the usb device as "known"
But cannot activate it.

Any suggestions?

same as everyone else, the rPI doesn't do usb3 hubs well (if at all), plug the stick into the usb2 hub.

you can pull up a terminal and test to see if the system sees it by typing:

Code:

lsusb

you should see a list of USB items and hubs plugged in, including internal, what you are looking for is:

Code:

Bus ### Device ###: ID 10c4:ea60 Cygnal Integrated Products, Inc. CP210x UART Bridge / myAVR mySmartUSB light

[zOU]

Ok great, multimeter shows 0.69v between gnd and vcore pads.

USB meter shows 4.89v and 1.4a to stick.

Frequency is 300MHz.

If I enter these figures it doesn't look right.

It looks like the 1.4a the USB meter shows is incorrect compared to the other readings in your table.

I agree !!!

I received my USB doctor and I plugged them in today.

My sticks are running at 240Mhs/0.6Vcore and readings are between 1.36A and 1.55A on my 6 sticks, where they should be closer to 6A !!

I'm confused...

Unless W = 5V x Vcore x Amp reading ?

so 5x0.6x1.4=4.2W, which seems better.

but then I do not know where the Amp values from the datasheet come from...
Current(A)
12.31
9.2
7.44
6.6
4.46
3.43

[sidehack]

Anyone trying to use cgminer-gekko with bitshopper.de sticks, it's not going to work until we put out an update. So stop fretting and just download BFG 5.4

Anyone looking at that one guy's spreadsheet for power estimates, stop. For the seventh time, that's current into the ASIC, not into the USB. For the seventh time, take the current and voltage into the ASIC, multiply them to get the power into the ASIC, divide by 90% to get buck losses, then divide by your USB voltage to get USB current. P=IV, which means 5Vx1.4A gets you 7W. So the chip is pulling about 6.3W (90%), which for 240MHz probably means about 700mV about 9A. Which is way too high and you need to turn your voltage down, because these will run 300MHz off about 6.7W USB power.

[zOU]

Anyone trying to use cgminer-gekko with bitshopper.de sticks, it's not going to work until we put out an update. So stop fretting and just download BFG 5.4

Anyone looking at that one guy's spreadsheet for power estimates, stop. For the seventh time, that's current into the ASIC, not into the USB. For the seventh time, take the current and voltage into the ASIC, multiply them to get the power into the ASIC, divide by 90% to get buck losses, then divide by your USB voltage to get USB current. P=IV, which means 5Vx1.4A gets you 7W. So the chip is pulling about 6.3W (90%), which for 240MHz probably means about 700mV about 9A. Which is way too high and you need to turn your voltage down, because these will run 300MHz off about 6.7W USB power.

My sincere apologies sidehack.

I did not mean any harm  I was just trying to be helpful despite my obvious lack of knowledge.

The spreadsheet is not viewable anymore.

 P=IV, which means 5Vx1.4A gets you 7W ==> that I get.
which for 240MHz probably means about 700mV about 9A.  => that I don't get how you came to these numbers

Which is way too high and you need to turn your voltage down, because these will run 300MHz off about 6.7W USB power. => I do not understand why 0.6Vcore would be too high for 240Mhs ?

My apologies.

[sidehack]

If you're running 240MHz, you're either not running 600mV or getting errors up the butt. They take 640mV to run stable at 200MHz. And if you're running at 600mV and drawing 1.4A you're not running at 240MHz; it might be 1A at that speed. I've worked with the ASICs since about April and I've had literally every GS Compac made so far on a meter in front of me at one time or another, all of which compounds to tell me either you're reporting information wrong or you're doing something very very weird.

[zOU]

It's been a while since I set them up, so i'll check VCORE tomorrow.

Flat bit of the pod is at 90degres from the top

[sidehack]

If you're seeing the flat at about 9 o'clock, you're probably running more like 750mV. That's more than you need for 240MHz, so the 7W reading is starting to make sense. For 240MHz you probably want the flat at more like 6 o'clock. 200MHz I see about 4W draw, and 300MHz is about 6.5, so 240MHz you'll probably see around 5W when it's set for stable and efficient running.

