Block Erupter USB - Overclocking/ hacking ?

[DobZombie]

Rightio, I've purchased 100 of each resistor for each 0.05v increase (they were 0.8 cents each, I couldn't resist )

I've purchased 3 of each 2mhz step of the crystals.

Hot my hot air soldering station in the mail. So I'm nearly ready to get modding! 

[1715421717]

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[1715421717]

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[1715421717]

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[btct22]

Got some measuring gear permanently hooked up and 15A external adjustable power supplies for the 5V rail and the 1.1+ V rail. 

For reference the 16Mhz eBay crystal is running at an average of 364MHash/s with the ASIC driven at 1.1V, consuming 0.51A and a top side temperature of 52.9 deg C.  The bottom PCB soldermask hasn't been removed and it's screwed to a big finned heat sink with the stock heat transfer layer in place.  It's been running well for several days and has had 3 HW errors in the 1.5 hours since I restarted BFGminer.

New crystals from Digikey should be here Friday, so will post some updated values then.

[superresistant]

Oh you guys 



This thread is epic. You make me want to learn soldering. I tried before but I always end up burning everything.

[r3wt]

Oh you guys  



This thread is epic. You make me want to learn soldering. I tried before but I always end up burning everything.

yeah, i tried building my own powered usb hub with fan for my eruptors:



plugged it up and my eruptors mined for about 2 minutes and my ~month old Asus laptop BSOD'd then shut off completely. luckily these new laptops have some type of surge protection and it still works, but for about 50 seconds i thought to myself, "damn i just ruined a 1000 dollar laptop. why?"

TL;DR version: I can't mod by BE's myself, i my wait until someone with a proven track record offers a service for modding these things and ship them off to that person to be modded

[DobZombie]

Oh you guys 



This thread is epic. You make me want to learn soldering. I tried before but I always end up burning everything.

Here's some more science for ya!

[Roger100]

Rightio, I've purchased 100 of each resistor for each 0.05v increase (they were 0.8 cents each, I couldn't resist )

I've purchased 3 of each 2mhz step of the crystals.

Hot my hot air soldering station in the mail. So I'm nearly ready to get modding! 

Ditto. Just waiting on hot air kit and some teeny tiny 1.5mm and 1mm hot air gun nozzles for the rework. If you bought one of the ebay cheapo kits like i did, you're gonna need smaller nozzle tips. After watching one or two vids on youtube, i'm now an instant expert.....haha.

[joeventura]

Rightio, I've purchased 100 of each resistor for each 0.05v increase (they were 0.8 cents each, I couldn't resist )

I've purchased 3 of each 2mhz step of the crystals.

Hot my hot air soldering station in the mail. So I'm nearly ready to get modding! 

Ditto. Just waiting on hot air kit and some teeny tiny 1.5mm and 1mm hot air gun nozzles for the rework. If you bought one of the ebay cheapo kits like i did, you're gonna need smaller nozzle tips. After watching one or two vids on youtube, i'm now an instant expert.....haha.

How 'bout some links to those Youtube videos so wez canz all b smartz?

[Roger100]

*In my finest new yorker accented female voice* ..."Certainly"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgrEbJN8dcQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XENpPtisnM

Interestingly enough, you can solder the crystal with a normal iron. Its a wee bit crowded on the erupters, but you could probably do it with a really small tip like this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XENpPtisnM

[joeventura]

*In my finest new yorker accented female voice* ..."Certainly"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgrEbJN8dcQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XENpPtisnM

Interestingly enough, you can solder the crystal with a normal iron. Its a wee bit crowded on the erupters, but you could probably do it with a really small tip like this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XENpPtisnM

wow the difference between the tools and style of the first video vs. the second is crazy.

Thanks for the links btw I actually learned a lot

[funkymunky]

*In my finest new yorker accented female voice* ..."Certainly"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgrEbJN8dcQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XENpPtisnM

Interestingly enough, you can solder the crystal with a normal iron. Its a wee bit crowded on the erupters, but you could probably do it with a really small tip like this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XENpPtisnM

wow the difference between the tools and style of the first video vs. the second is crazy.

Thanks for the links btw I actually learned a lot

I don't like doing this but
Definitely +1 to that comment

[Dougie]

Fascinating thread! It's pretty impressive that you're getting almost 200MHs more and the fact that it seems fairly stable is great. I just presumed that they'd be clocked as highly as possible!

[Bluestreak66]

http://tinyurl.com/l2a6gd4 This is the soldering station I use at home. The small round end is the one I used for the oscillator and resistors. Its digitally temperature controlled and the heating elements are cheap on ebay and easily replaceable if they burn out. There are cheaper Hot Air only ones too with ends included. http://tinyurl.com/ktsccob

Fascinating thread! It's pretty impressive that you're getting almost 200MHs more and the fact that it seems fairly stable is great. I just presumed that they'd be clocked as highly as possible!

