GridSeed 5-chip USB miner voltage mod

[wolfey2014]

Yep... not any more. I think ghash was just trying to quickly get a ton of hash. Wonder how much they paid for it and if people will actually stick there once the rewards are back to normal now. I for one like p2p better... so usually when I mine LTC, I bring up my own node..

I went there just for the time of the offer

How did you guys hear about it?
Are you members too?
I am and did not hear a thing!
Wolfey5050

[1714183579]

1714183579

[jamieb81]

Yep... not any more. I think ghash was just trying to quickly get a ton of hash. Wonder how much they paid for it and if people will actually stick there once the rewards are back to normal now. I for one like p2p better... so usually when I mine LTC, I bring up my own node..

I went there just for the time of the offer

How did you guys hear about it?
Are you members too?
I am and did not hear a thing!
Wolfey5050

I have seen it on http://cryptomining-blog.com

they announced that Ghash would hold the 1 week offer. But it was a one time offer to attract people to them for the launch of litecoin there

[wolfey2014]

What are y'all using the gridseeds for anyways? Multipools?

Yes, I believe most of us are.
Hardly anyone is running dual mode as it's just not really worth mining SHA anymore unless you can mine in the TH/s ranges.

I'm certainly considering my options differently now but it's still cool to be able to make money this way even though the daily income is less than $10 mining only LTC.

I tried ScryptGuild multipool but they didn't impress me as I was making less per day where I should have been making 30% to 40% more per the site owner.
It would be great if my 6 GS5's made me at least $2+ per day!

Wolfey2014


 

10$ only LTC is with using 6 GS's to mine ?

what pool are you using that makes you the most profit at this moment? multipool.us?

Actually as stated, "less than $10/day". Honestly it's just a hair under $10 per day.

In a 24 hour period I make, .40 LTC out of 6 miners running at 850MHz avg. each = $9.098892 per day

Not too shabby for 6 little miners, eh? Will be making a bit more profit once I get them all stably overclocked.

Wolfey2014

Pea Ess.... www.litecoinpool.org ... sorry bout that!

I like litecoinpool.org and fee is relatively low for pps. I was mining at ghash.io the last week with their LTC promotion. Too bad didn't have all my gridseeds then

Why does that sound like a cheesy plug for ghash.io

w2014

No fees and give me 1.25x to 2x more. Sure why not. At regular reward, no longer mining LTC there. There are better places.

Cool!
Do you mean at ghash.io you're making up to 2X more than I am at litecoinpool?
What is your average?
w2014.2

Wolfey, there was a one week offer at ghash for Litecoin mining that gave a bonus from 1.25 to 2x what you were mining, depending on the pool hash rate. I think he's reffering to that

Right. Thanks!
Wolfey2014

[flounderella]

Yep... not any more. I think ghash was just trying to quickly get a ton of hash. Wonder how much they paid for it and if people will actually stick there once the rewards are back to normal now. I for one like p2p better... so usually when I mine LTC, I bring up my own node..

I went there just for the time of the offer

How did you guys hear about it?
Are you members too?
I am and did not hear a thing!
Wolfey5050

I put 1/3rd of my BTC hash there, so login once in a while to check worker stats and a big flashing banner at the top caught my eye ... okay okay it wasn't that big but it was there :p

[wolfey2014]

I am giving out 0.6BTC to the first to get his Gridseed miner stable at 1100 MHz (<10 HW error in 24h) and post the steps to mod the miner. So far I have managed to get it stable at 1013 MHz, but I feel we can push it further.
I have found the only way to push these further is by replacing the 36k resistor with a higher one and playing with PLL voltage, you need to lower the resistance of R211 or R212 by tracing it with a pencil. Measure the voltage across both resistors and it should be around 1.1v total. If you want to increase PLL voltage, trace R212, to decrease it, trace R211 (go back and forth atleast 10-20 times or you will not notice a change). Simply use an eraser to revert the mod. Personally 1.05v seems sweet spot.



Disclaimer: as always, I am not responsible for damage to your miner, do this at your own risk!

Yo Sandor...
what are your current results with your over volt mods?
Please specify.
The one miner I modified is working great at 900MHz.
Still throws red nonce's at 950 a bit. Too much for me to tolerate.
At 900 though, it's rock solid just like it is at 850. No problems!
This is with the first two resistor solder bridges.
No pencil mods or resistor change out which I believe is for the PLL voltage setting, right?
Thanks
Wolfey2014

[vabchgent]

I just got done modding mine I am running at 950 and pulling 404 khs. No hardware errors yet. Thanks to the person that figured this mod out.

