Block Erupter USB - Overclocking/ hacking ?

[merv77]

Anyone interested in hardware(parts) kits?
Anywho any interest? (Please post in forum not PM)

I'm interested in a few kits enough to OC 20 USB erupters and possibly a few spares.
is international shipping ok..? I'm in Australia.

[Miner-TE]

Anyone interested in hardware(parts) kits?
Anywho any interest? (Please post in forum not PM)

I'm interested in a few kits enough to OC 20 USB erupters and possibly a few spares.
is international shipping ok..? I'm in Australia.

I'm also interested but would like to know the details.

[vitruvio]

about the oscillator
need the same brand or same size is fine?

Same size 5x3.2 mm and 3.3 volts

[pugano]

Has anyone played with the new sticks with the smaller inductor and different heat spreader?

ALso if anyone is in australia i can modify small amounts if people want. (I have a few spare crystals.)

if you can supply the parts im happy to modify for a small fee.

yes i overclocked 5 my self there running fine

[Badman0316]

i can sell the parts for international
pm me for detail

[durian]

Hey Guys,

Great job so far.  I'm interested in how to apply power from a dc-dc converter - I disconnect the voltage regulator chip on the BE then what?  I'm assuming that I take the 2 usb data lines and connect that to a usb hub, and connect the + and - fromt he dc-dc to the BE.  

Where exactly do I plug those in?  Does anyone know?


Are my assumptions right?  I'm thinking that if I connect the 6+amps (for 24mhz) from the dc-dc converter to the BE with the + and - power going through the usb hub it will fry everything?

Also, the cheap dc-dc converters only do 3amps.  So if I connect one of them im parallel to the output of the voltage converter chip on the BE, will that work at doubling the amps?  Assuming the chip on BE does 3amps, my cheap dc-dc does 3 amps - together = 6 amps?  Or should I just disconnect the voltage converter chip on the BE and then connect in parallel 2 units of dc-dc 3 amps for 6 amps total?  Setting them to the same voltage though of course.

Any thoughts?


The problems are: I'm trying to overclock 10 usb block erupters.  If nobody can get 3 working together at 26mhz, then how will I connect those 10 at 24mhz?  Should I just give up?  haha  

If I connect a 20amp 5volt power supply to the BEs will that cause any problems?  Will that fry my usb 2.0 10 port hub? Will it fry my computer?  I just bought a bunch of stuff and am waiting for stuff to arrive so I can't test anything right now.  But can anyone who knows electronics help me?

I see someone mentioned a replacement voltage regulator that can handle 5amps but after looking at the datasheet im wondering that the pinouts are different, placing a metal plate on the bottom to contact the lx pads to the inductor seems ok but what about the heat dissipation?

What I'm really asking is, if you had like 100 usb block erupters (I dont have 100 haha but I wish) and you wanted to overclock all of them to 26mhz (or 24mhz, or even just 20mhz) how would u handle the power supply?  (not to mention the cooling)



Seems like the more I want to overclock the cheaper it is to just buy more units haha.

Also, anyone had any success connecting 10 units on a cheapo 10 port usb 2.0 hub?  With an external 5v power supply that can handle the amps? (cause the units on ebay come with a 1amp supply, I guess u could substitute it for a 5v 5amp power supply eh?)

Thanks!

[wrenchmonkey]

Anyone interested in hardware(parts) kits?
Anywho any interest? (Please post in forum not PM)

I'm interested in a few kits enough to OC 20 USB erupters and possibly a few spares.
is international shipping ok..? I'm in Australia.

I'm interested in several kits, in the U.S. Anywhere from 10-200, depending on pricing.

[cableiso]

Durian,

Tonight I completed overclocking 12x USB erupters from 12MHz to 16MHz with external 5v power from a PC power supply.  Everything was left stock except R1 and the XTAL.  Works great.  I may try 18MHz, but 20-something will require more mods.  Why don't you consider keeping it to 16 or 18 for now, and once you gain experience then take the next step.  Here are some answers to the things you are considering:

1) Power.  It's far easier to just beef up the wiring on your USB hub than it is to deal with the power sequencing woes from feeding 5v externally.  Frankly, I could not get it to work here with an external 5v tied right to C1/C2, although I don't know why.  If you do try, the GROUNDS must always be tied together (USB GND to Power Supply GND) and only the 5V will be fed externally.

