GridSeed 5-chip USB miner voltage mod

[sandor111]

If I perform the mod, then I want to go back to mining at 600-850mhz again for some reason, that still works? (but still using 2W more?)

Of course, the power consumption is directly related to core voltage, so frequency does not matter much in that regard.

If you want to hard mod the voltage to 1.25v, and use different miner software:

This allows you to have a stable overclock without the special version of CGminer and voltage=1???

Yes, up to 950 MHz would be stable, I am using cpuminer.

Excellent! I knew there had to be a further hardware mod 'jumper' to get stable operation at 1.25V without converting over to a different mining program. I'm using cpuminer and am quite satisfied with it since I have a very small farm anyway.
One thing that still bugs me though is having to reset the USB ports every 24+/- hours.
Anyway, I can make the jumper mods easily as I own a professional Weller soldering station with adjustable temp, very fine tip assortment, de-soldering etc. So no problems making the mods.

I wonder though, have either of you chaps tried seeing if any of the existing header's pins correspond to either of those two jumper points? Or is that header simply a serial port connection. I haven't studied the schematic yet so I realize this may be a stupid question.  

Anyway, I'm very interested in this mod for my own miners. Having done years of laboratory level R&D in electronics, this stuff is a piece of cake!

Have the two jumpers stabilized the GS units well enough to overclock above 950 yet?
Man, if we can get these little buggers running at 500KH/s, that would be fantastic!
But, 400KH/s ain't nothin to laugh at either

I have all my units fanless now. If necessary, I can simply use 1 or 2 fans to blow air on the fins indirectly which will of course keep them running cooler.

I might be interested in making this mod for others too if the money is right.
They'd be responsible for all shipping costs and insurance etc. etc.
I'll figure out what is a fair price to charge per mod later if anyone shows interest.

Thanks for coming up with this mod. Sure saved me some time and hassle.
Wolfey2014

That's the serial port.
It seems 1.25v isn't sufficient for over 1GHz, increasing voltage seems to be only possible by replacing the resistor with a higher resistance one, as the 5v from the USB is directly fed to the voltage regulator.

Yes, up to 950 MHz would be stable, I am using cpuminer.

Hey sandor, i am wondering whats the diff doing the hardware mod vs the software mod you are coming out with?

both are able to be overclocked to 950 stable. Does the software update somehow increase voltage? Just curious to see if i should perform the hardware mod

No, there is no software mod to increase voltage. What I am doing is only allowing frequencies higher than 900.
Before this mod was made public, I already knew how to increase voltage (exact same method), but was too lazy to post a guide. 

[vabchgent]

If I perform the mod, then I want to go back to mining at 600-850mhz again for some reason, that still works? (but still using 2W more?)

Of course, the power consumption is directly related to core voltage, so frequency does not matter much in that regard.

If you want to hard mod the voltage to 1.25v, and use different miner software:

This allows you to have a stable overclock without the special version of CGminer and voltage=1???

Yes, up to 950 MHz would be stable, I am using cpuminer.

Excellent! I knew there had to be a further hardware mod 'jumper' to get stable operation at 1.25V without converting over to a different mining program. I'm using cpuminer and am quite satisfied with it since I have a very small farm anyway.
One thing that still bugs me though is having to reset the USB ports every 24+/- hours.
Anyway, I can make the jumper mods easily as I own a professional Weller soldering station with adjustable temp, very fine tip assortment, de-soldering etc. So no problems making the mods.

I wonder though, have either of you chaps tried seeing if any of the existing header's pins correspond to either of those two jumper points? Or is that header simply a serial port connection. I haven't studied the schematic yet so I realize this may be a stupid question.  

Anyway, I'm very interested in this mod for my own miners. Having done years of laboratory level R&D in electronics, this stuff is a piece of cake!

Have the two jumpers stabilized the GS units well enough to overclock above 950 yet?
Man, if we can get these little buggers running at 500KH/s, that would be fantastic!
But, 400KH/s ain't nothin to laugh at either

I have all my units fanless now. If necessary, I can simply use 1 or 2 fans to blow air on the fins indirectly which will of course keep them running cooler.

I might be interested in making this mod for others too if the money is right.
They'd be responsible for all shipping costs and insurance etc. etc.
I'll figure out what is a fair price to charge per mod later if anyone shows interest.