[wolfey2014]

I just got done modding mine I am running at 950 and pulling 404 khs. No hardware errors yet. Thanks to the person that figured this mod out.

Good.
Which mods did you do, exactly?
Just the first two resistor jumpers
or
the resistor replacement to 38K and the 2 pencil mods?

People, please specify exactly which mods you made.
There are a few different ones on here.

Thanks
Wolfey2014

[vabchgent]

I just got done modding mine I am running at 950 and pulling 404 khs. No hardware errors yet. Thanks to the person that figured this mod out.

Good.
Which mods did you do, exactly?
Just the first two resistor jumpers
or
the resistor replacement to 38K and the 2 pencil mods?

People, please specify exactly which mods you made.
There are a few different ones on here.

Thanks
Wolfey2014

Wolf
I did the 2 jumper mod. Just watching the pool and the miner now but it looks good at 950 so far.

[wolfey2014]

I just got done modding mine I am running at 950 and pulling 404 khs. No hardware errors yet. Thanks to the person that figured this mod out.

Good.
Which mods did you do, exactly?
Just the first two resistor jumpers
or
the resistor replacement to 38K and the 2 pencil mods?

People, please specify exactly which mods you made.
There are a few different ones on here.

Thanks
Wolfey2014

Wolf
I did the 2 jumper mod. Just watching the pool and the miner now but it looks good at 950 so far.

Cool.
Are you watching to make sure there are no red nonce's showing up? Are you sure there are ZERO hardware faults i.e. 0 red nonce's?
Mine ran at 950 but showed a few red nonce's here and there.
I'd rather it ran with none hence, 900.
I am curious to see what the PLL adjustments accomplish, if they work out to be a stable mod.
Thanks
Wolfey2014

[vabchgent]

I just got done modding mine I am running at 950 and pulling 404 khs. No hardware errors yet. Thanks to the person that figured this mod out.

Good.
Which mods did you do, exactly?
Just the first two resistor jumpers
or
the resistor replacement to 38K and the 2 pencil mods?

People, please specify exactly which mods you made.
There are a few different ones on here.

Thanks
Wolfey2014

Wolf
I did the 2 jumper mod. Just watching the pool and the miner now but it looks good at 950 so far.

Cool.
Are you watching to make sure there are no red nonce's showing up? Are you sure there are ZERO hardware faults i.e. 0 red nonce's?
Mine ran at 950 but showed a few red nonce's here and there.
I'd rather it ran with none hence, 900.
I am curious to see what the PLL adjustments accomplish, if they work out to be a stable mod.
Thanks
Wolfey2014

I am running Bfgminer and I am showing no errors yet and 404 KHS. The site is reporting no invalids yet either. So far so good.

[bsquared]

I noticed there are two pictures of mods, and I was wondering if someone can explain the difference

• - First mod in first post, single short between the two points in the green box, user modified cgminer, and voltage=1 (and freq to 950+)
• - Second page has the same picture, with two parts circled (two pairs to short out).

What is the difference between shorting just one pair, vs both pairs?

I am running the modified cgminer (at freq=888 now and stable @ 376kh ~ 20HW errors /day), hanging off a RaspberryPi for the controller.  Would soldering just the first pair work in this case?

Thanks again for posting these mods!

[wolfey2014]

I noticed there are two pictures of mods, and I was wondering if someone can explain the difference

• - First mod in first post, single short between the two points in the green box, user modified cgminer, and voltage=1 (and freq to 950+)
• - Second page has the same picture, with two parts circled (two pairs to short out).

What is the difference between shorting just one pair, vs both pairs?

I am running the modified cgminer (at freq=888 now and stable @ 376kh ~ 20HW errors /day), hanging off a RaspberryPi for the controller.  Would soldering just the first pair work in this case?

Thanks again for posting these mods!

