HOWTO: Run 50 gridseed miners off a single Windows 7 x64 machine-w/ downloads

[studio1one]

I've been able to get my 48 miners powered by a single windows x64 machine. I was using anker 13 port powered hubs and I found that you can't daisy-chain them, as windows sees each block of 4 ports as a daisy-chained "hub." 

Basically, you need to plug each hub into the machine or, at the very least, daisy-chain off the first port. Here is my current setup, minus a few gridseeds.

When I initially plugged these units in, I couldn’t get windows 7 x64 to see the virtual com ports, and found I needed to install the virtual com driver that I found here: http://www.diffpair.com/lightningasic/LIGHTNINGASIC%20Gold%20miner%20USB%20driver.rar

I’m running separate instances of the custom-coded cpuminer with the BTC core shut off for scrypt-only mining. I was able to get that from here:  http://cryptomining-blog.com/1165-download-cpuminer-for-gridseed-5-chip-gc3355-asics-with-reduced-power-usage/


I have been able to get about 12.8-13.4 mh when mining with 48 of these units. I’ve been running them for 24 hours straight now with no disconnects, no reboots, and 100% stability. If you are having issues with the supplied controller, I suggest you ditch it and use a computer. If you’ve still got motherboards lying around from your GPU mining days, setup a quick install of windows/linux and run your gridseeds off that.

PICS:

I just love the beer poster.

[zeetak]

I just love the beer poster.

It is pretty awesome, isn't it. You need beer to make gridseeds work.

[User705]

What's your total power draw?

[zeetak]

What's your total power draw?

I don't have a kill-o-watt, but I'm estimating around 8 watts per unit, or 393 watts. Not bad for 16 MH scrypt mining, if I don't say so myself.

[KryptoKings]

What's your total power draw?

I don't have a kill-o-watt, but I'm estimating around 8 watts per unit, or 393 watts. Not bad for 16 MH scrypt mining, if I don't say so myself.

How hot is the room they are in or how hot do they run? I have 2 miners with 6 total 280x cards and it is hot as hell in that room. I might order 20 of these to start. What site did you order from? Thanks for the great infor

[zeetak]

What's your total power draw?

I don't have a kill-o-watt, but I'm estimating around 8 watts per unit, or 393 watts. Not bad for 16 MH scrypt mining, if I don't say so myself.

How hot is the room they are in or how hot do they run? I have 2 miners with 6 total 280x cards and it is hot as hell in that room. I might order 20 of these to start. What site did you order from? Thanks for the great infor

Well, it's not hot at all. I actually disconnected the wires that cool these little guys and they are still cool to the touch. In fact, I had to turn on the pellet stove just a few minutes ago because it's cold down here.  I don't miss the heat and noise created by GPU's, I can tell you that.  I ordered from Zoomhash.com, he is totally legit and very helpful.

[KryptoKings]

What's your total power draw?

I don't have a kill-o-watt, but I'm estimating around 8 watts per unit, or 393 watts. Not bad for 16 MH scrypt mining, if I don't say so myself.

How hot is the room they are in or how hot do they run? I have 2 miners with 6 total 280x cards and it is hot as hell in that room. I might order 20 of these to start. What site did you order from? Thanks for the great infor

Well, it's not hot at all. I actually disconnected the wires that cool these little guys and they are still cool to the touch. In fact, I had to turn on the pellet stove just a few minutes ago because it's cold down here.  I don't miss the heat and noise created by GPU's, I can tell you that.  I ordered from Zoomhash.com, he is totally legit and very helpful.

Great info! Thanks. I just ordered one unit from Zoomhash a few days ago for testing before ordering more. I am looking at selling all my miners to buy some of these up. I have extra stuff from miners so I can do a stand along pc.

[PMB]

After a day of these units running I got sick of the noise of 49 small fans, so I disconnected the individual fans and pointed a box fan at them. Now they are running silently and are only slightly warm to the touch.  The only sound is the power supply fans kicking on every once in a while.

Can you post a picture of it with the box fan?

regards,

P.

