ROCKMINER ASIC miner official thread

[Ntrain2k]

just a quick question, 45-50% hardware errors are meant to happen with the new r-box's? or is it the pool side?

ran it at 300mhz for about a week,it never evened out. there was also many duplicates too..

nope that is not normal. The New R-Box can easily run stably at 350 freq even...so there should be no problem with 300. There doesn't seem to be a problem with the temperature as well. Have you tried a different pool?

Yes it is normal. Duplicates mean nothing.

Duplicates, yes. I don't think that level of hardware errors is normal.

[AJRGale]

just a quick question, 45-50% hardware errors are meant to happen with the new r-box's? or is it the pool side?

ran it at 300mhz for about a week,it never evened out. there was also many duplicates too..

nope that is not normal. The New R-Box can easily run stably at 350 freq even...so there should be no problem with 300. There doesn't seem to be a problem with the temperature as well. Have you tried a different pool?

Yes it is normal. Duplicates mean nothing.

Duplicates, yes. I don't think that level of hardware errors is normal.

I'll switch to another pool, i'll see how that goes.

Where is the temp sensor for the rbox? is it in chip, or just a device touching the heatsink? with the fans pushing plenty of air though, i cant determine that its actually putting out the 100 odd watts of heat (probably less then that, i never know how to work out the watt at the wall to the chip thermal output so i'll just say its 100 odd watt). The air its putting out doesn't even have any warmth to it.

I'm half tempted to pop the lid on it and check the thermal contacts on the board/chips

[Ntrain2k]

just a quick question, 45-50% hardware errors are meant to happen with the new r-box's? or is it the pool side?

ran it at 300mhz for about a week,it never evened out. there was also many duplicates too..

nope that is not normal. The New R-Box can easily run stably at 350 freq even...so there should be no problem with 300. There doesn't seem to be a problem with the temperature as well. Have you tried a different pool?

Yes it is normal. Duplicates mean nothing.

Duplicates, yes. I don't think that level of hardware errors is normal.

I'll switch to another pool, i'll see how that goes.

Where is the temp sensor for the rbox? is it in chip, or just a device touching the heatsink? with the fans pushing plenty of air though, i cant determine that its actually putting out the 100 odd watts of heat (probably less then that, i never know how to work out the watt at the wall to the chip thermal output so i'll just say its 100 odd watt). The air its putting out doesn't even have any warmth to it.

I'm half tempted to pop the lid on it and check the thermal contacts on the board/chips

Your temp looks ok to me. I have a mix of 20 new and old r-boxes. They range from 33C to 40C right now.

[dogie]

just a quick question, 45-50% hardware errors are meant to happen with the new r-box's? or is it the pool side?

ran it at 300mhz for about a week,it never evened out. there was also many duplicates too..

nope that is not normal. The New R-Box can easily run stably at 350 freq even...so there should be no problem with 300. There doesn't seem to be a problem with the temperature as well. Have you tried a different pool?

Yes it is normal. Duplicates mean nothing.

Duplicates, yes. I don't think that level of hardware errors is normal.

Because its not a real level of hardware faults - its just this custom rockminer cgminer which changed accepted to difficulty 128. That, or every rockminer new r-box has a 50% hardware error rate.

[Ntrain2k]

just a quick question, 45-50% hardware errors are meant to happen with the new r-box's? or is it the pool side?

ran it at 300mhz for about a week,it never evened out. there was also many duplicates too..

nope that is not normal. The New R-Box can easily run stably at 350 freq even...so there should be no problem with 300. There doesn't seem to be a problem with the temperature as well. Have you tried a different pool?

Yes it is normal. Duplicates mean nothing.

Duplicates, yes. I don't think that level of hardware errors is normal.

Because its not a real level of hardware faults - its just this custom rockminer cgminer which changed accepted to difficulty 128. That, or every rockminer new r-box has a 50% hardware error rate.

I had one of the new r-boxes that had errors between 30-50%. The highest of the rest was almost 5%, most were under 1.

In both CGminer as well as BFGminer.

It doesn't look like he is running the rockminer version of CG unless I'm mistaken.

[AJRGale]

just a quick question, 45-50% hardware errors are meant to happen with the new r-box's? or is it the pool side?

ran it at 300mhz for about a week,it never evened out. there was also many duplicates too..

nope that is not normal. The New R-Box can easily run stably at 350 freq even...so there should be no problem with 300. There doesn't seem to be a problem with the temperature as well. Have you tried a different pool?

Yes it is normal. Duplicates mean nothing.

Duplicates, yes. I don't think that level of hardware errors is normal.

Because its not a real level of hardware faults - its just this custom rockminer cgminer which changed accepted to difficulty 128. That, or every rockminer new r-box has a 50% hardware error rate.

I had one of the new r-boxes that had errors between 30-50%. The highest of the rest was almost 5%, most were under 1.

In both CGminer as well as BFGminer.

It doesn't look like he is running the rockminer version of CG unless I'm mistaken.

