GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread

[ChEd1980]

Hello again everyone, back on page 52 you kindly gave me some advice for getting my bitshopper sourced compac going and this is just a quick update after I found some time to sit down and look at it again.

It turns out my hunch about power was correct as my crappy hub I was using clearly only does ~500mA per port (oddly it was ok running 3x block erupters back in the day) but I switched over to my PiHub that I had lying around which has a port rated at 1.1A (for plugging in a raspberry pi to power it) and it has been running for over an hour like this.

I have got it running in BFGMiner 5.4.1 ok with the following command:

bfgminer.exe -o stratum+tcp://mint.bitminter.com:3333 -O username --set compac:clock=150

The hash rate looks about right for 150:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v462/chaos_ed/bfgminer_zpsidecbq9f.jpg

I'm happy that its working but I have a couple more questions:

1. I have to manually add the device and tell BFGMiner what com port its on and then it works fine and is detected as AMU0, it doesn't seem to get auto detected is there a way to tell BFG to start on a particular com port? (sorry for the noobish question!)

2. It doesn't blink any lights at all whilst running and I thought they blink? I just get a nice bright green LED lit, could it be a slight hardware variance between the green heatsinked gekko and the bitshopper one?

3. I get the odd comms error but they are really infrequent "AMU 0: Comms error (werr=1)" is this anything to worry about?

Its running very cool with a tiny 60mm fan (from a socket 370 cooler, remember those?) running at 5V off the USB hub the miner is plugged into

I'm probably going to try novak's cgminer again now that the power issue appears to be solved to see what happens there but its nice to know that my miner is not defective.

[Landy1264]

Hello again everyone, back on page 52 you kindly gave me some advice for getting my bitshopper sourced compac going and this is just a quick update after I found some time to sit down and look at it again.

It turns out my hunch about power was correct as my crappy hub I was using clearly only does ~500mA per port (oddly it was ok running 3x block erupters back in the day) but I switched over to my PiHub that I had lying around which has a port rated at 1.1A (for plugging in a raspberry pi to power it) and it has been running for over an hour like this.

I have got it running in BFGMiner 5.4.1 ok with the following command:

bfgminer.exe -o stratum+tcp://mint.bitminter.com:3333 -O username --set compac:clock=150

The hash rate looks about right for 150:



I'm happy that its working but I have a couple more questions:

1. I have to manually add the device and tell BFGMiner what com port its on and then it works fine and is detected as AMU0, it doesn't seem to get auto detected is there a way to tell BFG to start on a particular com port? (sorry for the noobish question!)

2. It doesn't blink any lights at all whilst running and I thought they blink? I just get a nice bright green LED lit, could it be a slight hardware variance between the green heatsinked gekko and the bitshopper one?

3. I get the odd comms error but they are really infrequent "AMU 0: Comms error (werr=1)" is this anything to worry about?

Its running very cool with a tiny 60mm fan (from a socket 370 cooler, remember those?) running at 5V off the USB hub the miner is plugged into

I'm probably going to try novak's cgminer again now that the power issue appears to be solved to see what happens there but its nice to know that my miner is not defective.

It should be detected as "CBMx" and hashrate @150 MHz is 8.5Ghs! Try to pull and plug it back in .. it should get autodetected.

[ChEd1980]

It should be detected as "CBMx" and hashrate @150 MHz is 8.5Ghs! Try to pull and plug it back in .. it should get autodetected.

Hmmm thanks for that, I did wonder about that as I saw other screenshots with CBMx in them from other people.

Interesting re the hashrate, I think I saw someone else post theirs showing 10GHs @ 150 but hey I'm pretty sure its still not quite happy since I mentioned it not blinking earlier but about 10 minutes ago I got a short burst of blue flashes then back to solid green.

I might try re-loading the latest driver for it and see what it does re the detection of the device now the power issue appears to be fixed.

[sidehack]

Novak's cgminer now has bitshopper Compac support built right in. My bitshopper stick is still running alongside a gekko Compac and a U2 without any complaints, been going since the 22nd.

