GridSeed 5-chip USB miner voltage mod

[simon66]

Instead of usig a solidering iron i highly suggest getting access to a hot air station. i soldered smd before but never this small.
Hats off to ANYONE soldering these, thats serious skill. im using my hot air station on them

May i ask what's the safe temperature setting when soldering these using hot air station? I plan to use hot air station as well but i'm not so experienced on this stuff yet..

You wanna use Kapton tape to cover the SMT units and just leave the exposed area. Kapton tape it's a heat resistant tape, so its perfect for hot air solder. Use experiment on a dummy board before using it on your GDS units.

[david123]

Does anyone know a Raspberry Pi Image supporting frequencies of 1000+?

Currently I run Hashra Controla, which lets me select core frequency up to 900. Sure,
I can ssh and just download&compile a suitable version of cgminer, but maybe it's not necessary
to reinvent the wheel..

[nemercry]

I bought these.

Yageo 47.5K ohm 100ppm SMD (Surface Mount) Thick Film Resistor 0402 1% 1/16W RC0402F (Continuous strip of 500)

I have modded 3 GS's so far and they are running fine at 1150Mhz for 4 hours.

I need to get a better magnifying glass to do the rest of these.  It's like soldering a grain of sand.  Are these OK to use?  Is 1/16 ok?

Good work sir!

The resistor will work fine.

@Amix:
The idea behind the 47kOhm 1 % resistors was that we wanted to have same results for all of our modded units.
With 47kOhm 5% resistors we had the problems with bad units not operating good at 1150mhz. Due to high variance in ashresistors base resistor value.

[nemercry]

@ZiG

You mean something like this? :

Thanks for posting this, it was really helpful.
Fuse is definitely able to take the extra amount of amperes without breaking .
(Only soldering it there can be a pain in the ass, because its so tiny compared to the cable.)

Thanks a lot for this smart and simple solution.

[amix]

I bought these.

Yageo 47.5K ohm 100ppm SMD (Surface Mount) Thick Film Resistor 0402 1% 1/16W RC0402F (Continuous strip of 500)

I have modded 3 GS's so far and they are running fine at 1150Mhz for 4 hours.

I need to get a better magnifying glass to do the rest of these.  It's like soldering a grain of sand.  Are these OK to use?  Is 1/16 ok?

Good work sir!

The resistor will work fine.

@Amix:
The idea behind the 47kOhm 1 % resistors was that we wanted to have same results for all of our modded units.
With 47kOhm 5% resistors we had the problems with bad units not operating good at 1150mhz. Due to high variance in ashresistors base resistor value.

yeah i see your point and agree with you. i checked mine before hand to check the variance on them.  .2 so it was in line wiht a 1% resistor anyway. but yes as a control 1% is better. 1% is better full stop i was just saying 5% will do as long as your aware of the variance and its potentail for impact - better or worse.

Instead of usig a solidering iron i highly suggest getting access to a hot air station. i soldered smd before but never this small.
Hats off to ANYONE soldering these, thats serious skill. im using my hot air station on them

May i ask what's the safe temperature setting when soldering these using hot air station? I plan to use hot air station as well but i'm not so experienced on this stuff yet..

You wanna use Kapton tape to cover the SMT units and just leave the exposed area. Kapton tape it's a heat resistant tape, so its perfect for hot air solder. Use experiment on a dummy board before using it on your GDS units.

Tape?! Blown Away?!!! Hot powerfull a rework kit do you have? industrial?. Mine never even twitched at blower set to just under half power. the heat was set at about 200 c. i had the preheater plate on underneath so probably didnt need to be as high as 200. apply the flux will stick it in place, wiht some solder paste if you have it.
The temputure you use will vary, depending on the size of the nozel your using, how far from the smd the hot air blower is, the force of the air, these can all affect the temperture reaching the smd. I couldve connected up my temperture probe to check the surface temputre of the smd, but i had the soldering iron connected up so didnt - inconvience that its one or other (temperture probe or soldering iron. yes just been a bit lazy. next time ill stick the probe on to check the surface temperture when it goes.

got a few more to do but i not had time what wiht work and home.

[volum4]

Does anyone know a Raspberry Pi Image supporting frequencies of 1000+?

Currently I run Hashra Controla, which lets me select core frequency up to 900. Sure,
I can ssh and just download&compile a suitable version of cgminer, but maybe it's not necessary
to reinvent the wheel..

A bit OT here.. but..The latest Controla interface support frequencies up to 1300 MHz. Just use Controla update link.

[volum4]

I bought these.

Yageo 47.5K ohm 100ppm SMD (Surface Mount) Thick Film Resistor 0402 1% 1/16W RC0402F (Continuous strip of 500)

I have modded 3 GS's so far and they are running fine at 1150Mhz for 4 hours.