They are clocked down enough so that the power draw is within usb spec if we could get these ASICs on a larger board like the BE Blades I imagine that the room for overclocking would be way above what can be done with these usb sticks.

[tom_o]

Do you reckon it would be possible for someone with no SMT experience and a plain iron to be able to replace the crystal without burning anything?

To remove it would you just heat up the centre of the case in order to melt the solder on all of the pads simultaneously?

Already worked out a way to replace the resistor without using SMD resistors!



Obviously the resistor leads would need insulating, I'm more concerned as to whether I can do the crystal. And what size crystal exactly is required? Or can I just attach it in the same way I'll be using for the resistor?

[btct22]

Here's the latest figures, now running a 20Mhz crystal on ICA 7 which is stable at 406.2 MHash with ASIC powered externally with 1.7V @ 3.96A. ICA 6 is the stock reference running at 333MHash.

bfgminer version 3.1.3 - Started: [2013-08-15 20:58:51] - [  0 days 03:00:24]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5s: 2.66 avg: 3.65 u: 4.37 Gh/s | A:2752 R:30+0(1.1%) HW:92/.82%
ST: 4  GF: 0  NB: 21  AS: 1  RF: 0  E: 9.66  U:15.3/m  BS:36.6k
Block: ...5e0f8f39 #252279  Diff:50.8M (363.7Th/s)  Started: [23:45:10]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICA 0:       | 960.4/364.6/422.2Mh/s | A:266 R:4+0(1.5%) HW:10/.88%
ICA 1:       | 543.2/363.7/393.6Mh/s | A:248 R:1+0(.40%) HW:13/1.2%
ICA 2:       | 245.2/364.5/477.8Mh/s | A:301 R:1+0(.33%) HW:10/.85%
ICA 3:       | 423.3/364.2/455.5Mh/s | A:287 R:3+0(1.0%) HW:10/.89%
ICA 4:       | 581.1/364.4/447.6Mh/s | A:282 R:6+0(2.1%) HW:10/.91%
ICA 5:       | 348.0/361.7/441.3Mh/s | A:278 R:1+0(.36%) HW: 9/.84%
ICA 6:       | 394.9/333.8/296.8Mh/s | A:187 R:3+0(1.6%) HW: 7/.85%
ICA 7:       | 294.3/406.2/563.5Mh/s | A:355 R:4+0(1.1%) HW:11/.79%
ICA 8:       | 532.0/363.8/460.3Mh/s | A:290 R:5+0(1.7%) HW: 5/.44%
ICA 9:       | 239.9/365.9/411.1Mh/s | A:259 R:2+0(.77%) HW: 7/.61%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've bought a few crystals and heatsinks too many so if anyone wants me to upgrade their units to either 16 or 20 mhz speeds I'd be happy to do it. 

2 day maximum working turnaround and high quality soldering done with an SMD rework station with all components, heatsinks and external power supplies (if necessary) included.  Please PM me if interested.

[DobZombie]

Got my hot air soldering station in the mail. So I'm nearly ready to get modding! 

Ditto. Just waiting on hot air kit and some teeny tiny 1.5mm and 1mm hot air gun nozzles for the rework. If you bought one of the ebay cheapo kits like i did, you're gonna need smaller nozzle tips.

That's what a hammer is for 

[Dimrain13]

Here's the latest figures, now running a 20Mhz crystal on ICA 7 which is stable at 406.2 MHash with ASIC powered externally with 1.7V @ 3.96A. ICA 6 is the stock reference running at 333MHash.

bfgminer version 3.1.3 - Started: [2013-08-15 20:58:51] - [  0 days 03:00:24]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5s: 2.66 avg: 3.65 u: 4.37 Gh/s | A:2752 R:30+0(1.1%) HW:92/.82%
ST: 4  GF: 0  NB: 21  AS: 1  RF: 0  E: 9.66  U:15.3/m  BS:36.6k
Block: ...5e0f8f39 #252279  Diff:50.8M (363.7Th/s)  Started: [23:45:10]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICA 0:       | 960.4/364.6/422.2Mh/s | A:266 R:4+0(1.5%) HW:10/.88%
ICA 1:       | 543.2/363.7/393.6Mh/s | A:248 R:1+0(.40%) HW:13/1.2%
ICA 2:       | 245.2/364.5/477.8Mh/s | A:301 R:1+0(.33%) HW:10/.85%
ICA 3:       | 423.3/364.2/455.5Mh/s | A:287 R:3+0(1.0%) HW:10/.89%
ICA 4:       | 581.1/364.4/447.6Mh/s | A:282 R:6+0(2.1%) HW:10/.91%
ICA 5:       | 348.0/361.7/441.3Mh/s | A:278 R:1+0(.36%) HW: 9/.84%
ICA 6:       | 394.9/333.8/296.8Mh/s | A:187 R:3+0(1.6%) HW: 7/.85%
ICA 7:       | 294.3/406.2/563.5Mh/s | A:355 R:4+0(1.1%) HW:11/.79%
ICA 8:       | 532.0/363.8/460.3Mh/s | A:290 R:5+0(1.7%) HW: 5/.44%
ICA 9:       | 239.9/365.9/411.1Mh/s | A:259 R:2+0(.77%) HW: 7/.61%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've bought a few crystals and heatsinks too many so if anyone wants me to upgrade their units to either 16 or 20 mhz speeds I'd be happy to do it. 

