bad Block Erupter?

[soy]

Have lapped the complex heatsink for better contact with the CP2102 and ASIC tops.  Using thermal compound between the chips and heatsink.  Pre-chilling in AC.  Will shut down bfgminer on the laptop, it having the -S all switch, plug-in the B.E., start bfgminer, plug in fan.  Have an alligator clip to the top of the crystal tho if the heat from the CP2102 is effecting it, this might not improve the situation but instead cause additional heating of the crystal. ...  No joy.  Trying RPi. ... Okay, hashing on RPi via a USB2.0 hub.  Must wait tho as it warms.

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[soy]

[2013-07-17 17:14:40] USB: AMU0 read1 buffering 4 extra bytes
 [2013-07-17 17:15:13] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
 [2013-07-17 17:15:21] USB: AMU0 read1 buffering 4 extra bytes

[notme]

[2013-07-17 17:14:40] USB: AMU0 read1 buffering 4 extra bytes
 [2013-07-17 17:15:13] Stratum from pool 0 detected new block
 [2013-07-17 17:15:21] USB: AMU0 read1 buffering 4 extra bytes

I get those occasionally.... as long as it isn't every second you should be okay.

[soy]

Slush's pool is reporting 9.435MHz

while cgminer is showing:
AMU 0: | 290.4M/364.9Mh/s | DA:20 DR:0 HW:106 WU:2.33/m

I'm going to buy an 85°C working temp crystal and replace what's on there and take that out of the equation.

[notme]

Slush's pool is reporting 9.435MHz

while cgminer is showing:
AMU 0: | 290.4M/364.9Mh/s | DA:20 DR:0 HW:106 WU:2.33/m

I'm going to buy an 85°C working temp crystal and replace what's on there and take that out of the equation.

That's way high HW errors.  You should have around 1%.

[soy]

The room temp dropped to below 80°F, the B.E. had been disconnected from cgminer and the miner sitting idle.  I flipped the BE upside down so the attached fan would be drawing air from below thru the steel bars of the rack, unplugged and hotplugged the BE, it came up and has been hashing okay.  I think the 80°F temp is the key.  Still, the failure to connect to anything but the RPi is unacceptable.  I've ordered two crystals, one good for 85°C at the correct frequency and one good for 125°C at 12.000MHz.  What the heck right?

 AMU 1: | 335.1M/334.6Mh/s | DA:165 DR:0 HW:2 WU: 4.71/m

[Trongersoll]

The room temp dropped to below 80°F, the B.E. had been disconnected from cgminer and the miner sitting idle.  I flipped the BE upside down so the attached fan would be drawing air from below thru the steel bars of the rack, unplugged and hotplugged the BE, it came up and has been hashing okay.  I think the 80°F temp is the key.  Still, the failure to connect to anything but the RPi is unacceptable.  I've ordered two crystals, one good for 85°C at the correct frequency and one good for 125°C at 12.000MHz.  What the heck right?

 AMU 1: | 335.1M/334.6Mh/s | DA:165 DR:0 HW:2 WU: 4.71/m

Is that the system timer or the hashing timer?

[Philj6970]

I am fairly sure that the Block erupter is a USB 1.1 device, I read that somewhere.

You know that Raspberry Pi doesnt work with USB 3.0 hubs?

Your work with your faulty BE is very interesting.  I had already decided to put a small heat sink
 
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/120970427830?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

on my BE chip, but I'm going to put one on the CP2102 now as well.

Still waiting for my 4 BE's, and a longer wait for my early June 2013 Jalapeno order

Phil

[soy]

T
 AMU 1: | 335.1M/334.6Mh/s | DA:165 DR:0 HW:2 WU: 4.71/m

Is that the system timer or the hashing timer?

It's the cgminer indication of the BE stats I believe:

AMU 1: | 333.3M/334.9Mh/s | DA:392 DR:1 HW:2 WU: 4.45/m

[soy]

I am fairly sure that the Block erupter is a USB 1.1 device, I read that somewhere.

The CP2102 datasheet indicates the chip is a USB2.0, interface I believe.

[Trongersoll]

T
 AMU 1: | 335.1M/334.6Mh/s | DA:165 DR:0 HW:2 WU: 4.71/m

Is that the system timer or the hashing timer?

It's the cgminer indication of the BE stats I believe:

AMU 1: | 333.3M/334.9Mh/s | DA:392 DR:1 HW:2 WU: 4.45/m

I'm sorry, i meant the oscilator. i miss quoted. there are two, one for the system and one for the ASIC?(i think). i was wondering which was giving you problems. since people have speculated about over clocking these miners, i was thinking it would be convient if you were playing with the right one, although i suspect that you aren't.

