GekkoScience 2Pac/Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread

[CADuke]

@Something123 How many are you running per hub? I only have two 2Pacs each on its own Orico P10-U2-BK. When I build vthoang's cgminer with icarus enable and try to just run a single Antminer U2 I still get dead 2Pac. Using Minera on my Raspberry Pi results in dead 2Pac after about 24 hours. So I would have to set it up to restart before then or remember to restart manually, but would sometimes get 0 chips found on restart so I would still have to unplug the sticks.

So current stable setup:
Raspberry Pi Model B Plus running Raspbian Buster Lite Version: September 2019 Release date: 2019-09-26 Kernel version:4.19
Adafruit 3.5" TFT display for the Pi
2x Orico P10-U2-BK each only running sing 2Pac @ Frequency 225 both with vpot set to 1.361v. No HW errors but I do get some rejects, but only like 100k rejects per 7mil accepted running @ combined 49.8 GH/s.

I am getting ready to try to enable icarus to try and run 10 Antminer U2 on a ORICO A3H10-U3-V2, but I have not had much success with --enable-gekko and --enable-icarus working well on Raspbery Pi. Because why not, I have them sitting around.

If I wasn't unemployed waiting on a decision about disability I would definitely get two Gekkoscience hubs along with 12 NewPacs. I would run my two 2pacs on each one of the hubs 2A port and NewPacs on the others.

[Edit]
Yeah, I get weird detection issues. Even if I add the Antminer U2 after the 2Pac. It wants to treat one stick as U2 and the other nine as a single U3.

[sidehack]

If 2Pacs are dropping out, try adjusting the core voltage up slightly. More voltage tends to mean more stability - but also more heat, so adjust only a little bit at a time.

[Something123]

If 2Pacs are dropping out, try adjusting the core voltage up slightly. More voltage tends to mean more stability - but also more heat, so adjust only a little bit at a time.

i been doing that last couple of days, they were dropping out withing 10 15 minutes after the last adjustment.
10/19 now droppping even sooner all 4 go out within hours
Try hot plug sequence won’t work
Restarting CGMiner makes them go zombie
Reinstalled everything for the 3rd time don’t help
Adjusting voltage don’t help
Tried 3 different computers
@CADuke I am running 4 of them on a 16 hub

[sidehack]

If upping the voltage makes it worse, it's probably your hub sucks.

[ChEd1980]

Hi all,

I'm seeking a bit of assistance with a 2pac stick miner that seems to be temperamental at best at the moment.

I have a gekkoscience USB hub running a compac and a newpac like a champ, using the special build of cgminer, driven by my pizeroW also connected to said hub running from a 6pin PCIe connector so I think my power is fine.

When I connect the 2pac up it doesn't seem to be detected but I do get a brief white flash on plugging it in and then solid green power light.

Both chips are getting 0.63v measured from the caps on the backside.

I haven't been able to persuade it to mine at all on the pi but it did mine for a short time connected to a USB3 port on my PC before going zombie.

Would it be worth upping the voltages to the chips with a little tweak to the trim pot as a start? I can't imagine it being a power issue on the gekko hub but certainly so on the USB port on the PC but it was running stock speed when I managed to get it to mine which from what I have read should just about be ok.

Any thoughts on the above would be appreciated as I'd like to get the trio of gekko USB sticks going

[zhzz]

Hey, can you recommend a good usb hub for 5-6 USB Mining devices? I have 6x Gekkoscience 2PAC which pull 3,5W each. I don't want to spend $60 on the "recommended" 10 usb hub for this...

Much appreciated.

[gt_addict]

Hey, can you recommend a good usb hub for 5-6 USB Mining devices? I have 6x Gekkoscience 2PAC which pull 3,5W each. I don't want to spend $60 on the "recommended" 10 usb hub for this...

Much appreciated.

Gekkoscience USB hub is the one to go for. Plenty of power and extremely well built.

[klintay]

Hey, can you recommend a good usb hub for 5-6 USB Mining devices? I have 6x Gekkoscience 2PAC which pull 3,5W each. I don't want to spend $60 on the "recommended" 10 usb hub for this...

Much appreciated.

Gekkoscience USB hub is the one to go for. Plenty of power and extremely well built.

yes i highly recommend it
can be purchased from here:

https://www.eyeboot.com/gekkoscience-8-port-usb-huh.html

worldwide shipping and they accept paypal.


or there is this one on ebay too:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/113517422577

[gvb]

Howdy,

One of my 2PACs has the led constantly burning white.

I guess this one is broken?

Is there a 2 year warranty on this when bought from a european reseller?

[gt_addict]

Howdy,

One of my 2PACs has the led constantly burning white.

I guess this one is broken?

Is there a 2 year warranty on this when bought from a european reseller?

