Block Erupter USB - Overclocking/ hacking ?

[sidehack]

The hubs always recognized, but after a while some of the ports wouldn't run reliably - ended up getting a lot of errors and had to shuffle around to working ports. It's all been retired now.

[qtronix]

The hubs always recognized, but after a while some of the ports wouldn't run reliably - ended up getting a lot of errors and had to shuffle around to working ports. It's all been retired now.

thought it was just mine playing up, i have just bought another cheap brand hub and running them with a 20amp supply and they seem a lot better so far but will wait and see. thanks

 

[ThinkFast]

Here is some good basic knowledge to know that might help in your tinkering:

"A lot of this information was collected from mjgraham, bluestreak66, and trillium on this forum. So thanks "

• 1) ASIC Clock Speed = (Xtal) * 28
• 2) Stock ASIC Clock Speed= (12Mhz*28=336Mhz)
• 3) Stock Xtal is 3.3V@12Mhz, 5mmX3.2mm, 4Lead, Tri-State/Open Type
• 4) ASIC Chip MAX Voltage is 1.8VDC
• 5) Regulator (AZ1021) Output = 1VDC @ 2.5A, (3A MAX @ 100% LOAD)
• 6) V=0.8(1+(RA/R2))     Stock R2 Value is 2.4kOhms
• 2) Stock ASIC Clock Speed= (12Mhz*28=336Mhz)

Here is also some additional information that I have collected:

• 1) Adding a 10uF capacitor across the input 5VDC may help clean up power/stability.
• 2) The higher the frequency of the clock, the more voltage required to stabilize them.
• 3) Current draw increases with frequency, NOT voltage.
• 4) For high clocks, it is necessary to replace the regulator with an external high amp buck converter that is adjustable from (1.05V-x).
• 5) Add the following to cgminer: "cgminer (--icarus-timing short=90)"

Here mjgraham's table for reference:

Based on this chart 16.8 MHz is safe.

Got bored today and OC'd 10 more eruptors that I picked up cheap on eBay. Just so happened, last week, I was placing a DigiKey order for work last week and added a bunch more SMD crystals and resistors in case I decided to do any more overclocking for fun or anyone who is interested. For fun, I found some abnormally sized heatsinks that could easily fit 10 eruptors. I have yet to have time to mill the surface and drill the holes, but I will get around to it ....

I still want to try trying a peltier cooler on one just for fun. I would use some type of temperature controller (arduino based) so I can avoid condensation. Having lots of 20A 5V PSU's around is handy ... same as having a function generator. I am curious to see how far I can go with a peltier cooler while bypassing the onboard DC/DC regulator circuit. Pics will come! But for now, here is my latest 10 from today. (There is a stock one in the middle somewhere for comparison).

FYI, Some of these are clocked at 16MHz with R1 replaced with a 1k2 resistor, the others are 16.345MHz with a 1k4 resistor.
...
Images were paired to save space

So why don't you use 16.8MHz instead of 16.345MHz?

[zerocode20]

If anyone is interested in overclocking BE's, I have a ton of spare crystals of all different frequencies and resistors of multiple values. Additionally, I have many 5VDC 20A+ PSU's, industrial grade. I can get some pictures tomorrow. I also have some items for sale over here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=323078.0 and also here you can see some of the PSU's on imgur gallery http://imgur.com/a/akeKC#3Thanks!!

[Conqueror]

Low-cost water cooled rig borned here:


Original post:
http://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php/topic,4266.msg33160.html#msg33160

[Trillium]

Cheapest chinese waterblocks on the market ✔

Cheapest chinese USB hub on the market ✔

Cheapest Rpi from china ✔

Priceless.

I wish them a superior high class river for the arctic cold eruption.

[qtronix]

who is still running 16mhz on theres and for how long have you been running.

[zerocode20]

Cheapest chinese waterblocks on the market ✔

Cheapest chinese USB hub on the market ✔

Cheapest Rpi from china ✔

Priceless.

I wish them a superior high class river for the arctic cold eruption.

Arctic cold eruption. Sounds refreshing

[luketanti]

Hi. I have changed the crystal to 14.75MHz and R1 to 1.2Kohm. According to the table it should run at 412MH/s but it is averaging only 360Mh/s. What can be the cause. It is working fine but the hash rate did not increase as I thought.

[sidehack]

Did you remember --icarus-timing short in the command line? That'll tell cgminer to auto-adjust and compensate for a faster-than-expected throughput.

[cableiso]

who is still running 16mhz on theres and for how long have you been running.

Me, since page 21.  A month or so.  Rock solid.

[qtronix]

who is still running 16mhz on theres and for how long have you been running.

Me, since page 21.  A month or so.  Rock solid.

awesome, i have just ordered a load or crystals and resistors to mod mine. but being in the uk i have had to order from china to get a good price so might take a couple of weeks to get here.
thanks

[cableiso]

Good deal, watch out for the risk of breaking capacitor C7 ( just below the crystal).  All the caps seem to be stressed by the reflow operation, or else they're just cheap caps.  I don't know.  I had good luck just removing C7 while I was working in there and replacing it later.  

[helipotte]

Been running about 8 since mid September.  Add 1 or 2 every week or so.  Takes about 5-10 minutes with hot air to change crystal to 16Mhz.

Some BE100's seem to clock better than others, but most show same error rate as stock.  This is at about 1.25V.  Current draw does not seem to be

to high.  I test them at my shop  for about 7 hours in a standard USB 2.0 port.  447.5Mhs is the norm.  Using stock heat spreader but have strong

Constant airflow on them.  This works really good for that:

http://www.amazon.com/Kaz-HT-900-Honeywell-TurboForce-Fan/dp/B001R1RXUG

[cableiso]

Hi Helipotte,

Thanks again, all set up and working well.  I was doubtful of the heatsinks, but they're actually quite good.

