GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread

[sidehack]

We started with Icarus because the thing works as a U3. So Novak copied Icarus into gekko, then pretty much gutted it down to everything except U3 and then reworked what was left to match our specific needs. It no longer identifies the stick by sending sample work and recognizing the return format, and it ramps up the hashrate upon init instead of going straight to top speed (which makes init more reliable especially with high speeds and cheap hubs). We intend to pack code for future hardware into driver-gekko as well. It's by no means an Icarus replacement.

Also, I don't know if he's already swapped out the archives yet but yesterday Novak fixed not recognizing bitshopper sticks, and also the Icarus incompatibilities. Our test setup has been running one Gekko stick, one bitshopper stick, and one Antminer U2 on the same instance of cgminer (and all properly recognized) for about 27 hours now.

[bitsolutions]

We started with Icarus because the thing works as a U3. So Novak copied Icarus into gekko, then pretty much gutted it down to everything except U3 and then reworked what was left to match our specific needs. It no longer identifies the stick by sending sample work and recognizing the return format, and it ramps up the hashrate upon init instead of going straight to top speed (which makes init more reliable especially with high speeds and cheap hubs). We intend to pack code for future hardware into driver-gekko as well. It's by no means an Icarus replacement.

Also, I don't know if he's already swapped out the archives yet but yesterday Novak fixed not recognizing bitshopper sticks, and also the Icarus incompatibilities. Our test setup has been running one Gekko stick, one bitshopper stick, and one Antminer U2 on the same instance of cgminer (and all properly recognized) for about 27 hours now.

How are you currently doing detection of the stick? The important part IMO is making sure that you can run other devices simultaneously with the Gekko stick so proper identification is critical for that, ideally with usb vendor and product id's since those are the most reliable(the sample work detection is a hack because vendors like bitmain and rockminer don't set usb vendor and product id's). Icarus is used for a very specific type of work handling which is why there are a bunch of devices grouped in the same driver. I think frequency ramping should be possible within the icarus driver, I remember there was even an experimental branch for rockminers that did that within the icarus driver. In your test setup is the U2 being driven by the gekko driver or the icarus driver?

[sidehack]

The U2 is driven by Icarus. I mentioned it specifically because I also mentioned Novak fixed the Icarus incompatibility, and that driver-gekko had everything specifically not Compac removed, therefore we must have compiled a cgminer with both Icarus and gekko enabled.

At this point I don't care what Icarus does or doesn't do. Gekko is not a replacement for Icarus. Icarus was just the functional starting point we used to write driver-gekko, and any hardware we add in the future will definitely not be based on Icarus protocol. It's seriously a mess. That the Compac works with Icarus (as a U3) is mostly Bitmain's fault for having built two generations of chip that basically behave the same.

We didn't change the PID/VID of the USB chip because leaving it in place makes drivers a lot easier. We did, however, change the product description string and serial number. bitshopper sticks were not recognized because we forgot to tell driver-gekko to look for bitshopper's product description as well as ours. That's also how BFG identifies them - in fact, Luke-Jr put together the code and data required to push those changes.

Regarding your earlier quotes from kano - I don't know if he looked at the gekko code or not, but most of what he said is wrong as far as I know. Statements specifically the opposite of true include:
"It's an addition to the icarus code, not a replacement. So it's not supposed to be a whole new module (that re-includes all the icarus code and drivers ...)"
"gekko is simply icarus + gekko combined into a new module"

[bitsolutions]

The icarus protocol doesn't really have much to do with the ASIC itself so much as the usb controller, the full size antminers use a different protocol. Kano is basically saying gekko uses the icarus work protocol and that it should just be combined with the other icarus style devices because of that. Good to know that there is a reliable way to detect the gekko sticks other than using test work. Kano did look over the gekko code which is what those comments were based off of.

[sidehack]

The BM1384 Compac is based on Icarus work protocol, that is true. However, rolling gekko into Icarus I would call a bad idea, for several reasons. In short, because Icarus is convoluted enough without stuffing more into it, and because everything we make after the current Compac will use a different protocol so the module will diverge anyway. The next Compac won't use it, and nothing bigger will either.

Course, this conversation would be better if it were between Kano and Novak, since they're the ones that actually know and do.

[Jake36]

Not sure if the one in your link will work or not. The power input/output is lower, the Superbpag that I know works good with the Pi2B and sticks is this one http://www.amazon.com/Superbpag-Portable-Charger-Transfer-Samsung/dp/B013OK10YM

That one is rated 5V 14A 70Watt, the one you linked to is only rated at 5V 2A 10Watt.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RM5OF70?psc=1    this one is the other one it's rated at 60 watts, your is better and its cheaper.



maybe is just my hub and batch two thu anything i throw at it just works, mines this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817707235 I have it self powered at 7-24V either over a 110 or 240 line tried both but really saw no need for 240.   the PSU, i have does Output:24V 3A to match the hub.

