Hacking a BFL Jalapeno to 32GH and beyond....(???)

[elaramus]

Speaking of which, plug time: If you're really doing this put a simple 3ag fuse in series with your new power supply. Calculate it by the number of watts your unit draws (20 watts+15 per chip) and divide by 12. So a 5 chip unit is 20+75=95 watts/12=8 amp fuse.

That way you won't feed more current than that into a short.

C

That's good info!! I was wondering how many watts/amps I'd be drawing per chip as I plan on running more than just the two I have off of a 1000w ATX power supply.

Now what would be bonus would be to find a PCI-E jack that lines up perfectly with the holes on the board for the adapter plug. I know the Singles used ATX power.... what is the interface between the single board and the PCI-E six pin jack on the case, or is it straight wired to the board?

I've placed heatsinks on all the MOSFETS... Which component is the 1850.... I looked (albeit briefly) and couldn't identify it?

As a side note, both my 6 chips have been running nearly 20 hours @ 23.5Gh/s with 1.5-1.7% HW errors (better than my chilis error wise) Still considering going to chip 7 and 8... but I'd like to have better heatsinking and power supply in place. The fuse is a most excellent idea and I intend to use it.

[lightfoot]

That's good info!! I was wondering how many watts/amps I'd be drawing per chip as I plan on running more than just the two I have off of a 1000w ATX power supply.

From my P3 meter I tend to see about 15 watts per chip and 20 for the hotel load (CPU, fan, everything else). Technically the jally will pull about 40 clocked at 5gh, 50 when you take it to 8. I think the original spec for the chip was to pull 10 watts at full power, and the push to 15 made a pretty big difference (the 1 volt power supply is only rated to 70-80a, which makes sense if each chip pulls 10a. If you bump to 15, 5 chips is 75 and six is 90.)

As a side note, both my 6 chips have been running nearly 20 hours @ 23.5Gh/s with 1.5-1.7% HW errors (better than my chilis error wise) Still considering going to chip 7 and 8... but I'd like to have better heatsinking and power supply in place. The fuse is a most excellent idea and I intend to use it.

Indeed. One thing I did notice on the board is that there is a connector on the edge for measuring the 1 volt supply voltage. I did think about building a 20-40a 1 volt supply on another board to back-feed the jalapeno for 8 chips and to take some strain off the FETs, but then I realized I was getting two more (any day now!) and it might be better to run several at 5 chips than go for 1 at 8.

But if you do have a 1 volt supply, that would be a good way to go. An extra 40a would be enough to run anything. :-)

C

[Drug5bitz]

Ok guys I'm back. Current issues are one miner isn't recognized via USB and the other blew a power brick and a SMD Volt reg.

I replaced the volt reg and all it does is the LED by the barrel port slowly flashes.... Now I'm lost everything else looks good. Has anyone blown any mosfets or anything to know what happens???  I'm about to go replace the USB controller chip on the other one. Wow taking stuff off is a whole new level to this SMD stuff.

BTW one power brick is fried see pics past page, the other when plugged in causes said flashing of power LED. I ripped it apart and the caps are pushing their tops apart almost. just kinda weird it still "kinda" works.

[lightfoot]

Some people have all the luck. I have to wait forever for this dopey broken jally, you have one to play with now. *Sigh*....

First, I'd say as to the flashing one, what are the voltages? When the light is flashing on and off what do we think is happening? Maybe the 12 volt rail is going low due to a short? Maybe the 1 volt supply is dead. Question, perhaps one of your chips has a short to ground, preventing things from starting?

There are pads where you can see the 12 volts, 3.3 volts, and um 1 volt lines. Check to see if any have appropriate power. Check to see if there is a short (0 ohm) between ground and 1v. Try reflowing the chips maybe.

If all else fails, float off the chips and put them on another jally.

C

[Drug5bitz]

Some people have all the luck. I have to wait forever for this dopey broken jally, you have one to play with now. *Sigh*....

First, I'd say as to the flashing one, what are the voltages? When the light is flashing on and off what do we think is happening? Maybe the 12 volt rail is going low due to a short? Maybe the 1 volt supply is dead. Question, perhaps one of your chips has a short to ground, preventing things from starting?

There are pads where you can see the 12 volts, 3.3 volts, and um 1 volt lines. Check to see if any have appropriate power. Check to see if there is a short (0 ohm) between ground and 1v. Try reflowing the chips maybe.

If all else fails, float off the chips and put them on another jally.