I was going to wait until tomorrow but what the heck....
I decided a couple days ago to go ahead and try modding one of my pods.
I made the first mod which is to jump the two resistors as shown with the yellow stripes. Done deal.
I got a bit better performance out of it @ 900MHz and 950Mhz but still pulled a red nonce every once in a while and at times they would fill the window (cpuminer) for a short birst then go away.
I thought "how strange, what is causing this? Could it be a timing issue?"
Bingo!
The guy who did the mods and had his GS5 running at between 1000 and 1100MHz stable but with a few red nonce's gave me the tip...
I thought, let me try the pencil mod.
So I tried lowering the PLL voltage first to around 1.01V. Seemed to stabilize running at 950MHz so well that I only saw a red nonce every great once in a while over an hour or so of operation where before it was about 3 times as much.
Okay, so changing the resistor was next.
I changed out the 36K for a 38K 5% resistor.
BINGO!

Now I have stable 'no red nonce' operation at 1000MHz!... It's been running stably for over an hour now with ZERO red nonce's! Perfect!
I'm going to let it run overnight and see how things are in the morning. I have a good feeling this is the trick I was looking for.

Thanks to the author of this mod!

I'll save further congrats for later on if I see stable operation over time.
Oh and one other thing. I decided to go ahead and test my theory that lowering the voltage of the cooling fan to 5V was not a good idea due to the usual problems associated with magnetic DC motors.
I guess the drive electronics of DC fan motors has come a long way since I last farted around with them years ago.

I'm driving it with 5V now without any problems so far. Runs just fast enough to keep air moving at a good enough rate to keep the unit cool to the touch! I mean below 90*F. More like 79^ to 81* currently.
And man, it is quiet! Music to my ears! The pod was cooking at 115 to 120*F at 1000MHz which is understandable. That's crankin, for this little bugger!

Not running hotter or pulling more current like I thought it would, at all.
Sorry for scaring some of you guys out of trying it but I guess I get to make up for it by risking burning up my fan etc.
I'll let you know how that went overnight too.
I will also attempt to run it off of the 5V USB power next and see if it screws anything up comm wise or power wise.

It's pulling less than 75mA running. Pulls 140mA start up for a quick second before it calms back down.
I think it would be easy enough for most folks who end up doing this mod, provided mine works out okay, will be able to compensate for the additional load it puts on USB power. But it's a short cut method I really don't recommend in general. One should use a voltage regulator to drop from 12V to 5V. There is more headroom on that rail too in most cases.

Wish me luck!
Wolfey2014

[simon66]

I noticed there are two pictures of mods, and I was wondering if someone can explain the difference

• - First mod in first post, single short between the two points in the green box, user modified cgminer, and voltage=1 (and freq to 950+)
• - Second page has the same picture, with two parts circled (two pairs to short out).

What is the difference between shorting just one pair, vs both pairs?

I am running the modified cgminer (at freq=888 now and stable @ 376kh ~ 20HW errors /day), hanging off a RaspberryPi for the controller.  Would soldering just the first pair work in this case?

Thanks again for posting these mods!

I was going to wait until tomorrow but what the heck....
I decided a couple days ago to go ahead and try modding one of my pods.
I made the first mod which is to jump the two resistors as shown with the yellow stripes. Done deal.
I got a bit better performance out of it @ 900MHz and 950Mhz but still pulled a red nonce every once in a while and at times they would fill the window (cpuminer) for a short birst then go away.
I thought "how strange, what is causing this? Could it be a timing issue?"
Bingo!
The guy who did the mods and had his GS5 running at between 1000 and 1100MHz stable but with a few red nonce's gave me the tip...
I thought, let me try the pencil mod.
So I tried lowering the PLL voltage first to around 1.01V. Seemed to stabilize running at 950MHz so well that I only saw a red nonce every great once in a while over an hour or so of operation where before it was about 3 times as much.
Okay, so changing the resistor was next.
I changed out the 36K for a 38K 5% resistor.
BINGO!

Now I have stable 'no red nonce' operation at 1000MHz!... It's been running stably for over an hour now with ZERO red nonce's! Perfect!
I'm going to let it run overnight and see how things are in the morning. I have a good feeling this is the trick I was looking for.

Thanks to the author of this mod!

I'll save further congrats for later on if I see stable operation over time.
Oh and one other thing. I decided to go ahead and test my theory that lowering the voltage of the cooling fan to 5V was not a good idea due to the usual problems associated with magnetic DC motors.
I guess the drive electronics of DC fan motors has come a long way since I last farted around with them years ago.