[soy]

T
 AMU 1: | 335.1M/334.6Mh/s | DA:165 DR:0 HW:2 WU: 4.71/m

Is that the system timer or the hashing timer?

It's the cgminer indication of the BE stats I believe:

AMU 1: | 333.3M/334.9Mh/s | DA:392 DR:1 HW:2 WU: 4.45/m

I'm sorry, i meant the oscilator. i miss quoted. there are two, one for the system and one for the ASIC?(i think). i was wondering which was giving you problems. since people have speculated about over clocking these miners, i was thinking it would be convient if you were playing with the right one, although i suspect that you aren't.

Right, the 11.xxxxMHz crystal. 

Wonder if a simple barrier of some kind between the CP2102 and the crystal would improve communication.  Not metal naturally, a thin piece of Styrofoam as a wall sitting on double sided tape would show if the approach would help.

[superfastkyle]

I have a bad block erupter also bought from btcguild. It works if its cool for maybe a minute but doesn't work at operating temp. Have a 120mm fan on it and it averages about 140mhash after all the hardware errors

[soy]

I have a bad block erupter also bought from btcguild. It works if its cool for maybe a minute but doesn't work at operating temp. Have a 120mm fan on it and it averages about 140mhash after all the hardware errors

What's your ambient?

You might try a heatsink designed for a TO-220 transistor.  That's what worked well to cool the CP2012 while under a fan - I needed to modify a Teflon washer of the kind typically found in a TO-3 transistor mounting kit.  It's fairly large so I had to cut a 90° notch so it would fit then had to lap it sandpaper to get the  height right.  Then you need to get a #3x.50-10 screw to hold it in place and a dab of heatsink compound.  It doesn't sit square and in fact is 45° off the line so it doesn't see interference from the USB connector.

I wonder if the CP2012 needs to be soldered to the board at its center so it could cool better but I'm not going to expose it to high enough heat to test the theory.  I suspect the problem is more closely related to the 11.xxxx crystal.  Note there is very little information on the crystal aside from the frequency.  The BE manufacturer may have gone to cheaper crystals that can't take much heat.

[Bicknellski]

Oil Cooling?

[soy]

I have a bad block erupter also bought from btcguild. It works if its cool for maybe a minute but doesn't work at operating temp. Have a 120mm fan on it and it averages about 140mhash after all the hardware errors

Maybe try this: shut down the fan, start it up so it fails to connect and gets hot.  Let it sit getting hot for some minutes.  Then when it's not going to get hotter, apply light pressure to the top of the CP2102 and shut down the power allowing it to cool while applying pressure.

If the hottest part of the CP2102 is at the internal bottom facing the ground plane and if it's suppose to be soldered but wasn't heated enough, since the temperature above the CP2102 can reach 250°F+, then the area near the ground plane is hotter, perhaps hot enough to liquify the solder.  If so, after cooling and having pressure applied topside while cooling, the next time it fires up the ground plane can draw away the CP2102 heat more effectively.

That or the BE gets killed.

[OtaconEmmerich]

I just got a BE myself yesterday, all this talk about overheating as me wondering. Is it safe to run a BE without airflow over a extended amount of time? (over an hour) I'm wondering because this damned desk fan I bought(I'll replace it sooner or later I think) is pretty damned loud at night and was wondering if it's safe to it off during the night.

[Philj6970]

If there is room in my usb hub, I'm going to stick small heatsinks on the Erupter's UART (CP2021), the regulator (AOZ1021) and the BE chip (BE100).

My intention is to extend the life of the device by bringing down the overall PCB temperature. The components that get hot may be ok with it, but the whole USB is getting very hot, and all the components will be cooking.

I have a small, quiet USB fan from ebay for $2 that will be running 24/7.

My neighbour has a FLIR camera, when I get my Erupters I will ask him for a picture or two and post them here.

I'll do before and after heatsinks.

Just wanna get my Erupters!

[notlist3d]

My neighbour has a FLIR camera, when I get my Erupters I will ask him for a picture or two and post them here.

Please do!  Would be cool just to see this image when hashing away.

[Trongersoll]

I just got a BE myself yesterday, all this talk about overheating as me wondering. Is it safe to run a BE without airflow over a extended amount of time? (over an hour) I'm wondering because this damned desk fan I bought(I'll replace it sooner or later I think) is pretty damned loud at night and was wondering if it's safe to it off during the night.

Yes it is safe to run them for an extended length of time with out a fan. I have one that has run 24/7 for over 3 weeks.