GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread

[user356546]

That's very high, even 0.1% is too high. Just looking at my cgminer screen I've had 1 HW error since last re-start in 20 hours with 3 sticks @ 300MHz (16GH / stick). That's with 652k accepted shares and 60 rejected.

Yes, i meant i have about 0.0472 % which i consider "a bit high" but near negligible as its not really affecting my hashrate, but it could still be under 0.0001%. Near 2% is very high and you're losing a "significant portion of your hashrate" and it would not take much voltage raise to bring it down back to 0%~

I bumped all my sticks up to .75V and now I am running at .04%; thanks for the advice. It had a negligible effect on the power (increase by 2 watts at the wall) so I may end up trying .76V instead.

[fire27]

so i tore apart some old pc's took the heatsink/fan from the CPU and replaced the stock ones. Running 1 stick at 325Mhz and .75v. going to drop the voltage down 1-2v. if i had a couple of smaller heatsinks i would run them at 400Mhz. The fans are running off an old AT power supply. i left the switch attached so i can turn off the fans with a button push.

[VirosaGITS]

so i tore apart some old pc's took the heatsink/fan from the CPU and replaced the stock ones. Running 1 stick at 325Mhz and .75v. going to drop the voltage down 1-2v. if i had a couple of smaller heatsinks i would run them at 400Mhz. The fans are running off an old AT power supply. i left the switch attached so i can turn off the fans with a button push.

Interesting... can i/we get a screenshot of that? I'm kind of picturing a fat ass cpu heatsink ducttaped to the stick, with the stick upside down and a USB cord extender. Also if you put such a big heatsink on it, i don't think the chip could generate enough heat to warm up the heatsink much, so passive would work great, right?

[fire27]

http://www.refugeescamp.net/stick1.jpg
http://www.refugeescamp.net/stick2.jpg
http://www.refugeescamp.net/stick3.jpg
i believe this cooler was on a pentium 166

the other one that i am going to put on was on a pentium 75 or 133. slightly bulkier than stock. The heatsink/fan i took off an AMD is too bulky to be efficient. It wouldn't even touch the chip and its like 3x the size of these other 2

[VirosaGITS]

http://www.refugeescamp.net/stick1.jpg
http://www.refugeescamp.net/stick2.jpg
http://www.refugeescamp.net/stick3.jpg
i believe this cooler was on a pentium 166

the other one that i am going to put on was on a pentium 75 or 133. slightly bulkier than stock. The heatsink/fan i took off an AMD is too bulky to be efficient. It wouldn't even touch the chip and its like 3x the size of these other 2

Oh, this is much smaller than i had imagined. Well i suppose the heattsink probably dissipate more heat more easily. If you can run that fan super quiet, i think you would still be able to handle 400mhz on it. A pretty nice performance for the stick at that point.

[earlmo]

the other one that i am going to put on was on a pentium 75 or 133. slightly bulkier than stock. The heatsink/fan i took off an AMD is too bulky to be efficient. It wouldn't even touch the chip and its like 3x the size of these other 2

Yeah, so I did this today as well:


The fan is 12V, but I've got it wired to 5V and cannot hear it at all.  The sticks are currently at 337.5 Mhz, vcore of 0.74V and can almost feel warmth in the heat sink.  Won't go much higher, as my input is down to 4.90V already.

It fits in my PC where the cat won't try sleeping on it--nice to have options.

.earl

[sidehack]

When I test sticks, the input routinely drops to something like 4.3V and they keep going. I think the test hub I have going right now with about 20 sticks at 200MHz (an Eyeboot 49er courtesy of Klintay, I should post pictures one of these days) is measuring about 4.6 volts. As long as you're not smoking out your 5V source by drawing too much current (for a given power use, the current will increase as voltage decreases), the sticks don't really mind a voltage sag too much. The only time I've had a stick give me problems from low input voltage it was modified to about 900mV and trying to break past 485MHz on a crappy hub.

[Biodom]

First batch five sticks chugging along on 7 slot usb 3.0 Superbpag connected through usb 2.0 to pi zero.
Second batch of four sticks doesn't work so far on 7+3 Anker usb 3.0 either connected through non powered usb 2.0 or directly to rasp pi 2.
Did anybody made this Anker work?

