GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread

[sidehack]

Not from my own experience - being the manufacturer, my setups tend to be somewhere between "cusom" and "industrial". There's a lot of good info in this thread but I don't think it's consolidated anywhere. I know the name "Superbpag" (or something like that) comes up a lot, and what, Anker? makes a good hub.

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[Zekeman]

Not from my own experience - being the manufacturer, my setups tend to be somewhere between "cusom" and "industrial". There's a lot of good info in this thread but I don't think it's consolidated anywhere. I know the name "Superbpag" (or something like that) comes up a lot, and what, Anker? makes a good hub.

Thank you so much sidehack... great support!

[gt_addict]

Well looks like the watercooled gekkos are on hold. Mountain bike needs sorting first, new bearings, cables and brakes 

If anyone would like to donate for the watercooled gekko project (all the parts cost around £125) I will gladly accept as mining is only a hobby for me as electricity is £0.13 per kwh here.

[Percivul]

Hey all... A little new to the bitmining world but so far I am having a blast... I bought a Gekko and had fun getting it up to 11Gh/s so I bought 3 more and a usb 3.0 hub.. a (Tendak 7 port) I set it all up I got cgiminer to recognize all 4 sticks and I attempted to go to 200mhz but was getting tons of hardware errors... I then went to 150 and seemed fine but each stick is only getting 5Gh/s.... So I just used one stick on port at 225 and it went to 14Gh/s no errors... I then tried to switch to a Saberent 9 port usb 3.0 hub because the power supply was bigger... but same results.. I am really not to familiar but does this have to do with adjusting voltage? If so do I go up or down and how does that work... Also for the record I have two fans running on them...

Any insight would be great!!

Edit: Running on a Windows 10 machine.

Well well, I remember those days.  Just getting setup with my first miners and whatnot.  It's exciting, isn't in?

But ok, on to your question.

What you're going to find is that many or even most USB hubs tend to talk the talk but can't walk the walk.  Here's what I can tell you...
The 2 things to look at when it comes to the hub itself is first, the rated AMPs that it supplies.  Anker, for example, makes a 60w 5A 10 port hub (USB 3) that SHOULD in theory give you that .9A across all ten ports as the volts and amps combined are just under 57 watts total.  Sadly, that's not how it actually works.

Many of the hubs you'll see will only be able to reliably handle 3-4 sticks running at stock or a little over before they'll either shut down or "reboot" depending on the firmware the hub is using.  This is due to the fact that the sticks generally will level out in amp draw depending on where the potentiometer is dialed at BUT you have to account for amp surges.  That is, the sticks will ramp up in hashing power (part of Novak's drivers) and as they due, the power draw also goes up and occasionally spikes.  So, if you have 3 sticks dialed into about 1A each and they all get hit with some hashes to tackle, they CAN ramp themselves up as much as 1.5A temporarily and then level out at 1-1.05 or so amps.

This isn't an issue when you only have 3-4 sticks as they'll be just under what the hub is IDEALLY rated at, but keep in mind that no 2 hubs are the same... even when they come from the same manufacturer.

In my case, I've gone through 3 different hubs in my quest to setup a series of sticks (I'm using 5) and the most I could get at one time using a ratio of power to hash was 3 stick at 1.2A each.  This gave me a really good hash rate per stick (295-310 frequency) but it also meant that between those 3 sticks and the .5A fan I was using for cooling, that was it for the hub.  Anymore and I'd deal with hub resets or stick drop offs.

So, the question you have to ask yourself is really simple.  Do you want to setup an array of sticks or just a handful.  If the answer is a handful, then a decent Anker or Sabrent hub rated at 5-6A will be fine, so long as you don't crowd the hub and it'll work great.

Now, if you're like me and want to really go for broke, there's a couple of things you can do to help eliminate the stick drop off problems.  First, spend the cash to get a decent INLINE (can't stress this part enough) USB power meter.  Amazon sells them and they're wonderful to use for ASIC mining as they can show you want volts and amps your sticks are pulling both in idle and hashing states.  Between that and tweaking the potentiometer, you can easily get 3 sticks running at 300 (about 15-17 GH/s) with little trouble, just keep a fan on them as they'll get hot and fast.  You can also get ahold of the 49 port USB 2 1A per port rated interface board that is a guaranteed means of running your miners.  That's what I'm going to invest in for my mini-mining farm.    Downside to this is it's a larger upfront capital investment and requires an ATX power supply but it also guarantees upwards of 30-40 sticks all overclocked and hashing along at break neck speed.

