New GekkoScience product, the Smart Hub

[sidehack]

Hello, various fans and consumers of GekkoScience equipment

As often happens around this time of year, we're pleased to announce the release of a new product!

The Smart Hub




Basically we took the GekkoScience Base Hub and added a brain.

We've got 9 powered ports on top, all with data - no dummy ports - and two lower-power side ports for extending to more regular hubs. All ports are protected with the same self-resetting 3.5A fuses we used on the upgraded Base Hub (any sold in the last year), and powered across two high-current main regulators for better power handling than any Base Hub so far. It's got a Raspberry Pi Zero W 2 controller built in, with integrated wifi and ethernet onboard. It's got a green-on-black OLED screen and software made for mining. We partnered up with the guy who originally designed what is now the Mars Lander for this one so it's at least slightly cooler-looking than our usual stuff, and has a pretty good software setup.

On first boot or after a factory reset, this hub will boot as a wifi host and tell you its IP so you can connect to its convenient web interface. Over ethernet, it's immediately ready to configure. From there you can set up your local wifi and your pool configs and miner settings, which take effect upon reboot and persist until it's hardware-reset. The default mining mode cycles through stats (including individual miner hashrates) and keeps a running ticker of BTC/USD price as well as other useful data. This should reduce the learning curve for using our products, as it makes most things plug-and-play. No need to compile cgminer and SSH and command line - unless you want to, of course. It's still a linux computer, and useful for more than just mining.



The vertical port spacing on the hub is sized for sticks with individual snap-on fans, so you can use all 9 ports for sticks. All 11 ports have data lines for connecting any USB miner or device, including another hub with more sticks, or a stack of R909 pods.



We'll be putting a fan power jack on future stick versions, but for the meantime in order to fully support being able to use all ports, we're also putting together a USB splitter which will enable powering a snap-on fan from the same jack. USB-port and regular 2/3/4-wire fans will all work. Sold separately.




In case you're skeptical because all the good pictures here are CAD renders, here's the first one off the production line (I always keep the first one to play with; somewhere I have Compac serial number GS-10000000 and every museum is jealous)



The first batch is already shipping to resellers, and they should be available in time to reach you by Christmas (depending on local conditions of course).

These authorized sellers will have stock:

AltairTech (US)
Bitshopper (Germany/EU)
101 Crypto (AU/NZ)
The Solo Mining Co (UK)

The Smart Hub is the first step in what will be a fairly significant revolution for GekkoScience mining hardware. We've got big plans and are looking forward to what's coming next.

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[CochnocherCrypto]

Looks fantastic!!! Can’t wait to grab a few! As per usual - thank you for all that you do for the Bitcoin mining community, Sidehack!!!

[altair_tech]

Really excited about this product. It makes it much easier to setup and expand, standalone USB mining setups.

[IAmGPIO]

Latest SD card Image - V5.6.1

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nzw30MOHNnyadNCm9wcqfCiVXUVQ7wUo/view?usp=sharing

Change Log:
Fixed Freq Update Issue on Web UI
Moved some Temp SD writing processes to RamDisk
Added "Shutdown Smarthub" Function on Web Config Page
Added a  hidden (fun) function in "Gekko CompacF Freq:"  Field. Find it.
Default Pool is now Kano.is:3333


Use a tool of choice for your OS to burn the image file to the SD card. I personally use Balena Ethcher or Win32 Disk Imagery for Windows.

I suggest using another SD card (minimum of 8gb) so you have your original just in case.

Cheers
IAmGPIO

[sidehack]

Can confirm, it works really well! 6 x R909's and 3 x Compac F's, sitting happily at around 13.1 TH/s. Got this set up in my home office with minimal distruption. Really makes home mining simple! Got it from thesolomining.co in the UK. AltairTech.Io have them in the US'!

Quoting for the sake of new-user image visibility

[achtung082]

Looks awesome !!!

[RKG456]

This looks awesome!.  Is mining over wireless the only option or will we be able to add a USB to Ethernet adapter?  I actually have 3 Raspberry PI 2Ws sitting around unused.  Will this come with a Rpi2W installed already like the Mars Lander or will we supply our own?