You would need to ask the EU seller you purchased it from. Personally I would only expect a 30 day warranty on mining devices of this nature due to the unknown aspects of the user overclocking them and whether it was done correctly.

[tegleg]

hello
ive tried searching this massive thread for an answer but didnt find one.

im running a 2pac using a raspberry pi and a powered hub with the build of cgminer linked in the first post.
i am unable to increase the frequency above 100mhz, the hashrate hangs around 10-14ghs

gekko-2pac-freq doesnt seem to make any difference, tried at 100 up to 300
i turned the voltage pot clockwise 1/8 and no difference

anyone have any ideas what i am missing here?
ive seen other people with the frequency even at 300 on the cgminer log, how do they do it?

thanks

[sidehack]

Usually if you can't change the speed there's an issue with either the command line or config file overriding your setting. Sometimes you're changing it in a script file that isn't what gets run.

[tegleg]

thanks for the fast response
im guessing it must be the config file. any ideas how to change that?

[gt_addict]

thanks for the fast response
im guessing it must be the config file. any ideas how to change that?

What file are you currently using? The one in the cgminer folder? Or the “.bat” file you've created?

[tegleg]

im just starting out with this so i just put this in the console
cgminer.. -o stratum+tcp://pool... -u ... -p x --suggest-diff 32 --gekko-2pac-freq 150
(with the correct pool details etc)

EDIT:
fixed it, thanks for the direction

steps,
show hidden files
open .cgminer > config.conf (text editor)
change the frequency in that file > save

[gt_addict]

im just starting out with this so i just put this in the console
cgminer.. -o stratum+tcp://pool... -u ... -p x --suggest-diff 32 --gekko-2pac-freq 150
(with the correct pool details etc)

EDIT:
fixed it, thanks for the direction

steps,
show hidden files
open .cgminer > config.conf (text editor)
change the frequency in that file > save

Easiest thing to do is make your own .bat file then you dont need to mess with the existing config file. But glad you got it sorted

[klintay]

im just starting out with this so i just put this in the console
cgminer.. -o stratum+tcp://pool... -u ... -p x --suggest-diff 32 --gekko-2pac-freq 150
(with the correct pool details etc)

EDIT:
fixed it, thanks for the direction

steps,
show hidden files
open .cgminer > config.conf (text editor)
change the frequency in that file > save

Easiest thing to do is make your own .bat file then you dont need to mess with the existing config file. But glad you got it sorted

there is a user guide on Amazon, its for the R606 but has good step by step instructions (pages 6-8) on how to modify the bat file found in the precompiled cgminer:
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91prf5qA73L.pdf

[JedWafu]

Is there any way I could buy. I'm from Philippines.

[ParaplegicRacehorse]

Bit of an interesting tale for sidehack and vh.

I've been running my 2pacs solid since I got them, stock freqs and voltage, in an Anker 10-port USB3.0 hub (yeah, yeah, it's what I have and stock settings on 3x 2pac + 1x compac is okay) driven by an old single-core Intel Atom non-PAE HP Mini (awesome little toy, but even the original R-pi outperforms it by a lot), passively air-cooled. It seemed that once per day, sometimes more, sometimes less, one of the 2pacs would zombie out. Frustrating, but unplug-count-10-replug, worked wonders.

Not long ago, I decided to fiddle with the frequencies (compac to 200, 2pacs to 150 MHz.) It's now been running 8 days up-time with zero zombies, without adjusting the pot. Combined hash rate 60GH/s. I think that might be a little low, but I'm tickled pink about the stability.

I ordered a GekkoScience hub, a trio of Newpacs, and that cooling stand from 419mining. They should arrive later this week and, with active cooling available, I'll start doing some overclocking. I have a little fish tank around somewhere, and I'm tempted to immerse them in oil...

vh: I'm a little upset that the new settings available in v 4.11+ didn't make it into the documentation; not the README and not --help. Also, there are PRs at github that look interesting.

[edit] That should be mildly-upset. I mean, it's all available in the forum, but requires a whole lot of patient digging.

[NearKit]

Hi,

after testing the cgminer and check the cgminer.c , i discover that the Merkleroot is generate using CPU-hashing instead of using the BM1384 chip.
Someone could explain me why?
Is there a way to use the BM1384 SHA256 Hash chip instead of CPU for hashing merkleroot?
We know there is a lot of transactions in a BTC bloc, with all testing and transactions, cpu can only generate 6 to 10 Merkleroot by sec.

I think we can do better, that will improve a lot if we use SHA256 chip to hash instead of CPU.

Do you think if it's possible?

my last question :-) is about how a Gekkoscience USB stick works? i have found a datasheet on the BM1384 chip or BM1387 Chip but dont know how it works? and how to dev on it.

If someone can help me to have clear vision on it, that will help me a lot.

Many thanks for your help
Near