GRIDSEED G-BLADE Overclocking 7Mh/s, improvements and repair

[Mister_Fix]

Sorry I had burned your party. But finding a PSU which has 2 real 12V Rails is like winning in Lotto.

http://www.use.com/images/s_2/Hantol_Silent_ATX_500W_Power_Supply_7522d24941723e028d9f_1.jpg

This 500Watt PSU for example only has a 16Amp rail. So one normal Gridseed miner already maxes it out :-( .

This feed focus on the heavy overclocking of those blades and that's why I call out to be very careful and do your math twice before you cause an fire. This is why I just recommend it to check twice. Also if you do your math just for LAB giggles 500Watt on pure 12V can only do 41AMP MAX but this is LAB condition. Most PSU's like the one above doesn't even get close to is. Also most PSU have a cheap cables which can't take a lot of load even the CE specs tell you differently, but that's a reason why MADE in CHINA is not MADE in USA or GERMANY. As I said earlier we did overclock with hardware mod's here which cause a much higher draw from the PSU so that's why I called it out just to be safe. Because the last thing you want is a house on Fire.
If you followed a bit my hardware mod's which do ramp Gridseeds for less than 10$ USD up from normal 600-800 up to close to 1100Hz. so you get a very nice and safe 3.3-3.6 MHz per Blade out without busting it's limit's all the way to the MAX.

Lumanet

Well then i guess i won the lottery, doing a simple route trace on that psu show 2 12 volt rails going to 2 seprate overcurrent protection circuits. Also worth mentioning this PSU isn't one of those scary PSUs that burn your motherboard after a month of use, its a mid-range PSU with very good component and PCB quality for its price.

[Lumanet]

Sorry I had burned your party. But finding a PSU which has 2 real 12V Rails is like winning in Lotto.

http://www.use.com/images/s_2/Hantol_Silent_ATX_500W_Power_Supply_7522d24941723e028d9f_1.jpg

This 500Watt PSU for example only has a 16Amp rail. So one normal Gridseed miner already maxes it out :-( .

This feed focus on the heavy overclocking of those blades and that's why I call out to be very careful and do your math twice before you cause an fire. This is why I just recommend it to check twice. Also if you do your math just for LAB giggles 500Watt on pure 12V can only do 41AMP MAX but this is LAB condition. Most PSU's like the one above doesn't even get close to is. Also most PSU have a cheap cables which can't take a lot of load even the CE specs tell you differently, but that's a reason why MADE in CHINA is not MADE in USA or GERMANY. As I said earlier we did overclock with hardware mod's here which cause a much higher draw from the PSU so that's why I called it out just to be safe. Because the last thing you want is a house on Fire.
If you followed a bit my hardware mod's which do ramp Gridseeds for less than 10$ USD up from normal 600-800 up to close to 1100Hz. so you get a very nice and safe 3.3-3.6 MHz per Blade out without busting it's limit's all the way to the MAX.

Lumanet

Well then i guess i won the lottery, doing a simple route trace on that psu show 2 12 volt rails going to 2 seprate overcurrent protection circuits. Also worth mentioning this PSU isn't one of those scary PSUs that burn your motherboard after a month of use, its a mid-range PSU with very good component and PCB quality for its price.

sure would be nice if you could share specs of the unit and price so others could benefit from it too.

THX

Lumanet

[Mister_Fix]

sure would be nice if you could share specs of the unit and price so others could benefit from it too.
THX
Lumanet

http://imgur.com/a/Tf2Kr
I'm not quite sure about the price though, i got it for free

[Mister_Fix]

