GekkoScience 2Pac/Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread

[vh]

For minimal headless Pi setup:

The raspbian image creators left a FAT32 partition there for you to further configure.

After you use Win32DiskImager to load the raspbian image onto the usb/micro sd.

Open up the usb drive in windows (labeled boot) and drop in two file into parent folder:

"ssh" - empty file, enables ssh

"wpa_supplicant.conf" - enables wifi

Code:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US

network={
   ssid="mywifi-ssid"
   psk="password"
   key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

Insert the card to your Pi, power it up.   Check your router for the Pi's IP and putty into it.   Cut-n-paste away.

Save off the two files once you got the right combination of ssid and password in the wpa, for future image loads.

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[Ragetoad]

I'm curious what's the best speed these will run at on a Pi? (considering ample cooling is supplied)

[leowonderful]

I'm curious what's the best speed these will run at on a Pi? (considering ample cooling is supplied)

On a PI with no hub? Likely around ten gigahashes. Some other guy tried doing that and selling an AIO RPI and 2Pac rig and they got a maximum of ten. With a hub pretty much anything is possible as long as you supply enough power to the miner. I reckon you could even get to 50GH, highest I've run mine are thirty GH.

[xxooss]

Hi all...i took a trip down "Windows 7 is not supported by 6th and 7th gen Intel procs." So...

I wanted to post to talk about my struggles so far and that there are only really TWO things that caused ALL of my problems.

The first tidbit of wisdom I gained is that if your miner is saying it cant detect your device and you just keep trying to reset the USB stick/cable for like an hour and it still does not find it, stop assuming it is plugged in or that you are unplugging the right device...chances are it can't  find what it's looking for because it really is NOT there.

The second and MOST important thing is POWER. After buying my 49 port eyeboot I have had ZERO errors other than those caused by my first assumption.

Thank you sidehack, vh, and philip for helping me to learn. One more thing to anyone new...if one of these three tell you that you need to do something, do it.  

[sidehack]

Those 49-port hubs are pretty decent. Klintay hooked me up with one for free in exchange for a positive review/endorsement. Normally I would refuse a deal like that, but it worked out in this case because I actually do really like the thing and would endorse it regardless. All but a few hundred of the ~3000 Compacs and every of the ~1300 2Pacs were tested on it, usually drawing about 4W per stick and up to 30 sticks at a time, with no problems.


Also, I think when Windows versions older than 8 are no longer allowed to work will be the last day I use Windows. Microsoft has been going in an increasingly irritating direction with their software since about 2002. Point of fact, pretty much everyone has been.

Hey, at least cgminer doesn't have a cartoonish GUI and burns multiple gigabytes of RAM for no apparent reason. Gotta love CLI.

Additionally, glad to see you got everything working out.

[jacosmitza]

if you run other mining software windows 10 and windows 7 on a pc are fine.

At the moment I run cgminer and nicehash

this give me 1 compac 1 2pac and the cpu mine xmr on the same pc.

the cpu xmr  adds about 10 or 15 watts  ands net a very small profit.

which means the 1 pac and 2 pac   cost no extra on the mobo or cpu power use.

so I do better then a rasp pi but  the pc cost me  $$$ it is a lenovo m700  and I upgraded the cpu

https://i.imgur.com/gYHFkwz.png

Did you have to do anything special to get the 2Pacs to work with NiceHash or did they detect after installing the drivers?

[xxooss]

Thanks sidehack. I am about to the point where I will just run the 2pacs...the one I have works flawlessly and when I add the other 3 I am sure they will as well. ATM I am running a 2pac, nano bit fury, 3 rockminer 5 chippers and a gridseed all on the eyeboot and they all get along. Two other rockminers are finiky for whatever reason but whatever. I like stuff that works, works well and is consistent...the 2pacs seem to fit that bill.

Those 49-port hubs are pretty decent. Klintay hooked me up with one for free in exchange for a positive review/endorsement. Normally I would refuse a deal like that, but it worked out in this case because I actually do really like the thing and would endorse it regardless. All but a few hundred of the ~3000 Compacs and every of the ~1300 2Pacs were tested on it, usually drawing about 4W per stick and up to 30 sticks at a time, with no problems.


Also, I think when Windows versions older than 8 are no longer allowed to work will be the last day I use Windows. Microsoft has been going in an increasingly irritating direction with their software since about 2002. Point of fact, pretty much everyone has been.

Hey, at least cgminer doesn't have a cartoonish GUI and burns multiple gigabytes of RAM for no apparent reason. Gotta love CLI.

Additionally, glad to see you got everything working out.

[BugBiter]

I just ordered mine from amazon today. Been reading through this thread. Noob question: If I get a prebuilt cgminer for windows, do I still need to install the Zadig usb drivers?

raspberry are pretty easy to setup if you follow the directions.  on windows you are wasting too much electric it to run them 24/7

\


well you would be correct  if you only run  the 2pacs and compacs.

if you run other mining software windows 10 and windows 7 on a pc are fine.

At the moment I run cgminer and nicehash

this give me 1 compac 1 2pac and the cpu mine xmr on the same pc.

the cpu xmr  adds about 10 or 15 watts  ands net a very small profit.

which means the 1 pac and 2 pac   cost no extra on the mobo or cpu power use.

so I do better then a rasp pi but  the pc cost me  $$$ it is a lenovo m700  and I upgraded the cpu

https://i.imgur.com/gYHFkwz.png

What is the command you use to connect your cgminer to nicehash?

[in2tactics]

well you would be correct  if you only run  the 2pacs and compacs.

if you run other mining software windows 10 and windows 7 on a pc are fine.

