GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread

[Mikestang]

I found a freakin block with a Compac on Bitminter --  

Nice, now don't you wish you were mining solo :p

I do- I will post pic tomorrow

So.... got the picture showing a block solve on the compac stick?  It's quite a claim to make and then let a week go by without supporting evidence.

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[bctmke]

I'm running on a linux server (ubuntu 15.10) that is an old repurposed desktop with a 7-port superpbag hub using y-cables to three sticks.

Each stick is set to about .77 and I see this error with freqs from 250-350 (i don't touch the voltage in between).

The original compac stick has always run on this hub and it never has a problem.

Stick 2121 never initializes in cgminer anymore - the light goes white then green and then stays there.  Tried dropping it into a windows machine and no difference.  If i take my original stick (268) and toss it onto that same windows box - works great.
Stick 2125 generally plays nice but HAS gone off into the weeds once or twice.
Stick 268 has never had a problem on any machine / setting.

I have taken 2121 and put it directly into another USB port on the server and jacked the freq WAY down - nothing.  I've tossed it onto a windows machine - zadiag and all.  Cgminer never can detect it.

such a weird issue.

Quick follow up on this.  I sent the stick back to sidehack as none of the changes / testing I made showed it working in any manner (the other batch 2 stick that I have is happily hashing away).

He turned it around within a week and its on its way back to me.  He believes to have found an ASIC problem (if he remembers correctly since he did a number of repairs around the same time).  I encourage anyone who might be having issues to send them back to him and be patient.  He'll get the issue sorted and get it back to you.  Great service (not surprising at all).

I'll report back once I have it and have tested it.

[sidehack]

I encourage anyone who might be having issues to first look through the first couple pages of this support thread, try the search bar to see if info is posted by others about the same problem you're having, and then if you still can't find an answer ask me directly but be prepared to give detailed information, the acquisition of which might actually require you to learn some new things. And then if we can't get it going I'll tell you to send it back for repairs, and what the process for that is. Don't just start mailing me broken stuff. Unless I know it's coming and who it's from and why, I'll assume it's a birthday present and you won't get it back.

But yeah, the other day I fixed three sticks. One had a bad ASIC, one had a manufacturing defect (whoops), and three (from the same guy) looked like they had been overvolted on the USB jack which cooked a USB chip, two buck drivers and an ASIC. His was either the bad ASIC or the manufacture defect, but I'm betting it was the bad ASIC since the other one was actually a first-run (V0.5) stick and the part in question has been removed in the current batch (V0.6) design.

[JeffZwolle]

The closest I have ever been.
Just missing a factor 19.

[earlmo]

The closest I have ever been.
Just missing a factor 19.

Just one zero (and some change) shy.  Very nice.  Still waiting for my first billion.

.earl

[hedgy73]

The closest I have ever been.
Just missing a factor 19.

Very nice . Well and truly beats my best share of 1 billion a few months ago.

[zOU]

yep I keep having ideas...


Now I just brought my 2 heatsink to be drill/tapered at the local workshop....80$ ( for 2 heatsink paid 6$ :p)

well, 13 days later and the job is not done, so i collected my untouched heatsink.

Alledgedly the guy didn't have time to do it.

i understand I'm not a high priority customer, but that was a quick and easy job for them and money on the side as I didn't need an invoice.

Well, i guess they won't see me for other project I may have.

I will ask my godfather as he's in this business and he'll do it for free, although he lives 35miles away... so 2 return trips...

[aarons6]

yep I keep having ideas...


Now I just brought my 2 heatsink to be drill/tapered at the local workshop....80$ ( for 2 heatsink paid 6$ :p)

well, 13 days later and the job is not done, so i collected my untouched heatsink.

Alledgedly the guy didn't have time to do it.

i understand I'm not a high priority customer, but that was a quick and easy job for them and money on the side as I didn't need an invoice.

Well, i guess they won't see me for other project I may have.

I will ask my godfather as he's in this business and he'll do it for free, although he lives 35miles away... so 2 return trips...

for 80$ you can buy a drill bit, punch and a tap and do it in about 20 minutes..

[zOU]

I know....

but as I said, I don't trust myself to do it perfectly.... and this has to be perfect, there's no room for mistake.