150MHz should get you 8.25GH average. Since your stick is recognized as something other than a Compac, it's probably defaulting to 225MHz so you see 12.25GH.

The white light not flashing during hashing is a hardware problem with the LED trigger circuit. The bitshopper and gekko Compacs were based off not just the same design, but the same design files - excepting a few cosmetic differences in color and silkscreen (and one tiny error in the volt-setting circuit which was found in gekko sticks and fixed for bitshopper), the two PCBs are identical. Since your host is receiving shares, you know it's not a problem with the signal line; this signal line drives a small trigger with an RC delay to give a long-enough pulse on the white LED for it to actually be visible to humans. The meat of this is the two transistors, the diode, the resistor and the capacitor in a column immediately to the left of the LED. If the bottom transistor is not connected properly, or the diode is not connected properly, you will not see a flash. Check those two parts for dry joints and you'll likely have the answer.

[Biodom]

Partially OT, but in pursuit of running a stick: wasted all my free time today trying to make a double boot Windows 8.1/Debian Jessie machine and so far could not. Live Debian works, but when I install full version either using DVD OR making USB from netinstall, everything works peachy until grub2 does not show up and system instead boots into Windows. I followed a dozen leads, looked into BIOS, tried to make advised changes to boot process, NOTHING.

If anybody had problems with this that they overcame-I am all ears.

that said, a bunch of sticks work fine on rasp pi, i just wanted to try on debian since i have one hub that does not work with pi and i don't want to bother with drivers on windows- i will, of course, if it comes to that.

[Jake36]

Partially OT, but in pursuit of running a stick: wasted all my free time today trying to make a double boot Windows 8.1/Debian Jessie machine and so far could not. Live Debian works, but when I install full version either using DVD OR making USB from netinstall, everything works peachy until grub2 does not show up and system instead boots into Windows. I followed a dozen leads, looked into BIOS, tried to make advised changes to boot process, NOTHING.

If anybody had problems with this that they overcame-I am all ears.

that said, a bunch of sticks work fine on rasp pi, i just wanted to try on debian since i have one hub that does not work with pi and i don't want to bother with drivers on windows- i will, of course, if it comes to that.

Yea, some times it can be a pain.... try the the free version of EasyBCD in Windows to edit the boot to add debian, it makes it so much easier.

https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

[Biodom]

Partially OT, but in pursuit of running a stick: wasted all my free time today trying to make a double boot Windows 8.1/Debian Jessie machine and so far could not. Live Debian works, but when I install full version either using DVD OR making USB from netinstall, everything works peachy until grub2 does not show up and system instead boots into Windows. I followed a dozen leads, looked into BIOS, tried to make advised changes to boot process, NOTHING.

If anybody had problems with this that they overcame-I am all ears.

that said, a bunch of sticks work fine on rasp pi, i just wanted to try on debian since i have one hub that does not work with pi and i don't want to bother with drivers on windows- i will, of course, if it comes to that.

Yea, some times it can be a pain.... try the the free version of EasyBCD in Windows to edit the boot to add debian, it makes it so much easier.

https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

much thanks, will definitely try tomorrow (it's late now in my time zone).

[Searing]

hey i've been banging my head on a wall off and on for 2 months trying to get these gekko miners on an old compaq evo n800v miner with unbuntu 12.04

does anyone have a link for the bfgminer...i go to the page and hit the apt-get install bfgminer and zippo...got squat and as a 'newbie tool' I know not how

to get it off github an install etc (using unbuntu 12.04 up to this point just with putty to monitor my 2 knc titan scrypt miners...so below newbie status on such stuff)

http://bfgminer.org/


So my question is ..as an IDIOT how idiot proof is this to get running? Assuming I can get a version that works with unbuntu 12.04 on my ...(too old ro  run xp nor
any version of unbuntu beyond 12.04...ie free laptops they are) junk monitor compaq evo n800v laptops is it as simple as

