GekkoScience is now dabbling with 16nm ASICs for new designs

[isoneguy]

Since I'll be moving a lot of sticks first, both 2Pacs and Bitfury sticks, I'm also working on a USB hub (project "Aardwolf"). Here's the plan at present: 8 ports, seven active and one power only (fan maybe?). Takes in 12V through either a barrel or PCIe jack. There'll be a 3-position selector switch for 60W, 96W and 120+W input power, so if you're using a 12V5A brick, 12V8A brick, or high-current PCIe there'll be a safety limit how much power the hub will draw before kicking out. There'll also be a knob for adjusting available per-port output current between 0.5A and 3A. There'll be an internal monitor on each port and when a port exceeds the limit it'll be turned off (and the status LED will go red). A global reset button will re-enable all ports with one press. That's the plan so far anyway.

8 ports, seven with data and one power-only which can be used for a fan. I'll probably build it fairly open like the Eyeboot 49-port, where it's got a top and bottom panel but no solid sides so innards can get some airflow. The regulator circuit will need to push at most 24A, and I've already tested the circuit I'll be using to higher current draw than that. So yeah you should be able to run a high-power miner from each port. Oh yeah and each port has a big bypass capacitor to help out with load transients.

I like the idea of running pci-e, everything else is ran off it...would allow me to run the hub off a gpu rig.

Could you bundle this with a psu? Or have the option for it? Not everyone has power already available.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Actually, I assume the hub will use a 12v supply to feed 5v regulators inside it. Keeps the current down for a (probable) barrel jack and lets us use whatever 12v supply we have. Correct? A terminal strip would be a nice alternative - easy to wire to.

[sidehack]

No need to assume, all of that's been stated repeatedly. There will definitely be a barrel jack and PCIe, hence why I have a switch on there for the user to let the hub know how much power is available - 60W, 96W, 120+W for 5A brick, 8A brick, or high-current PCIe respectively.

I'd like to make one that'd run off 20+ volt so a laptop brick could be used for full power at barrel currents, but that'd require a substantial redesign of the regulator. Maybe someday. Before that happens I'd probably build this guy a big brother like a 20-port that takes in power from 2x PCIe and quite possibly a couple screw terminals. In a bigger hub there'd be more room for options like that.

[isoneguy]

I'd like to make one that'd run off 20+ volt so a laptop brick could be used for full power at barrel currents, but that'd require a substantial redesign of the regulator. Maybe someday. Before that happens I'd probably build this guy a big brother like a 20-port that takes in power from 2x PCIe and quite possibly a couple screw terminals. In a bigger hub there'd be more room for options like that.

How difficult would it be to make the big brother stackable/modular? You could buy a controller/host for $20 and then as many individually powered 7/8 port lanes as desired.

edit: Can you make a "common slot" adapter? Just build stackable breakout board/usb hubs

...ah I love ideas.

edit edit edit

[sidehack]

The thing about doing that is, every add-on "unit" would have a hub controller chip, regulator, current sensors, the works. It'd be internally an entire hub, except with a proprietary upstream connector, which makes it less useful than just a hub. To get more lanes, just buy more hubs and cable them together. USB is already modular.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

edit: Can you make a "common slot" adapter?

Sidehack already makes/sells a lil' HP CS breakout with terminal block connections for 8 +/- wire pairs. Just tie a PCIe cable or wires from a barrel cord to it and plug in...
edit: corrected wire pair count

[sidehack]

The HP common slot board can be made with 12x PCIe jacks or four 4-position screw terminas, two per rail, so only 8 pairs - probably just a typo. With a 1500W PSU you could actually drive 12 hubs at full power. That'd be like 3TH of 2Pacs. Or 11TH of the Bitfury stick.

[hurricandave]

I'd probably use the power port to run a RasPi and just connect a case fan to a Molex from the PSU. But would prefer a 10-port over 7.

[isoneguy]

I'd probably use the power port to run a RasPi and just connect a case fan to a Molex from the PSU. But would prefer a 10-port over 7.

10 port hubs are just a 7 and a 4 port hub inside a box.

[sidehack]

8 powered ports is comfortable for the amount of power going through the regulator. It also allows me to use the comfortable and affordable FE2.1 7-port USB hub chip that's in both the hub I use for bench testing all sticks and the Eyeboot 49-port that I'm using for burn-in testing. I believe it's a good chip because that bench test hub has been abused since I first started jacking with USB Block Erupters back around June 2013. It's also a good number of ports to keep track of with a microcontroller that'll need three different IO lines per port, without needing a humorously big chip or port multiplexers. Everyone's gonna want something different, and I do have to pay attention to what people want, but at the end of the day I make the decisions about what I design with my time and budget and the 7+1 powered hub is what I want to make. If it works well enough I might look into a bigger one, with the added complexities that will require. But for now the description and feature set I've given are exactly what it'll be.

Running a Pi off the power port is a good idea. That allows you to feed the Pi without having to remove a stick. I really only added the 8th port for symmetry in a 2x4 port configuration because I like two short rows more than one long row, but I think it'll end up being well worth it to have an extra port there just for power.

For anyone wondering, the internal 5V and upstream-USB 5V are not connected. The upstream 5V is only used for bus detection on the controller chip; nothing draws current from it at all. So there won't be any backfeed issues.