2 day maximum working turnaround and high quality soldering done with an SMD rework station with all components, heatsinks and external power supplies (if necessary) included.  Please PM me if interested.

That is Beautiful. how exactly are you running extra power to it? I understand the amount but is it from a extra power brick you had laying around?
When I did the math I say that its not possible to run it with on board power past 16. at 20 you need extra power. Please update after 24 hours, I am quite curious to see the results.


That's what I got when I plugged some numbers in.

[Roger100]

In regards to powering these things, i was planning to solder a molex plug on the back end of the usb miner so i could simply plug them in and out of a standard pc power supply. Then, for the data, use usb extensions with the power line cut. Hopefully, using that method would allow quite a few overclocked miners at the same time.

Of course, i'm thinking out loud here so if anyone see any trouble with that, please let us know.

[Bluestreak66]

Here's the latest figures, now running a 20Mhz crystal on ICA 7 which is stable at 406.2 MHash with ASIC powered externally with 1.7V @ 3.96A. ICA 6 is the stock reference running at 333MHash.

bfgminer version 3.1.3 - Started: [2013-08-15 20:58:51] - [  0 days 03:00:24]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5s: 2.66 avg: 3.65 u: 4.37 Gh/s | A:2752 R:30+0(1.1%) HW:92/.82%
ST: 4  GF: 0  NB: 21  AS: 1  RF: 0  E: 9.66  U:15.3/m  BS:36.6k
Block: ...5e0f8f39 #252279  Diff:50.8M (363.7Th/s)  Started: [23:45:10]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICA 0:       | 960.4/364.6/422.2Mh/s | A:266 R:4+0(1.5%) HW:10/.88%
ICA 1:       | 543.2/363.7/393.6Mh/s | A:248 R:1+0(.40%) HW:13/1.2%
ICA 2:       | 245.2/364.5/477.8Mh/s | A:301 R:1+0(.33%) HW:10/.85%
ICA 3:       | 423.3/364.2/455.5Mh/s | A:287 R:3+0(1.0%) HW:10/.89%
ICA 4:       | 581.1/364.4/447.6Mh/s | A:282 R:6+0(2.1%) HW:10/.91%
ICA 5:       | 348.0/361.7/441.3Mh/s | A:278 R:1+0(.36%) HW: 9/.84%
ICA 6:       | 394.9/333.8/296.8Mh/s | A:187 R:3+0(1.6%) HW: 7/.85%
ICA 7:       | 294.3/406.2/563.5Mh/s | A:355 R:4+0(1.1%) HW:11/.79%
ICA 8:       | 532.0/363.8/460.3Mh/s | A:290 R:5+0(1.7%) HW: 5/.44%
ICA 9:       | 239.9/365.9/411.1Mh/s | A:259 R:2+0(.77%) HW: 7/.61%
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I've bought a few crystals and heatsinks too many so if anyone wants me to upgrade their units to either 16 or 20 mhz speeds I'd be happy to do it.  

2 day maximum working turnaround and high quality soldering done with an SMD rework station with all components, heatsinks and external power supplies (if necessary) included.  Please PM me if interested.

Do you get higher error rates at lower voltages? How are your temps looking? 1.7v is dangerously close to the 1.8v limit. Let us know how these perform long term.

In regards to powering these things, i was planning to solder a molex plug on the back end of the usb miner so i could simply plug them in and out of a standard pc power supply. Then, for the data, use usb extensions with the power line cut. Hopefully, using that method would allow quite a few overclocked miners at the same time.

Of course, i'm thinking out loud here so if anyone see any trouble with that, please let us know.

I think this is quite a good idea I may do this myself. I have my miners mining away @ 447Mhs @ 1.2v with the stock voltage regulators. I thought I had killed one but It's now working after it cooled down from the 18 and 20Mhz attempts.

[Roger100]

Did you change both R1 and R2 resistors?

Also, any detailed info you may give about the best way to desolder and solder the new crystals and resistors in would be hugely appreciated. What i really need to know is how much heat can these little crystals take?

[jshinra]

So I went ahead and replaced R1 with the 1.2k Ohm resistor and put in a 16.384 MHz crystal and cgminer gives the error:

Code:

[2013-08-16 00:41:09] Icarus Detect: Test failed at /dev/ttyUSB2: get 00000000,
 should: 000187a2

Any ideas? I'm not the best solderer but it looks like I have everything ok. Also tried flipping the oscillator in case that was it but same thing.