[zeetak]

After a day of these units running I got sick of the noise of 49 small fans, so I disconnected the individual fans and pointed a box fan at them. Now they are running silently and are only slightly warm to the touch.  The only sound is the power supply fans kicking on every once in a while.

Can you post a picture of it with the box fan?

regards,

P.

Sure. Initially I had the box fan on the top of the rack pointing down, but then it occurred to me that heat rises, so I'm basically fighting against physics. I moved it to the bottom blowing up and now more of them stay cool.

[PMB]

Sure. Initially I had the box fan on the top of the rack pointing down, but then it occurred to me that heat rises, so I'm basically fighting against physics. I moved it to the bottom blowing up and now more of them stay cool.

Thanks!!

Very nice! Is the Fan sufficient for the three-storage-high rack? The top are also cooled???

I ask you this because one of my Gridseeds came with a Fan that does a annoying noise....I am thinking of replacing it with a standard one...

regards,

P.

[KryptoKings]

Sure. Initially I had the box fan on the top of the rack pointing down, but then it occurred to me that heat rises, so I'm basically fighting against physics. I moved it to the bottom blowing up and now more of them stay cool.

Thanks!!

Very nice! Is the Fan sufficient for the three-storage-high rack? The top are also cooled???

I ask you this because one of my Gridseeds came with a Fan that does a annoying noise....I am thinking of replacing it with a standard one...

regards,

P.

If it worked for zeetak then it is good enough for me. waiting on ebay funds to clear and I have will have 20 to start. I have a similar rack also lol. Awesome setup zeetak.

[zeetak]

Thanks!!

Very nice! Is the Fan sufficient for the three-storage-high rack? The top are also cooled???

I ask you this because one of my Gridseeds came with a Fan that does a annoying noise....I am thinking of replacing it with a standard one...

regards,

P.

The top ones are cooled currently. The bonus of having the fan wires disconnected on the miners is that you can just lay a box fan directly on them, and it'll probably work fine.

[zeetak]

If it worked for zeetak then it is good enough for me. waiting on ebay funds to clear and I have will have 20 to start. I have a similar rack also lol. Awesome setup zeetak.

Just wait, I have 50 more arriving tomorrow or sat! You are gonna get more pics for sure then

[rebelrat]

Great job.  Could you  post a close-up picture that shows the AC connection of the psu and the connections of the Gridseed units to the psu?

Thanks in advance.

[PMB]

Sure. Initially I had the box fan on the top of the rack pointing down, but then it occurred to me that heat rises, so I'm basically fighting against physics. I moved it to the bottom blowing up and now more of them stay cool.

Thanks!!

Very nice! Is the Fan sufficient for the three-storage-high rack? The top are also cooled???

I ask you this because one of my Gridseeds came with a Fan that does a annoying noise....I am thinking of replacing it with a standard one...

regards,

P.

If it worked for zeetak then it is good enough for me. waiting on ebay funds to clear and I have will have 20 to start. I have a similar rack also lol. Awesome setup zeetak.

IKEA Rules right?!

[bobby35ny]

So is 50 the official count? or 48?
-bobby

[zeetak]

Great job.  Could you  post a close-up picture that shows the AC connection of the psu and the connections of the Gridseed units to the psu?

Thanks in advance.

Sure.

[zeetak]

So is 50 the official count? or 48?
-bobby

I have 50 but i'm missing a miniusb plug so i can't plug in the 50th. Sad panda.

[Cryptomuncher]

Awesome. I just ordered 10 of them from ZoomHash. Hope it's as easy a setup on my windows 7 machine as it was for you!

[MicroCC]

Also--it looks like somebody has gotten cgminer to work in LTC mode with BTC disabled so you don't need to run cpuminer. Here's the comment:

If you don't want to run a bunch of cpuminers, I have posted modified cgminer sources to allow LTC-only mode: https://github.com/dtbartle/cgminer-gc3355. I have this running on a Raspberry Pi with 10 devices.

what thread does this come from exactly?