Correct, it isn't the custom cgminer, its the latest version (as of about 2 weeks ago, might be a newer one out).

this is the 1st item that had about 50% hardware errors off any of my hardware (3 odd video cards, hand full of the old USB Block Eruptors (they do funny things when 240Vac spike went though them when usb hub psu went pop) and zeus miner), thats why i ask if it was bad.

so yeah, when i look at it after work, i will change the pool, see if that make a difference and cgminer should show me what each chip is doing? and show each chips temp? or is it just one sensor?

[hurricandave]

I found with mine that running the Rockminer version of CGMiner with a frequency of 320 had the lowest HW errors. The temp. increase was VERY minimal. Two of them average 36-40 C and one at 38-42 C depending on how close I sit to them, they are very sensitive to changing temps in response to fluctuations in room temps and airflow resistance.

[AJRGale]

I found with mine that running the Rockminer version of CGMiner with a frequency of 320 had the lowest HW errors. The temp. increase was VERY minimal. Two of them average 36-40 C and one at 38-42 C depending on how close I sit to them, they are very sensitive to changing temps in response to fluctuations in room temps and airflow resistance.

yeah? never seen mine over 38C, although, one thing i forgot to mention, i've tried to run it at 320, cgminer never kicked in, it just stayed on the starting screen, so i couldn't get it past 300Mhz

none the less, i have a few software items to check and change out in about 4 hours time.

[hurricandave]

I found with mine that running the Rockminer version of CGMiner with a frequency of 320 had the lowest HW errors. The temp. increase was VERY minimal. Two of them average 36-40 C and one at 38-42 C depending on how close I sit to them, they are very sensitive to changing temps in response to fluctuations in room temps and airflow resistance.

yeah? never seen mine over 38C, although, one thing i forgot to mention, i've tried to run it at 320, cgminer never kicked in, it just stayed on the starting screen, so i couldn't get it past 300Mhz

none the less, i have a few software items to check and change out in about 4 hours time.

Right from the Rockminer home page link to cgminer for windows, you'll see that the default freq. is set at 320. The miner seems to take extra time to start occasionally.

[AJRGale]

I found with mine that running the Rockminer version of CGMiner with a frequency of 320 had the lowest HW errors. The temp. increase was VERY minimal. Two of them average 36-40 C and one at 38-42 C depending on how close I sit to them, they are very sensitive to changing temps in response to fluctuations in room temps and airflow resistance.

yeah? never seen mine over 38C, although, one thing i forgot to mention, i've tried to run it at 320, cgminer never kicked in, it just stayed on the starting screen, so i couldn't get it past 300Mhz

none the less, i have a few software items to check and change out in about 4 hours time.

Right from the Rockminer home page link to cgminer for windows, you'll see that the default freq. is set at 320. The miner seems to take extra time to start occasionally.

i'll try it again, no problem, last time i left it for over 5 minutes to kick in, where as it take less then 30 seconds at 300mhz or less.
if you say its random that it happens, we can only find out if it does it randomly or not.

[hurricandave]

Like I said, it is just my experience. Everyones equipment is bound to behave a little differently. I have 4 of these new R-Boxes and one only runs 11 chips ever since it came out of the box. Two run like champs and the last one is a touch slower and the one that runs a couple degrees hotter.

[AJRGale]

well, clock it to 320 and pool change:


but 320 on the old pool:


funny enough i get less errors at 270Mhz and basically the same Hashing

[hurricandave]

It May be the version of software or something as simple as a bad USB cable, I've been through that as well.

[klondike_bar]

looks a lot like the TPS53355 regulator in this picture, with two resisters right by it - if so should be quite easy to pencil mod

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tps53355.pdf   - look at the bottom image on page 7, the reference on page 20, and figure 38.
TLDR; Pin 1 has two resistors on it, R2 goes to ground and R1 goes through a small circuit. The choice of values for these gives the output voltage. This is how the Bitfury overvolts, and how the S1 can over/undervolt. looking at the rockminer PCB (would love a high-def image of the section), this is the solution to undervolt for efficiency:

some pencil lead on R2 increases the output voltage, while lead on R1 would decrease it. Presumably the efficiency could be brought closer to the 0.7w/GH achieved by the prisma this way

*note*: Im basing this on a blurry image and dont have a PCB in front of me to confirm that Pin 1 is the right corner of the chip, but the positionng of the two resistors like that seems logical. hopefully ill try myself on monday evening

update: I brought a unit home, and am unable to determine any markings on the regulator component. looks an awful lot like the TPS5355 though, and as there arent many >20A alternatives I would assume that it is.

however, my expectations were not correct. pencil modding either R1 or R2 (or any other resitor in the vicinity of the regulator) has no visible effect. It appears that R1 and R2 in my above image are both brought to ground together.

HOWEVER - I made an interesting discovery - pencil modding BOTH R1 and R2 results in the output voltage increasing, with 1.15V achieved quite easily using a 2B pencil (stock is 0.75V). Obviously this is the opposite of my intentions though.

