GekkoScience has a new stickminer that does 300+GH

[CochnocherCrypto]

Yeah…trade secrets :-(

So I didn’t mean to interface the temp probes with CGMiner and have the data run through the Compac (that would be amazing but beyond my coding abilities). I’ll have to dig through my random parts bin that’s in the deep depths of my storage unit in the basement of my apartment building to take a photo - but I built a gaming rig when I was 14 or 15 (I’m 32 now so we’re talking early 2000’s when 5.25 bays were plentiful on PC towers) and I had a 5.25 bay mountable Fan Controller - it had 8 temperature probes and was able to control 8 (or 16 if you used the included splitters) fans. It was 100% hardware based - no software interface - just a big display across the front and 2 banks of buttons that controlled everything. The sensors were very, very thin and small film-type probes that would actually be perfect for a project like this. Me being a little bit anal, it would annoy the hell out of me to only be able to monitor 3/4’s of my miners. I’m trying to track down another one of these controllers but haven’t had a ton of luck.

And I 100% agree with you about the fan attached to heatsink theory - seemed like a no brainer to me and I was pretty shocked to see that no matter what fan I used (I was testing the different between a Noctua NF-A4 20 and the BitcoinMerch supplied off-brand fan) that the temp was still considerably higher than running them without anything attached under optimal airflow. There is a guy in the UK who sells a much more well thought out mount that he prints himself called, if I’m not mistaken, the IcePac - his mount looks like much more time went into the design than the one I mentioned. He has the fan angled up 20’ish degrees to optimize the air flowing across the heatsink as opposed to most of the airflow being impeded by plastic on the top and bottom of the shroud. But - after my experience having spent nearly $300 for something that made my miners run hotter - decided against testing the waters with it. I run my Noctua industrial fans at full speed or at least close to it with the 12V pins on the side of the gekko hubs - the arctic USB fans towards the front run at whatever speed they are meant to plugged into 5V - and the ISB fans I got on Amazon run on the medium setting - haven’t brought a tach home to measure anything but I can attest to the fact that every heatsink on those 12 miners is “warm” to the touch. By no means would I call them “hot”.

[n0nce]

So I didn’t mean to interface the temp probes with CGMiner and have the data run through the Compac (that would be amazing but beyond my coding abilities). I’ll have to dig through my random parts bin that’s in the deep depths of my storage unit in the basement of my apartment building to take a photo - but I built a gaming rig when I was 14 or 15 (I’m 32 now so we’re talking early 2000’s when 5.25 bays were plentiful on PC towers) and I had a 5.25 bay mountable Fan Controller - it had 8 temperature probes and was able to control 8 (or 16 if you used the included splitters) fans. It was 100% hardware based - no software interface - just a big display across the front and 2 banks of buttons that controlled everything. The sensors were very, very thin and small film-type probes that would actually be perfect for a project like this. Me being a little bit anal, it would annoy the hell out of me to only be able to monitor 3/4’s of my miners. I’m trying to track down another one of these controllers but haven’t had a ton of luck.

Good idea; such a stand-alone solution would certainly be much easier to deploy and still easy enough to use. Since it's generic PC hardware, you may even be able to use such a device to directly control one or more PC cooling fans to cool the whole stick miner rig down.
In case you can't find your 5.25 bay stuff, I'm sure there is similar, modern stuff as well, with smaller footprints.

And I 100% agree with you about the fan attached to heatsink theory - seemed like a no brainer to me and I was pretty shocked to see that no matter what fan I used (I was testing the different between a Noctua NF-A4 20 and the BitcoinMerch supplied off-brand fan) that the temp was still considerably higher than running them without anything attached under optimal airflow.

That's so helpful, honestly! I was about to order those expensive little suckers, so you guys saved me a lot of money.

I run my Noctua industrial fans at full speed or at least close to it with the 12V pins on the side of the gekko hubs

Yes, these 12V pins are fantastic; makes for such a nice compact package compared to having a second PSU dangling around.

I can attest to the fact that every heatsink on those 12 miners is “warm” to the touch. By no means would I call them “hot”.

I may have been running my fans a little bit slow (using a Noctua RPM 'throttle' to keep noise down) but I'll make sure to just run them at full speed in another room.

[CochnocherCrypto]

I may have been running my fans a little bit slow (using a Noctua RPM 'throttle' to keep noise down) but I'll make sure to just run them at full speed in another room.

