GekkoScience NewPac / Terminus R606 (BM1387) Official Support Thread

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Can you mine any other coins besides BTC with the NewPac?

As long as the coin uses the SHA256D algo, yes. By definition no ASIC chip can be re-programmed for other uses.

[gt_addict]

So it turns out that one of my sticks has died.   

Came home after work today and its reading zero. Tried swapping ports with other sticks and the problem follows the stick. If I unplug it and plug it back in while cgminer is running then it will start to hash around 200mh then fall off back to zero every time.

I can't see any burnt components at all and even a sniff test doesn't smell like the classic burnt circuitry.

Any ideas anyone?

[Morlok8k]

2 things to try:

• adjusting the voltage knob on the stick
• underclocking the stick

I had a 2pac that I had to underclock.  I found that it was stable for about a week with "--gekko-2pac-freq 45"  after a while that week turned into a few days, then a few hours.  I went as far down as "--gekko-2pac-freq 25" to try to reach some stability, which helped for a while, but it doesn't last long anymore, so i took it out of service.  but i got months of underclocked hashing power instead of 0 hash from that stick.

Anywho, an example of the command i used for that:

Code:

cgminer -o stratum+tcp://pool.ckpool.org:3333 -u 1HpnRjN2ru4NhYFrZFsXe3JXCyJWW9fDeh.2pac -p x --suggest-diff 1 --gekko-serial "GS-10019785" --gekko-2pac-freq 25

yes, the "--suggest-diff 1" is not a typo.  The pool will kick it up to a difficulty of 3 after a few minutes when running at 25.
Also, concerning "--gekko-serial "GS-10019785" ", the hyphen replaces the D of GSD.  D refers to the 2pac, C for the Compac, H for the Newpac, etc.     Wont find any sticks otherwise, from what i can tell.  Also, change the serial number to yours, of course!
but using the serial number is great, as you can run a separate cgminer instance.  Just start it first so it gets locked out of the 2nd cgminer instance.

If you really want to play around with underclocking and finding that sweet spot, check this out:

Code:

cgminer -o stratum+tcp://pool.ckpool.org:3333 -u 1HpnRjN2ru4NhYFrZFsXe3JXCyJWW9fDeh.2pac -p x --suggest-diff 1  --gekko-start-freq 25 --gekko-step-freq 1 --gekko-step-delay 3600 --gekko-serial "GS-10019785" --gekko-2pac-freq 100

This sets our maximum frequency to 100, but starts at 25. after an hour (3600 seconds), it will jump up to the next supported frequency (its like 6.25 or  something, if i remember correctly) by rounding the 1 from "--gekko-step-freq 1" up to that minimum.  Anyways, so for hour 1, it runs at 25, then for hour 2 it runs at 31.25, hour 3 at 37.5, hour 4 at 43.75, hour 5 at 50, ..., hour 9 at 93.75, and hour 10 and beyond at 100.  play with the values as you see fit.  i recommend logging it to a file so you can see when it failed.

I need to play with the voltage settings on my bad stick, so i haven't tossed it yet - maybe my voltage is just too high and needs to come down.  I just haven't had the chance to really play with it.

[gt_addict]

Morlok8k thanks for the help. I cant seem to get the serial options to work though. Started the single instance with all the sticks and noticed that it says that particular stick only has one chip now 

I copied your second line of code to my file and changed just the relevant parts and no joy. Looks like I will have to get another stick.

sidehack did you want me to return the dead one to you for further analysis or for parts?

[sidehack]

If you bought it directly from me, sure. Otherwise you need to discuss it with the reseller.

[419mining]

If you bought it directly from me, sure. Otherwise you need to discuss it with the reseller.

Were taking care of it.

[Morlok8k]

...and I just remembered that the frequency scaling stuff doesn't work on the Newpac.  (I assume its a Newpac?)
*slaps forehead*
Not sure why the serial part isn't working though.

but yeah, if its only showing one chip, that's a bad sign.  good luck with your return/replacement!

[gt_addict]

Yea i took out all the freq stepping info and tried just the serial option but no success. Its just sat on my desk awaiting replacement. Shoutout to 419mining again for superb customer service. Its s shame im on the other side of the pond and cant walk in the store lol.

[419mining]

Yea i took out all the freq stepping info and tried just the serial option but no success. Its just sat on my desk awaiting replacement. Shoutout to 419mining again for superb customer service. Its s shame im on the other side of the pond and cant walk in the store lol.

You could, but it would be a long walk...

[gt_addict]

You could, but it would be a long walk...