EDIT: 4 new sticks work fine in Superbpag on pi zero and do nothing on Anker (USB 3.0) on pi 2
next step, I will connect Superpag to pi 2, but this should theoretically work as this definitely worked for others.
a bummer- i don't want to buy yet another hub (a third one).

EDIT2: well, as i expected, four new sticks on Superbpag (usb 3.0) and pi 2 work just fine.
The problem is that 10 slot Anker (usb 3.0).
Oh, well, will dedicate it to phone charging.

[hurricandave]

Is novak trying to push something to CK on Github currently or is someone else try to help by posting some changes there?

[user356546]

the other one that i am going to put on was on a pentium 75 or 133. slightly bulkier than stock. The heatsink/fan i took off an AMD is too bulky to be efficient. It wouldn't even touch the chip and its like 3x the size of these other 2

Yeah, so I did this today as well:
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/619/23491442279_bc850cf275_o_d.jpg
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/717/23776864461_e98a7ba44b_o_d.jpg
The fan is 12V, but I've got it wired to 5V and cannot hear it at all.  The sticks are currently at 337.5 Mhz, vcore of 0.74V and can almost feel warmth in the heat sink.  Won't go much higher, as my input is down to 4.90V already.

It fits in my PC where the cat won't try sleeping on it--nice to have options.

.earl

Are the Orange and Yellow/Orange and Black wires in the first picture soldered directly to your sticks? Are those monitoring your vCore?

Another question, why kind of thermal interface material are you using? Thanks for posting the pics, that is a great idea to put these inside the PC case.

[sidehack]

Is novak trying to push something to CK on Github currently or is someone else try to help by posting some changes there?

I kinda doubt he's pushing anything to cgminer git, but he was going to be doing a bit of work on cgminer-gekko this weekend. Adding bitshopper stick support, if nothing else. Until some of the Icarus overlap stuff is taken care of, there's no way driver-gekko would be offered to the main build.

[earlmo]

Are the Orange and Yellow/Orange and Black wires in the first picture soldered directly to your sticks? Are those monitoring your vCore?

Another question, why kind of thermal interface material are you using? Thanks for posting the pics, that is a great idea to put these inside the PC case.

Yes, those wires are for vcore readings.  They don't actually connect to the motherboard though, just my voltmeter.  I still had some thermal paste (cooler master and arctic silver) left over from when I built my pc.  Those bitmain chips are tiny compared to a cpu, you don't need much.

I was also thinking of getting one of those fan controllers/displays that fit in your drive bay to monitor temp and fan speed, or one with a custom display that would also display the hash rate and best share, but those will have to wait until one of our 'lottery stickets' comes through.

.earl

[hedgy73]

First batch five sticks chugging along on 7 slot usb 3.0 Superbpag connected through usb 2.0 to pi zero.
Second batch of four sticks doesn't work so far on 7+3 Anker usb 3.0 either connected through non powered usb 2.0 or directly to rasp pi 2.
Did anybody made this Anker work?

EDIT: 4 new sticks work fine in Superbpag on pi zero and do nothing on Anker (USB 3.0) on pi 2
next step, I will connect Superpag to pi 2, but this should theoretically work as this definitely worked for others.
a bummer- i don't want to buy yet another hub (a third one).

EDIT2: well, as i expected, four new sticks on Superbpag (usb 3.0) and pi 2 work just fine.
The problem is that 10 slot Anker (usb 3.0).
Oh, well, will dedicate it to phone charging.

I have the 10 slot Ankers running sticks from a pc but not a pi. Perhaps this is one of the many USB 3.0 hubs the pi's dont like .

[fire27]

Are the Orange and Yellow/Orange and Black wires in the first picture soldered directly to your sticks? Are those monitoring your vCore?

Another question, why kind of thermal interface material are you using? Thanks for posting the pics, that is a great idea to put these inside the PC case.

I just used some leftover TG-7. overkill but i had it on hand

[fire27]

So putting the heatsink on the final miner i somehow lifted one side of the yellow resister. I attempted to solder it back down however it wont mine it is seen (green light) + shows up in the USB devices. the vcore still reads correctly. i am stumped. i am thinking its too much solder increasing the resistance.