So I will say this - compared to the Arctic F12 which performs similarly to the Noctua NF-A12x25, the industrial 3000RPM fans are pretty loud and I could see it bothering some individuals. I don't mind the noise - I actually enjoy some static noise when I'm going to sleep. But, these fans are also costly, I spent approximately $30 USD on Amazon for each fan. I'm going to make a short video so you can have a listen and have a realistic expectation of what you're in for before you go ahead and purchase anything.

https://youtu.be/08VcBE4c-80


Also - with regard to the BitcoinMerch CompacF/Newpac Fan Upgrade... I don't want to sound like I'm trying to attack the guy's 3D printed product. But, it is expensive for what it is, and definitely did not perform to what I considered the implied expectation (mentions that 3 Compac's can safely achieve 1.05TH/S). They DO cool the sticks effectively compared to something like, for example, a single Arctic USB Fan positioned so it is aimed at multiple stickminers (which I have seen lots of people do in photos online) but I don't think that they could sustain the advertised hashrate for a very lengthy period of time. I would imagine that most people who have this sort of setup are striving for maximum uptime.

For me personally - I consider safety to be paramount. These stickminers are capable of producing enough heat that, if used improperly, could create a fire hazard. I just would not feel comfortable leaving my apartment for upwards of 8 hours unless I am TOTALLY confident that I have set everything up in a way that it will be adequately cooled.

[zulupapa]

Hello There,

I'm getting headaches again.. The stability of the miners lasted so far. Everytime I install updates on my Raspi the whole farm crashes. After the current Raspbian update I only can get one of my miners up and running the other 3 goes straight into zombie mode if I plug them in. (Doesn't matter if all at once or one after the other.) Sometimes CGminer says can't find the miners, than it suddenly finds them, ramping up beginns but suddenly stops and the program disables, resets them straight away and turns them into zombie.

I haven't changed anything on my setup (miners, miners's settings, fan, hub, PS etc.). The only thing has changed is the software (either RPi op sys or CGminer) so it must be the black sheep. Not being a programmer cannot define what component is causing my and others "instablility-problems" but I'm 100% sure now, that - as I suspected - the software is the scapegoat.

I'll wait a few days and start again, maybe it'll be fine by than, as it happened to be a week ago after the previous update as well...

[CochnocherCrypto]

Hello There,

I'm getting headaches again.. The stability of the miners lasted so far. Everytime I install updates on my Raspi the whole farm crashes. After the current Raspbian update I only can get one of my miners up and running the other 3 goes straight into zombie mode if I plug them in. (Doesn't matter if all at once or one after the other.) Sometimes CGminer says can't find the miners, than it suddenly finds them, ramping up beginns but suddenly stops and the program disables, resets them straight away and turns them into zombie.

I haven't changed anything on my setup (miners, miners's settings, fan, hub, PS etc.). The only thing has changed is the software (either RPi op sys or CGminer) so it must be the black sheep. Not being a programmer cannot define what component is causing my and others "instablility-problems" but I'm 100% sure now, that - as I suspected - the software is the scapegoat.

I'll wait a few days and start again, maybe it'll be fine by than, as it happened to be a week ago after the previous update as well...

Hey there! So I was having stability issues under some slightly different circumstances… I did, however, see the zombie problem arise. I had to run the CGMiner command with  “gekko-mine2” omitted and the starting frequency changed from the default (200mhz) to 300mhz. Been going strong ever since - give it a shot and see if that makes the zombie issue subside.

[Sledge0001]

So I am finding that these things run like a champ on a pi. Much better than Win 10.

I have 15 sticks running on 1 Bitcoin Merch Raspberry pi with solid performance @ 570 with no dropout (5.2THs - 5.7THs).

The key to keeping these sticks humming is keeping them fed with good power.

I have purchased additional GekkoScience hubs at this point and found that you can drive 3 of these things up to 570 - 600 with a single arctic fan blowing on all 3 on a proper usb hub in a temperature controlled environment.

Seems like 570 for me is the sweet spot.

Look forward to replacing my remaining Sipolar hubs over the next week and brining my total up to 30 sticks over the next 2 weeks!

[rdbase]

So I am finding that these things run like a champ on a pi. Much better than Win 10.

I have 15 sticks running on 1 Bitcoin Merch Raspberry pi with solid performance @ 570 with no dropout (5.2THs - 5.7THs).

The key to keeping these sticks humming is keeping them fed with good power.

I have purchased additional GekkoScience hubs at this point and found that you can drive 3 of these things up to 570 - 600 with a single arctic fan blowing on all 3 on a proper usb hub in a temperature controlled environment.

Seems like 570 for me is the sweet spot.

Look forward to replacing my remaining Sipolar hubs over the next week and brining my total up to 30 sticks over the next 2 weeks!

What are you doing with all those sticks? Solo mining?
I've always wanted to give the usb miners a try and I see bitcoin merch is the best way to start in this endeavor for btc mining instead of eth with my old gpu mining equipment since the merge is potentially still in the works for this year.
Might be time to start the transition.