Hello everyone, i have been reading this thread from page 1 - 25 until my brains exploded, it's definetly awesome to read all of your progress but the stuff you do is way over my limit, i know basic electronics and i just got my G-Blade a few days ago.
So at stock 600 MHz it mines at a puny 3.2 MH/s (WTF?? why??)
When overcloking to 838 MHz one blade works at a fairly low amount of H/W errors but the second one gets quite a lot of them, so i underclocked it a little to 825 MHz to make it happy, but anyway back to topic, i wanted to get the most i possible could out of my blade by replacing that lame power jack with a screw terminal (or just fuckin' soldering wires directly to the blades) and i also want to add heatsinks to all of the overheating part, my question is, that if i do all of that, will that make my miner a little more stable with less hardware errors? and also, i might just do the simple version of J4bberwock's voltage mod (just the 39k resistor) but the problem is that i definetly don't have the right equiptment or the money for the right equipment to do SMD soldering, so do you think a thru-hole 39k 5% tolorance resistor will work?
Also, at some point i overread that @J4bberwock connects his miners to the 6 pin PCIe connectors of a high quality ATX PSU, and after a simple google search it seems like EVERYONE connects their miners to the PCIe connector, is there a specific reason why?
Sorry for bombarding with questions, i'm really anxious to know what i can do!!
(The amount of times i edited this post is too damn high!!!)

anyway, can we get back to my original questions?

[Lumanet]

Hello everyone, i have been reading this thread from page 1 - 25 until my brains exploded, it's definetly awesome to read all of your progress but the stuff you do is way over my limit, i know basic electronics and i just got my G-Blade a few days ago.
So at stock 600 MHz it mines at a puny 3.2 MH/s (WTF?? why??)
When overcloking to 838 MHz one blade works at a fairly low amount of H/W errors but the second one gets quite a lot of them, so i underclocked it a little to 825 MHz to make it happy, but anyway back to topic, i wanted to get the most i possible could out of my blade by replacing that lame power jack with a screw terminal (or just fuckin' soldering wires directly to the blades) and i also want to add heatsinks to all of the overheating part, my question is, that if i do all of that, will that make my miner a little more stable with less hardware errors? and also, i might just do the simple version of J4bberwock's voltage mod (just the 39k resistor) but the problem is that i definetly don't have the right equiptment or the money for the right equipment to do SMD soldering, so do you think a thru-hole 39k 5% tolorance resistor will work?
Also, at some point i overread that @J4bberwock connects his miners to the 6 pin PCIe connectors of a high quality ATX PSU, and after a simple google search it seems like EVERYONE connects their miners to the PCIe connector, is there a specific reason why?
Sorry for bombarding with questions, i'm really anxious to know what i can do!!
(The amount of times i edited this post is too damn high!!!)

Ok here some answers from LSE again :-)

if you have a normal C2 solder iron tip you can do most of the work just fine :-)
Look at my shop on http://www.LSE.solar and just over the SILVER kit :

Gridseed Blade tuning kit (silver)

This tuning kit is for a Gridseed Blade 80 Chip system. It includes as follow :

    (2) 2 Terminal
    (2) 39Kohm resistor
    (2) Capacitor Aluminum 220UF 35V 20% SMD
    (1) 1mm drillbit
    (4) 10*10*5mm Aluminium Heatsink with Thermal Pad
    (2) 8*8*5mm Aluminium Heatsink with Thermal Pad


Those parts will get you to where you wana be :-)  if you put your solder iron to work and heat up the SMD itself it will melt both solder ends and you can lift it easy of the Circuit board, same way you can apply the new SMD resistor :-). Sounds crappy but does work with those simple SMD resistors just fine.
The CAP is also easy to do. Just pull it twisting of the board and than apply with the Solder iron heat to the Pin's to remove those.
If you need some nice heat resistant solder I can put that into the envelop too :-) . Once the CAP is removed you put the new one in place and just apply to the end tips some solder while holding it down to the board. And done it that job.

Last remove the cheap Terminal...... Once removed you use the Terminal and hold it to the 12V+ which is the closest PIN to the 3 ferrite beads in black. in the middle of that you drill with the drillbit the first hole. than you mark up the 2nd. And drill there.

