GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread

[NotFuzzyWarm]

@ Sidehack, since this does relate to the sticks, about a point on your To-Do/In Progress list in another thread:

High power 7-port USB hub (6-24VDC, per-port current limiting adjustable to 3A), initial design

I've been thinking for a while it should be a great product for you to make/sell. Both for miners and Industrial use. Tried COTS powered hubs in our systems - terrible lifetime. Now use Tripplite's Industrial hubs. Very nice and in no respects cheap.

Per-port current limiting good idea but be sure to back that up with a self-resetting PTC 'fuse' either also per-port or at least for the incoming power.

[sidehack]

What I'm working on right now has a manual master adjustment which means every port will have the same limit but it'll be user-determined. When any one port exceeds that limit, power for that port will be latched off until the user resets it manually - I'll have a button on there for each port, and probably a bi-color status LED. I'm not a fan of self-resetting because if the problem persists you'll just end up with something cycling until there's manual intervention anyway or something burns up and then what was the point.

I'll probably add an eighth port that's power only, for charging or fans or whatever. Looking at the same 7-port controller used in the 49-port Eyeboot hub (and a couple others I have) since I know it's decent.

I like the idea of the wide input voltage range. I'll have both a barrel jack and 6-pin for input, and the barrel jack means you could use something like a 20V laptop brick if you wanted. Course if you wanted to pull 3A per port and used a 12V brick you'd end up melting the jack like an idiot, so that's one point of concern. But idiots are gonna find a way to mess things up anyway.

Novak and I talked about building something like this over a year ago but we got sidetracked.

[ZedZedNova]

But if you sell the hub and PSU, what are you gonna do when a newer better stick comes out?

You have another miner project going? Inquiring miners want to know. 

I'll probably add an eighth port that's power only, for charging or fans or whatever. Looking at the same 7-port controller used in the 49-port Eyeboot hub (and a couple others I have) since I know it's decent.

I like the idea of the wide input voltage range. I'll have both a barrel jack and 6-pin for input, and the barrel jack means you could use something like a 20V laptop brick if you wanted. Course if you wanted to pull 3A per port and used a 12V brick you'd end up melting the jack like an idiot, so that's one point of concern. But idiots are gonna find a way to mess things up anyway.

I'd definitely be interested in an 8-port hub.

If there is a new GekkoScience Compac USB miner with a newer hashing chip in the works, I'd be interested in that, too. My current Compac is pretty near bulletproof hashing away at 325 MHz as a lottery miner.

Cheers,

- zed

[-EOS-]

+1 for being interested in a newer GekkoScience Compac USB!!!    Love those things

[MCHII]

Hello,

I have two gekkoscience miners. One I bought a while ago and another I recently bought. I was able to successfully run the first miner I got, but I'm having trouble with the second one.

I'm using the version of cgminer that is posted on this thread (the one that is modified for this miner). As soon as I start cgminer, I get an error saying that the miner hasn't submitted a hash for more than 10 seconds. Then I get another error saying that cgminer has tried to restart the miner, but it was unsucesfful due to the error: libusb_sucess. And this error keeps on repeating.

I've tried reinstalling the zadig drivers and have played around with the voltage dial on the miner as well as changing the .bat file configurations. This is my configuration:

cgminer.exe -o the pool I'm using -u my username -p mypassword --compac-freq 170

As I've mentioned I've played around with different clock speeds.

I'm using a powered usb hub (the same hub I used to power the first gekkominer I got). I am not plugging in the two at the same time, so I know it's not some kind of a conflict error or power issue. This miner simply won't mine even when nothing else is connected.

What can I do to fix this error? I'm literally using the exact same conditions as I did for the first gekkominer.

In addition, I noticed that on the back of the gekkominer (where the chip would be on the front side) is a brown spot, almost like a burn mark....like the chip might have been fried. I've included a picture for you guys to see. The bottom one is my original miner for comparison and the one on top is what I recently bought. Should I be concerned with this brown spot?

Here is the link: http://imgur.com/mpZbFIn

I guess my question is: Could this chip be dead? Or am I just inputting something wrong?

I would love some help!