[Sledge0001]

What are you doing with all those sticks? Solo mining?
I've always wanted to give the usb miners a try and I see bitcoin merch is the best way to start in this endeavor for btc mining instead of eth with my old gpu mining equipment since the merge is potentially still in the works for this year.
Might be time to start the transition.

Absolutely. I'm solo mining with all of my ASIC hardware. I've had lighting strike once and now I'm looking for it to happen again. With the ETH merge around the corner I'm dumping my gpus and reinvesting those funds into BTC mining gear.

[CochnocherCrypto]

They DO still make the controller I was talking about!!! I might actually just order 2 of these as each one hs 6 probes - could monitor each one of my Compacs!

https://www.newegg.com/amp/thermaltake-ac-024-bn1nan-a1-plastic-switch-fan-controller-with-lcd-display/p/N82E16811998156

[NotFuzzyWarm]

They DO still make the controller I was talking about!!! I might actually just order 2 of these as each one hs 6 probes - could monitor each one of my Compacs!

https://www.newegg.com/amp/thermaltake-ac-024-bn1nan-a1-plastic-switch-fan-controller-with-lcd-display/p/N82E16811998156

Actually, any PC fan controller that has temp sensing would work but *that* is the nicest one I've seen. Love the individual temp readouts. 

[Skot]

The BM1387 (and also I'm guessing the BM1397) have internal diodes used for measuring the temperature. This diode's forward voltage is proportional to it's temperature. The Antminer S9 uses a chip called the NCT218 (https://www.onsemi.com/pdf/datasheet/nct218-d.pdf) that handles all of the diode excitation and converting the voltage to degrees celsius over I2C. I think this kind of setup is pretty common on motherboards.

The Newpac doesn't break out any of the temp diode pins from the BM1387. It would be cool to have access to these pins on future revs though!

[CochnocherCrypto]

The BM1387 (and also I'm guessing the BM1397) have internal diodes used for measuring the temperature. This diode's forward voltage is proportional to it's temperature. The Antminer S9 uses a chip called the NCT218 (https://www.onsemi.com/pdf/datasheet/nct218-d.pdf) that handles all of the diode excitation and converting the voltage to degrees celsius over I2C. I think this kind of setup is pretty common on motherboards.

The Newpac doesn't break out any of the temp diode pins from the BM1387. It would be cool to have access to these pins on future revs though!

Totally! That's what we were talking about - The fan controller I have is an older version of the one I linked and it is, unfortunately, in the bottom of a box in a storage unit. These are awesome though - would be very easy to just adhere the temp probe to the heatsink between the heatsink and the PCB (if the probes are the same style as the probes mine has, they're very thin, film-type probes). I found another website that I'm not too familiar with, frozencpu.com, but they have tons of nice looking 5.25" Controllers in stock. Going to check out some youtube videos to see if I can get a clearer look at the probes they come with - if it appears to fit the bill, I'll order some and post photos when I've gotten it all set up!

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Virtually all the fan controllers use the same thin film sensor.
I highly recommend frozencpu and have bought tons of stuff from them including liquid cooling gear.

[sidehack]

Not sure if I've done business with frozencpu but I've known the site exists for a long time.

Breaking out the temp sensor diode isn't a bad idea. I'll look into it. Next couple batches of PCBs have already been ordered but I can add pads later in the year.

[BiticaMan]

Hello, could you help me?

Is there any way to make cgminer start automatically by the ubuntu server? Via terminal.

When you turn on the computer, the system starts the cgminer.sh script automatically and opens cgminer on the screen?

Does anyone know how to do this?

Thank you so much.

[nullama]

Hello, could you help me?

Is there any way to make cgminer start automatically by the ubuntu server? Via terminal.

When you turn on the computer, the system starts the cgminer.sh script automatically and opens cgminer on the screen?

Does anyone know how to do this?

Thank you so much.

Sure.

You can use screen to start your script and keep it running in the background. So, for example, let's say your username in the computer is BiticaMan, and your script to start the miner is in /home/BiticaMan/start_cgminer.sh, you can run this:

Code:

screen -dm -S cgminer /home/BiticaMan/start_cgminer.sh

That will start the script and keep it running in the background. You can see it anytime by writing:

Code:

screen -r cgminer

To go back, simply press Ctrl-a, and then Ctrl-d. If you don't understand this, it means press and hold Control key, then press the letter a. That puts you in the command mode. You want to Detach it, so the command you want is executed by holding Control key and then pressing the letter d. That's it.

Make sure this is running properly and that you can see the miner working properly at the cgminer screen and back.