UPDATE 2: Partial destruction of R1 and R2 (chipping the sides of the resitors with a sharp tool) so that each is roughly 3.3kOhm when measured in circuit results in a regulator output voltage of 0.6V Testing now -> preliminary results are mediocre at best - 16GH. However, its worth noting that this unit has always been a source of problems, and that two other boards in it report 25GH and 58GH, neither of which were modified in anyway. Not sure if its a USB hub issue, RPI, or maybe even something to do with the server PSU (providing 12.03V)

UPDATE 3: replaced a controller on a different board that was causing reboots and often not functional -> 110GH,90GH, 105GH, 70GH. Obviously there is quite a spread here but it seems like the modified board is functional. Because of difficulties operating (or lack of) at 0.6V, pencil mod was added to increase the voltage to 0.7V on the modified (70GH) board. Reject rate is 6.5% at 300MHz

UPDATE 4: 12hr stats: 112,112,111,66 GHash across the 4 boards, with the 65GH board being the one i modified. Total reject % is 4.3.

TLDR; Pencil mod is not easily implemented on the RK-Box. reduction of chip voltage to 0.7V significantly impacts hashrate, and voltage below 0.65V is often non-functional. No efficiency numbers available yet

[Trends]

ROCKMINERS Research & Development Theory

" LET THE MINERS FIGURE IT OUT"

[Ntrain2k]

ROCKMINERS Research & Development Theory

" LET THE MINERS FIGURE IT OUT"

Truth. They won't even give the documentation to the software writers.

[elasticband]

Rock ie as a shareholder it's disappointing to learn you started something with rock miner hardware, it hasn't gone well and to plan so you skip on over to look after AMHASH and don't give any of your actual customers help or support.  Get your shady act together and SUPPORT your customers.

[elasticband]

Rock ie as a shareholder it's disappointing to learn you started something with rock miner hardware, it hasn't gone well and to plan so you skip on over to look after AMHASH and don't give any of your actual customers help or support.  Get your shady act together and SUPPORT your customers.

Not sure if this is relavent to any of you rock miner hardware owners, 10 days ago i asked rockxie for an update regarding the company, sales and mining revenue.
I did not get the reply i was looking for but it does refrence luke jr.

Our cgminer code :https://github.com/rockminerinc/NewRbox

Luke also has our New R-box and the New R-box is almost the same with R-box,I think Luke knows it.

Rockxie sort your customers out....

[hdbuck]

+1 i know mining industry is quite rough now, but the basics remain the customers when your BP implies selling them HW.

last pages here are quite depressing. hence +1 also on this:

ROCKMINERS Research & Development Theory

" LET THE MINERS FIGURE IT OUT"

Truth. They won't even give the documentation to the software writers.

come on rockxie you can do better.

[junglecat]

Would it really be profitable to use the rockminer's T1? Consuming 1000 watts per unit, and add on that you need your own PSU, lets say with about $0.095 per kwh, It would consume $0.095 per hour, right? And makes about $0.21 (current market value) USD if turned from BTC.... I can make a $0.115 profit from using the miner. to find out days, let's multiply these factors by 24 (to find out 24 hours in a day)
$0.21*24 = $5.04 produced
$0.095*24 = $2.28 cost for power
and the total profit (produced - cost for power)
$0.115*24 = $2.765
Now the price of a rocketminer (going to use zoomhash for this if you would like to check) is about $350, plus a power supply unit, (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182188) would be $130, plus or minus $15 depending on the unit. So,
350 + 130 = $480.
To figure out how many hours you'd have to mine let's divide the hourly profit from the total price of hardware.
$480 / $0.115 = 4173.91304 hours.
So, 4173.913 hours to make an ROI at current market price. to find days,
4173.913/24 = 173.913042 days, or 174 days to make your Return of investment (how much you paid to begin with)

... Is this even viable.. making $2.765 dollars a day per miner...?

Then the question arises.. If it's so profitable to mine, why don't companies that make the ASICS use it themselves?

Anyone willing to answer, share thoughts or comments is truly welcome because I was looking into purchasing 3 Rockminer T1's.. But after the math...

Also - what about heat? How much heat is produced per unit? Even with fans, heat has to go somewhere.. That somewhere being the room the miners are in. So about how much is produced if anyone has had or has one I'd appreciate it.

*NOTE: THIS IS NOT IN ANYWAY 100% ACCURATE, PRICE OF BTC CHANGES CONSTANTLY AND IS SOMETIMES NOT PREDICTABLE.
**NOTE: I used Coinwarz.com to find out this information at an OVERCLOCKED miner which has a hash of 900gh/s MAX.. but the hourly mined would be $0.19, and the profit would be about $0.95 (US AVERAGE FOR SOUTHEAST RESIDENCE) if you had it at the stable clock of 800gh/s.
***NOTE: Price of powering the units may change according to your location.

I have 10 of these units, so:

10,000 watts @ $0.10 kWh leaves you with roughly 0.06 to 0.08 BTC per day after paying electricity (real world earnings not based on statistics). Regarding heat you can calculate the BTU's off the watts. Personally I use an insulated two car garage with industrial window fans pulling some 10,000 CFM of air in/out.

That's ~2.2 BTC a month profit if the difficulty never changes. When mining Bitcoins you should expect roughly a 25% return on you initial investment. I guess the question should be, is ~25% "so profitable"? I'm cool with it.