If you're just going for casual, stick to 2-3 per hub at a time to get a feel for it.  If you need more help with the power portion of all of this, let me know.  I'm no ace when it comes to the sticks and software themselves, but the hardware side of it... I gotcha covered.

[sidehack]

I use one of those 49-port hubs for testing, and some inline meters. I test batches of 25 at a time at 200MHz, which means around a 20-25A draw through the hub without any problems at all and I've been using it pretty much continually for going on a year. They're pretty nice.

If you have suitable skills and knowledge you can get a cheapo hub without current regulation, beef the 5V and ground rails, hook up a stout 5V PSU and wind up with a 100W-capable hub for not a lot of dollars.

[Percivul]

I use one of those 49-port hubs for testing, and some inline meters. I test batches of 25 at a time at 200MHz, which means around a 20-25A draw through the hub without any problems at all and I've been using it pretty much continually for going on a year. They're pretty nice.

If you have suitable skills and knowledge you can get a cheapo hub without current regulation, beef the 5V and ground rails, hook up a stout 5V PSU and wind up with a 100W-capable hub for not a lot of dollars.

I had considered going that route but I also wanted to try my hand at designing a hub setup that wouldn't require much modification on the part of the user.  Something that might even encourage people to give stick mining more than a single look, if you get my meaning. 

[Zekeman]

I use one of those 49-port hubs for testing, and some inline meters. I test batches of 25 at a time at 200MHz, which means around a 20-25A draw through the hub without any problems at all and I've been using it pretty much continually for going on a year. They're pretty nice.

If you have suitable skills and knowledge you can get a cheapo hub without current regulation, beef the 5V and ground rails, hook up a stout 5V PSU and wind up with a 100W-capable hub for not a lot of dollars.

Percivul,

First off! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Very helpful and insight full... I will def take you up on your offer to help me get them tuned right... I am still a little unsure of the volts and all and where the screw should be set as for factory default... I kinda of messed with them a little.. but got 3 of them running at 12 g/hs on a Tendak USB hub.. messing with the voltage and set the frequency at 240 mhz (Just ordered the anker 10 port newer version) and a usb meter...

I am sure this isn't set right... but looking forward to getting it worked out..

[Percivul]

I use one of those 49-port hubs for testing, and some inline meters. I test batches of 25 at a time at 200MHz, which means around a 20-25A draw through the hub without any problems at all and I've been using it pretty much continually for going on a year. They're pretty nice.

If you have suitable skills and knowledge you can get a cheapo hub without current regulation, beef the 5V and ground rails, hook up a stout 5V PSU and wind up with a 100W-capable hub for not a lot of dollars.

Percivul,

First off! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Very helpful and insight full... I will def take you up on your offer to help me get them tuned right... I am still a little unsure of the volts and all and where the screw should be set as for factory default... I kinda of messed with them a little.. but got 3 of them running at 12 g/hs on a Tendak USB hub.. messing with the voltage and set the frequency at 240 mhz (Just ordered the anker 10 port newer version) and a usb meter...

I am sure this isn't set right... but looking forward to getting it worked out..

Alright, well let me know once you have your gear and we'll get you setup and hashing.  One thing I'd say is that if you're only wanting to do a handful, it should be easy enough but if you think this is something that you'd like to setup for heavier farming, you'll either need several hubs or the 49 port Sidehack and I have been talking about.  Just be sure before we get started which direction you want to go.

Last point of interest is this...  Do you pay for power?  If you do, you will NOT see a return on investment (just so you're aware).  If you're fortunate like I am to have a place to set these up where power isn't an issue, you CAN see a return on the investment but it's going to take a long time and you have to learn all about coin rotations and pools (if you don't already know).

Never fear though...  I'm getting pretty learned in what to hash, where to hash it and all that.

[Zekeman]

I use one of those 49-port hubs for testing, and some inline meters. I test batches of 25 at a time at 200MHz, which means around a 20-25A draw through the hub without any problems at all and I've been using it pretty much continually for going on a year. They're pretty nice.

If you have suitable skills and knowledge you can get a cheapo hub without current regulation, beef the 5V and ground rails, hook up a stout 5V PSU and wind up with a 100W-capable hub for not a lot of dollars.