1) install with apt-get command wherever the hell the file is

and

2) use the command on the post above (after plugging it into my dual usb to 1 port cable with a gekko miner ..we will worry about 10 port hubs later)


bfgminer.exe -o stratum+tcp://mint.bitminter.com:3333 -O username --set compac:clock=150


and viola ..supposedly it works? (or talking linux I'm in dream land?)

anyway help appreciated ..what is frustrating is I got this to work 2 months ago on a test machine with cgminer (in this thread) and have had no luck since so just gonna give up on cgminer and move to bfgminer .someone said drivers are in this build for the gekko sticks?.....assuming SOMEONE on here is running such with the 'linux' flavor of whatever

again whole point is to use the machines (free) that are too old to upgrade past xp and run unbuntu 12.04 just fine (still upgrades 12.04 does not an issue yet as too old...but as high as they seem to goon unbuntu anyway is 12.04..graphics card wise)
 
so anyway ....some help is appreciated...I will post my results here and in a thread for other lost souls should i get it to work (fat lot of good that did me with cgminer but hey got have faith ..monkey with keyboard that I am with such stuff ...only have run knc stuff ever....plug and play...befuddled I am with all this stuff for the gekko sticks anyway again ..got it to
work 1x on my equiv same compaq evo n800v test laptop at work and never got it to work again and cgminer ..but gotta punt after 2 months off an on..an't gonna fly ..thus my any bfgminer help would be golden

anyway ...good to have a 'quest' i guess...keeps me home and frustrated not spending money on this 'get a life' people keep talking about

thanks for the help

[aarons6]

hey i've been banging my head on a wall off and on for 2 months trying to get these gekko miners on an old compaq evo n800v miner with unbuntu 12.04

does anyone have a link for the bfgminer...i go to the page and hit the apt-get install bfgminer and zippo...got squat and as a 'newbie tool' I know not how

to get it off github an install etc (using unbuntu 12.04 up to this point just with putty to monitor my 2 knc titan scrypt miners...so below newbie status on such stuff)

http://bfgminer.org/


So my question is ..as an IDIOT how idiot proof is this to get running? Assuming I can get a version that works with unbuntu 12.04 on my ...(too old ro  run xp nor
any version of unbuntu beyond 12.04...ie free laptops they are) junk monitor compaq evo n800v laptops is it as simple as

1) install with apt-get command wherever the hell the file is

and

2) use the command on the post above (after plugging it into my dual usb to 1 port cable with a gekko miner ..we will worry about 10 port hubs later)


bfgminer.exe -o stratum+tcp://mint.bitminter.com:3333 -O username --set compac:clock=150


and viola ..supposedly it works? (or talking linux I'm in dream land?)

anyway help appreciated ..what is frustrating is I got this to work 2 months ago on a test machine with cgminer (in this thread) and have had no luck since so just gonna give up on cgminer and move to bfgminer .someone said drivers are in this build for the gekko sticks?.....assuming SOMEONE on here is running such with the 'linux' flavor of whatever

again whole point is to use the machines (free) that are too old to upgrade past xp and run unbuntu 12.04 just fine (still upgrades 12.04 does not an issue yet as too old...but as high as they seem to goon unbuntu anyway is 12.04..graphics card wise)
 
so anyway ....some help is appreciated...I will post my results here and in a thread for other lost souls should i get it to work (fat lot of good that did me with cgminer but hey got have faith ..monkey with keyboard that I am with such stuff ...only have run knc stuff ever....plug and play...befuddled I am with all this stuff for the gekko sticks anyway again ..got it to
work 1x on my equiv same compaq evo n800v test laptop at work and never got it to work again and cgminer ..but gotta punt after 2 months off an on..an't gonna fly ..thus my any bfgminer help would be golden

anyway ...good to have a 'quest' i guess...keeps me home and frustrated not spending money on this 'get a life' people keep talking about

thanks for the help

the apt-get of bfgminer is hella old..

to get from git you first install git.
sudo apt-get install git

then its

git clone http://github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer


this will make a folder called bfgminer
cd bfgminer
then
sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool pkg-config libcurl4-gnutls-dev libjansson-dev uthash-dev libncursesw5-dev libudev-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libevent-dev libmicrohttpd-dev hidapi

run ./autogen.sh  ./configure and make.