[sidehack]

The big'n is a capacitor. If it's not connected properly your output voltage probably won't be stable and could tank briefly during ASIC initialization. I can probably fix it for you, but as hackable as these sticks are "I broke this while hacking it" isn't really covered under the warranty so you'd have to at least pay shipping.

[AJRGale]

I'm wondering if there was part of the solder pad/track lifted with it, or if there is a via busted under it..

[toptek]

Just asking !! anyone having issue getting the latest batch to work with BFG 5.3 to 5.4.1 direct to the PI or in windows ?. by direct i mean plugging into the PI it self . I have tried all different setting with BFG without a hub with a Hub, it just won't pick it up with BFG , BFG will pick up the first stick, i bought, or batch 1, if that was batch 1.

 gekko-CGminer will work with both batches, if I compile it in minera or command line.

IS there a setting or was it made different this time around and bfg sees batch 2 different ?.
just wondering, i can use gekko-CGminer. other wise !!!.

used these setting in windows with the right driver for BFG , on a few different PI types including a RPI2 and RPI b and RPI with different Os's etc .

Code:

-S all --set compac:clock=200
-S compac:all --set compac:clock=200

-S antminer:all --set antminer:clock=200
--set compac:clock=x0b83 or others
--set compac:clock=200

The only other setting i haven't tried is

Code:

 --set device 

forgot how to use that .

even did

Code:

-S compac:/dev/ttyUSB0
-S antminer:/dev/ttyUSB0

there was one other way to use

Code:

 --set device 

what i meant by " The only other setting i haven't tried is "

[AJRGale]

Just asking !! anyone having issue getting the latest batch to work with BFG 5.3 to 5.4.1 direct to the PI or in windows ?. by direct i mean plugging into the PI it self . I have tried all different setting with BFG without a hub with a Hub, it just won't pick it up with BFG , BFG will pick up the first stick, i bought, or batch 1, if that was batch 1.

I cant say here, I don't have a good SD card reader to add a new OS on my RPi-b.. all o know is there is only ~150mA available to them ports without bypassing poly-fuses.

 gekko-CGminer will work with both batches, if I compile it in minera or command line.

IS there a setting or was it made different this time around and bfg sees batch 2 different ?.
just wondering, i can use gekko-CGminer. other wise !!!.

these setting in windows with the right driver for BFG , on a few different PI types including a RPI2 and RPI b and RPI with different Os's etc .

Code:

-S all --set compac:clock=200
-S compac:all --set compac:clock=200

-S antminer:all --set antminer:clock=200
--set compac:clock=x0b83 or others
--set compac:clock=200

The only other setting i haven't tried is

Code:

 --set device 

forgot how to use that .

even did

Code:

-S compac:/dev/ttyUSB0
-S antminer:/dev/ttyUSB0

there was one other way to use

Code:

 --set device 

i forgot how to .

the

Code:

 --set device 

Is actually

Code:

 --device|-d <arg> 

the argument should be the same as -S?
just brushing up on my BFGMiner right now..
 

[toptek]

found it

Code:

--set-device compac --set compac:clock=200

but it doesn't work either, so i think the new batch was made different and BFG needs a update to it ?.

the above settiings work with batch one but not with batch 2 for me .

Was wondering if anyone else has batch 2 working with BFG ?. I guess, I should have asked.  


Thanks AJ .

for the code, it's been a long while sense Ive had to use

Code:

--set device 

in any form.


BTW it does see it, but it won't show any hashing with BFG, shows it in BFG as 0 and  it acts like it is hashing but it's not . i even run it on eligius.st , by it self to test it . nothing ever showed up. it gets warm etc . but this is only happens with BFG . i can use  cgminer. .

batch 2 with windows 10,  no point in posting any more shots with a PI or others ways, i tried, it shows the same results with  5.3 to 5.4.1. .



last post about it,  asking more if there is a issue and show what i tried, it doesn't really mater much which software miner I use, I always root for the under dog (BFG in tihs cae ),but will do what i have to, too make it work for me . or did i get one  of those sticks with a mind of it's own and it uses what it wants to .

 it does work there is nothing wrong with it that i see , in fact it works better then the first one, i bought before it  .if it is bad, i will or would thrash it any way , i only bought it to help support .) .