[zOU]

If you're seeing the flat at about 9 o'clock, you're probably running more like 750mV. That's more than you need for 240MHz, so the 7W reading is starting to make sense. For 240MHz you probably want the flat at more like 6 o'clock. 200MHz I see about 4W draw, and 300MHz is about 6.5, so 240MHz you'll probably see around 5W when it's set for stable and efficient running.

you were right and my memory was flawed.

I just measured Vcore at 750mA.


Anyway.

I'll start again on monday as I now have the USB doctors.
Hopefully I'll have some quiet time so I can figure the relation between the figures in the BM1384 datasheet (I understand they're for the chip only, so I'll have to add 10% for the rest of the stick components)

0.75VCore = 1.4Amp on the display => 5Vx1.4A=7W

[zOU]

The spreadsheet is expecting to see the ASIC current which there is no easy way to measure. You have entered the USB current and in that case the only sensible thing to multiply it by is the USB voltage which will give a measurement of the wattage of the complete stick.

Rich

I created the spreadsheet but honestly I had no idea what was supposed to be entered in the "Current (A)" column.

I just re-used the datasheet table.

But yes, what you say makes sense.

I'll update the spreadsheet which is now unshared.
I'll open it again when I get something usable/reliable.

[Biodom]

Anyone trying to use cgminer-gekko with bitshopper.de sticks, it's not going to work until we put out an update. So stop fretting and just download BFG 5.4

Anyone looking at that one guy's spreadsheet for power estimates, stop. For the seventh time, that's current into the ASIC, not into the USB. For the seventh time, take the current and voltage into the ASIC, multiply them to get the power into the ASIC, divide by 90% to get buck losses, then divide by your USB voltage to get USB current. P=IV, which means 5Vx1.4A gets you 7W. So the chip is pulling about 6.3W (90%), which for 240MHz probably means about 700mV about 9A. Which is way too high and you need to turn your voltage down, because these will run 300MHz off about 6.7W USB power.

as ^^^, bfgminer 5.4.1 works fine (apparently, cgminer works on EU sticks as well listing them as U3 and the only one that works on EU sticks), and it DOES work on sticks connected to usb 3.0 hub, which is then connected to unpowered usb 2.0 hub, which is then connected to rasp pi.

I wouldn't vouch for direct connection of ALL usb 3.0 powered hubs and pi, but SOME do work (one example that was confirmed multiple times is 7 slot 70W usb 3.0 Superbpag).
here are super detailed instructions (you can just read comments below) re bfgminer and pi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOLDrSiI_ic

Having the same problem as most users
Stick is connect to power USB 3.0 hub - connect to 2.0 (unpowered) hub - connect to rasberry (latest raspbian)

is dectected with driver but when starting CGminer, receive error: no usb devices detected.
With the option U & L, I can see the usb device as "known"
But cannot activate it.

Any suggestions?

[bix0]

Anyone trying to use cgminer-gekko with bitshopper.de sticks, it's not going to work until we put out an update. So stop fretting and just download BFG 5.4

Anyone looking at that one guy's spreadsheet for power estimates, stop. For the seventh time, that's current into the ASIC, not into the USB. For the seventh time, take the current and voltage into the ASIC, multiply them to get the power into the ASIC, divide by 90% to get buck losses, then divide by your USB voltage to get USB current. P=IV, which means 5Vx1.4A gets you 7W. So the chip is pulling about 6.3W (90%), which for 240MHz probably means about 700mV about 9A. Which is way too high and you need to turn your voltage down, because these will run 300MHz off about 6.7W USB power.

as ^^^, bfgminer 5.4.1 works fine (and the only one that works on EU sticks), and it DOES work on sticks connected to usb 3.0 hub, which is then connected to unpowered usb 2.0 hub, which is then connected to rasp pi.

I wouldn't vouch for direct connection of ALL usb 3.0 powered hubs and pi, but SOME do work (one example that was confirmed multiple times is 7 slot 70W usb 3.0 Superbpag).
here are super detailed instructions (you can just read comments below) re bfgminer and pi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOLDrSiI_ic

Having the same problem as most users
Stick is connect to power USB 3.0 hub - connect to 2.0 (unpowered) hub - connect to rasberry (latest raspbian)

is dectected with driver but when starting CGminer, receive error: no usb devices detected.
With the option U & L, I can see the usb device as "known"
But cannot activate it.