@qtronix
I see I finished my upgrades early September, so I guess 2 months.  Really, 16MHz is no big deal except it exceeds the 500mA limit of a generic USB port so asicminer downclocked to 12.  Good luck!

[luketanti]

Did you remember --icarus-timing short in the command line? That'll tell cgminer to auto-adjust and compensate for a faster-than-expected throughput.

Thanks. Forgot that!! 

[Conqueror]

Cheapest chinese waterblocks on the market ✔

Cheapest chinese USB hub on the market ✔

Cheapest Rpi from china ✔

Priceless.

I wish them a superior high class river for the arctic cold eruption.

Well... so system name will be arctic cold eruption 
Thanks a lot!

[soy]

Had a BE go bad recently.  Troubleshooting: Not communicating; looked at voltages on the edge connector and found 7 to 6 on a good unit showing a little over a volt but on the faulty unit over 3 volts; cleaned a spot between a couple of pins on the inside side of the BE chip and now have the same voltage between edge pins 7 and 6 but not communicating.  The LED was flashing the correct sequence and duration so it wasn't the CP2102->crystal but found both the SUSPEND and SUSPEND-NOT pins high.  They should be complementary.  Not shorted so internal or elsewhere on the board.  Tried a manual reset of the CP2102 bringing the reset pin to ground but that was no help either.  The CP2102 seems to have the proper voltages aside from the SUSPEND and SUSPEND-NOT pins.  Since they're the states of an inverter input and output it's disallowed logic.  Anyone seen this and know of a fix aside from replacing the CP2102?  I note I had been getting strange high frequency noise on my network, it stopped around the time this went belly up.

[ooxtcoo]

Had a BE go bad recently.  Troubleshooting: Not communicating; looked at voltages on the edge connector and found 7 to 6 on a good unit showing a little over a volt but on the faulty unit over 3 volts; cleaned a spot between a couple of pins on the inside side of the BE chip and now have the same voltage between edge pins 7 and 6 but not communicating.  The LED was flashing the correct sequence and duration so it wasn't the CP2102->crystal but found both the SUSPEND and SUSPEND-NOT pins high.  They should be complementary.  Not shorted so internal or elsewhere on the board.  Tried a manual reset of the CP2102 bringing the reset pin to ground but that was no help either.  The CP2102 seems to have the proper voltages aside from the SUSPEND and SUSPEND-NOT pins.  Since they're the states of an inverter input and output it's disallowed logic.  Anyone seen this and know of a fix aside from replacing the CP2102?  I note I had been getting strange high frequency noise on my network, it stopped around the time this went belly up.

first:
did you check the usb connector solder pins?
i had many of them with bad soldered usb connector pins...
try to resolder this 4 pins first.

or:
desolder the asic and check if it is detected.
is cp2102 getting hot?
if you desolder asic and it is detected again, you know your asic is demaged.

the cp2102 works without any external components.
i mean, if you desolder every component but keep only the cp2102 on board, it must be detected by your computer.

if not, maybe its bad soldered but mostly death cp2102.

i have some new cp2102 if you need.

[soy]

Had a BE go bad recently.  Troubleshooting: Not communicating; looked at voltages on the edge connector and found 7 to 6 on a good unit showing a little over a volt but on the faulty unit over 3 volts; cleaned a spot between a couple of pins on the inside side of the BE chip and now have the same voltage between edge pins 7 and 6 but not communicating.  The LED was flashing the correct sequence and duration so it wasn't the CP2102->crystal but found both the SUSPEND and SUSPEND-NOT pins high.  They should be complementary.  Not shorted so internal or elsewhere on the board.  Tried a manual reset of the CP2102 bringing the reset pin to ground but that was no help either.  The CP2102 seems to have the proper voltages aside from the SUSPEND and SUSPEND-NOT pins.  Since they're the states of an inverter input and output it's disallowed logic.  Anyone seen this and know of a fix aside from replacing the CP2102?  I note I had been getting strange high frequency noise on my network, it stopped around the time this went belly up.

first:
did you check the usb connector solder pins?
i had many of them with bad soldered usb connector pins...
try to resolder this 4 pins first.

or:
desolder the asic and check if it is detected.
is cp2102 getting hot?
if you desolder asic and it is detected again, you know your asic is demaged.

the cp2102 works without any external components.
i mean, if you desolder every component but keep only the cp2102 on board, it must be detected by your computer.

if not, maybe its bad soldered but mostly death cp2102.

i have some new cp2102 if you need.

Thanks for the reply.  I've inspected the board closely with a loupe  The USB pins seem quite well soldered visually inspecting.  The ASIC seems to be just a little askew from dead center but I'm betting on the CP2102 as dead - ordered one from Digikey earlier today.  I replaced one once before and it took me two days to get it right so I know they can tolerate soldering and desoldering, not sure about my tolerance for difficult work without the best (expensive) tools however. 

I've measured continuity between the data pins and the corresponding rear surface mount pins on the USB, that earlier today, but perhaps the signals just aren't reaching the fingers in the USB plug.  Think I'll grab a USB extension, plug it in and measure....yes, continuity.  It seems to be in a suspend state according to the suspend pin out (12) although the reverse is indicated by the suspend-not pin out (12) as they are both high.  I believe it wouldn't be capable of identifying itself if in a suspended state.  A good unit immediately gets a device reset notation in linux to std out when plugged in.  I would expect to see a similar notation when I bring the reset pin to ground but nothing.