I need to get a better magnifying glass to do the rest of these.  It's like soldering a grain of sand.  Are these OK to use?  Is 1/16 ok?

https://i.imgur.com/u8M5Y8K.jpg

Good work sir!

The resistor will work fine.

@Amix:
The idea behind the 47kOhm 1 % resistors was that we wanted to have same results for all of our modded units.
With 47kOhm 5% resistors we had the problems with bad units not operating good at 1150mhz. Due to high variance in ashresistors base resistor value.

yeah i see your point and agree with you. i checked mine before hand to check the variance on them.  .2 so it was in line wiht a 1% resistor anyway. but yes as a control 1% is better. 1% is better full stop i was just saying 5% will do as long as your aware of the variance and its potentail for impact - better or worse.

Instead of usig a solidering iron i highly suggest getting access to a hot air station. i soldered smd before but never this small.
Hats off to ANYONE soldering these, thats serious skill. im using my hot air station on them

May i ask what's the safe temperature setting when soldering these using hot air station? I plan to use hot air station as well but i'm not so experienced on this stuff yet..

You wanna use Kapton tape to cover the SMT units and just leave the exposed area. Kapton tape it's a heat resistant tape, so its perfect for hot air solder. Use experiment on a dummy board before using it on your GDS units.

Tape?! Blown Away?!!! Hot powerfull a rework kit do you have? industrial?. Mine never even twitched at blower set to just under half power. the heat was set at about 200 c. i had the preheater plate on underneath so probably didnt need to be as high as 200. apply the flux will stick it in place, wiht some solder paste if you have it.
The temputure you use will vary, depending on the size of the nozel your using, how far from the smd the hot air blower is, the force of the air, these can all affect the temperture reaching the smd. I couldve connected up my temperture probe to check the surface temputre of the smd, but i had the soldering iron connected up so didnt - inconvience that its one or other (temperture probe or soldering iron. yes just been a bit lazy. next time ill stick the probe on to check the surface temperture when it goes.

got a few more to do but i not had time what wiht work and home.

i think it can be blowed away for sure if you use wrong size nozzle and apply too much air flow. specially cheapo stations may have problems on regulating air flow precisely. using a tape is a very good idea! just to be sure that something unnecessary isn't blowing away..

[Ferris419]

Can someone help me with setting the frequencies for each module in cgminer? I have 3 modules 2 are stable at 900mhz and 1 is stable at 850mhz I'm using windows 7 and cgminer 3.7.2 for gridseed thanks in advance.

[wolfey2014]

I just completed modding several GS5 pods for a customer and they are all now hashing away as expected.
Easily running over 500KH/s to over 650KH/s as expected. I've even seen peaks of over 750KH/s!
ZERO HW errors on all of them.
This includes the 5V fan mod as well.
After tuning them all up, I'm seeing 1150MHz to 1250MHz as the most stable and profitable general operating range.
If you'd like me to mod your pods, feel free to PM me.
I'm located 30 minutes outside of Washington D.C.

Here's a shot of my handy work, if you want to see how to do the mod yourself.
Like I've been saying, a 1/4W resistor will work just fine. Try to use 1% tolerance.
There is no point in going crazy with tiny SMD resistors and the hassles and expense of buying much less using a hot air station that if not used properly can destroy your miner!
A simple 30W soldering iron with a pencil tip will do the job perfectly. It will remove the old resistor chip and easily solder the new axial resistor in place without any risks to damaging other components. It takes a steady hand and experience to do it correctly in any case.
49.9K seems to be a pretty good general setting for overclocking up to 1250 stable.
Any higher than 1175MHz to 1200MHz seems to be a waste at the pool i.e. wasted power, lower profits.

I can mod your pods for you at a very reasonable cost. PM me for details.
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Positive and Profitable Results using standard 1% to 5% 1/4 watt axial resistor!
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Here's a close up shot so you can see exactly where to put R52.

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My current peak performance figures pool side with just 6 miners...


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Remember, if you want your pods modified and can't do it yourself, I can!
PM me for details!

[ZiG]

@ZiG

You mean something like this? :

Thanks for posting this, it was really helpful.
Fuse is definitely able to take the extra amount of amperes without breaking .
(Only soldering it there can be a pain in the ass, because its so tiny compared to the cable.)

Thanks a lot for this smart and simple solution.

Thank you for your kind words, buddy...Glad to share...I saw you applying thermal paste too...

Most of the thanks should go to you, Nemercry...for your contributions to this tread and your research and results...!

Much appreciated...

BTW, could you please post what is the Voltage supplied to the chips VDD+ after your 47k resistor mod...?  

Cheers,
ZiG

[simon66]

Hello all,

I read a post (I think was here), where an user stated that they applied thermal paste onto the gridseed. I just overclocked my units and I'm a bit hesitant to keep them running at max settings without proper cooling.

Has anyone here cooled their unit with thermal paste? If so, how are you doing it? (Pics please?)

Many Thanks!