What I ended up doing is just modifying the USB hub to carry the extra current - that worked perfectly first time.  I added some thick (house wire) as a couple of buses inside two D-LINK HUB07s.  Then bought a couple of barrel jacks from rat shack and took the 5v lines from a PC power supply (5V, 18A) and made some high-current 5v barrel jacks for running the hubs.  Hard soldered would probably be better, but this way was easy to connect and disconnect.

2) Limits of the DC-DC.
Frankly, the DC-DC are guaranteed to have a minimum of 3A out at high duty cycle.  Stepping from 5V->1.5V means the current limit will be higher at this low duty cycle, which is why people are getting away with using the stock regulators for a full 3A out.  If you look at the datasheet, the short circuit current limit (0% duty) is about 5A.  That's typical for this kind of part, but it doesn't mean this regulator can safely provide >4A without smoking itself.  The stock regulators won't do more than about 3.5A unless you change the inductor (huge pain in the ass) to something like a 6.8u or 8.2u rated for >5A.

3) External power.
Although the overclock masters are using external LV (1-1.8V) fed directly to C8-C10, this is not something to be taken lightly.  You need a nice lab supply or the ability to build your own power supply, neither of which is trivial.  Could you stack two of the Alpha-Omega parts for 6A?  No, but you could build a second parallel circuit with a second chip and a second inductor.  I've done this on other parts that were well controlled - the AO's may be a bit loose, meaning one chip will try to give all 6A and burn out.  Could you replace the regulator with another?  Yes, if you feel confident building the circuit - these parts are externally compensated, so unless they have the same error amp Gm the compensation components will need to change.  

Here's my advice - beef up your hub and overclock moderately for now.  After another diff or two, go for broke.  I'll try to upload the pics of my USB port mod.

Hey Guys,

Great job so far.  I'm interested in how to apply power from a dc-dc converter - I disconnect the voltage regulator chip on the BE then what?  I'm assuming that I take the 2 usb data lines and connect that to a usb hub, and connect the + and - fromt he dc-dc to the BE.  

Where exactly do I plug those in?  Does anyone know?


Are my assumptions right?  I'm thinking that if I connect the 6+amps (for 24mhz) from the dc-dc converter to the BE with the + and - power going through the usb hub it will fry everything?

Also, the cheap dc-dc converters only do 3amps.  So if I connect one of them im parallel to the output of the voltage converter chip on the BE, will that work at doubling the amps?  Assuming the chip on BE does 3amps, my cheap dc-dc does 3 amps - together = 6 amps?  Or should I just disconnect the voltage converter chip on the BE and then connect in parallel 2 units of dc-dc 3 amps for 6 amps total?  Setting them to the same voltage though of course.

Any thoughts?


The problems are: I'm trying to overclock 10 usb block erupters.  If nobody can get 3 working together at 26mhz, then how will I connect those 10 at 24mhz?  Should I just give up?  haha  

If I connect a 20amp 5volt power supply to the BEs will that cause any problems?  Will that fry my usb 2.0 10 port hub? Will it fry my computer?  I just bought a bunch of stuff and am waiting for stuff to arrive so I can't test anything right now.  But can anyone who knows electronics help me?

I see someone mentioned a replacement voltage regulator that can handle 5amps but after looking at the datasheet im wondering that the pinouts are different, placing a metal plate on the bottom to contact the lx pads to the inductor seems ok but what about the heat dissipation?

What I'm really asking is, if you had like 100 usb block erupters (I dont have 100 haha but I wish) and you wanted to overclock all of them to 26mhz (or 24mhz, or even just 20mhz) how would u handle the power supply?  (not to mention the cooling)



Seems like the more I want to overclock the cheaper it is to just buy more units haha.

Also, anyone had any success connecting 10 units on a cheapo 10 port usb 2.0 hub?  With an external 5v power supply that can handle the amps? (cause the units on ebay come with a 1amp supply, I guess u could substitute it for a 5v 5amp power supply eh?)

Thanks!

[rumak]

Just started a thread for the Erupter Parts.. Easier to manage then highjacking this thread.

For all of you interested;

Erupter USB Overclock Kits
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=292160.msg3127102#msg3127102

[cableiso]

12x Erupters at 16MHz and 1.35k.  And just in time to get 5.3GH in the little runup on shush pool.  Feels like last month!