Just seen this (red), I forget who it was now (we were both looking at these), but they were told by the manufacturer (?) that these are not built to handle being pushed to the max over a long period (or something like that).

And if I remember right, no matter what you put in (12V, 15V, or 24V), it will only put out the standard USB 2.0 Amps per port (might have been a little more, but not much). So basically, just a better built powered/non-powered (basic) expansion hub.

[Biodom]

For software gurus:

if i run Debian Linux Live Cinnamon on PC (without installing), would I be able to configure cgminer/bfgminer and run stick(s) OR It is necessary to do a full install?
thanks.

[jstncheney]

Alright guys. So yes, I'm a little late into the game. But having a few issues and i'm(hopefully) trying to get some support. My software skills are pretty minimal. I recently been experimenting with Ubuntu, and super new to it. So I purchased 3 of these bad boys, and im trying to get these working. So i followed the exact setup for the terminal. Got everything setup for CGminer. It is actually searching for the Gekkoscience miners. But when I plug them up, CGminer does not detect them. I tried plugging them directly to the computer, and I have tried plugging them to a powered USB hub. Nothing. I'm hoping to get some help. Thanks guys! If you need any more info please let me know.

[sidehack]

One thing more we'd need to know, what cgminer version you are using and what compile flags you used (--enable-icarus, --enable-gekko, etc).

[novak@gekkoscience]

Guys, I've updated cgminer-gekko, if you download it now the link is still the same:

http://gekkoscience.com/misc/cgminer-gekko.tar.gz

If for some reason you need the old version, it can be found at:

http://gekkoscience.com/misc/cgminer-gekko-orig.tar.gz


The new version is slightly cleaned up and will build alongside icarus.  I've tested it with a U2 and they run at the same time.  I also fixed it to recognize bitshopper compacs, as that was a source of annoyance.  I have yet to try to force a windows build.

As to people suggesting that the compac driver should be part of icarus:  maybe, it really doesn't matter to me.  I'm not going to develop it as part of icarus though as I am substantially extending it for multi-chip and icarus is a total mess.  Even detection is crude because no one bothered to build most hardware that runs under icarus correctly so you simply have to try running each piece of hardware successively and see if it might be any of them.

If I need to somehow recombine the compac-only driver as part of icarus that might be possible.  cgminer-gekko will continue to exist for ongoing development, however.

--
novak

[Jake36]

Alright guys. So yes, I'm a little late into the game. But having a few issues and i'm(hopefully) trying to get some support. My software skills are pretty minimal. I recently been experimenting with Ubuntu, and super new to it. So I purchased 3 of these bad boys, and im trying to get these working. So i followed the exact setup for the terminal. Got everything setup for CGminer. It is actually searching for the Gekkoscience miners. But when I plug them up, CGminer does not detect them. I tried plugging them directly to the computer, and I have tried plugging them to a powered USB hub. Nothing. I'm hoping to get some help. Thanks guys! If you need any more info please let me know.

One thing more we'd need to know, what cgminer version you are using and what compile flags you used (--enable-icarus, --enable-gekko, etc).

Also, which steps did you follow? So we can see if maybe a step was missing, maybe had a bad step, or had a step for different hardware.

[aarons6]

For software gurus:

if i run Debian Linux Live Cinnamon on PC (without installing), would I be able to configure cgminer/bfgminer and run stick(s) OR It is necessary to do a full install?
thanks.

if you compile cgminer on the usb drive you should be ok.

dont leave it in your /home folder as that is a ram drive on a live build.. it wont get saved..


also, some usb creators have a persistant mode.. but i could never get it to work with ubuntu based builds..

what i would do is partition the USB drive yourself, you are going to need at least 8gb, 16 or 32 is better..

