[GUIDE] GridSeed GC3355 5 Chip Setup/power/windows/linux/rpi by UnicornHasher

[poopypants]

Just thought I'd share my genius idea for today's project.  I tried to update the MCU on my red beta gridseed unit, thought a simple unsoldering then soldering job would be easy enough for me to tackle... mind you I have never soldered any electronics in my life.  I wanted to stabilize the dual mining and saw a thread on cybtc showing the steps to update the MCU.  Well when I unsoldered the chip I pulled off a couple contact pads with it, completely hatched the soldering of the new chip and in the process fucked up the board.  Well that little adventure did not turn out so well and now I am laughing and pissed at the same time at myself for pissing away 200 so bucks on the unit.  Ah some days you win, some days you lose, and sometimes you decide that your up to the small tinkering task and instead break things.  Looks like the other 9 are staying the way they are.  Anyone interested in the actual chips for some reason let me know.

[Dabs]

Depends on the price of those chips. But I think most people would not want them, except those who know for sure they can repair them.

[miaviator]

Just thought I'd share my genius idea for today's project.  I tried to update the MCU on my red beta gridseed unit, thought a simple unsoldering then soldering job would be easy enough for me to tackle... mind you I have never soldered any electronics in my life.  I wanted to stabilize the dual mining and saw a thread on cybtc showing the steps to update the MCU.  Well when I unsoldered the chip I pulled off a couple contact pads with it, completely hatched the soldering of the new chip and in the process fucked up the board.  Well that little adventure did not turn out so well and now I am laughing and pissed at the same time at myself for pissing away 200 so bucks on the unit.  Ah some days you win, some days you lose, and sometimes you decide that your up to the small tinkering task and instead break things.  Looks like the other 9 are staying the way they are.  Anyone interested in the actual chips for some reason let me know.

I want the parts.

Or you could contact lightfoot who could most likely fix/replace whatever isn't fully broken.

[wolfey2014]

Just thought I'd share my genius idea for today's project.  I tried to update the MCU on my red beta gridseed unit, thought a simple unsoldering then soldering job would be easy enough for me to tackle... mind you I have never soldered any electronics in my life.  I wanted to stabilize the dual mining and saw a thread on cybtc showing the steps to update the MCU.  Well when I unsoldered the chip I pulled off a couple contact pads with it, completely hatched the soldering of the new chip and in the process fucked up the board.  Well that little adventure did not turn out so well and now I am laughing and pissed at the same time at myself for pissing away 200 so bucks on the unit.  Ah some days you win, some days you lose, and sometimes you decide that your up to the small tinkering task and instead break things.  Looks like the other 9 are staying the way they are.  Anyone interested in the actual chips for some reason let me know.

Nah, just send it to me. I have the requisite skills, experience and equipment to get it back together, IF it can be salvaged.
PM me for my address.
Thanks
Wolfey2014

[usao]

Hey all,

This is my first post here. This thread (and a few others) have been really helpful to me getting 24 gridseeds running on windows 8.1. I wanted to say thanks to all contributing. I have also been searching for a decent #gridseed irc. Not much luck so far, the rooms are small, quiet and/or specific to a store that sells gridseeds. So we started #gridseedmining on freenode.net to share info, specs, builds, tips tricks and workarounds. We'll see if it picks up any popularity.

Anyways, thanks again. Hope to see you all in the channel. #gridseedmining FTW!

Im still looking for a way to get Windows to see these devices. I downloaded the recomended cpuminer from page 1, but the devices don't show up in the device manager under windows. Are there any tricks to getting Windows to recognize these as USB devices?

Are you using a USB cable that came with the unit or one you had already?

I have discovered I have a handful of USB cables that fit these, but do not power them up AT ALL. Also, zoomhash saw fit to ship mine with a micro USB instead of a mini USB, so I had to use one I already owned.

When you plug it in, does the green light come on and Windows pops up telling you a device was detected? Or you get nothing? If it does pop up... zadig needs to be used per the OP instructions.

Didn't get cables with order, used one existing cable I had already to try and get one unit working. I do see lights, but Windows doesn't do any of the normal pop-up reporting usually seen when plugging in a USB drive.
I thought all USB cables had just 4 wires, 2 power and 2 data. The cable im using also does work to charge my phone, so I think the power is connected.

[CoinHoarder]

I am not trying to dissuade anyone from making their own cables or selling to others if that is is your goal.  But please, please overbuild them at a minimum.  I have been doing this for two years now with many hundreds of cables in the wild on many different platforms.  Just follow that small bit of advice for safety sake.  Know what wire gauges and connectors you are using and what they are capable of and please afford yourself 10-20% headroom just in case.