[sidehack]

That looks like a first-batch version and I would guess it was run very hot for a very long time. Probably the chip is toast. Who did you buy it from?

I'm assuming you've tried unplugging the stick and plugging it back in while cgminer is running. Does the stick get warm at all when it's plugged in with cgminer running? Have you looked over the troubleshooting steps in the first post, or searched the thread for advice on similar problems?

[MCHII]

That looks like a first-batch version and I would guess it was run very hot for a very long time. Probably the chip is toast. Who did you buy it from?

I'm assuming you've tried unplugging the stick and plugging it back in while cgminer is running. Does the stick get warm at all when it's plugged in with cgminer running? Have you looked over the troubleshooting steps in the first post, or searched the thread for advice on similar problems?

Thanks for the reply. Yes I've tried searching the forum for similar issues but found nothing. I've done just about every kind of trouble shooting including unplugging and plugging the stick in while cgminer is running.

Yes the chip does get hot when cgminer is running. What does that mean? So you basically think the chip is fried?

I got it off of ebay

[sidehack]

If the chip warms up but the LED never flashes white, I'd consider that it is hashing but the return data isn't getting back to the USB chip. That would indicate a bad solder joint on the ASIC. Or the ASIC is toast and it's just pulling power but not working. Either way, I'd first talk to the guy you bought it from and then talk to the manufacturer about fixing it.

[MCHII]

The manufacturer? I thought these guys were discontinued?

[sidehack]

(I am the manufacturer)

[MCHII]

Wow! Well this is certainly nice. If you don't mind I'll send you a pm and tell you more about what's going on.

[Buchi-88]

Is there a setting for the miner to run only passive?

https://www.bitshopper.de/shop/sha-256-miner/usb-miner-bitcoin/compac/

regards

[gt_addict]

Wow! Well this is certainly nice. If you don't mind I'll send you a pm and tell you more about what's going on.

Have you tried starting it at a lower frequency (150m) then working it up once it's warmed up and got running? A bit shopper stick I've got took upto 10times plugging and unplugging getting the same errors you have got before it would start.

[vayvanne]

+1 for being interested in a newer GekkoScience Compac USB!!!    Love those things

+ me too

[andymanone]

Several people asked me the last days if and when I will restock:

EU Version (bitshopper.de manufactured) of GekkoScience BM1384 Compac US stick miners officially sold out.
Additional production batches not planned due to unavailability of ASICs from Bitmain.
 

Not sure, if other guys was asking it before , but is in the near future a new (maybe BM1387-based) USB-Miner planned?

Thanks
andY

[MrKaizerSoze]

Several people asked me the last days if and when I will restock:

EU Version (bitshopper.de manufactured) of GekkoScience BM1384 Compac US stick miners officially sold out.
Additional production batches not planned due to unavailability of ASICs from Bitmain.
 

Not sure, if other guys was asking it before , but is in the near future a new (maybe BM1387-based) USB-Miner planned?

Thanks
andY

If so, them this thread wont has this name 

[BTCTT]

hi,

I can't seems to make it work on Mint (ubuntu 16.04)

the usb stick is not recognized... using BFGminer

anyone had the same issue?

tks,

[gt_addict]

hi,

I can't seems to make it work on Mint (ubuntu 16.04)

the usb stick is not recognized... using BFGminer

anyone had the same issue?

tks,

Have you checked the whole of this thread? have you checked the BFGminer thread aswell? Your question has most likely been covered. Maybe try using the search function of the forum aswell

[BTCTT]

hi,

I can't seems to make it work on Mint (ubuntu 16.04)

the usb stick is not recognized... using BFGminer

anyone had the same issue?

tks,

Have you checked the whole of this thread? have you checked the BFGminer thread aswell? Your question has most likely been covered. Maybe try using the search function of the forum aswell

yes I did haven't found anything.... ;(

[irritant]

hi,

I can't seems to make it work on Mint (ubuntu 16.04)

the usb stick is not recognized... using BFGminer

anyone had the same issue?

tks,

Have you checked the whole of this thread? have you checked the BFGminer thread aswell? Your question has most likely been covered. Maybe try using the search function of the forum aswell

yes I did haven't found anything.... ;(

try running it as administrator