C

Again thank you for the knowledge where I'm lost. I'll take my multimeter to the power bricks and the board. I'm not exactly sure where these pads are to check voltage but, only one way to find out.  I'm pretty sure the chips are fine as ALL of my 4 jalapenos with 4 chips recognized and started hashing good.

My jalapeno that isn't recognizing via USB got it's chip changed but now it isn't seen in windows what so ever.... I'm thinking the next step is a reflash but that means installing all the SW on my Lappie. 

Also when that power block blew it took the USB hub as well + my MOBO.... sad day.....
P.S. how are you floating your chips and removing them? I tried duck tape accidentally took off an LED and put it back.

[Drug5bitz]

Ok so on the blinking jalapeno I see a voltage bump when the LED flashes. I cant find any spot to check voltage, I think I need a spoon feed picture or a component number. I'll get to checking a live one tomorrow. With the FTDI chip does every individual lead need to be soldered? It doesn't seem to be programming the chip when I plug it in. Now it just doesn't exist

[Drug5bitz]

Ok, if anyone is still reading I'm back up to 3 jalapenos. The one that was failing to be recognized via USB now hashes 15.5Ghs again.  So I can say I solved the unrecognized device issue with jalapenos. Apparently the FTDI chip just decides not to live anymore. After removing the old one and prepping the area. Just flow the chip down, then the hard part comes. You have to solder all the leads down unless I'm missing something. After soldering all the leads I carefully inspected it and cleaned up the prevent any shorts of course. Truthfully I just dragged the Iron with some resin core solder over the leads and cleaned. If they look like a speck of copper you need to hit it again.  So I thought I heard something before about a bounty on this. If you would like I can provide part #'s and pics. What exactly caused this failure I don't know but it's all in the chip.

[lightfoot]

Ok, if anyone is still reading I'm back up to 3 jalapenos. The one that was failing to be recognized via USB now hashes 15.5Ghs again.  So I can say I solved the unrecognized device issue with jalapenos. Apparently the FTDI chip just decides not to live anymore. After removing the old one and prepping the area. Just flow the chip down, then the hard part comes. You have to solder all the leads down unless I'm missing something. After soldering all the leads I carefully inspected it and cleaned up the prevent any shorts of course. Truthfully I just dragged the Iron with some resin core solder over the leads and cleaned. If they look like a speck of copper you need to hit it again.  So I thought I heard something before about a bounty on this. If you would like I can provide part #'s and pics. What exactly caused this failure I don't know but it's all in the chip.

You rock. You should post this from the highest hills, lowest dales, and all that crap. Replacing the FTDI chip un-bricks dead jallies.

Very nicely done. Despiration is the mother of invention. And how much heat did you need to use to remove it? 400+C?

(yes, I am thinking about cheating and using chip-quik)

C

[lightfoot]

Well I got the broken jally in the mail today and it is *exceptionally* interesting to see what's going on here.

The power supply was blown of course, no output, output caps exploded. However what is interesting is that although the case was factory sealed, after opening it I can see that the power wires to the jally were either soldered by a junkie, or were done by someone who hit the output caps as well. Lots of solder, crappy job, pics to follow. No wonder it blew.

More interesting: Plug it into a big power supply, it fires up, lights the two chips, fails to talk. No biggie, waiting on my ftdi chips from mouser. Ground plane is intact, not that. However VERY INTERESTING THING I HAVE SEEN BECAUSE I HAVE COOL POWER SUPPLIES:

My power supplies are regulated output, 2amps max up to 52 volts. I set it for 13v, 50ma to start with. Hooked up, voltage drops to 3 volts, power LED barely comes on. Crank the current, at 1.5a it starts to come alive, the jally starts testing, and the voltage drops sharply from 12.9 volts down to 5. Then the jally fast flashes the front led.

This is something people see. In this case, the power supply can't provide enough surge power. So I ran the current up to 2.2 amps which is max. Tried it out.

Voltage drops to 8 volts unit flashes. So what's happening here is interesting: The jally starts up, pulls enough power to start, the pulls the power supply *hard* to bring the chips online. If there isn't enough current it will fast flash fail.

Which means if you get that error on a Jalapeno, Single, or Little Single, then the problem is the power supply is too weak. Don't return the whole thing, get a man's power supply and go.

Very interesting confirmation here. Edit: This is confirmed by hooking same jally up to my 500 watt corsair which drops from 12.4 volts to 12.2. So what I have written is a flat fact.

C

[lightfoot]

If you're looking for chips, lentbt2 has them on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191006340017

Note I have ordered from him before, they are good chips, come very quickly, and have all worked. He is a reputable vendor. So order away, they tend to go fast.