With the sizes of the farms I am seeing, fire is a real concern.  Be safe and happy mining.

Hey cablez,

Can you give some specific advice on wire gauges so I can add it here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=494625.msg5511232#msg5511232

He shows that he is going to use 18 AWG here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=74397.msg5524959#msg5524959

Thank You.

What are you using for power solutions in your farm?

I posted the setup I'm going to use a couple pages back. Although I ended up choosing different components that have 18 AWG to be safe.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=494625.msg5717850#msg5717850

Regarding me using cgminer on Linux. I actually am not running any units yet, but I don't see why you couldn't use the gridseed cgminer fork in windows too though. Or is there not a Windows build for it? I am planning on using Linux though yes.. raspberry pis

[wolfey2014]

Just thought I'd share my genius idea for today's project.  I tried to update the MCU on my red beta gridseed unit, thought a simple unsoldering then soldering job would be easy enough for me to tackle... mind you I have never soldered any electronics in my life.  I wanted to stabilize the dual mining and saw a thread on cybtc showing the steps to update the MCU.  Well when I unsoldered the chip I pulled off a couple contact pads with it, completely hatched the soldering of the new chip and in the process fucked up the board.  Well that little adventure did not turn out so well and now I am laughing and pissed at the same time at myself for pissing away 200 so bucks on the unit.  Ah some days you win, some days you lose, and sometimes you decide that your up to the small tinkering task and instead break things.  Looks like the other 9 are staying the way they are.  Anyone interested in the actual chips for some reason let me know.

Hi,
can you provide the link to the article or instructions you mentioned you found at cybtc thread?
I'd like to see what it says to do.
I can't believe anyone is suggesting de-soldering and re-soldering an ASIC chip on the GS5 card.
Just doesn't make sense and it's next to impossible to work with those tiny chips as it is.
They were manufactured using sophisticated processes. Not point to point soldering.

Thanks
Wolfey2014

[daemonfox]

Hey all,

This is my first post here. This thread (and a few others) have been really helpful to me getting 24 gridseeds running on windows 8.1. I wanted to say thanks to all contributing. I have also been searching for a decent #gridseed irc. Not much luck so far, the rooms are small, quiet and/or specific to a store that sells gridseeds. So we started #gridseedmining on freenode.net to share info, specs, builds, tips tricks and workarounds. We'll see if it picks up any popularity.

Anyways, thanks again. Hope to see you all in the channel. #gridseedmining FTW!

Im still looking for a way to get Windows to see these devices. I downloaded the recomended cpuminer from page 1, but the devices don't show up in the device manager under windows. Are there any tricks to getting Windows to recognize these as USB devices?

Are you using a USB cable that came with the unit or one you had already?

I have discovered I have a handful of USB cables that fit these, but do not power them up AT ALL. Also, zoomhash saw fit to ship mine with a micro USB instead of a mini USB, so I had to use one I already owned.

When you plug it in, does the green light come on and Windows pops up telling you a device was detected? Or you get nothing? If it does pop up... zadig needs to be used per the OP instructions.

Didn't get cables with order, used one existing cable I had already to try and get one unit working. I do see lights, but Windows doesn't do any of the normal pop-up reporting usually seen when plugging in a USB drive.
I thought all USB cables had just 4 wires, 2 power and 2 data. The cable im using also does work to charge my phone, so I think the power is connected.

Some cables do power only and no data... I have several that do this... like the one that came with my wireless Logitech headset... no data just power to charge. Some PS3 cables are like this too.

You will have to find one that is the right data/power USB then you should be fine.

[Yottabyte]

Is there a method for viewing real time hashspeed in windows? right now I'm using CPU miner as depicted in this guide, it is working and my pool is reporting approximately the hashrate I would expect, but it would be great to be able to see real time speed, so I could tweak/troubleshoot the devices when needed. If not in Windows, I could switch over to Xubuntu on my laptop and control the devices from there, if there is a way in linux...

Right now I have 3 devices (more arriving today), they are powered by a Corsair CX500 PSU, all 3 running off one PCIe 6pin plug. I have to say that right now they are pulling way more than the "8 watts" advertised in single mode scrypt... My Kill-aWatt meter is reading 170 watts  at the wall for the 3 pack (psu plugged into meter). Also, I have these running at 800 right now. At 850 I noticed some nonce errors, and a lower hash speed reported by the pool... and oddly enough, at 850 the units were pulling LESS wattage, about 120watts as opposed to 170 @ 800. And finally, thanks to those who put work into this guide, it's been real helpful!