Yea im not all that great at swimming either  

[dfib]

I wish 419mining was within walking distance too.  My wallet is happy they aren't.

I picked up a NewPac to play with so my son could see what mining bitcoins was all about.  
We received a NewPac yesterday and had a seamless Raspberry Pi install thanks to the directions on this thread.
It's fun to play with overclocking, so I've been pushing it a bit without a powered hub.  
The NewPac has been running great on the pi @225MHz and averaging just over 50 GH/sec.  250MHz causes immediate zombie (guessing power limit is reached?)
Small 40mm USB fan for active cooling and the heatsink is barely room temperature.  

40mm USB fan link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CNJ4DYX/

Setup with temporary pi base: https://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h263/dfib/Mobile%20Uploads/20190215_151727_zpsrinv2sk7.jpg

Now I have to talk myself out of ordering a hub and a bunch more NewPacs!

[Pi0Miner]

New miner her, just bought 2 x NewPac in addition to the 2Pac I already got last week.  I'm enjoying the potential modding possibilities here as a pet project and wanted to ask if anyone can share experience in replacing the heatsink or other fun mods?  I would rather not try to drill a hole in aluminum, I'm a horrible driller and have an old corded drill.  I think my options are either a single hole or using thermal adhesive compounds, not sure if there is enough surface area on the chip to hold a bigger heatsink.

My experiment is putting these stick miners completely on mini solar panels with the Pi Zero W and see what they can do.  So far I have the Pi Zero W with the current 2Pac running at around 4-5w at the wall,  waiting for solar panel and meter (and NewPacs) to measure more accurately DC draw.

Some discoveries of interest are the Pi 3b has a current limit,  was only able to go to 143Mhz before power maxed out, on the Pi Zero I actually got it to hit 300Mhz and was drawing 12w from the wall.  Got scared was gonna burned out my Pi Zero and turned it back down,  but interesting nevertheless that the Pi Zero will pull a lot more power and apparently as much as you can give it.  That's why a larger passive heatsink is something I'm pursuing.  Also, found out the Pi 3b has a controllable USB HUB, you can use uhubctl to turn off power to the port.  My plan was to put some solar panels on the back of my car and program a pi to automatically turn on/off mining as it detects open Wifi signal, or go into power saving mode by turning off the ASIC.

If anyone has any experience or suggestions to share, would appreciate it.

[gt_addict]

I used to have a raspi3 setup with 3x 2pacs and a couple of USB hubs. All powered from an atx psu. It was better to run the power from two USB ports to one stick.

https://imgur.com/a/JmYOV

[rockmoney]

Can you mine any other coins besides BTC with the NewPac?

Like others have mentioned, the NewPac can only mine SHA256 algorithm coins/assets, like Bitcoin. BUT, what you can do, is use these sticks to mine on a "multi-pool" to receive payouts in almost any coin asset out there. Better yet, do some research, find a new, young, upcoming project that you believe in, and get paid out in their coin/token/asset while the value and difficulty are low (speculation). Then, just sit on the accumulated coins/tokens/assets until the price goes up. Rinse, wash, repeat..

[nuanicaj]

I have 11 Units that were running. and stopped all together.

I tried or Raspberry Pi, The other with my UDDO on the PI they stopped hashing in a few hours.   one the UDDO, it worked for a few days.

not sure why they all stop?

[sidehack]

Maybe it's God telling you to stop buying stickminers.

[nuanicaj]

I change to Kano.is and the nonce stopped.

The miners stopped again.  I have no clue why?

Code:

Worker Name:	Work Diff	:Last Share	Shares	:Diff	:Share Rate	«Elapsed	:Invalid	Block %	:Hash Rate
bronxnua.1	442	27min	14,256	6,304,808	0GHs	2m 14s	0.850%	0.000%	0GHs
Total: 1 (0 active workers)	14,256	6,304,808	0GHs	 	0.850%	0.000%	0GHs

[Morlok8k]

quick question:

I haven't played with it yet, but i just discovered

Code:

--gekko-newpac-vcore 400

is the default setting in cgminer.  I looked though this whole forum topic, and nobody has mentioned it - only using the potentiometer to adjust vcore.

should i adjust it higher to get a better overclock?  was it only for pre-production newpacs (i.e not valid for production units)? ...etc?

[sidehack]

There might exist a prototype with software voltage setting and the like, for which this flag is relevant, but it has no effect on production sticks.

[nuanicaj]

What are the default for the miner Vcore.  in my UDDO, I am able to got to .cgminer and get in the conf file for cgminer to make the changes.  In PI i can get into .cgminer and the conf file is not there?