[CryptKeeper]

Hello all,

I read a post (I think was here), where an user stated that they applied thermal paste onto the gridseed. I just overclocked my units and I'm a bit hesitant to keep them running at max settings without proper cooling.

Has anyone here cooled their unit with thermal paste? If so, how are you doing it? (Pics please?)

Many Thanks!

I replaced the thermal pad with paste on my miners, but I can't see any difference, although their running rock solid after the voltage mod (they ran solid before). I thought it can't do any harm. Use a non-conductive paste, that's important!

But beware, one of my coolers had such a rough surface that I kept the thermal pad and applied the paste additionally, but very thin.

Sorry, no pics!

[RowanX]

Got my 2nd gridseed today.. its performance seems a little worse than my first one..

Hardware	Mining time	Freq.	HW Errors
Gridseed #1 (Big LEDs)	3 hours	875 MHz	0
Gridseed #2 (SMD LEDs)	3 hours	850 MHz	23

..perhaps the thermal pads are not positioned well in the new unit. Can someone recommend a thermal grease I can't seem to find on that isn't labelled as "conductive" .. although its hard to tell if they mean thermally or electrically conductive..

[ZiG]

Hello all,

I read a post (I think was here), where an user stated that they applied thermal paste onto the gridseed. I just overclocked my units and I'm a bit hesitant to keep them running at max settings without proper cooling.

Has anyone here cooled their unit with thermal paste? If so, how are you doing it? (Pics please?)

Many Thanks!

Here is my post...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=519112.msg6027770#msg6027770

No pics...sorry...

[Zor]

I sure wish you had a more high rez picture there Wolfey so I could see exactly what you've done.  I blowed it up in Photoshop but it's blotchy.  Nice work nonetheless.

I wish I could see exactly where you soldered the axial resistor.  Any guide for this particular volt mod?  I've been all over this thread ... if I need to re-read, what, 26 pages or so, tell me to.  lol

It looks like you soldered from which point I'm not sure, to one of those 3 pads.

[jamieb81]

I sure wish you had a more high rez picture there Wolfey so I could see exactly what you've done.  I blowed it up in Photoshop but it's blotchy.  Nice work nonetheless.

I wish I could see exactly where you soldered the axial resistor.  Any guide for this particular volt mod?  I've been all over this thread ... if I need to re-read, what, 26 pages or so, tell me to.  lol

It looks like you soldered from which point I'm not sure, to one of those 3 pads.

From this image I think it seems pretty clear.

one part of the resistor is on the top little round dot ( there are two little dots ) and the other part of the resistor is soldered on the inward

of the smd connexion point of the board.

: <- top point  . .   -> right one

don't know if you got it like this^^

[wolfey2014]

I sure wish you had a more high rez picture there Wolfey so I could see exactly what you've done.  I blowed it up in Photoshop but it's blotchy.  Nice work nonetheless.

I wish I could see exactly where you soldered the axial resistor.  Any guide for this particular volt mod?  I've been all over this thread ... if I need to re-read, what, 26 pages or so, tell me to.  lol

It looks like you soldered from which point I'm not sure, to one of those 3 pads.

Well, lookee here! Your prayers have been answered!
*****************************************

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I'm sure this zoom in, along with the fan mod pic on page 14 and resistor placement on page 25 of this thread will help you.

Thanks for posting that pic Jamieb81

Thanks for the complement Zor!  

Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help!

And remember folks, I do over-volt mods - enabling stable overclocking - for you, if you can't do it yourself.
PM me for further details.

Wolfey2014

[jamieb81]

Yeah cause I just opened a gridseed and man those SMD are tiny 

I've soldered before small things but this I'm going to pass it to a local shop it's too smal for me  don't have the appropriate tools for this

[Zor]

I sure wish you had a more high rez picture there Wolfey so I could see exactly what you've done.  I blowed it up in Photoshop but it's blotchy.  Nice work nonetheless.

I wish I could see exactly where you soldered the axial resistor.  Any guide for this particular volt mod?  I've been all over this thread ... if I need to re-read, what, 26 pages or so, tell me to.  lol

It looks like you soldered from which point I'm not sure, to one of those 3 pads.

Well, lookee here! Your prayers have been answered!
*****************************************
https://i.imgur.com/OZLPrVE.jpg
*****************************************
I'm sure this zoom in, along with the fan mod pic on page 14 and resistor placement on page 25 of this thread will help you.

Thanks for posting that pic Jamieb81

Thanks for the complement Zor!  

Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help!

And remember folks, I do over-volt mods - enabling stable overclocking - for you, if you can't do it yourself.
PM me for further details.

Wolfey2014

You Sir, are awesome.

Recommend gear on Amazon for me to buy to perform such an operation?  =D  I'd practice first -- I do have steady hands, though.

[chanberg]

will also be doing this mod once I am free... Also wondering if the resistor have good clearance from the heatsink?