[CoinHoarder]

Utilizing 12v PCIe Cables:
Requirements: 3 PCIe Y splitters and 12 barrel plugs per PCIe Cable
PSU -> PCIe cable -> PCIe Y Splitter -> Two PCIe Y Splitters -> Produces 12 hot and 12 ground wires -> 12 barrel plugs per PCIe cable
3 -> 6 -> 12

Technically, the 6 pin pci-e connector is only "rated" via PSU specifications for 75 watts. A 6+2 or 8 pin is rated for 150 watts. So, in theory, the PSU manufacturer could use higher gauge (lower amp) wire in a 6 pin only configuration. Also, if it is a multi-rail PSU, the 6-pin rail may not have enough amps. A PSU I have explicitly has 6 pin and 6+2 pin connectors. If you look at the amperage available on each rail, it explains why.

No... a PSU manufacturer could not use lower gauge wire for the 6 pin PCIe connector. Not legally anyways... 18 AWG is spec

That is correct a PCIe 6 pin connector is only rated for 75 watts, but if you breakdown what that 6 pin connector actually contains you will find it can handle more than 75 watts. A 8 pin PCIe connector doesn't contain any extra 12v lines and is rated at 150 watts. The 2 extra wires are black grounds for reduced resistance.

So... a PCIe 6 pin contains 3 +12v wires and 3 black ground wires. Spec for these wires is #18 AWG wire, so all PSUs should come with at least that. The original 6 pin 75 watt specification was for a minimum current of 2.08 amps for each +12 volt line, hence 75 watts.

3 +12 volt lines x 2.08 amps each = 75 watts.

However, The 6 pin PCI-e power connector is actually capable of handling more than 75 watts. You will see here an 18 AWG wire can run up to 110 watts at 12v depending on the length of the wire (distances in feet): http://www.securitypower.com/AN2Wire.html

Using a safe distance of your 12v wires being shorter than 23 feet from the PSU to the Gridseeds (a very safe assumption IMO):

3 +12 volt wires x 4.16 amps each = 150 watts maximum wattage.

In summary, although a 6 pin PCIe connector is only specified for 75 watts in ATX PSUland specifications, by design it could safely handle at least double this amount... 150 Watts at 12 v. This is why Cablez chose to use 15 Gridseeds per PCIe cable max in Scrypt mode. From the man himself:

How many units can 1 pci-e cable power safely for scrypt mode?  Also how many can you power from molex?

If you are looking to be conservative I would say 60w per wire pair within the PCIe connector. At roughly 10w per device that is 6 units per wire pair and 18 units total, conservatively. It is possible to go up to 80w per wire pair but that just stresses the housings, pins and wires and will yield lower MTBF rates.

Looking at a molex 'chain' there is only a single 12v wire pair to be utilized there but it is shared. This is going to limit you to 60w on the entire 'chain' (usually 3 molex plugs and a floppy).

Hope that helps.

[miaviator]

Is there a method for viewing real time hashspeed in windows? right now I'm using CPU miner as depicted in this guide, it is working and my pool is reporting approximately the hashrate I would expect, but it would be great to be able to see real time speed, so I could tweak/troubleshoot the devices when needed. If not in Windows, I could switch over to Xubuntu on my laptop and control the devices from there, if there is a way in linux...

Right now I have 3 devices (more arriving today), they are powered by a Corsair CX500 PSU, all 3 running off one PCIe 6pin plug. I have to say that right now they are pulling way more than the "8 watts" advertised in single mode scrypt... My Kill-aWatt meter is reading 170 watts  at the wall for the 3 pack (psu plugged into meter). Also, I have these running at 800 right now. At 850 I noticed some nonce errors, and a lower hash speed reported by the pool... and oddly enough, at 850 the units were pulling LESS wattage, about 120watts as opposed to 170 @ 800. And finally, thanks to those who put work into this guide, it's been real helpful!

You are pulling 170 for three units in scrypt mode?  That sounds more like the SHA cores are still active.

In windows you can switch to cgminer/bfgminer forks which have support and see hashrate.  For now the only official or mainstream miner is cpuminer with no hashrate shown.

[Blazed]

Miaviator...

Thanks for this guide it helped me get up and running quickly! 

[miaviator]

Miaviator...

Thanks for this guide it helped me get up and running quickly! 

Glad to hear it!  It's turned into a community guide with all the feedback and tips posted in the thread and I hope to keep it up to date as new information comes out.