IMPORTANT :  DO NOT drill the first one else where than right in the middle of the 12V slit. Otherwise you can shorten the circuits because you touch ground which is just 2mm away from the 12V+ ....... my 2 sence .. POOR DESIGN :-(   

After that you just apply those 2 heat sinks on the MOSSFETS and done :-)

Also nice tip apply a strip of normal black electrotape  to reduce the Airflow towards the back exit so it's forced down more to the PCB Board to cool it on the backside.


Does the error rate will be lower ...  NOT IF YOU DO NOT USE THE CORRECT FREQUENCY :-)

Do only jump in 25khz jumps. So like 800,825,850,875,900..... and so on.

900 should be best option, maybe 925.   Without with the MOSSFET you can do 1025 stable.

I hope it helps.

Lumanet

[Mister_Fix]

Ok here some answers from LSE again :-)

if you have a normal C2 solder iron tip you can do most of the work just fine :-)
Look at my shop on http://www.LSE.solar and just over the SILVER kit :

Gridseed Blade tuning kit (silver)

This tuning kit is for a Gridseed Blade 80 Chip system. It includes as follow :

    (2) 2 Terminal
    (2) 39Kohm resistor
    (2) Capacitor Aluminum 220UF 35V 20% SMD
    (1) 1mm drillbit
    (4) 10*10*5mm Aluminium Heatsink with Thermal Pad
    (2) 8*8*5mm Aluminium Heatsink with Thermal Pad


Those parts will get you to where you wana be :-)  if you put your solder iron to work and heat up the SMD itself it will melt both solder ends and you can lift it easy of the Circuit board, same way you can apply the new SMD resistor :-). Sounds crappy but does work with those simple SMD resistors just fine.
The CAP is also easy to do. Just pull it twisting of the board and than apply with the Solder iron heat to the Pin's to remove those.
If you need some nice heat resistant solder I can put that into the envelop too :-) . Once the CAP is removed you put the new one in place and just apply to the end tips some solder while holding it down to the board. And done it that job.

Last remove the cheap Terminal...... Once removed you use the Terminal and hold it to the 12V+ which is the closest PIN to the 3 ferrite beads in black. in the middle of that you drill with the drillbit the first hole. than you mark up the 2nd. And drill there.

IMPORTANT :  DO NOT drill the first one else where than right in the middle of the 12V slit. Otherwise you can shorten the circuits because you touch ground which is just 2mm away from the 12V+ ....... my 2 sence .. POOR DESIGN :-(  

After that you just apply those 2 heat sinks on the MOSSFETS and done :-)

Also nice tip apply a strip of normal black electrotape  to reduce the Airflow towards the back exit so it's forced down more to the PCB Board to cool it on the backside.


Does the error rate will be lower ...  NOT IF YOU DO NOT USE THE CORRECT FREQUENCY :-)

Do only jump in 25khz jumps. So like 800,825,850,875,900..... and so on.

900 should be best option, maybe 925.   Without with the MOSSFET you can do 1025 stable.

I hope it helps.

Lumanet

iv'e got all the compenents i need already, i just need to make sure i won't fuck up cause this is my only blade and i can't get another one, so another question raises, will this cap work as a replacement to the stock ones?

https://i.imgur.com/OqH5ORh.jpg

[Mister_Fix]

Actually, i just realized i can use thos tiny step-down converter modules, as a replacement for the filtering cap, since those can configured to not step down voltage at all, you still get 12 volts, and a good replacement of the stock filtering capaticor.
one issue though, is that i don't know about it's current capabilities so this is something i will eventually test.
in the mean time, here is a picture of the step down converter module:

https://i.imgur.com/z5FdYHT.jpg

[Mister_Fix]

Actually, i just realized i can use thos tiny step-down converter modules, as a replacement for the filtering cap, since those can configured to not step down voltage at all, you still get 12 volts, and a good replacement of the stock filtering capaticor.
one issue though, is that i don't know about it's current capabilities so this is something i will eventually test.

so after some tests it appears that those step-down converters aren't good for this because one can only supply up to 3 amps, with a voltage drop (supplied 12 v 18a output 9v 3a) and with this output the converter got so hot it left a burn mark of my wooden desk. so i guess surfacemounting that cap is just not avoidable..... even though that step-down converter would still be a good addition to filtering..