Percivul,

First off! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Very helpful and insight full... I will def take you up on your offer to help me get them tuned right... I am still a little unsure of the volts and all and where the screw should be set as for factory default... I kinda of messed with them a little.. but got 3 of them running at 12 g/hs on a Tendak USB hub.. messing with the voltage and set the frequency at 240 mhz (Just ordered the anker 10 port newer version) and a usb meter...

I am sure this isn't set right... but looking forward to getting it worked out..

Alright, well let me know once you have your gear and we'll get you setup and hashing.  One thing I'd say is that if you're only wanting to do a handful, it should be easy enough but if you think this is something that you'd like to setup for heavier farming, you'll either need several hubs or the 49 port Sidehack and I have been talking about.  Just be sure before we get started which direction you want to go.

Last point of interest is this...  Do you pay for power?  If you do, you will NOT see a return on investment (just so you're aware).  If you're fortunate like I am to have a place to set these up where power isn't an issue, you CAN see a return on the investment but it's going to take a long time and you have to learn all about coin rotations and pools (if you don't already know).

Never fear though...  I'm getting pretty learned in what to hash, where to hash it and all that.

I am ready when you are... have 5 sticks for now and the 10 port hub... you let me know when you are ready and ill PM you...

[Percivul]

I use one of those 49-port hubs for testing, and some inline meters. I test batches of 25 at a time at 200MHz, which means around a 20-25A draw through the hub without any problems at all and I've been using it pretty much continually for going on a year. They're pretty nice.

If you have suitable skills and knowledge you can get a cheapo hub without current regulation, beef the 5V and ground rails, hook up a stout 5V PSU and wind up with a 100W-capable hub for not a lot of dollars.

Percivul,

First off! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Very helpful and insight full... I will def take you up on your offer to help me get them tuned right... I am still a little unsure of the volts and all and where the screw should be set as for factory default... I kinda of messed with them a little.. but got 3 of them running at 12 g/hs on a Tendak USB hub.. messing with the voltage and set the frequency at 240 mhz (Just ordered the anker 10 port newer version) and a usb meter...

I am sure this isn't set right... but looking forward to getting it worked out..

Alright, well let me know once you have your gear and we'll get you setup and hashing.  One thing I'd say is that if you're only wanting to do a handful, it should be easy enough but if you think this is something that you'd like to setup for heavier farming, you'll either need several hubs or the 49 port Sidehack and I have been talking about.  Just be sure before we get started which direction you want to go.

Last point of interest is this...  Do you pay for power?  If you do, you will NOT see a return on investment (just so you're aware).  If you're fortunate like I am to have a place to set these up where power isn't an issue, you CAN see a return on the investment but it's going to take a long time and you have to learn all about coin rotations and pools (if you don't already know).

Never fear though...  I'm getting pretty learned in what to hash, where to hash it and all that.

I am ready when you are... have 5 sticks for now and the 10 port hub... you let me know when you are ready and ill PM you...

Go for it.

[antalvdb]

N00b troubleshooting... I have not been able to find the answer to my problem but apologies if I missed it somewhere in this support thread.

I've had my GekkoScience Compac running (at about 11 GH/s) for a day. Returning to see how it did last night, I see it had stopped working at some point. Cgminer (the gekko patch) reports getting no valid hashes from the miner. It attempts to reset the miner, getting the message err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS.

The miner's led is constantly white, not green or blinking green/white. It seems to have no visible damage.

Hope I didn't fry it. Input welcome! Thanks for your help!

[gt_addict]

Welcome.

First things first we need to know how you are running it. powered hub or non-powered hub? Where abouts is the voltage dial set? What freq have you got it set at? Pictures would be useful 

[antalvdb]

Welcome.

First things first we need to know how you are running it. powered hub or non-powered hub? Where abouts is the voltage dial set? What freq have you got it set at? Pictures would be useful 

Of course... and thanks for the welcome 

I'm running it from one of the USB ports in the back of my HP Proliant Linux server. The voltage dial is set on factory settings; I've tried a half clockwise turn up and also down, but returned to (more or less) factory settings. Hard to tell what it is actually set to, how do you tell?

I had it running at clock 230.

Not sure how to post a picture here.

Thanks for your time!

[aarons6]

Welcome.