[Yottabyte]

Is there a method for viewing real time hashspeed in windows? right now I'm using CPU miner as depicted in this guide, it is working and my pool is reporting approximately the hashrate I would expect, but it would be great to be able to see real time speed, so I could tweak/troubleshoot the devices when needed. If not in Windows, I could switch over to Xubuntu on my laptop and control the devices from there, if there is a way in linux...

Right now I have 3 devices (more arriving today), they are powered by a Corsair CX500 PSU, all 3 running off one PCIe 6pin plug. I have to say that right now they are pulling way more than the "8 watts" advertised in single mode scrypt... My Kill-aWatt meter is reading 170 watts  at the wall for the 3 pack (psu plugged into meter). Also, I have these running at 800 right now. At 850 I noticed some nonce errors, and a lower hash speed reported by the pool... and oddly enough, at 850 the units were pulling LESS wattage, about 120watts as opposed to 170 @ 800. And finally, thanks to those who put work into this guide, it's been real helpful!

You are pulling 170 for three units in scrypt mode?  That sounds more like the SHA cores are still active.

In windows you can switch to cgminer/bfgminer forks which have support and see hashrate.  For now the only official or mainstream miner is cpuminer with no hashrate shown.

When CPU miner starts I noticed that it reported "single mode", so i assumed it was in scrypt only, aside from that I am not sure how to determine which cores are active... but yes they are running at 170 watts so I will definitely investigate your theory regarding the active sha core further... I am not familiar with what you mean by "switching to a cgminer fork", could you expand on this, or maybe direct me to where i could find more detail on how to achieve this? Again, thank you!!

[miaviator]

When CPU miner starts I noticed that it reported "single mode", so i assumed it was in scrypt only, aside from that I am not sure how to determine which cores are active... but yes they are running at 170 watts so I will definitely investigate your theory regarding the active sha core further... I am not familiar with what you mean by "switching to a cgminer fork", could you expand on this, or maybe direct me to where i could find more detail on how to achieve this? Again, thank you!!

http://cryptomining-blog.com/tag/gridseed-cgminer/

[usao]

Hey all,

This is my first post here. This thread (and a few others) have been really helpful to me getting 24 gridseeds running on windows 8.1. I wanted to say thanks to all contributing. I have also been searching for a decent #gridseed irc. Not much luck so far, the rooms are small, quiet and/or specific to a store that sells gridseeds. So we started #gridseedmining on freenode.net to share info, specs, builds, tips tricks and workarounds. We'll see if it picks up any popularity.

Anyways, thanks again. Hope to see you all in the channel. #gridseedmining FTW!

Im still looking for a way to get Windows to see these devices. I downloaded the recomended cpuminer from page 1, but the devices don't show up in the device manager under windows. Are there any tricks to getting Windows to recognize these as USB devices?

Are you using a USB cable that came with the unit or one you had already?

I have discovered I have a handful of USB cables that fit these, but do not power them up AT ALL. Also, zoomhash saw fit to ship mine with a micro USB instead of a mini USB, so I had to use one I already owned.

When you plug it in, does the green light come on and Windows pops up telling you a device was detected? Or you get nothing? If it does pop up... zadig needs to be used per the OP instructions.

Didn't get cables with order, used one existing cable I had already to try and get one unit working. I do see lights, but Windows doesn't do any of the normal pop-up reporting usually seen when plugging in a USB drive.
I thought all USB cables had just 4 wires, 2 power and 2 data. The cable im using also does work to charge my phone, so I think the power is connected.

Some cables do power only and no data... I have several that do this... like the one that came with my wireless Logitech headset... no data just power to charge. Some PS3 cables are like this too.

You will have to find one that is the right data/power USB then you should be fine.

Ill get a new set of cables from Frys Electronics at lunch and give it a try when I get home. Thanks for the advice.

[wolfey2014]

When CPU miner starts I noticed that it reported "single mode", so i assumed it was in scrypt only, aside from that I am not sure how to determine which cores are active... but yes they are running at 170 watts so I will definitely investigate your theory regarding the active sha core further... I am not familiar with what you mean by "switching to a cgminer fork", could you expand on this, or maybe direct me to where i could find more detail on how to achieve this? Again, thank you!!

http://cryptomining-blog.com/tag/gridseed-cgminer/

WRONG!!!!