Any suggestions?

Cgminer works fine too on euro sticks. I have my euro one running now correctly. Wich doesn't work fine is the modified version of gekko.

[sidehack]

The specific information I posted is that cgminer-gekko does not currently recognize the EU sticks. Stock cgminer also doesn't recognize the EU sticks as Compacs but enumerates as U3, which has limited frequency options and defaults to a higher clock speed than the factory stock setting. BFG works better, but stock cgminer should still work.

[notlist3d]

The specific information I posted is that cgminer-gekko does not currently recognize the EU sticks. Stock cgminer also doesn't recognize the EU sticks as Compacs but enumerates as U3, which has limited frequency options and defaults to a higher clock speed than the factory stock setting. BFG works better, but stock cgminer should still work.

Stock CGMiner works fine as icarus.  I have set it up on my RPI to have a original and a compac-cgminer.  So I run 2 instances which it is very capable of doing and you can select miners.

That is workaround I have used so far.  Seems to do fine.

[munky666]

on one of my EU-versions the blue LED stopped blinking today.
the stick is still mining though. bfgminer @200 Hz, voltage left in standard position.

[christiansenn]

something strange i got 2 pi2 with 2 orico usb hubs running minera.

In each 2x compac with 225 mhz and all fine for a week

but now suddenly after i put both raspberry pi2 in the chassis somehow after that
it now wont recognize sticks

I tried unplug usb hubs, switch them, only use 1 stick etc.

but somehow it cant get working anymore.

I tried the sticks on a windows seems fine also i tried reformat memory card with minera but seems same.

Comms error (rerr=-5 amt=0)
 [2015-12-18 18:53:27] AU3 2: Comms error (rerr=-5 amt=0)

 [2015-12-18 18:53:27] AU3 2 failure, disabling!

 [2015-12-18 18:53:35] Hotplug: Icarus added AU3 3

 [2015-12-18 18:54:16] AU3 3: No valid hashes for over 1 secs, attempting to reset

 [2015-12-18 18:54:16] AU3 3 attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

 [2015-12-18 18:54:39] AU3 3: No valid hashes for over 1 secs, attempting to reset

 [2015-12-18 18:54:39] AU3 3 attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

 [2015-12-18 18:54:41] AU3 3: No valid hashes for over 1 secs, attempting to reset

 [2015-12-18 18:54:41] AU3 3 attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

 [2015-12-18 18:55:44] AU3 3: No valid hashes for over 1 secs, attempting to reset

 [2015-12-18 18:55:44] AU3 3 attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

 [2015-12-18 18:55:45] Accepted 5022b66f Diff 818/512 AU3 3

[christiansenn]

29:23] AU3 0 attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

 [2015-12-18 19:29:33] AU3 0: No valid hashes for over 1 secs, attempting to reset

 [2015-12-18 19:29:33] AU3 0 attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

 [2015-12-18 19:29:42] AU3 0: No valid hashes for over 1 secs, attempting to reset

 [2015-12-18 19:29:42] AU3 0 attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

 [2015-12-18 19:29:44] AU3 0: No valid hashes for over 1 secs, attempting to reset

 [2015-12-18 19:29:44] AU3 0 attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

 [2015-12-18 19:29:46] API bind to port 4028 failed (Address already in use) - API will not be available

 [2015-12-18 19:29:48] AU3 0: No valid hashes for over 1 secs, attempting to reset

 [2015-12-18 19:29:48] AU3 0 attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

 [2015-12-18 19:29:58] AU3 0: No valid hashes for over 1 secs, attempting to reset

 [2015-12-18 19:29:58] AU3 0 attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS

So it is like somehow the rasp pi2 suddenly cant detect sticks.
But if I use sticks on windows it work fine.

[christiansenn]

ok i found out issue

Minera = piece of cra...


instead

1: Disable miner in interface

2: SSH to unit

3: compile your own cgminer latest... they use old stuff even if you run updates in menu

4: 0 errors

[sidehack]

Early in this thread is a link to a build of Minera with cgminer-gekko already compiled. Case you were wondering.