At the moment I run cgminer and nicehash

this give me 1 compac 1 2pac and the cpu mine xmr on the same pc.

the cpu xmr  adds about 10 or 15 watts  ands net a very small profit.

which means the 1 pac and 2 pac   cost no extra on the mobo or cpu power use.

so I do better then a rasp pi but  the pc cost me  $$$ it is a lenovo m700  and I upgraded the cpu

https://i.imgur.com/gYHFkwz.png

What is the command you use to connect your cgminer to nicehash?

Did you following the instructions on nicehash's website?

https://www.nicehash.com/?p=software

[BittyDave]

I got my second 2Pac today.  Just read that I can't run two at a time.  That one is on me.  The first one is running fine.  When I stop the miner and change sicks, the new one does not work, even at lower frequencies.  I get 0 chip/s with the new one and 2 chip/s found with the old one.  I'm running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.  Any Ideas?

[in2tactics]

I got my second 2Pac today.  Just read that I can't run two at a time.  That one is on me.  The first one is running fine.  When I stop the miner and change sicks, the new one does not work, even at lower frequencies.  I get 0 chip/s with the new one and 2 chip/s found with the old one.  I'm running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.  Any Ideas?

I run three at a time just fine. You will probably need a powered hub to run both at the same time.

[BittyDave]

I got my second 2Pac today.  Just read that I can't run two at a time.   That one is on me.  The first one is running fine.  When I stop the miner and change sicks, the new one does not work, even at lower frequencies.  I get 0 chip/s with the new one and 2 chip/s found with the old one.  I'm running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.  Any Ideas?

I run three at a time just fine. You will probably need a powered hub to run both at the same time.

Thanks.  There is still the issue of the dead stick.  

[sidehack]

I'd try turning up the voltage a bit. If you are able, measure the total voltage and also the voltage at each chip when it's plugged in. "0 chips" can be caused by a couple things, but the most likely is a voltage imbalance at the chips causing one to drop out which locks up the whole thing. If upping the voltage doesn't do the trick, it might be a data line issue.

If you up the voltage and it still doesn't detect chips, let me know and I'll see about fixing it.

It's these kinds of things that we check for while doing burn-in tests. You might not believe me but I have a box with probably about 70 sticks in it that passed initial tests but failed burn-in for various issues ranging from too many HW errors to data lines dropping out.

[BittyDave]

I'd try turning up the voltage a bit. If you are able, measure the total voltage and also the voltage at each chip when it's plugged in. "0 chips" can be caused by a couple things, but the most likely is a voltage imbalance at the chips causing one to drop out which locks up the whole thing. If upping the voltage doesn't do the trick, it might be a data line issue.

If you up the voltage and it still doesn't detect chips, let me know and I'll see about fixing it.

It's these kinds of things that we check for while doing burn-in tests. You might not believe me but I have a box with probably about 70 sticks in it that passed initial tests but failed burn-in for various issues ranging from too many HW errors to data lines dropping out.

I have multimeters.  I'll just need to know, with a diagram or photo with embellishments, to know where to take readings from. 

And I believe you about the multi sticks.

I usually need some hand holding to get started but once I get a grasp of the basics I can run pretty quickly.

I'm taking the good stick out, plugging in the new one to the same USB port on the same hub.

[sidehack]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1764803.msg17678108#msg17678108

Picture and explanation of where to measure. You should see 1.24-1.26V across the two chips, with 620-630mV per chip. If that's the case, there's an IO line broken somewhere. If there's an imbalance causing the string to lock up, your Node 0 voltage will be about 480mV. If that's the case, turn up the voltage a bit, unplug, wait about 20 seconds and plug it back in.

[BittyDave]

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1764803.msg17678108#msg17678108

Picture and explanation of where to measure. You should see 1.24-1.26V across the two chips, with 620-630mV per chip. If that's the case, there's an IO line broken somewhere. If there's an imbalance causing the string to lock up, your Node 0 voltage will be about 480mV. If that's the case, turn up the voltage a bit, unplug, wait about 20 seconds and plug it back in.

On the "top" chip I got a .3 reading set on the 2V selection.  So that makes it around .15 or so.  The "Lower" chip got a .025 reading which would be .0125 or so.  So a mismatch sees to be in order.  When you said 620-630mV, did you mean mA?

Thanks.

[sidehack]

No, I mean millivolts. The whole thing should have 1.24 to 1.26 volts across it. Make sure there aren't parts busted off around the buck controller in the bottom corner near the USB jack. Sounds like you're not getting power, so if there was damage in shipping it's probably the 220pF capacitor just north of the little trimpot. If your main regulator is working, the two sets of numbers I gave are pretty much the only ones possible (either 620mV or 480mV across node 0). Either that or you're measuring wrong, but the diagram is pretty straightforward.

[BittyDave]

No, I mean millivolts. The whole thing should have 1.24 to 1.26 volts across it. Make sure there aren't parts busted off around the buck controller in the bottom corner near the USB jack. Sounds like you're not getting power, so if there was damage in shipping it's probably the 220pF capacitor just north of the little trimpot. If your main regulator is working, the two sets of numbers I gave are pretty much the only ones possible (either 620mV or 480mV across node 0). Either that or you're measuring wrong, but the diagram is pretty straightforward.

It looks like there is NO damage. Thanks.

[aarons6]

i compiled the cgminer geekko for openwrt but when i do cgminer-api -o devs nothing comes up..

can someone try that and see if its me or the driver or cgminer?


edit, i should note that im using the new cgminer gekko for the old compacs..

[sidehack]

Your edit is pretty ambiguous. You mean you're using VH's Compac build linked in this thread, but to control original 1-chip Compacs?