Use this. No hassles!

http://cryptomining-blog.com/?s=Download+cpuminer+for+Gridseed+5-chip+GC3355+ASICs+with+Reduced+Power+Usage

Enjoy!
Wolfey2014

[wolfey2014]

Is there a method for viewing real time hashspeed in windows? right now I'm using CPU miner as depicted in this guide, it is working and my pool is reporting approximately the hashrate I would expect, but it would be great to be able to see real time speed, so I could tweak/troubleshoot the devices when needed. If not in Windows, I could switch over to Xubuntu on my laptop and control the devices from there, if there is a way in linux...

Right now I have 3 devices (more arriving today), they are powered by a Corsair CX500 PSU, all 3 running off one PCIe 6pin plug. I have to say that right now they are pulling way more than the "8 watts" advertised in single mode scrypt... My Kill-aWatt meter is reading 170 watts  at the wall for the 3 pack (psu plugged into meter). Also, I have these running at 800 right now. At 850 I noticed some nonce errors, and a lower hash speed reported by the pool... and oddly enough, at 850 the units were pulling LESS wattage, about 120watts as opposed to 170 @ 800. And finally, thanks to those who put work into this guide, it's been real helpful!

You are pulling 170 for three units in scrypt mode?  That sounds more like the SHA cores are still active.

In windows you can switch to cgminer/bfgminer forks which have support and see hashrate.  For now the only official or mainstream miner is cpuminer with no hashrate shown.

When CPU miner starts I noticed that it reported "single mode", so i assumed it was in scrypt only, aside from that I am not sure how to determine which cores are active... but yes they are running at 170 watts so I will definitely investigate your theory regarding the active sha core further... I am not familiar with what you mean by "switching to a cgminer fork", could you expand on this, or maybe direct me to where i could find more detail on how to achieve this? Again, thank you!!

Use this. No hassles!

http://cryptomining-blog.com/?s=Download+cpuminer+for+Gridseed+5-chip+GC3355+ASICs+with+Reduced+Power+Usage

Enjoy!
Wolfey2014

[wolfey2014]

Is there a method for viewing real time hashspeed in windows? right now I'm using CPU miner as depicted in this guide, it is working and my pool is reporting approximately the hashrate I would expect, but it would be great to be able to see real time speed, so I could tweak/troubleshoot the devices when needed. If not in Windows, I could switch over to Xubuntu on my laptop and control the devices from there, if there is a way in linux...

Right now I have 3 devices (more arriving today), they are powered by a Corsair CX500 PSU, all 3 running off one PCIe 6pin plug. I have to say that right now they are pulling way more than the "8 watts" advertised in single mode scrypt... My Kill-aWatt meter is reading 170 watts  at the wall for the 3 pack (psu plugged into meter). Also, I have these running at 800 right now. At 850 I noticed some nonce errors, and a lower hash speed reported by the pool... and oddly enough, at 850 the units were pulling LESS wattage, about 120watts as opposed to 170 @ 800. And finally, thanks to those who put work into this guide, it's been real helpful!

Use this. No hassles!

http://cryptomining-blog.com/?s=Download+cpuminer+for+Gridseed+5-chip+GC3355+ASICs+with+Reduced+Power+Usage

Each GS5 will run at no more than 7 Watts in Scrypt Only mode! Usually less!

Enjoy!
Wolfey2014

[Yottabyte]

Is there a method for viewing real time hashspeed in windows? right now I'm using CPU miner as depicted in this guide, it is working and my pool is reporting approximately the hashrate I would expect, but it would be great to be able to see real time speed, so I could tweak/troubleshoot the devices when needed. If not in Windows, I could switch over to Xubuntu on my laptop and control the devices from there, if there is a way in linux...

Right now I have 3 devices (more arriving today), they are powered by a Corsair CX500 PSU, all 3 running off one PCIe 6pin plug. I have to say that right now they are pulling way more than the "8 watts" advertised in single mode scrypt... My Kill-aWatt meter is reading 170 watts  at the wall for the 3 pack (psu plugged into meter). Also, I have these running at 800 right now. At 850 I noticed some nonce errors, and a lower hash speed reported by the pool... and oddly enough, at 850 the units were pulling LESS wattage, about 120watts as opposed to 170 @ 800. And finally, thanks to those who put work into this guide, it's been real helpful!

Use this. No hassles!

http://cryptomining-blog.com/?s=Download+cpuminer+for+Gridseed+5-chip+GC3355+ASICs+with+Reduced+Power+Usage

Each GS5 will run at no more than 7 Watts in Scrypt Only mode! Usually less!

Enjoy!
Wolfey2014

Hmm... I feel like I'm getting on track here... There is reference to a "LTC_ONLY.bat" file, where is can I find that file?...

Also... are there any known drawbacks to using a WiFi connection for these setups?