[Kulturnilpferd]

Hey there,
i have an Gridseed miner and today there was the big bang:
One of the blades gets a short Circuit on 12V...
When i plug in the 12V Power Supply is fast go on and off (short cut protetction or so).
The USB part is working fine, the red light goes on and off.

 I haven't overclocked the blade or have changed any resistors. The only thing is I
used an other fan (12V 0.26A)... I read in this thread that when you overclock the blade the mosfets can burn out due overhat, so
could it be that the Mosfets gets too hot or something and burned out because i changed the fan?
On the Other blade side the fan and so on is working.

Optically tere is no burning mark or bad capacitors.

Are there any measure points to test the chips or something?

Please help me 

[ttntt]

This machine down, saving how to modify the circuit

[barrysty1e]

Reading upwards regarding Zeus vs Gridseed Blade argument.

Unequivocally, Zeus takes the podium here.
I've had the pleasure of dealing with both of these units, Zeusminer 7Mh blades and Gridseed 5.4Mh blades.

While the Gridseed Blades actually hash correctly, they are an absolute nuisance otherwise.
Issues with ferrite beads, with the standard PSU's running uncomfortably hot (not that you'd use them, but think about Joe Bloggs), the choice of a barrel power plug for 70W+ per pcb, major hotspots on the pcb's and the fact that when you release a product to the public - you DO NOT EXPOSE PCB's.
Not to mention you only need to look sideways at these units and they stop working.

The only good point about these units is perhaps the overclockability of the GC3355 IC's themselves; however the previous points hinder any improvement you'd make.

As for the Zeus; albeit being noisy and using 28% more power (Gridseed 5.4Mh/150w, Zeus 7Mh/250w), it's a delight.
Not having to worry about burning out your USB ports, even after investing in a heavily powered USB hub, is fantastic as well.
Or the Gridseed 'syndrome' of having the unit ground it's powersupply THROUGH THE USB CABLE (people will pretend this has never happened, because basically people are shit and also because electricity always follows path of least resistance), either due to shoddy cablework or a cable not being pressed in *just* enough.

Onto performance, having the entire Zeus show as one single device means this thing chews through HUGE blocks, like your mum after doing food shopping on welfare day. The amount of times i've watched the Gridseeds struggle to spit one share out, then find the stratum has already announced a new block and all that work for nothing.

Looking past others anecdotes of overheating and other issues, i'll throw my own in for fair share.

Having setup my Zeus Thunder X3 with two Corsair PSU's (one later found to be a bit dodgy), left them running all day at 342Mhz (from 328 standard) at approximately 32-34Mh. Only had the fans wired to one PSU; which happened to be the dodgy one (woops). Noticed around 2PM (whilst at work) that my hashrate had dropped right off on Nicehash.
Got home to find the fans had stopped and two of the blades had been sitting at upwards of 80 degrees for SEVERAL HOURS.
Like the troopers they were, replaced the PSU, turned it back on, no hassle. Like Zeus himself.

If these units were Gridseeds, there would be a puddle of tears on the floor and someones face buried in a pillow (interpret that however you like). Gridseeds do an ok job if you can pick them up cheap enough and micromanage them; better than a GPU i guess.

I've a Zeus Blade and 6 Gridseed Blades; guess which ones give me the most hassle?

[QuintLeo]

Zeus or Gridseed vs. A2 based gear though is an even more impressive win for the A2.

Zeus was too inefficient when it was released to be competative, the ONLY thing it was better than was the GC3355-based gear - and that was more because Gridseed's board-level design skills were horrible, and their insistance on their stupid "dual mining" concept, than anything GOOD about the Zeus designs.


 Who the heck is / was "Joe Bloggs"?