[IAmGPIO]

This looks awesome!.  Is mining over wireless the only option or will we be able to add a USB to Ethernet adapter?  I actually have 3 Raspberry PI 2Ws sitting around unused.  Will this come with a Rpi2W installed already like the Mars Lander or will we supply our own?

Hey, so the Smart hub has Wifi and ethernet built in. It's up to you what you use. You can use both too if you wish. There is also a Raspberry Pi 2 W already installed. When you get the unit it literally is a case of plugging it in and the screen tells you what to do. It really is plug and play!

I know my site (thesolomining.co) sells them with power supplies included.

HTH!

Regards
IamGPIO

[RKG456]

This looks awesome!.  Is mining over wireless the only option or will we be able to add a USB to Ethernet adapter?  I actually have 3 Raspberry PI 2Ws sitting around unused.  Will this come with a Rpi2W installed already like the Mars Lander or will we supply our own?

Hey, so the Smart hub has Wifi and ethernet built in. It's up to you what you use. You can use both too if you wish. There is also a Raspberry Pi 2 W already installed. When you get the unit it literally is a case of plugging it in and the screen tells you what to do. It really is plug and play!

I know my site (thesolomining.co) sells them with power supplies included.

HTH!

Regards
IamGPIO

Thanks.  The US seller does not have any showing on their site.

Let me know if an option without the RPI 2W installed ever becomes available. 

[IAmGPIO]

Thanks.  The US seller does not have any showing on their site.

Let me know if an option without the RPI 2W installed ever becomes available.  

There won't be a version without a pi.
I have them in stock on my site in the UK. Shipping is a flat fee of about 30 bucks. Use code "GET MINING" for a discount.

www.thesolomining.co

[Unmarave11]

sorry for the question, but im new on this world.. what is this?? i know about the ascis and the rigs, but i´ve never seen this, can someone explain me this plis?

[IAmGPIO]

sorry for the question, but im new on this world.. what is this?? i know about the ascis and the rigs, but i´ve never seen this, can someone explain me this plis?

This is essentially a linux computer running CGMiner with a custom Web interface and custom OLED screen showing realtime stats. The internal computer is connected to the internal USB hub.

You can plug GekkoScience asics in to it and they just work, plug and play.

[solominer34]

Here's a short vid with a high-level walk through of the new GekkoScience SmartHub:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxqO35C0lrk

✅ well made (as expected from @sidehack)
✅ nice weight n' feel
✅ easy to config via wi-fi AP (192.168.6.1, 2.4GHz only)
✅ perfectly spaced for 9 COMPAC-Fs with clip-on fans
✅ USB splitters are nice n' compact
✅ seamlessly switches to ethernet if plugged in
✅ dashboard has a nice UI with cool animated graph (mobile friendly)
✅ link to @Kano's detailed stats page
✅ instantly started mining
✅ ability to tweak frequencies for each miner type (COMPAC-F, R909, NewPac)
✅ true plug n' play!

Love it.

[Ant667]

Just made an account here to indeed verify this is a really handy unit. I have multiple usb sticks, newpacs and f's and I have like 5 r909's and plug and play is so easy with this unit.

If you are looking for a US Seller I got mine from https://altairtech.io/

They packaged the units so well FedEx left my package out in the melting snow and the box was soggy wet. They still work lol.

[gt_addict]

Just purchased one from the UK seller. But I just thought, what are the dimensions for the hub and does it have a fan header? I already have the standard gekko hub and the 3D printed stand 419mining sold and I’m hoping to reuse the stand but need the dimensions. If it doesnt fit I’ll have to find someway of cobbling together a fan stand.

[sidehack]

The whole footprint is roughly twice the size as the base Hub, about 14x20cm

[gt_addict]

The whole footprint is roughly twice the size as the base Hub, about 14x20cm

Thanks sidehack. Bit bigger than I thought, time for some cobbling together  

[sidehack]

It came out bigger than I wanted, but that's because of the decision to make room for individual stick fans. Turns out people like those?

[gt_addict]

I would get them but could barely justify the smarthub considering the base hub and raspi4 have been solid since I bought them (no surprise really, its gekko gear).

[IAmGPIO]

I would get them but could barely justify the smarthub considering the base hub and raspi4 have been solid since I bought them (no surprise really, its gekko gear).

Hey, how you getting on with the SmartHub?!