I'm driving it with 5V now without any problems so far. Runs just fast enough to keep air moving at a good enough rate to keep the unit cool to the touch! I mean below 90*F. More like 79^ to 81* currently.
And man, it is quiet! Music to my ears! The pod was cooking at 115 to 120*F at 1000MHz which is understandable. That's crankin, for this little bugger!

Not running hotter or pulling more current like I thought it would, at all.
Sorry for scaring some of you guys out of trying it but I guess I get to make up for it by risking burning up my fan etc.
I'll let you know how that went overnight too.
I will also attempt to run it off of the 5V USB power next and see if it screws anything up comm wise or power wise.

It's pulling less than 75mA running. Pulls 140mA start up for a quick second before it calms back down.
I think it would be easy enough for most folks who end up doing this mod, provided mine works out okay, will be able to compensate for the additional load it puts on USB power. But it's a short cut method I really don't recommend in general. One should use a voltage regulator to drop from 12V to 5V. There is more headroom on that rail too in most cases.

Wish me luck!
Wolfey2014

Instead of using a pencil and having to measure any voltages, what resistor can we place there to lower it to 1.01v?

Thanks!

[Xer0]

I noticed there are two pictures of mods, and I was wondering if someone can explain the difference

• - First mod in first post, single short between the two points in the green box, user modified cgminer, and voltage=1 (and freq to 950+)
• - Second page has the same picture, with two parts circled (two pairs to short out).

What is the difference between shorting just one pair, vs both pairs?

I am running the modified cgminer (at freq=888 now and stable @ 376kh ~ 20HW errors /day), hanging off a RaspberryPi for the controller.  Would soldering just the first pair work in this case?

Thanks again for posting these mods!

the small vertical bridge of the second mod replaces the cmd parameter and custom miner

[wolfey2014]

I noticed there are two pictures of mods, and I was wondering if someone can explain the difference

• - First mod in first post, single short between the two points in the green box, user modified cgminer, and voltage=1 (and freq to 950+)
• - Second page has the same picture, with two parts circled (two pairs to short out).

What is the difference between shorting just one pair, vs both pairs?

I am running the modified cgminer (at freq=888 now and stable @ 376kh ~ 20HW errors /day), hanging off a RaspberryPi for the controller.  Would soldering just the first pair work in this case?

Thanks again for posting these mods!

the small vertical bridge of the second mod replaces the cmd parameter and custom miner

There is no 'shorting' the two blue stripes. They show which resistors to draw a pencil lead resistor bridge on to.
Read the modder's instructions.
Short the two yellow stripes.

Wolfey2014

[workshop35]

So if I'm right, 10$ a day, you will break even in around 3/4 months depending the price you paid them ?

correct me if I'm wrong

You're close

4.74 months to be more exacter 

Wolfey2014

you have to factor difficulty increases into your calculation too. you wont be making the same amount in 2 months as you are today

[bsquared]

There is no 'shorting' the two blue stripes. They show which resistors to draw a pencil lead resistor bridge on to.
Read the modder's instructions.
Short the two yellow stripes.

Wolfey2014

I think he was referring to the page2 image.  The first image (page1) has a single green box, the second image (page2) has two yellow stripes (one of them vertical).

From the response above, if I am running the custom cgminer, I only need to short the two pins shown in the green box in the first post?


Also, please do let us know how your additional mod is holding up today (and any additional details to performing it).

[wolfey2014]

There is no 'shorting' the two blue stripes. They show which resistors to draw a pencil lead resistor bridge on to.
Read the modder's instructions.
Short the two yellow stripes.

Wolfey2014

I think he was referring to the page2 image.  The first image (page1) has a single green box, the second image (page2) has two yellow stripes (one of them vertical).

From the response above, if I am running the custom cgminer, I only need to short the two pins shown in the green box in the first post?


Also, please do let us know how your additional mod is holding up today (and any additional details to performing it).

 

Scroll up^ or Hmm.....

Try page 6, this thread, originator is sandor111....

Wolfey2014

[david123]

If I want to use a 0-Ohm resistor or (even better) a jumper instead of just bridging, does someone here know what
would be the right smd-size here? 0805 or 0603? Thanks

[amix]

If I want to use a 0-Ohm resistor or (even better) a jumper instead of just bridging, does someone here know what
would be the right smd-size here? 0805 or 0603? Thanks

maybe even 0403(?) it smaller than the 0603 series i believe.