Yum, an extra gigahash for about $20.

[ElitePork]

Hi all,
Will need some expert advise here.
I came across these oscillators and crystals to mod the BE. However, I can't tell the difference between these 3 items which have similar characteristics... Any advice?
http://sg.element14.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?SKU=1842023 <--- 16MHz Oscillator which I am current using to replace the 12MHz in BE. Works good for me. But currently out of stock
http://sg.element14.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=2142450 <--- 16MHz crystal which I found it has similar specs to the oscillator I'm using. 16MHz, 5MM x 3.2MM, but works with lower frequency tolerance and wider temp range (-40 to 125 instead of -10 to 70)
http://sg.element14.com/jsp/search/productdetail.jsp?sku=2142451 <--- Exactly the same specs as above but I'm curious what's the difference as it has different part number...
Thanks for any advice~
EP

[jelin1984]

Is better to use USB 3.0 hub or USB 2.0 hub and why?

[ElitePork]

any idea where we can find a regulator replacement? Was thinking to upgrade it to 20MHz instead

[Josue]

12x Erupters at 16MHz and 1.35k.  And just in time to get 5.3GH in the little runup on shush pool.  Feels like last month!


Yum, an extra gigahash for about $20.

Where do you buy this heat skins?

Thanks¡¡

[cableiso]

12x Erupters at 16MHz and 1.35k.  And just in time to get 5.3GH in the little runup on shush pool.  Feels like last month!


Yum, an extra gigahash for about $20.

Where do you buy this heat skins?

Thanks¡¡

I custom milled them from stock aluminum.  Why, you want to buy some?  How many BE and what length?  I will warn you that the milling is a little rough but the area the BE sits on is completely flat and clean.

[cableiso]

Is the pinout for the BE100 posted or backtraced anywhere?  Thanks in advance if you can help

[volosator]

R1 = 1.2K
Q1 = 16Mhz

No longer works in raspi + DUB-H7 setup, cgminer sees the device, not able to run it properly, I suspect lack of power (5 other devices are running in the hub, this one plugged into "high current" port)
On standalone PC cgminer 3.4.2 sees and runs, not able to get over 350Mh/s with icarus-timing short

Bitminter on Ubuntu reports response time of 6ms and 447.9Mh/s hash rate, average is 447.0Mh/s.

Is it what everybody got or I've done something wrong?

EDIT: Bitminter reports A:119 HW:26, seems rather high. Any ideas?

[mjgraham]

Is the pinout for the BE100 posted or backtraced anywhere?  Thanks in advance if you can help

Not seen anything anywhere, want to hook a logic analyzer to it but never got around to it. I just want to know the maximum junction voltage before it catches fire.

[mjgraham]

R1 = 1.2K
Q1 = 16Mhz

No longer works in raspi + DUB-H7 setup, cgminer sees the device, not able to run it properly, I suspect lack of power (5 other devices are running in the hub, this one plugged into "high current" port)
On standalone PC cgminer 3.4.2 sees and runs, not able to get over 350Mh/s with icarus-timing short

Bitminter on Ubuntu reports response time of 6ms and 447.9Mh/s hash rate, average is 447.0Mh/s.

Is it what everybody got or I've done something wrong?

I don't think the options in the newer version of cgminer work anymore, I think someone said 3.1.1 was the last version that they worked in, I did not test it, but all versions of bfgminer I have used works fine with the -S all option

[volosator]

R1 = 1.2K
Q1 = 16Mhz

No longer works in raspi + DUB-H7 setup, cgminer sees the device, not able to run it properly, I suspect lack of power (5 other devices are running in the hub, this one plugged into "high current" port)
On standalone PC cgminer 3.4.2 sees and runs, not able to get over 350Mh/s with icarus-timing short

Bitminter on Ubuntu reports response time of 6ms and 447.9Mh/s hash rate, average is 447.0Mh/s.

Is it what everybody got or I've done something wrong?

I don't think the options in the newer version of cgminer work anymore, I think someone said 3.1.1 was the last version that they worked in, I did not test it, but all versions of bfgminer I have used works fine with the -S all option

Switched to bfgminer 3.1.4; will post results soon. Miner feels very hot.

UPDATE:
ICA 0:       | 587.6/441.8/382.4Mh/s | A:127 R:0+0(none) HW:34/ 21%