Thanks for coming up with this mod. Sure saved me some time and hassle.
Wolfey2014

That's the serial port.
It seems 1.25v isn't sufficient for over 1GHz, increasing voltage seems to be only possible by replacing the resistor with a higher resistance one, as the 5v from the USB is directly fed to the voltage regulator.

Yes, up to 950 MHz would be stable, I am using cpuminer.

Hey sandor, i am wondering whats the diff doing the hardware mod vs the software mod you are coming out with?

both are able to be overclocked to 950 stable. Does the software update somehow increase voltage? Just curious to see if i should perform the hardware mod

No, there is no software mod to increase voltage. What I am doing is only allowing frequencies higher than 900.
Before this mod was made public, I already knew how to increase voltage (exact same method), but was too lazy to post a guide. 

So place shunt across the two yellow lines and I can pull 950 with no errors or low errors.

[wolfey2014]

If I perform the mod, then I want to go back to mining at 600-850mhz again for some reason, that still works? (but still using 2W more?)

Of course, the power consumption is directly related to core voltage, so frequency does not matter much in that regard.

If you want to hard mod the voltage to 1.25v, and use different miner software:

This allows you to have a stable overclock without the special version of CGminer and voltage=1???

Yes, up to 950 MHz would be stable, I am using cpuminer.

Excellent! I knew there had to be a further hardware mod 'jumper' to get stable operation at 1.25V without converting over to a different mining program. I'm using cpuminer and am quite satisfied with it since I have a very small farm anyway.
One thing that still bugs me though is having to reset the USB ports every 24+/- hours.
Anyway, I can make the jumper mods easily as I own a professional Weller soldering station with adjustable temp, very fine tip assortment, de-soldering etc. So no problems making the mods.

I wonder though, have either of you chaps tried seeing if any of the existing header's pins correspond to either of those two jumper points? Or is that header simply a serial port connection. I haven't studied the schematic yet so I realize this may be a stupid question.  

Anyway, I'm very interested in this mod for my own miners. Having done years of laboratory level R&D in electronics, this stuff is a piece of cake!

Have the two jumpers stabilized the GS units well enough to overclock above 950 yet?
Man, if we can get these little buggers running at 500KH/s, that would be fantastic!
But, 400KH/s ain't nothin to laugh at either

I have all my units fanless now. If necessary, I can simply use 1 or 2 fans to blow air on the fins indirectly which will of course keep them running cooler.

I might be interested in making this mod for others too if the money is right.
They'd be responsible for all shipping costs and insurance etc. etc.
I'll figure out what is a fair price to charge per mod later if anyone shows interest.

Thanks for coming up with this mod. Sure saved me some time and hassle.
Wolfey2014

That's the serial port.
It seems 1.25v isn't sufficient for over 1GHz, increasing voltage seems to be only possible by replacing the resistor with a higher resistance one, as the 5v from the USB is directly fed to the voltage regulator.

Yes, up to 950 MHz would be stable, I am using cpuminer.

Hey sandor, i am wondering whats the diff doing the hardware mod vs the software mod you are coming out with?

both are able to be overclocked to 950 stable. Does the software update somehow increase voltage? Just curious to see if i should perform the hardware mod

No, there is no software mod to increase voltage. What I am doing is only allowing frequencies higher than 900.
Before this mod was made public, I already knew how to increase voltage (exact same method), but was too lazy to post a guide. 

So place shunt across the two yellow lines and I can pull 950 with no errors or low errors.

Please let me/us know what your results are after making the 2 shunt mod.
If operation is 100% stable at 950MHz, I'm for the mod. If the result is low errors, I mean any errors whatsoever, I won't be interested in making this mod at all.
Andareed claimes ZERO nonce's with his single shunt / software switch mod.
Your mod may be an improvement/bypass of the s/ware switch mod, or it may defeat the original mod to the degree that there are once again, some nonce's which I would find 100% unacceptable.

Thanks for your efforts and, God speed!
Wolfey2014

[sandor111]

Personally modded all of my miners, none of them reported HW errors so far (cpuminer).

[vabchgent]

Personally modded all of my miners, none of them reported HW errors so far (cpuminer).