Once that's running correctly, just put it inside a startup file, like /etc/rc.local

This service should be already available on raspberry pis, and older ubuntus. You can check if the service is available with this:

Code:

sudo systemctl status rc-local

If it's available, you can skip the next part. For newer ubuntus you'll have to enable it, like this:

Open this file:

Code:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/rc-local.service

Paste this into it:

Code:

[Unit]
 Description=/etc/rc.local Compatibility
 ConditionPathExists=/etc/rc.local

[Service]
 Type=forking
 ExecStart=/etc/rc.local start
 TimeoutSec=0
 StandardOutput=tty
 RemainAfterExit=yes
 SysVStartPriority=99

[Install]
 WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable it:

Code:

sudo systemctl enable rc-local

Now reboot.

Code:

sudo reboot now

You can check that the service is now available:

Code:

sudo systemctl status rc-local

OK, let's use /etc/rc.local

Code:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

This will open a text editor. Write the following at the end of the file:

Code:

su - BiticaMan -c "screen -dm -S cgminer /home/BiticaMan/start_cgminer.sh"

This does exactly the same as before, but the difference is that since it will be executed at startup by root, it tells it to run the script as your user instead.

If the file is empty, that's fine, just add this in the beginning:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

Press Ctrl-O to save, and then Ctrl-X to exit.

Also, make sure the file is executable:

Code:

sudo chmod a+x /etc/rc.local

And that's it. Your script will now be executed on restarts.

This should work for a Raspberry Pi, or Ubuntu, etc.

[Sledge0001]

Has anyone figured out how to run more than 15 sticks on a single Raspberry Pi4?

The CPU usage when running 15 sticks on cgminer is only at 32% so the CPU efficiency compared to that of a Windows PC is huge...

So is this just a limitation of the hardware or is there something that can be tweaked in the software to allow for more sticks to connect?

Thanks in advance all!

[sidehack]

You could be butting up against the USB throughput limits, rather than CPU capabilities. You're probably doing what, a combined 5TH? That's a lot of data to move in and out in realtime through a packetized bus.

[BiticaMan]

Hello, could you help me?

Is there any way to make cgminer start automatically by the ubuntu server? Via terminal.

When you turn on the computer, the system starts the cgminer.sh script automatically and opens cgminer on the screen?

Does anyone know how to do this?

Thank you so much.

Sure.

You can use screen to start your script and keep it running in the background. So, for example, let's say your username in the computer is BiticaMan, and your script to start the miner is in /home/BiticaMan/start_cgminer.sh, you can run this:

Code:

screen -dm -S cgminer /home/BiticaMan/start_cgminer.sh

That will start the script and keep it running in the background. You can see it anytime by writing:

Code:

screen -r cgminer

To go back, simply press Ctrl-a, and then Ctrl-d. If you don't understand this, it means press and hold Control key, then press the letter a. That puts you in the command mode. You want to Detach it, so the command you want is executed by holding Control key and then pressing the letter d. That's it.

Make sure this is running properly and that you can see the miner working properly at the cgminer screen and back.

Once that's running correctly, just put it inside a startup file, like /etc/rc.local

This service should be already available on raspberry pis, and older ubuntus. You can check if the service is available with this:

Code:

sudo systemctl status rc-local

If it's available, you can skip the next part. For newer ubuntus you'll have to enable it, like this:

Open this file:

Code:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/rc-local.service

Paste this into it:

Code:

[Unit]
 Description=/etc/rc.local Compatibility
 ConditionPathExists=/etc/rc.local

[Service]
 Type=forking
 ExecStart=/etc/rc.local start
 TimeoutSec=0
 StandardOutput=tty
 RemainAfterExit=yes
 SysVStartPriority=99

[Install]
 WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable it:

Code:

sudo systemctl enable rc-local

Now reboot.

Code:

sudo reboot now

You can check that the service is now available:

Code:

sudo systemctl status rc-local

OK, let's use /etc/rc.local

Code:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

This will open a text editor. Write the following at the end of the file:

Code:

su - BiticaMan -c "screen -dm -S cgminer /home/BiticaMan/start_cgminer.sh"

This does exactly the same as before, but the difference is that since it will be executed at startup by root, it tells it to run the script as your user instead.

If the file is empty, that's fine, just add this in the beginning:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

Press Ctrl-O to save, and then Ctrl-X to exit.

Also, make sure the file is executable:

Code:

sudo chmod a+x /etc/rc.local

And that's it. Your script will now be executed on restarts.

This should work for a Raspberry Pi, or Ubuntu, etc.

Thank you very much, I will do this.

[BiticaMan]

You could be butting up against the USB throughput limits, rather than CPU capabilities. You're probably doing what, a combined 5TH? That's a lot of data to move in and out in realtime through a packetized bus.

Please, What would be the already tested limit of sticks in a PI4?

If running 3 gekko hubs, one on each usb, with 4 sticks each gekko hub, would it work normally with cgminer?

In that case what would be the maximum recommended frequency with forced ventilation in each stick?

Thank you so much.