First things first we need to know how you are running it. powered hub or non-powered hub? Where abouts is the voltage dial set? What freq have you got it set at? Pictures would be useful 

Of course... and thanks for the welcome 

I'm running it from one of the USB ports in the back of my HP Proliant Linux server. The voltage dial is set on factory settings; I've tried a half clockwise turn up and also down, but returned to (more or less) factory settings. Hard to tell what it is actually set to, how do you tell?

I had it running at clock 230.

Not sure how to post a picture here.

Thanks for your time!

most likely your error message is from the usb port being overloaded and turning off and back on..

on a stock non powered usb port (the ones on the back of a computer), you will have a hard time getting above 150M.. which is around 8.25ghs.
you said it was running at 11 ghs.. that is around 200M.. which is more than 600ma probably around 750 or 800.. 900ma or so is 225M..

you can either get a good powered hub that can do 1a per port, or you can try to lower the speed to 125-150..

[gt_addict]

As said above a powered hub is best. Alternatively you can get a "Y" type USB splitter cable and use two ports to power one gekko. To check what the core voltage is set at there are terminals on the back. Get a multimeter and put positive on "vccore" and negative on "gnd" that should show you what the core voltage is. I run mine on a powered hub with Ycables going to USB ports on an Atx breakout board aswell so they've got plenty of juice. Currently running at 230m and core voltage is about 0.65-0.68v.

[antalvdb]

Welcome.

First things first we need to know how you are running it. powered hub or non-powered hub? Where abouts is the voltage dial set? What freq have you got it set at? Pictures would be useful 

Of course... and thanks for the welcome 

I'm running it from one of the USB ports in the back of my HP Proliant Linux server. The voltage dial is set on factory settings; I've tried a half clockwise turn up and also down, but returned to (more or less) factory settings. Hard to tell what it is actually set to, how do you tell?

I had it running at clock 230.

Not sure how to post a picture here.

Thanks for your time!

most likely your error message is from the usb port being overloaded and turning off and back on..

on a stock non powered usb port (the ones on the back of a computer), you will have a hard time getting above 150M.. which is around 8.25ghs.
you said it was running at 11 ghs.. that is around 200M.. which is more than 600ma probably around 750 or 800.. 900ma or so is 225M..

you can either get a good powered hub that can do 1a per port, or you can try to lower the speed to 125-150..

OK, good, thanks for the tip. I did get to 230m for about a full day, but I understand this should not really be possible with the 500 mA that the port provides at best.

Lowering the speed to 150m over the non-powered USB does not help when running cgminer again; the stick does not respond. The white led is continuously on (no green, no blinking). Errors that I get are

COMPAC 0: No valid hashes for over 10 secs, attempting to reset
COMPAC 0 attempted reset got err:(0) LIBUSB_SUCCESS
...
COMPAC 0: Device failed to respond to restart
COMPAC 0 failure, disabling!

Any tips welcome...

[gt_addict]

Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it in a few times while cgminer is running? The gekko version of cgminer allows for hotplugging of devices.

[Mikestang]

Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it in a few times while cgminer is running? The gekko version of cgminer allows for hotplugging of devices.

I think all versions of cgminer support hot plugging devices, it was one of the things I used to have to do to get my U3 to hash.

[gt_addict]

Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it in a few times while cgminer is running? The gekko version of cgminer allows for hotplugging of devices.

I think all versions of cgminer support hot plugging devices, it was one of the things I used to have to do to get my U3 to hash.

My mistake. Ive always run everything on the gekko version 

[Percivul]

Ok, so a little more testing and I think I may have found a weak point with the USB mining.  Seems if you string more than 3 in series on an Anker hub, they'll all start resetting and this is regardless of the speed you run them at.

In my case, if I have just 3 of them on the hub, I can push 315-317 frequency and they'll hum along nicely.  Add a 4th one and they'll start dropping all over the place.  I'm assuming this has something to do with the bandwidth of the bus architecture itself as I can't see another reason for it.  I've checked power, it's not that.  I've lowered clocks down to factory or even lower (90-150) and it's the same results.

Do the Gekko chips not have any kind of memory caching built in?  I realize that it might be bit extreme for a USB miner, but it never hurts to find out.  I imagine if these chips has some sort of memory management, they wouldn't need to poll the USB port so much and you could probably fill a hub up and run like crazy, but I'm not an expert in this area.

SO, am I just configuring them wrong or is this more or less the ceiling for the Gekko sticks (2-3 per hub)?