Sandor just making sure that I am supposed to place a shunt across the two yellow lines to gain the boost. Thanks

[sandor111]

Personally modded all of my miners, none of them reported HW errors so far (cpuminer).

Sandor just making sure that I am supposed to place a shunt across the two yellow lines to gain the boost. Thanks

Yes

[wolfey2014]

Personally modded all of my miners, none of them reported HW errors so far (cpuminer).

Cool!
What are your current average hash rates given at your mining pool?
What is the average temp of each miner?
I forget, are you running them without cooling fans?
So, you are absolutely sure, no red nonce errors whatsoever?
Tanks!
Wolfey2014

[wolfey2014]

Excellent! I knew there had to be a further hardware mod 'jumper' to get stable operation at 1.25V without converting over to a different mining program. I'm using cpuminer and am quite satisfied with it since I have a very small farm anyway.
One thing that still bugs me though is having to reset the USB ports every 24+/- hours.
Anyway, I can make the jumper mods easily as I own a professional Weller soldering station with adjustable temp, very fine tip assortment, de-soldering etc. So no problems making the mods.

I wonder though, have either of you chaps tried seeing if any of the existing header's pins correspond to either of those two jumper points? Or is that header simply a serial port connection. I haven't studied the schematic yet so I realize this may be a stupid question.  

Anyway, I'm very interested in this mod for my own miners. Having done years of laboratory level R&D in electronics, this stuff is a piece of cake!

Have the two jumpers stabilized the GS units well enough to overclock above 950 yet?
Man, if we can get these little buggers running at 500KH/s, that would be fantastic!
But, 400KH/s ain't nothin to laugh at either

I have all my units fanless now. If necessary, I can simply use 1 or 2 fans to blow air on the fins indirectly which will of course keep them running cooler.

I might be interested in making this mod for others too if the money is right.
They'd be responsible for all shipping costs and insurance etc. etc.
I'll figure out what is a fair price to charge per mod later if anyone shows interest.

Thanks for coming up with this mod. Sure saved me some time and hassle.
Wolfey2014

If you run Windows, you can use the batch file and information I posted here to avoid unplugging/plugging the USB cable every 24 hours. It basically automates the task for you. I don't know if this can be done with *nix, I have no experience with that.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=482352.msg5650273#msg5650273

Yo V,
what is "*nix"? You mean Unix?
I'm running cpuminer in Windows 7 32 bit.
Will your bat's work with this config?
I'm not keen at all having to covert over to cgminer until I have 20+ miners running but, hopefully cpuminer will have been upgraded sufficiently to handle this number of units too.
Thanks!
Wolfey2014

[HashFire]

So if you can solder the risks are very minimal considering you can unsolder the bridge if you need to.  I am running my test seed at the moment with BFGMiner, There should be no problems doing this mod with that right?

[simon66]

If I perform the mod, then I want to go back to mining at 600-850mhz again for some reason, that still works? (but still using 2W more?)

Of course, the power consumption is directly related to core voltage, so frequency does not matter much in that regard.

If you want to hard mod the voltage to 1.25v, and use different miner software:

I just completed the mod on 1 of my gridseeds. It's hashing away at --freq=950. I'm using an overclocked enabled cpuminer on the modded one (Bottom left), while the others are on the regular gridseed enabled one. Does this look right?



The bottom left one is the modded one, while the others are hashing away at --freq=850 (I've been mining for about 5mins now). I keep getting those 0: <<< LTC552000003d93cfcc12345678. Is that ok? I've been using cpuminer for a month now and it seems fine. Just wanted to combine my question in 1 post

[wolfey2014]

If I perform the mod, then I want to go back to mining at 600-850mhz again for some reason, that still works? (but still using 2W more?)

Of course, the power consumption is directly related to core voltage, so frequency does not matter much in that regard.

If you want to hard mod the voltage to 1.25v, and use different miner software:

I just completed the mod on 1 of my gridseeds. It's hashing away at --freq=950. I'm using an overclocked enabled cpuminer on the modded one (Bottom left), while the others are on the regular gridseed enabled one. Does this look right?