4gb goes to the usb image and the rest to the /home folder.

when the usb boots up, you just mount the partition manually to the /home/user folder and you can even make a script to do it if you know linux. kind of a hybrid usb live build.

that way all your files will be on the usb drive and not in memory so if you lose power its not completely reset.


altho if you want to not mess with it and have 2 usb drives.. you could boot the live and install it on the other usb drive.. just make sure you put the boot loader on the usb drive and not write it on /dev/sda

[sidehack]

I'm not just showing off, but it is pretty cool to be able to show off. This smexy Eyeboot 49-port-hub setup is what we used to test all the last batch of Compacs. Purchased from Amazon, and reimbursed by klintay on the condition that I publicise it. I generally disapprove of compensated endorsements (you always gotta question motives), but I will gladly endorse a product I actually do approve of and this hub is a heck of a lot better than the scrounger we were using. So, meeting that condition. It's probably a bit late but I'm fairly certain we'll be doing another 500 batch of Compacs (I'll know for sure early next week) and we have plans to continue the Compac line with new chips (whenever possible) and we'll keep using this hub (and 60A PSU) for testing until, I dunno, if it ever breaks I guess.

I'm not sure if it's an issue with cgminer or USB or what, but we couldn't get more than about 300GH out of a hub full of sticks. But even so, that was a decent load of power for a USB hub. Seriously.

So, shameless plug out!

[Luke-Jr]

FWIW, the Compac driver in BFGMiner is heavily integrated with the "Icarus" driver, so what Kano is saying makes sense to me.

Future devices using a new protocol should probably get a separate driver from the Compac anyway.

[cavaliersrus]

MINER PORN !!!! love it sidehack

[notlist3d]

Thanks for sharing, I don't mind a shameless plug when it benefits something good such as this and compac making.  

Really neat to see 49 mining at once on a single hub.  Do you have a screenshot of it on PC would love to see pc screenshot with 49 of them running?

[sobe-it]

Oh my..... only if I could afford em. Bet its a damn cool light show when they are mining!

[philipma1957]

It is a very good hub.  I got one from him on amazon.  I sourced a lessor psu but it is the most efficient 5 volt psu I can find

https://www.trcelectronics.com/ecomm/pdf/hsp150.pdf

I dialed it up to 5.4 volts hooked it up to the hub from klintay ran 20 sticks as high as 325 each

This psu gives me the best watt readings from my watt meters.

This psu hooked up to klintay's 49 port hub works better then when I attach it to klintay's older 19 port hubs.

The one cavat is I ran 20 sticks on the 49 port hub and The psu could do maybe 25 sticks tops.

As sidehack shows the hub does 49 sticks with the bigger psu.

I have been running my sticks now  for months on the 49 port hub.

[sidehack]

When I think about it from a work protocol standpoint, yeah it makes a bit more sense to say it could be integrated to Icarus and I get where he's coming from. Our changes to the parts we actually used were probably fairly minor. But when I consider the Compac is a Gekko miner, and that we'll probably make more versions of the Compac with different chips and protocols (since no two manufacturers do things the same way), it doesn't make a lot of sense to say "oh this Compac requires Icarus, but this Compac over here uses something else" instead of just putting the code for every Gekko miner into one Gekko module. Less confusing. That, and Icarus doesn't need to get any more convoluted than it already is. But, again, I'm not the programmer I'm the hardware guy so what I say doesn't really matter a whole lot?

The lightshow on the hub was fun. Most of the test batches we ran 20 to 25 at a time; I think the hub was only full to capacity once. I don't have a screenshot; they were on an SSH'd instance from Novak's workbench machine so he might have something but I don't. Right now there's only about half a dozen functional sticks still in the shop so I can't really recreate it.

One of these days I should get back around to designing our own USB hub. I had some preliminary work done on that a few months ago and then kinda did a bunch of other stuff instead. But I likely won't have much manufacturing to do over the next month so maybe I'll use that time for design and prototyping of the project backlog. The idea I had was 7 ports, but that could change I guess. Or maybe not. I don't know.

[jstncheney]

One thing more we'd need to know, what cgminer version you are using and what compile flags you used (--enable-icarus, --enable-gekko, etc).

I think I used just the 'enable gekko' command. I ran through the thorough instructions that Novak gave on the first page of this thread. I'll quote everything he posted :

Here's what you'd do to get cgminer on linux going:
1. Open a terminal.
2. wget http://gekkoscience.com/misc/cgminer-gekko.tar.gz             

This downloads the file- you can save it from your browser instead, it's the same thing.

3. tar -xvzf cgminer-gekko.tar.gz 

This extracts the files. which are compressed (like a zip file for linux)

4. cd cgminer-gekko
 
Enters the cgminer-gekko folder you just extracted.

5. sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool

You need to install the dependencies for cgminer.

6. ./autogen.sh

This will generate a configure script for you which will set up compiling for your system.

7. ./configure --enable-gekko

This will configure the build.  This is the most likely place to have anything go wrong, if it does, let me know exactly what's up.  Odds are it would be some package that you should have installed.

8. make

Performs the build.  If you get an error there- again, let me know details.