 Also, your figures on the Gridseed blades are off based on the ones I had. I was routinely seeing under 100 watts for mine at anything up to about 5 Mhash, a bit over (110 perhaps) at 5.4

 Dunno why you are talking about burnout on USB ports, the gridseeds did NOT soak a significant amount of power from their USB connections - and their power ground was via that shitty barrel connector for 12VDC, not via a USB port that had ZERO connection to the +12vdc circuit (unless you were powering the blade from the same PS as you were running the miner software on).


 I never saw an issue of the Gridseeds struggling to get through a block - you must not have been on a well-designed pool or had them badly misconfigured to see that sort of issue.


 The REAL issue with the Gridseed blades was the shit design on the power circutry - if they'd had a decent design on that, they'd have been quite reliable.

[jekecoin]

Have anyone underclock these miners?

[QuintLeo]

Yes, they're very linear on power/hash when you downclock them - and since the "stock" clock is actually a fairly hefty OVERCLOCK in reality, it's a GOOD IDEA.

[splat44]

Hi,

I have few questions on those gridseed 80 chip blade minesr:

1) Upon seeing product, I noted there red and black wire connected to one blade and the other don't
Is there a reason for that or is it recommend connecting another similar wire on other blade?

2) I read several comments on overclocking those units:
How is this possible on my part?
Is overclocking good or bad by using BFgimer for example

Again, It'll be great knowing some answers before using those units

Thanks

[QuintLeo]

That's probably the fan connection.
Overclocking is just a matter of setting up the right string in the configuration for your miner - but IMO it's a VERY VERY bad idea unless you have a very COLD room to run them in, the PS circuitry for them is very very marginal even at their "stock" clock - and realistically, that "stock" clock was a noticeable overclock to start with compared to the GC3355 "orb" units Gridseed made before they started making the GC3355 "blade" units.

 The mining chip ITSELF has plenty of headroom, it's the buck convertor stuff that gets easily overloaded and dies. Helps a LOT to put heatsinks on the critical parts, though.

[smartwombat]

First the symptoms...

• Blade 'E9' 34 hash in test period
• Blade 'DD' 28 hash in test period
• Blade 'DB' 15 hash in test period
• Blade 'EB'  8 hash in test period

Something is really wrong with  EB & DB, DD is suspect.
I'm not intending to overclock, just make the ***** things work.

QUESTION:

• What is the tolerance on the supply voltages expected with USB disconnected, and 12V supply plugged in ?

I assume lower voltage = less hash is the root cause.

• What determines the output voltage of AU16..20?

I assume it's meant to be fixed 3.3V out for 5V in and they have degraded over time.

• What should be the current rating of AU16..20?

I can't find a spec for the A8805, assuming 60W for 40 ICs then 1A ought to be sufficient.

• What should be the pinout of AU16..20?

I can't find a spec for the A8805, wild guess is 1-input, 2-ground,3-output,4-input.

• What determines the voltage on AC42,45,47,48 ?

I assume I'm seeing voltage drop across the thin traces on the board.
[/list]

Hardware:
AQ6 IR5802
AQ7 IR5300
AQ8 IR5300

AU5,16..20 A8805


Measurements:
Blade 'DB'
AC42 1.199V
AC45 1.187V
AC47 1.158V
AC18 1.183V

AU5 1.511V
(I think that's because USB is not connected)

AU16..20 5.64V on tab
AU16 3.27V
AU17 3.26V
AU18 3.25V
AU19 3.23V
AU20 3.28V

J21-4 3.23V
J21-5 3.28V


Blade 'DB'
AC42 1.525V
AC45 1.161V
AC47 1.157V
AC18 1.157V

AU5 1.525V
(I think that's because USB is not connected)

AU16-20 5.62V on tab
AU16 3.25V
AU17 3.24V
AU18 3.24V
AU19 3.29V
AU20 3.28V

J21-4 3.28V
J21-5 3.28V

[dolpharius]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AweqF4AmGwc

[manotroll]

Does this board make ash 256?
How much of the income in dollars?

[manotroll]

suport sha256?