The bottom left one is the modded one, while the others are hashing away at --freq=850 (I've been mining for about 5mins now). I keep getting those 0: <<< LTC552000003d93cfcc12345678. Is that ok? I've been using cpuminer for a month now and it seems fine. Just wanted to combine my question in 1 post

Excellent!
Looks good to me!
Have you tried 1000+MHz yet?
Got any pics of your handy work?
Can you restart that one miner that's clocked at 950 and screen capture where it shows it is in fact clocked at 950MHz? This will lend credence to your claim that you are actually clocking at 950 with zero red nonce's.
Much appreciated!

[simon66]

Excellent!
Looks good to me!
Have you tried 1000+MHz yet?
Got any pics of your handy work?
Can you restart that one miner that's clocked at 950 and screen capture where it shows it is in fact clocked at 950MHz? This will lend credence to your claim that you are actually clocking at 950 with zero red nonce's.
Much appreciated!

Yea sure, Here are some pics.



Here are the installation pic. I got one of those shitty USB cam



I could had done a better job here but kinda wanted to really try this out.

I wouldn't recommend a novice to do this mod! Once minor slip and a cap or resistor will fly off!

This is what I did. I have some 30AUG, striped it and placed it on the 2 pads. I then placed my iron tip on the middle of the pad (This way, both sides will get hot at the same time) for like 3-5 seconds (at 30C).

Then when the connection was made, I just cut the extra wire with a small, but sharp x-acto knife.

Good luck!

UPDATE:

Ye, anything over 950MHz will not work for me. For some reason, minerd doesn't accept 975MHz(It starts up and sets it to 600MHz) and at 1000MHz, I just get HW errors.

[volder]

Excellent! I knew there had to be a further hardware mod 'jumper' to get stable operation at 1.25V without converting over to a different mining program. I'm using cpuminer and am quite satisfied with it since I have a very small farm anyway.
One thing that still bugs me though is having to reset the USB ports every 24+/- hours.
Anyway, I can make the jumper mods easily as I own a professional Weller soldering station with adjustable temp, very fine tip assortment, de-soldering etc. So no problems making the mods.

I wonder though, have either of you chaps tried seeing if any of the existing header's pins correspond to either of those two jumper points? Or is that header simply a serial port connection. I haven't studied the schematic yet so I realize this may be a stupid question.  

Anyway, I'm very interested in this mod for my own miners. Having done years of laboratory level R&D in electronics, this stuff is a piece of cake!

Have the two jumpers stabilized the GS units well enough to overclock above 950 yet?
Man, if we can get these little buggers running at 500KH/s, that would be fantastic!
But, 400KH/s ain't nothin to laugh at either

I have all my units fanless now. If necessary, I can simply use 1 or 2 fans to blow air on the fins indirectly which will of course keep them running cooler.

I might be interested in making this mod for others too if the money is right.
They'd be responsible for all shipping costs and insurance etc. etc.
I'll figure out what is a fair price to charge per mod later if anyone shows interest.

Thanks for coming up with this mod. Sure saved me some time and hassle.
Wolfey2014

If you run Windows, you can use the batch file and information I posted here to avoid unplugging/plugging the USB cable every 24 hours. It basically automates the task for you. I don't know if this can be done with *nix, I have no experience with that.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=482352.msg5650273#msg5650273

Yo V,
what is "*nix"? You mean Unix?
I'm running cpuminer in Windows 7 32 bit.
Will your bat's work with this config?
I'm not keen at all having to covert over to cgminer until I have 20+ miners running but, hopefully cpuminer will have been upgraded sufficiently to handle this number of units too.
Thanks!
Wolfey2014

Yes, I was referring to Unix, Linux or any *nix.

I haven't tested the batch file with cpuminer because I use CGminer. However, it should behave exactly the same. If you have a few spare minutes you could try it out. It's quick and easy to test.

[Andareed]

If I perform the mod, then I want to go back to mining at 600-850mhz again for some reason, that still works? (but still using 2W more?)

Of course, the power consumption is directly related to core voltage, so frequency does not matter much in that regard.

If you want to hard mod the voltage to 1.25v, and use different miner software:

This allows you to have a stable overclock without the special version of CGminer and voltage=1???

Yes, up to 950 MHz would be stable, I am using cpuminer.