[zOU]

Here's a work in progress photo:



Both fans are controlled with a temp sensor that I will attach to 1 heatsink.

There's a plastic sheet to orient airflow, but that will probably change to a full tunnel between the 2 fans.

USB doctors + Sticks will rest on the black and white bars with the heatsink located between the fans.

I'm still searching for a USB hub capable of running 6 sticks, as the superbpag can't be shipped to EU due to some missing certifications...

In the meantime they run off 2 hubs...

[ChEd1980]

Novak's cgminer now has bitshopper Compac support built right in. My bitshopper stick is still running alongside a gekko Compac and a U2 without any complaints, been going since the 22nd.

150MHz should get you 8.25GH average. Since your stick is recognized as something other than a Compac, it's probably defaulting to 225MHz so you see 12.25GH.

The white light not flashing during hashing is a hardware problem with the LED trigger circuit. The bitshopper and gekko Compacs were based off not just the same design, but the same design files - excepting a few cosmetic differences in color and silkscreen (and one tiny error in the volt-setting circuit which was found in gekko sticks and fixed for bitshopper), the two PCBs are identical. Since your host is receiving shares, you know it's not a problem with the signal line; this signal line drives a small trigger with an RC delay to give a long-enough pulse on the white LED for it to actually be visible to humans. The meat of this is the two transistors, the diode, the resistor and the capacitor in a column immediately to the left of the LED. If the bottom transistor is not connected properly, or the diode is not connected properly, you will not see a flash. Check those two parts for dry joints and you'll likely have the answer.

Thanks Sidehack I'll check the solder joints when I get back from work today, it was definitely hashing fine so the flashes I saw may have related to when the PCB warmed up a bit whilst it was hashing as the joint probably expanded a tiny bit.

I'll download novaks cgminer again and give it another go as I have the earlier version without the bitshopper stick support I think.

[jstncheney]

Hey guys. So I'm back with a little issue. So, after getting my 3 miners in, ingot them all running on a 125hertz frequency. Well after toying with it, I slowly ramped up the frequency to 150. But for some reason I'll get 2 of them running, but the 3rd one never mines. Soni t ll pick up the stick in cgminer, but sit at 0. It just gives me an USB_SUCCESS error code. It'll retry it, and then it'll zombie out. But the miners power light is on, just not the process light. Could it be having too much coming out of the power outlet I'm using? I have 2 computers, 2 monitors, and the powered usb hub coming out of it.

[sidehack]

I'm assuming you already looked at the troubleshooting advice from the very first post of this thread.

[zOU]

Could it be having too much coming out of the power outlet I'm using? I have 2 computers, 2 monitors, and the powered usb hub coming out of it.

your wall outlet has nothing to do with it.

a USB2 ports will run it at default freq, a USB3 port slightly higher (500mA / 900mA).

ideally you should use a powered USB hub, or USB Y cables to get power from 2 ports.

[zOU]

Some crappy photos:

[philipma1957]

Some crappy photos:

I like the cooling setup a lot.

[sidehack]

Dude. Sex.

[cavaliersrus]

really like that cooling idea

i have a idea for cooling on these but i do not want to hack the stick cause i like them to much maybe next time im at hacks shop i will talk to him about the cooling idea i have

[zOU]

Thank you guys

I'm touched

I still have to optimize it as most of the airflow is wasted due to the heatsinks being small.

So I will probably make a sort of funnel to orient the flow closer to the sticks.

Or add another row of bars to have 2 levels, each with 3 sticks...

I have to think about it :p

They're running perfectly at 300Mhs, although quite hot....



I thought the input fan would be green too, but only the output fan has the LED.

[cavaliersrus]

zou look for a old dell computer they have a funnel your thinking of and i think it would be a good start to cool it then have another on exhaust and then plexi inbetween to make kinda like a wind tunnel

the thing im talking about is a green piece of plastic