C

[arekm]

Yeah... "Does not ship to Poland"

[lightfoot]

Yeah... "Does not ship to Poland"

Who, Lent? Send him a private message, he seems to be a good egg.

C

[HellDiverUK]

Well I got the broken jally in the mail today and it is *exceptionally* interesting to see what's going on here.
[cut]
Very interesting confirmation here. Edit: This is confirmed by hooking same jally up to my 500 watt corsair which drops from 12.4 volts to 12.2. So what I have written is a flat fact.

I've seen the same - on my 5GH Jally running off my old 30A bench supply (this thing has a big-ass transformer and has a regulated voltage adjustable supply).  I see a big spike of around 12A (it's hard to tell exactly because it's got an old analogue meter that doesn't react fast enough and my multimeter only does 10A max). 

I wouldn't run a fan off the crap PSU supplied by BFL - I just cut the lead off it so I can power the Jally off my ATX PSU.

[lightfoot]

I've seen the same - on my 5GH Jally running off my old 30A bench supply (this thing has a big-ass transformer and has a regulated voltage adjustable supply).  I see a big spike of around 12A (it's hard to tell exactly because it's got an old analogue meter that doesn't react fast enough and my multimeter only does 10A max). 

That's about it. Oddly enough my 20gh jally can crowbar my 300 watt cheap-ass ATX supply as well, which is why I am recommending using 500 watt corsairs for clocked units.

I wouldn't run a fan off the crap PSU supplied by BFL - I just cut the lead off it so I can power the Jally off my ATX PSU.

*snort* Pretty much. My next three jallies are coming with a 3 wire PCIX cord from BFL, but yeah I wired my old jally supply into a beautiful 30 watt halogen gooseneck lamp on my desk. The power supply for it died years ago and I always wondered what I could power it with. What's the jally supply gonna do; set fire to the bulb?

:-)

[alpher]

Yeah... "Does not ship to Poland"

Who, Lent? Send him a private message, he seems to be a good egg.

C

I'm also interested, but he wont ship to Canada and I cannot even message him on Ebay (it wont allow me somehow?).
Do you know if he's on this board and what nick?
Thanks.

[lightfoot]

Yeah... "Does not ship to Poland"

Who, Lent? Send him a private message, he seems to be a good egg.

C

I'm also interested, but he wont ship to Canada and I cannot even message him on Ebay (it wont allow me somehow?).
Do you know if he's on this board and what nick?
Thanks.

That's odd. I can email him myself and ask if he will ship to Poland and Canada. This is a big world of course.

C

[lightfoot]

Well, I boosted a friend's jally to 4 chips. Here is my thoughts:

3 chips: Warm, from 38 to 50+. Do-able
4 chips: Holy crap it's *HOT*. 80c, throttling with my BFGminer.

I now have an old AL heat sink on the bottom plate (secured with thermal grease) and a fan on it from the side, will see if it holds. But running a jally with 4 chips and no bottom sink is not a good idea IMO.

I also think I need to take the top off this thing. But 15+gh, no problem with the chips. Flux on the bottom of chip and on board, thin coat, set the chip square, review with a loupe, 350F pre-heat for 10 mins, then 450c at low air flow at .25 inches off the chip for 2 minutes. Done and done.

Edit: Taking the top off and letting the fan breathe makes the difference.

C

[lightfoot]

Well, that makes two failures of trying to re-flow chips on a board that came off other boards in "odd" condition. I clean the chips, remove the solder with an iron at 750f, flux, and desolder braid, put it on the board, center, and give it 350f low temps and 450c temps for 2 minutes. Same as the other chips which go on fine.

Fail. Tried adding flux and another 2 mins, fail. Drat. Fortunately this is on the junky jally so I wouldn't mind if it were trashed. But it did not work :-)

I'll debate just buying chips over trying to continue adding these. They could have been wrecked by the previous owner, but to be honest these chips seem to take a lot of heat and work. I guess I could spend $70 for a reballing kit, but the value is kind of eh.

I'll wait for the new jallies to come in before trying to put on my last 5 chips. Should be Christmas eve, I wonder if I can put up a big sign saying "JUST LEAVE IT WITHOUT A SIGNATURE DAMNIT!" or something like that :-)

C

[lightfoot]

Oh I did also chat with that Ebay seller; he's fixing the auction so he can do international. I'd say give it a go.

C

[gourmet]

Oh I did also chat with that Ebay seller; he's fixing the auction so he can do international. I'd say give it a go.

C

1) The auction at the original link still says continental USA only. Is there another auction/link?
2) According to the photo, the chips aren't native BGA, but a chip on a PCB with balls.