- I don't have spare heatsink (which is a mistake, I could have ordered a couple more)
- If I F*** up the last bits, then I have to re-do everything as all 3 sticks are side by side, and with that I increase the chance of making another mistake.
- drilling/tapering aluminium is tricky
- hole are to be drilled at 0.5mm precise point.... I don't have anything to measure at 0.5mm..... and to be acurate I would need a decent press drill
- hole/thread have to be perfectly vertical for good pressure on the stick without damaging the chip.

[drew_ii]

https://i.imgur.com/sTGLANC.jpg

Is that a big deal?  Should I bridge it down?

(and I have no idea why imgur isn't doing anything other than a link - noob)

[sidehack]

I check for that, but I guess one slipped through. Yeah, make sure it's tied in. Shouldn't be a problem; I overspec'd the output caps pretty good for ripple and stability but if it's there it might as well work right?

[drew_ii]

I check for that, but I guess one slipped through. Yeah, make sure it's tied in. Shouldn't be a problem; I overspec'd the output caps pretty good for ripple and stability but if it's there it might as well work right?

Will across to its neighbor do, or do I have to go down to the board?  its a large gap, I don't have hot air, and to heat that much mass i'd need a big tip at a moderate/high temp no?  Its a Weller adjustable pen, I'd give you the model and tip info but I can't lay hands on it now, but i have 0.25mm tips up to honkers at least 1.5 or 2mm across if not larger, lots of mass to them.  Temp pot (analog) goes from like 550/600 to 850/900 I believe.  Probably would need a new tip, oxidized to hell and back it would be by now.

I might could melt the down side and push the cap down closer to the board on the up side.  Its already touching (if not soldered) to its neighbor, and continuity is good (strong constant beep, 0 on the meter), resistance shows the same between middle and left (both on their pads) as compared to middle to right (one up one down) at .9 ohm (on 200 ohm scale).

If down to the pad, flood it with enough solder to fill the entire gap?  Or try the push down mentioned earlier?

Ty.

Drew

[zOU]

Is that a big deal?  Should I bridge it down?

(and I have no idea why imgur isn't doing anything other than a link - noob)

Because you do not have enough posts

[drew_ii]

(and I have no idea why imgur isn't doing anything other than a link - noob)

Because you do not have enough posts

Thanks for the explanation!

[Wutti]

I have a couple questions regarding my 3 compacs.

I have them running at 300mhz and the pot at 9o'clock without any hw errors. But my killawatt is measuring each at about 10.5watts or 32watt total. That sounds high right? Was expecting 7watt range.

Also measured the heatsink passively cooled and it is reading 90ish deg celsius, after 2 minutes. This is quite hot. anyone tried mounting a small 50mm or 60mm on each sticks heatsink, and how low do the temps go?

Tks.

[cavaliersrus]

if i remember right if your running them at 300 passive cooled with no fan thats not a good idee

stuff degrades after heat starts to kick in

your best bet would to be buy a usb powered fan and have it blowing on the sticks

[sidehack]

Yes, pretty much any time you go over 150-200MHz you should provide airflow to keep 'em cool.

What happens to your error rate when you turn the voltage down and keep it at 300MHz? Additionally, when chips get hot they actually draw more current for the same work, so keeping it running cooler will increase the per-unit efficiency.

Additionally, if that's one of the batch 2 Compacs, I can't guarantee overclockability because they're pulled chips. I test everything to stable at 640mV 200MHz (same as the Batch 1 sticks with new ASICs), and if it takes more than 660mV to level out it gets rejected and I replace the ASIC. But since "overclock" is by definition not a standard state and not really controllable, and a waste of my time to test on every stick, I don't guarantee overclock performance on anything. Hopefully it's not that far out of spec and you just have the voltage turned higher than it needs to be.

[gt_addict]

Hi sidehack, I've got a dead U3 would the chips be any good for a USB stick? I'd like one but obviously can't get them anymore. Would it be able to be run from a standard hub (non powered) through an Antrouter?

Thanks.

[sidehack]

No. The U3 chips are worse than what I'm currently working with and it's not worth revamping a design for 4 sticks. They'd end up costing twice as much for half the hashrate.

[gt_addict]

No problem. Worth a go. Thanks for getting back to me