Also, I was really hoping to have this PCB layout done tonight but it's not looking likely. I've got all ports with meter and switching, and the whole power section, and the main limit switch and the per-port knob, but I haven't even started figuring out what micro pins will perform what functions, or even what ISP requirements will be. So I probably won't finish it until tomorrow. Oh well, no big loss but it would have been pretty sweet to say the whole thing was done over a weekend.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

The HP common slot board can be made with 12x PCIe jacks or four 4-position screw terminas, two per rail, so only 8 pairs - probably just a typo.

Um, not to dispute with the maker but I just looked at one of the CS breakouts I have from you -- 18 terminals on what looks to be a single strip giving 9 +/- pairs.

Grant you I got mine around mid-2014 so I take it you changed them?

[sidehack]

I didn't start making a common-slot breakout until 2015. The PCB has gone through three revisions: one with 4x 4-position terminals and 10x PCIe (Novak's first prototype) and two with 4x 4-postion terminals and 12x PCIe (Novak's production version and a revision). I built a DPS2000 breakout with 4x 6-position terminals and that's the only thing that didn't have either 2x (Dell 750W) or 4x (DPS800/HPCS) 4-position terminals. The only thing I was making in mid-2014 was the Dell 750W board. We tested DPS2000 prototypes in July but didn't start batching until later in the year.

All my breakout boards are also the same width as the PSUs they connect to. No way to match a 3.5" supply with 18 terminals in a row unless they're crappy and small, and I don't use crappy small terminals.

Check your breakout again. I bet it doesn't say GekkoScience.

[isoneguy]

For anyone wondering, the internal 5V and upstream-USB 5V are not connected. The upstream 5V is only used for bus detection on the controller chip; nothing draws current from it at all. So there won't be any backfeed issues.

I'm sold. Do you have 7 futurebits and/or du-1's to test on it?

[sidehack]

I do not. I've got Compacs, 2Pacs and decent collection of older sticks - NanoFury 2, NF6, Red Fury, Yellowjacket and the like, some U1 and U2, some Avalon Nano and them ones with a Greedseed chip. Those are all on the museum shelf. I haven't bought quantity of stickminers to actually mine with since USB Block Erupters were "cutting-edge" and most of those got hacked and sold ages ago.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

I didn't start making a common-slot breakout until 2015. The PCB has gone through three revisions: one with 4x 4-position terminals and 10x PCIe (Novak's first prototype) and two with 4x 4-postion terminals and 12x PCIe (Novak's production version and a revision). I built a DPS2000 breakout with 4x 6-position terminals and that's the only thing that didn't have either 2x (Dell 750W) or 4x (DPS800/HPCS) 4-position terminals. The only thing I was making in mid-2014 was the Dell 750W board. We tested DPS2000 prototypes in July but didn't start batching until later in the year.

All my breakout boards are also the same width as the PSUs they connect to. No way to match a 3.5" supply with 18 terminals in a row unless they're crappy and small, and I don't use crappy small terminals.

Check your breakout again. I bet it doesn't say GekkoScience.

I'll take a pic tomorrow. There is a big white "G" on the ones I have which I assume is the Gekko logo? I would have started using the HP 1200w CS supplies maybe late in the s3+ cycle and definitely for the s5's.

Hmm, the mystery deepens. Just looked at my emails with Gekkoscience and all I see is stuff re: the DPS2000 supplies and cables for them.

[sidehack]

No big white G, but it would have the CGOL-style logo as seen above. More likely it's a GigaMPZ board.

I see an email from 2/28 from you, but it's for DPS2000 breakout boards which have 12x terminal pairs. My first prototype HPCS boards were being tested on hosted S7 in December 2015 and didn't see manufacture until early 2016.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

More likely it's a GigaMPZ board.

THASS it!. Now I dismember finding them first...

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Now back OT, was wondering if the hub uses just a single 5v buck or multiple ones spread across the ports.

The 7-port hub from Plugable.com for my sticks has 3 regulators in it. 2 of them feed 2 ports each and the 3rd feeds 3 ports.

Makes sense to do that as it keeps the traces carrying 5v power short (and can be lighter copper) and eliminates the chance of the last port fed being starved.

[sidehack]

I'm using a single high-current buck, but out in the field pretty much the entire top layer is power rail to keep trace resistance down. The buck is also set to 5.1V to help compensate for loading. The hub has a 2x4 grid of ports, not 8 in a single row, so there's a lot less issue with voltage drop down a long narrow line. Long narrow hubs are bad for stickminers for a variety of reasons, mostly involving stability, ease of cooling and comfortable current handling.

[klintay]

I'm also working on a USB hub (project "Aardwolf"). Here's the plan at present: 8 ports, seven active and one power only (fan maybe?). Takes in 12V through either a barrel or PCIe jack. There'll be a 3-position selector switch for 60W, 96W and 120+W input power, so if you're using a 12V5A brick, 12V8A brick, or high-current PCIe there'll be a safety limit how much power the hub will draw before kicking out. There'll also be a knob for adjusting available per-port output current between 0.5A and 3A. There'll be an internal monitor on each port and when a port exceeds the limit it'll be turned off (and the status LED will go red). A global reset button will re-enable all ports with one press. That's the plan so far anyway.

That is going to be a kick ass hub
Wish you all the best and can't wait to see the final product!
keeping it open will help with airflow and make it neat for seeing the inside of the hub.
3-position selector for input power is a good idea....this can save some bricks in the future. will you be selling it with or without psu bricks?

Plugable.com use the same usb chip set btw