Excellent! I knew there had to be a further hardware mod 'jumper' to get stable operation at 1.25V without converting over to a different mining program. I'm using cpuminer and am quite satisfied with it since I have a very small farm anyway.
One thing that still bugs me though is having to reset the USB ports every 24+/- hours.
Anyway, I can make the jumper mods easily as I own a professional Weller soldering station with adjustable temp, very fine tip assortment, de-soldering etc. So no problems making the mods.

I wonder though, have either of you chaps tried seeing if any of the existing header's pins correspond to either of those two jumper points? Or is that header simply a serial port connection. I haven't studied the schematic yet so I realize this may be a stupid question.  

Anyway, I'm very interested in this mod for my own miners. Having done years of laboratory level R&D in electronics, this stuff is a piece of cake!

Have the two jumpers stabilized the GS units well enough to overclock above 950 yet?
Man, if we can get these little buggers running at 500KH/s, that would be fantastic!
But, 400KH/s ain't nothin to laugh at either

I have all my units fanless now. If necessary, I can simply use 1 or 2 fans to blow air on the fins indirectly which will of course keep them running cooler.

I might be interested in making this mod for others too if the money is right.
They'd be responsible for all shipping costs and insurance etc. etc.
I'll figure out what is a fair price to charge per mod later if anyone shows interest.

Thanks for coming up with this mod. Sure saved me some time and hassle.
Wolfey2014

The header allows you tap into the nonce reporting/status and switch bootloader mode (so that you can flash the miner firmware - this is what the white button on early miners was connected to). There's a second header spot (consisting of 3 pads) that will give you access to vid0, but nothing for vid1.

[wolfey2014]

Excellent!
Looks good to me!
Have you tried 1000+MHz yet?
Got any pics of your handy work?
Can you restart that one miner that's clocked at 950 and screen capture where it shows it is in fact clocked at 950MHz? This will lend credence to your claim that you are actually clocking at 950 with zero red nonce's.
Much appreciated!

Yea sure, Here are some pics.



Here are the installation pic. I got one of those shitty USB cam



I could had done a better job here but kinda wanted to really try this out.

I wouldn't recommend a novice to do this mod! Once minor slip and a cap or resistor will fly off!

This is what I did. I have some 30AUG, striped it and placed it on the 2 pads. I then placed my iron tip on the middle of the pad (This way, both sides will get hot at the same time) for like 3-5 seconds (at 30C).

Then when the connection was made, I just cut the extra wire with a small, but sharp x-acto knife.

Good luck!

UPDATE:

Ye, anything over 950MHz will not work for me. For some reason, minerd doesn't accept 975MHz(It starts up and sets it to 600MHz) and at 1000MHz, I just get HW errors.

Nice work!
Yeah, I know what you mean about steady hands. I've been soldering etc.for decades so I can practically do it blindfolded without any mess ups.

Are you using cpuminer Over Clock version?
I recon you would be since you can OC to 950. I don't think non OC version will allow that.
It will allow 900 though.

Cool cool cool! You've done it, Ram Jet!

I wonder if adding a few tenths of a volt will allow for overclocking to 1GHz and higher....hmmmmm.....

Far out!
Wolfey2014

[sandor111]

Testing at 1000 MHz now, seems stable with slightly higher voltage.

[Andareed]

Testing at 1000 MHz now, seems stable with slightly higher voltage.

Did you replace a resistor?

[sandor111]

Testing at 1000 MHz now, seems stable with slightly higher voltage.

Did you replace a resistor?

Yes, using a slightly higher one, 38k...
Edit: although I had to lower PLL voltage to 1.05 first

[simon66]

I don't see a speed increase in mine
The non modded ones are running faster. I'm pulling these info from the pool

Grid1: 360Kh/s
Grid2: 350Kh/s
Grid3: 353Kh/s <---- This is the OC one
Grid4: 330Kh/s

Could there be something wrong?

[wolfey2014]

Testing at 1000 MHz now, seems stable with slightly higher voltage.

Did you replace a resistor?

Yes, using a slightly higher one, 38k...
Edit: although I had to lower PLL voltage to 1.05 first

Stably reporting shares?
No red nonce lines?
What is the voltage level now?
What's the temp?
Which resistor did you change out?
Thanks
wolfey2014